Page:History of the Fenian raid on Fort Erie with an account of the Battle of Ridgeway.djvu/23

 food; and without, to any great extent, inconveniencing the inhabitants, or even attracting their attention. Their numbers could be more carefully concealed, and their movements could not be so easily interfered with. In Buffalo there were more resident Fenians than in any of the border cities; and, the immense amount of shipping in the harbours of Buffalo and Black Rock, rendered it easy for the Fenians to procure the means of effecting a crossing, while the enormous amount of trade which is continually going on there, the active movements, hither and thither, of numberless canal boats, tugs, schooners, and steamers, employed on legitimate business, rendered it almost impossible for the United States authorities to search out and discover which particular boat, or set of boats, was engaged to carry over the Fenians.

Again: there were no Canadian or regular forces in Fort Erie, or within 50 miles of it; and, the chance of taking it, and pushing on, and destroying the Welland Canal, was a prospect that appealed strongly to their feelings. The destruction of the Welland Canal; or, at least, the suspension of traffic on it for a time, would be an enormous injury to Canada and her trade, while it would be a great advantage to Buffalo, inasmuch as the whole trade, or the greater part of what now finds its way to the sea by the Welland Canal, would be diverted to Buffalo, and through the Erie Canal to Albany and New York.

On Thursday evening, the 31st May, the authorities in Canada first began seriously to apprehend an immediate crossing. The Fenians gathered that night, at their various head-quarters in Buffalo—many of them armed with muskets, bayonets, &c.—and it soon became currently rumoured about the streets that a movement would probably be attempted that night. At a later hour they separated at their head-quarters, apparently going home for the night. They marched off in straggling parties, by different roads, their movements being skillfully confused, until they reached Black Rock, where the several columns united, and proceeded, with silence and