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The United Empire Loyalists : A Chronicle of the Great Migration by W. Stewart Wallace
page 70 of 109 (64%)
unreasonable expectations.' In the years 1775 and 1776
large bodies of persecuted Loyalists from the Mohawk
valley came north with Sir John Johnson and Colonel
Butler; and in these years was formed in Canada the first
of the Loyalist regiments. It was not, however, until
the defeat of Burgoyne at Saratoga in 1778 that the full
tide of immigration set in. Immediately thereafter
Haldimand wrote to Lord George Germain, under date of
October 14, 1778, reporting the arrival of 'loyalists in
great distress,' seeking refuge from the revolted provinces.
Haldimand lost no time in making provision for their
reception. He established a settlement for them at
Machiche, near Three Rivers, which he placed under the
superintendence of a compatriot and a protege of his
named Conrad Gugy. The captains of militia in the
neighbourhood were ordered to help build barracks for
the refugees, provisions were secured from the merchants
at Three Rivers, and everything in reason was done to
make the unfortunates comfortable. By the autumn of 1778
there were in Canada, at Machiche and other places, more
than one thousand refugees, men, women, and children,
exclusive of those who had enlisted in the regiments.
Including the troops, probably no less than three thousand
had found their way to Canada.

With the conclusion of peace came a great rush to the
north. The resources of government were strained to the
utmost to provide for the necessities of the thousands
who flocked over the border-line. At Chambly, St Johns,
Montreal, Sorel, Machiche, Quebec, officers of government
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