Young Lion of the Woods | Page 3

commanding at Quebec, by some means not recorded, having heard of
the disaster, sent a man-of-war schooner to the relief of the sufferers,
and they were safely conveyed to Quebec.
Captain Godfrey, through exposure and fatigue, contracted a severe
cold, and at last, his life being despaired of, the surgeon of the regiment
advised his return to England. He applied to General Clavering for
leave of absence, or to grant him permission to sell out of the army.
The permission being granted, he soon set about preparing to leave
Quebec, and rejoin his wife and five children in England. Captain

Godfrey notes in a memorandum his great sorrow in parting from his
regiment, and that his zeal for serving his King and country was so
great that nothing but extreme weakness would have induced him to
part from his regiment and King George the Third's service.
Before leaving Quebec to return home to his native land, Captain
Godfrey visited the spot where, six years before, the gallant Wolfe had
poured out his life's blood in the service of his King and country. Here
the Captain knelt and offered up to Him who guides the stars in their
courses, thanksgiving for the brilliant and decisive victory gained by
the British arms.
The following is from one of his memoranda:--"As I stood, and as I
knelt where Wolfe fell, I more than ever realized what it is to be a
brave soldier and a good man. As I rose from the spot I whispered to
myself, if I am, through the providence of the Almighty, allowed to
once again visit my native land, I will go to the widowed mother of
General Wolfe and tell her where I have been and what I have seen.
That I have stood on the very spot where victory and death gave the
crowning lustre to the name of her great son."
Charles Godfrey was born at St Ann's, England, in the year 1730. The
following, copied from an old document, gives a brief sketch of his
early career:--"Was put on board His Majesty's ship Bedford, Capt.
Cornwall master, in the year 1741, and in 1742 went out to the
Mediterranean. In 1743 was at the siege of Villa Franca, where with a
large party of seamen was ordered on shore, and quartered at a six gun
battery, under the command of Capt. Gugger, of the Royal Artillery.
Was at the battle of Toulon, with Admirals Matthews and Lostock, on
board said ship Bedford, then commanded by George Townsend. Was
at the taking of several rich ships off the Island of Malta, which ships
and their cargoes were afterward restored to the Genoese. Continued in
the navy till the peace of Utretch, and for sometime subsequently.
Afterward, a warrant being procured, attended the Royal Academy at
Woolwich as a gentleman cadet, in which station was allowed to
remain till 1755. Received a commission, and was appointed to the
52nd foot, by the recommendation of His Royal Highness the Duke of

Cambridge, who was afterwards pleased to recommend me for a
Lieutenancy, and a few years later my friends procured for me a
Captaincy."
[1]Captain Godfrey returned to England on board a transport from
Quebec. This young officer appears to have been highly respected by
the different Generals and Field Officers under whom he had served.
He was presented, shortly after his arrival in England, with a certificate
of character, signed by Lieut.-Genl. John Clavering, Colonel of the
52nd Regt., Lieut.-Genl. Edward Sandford, Lieut.-Genl. Sir John
Seabright, Major-Genl. Guy Carleton, Major-Genl. John Alex. McKay,
Lieut.-Col. Valentine Jones, Lieut.-Genl. Burgoyue, and Major Philip
Skene.
[Footnote 1: The full name of this British officer is not given in any
part of this work.]
The above has been copied principally for the purpose of showing that
the following story has for its characters those who once lived and
moved in the early English colonial life of Acadia. If the districts and
places where the events related in this book occurred could speak, they
would tell nearly the same thrilling and extraordinary story. In many of
these localities great and important changes have taken place through a
century and a quarter of time, but the records of the past remain
unchanged.
Our barns may be built over the graves of the Indians, and our houses
on the sites of their wigwams; our cattle may graze upon the hillsides
and valleys of their hunting grounds, and our churches may be erected
on positions where the Red men of the forest gathered together to
invoke the blessing of the Great Chief of the everlasting hunting
ground, yet what is truly written of the past must remain unalterable.
* * * * *
NOTE.--The wrecked transport Pitt was named, it is said, in honour of
the