Henry, John Joseph. Account of Arnold's Campaign Against Quebec and of the Hardships and Sufferings of That Band of Heroes Who Traversed the Wilderness of Maine From Cambridge to the St. Lawrence, in the Autumn of 1775 . Albany: Joel Munsell, 1877. [format: book], [genre: memoir]. Permission: Northern Illinois University
Persistent link to this document: http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/file.php?file=henry.html

and if they would act honorably, to assist us. A laughable occurrence ensued. Sergeant Boyd and myself had, that day, the charge of unloading and loading the canoes, which, as customarily, being very light and easily blown off shore by a puff of wind, were drawn half their lengths on the beach; we ran a race who should perform his duty soonest — he arrived first. Taking up his canoe suddenly, but hoping to have a better stand than the shore presented, he set his foot on a large bed of moss seemingly firm, and sunk ten feet into as cold water, while fluid, as was ever touched. We soon passed the pond, found the path, marked it, and came, at the end of several miles, to a second pond, if my recollection serves, larger than the former: traversing this, we encamped more cautiously than ever. On the next day, pursuing the path, and marking it, a third pond of small diameter was presented to our view. Passing this, by the evening we encamped on the north bank of the Dead river.

This river, which is nothing more than an extension of the Kennebec, ^[17] is called by this remarkable name, because a current, a few miles below the place we were now at, and for many miles above it, is imperceptible. It is deep and perhaps two hundred and fifty yards wide. The ground we footed within the last three days, is a very rugged isthmus, which forms the great bend of the Kennebec. Coming from the high ground towards the Dead river, we passed a bog which appeared, before we entered it, as a beautiful plat of firm ground, level as a bowling green, and covered by an elegant green moss. That day, to save my shoes for severer service, moccasins had been put in their place. Every step we made, sunk us knee-deep in a bed of wet turf. My feet were pained and lacerated by the snags of the dead pines, afoot and more below the surface of the moss; these and many other occurrences, which happened afterwards,

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