ging.

The pay of an American private is good--fourteen dollars a month, out of
which his rations and regimentals take eight dollars, leaving him six
dollars a month for pleasure. Deserters are punished by being made to
drag a heavy ball and chain after them, which is never removed day or
night. If discharged, they are flogged, their heads shaved, and they
are drummed out at the point of the bayonet.

From the conversations I have had with many deserters from our army, who
were residing in the United States or were in the American service, I am
convinced that it would be a very well-judged measure to offer a free
pardon to all those who would return to Canada and re-enter the English
service. I think that a good effective regiment would soon be
collected, and one that you might trust on the frontiers without any
fear of their deserting again; and it would have another good effect,
that is, that their statements would prevent the desertion of others.

America, and its supposed freedom, is, to the British soldiers, an
Utopia in every sense of the word. They revel in the idea; they seek it
and it is not to be found. The greatest desertion from the English
regiments is among the musicians composing the bands. There are so many
theatres in America, and so few musicians, except coloured people, that
instrumental performers of all kinds are in great demand. People are
sent over to Canada, and the other British provinces to persuade these
poor fellows to desert, promising them very large salaries, and pointing
out to them the difference between being a gentleman in America and a
slave in the English service. The temptation is too strong; they
desert; and when they strive, they soon learn the value of the promises
made to them, and find how cruelly they have been deceived.

The Florida war has been a source of dreadful vexation and expense to
the United States, having already cost them between 20,000,000 and
30,000,000 of dollars, without any apparent prospect of its coming to a
satisfactory conclusion. The American government has also very much
injured its character, by the treachery and disregard of honour shown by
it to the Indians, who have been, most of them, captured under a flag of
truce. I have heard so much indignation expressed by the Americans
themselves at this conduct that I shall not comment farther upon it. It
is the Federal government, and not the officers employed, who must bear
the _onus_. But th