of fresh meat and vegetables, but
relieved by drinking a decoction of hemlock spruce. Moral evils there
were too, such as gambling and drunkenness; in 1778 the commanding
officer gave warning that he had heard of losses at play, and that those
taking part in such practises would be excluded from promotion.

The British officers showed sometimes a fool-hardy recklessness. On
March 9th, 1778, one Lieutenant Mackinnon, with forty-five volunteers,
set out from Pointe au Fer, near Isle aux Noix, to surprise an American
post at Parsons' House, no less than sixty miles distant, and in the
heart of the enemy's country. A few days later two of the volunteers
returned with news that the attack had wholly failed, that six of the
party were killed and six wounded, and that Lieutenant Mackinnon and
four others were missing. So reckless an attack was bad enough and, in
the General Orders, it was condemned as "a presumptuous disregard of
military discipline"; only vigilance and watchfulness were required of
the picket at Pointe au Fer, so that the enemy might not invade the
province. At the incident the Commander-in-Chief was very angry. "I
never saw the General in such a passion in my life," wrote an officer to
Nairne. Mackinnon had surrounded the house in the darkness and both he
and his men, as far as is known, had done their best. Though wounded and
for a time missing, in the end Mackinnon got back crippled to Isle aux
Noix. But he had failed, and whispers soon began that he showed
cowardice in the attack; an absurd charge, as Nairne said, for he had
given proof of rather too much, than of too little, courage. The
accusation gave Nairne infinite trouble. The subalterns in the Royal
Highland Emigrants refused to do duty with Mackinnon, and General
Haldimand, who succeeded Carleton in the summer of 1778, would not take
the matter seriously enough to grant a Court Martial, that Mackinnon
might clear himself. For quite a year and a half the affair dragged on.
In the end, at a Court of Enquiry, Mackinnon was acquitted. Haldimand
told Nairne to rebuke the officers sternly for combining to subvert
authority, for disrespect to their superiors, and for refusing, on the
basis of futile reports and hearsays, to serve with Mackinnon. "I much
mistake his character," wrote Nairne of Mackinnon, "if he can ... be
prevented from calling one or two of those gentlemen to a severe
account."

A part of Nairne's duty was to watch the French Canadians