Passage Illustrated: In the Officers' Mess at Fort Peak during the War of 1812

In the half indulged hope that his state might permit some faint exercise of the reasoning faculty, O'Flaherty walked towards the small den they had designated as the mess-room, in search of his brother officer.

As he entered the apartment, little disposed as he felt to mirth at such a moment, the tableau before him was too ridiculous not to laugh at. At one side of the fire-place sat Malone, his face florid with drinking, and his eyeballs projecting. Upon his head was a small Indian skull cap, with two peacock feathers, and a piece of scarlet cloth which hung down behind. In one hand he held a smoking goblet of rum punch, and in the other a long, Indian Chibook pipe. Opposite to him, but squatted upon the floor, reposed a red Indian, that lived in the Fort as a guide, equally drunk, but preserving, even in his liquor, an impassive, grave aspect, strangely contrasting with the high excitement of Malone's face. The red man wore Malone's uniform coat, which he had put on back foremost — his head-dress having, in all probability been exchanged for it, as an amicable courtesy between the parties. There they sat, looking fixedly at each other; neither spoke, nor even smiled — the rum bottle, which at brief intervals passed from one to the other, maintained a friendly intercourse that each was content with.

To the hearty fit of laughing of O'Flaherty, Malone replied by a look of drunken defiance, and then nodded to his red friend, who returned the courtesy. As poor Tom left the room, he saw that nothing was to be hoped for in this quarter, and determined to beat the garrison to arms without any further delay. Scarcely had he closed the door behind him, when a sudden thought flashed through his brain. He hesitated, walked forward a few paces, stopped again, and calling out to the corporal, said —

"You are certain they were militia?" [Chapter XLVI, "An Adventure in Canada," 292]

Commentary: An Autobiographical Snippet of Lever's Tuscarora Experience

The reminiscence in this chapter may reflect Lever's own adventures as a physician in Canada, when he spent a year among the indigenous peoples of the Tuscarora district New York and the Quebec border, ten years before he wrote The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer. It is worth reminding American readers that the term "Canada" at this point in the nineteenth century referred only to the present-day provinces of Canada West (now, Ontario) and Canada East (now, Quebec). The anecdote purports to be set in the Niagara region during the war of 1812, and is narrated by one of the passengers of the diligence that Lorrequer has met at the village of St. Jacques, outside Paris. The protagonist is an Irishman, Tom O'Flaherty, and the setting is Fort Peak, eight miles from Niagara Falls on the Niagara River. A quick look at the conduct of the War of 1812 in that region reveals that there is a Fort George and a Fort Niagara, but no "Fort Peak." A possible setting is Butler's Barracks at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Yearning for a break from the monotony, Major Tom O'Flaherty is constantly hoping for an American attack throughout the long, Upper Canada summer on Lake Ontario in the vicinity of Queenston Heights and Niagara Falls. When a foraging party returns late one night with news that they have spotted an invading American militia division from nearby Buffalo, it seems as if Tom has his wish. When O'Flaherty, commander of the fort, enters the room, he sees his fellow officer, Lieutenant Maurice Malone, drinking rum with an aboriginal scout. (Malone is a thorough contrast to the good-natured O'Flaherty, a reclusive alcoholic from a good family in Ireland, and a government appointee.)

Tom takes in the peculiar scene that Phiz has chosen to depict. The portrait of a stern commander above the mantle establishes the setting. The exact moment captured is Tom's initial discovery, before he laughs heartily at his fellow-officer's ridiculous appearance. But Phiz has rendered Tom (left) thoughtful rather than mirthful. Seeing the indigenous guide in a British uniform inspires O'Flaherty to bluff the invading Americans into believing that the fort has just received reinforcements from the blood-thirsty Delaware nation led by the infamous Caudan-dawagae, whose part in this stage-managed deception will be played by Malone. From cover, when the American expeditionary commander, Major Brown, sees the British soldiers disguised as an Indian picquet around a watchfire, clad in war-paint, feathers, and blankets, he capitulates. He agrees to abandon his eighty muskets and ammunition at the ford, and to retreat to New York state.

Bibliography

Buchanan-Brown, John. Phiz! Illustrator of Dickens' World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978.

Parks Canada. "Butler's Barracks, Fort George National Historic Site." Government of Canada, 2023-04-20. Web. Accessed 3 May 2023.

Lester, Valerie Browne Lester. Phiz! The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.

Lever, Charles. The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer. Illustrated by Phiz [Hablot Knight Browne]. Dublin: William Curry, Jun. London: W. S. Orr, 1839.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Two: "The Beginnings of 'Phiz': Pickwick, Nickleby, and the Emergence from Caricature." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 24-85.

Steig, Michael. Chapter Seven: "Phiz the Illustrator: An Overview and a Summing Up." Dickens and Phiz. Bloomington: Indiana U. P., 1978. Pp. 299-316.

Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter V, "Renegade from Physic, 1839-1841." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. Pp. 73-93.

_______. "The Domestic Scene." The English Novel: A Panorama. Cambridge, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin and Riverside, 1960.

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