of Kahnawake for these three additional reasons:

1) By disarming the Iroquois and taking their weapons, they could gain Native support or, at least, obtain guns which they badly needed. Also, fearing they would be attacked by Indians, they could neutralize them. Indeed, wild rumors and reports that les sauvages viennent circulated massively in the area on 3 November 1838 (Greer 1993: 348). As a result, many Patriotes believed that the Indians were coming against us, so we wished to get their arms (testimony of P. Reid, in Great Britain 1839: 42).

2) Some sources seem to indicate that the Patriotes' march on Kahnawake was central to the entire uprising. Nicolas Rousselle, a member of the expedition, testified that he heard from Cardinal and others that le but de cette expédition était de prendre les armes des Sauvages et s'emparer de ce poste (ANQM 1837-38, no. 2270). Narcisse Bruyère similarly testified that en nous rendant au Sault St. Louis, je demandai à Cardinal ce qu'ils entendait faire. Ils m'a dit alors qu'il voulait s'emparer de quelque place et y déclarer l'Indépendance afin qu'ensuite les Américains passent plus librement (ANQM 1837-38, no. 2246). In the same vein, historian Robert Sellar accounts that

Cardinal told his followers that their American friends objected coming to their assistance until they had achieved some success which would give them the status of combatants. If, said Cardinal, the Americans come now and are captured, they would be hanged as murderers; if they come after we have obtained the standing of belligerents and are captured, they will be treated as prisoners of war, and so he saw in the disarming of the Indians and the capture of their village more than a merely prudential step. (Sellar 1888: 571, my emphasis)

Thus upon obtaining arms and ammunitions, the Patriotes may have intended to seize and secure Kahnawake as an independent region. In Cardinal's affidavit, essentially aimed at downplaying his role as the leader of the Kahnawake expedition, it is stated that un rassemblement devait avoir lieu le soir dans ce village (deposition of Joseph N. Cardinal, ANQM 1837-38, no. 2795). Was ce village supposed to be Kahnawake?

3) Sources hint at the possibility that the Patriotes had been assured of Kahnawake's assistance by government interpreter Bernard St-Germain (Parent 1984: 97). Two Lachine residents testified that St. Germain once said that he would prefer the American System of Government to the British Government and that he would join the Americans with the Patriots as he was sure they would gain the Country and that he thought they would be better off (A. Duquette and C. St-Denis, ANQM 1837-38: 1059). Marcoux stated that

c'est par son conseil [St.Germain] que les Patriotes de Chateauguay sont venus [...] prendre le village. Il était en conseil avec eux dans la nuit de samedi avec ce dimanche. [...] [Il] leur a donné cet avis, en ajoutant que la moitié des sauvages étaient patriotes et qu'ils se joindraient à eux. [...] Tout se trouve maintenant expliqué: les nombreux voyages que St. Germain a fait (sic) depuis l'été à Chateauguay, toujours la nuit, constatant sa sympathie avec les rebelles, qui assurent qu'il a prêté le même serment qu'eux. (Marcoux to Lartigue, 12 November 1838, ADSJQL 3A-201)

Even his good friend and collegue James Hughes wrote about the interpreter in a negative light: Entre nous, I have every reason to suppose that our friend was concerned in the plot, or at least knew about it. It is said that he wished and sold the Chiefs, as much as to deliver up their arms (Hughes to Napier, 17 November 1838, NAC RG10 vol. 96: 39773). In the hours following the march on Kahnawake, St-Germain was arrested and brought over to the courts to face charges of high treason. However, he was quickly released. Indeed, the interpreter did not stay locked up very long as James Hughes got him acquitted (Marcoux to Lartigue, 16 November 1838, ADSJQL 3A-202; Marcoux to Turgeon, 28 December 1838, AAQ, 26 CP, D-48).

As the night advanced, about 200 Châteauguay men were assembled to march on Kahnawake. About sixty had guns (P. Reid, ANQM 1837-38, no. 2252) whereas many others were given swords, sticks or farming instruments. The ones holding guns were handed between three and ten cartridges of powder (A. Boursier, ANQM 1837-38, no. 2242; N. Rousselle, ANQM 1837-38, no. 2270). At two o'clock in the morning, the Patriotes were ready to march. To encourage the men, some of whom may have been forced out of their homes by threats that they would be killed or that their houses and barns would be burned down (various affidavits and depositions, ANQM 1837-38, nos. 2242, 2243, 2244, 2246, 2247, 2257, 2263, 2265, 2266, 2305), Patriote leaders started chanting au sault, au sault! (N. Rousselle, ANQM 1837-38, no. 2269), and allons, allons, au sault, au sault, allons désarmer les sauvages! (A. Couillard, ANQM 1837-38, no. 2310). Yet according to Nicolas Rousselle, who was part of the Patriotes' expedition and whose testimony was meant to downplay his involvement,

il n'y avoit que deux ou trois qui criaient ainsi. Bien des gens [ont] demandé alors ce que c'étoit que l'on voulait faire, en disant que le temps étoit bien mauvais et que l'on avoit pas manger. La réponse étoit qu'au Sault, on trouverait de quoi manger. Une bonne partie [...] des gens ne voulaient pas grouiller mais on leur dit qu'il fallait absolument qu'ils vinrent...