The parties
commanded by Grass and Van Alstine had come by ship from
New York to Quebec after the evacuation of New York in
1783. On the fifth township were various detachments of
disbanded regular troops, and even a handful of disbanded
German mercenaries.
As soon as the settlers had been placed on the townships
to which they had been assigned, they received their
allotments of land. The surveyor was the land agent, and
the allotments were apportioned by each applicant drawing
a lot out of a hat. This democratic method of allotting
lands roused the indignation of some of the officers who
had settled with their men. They felt that they should
have been given the front lots, unmindful of the fact
that their grants as officers were from five to ten times
as large as the grants which their men received. Their
protests, contained in a letter of Captain Grass to the
governor, roused Haldimand to a display of warmth to
which he was as a rule a stranger. Captain Grass and his
associates, he wrote, were to get no special privileges,
'the most of them who came into the province with him
being, in fact, mechanics, only removed from one situation
to practise their trade in another. Mr Grass should,
therefore, think himself very well off to draw lots in
common with the Loyalists.' A good deal of difficulty
arose also from the fact that many allotments were inferior
to the rest from an agricultural point of view; but
difficulties of this sort were adjusted by Johnson and
Holland on the spot.
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