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THE

] Country of the Neutrals I

3 •^ r

(AS KAB A8 ('OMPKI8ED IN THE TOHNTY OF BUilN)

FROM CHAMPLAIN TO TALBOT !

BV 1^

JAMES H. COYNE.

ST. THOMAS, ONT.

TIMES I'RINT.
18P5.

I
I

I
f

U, ,,,„ — ,_ — \

THE

\ Country of the Neutrals [

(as far as comprised in the COr.VTY OF ELGIN)

\ FROM CHAMPLAIN TO TALBOT (

JAMES H. COYNE.

ST. THOMAS, ONT.

TIMES PRINT.
1895.

ft
ft
ft

L.. . „„ i

1 '0^"

CARTB

AVM. DOLLIER DE CASSON ET DE| OALINEE.AUSSIONNAIRES DE S^ SULPICE.

OUT PARC or RU
OrfBUft- par ir mriue M' dr Cialiiiee

(Voir fit tettrr dt MT T»t'>n ^u w i'iflrtmhre lti''t>i

' I

isc," ami ill "The History of tlio Karly Missions in Wostern Canada."
itioneil liook.

or I'lfsli-Wiiltr Sea <if tin.- Hiinms, " (Tlle^e lakev were erroneously supposed to lie lull one).

,_• Iroquois, which we broke np and threw into the water." KssKX PkninsUI.a : " Large prairies."

Tina- 1 oiia." Kam SiDK C.kanu Kivi;k : "Kxccllent land." \Vt:sT Sit}!? CIkand Rivkk (up

I F'alls saii1 by tl>e Indians to be more than 200 feet high." Lake Ontakio : "I passed

Tara tn |ty JM

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MICHIGAN K

(>V MKR DOUrE DR» attRONlt

iiife^^

■'«V /ri|/l(*lt.

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/Viuyu ii:« i/u {■<- ,/ /Irtr

t. AC KRIK

./^ n^ nuirifue tfuf re tfu^ j ai- m-

On»^ f*tt' .'Jiu-'Ut

Tliis i." ii copy of (Jaliiiee's inaj) of l(i7n, tlic lii«t madf from actuiil i'X|)l()i'atioii ii wliicli L.iki- Ki it; iipjxjai'.s. It was piiitnl in
The plate was voi-y kindly placed at tlie service of tlic l"il;^in Mi.HtoiicNiI ami Scicntitic Institute, for use in tliis woi'k liy tlic N'cry IxcMrcinl
Tlie following explanations refer chiefly to the wcstirn portion o; the map:

Title: " Mai) of iIil- i''>iiiuiy vi^iilud liy Messi--. I •"Hii'i' I'lt (.'a-son ami il<' < liilinci-. llli■-^illllalit■s of Si Siilpirc. ilra« n liy the- same M. ik ( iaiiiiee. (Sc- M. lalDn's li-iici !■
N. Knu : "Hay of tin- I'Dttawalainies. " Islands Nh ak Mackinac : " I eiitficd iliis Kay i inly as far as tln->c Islands," \V. m-- S i . Claik Ki\kk : "(iical Imntiny Hrmini
I.AKK Kkih : "I mark only what I liave seen. " I,(im. I'oi s r : ' Peninsula if I. akt^ I'.rio,' Noi; i m Siioki; ( )i I'osi i i: : " Here we winlered." TllK 1>AV Oijosi rh : "
the river) : "The Neutral N ition was formerly here." Whs r ui' licui ini; ion May : "(ioud laml." Ni A(.ai.a kiVKn : "lliis current is so strong; that it tan han''-
on the south side, which I (five pretty accurately." Nourii Smoui; : ".Mr. Perot's encaii.^imint. Here the irissionariesof St. .Sulpice estahlislied themselves."

•'I

/ /•P.M.. «(»..«•/;.■</'' '•

, ;„ .>ii,.. MiHtoiv of lliv Ivulv MiHMions in Western ('aniida."

i, s,, .iroiij. tlKit it c;iM hardly l>e ascended. A r i i> .M.)IM h . w^i k-

IS so slroiiji
lislieil tliem-^elves.

' -1

T!IK (drNTUY oF THE NKlTliALS.

JAMICS II. COYNK.

In that part of tln» township of SoutlnvoM in()(i<l(><] in tho
peninsula InitAVLHin TallK)t C'lvek and the most we.storly b"nd of
K«'ttl»; Creek there were jnitil a conii)aratively reeent date
several Indian earthworks, wlneh wm* well-known to the
pioneers of the Talhot Settlement. What the tooth of time had
spared for more than two centuries yielded however to the
Hettleir's plouj^h ami hari-ow, and hut one or two of these inter-
estinj; remin<lerH of an ahnost forj^ottj^n nwe remain to fjratify
the curi«jsity of the arclueolotrist or of the historian. Fortun-
ately, the most important of all is still almost in its ori^jinal con-
dition. It is that, which has iKicome known to readers of the
Transactions of the Canadian Institutt^ as the Southwold Earth-
work. It is situated on the farm of Mr. Chester Henderson,
Lot Number Four North on Talbot Hoad Ejust. Mr. David
Boyle in the .^rchajolojrical Reports pi-intecl in 18!)1 has ^iven
the results of his examinations of the moiinds. A carefully pre-
pared plan made from actual survey by Mr. A. VV. Can>pb«dl, C.
E., for the El^^in Historical and Scientitic Institute of St.
Thomas, was presented by the latter to the Canadian Institute-
((t) These will to«;ether form a valuable, and, it is hoped, a per-
nuinent record of thi:- interesting memorial of the abori;^inal in-
hal)itants of South-western Ontario.

The writer of this paper has Ijeen accpiainted with "the 'old
fort," Jis it was called, since the year 1 807. At that time it was
in the midst of the forest. Since ther the woods have been
cleared away, except within tlie fort and north of it. Indeed, a
considerable numbi3r of trees have been feile 1 within the south
ern [)art of the enclosure. In the mouiuls themselves trees are
abundant, and there are many in the moat oi* ditch betw»^en.
The stumps of those which have been cut down are so many
chronological facts, from which the a^^e of the fort may be con-

(a) Mr. J. H. Scntt, of St. Tlioinas, has maiU: a number of photograplis of th''
mouiuls at the instance of an American laily, who, it is understuotl, will repro"
duce thetn in a work alx'Ut to Ije puhlished by her.

THE COrNTBY OF THE SECTBATA

jectured whh some approach to accuracy. A maple within the
enclosure cxhiljits 242 rinj^s of annual growth. It wjus prohably
the oMe.st tree within the walls. A maple in the outer em-
bankment shows 107 rings; between the inner and outei- walls a
beech stump shows 211) rings, and an ehn 2()(). Many of the
trees were cut down a good many years ago. Judging from
these stumps, it would be safe to calculate the age of the forest
at about two hundred years, with here and there a tn'e a little
oMer. Tin area enclosed is level. In the field south there are
nmnerous hummocks formed by the decayed stumps of fallen
trees. The walls- were manifestly thrown up from the outside.
There is an exception on the south-east. Here the ground out-
side wjis higher, and to get the recjuisite elevation the earth wjis
thrown up on both walls from the intervening s{nu!e, as well as
on the exterior wall from the outside. Each of the walls runs
completely round the enclosure, except where the steep bank of
the little stream was utilized to eke out the inner wall for five
or six rods on the west sifle, as shewn on the plan. Opposite
the south end of this gap was the original entrance through the
outer wall. The walls have been cut through in one or two
other places, doubtless by settlers hauling tindx^r across them.

The writer accompanied Mr. Cam[)bell on his visits in the
spring and fall of 18!)1. The members of the Elgin Historical
and Scientific Institute made a pretty thorough examinntion of
a large ash-heap .south-east of the fort. It had, however, been
frequently dug into during tlu^ last score ov two of years, with
iimple I'esults, it is said, in the way of stone implenuMits of
various kinds. There still remained, however, arrow-heads and
chippings of flint, stones partially disintegrated from the action
of heat, fragments of pottery whose markings showed a very
low stage of artistic development, fish scales, charred niaize and
bones of small animals, the remains of aboriginal banquets.
Within the enclosure, corn-cobs were found by digging down
through the mould, and a good specimen of a bone needle, well
smoothed, but without any decoration, was turned up in the bed
of the little stream where it passes through the fort.

The original occupants were manifestly hunters, fishermen
and agriculturists, as well as warriors. Nothing appears to have
been found in the neigh borh(X)d, pointing to any intercourse be-
tween them and any European race.

THE COUNTRY OF TIIK NEIITKAUS.

It would .seem that the earth-work was construote<l in the
juidst of a large clearing, and that the forest grew up after
the disapj)earance of the occupants. A few siiplings, however,
may have been permitted to spring up during their occupancy
for the sake of the shelter they might att'ord. These are repre-
sented by the oldest Htunj})s above mentioned.

The tjuestion, who were the builders, is an interesting
one. To answer it we need not go back to a remoter period
than tiie middle of the seventeenth century, when the Inxjuois
after d«,'stroying the Huron Settlements turned their attention to
the southwest, and the Neutral Nation ceased to exist. The
enclosure was, we may reasonably believe, a fortified village of
the Neutrals at the tinie of their evacuation of this province,
nearly a quarter of a millennium ago.

Substantially all that is known of the Neutrals is to be found
in Champlain's works, Sagard's History, the Relations and Jour-
nal of the Jesuits, and Sanson's map of 1G56. A digest of the
information contained therein is given in the f(jl lowing pages.
The writer has availed himself of orve or two other works for
some of the facts mentioned. Mr. Benjamin Suite's interesting
and learneil articles on " Le pays des grands lacs an XVlle
Siecle " in that excellent magazine, "Le Canada Francais," have
been most valuable in this connection.

The first nicorded visit to the Neutrals was in the winter of
1()2(), by a Recollet father, l)e Laroche-Daillon. His ex-
periences are narrated by himself, and Saganl, who includes the
narrative in his history, supplements it with one or two addi-
tional fact'*.

In company with the Jesuit Fathers Hrel)euf and I)(; Noue,
Daillon left Quebec with the purpose of visiting and converting
the Hurons, who were settled in villages between the Georgian
Bay and Lake Simcoe. After the usual hardships, journeying
by canoe and portage, by way of the Ottawa an<l French Rivtirs,
they arrived at their destination. Th(! ill-fated Brule told won-
derful stories of a nation, whom the French called the Neutrals,
and Father Joseph Le Caron wrote Daillon urging him to con-
tinue his journey as far as their country.

He set out accordingly on the 18th October, Iti'Id, with two

THE 4'OU.NTV OK TWK NEVTKALS

other Frenchnicn, (jlrenolle atid La Vallec. Passing through the
tei'ritory occupictl by the Tobacco Nation, he met one of their
chiefs, vvh(i not merely oficre"! his services as jLjni'h', but fur-
nisheil Indian porters to carry their packs and their scanty pro-
visions. I'hey sK'pt Hv(! nij^hts in the woods, and on the sixth
(hiy arrived at the villatijc cjf the iS'eutrals. In this as well as in
four other villat^es which they visited, they were h(wpitably
entertaineil with jjresents of food, including venison, pumpkins,
"neintahouv," and "the best they had." Their ilress exciteil the
itstonishn»ent of their Imlian hosts, who wen; also surprised that
the missionary asked nothing from tln*m but that they sh(juld
raise their eyes to heaven, and make the sign of the cross.

What excited raptures of admiration, however, according to
his narrative was to see him retiie for prayer' at certain hours
of the day; for they had never seen any priests beyond passing
glimpses when visiting amongst the neighboring Hurons and
Tobacco Indians.

At the sixth village, Ounontisaston, in which Daillon had

been advised to take up his abode, a counci' wa:-* held at his

instance. He observes that the councils are called at the will of

the chiefs, and held either- in a wigwam or in the open air, the

audience being seated on the ground : that sileirce is preserved

whilst a chief is addressing the assembly, and that what they

irave oirce concluded and settled is irrviolabi}- observed and

performed by them.

JJ.iillon explained that lu; had corm^ on the part of the

Fr'ench to make alliarrce and friendship with them and to invite

them to come and trwle, and Ijegged theirr to permit him to stay

in their country "to instruct them in the laws of our (Jod, which

is the only mearrs of going to Par'ailise " They agreeil to all htj

proposed and in returrr for his gifts of knives and other trifles,

they adopted him as "citizen and child of the couirtry," and as a

mark of grvat afi'ectiorr entrusted him to the care of Souharissen,

Mdio became his father and host. The latter was, according; to

Daillon, the chief of the greatest renown arrd authority that had

ever been known irr all the nations, being chief rrot orrly of his

owrr village, but of all those of his nation, to the nunrber of

twenty-eight, besides sevoral little luxnrlets of seven to eight

cabins built in different places coirverrient for Hshirrg, hunting, or

THE COUNTV OK TICK \KrTK.\ia.

cuUivatiii"^ tlu' ^^roiiml. Souliaris.sen lui I a?(|uini!l his absolute
and extraordinaiy authority hy hi.s eourdj;!' ami his success in
war. He had been several times at war with the seventeen
tribes, who weiv the enemies of his race, anil From all he had
brou<>d»t baek the heads of tluse he had slain, or prisoners taken
alive, as tokens of his prowess. His authority' was without
example amon^^st other tribes.

The Neutrals are niported by Daillon as bein^ very warlike,
armed only with war club and b:)w, and dexterous in their u.se.
His companions havin^^ i^one bi'd<, the missif>nary remained
alone, "the happiest man in the world," .seekin^^ to advance the
^lory of God and to find the mouth of tlu- river of the lro(jUoia,
(probably the Niai>ara,) in order to conduct the sava<^es to the
French trading posts. He visiteil them in their huts, found them
very mana'^eable and learned their customs. He renuirked that
then,' wei'e no deformed people amoni^st them The chililren,
who were s[)ri»flitly, naked and unkemi)t, were taught by him to
make tlie sij^n oi the Holy Cross.

The natives were willing that at least four canoes should go
to trade if he would conduct them, but nobody knew the way.
Yro(|Uet, an Indian known in the countiy, who had come
hunting with twenty of his tiil)e and secured five hundrc<l beaver
skins, decline(l to give him any indication of the mouth of the
river; but he ay;reed witli several Hurons in assurin<; Daillon
that a Journey often <lays would take him t(j the trading post
The missionary, however, was afraid of taking one river for
another and getting lost or perishing of hunger.

For three months lie was treated with kindne.ss. Then the
Hurons became jealous h'st the trade should be diverted from
them. They accordingly circulated rumors through every
village, that Daillon was a great magii-ian, that he had poisoned
the air in their ccjuntry, and many had died i" con.se(pience, that
if he was not kille(l soon, he wijuld burn up their villages and
kill their children, with other stories as extraordinary and
alarming about the entire French nation. The Neutrals were easily
influenced by the reports. Daillon's life was in dang(;r on more
than one occasion. The rumor reached Brebeuf and De None,
that he had been killed, 'i'hey at once <lespatched (Jrenolle to
ascertain the truth, with instructions to bring Daillon back if
alive. He accjuiesced, and returned to the Huron country.

THE CODNTRY Ot THK NEl'TRALS.

He apoaks of a Neutral villa<;e calle*! Ouaroroiion, one day's

journey from the Irocjuois, the people of which came to trade at

OinioiitisaHtoii. Their village was the last of the Neutral

viMaj^es, ajid wjih probably i ast of tht; Niagara River.

Daillou, like every other travellei', was channed with the

Neutral country, which he pronounces incomparably greater,

more beautiful and b«,>tter than any other "of all these countries."

H(i notes the incredible number of deer, the native mode of

taking them by driving them into a gradually narrowing

enclosure, their practice of killing every animal they find whether

they needed it or not. The rejison alleged was that if they did

not kill all, the beasts that escaped would tell the others how

they had been chased, so that afterwaivis when the Indians need

ed game it would be impossible to get near it. He enumerates

moose, beaver, wild-cats, squirrels larger than those of France,

bustards, turkeys, cranes, etc., as abundant, an<l remaining in

the country through the winter. The winter was shorter and

milder than "in Canada." No snow had fallen by the 22nd

November. The deepest was not more than two and a half

feet. Thaw set in on the 26th of January. On the 8th March

the snow was gone from the open places, but a little still lingered

in the woods. The streams abounded in very good fish. The

ground produced more corn than was needed, besides pumpkins,

beans antl othei* veg»tal>les in abundance, and excellent oil. He

expresses his surj)rise that the Merchants' Company had not sent

souie F'renchman to winter in the Country: for it would be very

easy to get the Neutrals to trade and the direct route would be

much shorter than that by way of French River and the

Georgian Hay. He <lescribes the Neutrals' country as being

n»;arer than the Huron to the French, and as being on one side

of the lake of the Iroquois (Lake Otitai'io) whilst the Iroquois

were on the other. The Neutrals, howv^ver, did not understand the

management of canoes, especially in the rapids, of which there

were only two, but long and dangerous. 'J'heir proper trade was

' hunting and war. They were very lazy and immoral. Their

maimers and customs were very much the same as those of the
Hurons. Their language was ditFerent, but the members of the

j. two nations understood one another They went entirelj' unclad.

' Sagard adds that "according to the opinion of some," the

THK COUNTRY OK THE NKI'THAM.

Neutrals' country was eijrhty leagues (alunit 200 miles) in
extent, an<l that they )'aise«l very good tobacco which they
traded with their neigldntrs. They were calU"<l Neubrals on
account of their neutrality between the Hurons and the Irocjuois;
but they were allies of the (yheveux Releves (the Ottawas)
against their mortal enemies of the Nation of Fire. Sagard. was
<iissua(h'd by some tiuMid)ers of the French trading company
from attempting to bring about a peace between the Hurons and
the Irotjuois. It was supposed that this would <livert the
trade of the Hurons from Quebec by sending it through the
Iro(|Uois country to the Dutch of the Hudson River. At so
early a <late did the (juestion of closer trade relations between
the territories north and south of the lakes agitate the minds of
statesmen and men of commerce.

In the winter of 1G40-1, the Jesuit missionaries, Brebeuf
and Chaumonot traversed the country of the Neutrals. The
former composed a dictionary showing the ditt'erences between
the kindred dialects of the Hurons an<l Neutrals. C'haunKMiot
made a map of the country, which is not extant, but there is
reason for believing that it was the authority for the delineation
of the lerritory on Sanson's map of 1050 and Ducreux's Latiu
map of 1000. Fro u the facts hereinafter detailed it is highly
probable that they reached the Detroit River, and that they
visited and named the Neutral village of which the Southwold
EarthworR is the memorial. The iirst printed truxp in which
Lake Erie i^ shown was made by N. Sanson cTAbbeville,
geographer in ordinary to the King, and printed in Paiis, with
"privilege du Roy" for twenty years, in the year 1050. It is a
map of eastern North America. The sources of information are
stated in general terms, which may be translated as follows:
"The most northerly portion is drawn from the various Relations
"of the English, Danes, etc. Towards the soutii the coasts of
"Virginia, New Sweden, New Netherlands and New^ England
"are drawn from those of the English, Dutch, etc. The (Jueat
"River of Canada, or of St. Lawrence and all the neighboring
"regions (environs) are according to the Relations of the French."

Now, we know that Father Raymbault visited Sault Ste.
Marie in 1041 and mapped Lake Superior, and that Father
Chaumonot in the same year rendered the same service for the

ii:

1 !l
I .1.

I
I

B 8 TIIK cntNTV OK THE SKUTRALS,

N«Hitral Country. Sansotr.s map is fairly aocurate for the upper

lakus, when eoiupanvl witli s(jnie inap.s piil)lislie(l at iiiucli later

porio Is \nOu'1i tlic Iuk<'s liail beconu' tolorahly wt'll km)wn to

tradcis and travellers. It sliows an ac(|uaiutanc(' witli the

general contour of Lakes Erie. 8t. Clair and Huron, with several

of the streams enij>tyin^ into Lakos Erie and Huron on both

the Caiuidian and the American sides, with the nfinit;s of tribes

inhal)iting l)oth shores, an<l with tlu! Ku-ations of five towns of

the Neutrals, besides some towns of the Tobacco Nation. The

Neuti'al towns aiv <j^iven as S. P^'ancois, (north-east of Sarnia) S.

Michel, (a little east of .San<lwich), S. dostiph, (appaj"ently in the

county of KiMit), Alexis, (a few miles west of a stream, which

flows into Lake Erie about miilway between the Detroit and

[ Niagara Rivers, an<l where the shore bends farthest inland), (h)

j. and N. 1). des An^es(on the West baid< of a considerable river,

i probably the Craml Hivcr, near whei-e Brantford now stands).

The Detroit and Niagara Rivers and four streams flowinn- into

! Lake Erie between them are shown but not named. The ^reat

: , cataract is called "()n;i;iara Sault." The name On^iara may,

however, be that of the Neutral village east of the Falls. Lake

8t. (/lair is called Lac des Eaux do JNIer, or Sea-water l^ake,

j possibly from the mineral s|)rings in th*^ neiglil)orbood. The

1 • country of tiic Tobacccj Nation includes the Bruce peninsula and

j extends from the Huron country on the east to Lake Huron on

j the west, and BurIin<^ton Bay on the southeast. Tin; Neutral

1 Country (iVf'u^/r on. Atlioiiandaron.s) would embrace the whole

j ' of southwestern Ontario south of a line drawn from the west

en<l of Lake Ontario to a stream which flows into Lake Huron

aljout midway between Point Eciward and Cape Hurd, and which

is probabl}' the Maitla-Nl Rivei'. Th" tril)es to the south of the

lakes are indicateij \']\ i the Niagai-a River to Lake Superior.

The Eries or "Eriechronons, ou du Chat," are south-east of Lake

Elrie ; the ' Ontari-aronon" are west of what is probably the

Cuyahoga River; at the southwest of the lake appear the

"S(iuen(|ioronon :" west of the Detroit River are tlu- "Aictaer-

onon:" west of Port Huron the "Couarronon;" Huron County in

(/») Alexis corresponds witli tlie actual poisitioii of tlie Soutliwold Earthwork,
ami the stream with that of Kettle Creek.

THE COrSTRY OR THE NKCTRAIJ4.

Mic'hiiran is occupi»><l by the "Ariaetoeroiion ;" at th»' liea<l of
Sa^^inaw \U\y and (.•xteniliii<>f .southward throuy;li Miclti^an are
the " AKHi.s -aeronons on (hi Fen :" i!i the; peninsnhi extendinjjf
nortli to MaL'kinr,c are the "OukouarararDnons ;" beyond them
Lake Miehi<^^an :.|»j)ears as "Lac de Pnan.s;" then come the
nortliorn j)enin.>suhi and "Lac Superieur. " Manit(julin Ishind is
marked "Chjvenx Releves ;" the ohi Frencli name for the
Ottavvafs. Tiie Tobacco Nation called "N. du Petun on
Sanhionontatchcronons" inclndes \illage." of "S. Sinjon et 8.
lude" in the Bruce promontory, "S. i*ierre" near the .south end
of the County of Bruce, and "S. Pol," southwest of a lake which
may be tScugo*;^.

To return to the narratives, the.se ly^ree in .stating^
that the Neutrals, like their kinsmen of the Huron, Tobacco
and Jro»[Uois Nations, were a numerous and sedentary race
liv'inj; in viJiai^es and cultivatinjif their tields of nniize,
tobacco and [)unipkins. They were on friendly terms with the
ea.stern and northern tribes, but at enmity with those of the
west, especially the Nation of Fire, against whom they were
constantly .sending out war parties. By the western tribes it
would appear that those west of the. Detroit River and Lake
Huron ai-e invariably meant.

Champlain refers to the Neutrals in IGIO as a powerful
nation, holding a large extent of country, and nund)ering 4,000
warriors. Already they were in alliance with the Cheveux
Releves (the Ottawas), w^hom he visited in the Bruce Peninsula,
against the Nation of Fire. He states that the Neutrals lived
two day.s' journey southward of the Cheveux Releves, and the
Nation of Fire ten days from the latter. The Nation of Fire
occupied part of what is now Michigan, probably as far ea.st
as the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers.

Describing his visit to the Cheveux Releves, he adds: — "I had
"a great desire to go and .see that Nation (the Neutrals), had not
"the tribes where we were dissuaded me from it, saying that
"the year before one of ours had killed one of them, being at war
"with the Entouhoroiions (the Senecas), and that they were
"angry on account of it, representing to us that they are verj'
"subject to vengeance, not looking to those who dealt the blow,
"but the first whom they meet of the nation, or even their

i|B.

10 THE COrjfTRV OF THE SKCTRALS.

■ "friendH, they make them l)ear the penalty, when they can catch

j "any of them unless heforeliantl peace had heen mtule with them,

j,d "and one had jrjven theui houk; grjfts and presents for the

"relativeH of the decea.se<l ; which prevented me for the time

I {' "from f^oin^ then; although .some of that nation tissrn-ed uh that

I "they would do us no harm for that. This decide<l us, and

"occasioned our returninj^ by th«? same road as we luul come, and
"continuinjj my journey, I found the nation of the Pisieritiij etc."
Brelxmf, who reckoned the Hurons at more than 80,000,
describ<;s the Neutrals in l(i.*i4 as nmch more numerous than the
former The Relation of 1()41 ^ives them at least 12,000, but
adds that notwithstanding tlie waix, famine and disease (small
pox), whiclj since three yeai"s had prevailed in »\n extraordinary
degree, the country could still furnish 4,000 warriors, the exact
nuuiber estimated by Champlain a (juarter of a century earlier.
The name of the Neutrals is variously given as Attikadaron,
Atiouandaronk, Attiouandaron, Attiwandaronk, but the last
is the njore connnon. The name signitied "people who spoke a
slighth^ different dialect," and the Hurons were known to the
Neutrals by the same name. The latter are mentioned in the
Relations as one of the twelve numerous and sedentary nations
who spoke a common language with the Hurons. The
Oueanohronons formed " one of tlie nations associated with the
Neutral Nation." They are afterwards called in the same
Relatiqp (1639) the Wenrohronons, and are .said to have lived on
the borders of the In)quois, more than eighty leagues from the
Huron country. So long as they were on friendly terms with
the Neutrals they were safe from the dreaded Iroquois ; but a
misunderstanding having arisen between them, they were
obliged to flee in order to avoid extermination bj' the latter.
They took refuge, more than 600 m all, with the Hurons, and
were received in the most friendly and hospitable manner.

The Relation of 1640 speaks of a Huron map communicated
by Father Paul Ragueneau in which a large number of tribes,
roost of them acquainteci with the Huron language, are shown,
including the Iroquois, the Neutrals, the Eries, etc. The
"Mission of the Apostles" was established among the Tobacco

Note. — This is a literal translation, and shows the crudity of Champlain's sailor style
of composition.

! .

■i

THB COrNTRT OF THE NKrTRAlil

Nation by Gamier and Joj^ucs in 1040. Nino villages visited by
theui were endowed by the niiHsionaries with tlie names of
apostles, two of whicli are ^^iven in Sanson's map of 1 056. (c)
In one "bour}^" called S. Thonuvs, they baptized a boy five yeara
old belonjrinj^ to the Neutral Nation, who died immediately
afterwards. "He saw him.self straightway out of hanish-
nieia and happy in his own country." The famine had driven
his parents to the villajife of the Tobacco Nation. The devoted
missionaries add, that this was the first fruits of the Neutral
nation.

In the fall of the same year "The Mission of the Angels"
was b<;gun among the Neutrals. The lot fell upon Jean de
Brebeuf and Joseph Marie Chaumonot. The former was the
pi(meer of the Jesuit Mission. He had spent three years among
the Hurons from 1626 to 1629, and, after the restoration of
Canatla to the French by Charles I., he had returned in 1634 to
the scene of his earlier labors. His associate had only come
from France the year before. Brel)euf was distinguished for his
mastery of the native tongues, and Chaumonot had been
recognized as an apt student of languages. The plan of the
Jesuits was to establish in the new mission a fixe<l and per-
manent residencj, which should be the " retreat " of the mission-
aries of the surrounding country, as Ste. Marie was of those of
the Huron mission.

Lalemant from their report describes the Neutral Nation as
exceedingly populous, including al)out forty villages ("bourgs
ou bourgades.") The nearest villages were four or five days'
journey or about forty leagues (100 miles) distant from the
Hurons, going due south. He estimates the dirterence in latitude
between Ste. Marie and the nearest village of the Neutrals to the
south at about I °55\ Elsewhere the distance is spoken of as
about thirty leagues.

From the first "bourg," going on to the south or south-west
(a mistake for south-east it would seem,) it was about four days'
journey to the mouth of the Niagara River. On this side of the

(r) The principal "Ixiurg" was Ehwae, surnamed S. Pierre et S. Paul. If S. Pierre
on Sanson's map' is the same place, this must have lieen near the southern end of the
county of Bruce. The other village or mission shown on the map is S. Simon et S
lude.

■

■<l!'

12 THE COI'NTIIV l>K THK NKI'TKAI.S.

river, and not Iwyotul it, HH " Hoiiu' inap" lays it down, ((M\an«-
plain's, doubtlcHH,) wore nioHt of tlu* "houij^" of the Nrutral
Nation TIm^iv w»»ro tlirco or fonr on i\\v otlicr sid*' towardH the
Erie.s. Lah'inant claims, and tlu'rc is no doiiht as to thr fact, that
tho French were th<^ Hrst Enropeans to lieconie ac(|nainted with
the Nentrals. The Hnrons and Iro(jnoi.s were sworn eniMnies to
each other, hnt in a wigwam or even a camp of the Nentials
until recently each had been safe from the other's venj^eance.

Ijatterly however the uni»ridled fnry of the hostile^ nations
had not reHj)ected even the neutral |;ronn<l of their mutual
friends. Fi-iendly as they were to the Hurons and Iroipiois,
the Neutrals en;;ai^»Ml in cnud wars with othei* niitioiis to the
west, particularly the Nation of Fire, as has been stated aiwve.
The previous year a hundred prison«irs ha<l been taken fiom the
latter tribe. This vear, roturninir with 2,f)0() warriors, the
Neutrals had carri(Ml otl' more tham 170. Fiercer than the
Hurons, they burne<l their female pi-i.sonei's. Their clothin*,' and
mode of living ditKa-od but little from those of the Hurons.
They had Indian corn, beans and pumi)kins in e'|Mal abundance.
Fish were abundant, different species ])eing nu^t with in <litteront
places. The country was a fninous hunting rrrouml. Elk, deer,
wild cats, wolves, "black beasts" (.s(piirrels) beaver and other
animals valuable for their skins and Hc^sh, were in abumlanee.
It was a rare thing to ,see more than half a foot of snow. This
year there w^sis more than three feet. The deep snow had
facilitated the hunting, and, in happy contrast with the famine
which had prevailed, meat was plentiful. They had also multi-
tudes of wild turkeys wliich went in flocks through the fields
and woods. Fruits were no more plentiful than amongst the
Hurons, except that chestnuts abounded, and wild apples were a
little larger.

Tlieir manners and customs, and family and political g<3vern-
ment, were very much like those of the other Indian tribes, but
they were distinguished from the Hurons by their greater
dissoluteness and indecency. On the other hand they were
taller, stronger and better formed.

Their biu"ial customs were peculiar, although similar customs
are reported at this day amongst some African tribes. The
bodies remained in their wigwams until decomposition rendered

THE WHTNTKY or THK NKI'TKAI.s.

tluMU insiipportHbl*', wIumi tl»»'y w»'rt> put o^^t^^ill^• on a scaHuM.
Soon aFt«'i'\var«l, tlu^ hones \v«M'<' n'lnovnl ainl arran;j(M| within
their houmw on lM)th .sidles in Hi<;ht of the inmates, where the}'
leinaineil nntil the feast of th(^ deail. Havinj,; these mournful
()V>jects before their eyes, the women habitually inilul;;(Ml in crien
ami lainents, in a kind of ehant

The Neutrals \v«*ro distin^^uisheil foi' the multitude and
quality of their madmen, who were a privileged class. Hene«' it
was eonnnon for ba<l Indians to iiHsiune the charaeter of maniacs
in order to pei-pctrate crimes without fear of pinnshment.
The .lesuits suti'er«Ml very much fi'om their malice. Some old
men told them that th»,' Neutrals used to carry on war "towanls"
a certain westerii nation, who would seem to have lived on the
Gulf of Mexico, where the " porcelain, which are the pearls of
the counti'v, ' was obtained from a kin<l of oysters. It is an
undoubted fact that a traffic was carried on with tribes as far
south as the (Julf of Mexico, from vyhom shells used for
wampum were obtaineil by successive interchan<;es of com-
modities with interveninji; trib(\s. They had also some va;:[ue
notion of allipitors, which are apparently referred to by the des-
cription, "certain a«iuatic animals, lar<fer and swifter than elk,"
against which the.se same people had "a kind of war," tlu; details
of which arc; somewhat amusinj;, as {^iven by Lalen)ant.

The two Jesuits left Ste. Marie the 2nd Nov<'ud)er, 1(140,
with two French servants (probably " doinies,") and an Indian.
They slept four nights in the woods. The fifth day they arrived
at the first villagi* ("bourg") of the Neutra' Nation called
Kandoucho, but to which they j^ave the name of All Saints.
"^I'his is probably the sime as N. 1). des Anges on Sanson's map,
and was not far perhaps from the site of Hrantfoid.

Owing to the unfavorable reports which had been spread
through the country about the Jesuits, the latter were anxious to
explain their purposes to a council of the chiefs and (»ld men.
The head chief, " who managed the affairs of the public" was
called Tsohahivssen (doubtless the same as Daillon's Souharissen).
His"bourg" was "in the n\id<lle of the country;" to i-each it, one had
to pass through several other villages (" bourgset bourgades.") In
Sanson's map, Alexis is placefl almost exactly "in the middle of the
country " of the Neutrals. No other village is marked on the

THK lOfNTRY OK TIIK KEl'TRAI-H

I J

i . 'I'

map, to whioh thv. exprcHHion couI«l be applied. ItH .situation
nearly iui<lw'ay l)etween the Detroit & Niagara Rivei-H, a few
mileH west of a Htrcaiii which flowH into Ltike Erie just where
the mouth of Kettle Creek would appe^ir in a map of our own
century, correHp<jn(lH with that of the SouthwoM earth w<irk.
Wjw the latter the Neutrals' capital!' We can only conjectine;
but the evidence of the Kelatior)H, the map aud the j'oreHt
growth, all points to an at!irmativ(; answer. There is a strong
probability that it was here 'rsohahisHen reigned (if the expres-
sion is allowable in reference to an Indian poteiittite) as head
chief of the forty Neutral viflages. Through the western gate,
doubtless, his warriorwset out to wage their relentless warfare
against the Nation of Fire. Within these moinids, returning
satiated with blood, they celebrated their savage triumpli,
adorned with the scalps of their enemies.

Breljeuf's Huron surname " Echon " had preceded him. He
was regarded as "one of the most famous sorcerer's and <lemons
"ever imagined." Several Frenchmen had travelled through th«i
country before him, purchasing furs and other commodities.
These had smoothed the way for the Jesuits. Under the pretext
of being traders. Brebenf's party succ(>eded in making thei/ way
in spite of all obstacles interposed. They arrived at the head-
chiefs village, only to find that he had gone on a war party and
would not return until spring. The missionaries sought to
negotiate with those who administered affairs in his absence.
They desired to publish the Gospel throughout the.se lands, " and
" thereby to coiitract a particular alliance with them." In proof
of their desire, they ha^l brought a neckltice of two thousand
grains of "porcelain" or wampum which they wished to present
to "the Public." The inferior chiefs refused to bind themselves
in any way by accepting the present, but gave the missionaries
leave, if they would wait until the chief of the country returned,
to travel freely and give such instruction as they pleased.
Nothing could have suited the fathers better. First however
they decided to return in their steps and reconduct tlieir
domestics out of the country. Then they would resume their
journey for the second time, and " begin their function." As it
had been the servants however, who had acted the part of
traders, this pretext was now wanting to the Jesuits. They

THI COUNTRY OF TBC mJtVTKAi*.

suffered everywhere from the inalieious reports which ha<l been
circulated as to their purpoHes in visiting the nation and the acts
of sorcery with wliich they were charge<l. The Hurons of the
Georgian Hay ahirnird for the monopoly tliey had hitherto
enjoyeo and jealous of tin- French traders, lia<l sent eniiswaries
amongst the Neutrals to |)oisou their minds against the
adventurous travellers, by the most extraordinary cahnnnies.

For these reports two Huron Indians Aouenhokoui and
Oentara were especially responsible. They had visite<l several
villages, presented hatchets in the name of the Huron chiefs and
old men, and denoujiced their white visitors as sorcerers who
desired to destroy the Neutrals by means of presents. These
representations were so effectual that a council was at length
held by the chiefs and the present formally refused, although
permission to preach was granted.

From village to villagr they passed, but everywhere the
doors were barred to them. Hostile looks greeted them
wherever they went. No sooner did they approach a village
than the cry resounded on all sides " Here come the Agwa."
This was the name given by the natives to their greatest
enemies. If the priests were admitte<l into their dwellings at all,
it was niore fre(|uently from fear of the " sorcerers'" vengeance
than for the hope of gain, " God making use of everything in
order to nourish his servants."

In the graphic language of Lalemant : "The mere sight of
the fathers, in figure and habit so different from their own,
their gait, their gestures and their whole deportment seemed
to them so many confirmations of what had been told them.
The breviaries, ink-stands and writings were instruments of
magic; if the Frenchmen prayed to God, it was according
to their idea simply an exercise of sorcerers. Going to the
stream to wash their dishes, it was said they were poisoning the
water: it was charged that through all the cabins, wherever
the priests passed, the children were seized with a cough and
bloody flux, and the women became barren. In short, there was
no calamity present or to come, of which they were not
considered as the source. Several of those with whom the
fathers took up their abode did not sleep day or night for fear;
they dared not to jch what had been handled by them, they

THE COPNTKY OF TUK NKCTRAL8.

1 i^*

.■

f t

i ;

f •

-r

. 1

:| {

! ♦

returiRMl the strangers' presents, regar(lin<^ everything us
suspicious. The good oM women already regarded tlieniselves
as lost, and only regretted the fate of their little children, who
might otherwise have been able to repeople the earth."

The Neutrals intimidated thi fathers with rumors of the
Seiieeas, who they were assured were not far oil- They spoke
of killing and eating the missionaries. Yet in the four months
of their sojourn Brebeuf and Chaumonot never lacked the
necessaries of life, lodging and food, and amidst ditiiculties and
inconveniences better imagined than described they retained
their health. Their f(X)d supply was bread baked under ashes
after the fashion of the country, and which they kept for thirty
and even forty days to use in case of need.

" In their journey, the fathers passeil througli eighteen
"villages {boaiys on bourg<tde,s), to all of which they gave a
"Christian name, of which we shall make use heieafier on
" occasion. They stayed particularly in ten, to which they gave
"as much instruction as they could tjnd hearers. They report
" about 500 Fires and 3,000 i)ersons, which these ten hourgades
" may contain, to whom they set forth and published the Gospel."
(Lalemant's Relation.) (rZ)

Disheartened, the fathers decided to return to Kandoucho
or All Saints to await the spring. Midway, however, at the village
of I'eotongniaton, or S. Guillaume, (perliaps in the vicinity of
Woodstock) the snow fell in such quantities that further pi'ogress
was injpossible. They lodged here in the cabin of a squaw, wiio
entertained them hospitably and instructed them in the hinguage,
dictating narratives syllable by syllal)le as to a school boy.
Here they staye<l twenty-rtve days, "adjusted the dictionary and
" rules of the Huron language to that of these tribes (the
" Neutrals), and accomplished a work which alone was worth a
"journey of several years in the country."

Hurons from the mission of T^ji Conception volunteered to
go to the relief of the daring travellers. After eight days of
travel and fatigue in the woods the priests and the relief party
arrived at Ste. Mar'e on the very day of St. Joseph, patron of
the country, in time to say mass, which they hacl not been able

((/) In another plact; it is stated that there were 40 villages of the Neutrals in all.

THE COCNTKV iiF THK NKrTRALS.

to say Hince their departure.

Ainon<;st the (ii^j^hteen vilUiLjes visiteil by them, only one,
that of Kliioetou, called by the fathers Saint Michel, ^r.ave them
the audience tludr embassy merited. In this villa^x*, years
before, (b'iveii by fear of their enemies, ha<l taken refuse a
certain foreign nation, " which lived beyond Erie or the Cat
"Nation," named Aouenrehronon. It was in this nation that the
fathers performed the first baptism of adults. These were
probal)ly a portion of the kindred Neutral tribe referred to
above as havinj^ tied ttj the Huron country from the Iroquois,
Their original home was in the State of New Y<n'k. Sanson 'h
map shows S. Michel a little east of where Sandwich now stands.

Ovvino- tf) their scanty runuber and the calumnies circulated
amontrst the Indians respectinj^ the Jesuits of the Huron Mission
tlie latter resolved to concentrate their forces. The Neutral
mission was abandoned, but Christian Indians visited the
Neutrals in HWS and spi'ead the faith amoiif^st them with a
success which elicits Lalemant's enthusiastic praises. Towards
the end of the followinfj winter a band of about 500 Neutrals
visited the Hurons. The fathers did not fail to avail themselves
of their opp )rtunity. The visitors were instructed in the faith
and expressed their regret that their teachers could not return
with them. A difierent reception front that experienced by
Brebeuf and Chaumonot three years before was pronnsed.

Lalemant relates that iii the sunnner of 1643, 2,000 Neutrals
invaded the C(juntry of the Nation of Fire ami alt;vcked a village
strongly fortified with apalissade, and defended stoutly by 900
warriors. After a ten days' siege, they carried it by storm,
killed a large number on the spot, and carried off 800 captives,
men women and children, after buj"ning 70 of the most warlike
and blinding the eyes and "ginlling the mouths" of the (dil men,
whom they left to drag out a miserable existence. He reports
the Nation of Fire as more populous than the Neutrals, the
Hurona and the Iro([Uois together. In a large number (jf
these villages the Algonkin lai. juage was spoken. Farther
away, it was the prevailing tongut. In remote Algonkin tribes,
even at that early day, there were Christians who knelt, crossed
their hands, turned their eyes heavenward, and prayed to God
morning and evening, and before and after their meals ; and the

UJUiJJ

I ,

18 THE COCNtRY OT THE JTEUTRAIJ?,

best mark of their faith was that they were no longer wicked
nor dishonest as they were before. So it was reported to
Laleniant by trustworthy Hurons who went every year to trade
with Algonkin nations scattered over the whole northern part of
the continent.

Ragueneau in the Relation of 1648 refers to Lake Erie as
being almost 200 leagues in circuit, and precipitating itself by "a
"waterfall of a terrible height" into Lake Ontario, or Lake Saint
Louys.

The Aondironnons a tribe of the Neutrals living nearest to
the Hurons were treacherously attacked in their village by 300
Senecas, who after killing a number carried as many as possible
away with them as prisoners. The Neutrals showed no open
resentment but quietly prepared to revenge themselves. A
Christian Huron, a girl of fifteen, taken prisoner by the
Senecas, escaped from them and made her way to the Neutral
country, where she met four men, two of whom were Neutrals
and the others enemies. The latter wished to take her back to
captivity ; but the Neutrals, claiming that within their country
she was no longer in the power of her enemies, rescued her and
she returned in safety to Ste. Marie on the Georgian Bay.
These incidents were the prelude to the storm which shortly
!j ] ' '?' afterward burst.

1 J , In 1650 the principal part of the Irocjuois forces was directed

i j *j \ against the Neutrals. They carried two frontier villages, ia one of

(I which were more than 1600 men, the first at the end of autumn,

1 1 ; the second early in the spring of 1651. The old men and children

I I , who might encumber them on their homeward journey were

massacred. The number of captives was excessive, especially of
young women, who were carried off to the Iroquois towns. The

, . , othef more distant villasjes were seized with terror. The

Neutrals aban'doned their houses, their property and their
country. Famine pursued them. The survivors became scattered
amongst far-off woods and along unknown lakes and rivers. In
wretchedness and want and in constant apprehension of their
relentless enemy, they eked out a miserable existence.

The Journal (A])ril 22, 1651) adds that after the destruction
of the Neutral village in the previous autumn, the Neutral
warriors under the lead of the Tahontaenrat (a Huron tribe) had

i'MJ'

THE COnSTBT OF THE NECTBAUS. 10

followed the assailants anr] killed or taken 200 of them ; and

1,200 Iroquois warriors had returned in the spring to avenge j

this disaster. In August a Huron reported at Montreal the

capture of Teot'ondiaton (probably the village in which Brebeuf }

composed his dictionary, and which is referred to in the Relation as |

having been taken in the spring). The condition of the j

Neutrals was desolate a<nd desperate. In April, 1652, news <|

reached Quc^bec that they had leagued with the Andastes against i

the Iroquois, that the Senecas ha 1 been defeated in a foray l

against the Neutrals, so that the Seneca women had beeli

constrained to quit their village and retreat to the Oneida ,!

country ; also that the Mohawks had gone on the war path ||

against the Andastes during the winter, and the issue of the war

was unknown. The last of July, 1653, seven Indians from the

Huron country arrived at Quebec and reported a great gathering

near Mackinac of all the Algonkin nations with the remains of

the Tobacco and Neutral Nations at A^otonatendie three days

above the Sault 8te. Marie (Skia,e) towards the south. The

Tobacco Indians had wintered at Tea^onto'rai ; the Neutrals to

the number of 800 at Sken'chio^e towartls Teo'chanontian. These

were to rendezvous the ne.Kt fall with the Algonkins, wdio w^ere

already on the spot to the number of 1 ,000.

This is probably the last we hear of the Neutrals under their
own name. Some of the survivors united with the remnant of
the Hurons at Mackinac and on Lake Superior ; and under the
name of the Hurons and Wyandots they appear from time to
time on the page of history. Their removal to Detroit on the
establishment of the latter trading post by Cadaillac, is perpetu-
ated by the name of Wyandotte, to the south of the City of thn
Straits.

P'arkman mentions the chcumstance that an old chief name«l
Keiijockety, who claimed descent from an adopted prisoner of
the Neutral Nation, was recently living among the Senecas of
Western New York.

It is stated in the " History of the County of Middlesex" that
over 60 years ago, "Edouard Petit, of Black River, discovt-red
the ruins of an ancient building on the Riviere aux Sables, about
40 miles from Sarnia. Pacing the size, he found it to have been
40x24 feet on the ground. On the middle of the south or gable i|j

THE COHNTRV OF THE NErTBALS.

end, was a chimney eighteen feet high, in excellent preservation,
built of stoni', with an open Hre pl'ice. Th(> tire place had sunk
l)elow the surface. This ruin had a irarden .suiToundinii' it, ten
or twelve rods wide by twent}' rods in length, marked by
ditches and alleys. Inside the wails of the house a splendid oak
had grown to be three feet in diameter, with a stem sixty feet
high to the h'rst bj-anch. It seeme(l to be of second growth, and
nuist have been 150 years reaching its {proportions as seen in
1828- 9."

This must have been the mission of S. Francois slvnvn on
Sanson's map.

- THE IROQUOIS' HUNTING GROUND.

After the expulsion of the Neutrals, the noith shore of Lake
Erie remained an unpeopled wilderness until the close of the last
century. The unbroken forest teemed with deer, niccxjns, foxes,
wolves, ])ears, s(|uirrels and wild turkeys. Millions of pigeons
darkened the sky in their seasons of migraticjn. For generations
after the disappjiarance of the Neutrals, the Iroquois resorted to
the region in pursuit of ganx^ The country was descrilied in
maps as ''Chasi^e de Caxfor den Iroqium," the Iro(piois' beaver
ground. Numerous dams constructed by these industrious little
animals still remain to justify the description.

.The French built foi-ts at Detroit, Niagara ami Ttjnjnto to
intercept the beaver traffic, which otherwise might be shared by
the English on the Hudson and Mohawk rivers ; but for nearly
a hundred and fifty years no settlement was attem])ted on the
north shore, lleferences to the n'gion are few ami scanty.
Travellers did not peiietrate into the country, (^oasting along
the shore in canoes on their wav to Detroit, thev landed as
rarely as possible for shelter or repose. There were forest paths
well k)iown to the Indians, by which they portaged their canoes
and goods from one water stretcli to another. One of these led
from the site of Dundas to a point on the Grand River near
Cainsvilh; ; another from the latter stream to the Thames River
near Woodstock; and a third from the upper waters of the
Thames to Lake Huron. Besides these, there was a trail froin
the Huntly farm in South wold on the River Thames (Lot 11,

THK COtTNTKY OI' Till: NEfTKAl,S. 31

Con. 1,) to tlio mouth of Kettle Croek ; and a fifth from the
Rondeau to AI'drej^oi-'H Creek near Cliatham. These were
thorou'difares of tra\('l a,n<l of .sucli rude commerce sis wjis car-
ried on by the savaj^es witli their Frencli and En<;lish neii^hlxjrs. i'j

THE FRENCH EXPLORATION.

Joliet was the first Frenchman to descend Lake Erie
from J)etroit. He ha<l heen sent by 'I'alon to investigate the
cop})er mines of Lake 8up<,'i-ior. He returned to Quebec in the
autunni of 1669 by way of the lower lakes, instead (jf takinj^ the.
usual route by the French River and the Ottawa. At the mouth
of Kettle Creek he hid his canoe. Thence he portaj^^e*!, doubtless \

by the well-known trails to the Thames and Grand rivers, until
hi reachecl Ihirlington Bay. (f).

At tlie Seneca village of Tjnaouatoua, midway between the
Bay and the Gran<l River, he met La Salle and the Sulpician
priests, Dollier de C/asson and Galinee on their way to Lake Erie
and the Ohio River. The result of the meeting and 'of the
information given by Joliet was that the priests altere<l their
purpose and decided to proceed to Sault Ste. Marie and then to
the Pottamatamies, where tJiey would establish t\unv mission:
whilst La Salle, who evidently was dissatisfle<l with his com-
panions, went back with Joliet and, it is now |)i-etty generally ^
believed, discovered the Ohio by journeying overland from the
Seneca villages south of Lake (Ontario during the winter or the
following spring. Joliet gave the missionaries a description of
his route, from which Galinee was able to make a map which
was of great assistance in the further progress of tht.'ir ex-
pedition; (f). The priests de.scended the (Jrand River to Lake .
Erie, and wintered at tlie forks of Patterson's Creek, where Port
Dover now stands. After a sojourn of five months and eleven
days, during whicli they were visited in their cabin by Iro(|Uois
beaver hunters, tliey proceeded westward along the noi'th shore
of tlie lake. Losing one of their canoes in a storm, they were
obliged to divide their party. 7our men with the luggage
proceeded in the two remaining canoes. Five of the party,
including apparently the two priests, made tlie wearisome

{e) This is the most probable inference from the facts staled by (Jalinee.

(/) Galinee's ujap is reproduced in Faillon's Ulstoire de la Colonic Prancaise.

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22 THE COUNTRY OF THE NUrTILXLS.

journey on foot from Long Point all the way to the mouth of
Kettle Creek, where on the tenth of April, 1670, they found
Joliet's canoe, and the party was reunited for the rest of the
long journey to the Sault. Upon leaving their winter abode
however the whole party had first proceeded to the lake shore,
and there on the 23rd March 1670, being Passion Sunday^
planted a cross, as a memorial of their long sojourn, and ctiered
a prayer. The official record is as follows:

" We the undersigned certify that we have ;seen affixed on the
"lands of the lake called Erie the arms of the King of France
"with this inscription: The year of salvation 1669, Clement
" IX. being seated in St. Peter's chair, Louis XIV. reigning in
" France, M. <le Courcelle being governor of New France, and
" M. Talon being intendant therein for the King, there arrived in
" this place two missionaries from Montreal accom})anied by seven
" other Frenchmen, who, the first of all European peoples, have
" wintered on this lake, of which, as of a territory not occupied,
" they have taken [jossession in the name of their King by the
" apposition of his arms, which they have attached to the foot of
" this cross. Li witness whereof we have signed the present
"certificate."

"FRANCOIS DOLLIER,
yf " Priest of the Diocese of Nantes in Brittanj'.

"DE GALINEE,
"Deacon of the Diocese of Rennes in Brittany."

Galinee grows enthusiastic over the abundance of game and
wild fruits opposite Long Point. The grapes were as large
and as sweet as the finest in France. The wine made from them
was as good as rin de (jrave. He adiliires the profusion
of walnuts, chestnuts, wild apph's and plums. Bears were fatter
and better to the palate than the most "savory" pigs in France.
Deer wandered in herds of 50 to 100. Sometimes even 200
would be seen feeding together. In his enthusiasm the good
priest calls this region " the terrestrial paradise of Canada."

Fortunately for the explorers, the winter Wfis as mild at
Port Dover as it was severe at Montreal. Patterson's Creek
was however still frozen over on the 26th March, when,
having portaged their goods and canoes to the lake, they
embarked to resume their westward journey. They had to pass

\mmm

THE COUNTRY OK THE NEUTRALS. 28

two streams before they arrived at the sand beach which

connected Long Point with the niainlrmd. To effect the tirst

crossing they walked four lejigues inland before they found a ]

satisfactory spot. To cnjss Big Creek, they were obliged to

spend a whole day constructing a raft. They were further

delayed by a prolonged snow storm and a strong north win<l.

On the west bank was a meadow more than 200 paces wide, in

passing over which they were immersed to their girdles in mud

and slush. Arriving at the sandy ridge which then connected

Long Point with the mainland, they found the lake on the other

side full of floating ice, and concluded that their companions had

not ventured to proceed in their frail barques. They encampe*]

near the sandbar and waited for tlie canoes, which had doubtless i

been delayed by the weather. The missionaries put themselves '

on short rations in order to permit the hunters to keep up their

strength for the chase, and were rewarded with a stag as the ' ■

result. As it was Holy Week the whole party decided not to t

leave the spot until they had kept their Easter together. On

the Tuesday following, which was the eighth day of April, they

hear<l mass and, although the lake had still a border of ice, they

launchevl their canoe, and continued their journey as before, five

of the party going by land. When they arrived at "the place

of the canoe," on the 10th great was their disappointment to find

that the Iroquois had anticipated them an<l carried it away.

Later in the day however it was found, hidden between two

large trees on the othei* side of a stream. The discoverers came

upon it unexpectedly whilst looking for dry wood to make a

fire, and bore it in triumph to the lake. The hunters were out

the whole day without seeing any game. For five or six days

the party subsisted on boiled maize, no meat being obtainable.

Being provided now with three canoes, the party paddled up tlie

lake in one day to a place where game was abundant. The

hunters saw more than 200 deer in a single herd, but missed

their aim. In their craving for flesh-meat, they shot ari«I

skinned a poor wolf and IWI it ready for the kettle, when one

of their men perceived twenty or thirty deer " on the other side

" of a small lake on the shore of which we w^ere." ((/) The deer

(jf) Evidently the Rondeau.

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THE CorNTUY OF THE NKI'TRALS

were Hurrounded iiiid Ibrced int(j tlie water, where 10 were killed,
the rest beinj( permitted to escape. Well .sui)plied with Fresh
ami smoked meat they went on nearly twenty leagues (about
fifty miles) in one day, " as far as a lon<; point which you will
" find marked in the niap of Lake Erie. We arrived there on a
"beautilul san<l-beach on the east side of this point." (A) Here
disaster cwertook them. They had di'awii up their canoes
beyond high water mark, but left their goods on tiie sand near
the water, whilst they camped for the night. A terrific gale
came up from the north-east, and the water of the lake rose until
it swept with violence over the beach. One of the party was
awakened by the roaring of the waves and wind and arouseij the
rest, who attempted to save their supplies. (Jlroping with
torches along the shore, they succeeded in securing the cargo of
Galinee's canoe, and of one of DolHer's. The other canoe load
was lost, including provisions, goockt tor bartering, ammunition,
and, most important of all, the altar service, with which they
intended establishing their mission among the Pottawatamies,
The question was debated whether they should take up their
mission with some other tribe, or go back to Montreal Tor a new
altar service and supplies, and, retiu'ning at a later period,
establish themselves wherever they shcnild then determine.
Deciding in favor of the lattel* view, they concluded that the
return journey would be as short by way of the Sault and the
French River as by the route which they liatl followed from the
east. In favor of this decision was the further consideration
that not only would they see a new (Country but they would
have the escort of the Ottawas who were asseml>ling at the Sault
for their annual trading visit to Montreal and Quebec. Galinee
continues : " We pursued our journey accordingly towards the
" west, and after having made about 100 leagues on Lake Erie
"arrived at the place where the Lake of the Hwrons, otherwise
"called the Fresh-ivater Sea of the Huroiis, or the Michigan, dis-
" charges itself into that lake. This outlet is perhaps half a
" league wide and turns sharply to the north-east, so that we
" were in a measure retracing our steps; at the end of six leagues
" we found a place that was very remarkable and held in great

(h) This was Point Pelee.

THE COHNTRY OF THE NEl'TRAI.S. 25

"von jiMtioii by nil tho s;iViij^os of tliesf rojj^ion.s, because ol: a i

" storio idol of natural formation, to which they say they owe
"the success of their navii^ation on Lake Erie wht'ii they have
"crossed it without accident, and which they ap[)eiise by
"sacrifices, presents of skins, provisions, etc., when they wish to
"embark on it."

" This place was full of huts of those who had come to pay
" homa(jje to this idol, which had no other resemblance to a
"human figure than that which the imagination chose to give it.
" However it was painted all over, and a kind of face had been
"formed for it with vormillion. I leave you to imagine whether
" we avenged npon this idol, wdiich the Iroquois had strongly
" recommended us to honor, the loss of our chapel."

" We attributed to it even the scarcity of food from which
" we had suffered up to that time. In fine tliere was nobody
" whose hatred it had not incurred. I consecrated one of my
"hatchets to break this god of stone, and then having locked \

" canoes we carried the largest piece to the middle of the river,
" and immediately cast the remainder into the water, that it jh]

"might never be heard of again."

"God rewarded Us forthwith f(jr this gooil act: for we killed jil;j,

''a deer that same day, and f(jur leagues farther we entered a [)

"little lake about ten leagues long ami almost as wide, called by fl

" Mr. Sanson the Lake of the Salted Watert^, but we saw no sign
"of salt. Frojn this lake we entered the outlet of Lake
" Michigan, which is not a quarter of a league in width."

"At last ten or twelve leagues farther on, we entered the
" largest lake in all America, called here "the Freshwater Sea
"of the Hurons," or in Algonkin, Michigan. It is 600 to 700
"leagues in circuit. We made on this lake 200 leagues and were
" afraid of falling short of provisions, the shores of the lake
" being apparently very barren. God, however, did not wish
"thfit we shouM lack for food in his service." | %

" For we were never more than one day without food. It is
" true that several times we had nothing left, and had to pass an
" evening and morning without having anything to put into the
" kettle, but I did not see that any one was discouraged or put to
" prayers (sic) on that account. For we were so accustomed to
" Bee that God succored us mightily in emergencies, that we

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26 THE CXiPNTBY OF TIIK >fErTBAM.

"awaited with tranquility the (ifffcts of his j,'oodnoas, thinking
^'that He who nourislied so many barbarians in these woods
*• would not abandon his servants."

" We passed this lake without any peril and entered the Lake
"of the Hunms, which connnnnicates with it by tour mouths,
" each nearly two leagues in width."

" At last we aiTived on the 25th May, the day of Pentecost,
"at Ste. Marie of the Sault, wdiere the Jesuit fathers have made
1 ; " their principal ostablishinent for the missions to the Ottawas

" and neigh lx)riiig tribes."

Here they found fathers D'Ablon and Marquette in charge of
the mission, with a fort consisting of a sfjuare of cedar posts,
enclosing a chapel and residence. They had cleared and seeded
a large piece of gi'ound. The Sulpicians remained only three
days and then hired an exp<3rienced guide to take them to
Montreal, where they arrived on the 18th June after a fatiguing
journey of twenty-two days. They had been absent since the
6th July 1669, and were welcomed as if thej' had come to life
again after being dead. It was their intention to return in the
following spring and renew their search for the Ohio River,
where they purposed establishing a mission ; but this intention
was never carried into effect.

" This famous voyage," says Dean Harris in his interesting
" 'History of the Early Missions in Western Canada,' stimulated
" to an extraordinary degree enthusiasm for discovery, and in
"the following year Talon sent out expeditions to the Hudson
" Bay, the Southern Sea, and into the Algonquin country to the
" north." Marfjuette, Tonty, Hennepin, Du Lhut, La Salle and
Perrot explored the Mississippi valley, and the head waters of the
St. Lawrence system, and almost the entire continent was claimed
by the French as belonging to New France. As far as appears,
there were no Indians having settled abodes on the north shore
of Lake Erie for more than a century after the expulsion of the
Neutrals. Nor does any attempt appear to have been made by
the whites to explore south-western Ontario until the close of the
last century. The Iroquois continued for a long period to range
its forests for beaver in the winter. The rivalry between the
French and the English for the control of the vast western fur

THE ("OI'NTRY OK THK NRPTKAIJI.

trade led to the erection of outpoHts by the English at Oswego
and by the French at (^ataracjui, Niagara, Detroit and Michili-
makinac, during thelatterpart(jf the 17th century. English traders
sailed or paddled up the lakes to get their share of the traffic,
and were from time to time suniinarily arrestetl and expelled by
their rivals. Both parties tried to ingratiate themselves with
tlie natives. The French were as eager to maintain a state of
warfare between the Iroquois and the Indians of the upyjrr lakes
— the Hurons, Ottawas, Pottawatamit^s, Ojibways etc. — as to
induce the former to keep the peace with tlu; white inhabitants
(jf Canada. There were two great trade routes to Montreal, viz:
by Mackinac, the Georgian Bay and tlu; French and Ottawa
River and by Detroit, Lake Erie and Niagara ; the Lake Simcoe
portage routes by the Trent River system, and the Holland
River and Toronto were also used. Trading or military parties,
under the leadership of La Salle, Tonty, Perrot, Du Lhut,
Cadaillac, passed along the coast of L. Erie in canoes ; but
little rec(jrd if any remained of their visits to the shores. Kettle
Creek was long called the Tont}'^ River. It is so named in one of
Bellin's maps of 1755, and by the Canadian Land Board at Detroit
as lately as 1 793. The only northern tributaries (jf Lake Erie to
which names are given on the map of 1755 are the Grand
River, River D'GUijir (Patterson's Creek), which in some maps is
called the River of the Wintering — a manihest reference to
Galinee and Dollier de Casson's sojourn in 1669-70 — the River a
la Barbue (Catfish Creek), the River T(mty (Kettle Creek) a
little east of P'te au Fort (Plum Point or else Port Talbot) and
the River aux Cedres (M'Gregor's Creek in Essex). The Thames
is described as a "River unknown to all geographers, and which
"you go up eighty leagues without finding any rapids (saults)."
The Chenail Ecarte is indicated as the only outlet of the Syden-
ham river the map-makers assuming that Walpole Island wa^
part of the mainland. The mouths of four or five streams are
shown between Long Point and "the Little Lake" (Rondeau), and
the shore is marked "The High Cliffs." "The Low Cliffs" were
between the Rondeau and Point Pelee. In one of Bellin's maps
of 1755 in the present writer's possession Long Point is shown
as a peninsula, and the streams now in the County of Elgin are
marked "Unknown Rivers," but the map firstly mentioned and

TlIK COl'NTItY OP TIIK NKCTRAI.S.

published in the same year, is more complete, represeiitn Long
Point an an island, and names the Barl)ue and Tonty riverH and
Fort Point, {Fte an Fort) which are not naineil in the other.
The Tonty, moreover, is represente*! a.s an inlet hy way of
distinction from the other Streams (inchidin}; the Barbae) which
ajjpear as of ecjual insif^nifieance The naming- of Kettle Creek
after tlu; ^^ivat ex[)lorer and (h^voted lieutenant of La Salle
indicates its conse(juenc(!. Its harl)or was of paramoinit im-
portance to the navi<;ation of thtrse early days, but no doubt the
portaji^e route extendin;^ from its mouth to the Thames exalted
the little river in the eyes of the explorers who honorcl it with
Tonty 's name. (i).

THE INDIAN TITLE.

■i'

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\im

On July lOtli, 1701, the L-orpiois ceded to the liriti.sh the
entire country between the lakes, "including the country where
"beavers and all sorts of wild ^ame keep, and the place called
" De Ti'et," (j) l)ut this ajipearw b) have l)e<'n a mere formality
as no possession was taken by the ])U)'chasers.

The Ojibways have a tradition that they dei'eut(j<l the
Iroquois (called by them the Nottawas or Nahdoways) in a
succession of skirmishes, ending in a complete victory at the
outlet of Burlinjiiton Bay, and the final expulsion ol' the Six
Nations from that i)art of Ontario between the Great Lakes.
The Ojibways then spread east an<l west o\ev the country. "A
"treaty of peace and friendshi]) was then made with the
" Nahdoways residing on the south side of Lake Ontario, and
''both nations solennily covenanted, by going through the usual
" forms of burying the tomahaw^k, smoking the pipe (:)f peace,
" an<l locking their hau'ls and arms togethei', agreeing in future
" to call each other Brothers. ^J'hus ended their war with the
" Nahdoways," (/.;)

(i) General John S. Clarke, of Auburn, N. Y., in correspondence with the

present writer, dwells upon the importance of the Kettle Creek portage route in

the seventeenth century. He is a recognized authority upon the subject of Indian

trade routes.

(/) History of Middlesex County, p. 17.

{A) "Peter Jones and the Ojebway Indians," p. 113.

\ t4l^\

THE rurSTRV OK TIIK NEmULS. 20

Whattu'iT iimv Im' tin- truth of the <h'tiiils, thero is no doubt
of thtf f'lW't that the OjiljwHy.s or their kiufhvfl the M isHinna^jaH
were the sole occupants of Western Ontario at the time of the
conquest in I7r){), except near the Detroit River where the
.remnant of the Hurons or \\'yan<lots had settled. It vvhh with tlio
Mississa^as that the British ne^jotiated in 17H4 for the cession of
the country from the " head of the Lake Ontario or the Creek
" Wa;,di;;uata to the River La Tranche, then down the river
"until a south course will strike tlu; mouth of Cat Fish Creek
•'on Lake Erie." On the 21."t May. 1790, Alexander M'Kee
announced to the Land-board at Detroit the cession to the
Crown by the Lidians of that part of Upper Canada west of
the former grant. The surrender of the Indian title opened the
way in each division of the lake shore district for settlement. *

CHARLEVOIX'S DESCRIPTlOiN.

In the year 17'21 the tlistin;jnished traveller, Charlevoix,
passed through Lake Erie on his way up the Lakes an<l thence
<iown the Mississippi to New Orleln^ The north shore of
Lake Erie, and chiefly that part now embraced within the limits
of the Coujity of El^in, is singUnl out by him as the most
bnautiful covmtry he met with in his passage. ALiny travellers
since Charlevoix have admired the charming scer»ery at the
nuniths of Otter, Catfish, Kettle and Talbot Creeks, but few if
Hiiy have described it so well. As C\)lonel Talbot was influenced
mainly by Charlevoix's description of the country to est.t-blish
hid settlement at the outlet of Talbot Creek in 1803, the present
writer makes no apolo^}' for reproducinji; the followinjjf extende<l
pa8sa<^e from the celebrated and i^ifted traveller;

Note. — The explanatory notes referring to the extract are by the late Leonidas
Burwell, M. P. I'., and are given hy him in a letter to His Honoi, Jml^e Hughes,
which has been kindly presented by the recipient to tliu Klgin Historical and
Scientific Institute.

* The north shore of Lake Erie appears to have been so little known to the
officials, that Kettle Creek and Cat Fish Creek were continually confused
and taken as being one or different streams as chance woulil have it. The
Landdjoavd considereil that a surrender of the lauds west of Kettle Creek
gave the Crown all the territorj- not previously ceded. The Indians at
Detroit who made the cession were the Ojibwaj's, Hurons, Ottawas and
Pottawatamies.

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111 90 THE COUNTRY OF THE NEUTR-VLS.

"The 28th May, 1721, I went eighteen leagues and found
"myself over against the (jrcat river which comes from the
" East in (orty-two degrees fifteen minutes. Nevertheless the
" great trees were not yet green. This country appeared to me
" to be very fine. We made very little way the 29th and none
" at all the 80th. We embarked the next day about sun ris^,
" and wefnt forward apjice. The first of June being Wliitsunday,
"after going up a pretty river almost an hour which comes a
" great way, and runs between two fine meadows, we made a
" portage about sixty paces to escape going round a point which
" aflvances fifteen leagues into the lake : they call it the Long
"Point. It is very sandy and produces naturally many vines. (I)

"The following days I saw nothing remarkable, but I coasted
"a charming country that was hid from time to time by somedis-
"agreeabie skreena, but of little depth. In every place where I
"lande<l I was enchanted with the beauty an<l \'ariety of land-
" scape l)Ounded by the finest forest in the world ; besides this
" water fowd swarmed everywhere. I caimot say there is such
"plenty ot game in the woods : but I knoM' that on the south side
" tliere are vast herds of wild cattle, {in)

•' If one always travelled as I did then, with a clear sky
" and charming climate on water as bright as the finest
• " fountain, and were to meet evei'ywhere with safe and pleasant

"encampings, where one might find all manner of game at little
"cost, breathing at one's ease a pure air, and enjoying the sight
) f Ij "of the finest countries, one would be tempted to travel all one's

i\ I "life."

" It put me in mind of those ancient patriarchs who had no
\ Jl " fixed abode, dwelt under tents, were in some manner master

' of all the countries they travelled over, and peaceably enjoyed
j:|i; " all their productions without having the trouble which is

■^f's' " inavoi<lable in the possession of a real domain. How many

{/) This river is wluit irt now known as "Big Creek" and answers this descrip-
tion at the present day. It enters the hike a little above Port Rowan.

I (Ij I (m) This (jliarniiiig country is evidently, the greater part of it, the County of

Elgin, as the portage is not more than thirteen miles from the l^oundary line of
Bayhani. In pfwsing up the lake one would meet with a great variety of
landscape as the sandhills in Houghton and the mouths of the Otter, Cattish and
other creeks would be passed. The lofty pines and chestnuts and oaks along
this coastj in their original state no doubt appeared like the "finest forest in the
world,"

THK COrXTRY OF THE NEtTltAM. 81

"oaks represented to me that of Mamre? How many fountains
" made me remember that of Jacob ? Every day a situation of
"my own choosing, a neat and convenient house set up and
" furnished witli necessaries in a quarter of an hour, spread with
"flowers always fresh, on a fine green carpet, and on every side
" plain and natural beauties which art had not altered and
"which it can not imitate. If the pleasures suffer some inter-
"ruption either by bad weather or some unforseen acci<lent, they
"are the more relished when they reappear.

" If I had a mind to moralize, I should a<.ld, these alterna-
"tions of pleasure and disappointment which I have so often
'* experienced since I have been travelling, are very proper to
"make us sensible that there is no kind of life more capable of
" representing to us continually that we are only on the earih
"like pilgrims, and that we can only use, as in passing, the goods
"of this world; that a man wants but a few things; and that
"we ought to take with patience the misfortunes that happen
" in our journey, since they pass away equally, and with the
" same celerity. In short how man v things in travelling make
" us sensible of the dependence in which we live upon Divine
" providence, which does not make use of, for this mixture of
" good and evil, men's paasions, but the vicissitudes of the seasons
" which we may foresee, and of the caprice of the elements,
" which we may expect of course. Of consequence, how easy is
' it, and how many opportunities have we to merit by our
" dependence on and resignation to the will of God ?

" They say commonly that long voyages do not make people
" religious, but nothing one would think should be more capable
"of making them so, than the scenes they go through."

THE BRITISH OCCUPATION.

The conquest of Canada in 1759 was followed by the occupa-
tion of Detroit and the upper forts by a British force under nhe
famous Major Robert Rogers. He followed the south shore of
Lake Erie, and near the site of Cleveland was met by the
celebrated Ottawa chief, Pontiac, who challenged his right to pass
through the coiuitry without the formal permission of its savage

I ii

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TirH COtrSTRY OF THK NEfTRALS.

8ov(3reign. The operations of the conspiracy of Pontiac (1763-5)
are described in Parknian's (^lowinjj; paj^es. The success of the
American Revolution was followed by the settlen)ent not only of
the U. E. Loyalists but also of many of the disbanded Briti;
troops in the most fertile districts north of the lakes. To locat.
these advantageously a Iiand-board was establishe<l at Detn^it
by the Canadian Government and it continued to perform its
functions until the surrender of that post to the United States
under the provisions of the Jay Treaty of 1794

McNIFF'S EXPLORATION.

i-'i

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< a'

The Indian title to the whole north shore re^^ion havinp; been
surrendered ta the Crown, no time was lost in opening the
territory for settlement. Patrick McNiff, an assistant surveyor
attached to the Ordinance Department, was ordered by Patrick
Murray, Commandant at Detroit, to explore the north shore
from Long Point westward and investigate the quality
and situation of the land. His report is dated IGth Juni; 1790.
The following extract is interesting:

" From Pointe aux Pins t(j the portage at Long Point, no
" possibility of making any settlement to front on the Lake,
"being fdl the way a yellow and white sand bank from 50 to 100
" feet high, top covered with chestnut and scrubby oak and no
" harbours where even light boats may enter except River Tonty
" and River a la Barbue. («) A load boat may enter the latter
" having four and a half feet water on the bar ; on each side of
" River a la Barbue are flats of excellent lands, but not above
" fifteen or twenty chains wide, before very high land commences,
"wiiich in many places does not appear to be accessible for any
" carriage. On the tops of these very high hills, good land,
"tindier, some very Urge chestnut, hickory and basr These
" hills are separated by dry ravines almost impassable from their
"great depth — on the. back of Long Point very good hui'l, not so
" hilly as what I have passed. Timber bass, black walnut and

(m) Kettle and Catfish Creeks.

THE COUNTRY OK THE NEUTR.\LS.

" hard maple, but marshy in front l"or twenty or tliirty
chains, (o)

In constMjuence of tlii.s unfavorable n^port, townships were
(liricted to be laid out on the River Thames, instead of the lake
shore.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SIMCOE,

In the year 1791 the Quebec Act was passed, dividinjr
Quebec into two provinces, and Colonel John Graves Siujcoe
becan)e the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada. Before
the Bill was inti'oduced into parliament, it was understood
that Siuicoe had been selected by Pitt to ^n)vern the new
province, direct its settlement and establish constitutional
government after the model of the British system. As
early as January, 1791, he had written a letter to Sir Joseph
Banks, President of the Royal Society, fp) in which after men-
tioning his appointment, he explained his own plans as to the
administration, and stated hi.s desire to profit by the ideas of his
correspondent whom he would wait upon for that i)urpose.

" For the purpose of connnerce, union and [)ovver, I propose
" that the site of the colony sIkjuM be in that Great Peninsula
"between the Lakes Huron, Erie ami Ontario, a spot destined by
" nature, sooner or later, to govern the interior world.

" I mean to establish a capital in the very heart of the
" country, upon the River La Tranche, which is navigable for
" batteauxs for loO miles — and near to where the Grand River.
" which falls into Erie, and others that connnunicate with Huron
" and Ontario almost interlock. The capital 1 mean to call
" Georgina — and aim to settle in its vicinity Loyalists, who are
"now iji Connecticut, provided that the Government approve of
'' the system."

As a member of the House of Connnons, Simcoe spoke in
support of a provision in the bill for the establishment of an
hereditary nobility, which Fox had movetl to strike out. The
report states that Colonel Simcoe " having pronounced a pane-

'. ;y

•' il

{o) Record book of the Land Board at Detroit, now in tlie Crown Lands Depart-
ment at Toronto.

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THK rOrNTHY OF THE XErTRAI,S.

"gyric Oil the British constitution, wished it to be adopted in the
" present instance, as far as circumstances would admit." 'J'lie
provision was in the bill as finally passed.

Having proceeded to Quebec to enter upon the performance
of his duties, he appears to have utilized every opportunity !'yi
informing himself of liis new ilomain. He writes to Hon.
Henry ])undas from Montreal, December 7, l7f)l, in a letter
mai'ked "secret and confidential," as follows: —

"I am happy to have found in the surveyor's office an actual
■' survey of the River La Ti-anche. It answers u\y most
" sanguine expectations, and I have but little doubt that its
"communications with the Ontario and Erie will ])e found to be
" very practicable, the whole forming a route which, in all
" respects, may ainiihilate the p<jlitical consecpiences of Niagara
"and Lake Erie. * * * * My ideas at present are to
"assemble the new corps, artificers, etc., at Catara<pii (Kingston),
"and to take its present gari'ison and visit Toronto and the
" heads of La Tranche, tn pass down that i-iver to Hetroit, and
"early in the spring to occupy such a central j)osition as shall be
" previously chosen for the capital."

On the Kjth July, 1792, the name of the River La I'ranche
was chang(;d to the Thames by pi'oclamntion of the (Governor,
issued at Kingston. Tn the sjn-ing, he had^writti-n that "Tor(^nto
"appears to be the natural arsenal of Lake Ontario and to attord
" an easy access overland to Lake Huron." He adds: "The
" River La Tranche, near the navigjible head of which I propose
" to establish the Capital, by what I can gathei- from the few
"people who have visited it, will afford a safe, mon* certain, and
" I am inclined to think, bv takinn: due advanta.<^e of the sea.son,
" a less exjiensive route to Detroit than that of Niagara."

At Quebec Simcoe had met the Hon. 'I'homas Talbot, who had
joined the 24th Regiment as Lieutenant in the previous ycr.
Talbot was then a young man of twenty, whilst Simcoe was in
his fortieth year. A strong attachment s[)rang u[) between
these two remarkable men. and Talljot accompanied the
lieutenant governor to Niagara, in the capacity of private and
confidential secretary. After meeting the first Legislature
elected in U])per C^inada during the fall of 1792 Simcoe deci<Ied
to make a journey overland to Detroit. He left Navy Hall on

THK COUNTRY OF THK NKnUAIJi. 35

the 4th February, 1793, ami returned on the 10th March. His
. travelling- companions were ('apt. Fitzgerald, Lieutenant Smith
(previously Secretary to the Detroit Land Board, .sub.set|uently
the Hr.st Surveyor General of Upper Canada, an M. P. F^., Speaker
of the House, etc, and afterward created a baronet), Lieutenants
Talbot, Ora}', Givens and Major Littlehales. All of these were
pi'ominent afterward in the histoiy of the Province. Talbot
became tlie founder of the Talbot Settlement. (Jray was
appointed Solicitor General ; he perished in the schooner 'Speedy'
on Lake Ontario in 1804 with Judge Cochrane, Sheri if Macdonell
and others. Givens was afterwai'd the well-known Colonel
Givens, Siiperinten(Uint of Intlian Affairs at \'ork. Littlehales
was afterward Sii' F. B. LittlehaUss, Secretary of War for
Ireland, during the Lord-Lieutenancy of the Manjuis of
Cornwallis ; he married in 1805 the Lady Klizabeth Fitzgei'ald,
daugiitei- of the Duke of Leinster and sister of the unfortunate
Lortl Fdvvard Fitzgerald. (/>)

V The j(3urney was made partly in sleighs but chiefly on foot.
Littlehales kept a diary of the occurrences on the way. The
route was by Ten-mile Creek, Nelles' house at the Grand River,
the Mohawk Indian village! (a little below Brantford), the
portage route to the Forks of the Thames (London), ami then
down or along the River to Detroit. Joseph Brant with about a
dozen of his Indians accon)panied the party from the M(jiiawk
Village to Delaware, doubtless to furnish them with gajne and
guide them over the long portage. The Lidians excited
admiration by their skill in ctMistructing wigwams of elm bark
to lodge the company. After leaving the (Irand River the trai'
passed a Mississaga encampment, a trader's house, fine open deer
plains, several beaver dams, "an encam[)ment said to have been
" Lord Fitzgerald's when on his march to Detroit, Michilimacki-
" nac and the Mississippi," a cedar grove ; crossed a small
branch of the La Tranche, and the main branch soon after-
wards; " went between an irregular fence of stakes made by the
" Indians to intimidate and impede the deer. hiu\ fttcilitate their
"hunting:" again they crossed the mftiu branch of the Thames,('(^)

(p) Dr. Scadcling's notes to liis reprint of Littlelialea' JourniU.
(</) This was no doubt where London now is.

It.

THK COUNTRY OK THK NEUTRALS.

III

i 1

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'^ <f

and "halted to observe a beautil'iil situation, formed hv a bend
"of the river — a ^rove of heudoek and pine, and a hirge creek.
" We passed some deep ravines and made our wigwam by a
" stream on the brow of a hill, near a spot where Indians were
"interred. The burying ground was of earth raised, nearly
*' covered with leaves ; and wickered over — adjoining it was a
" large pole, with painted hierogl3'phics on it denoting the
" nation, tribes and achievements of the deceased, either as
" chiefs, warriors, or hunters." This was on the 13th February.
The food of the j^arty consisted of soup and dried venison, to
w^hich s(juirrel and racoon meat added variety. Littlehales
remarks about the latter : "The three racoons when roa.sted
" made us an excellent supper. Some parts were rancid,
" but in. general the flesh was exceedingly t(!nder and good." On
the 14th they encamped a few miles above the Delaware village.
During the day the diarist had " observed many trees blazed,
" and various figures of Indians (returning from battle with
" scalps) and animals drawn upon them, descriptive of the
" nations, tribes and number that had passed. Many of them
" were well drawn, especially a bison."

" This day we walked over very uneven ground, and passed
" two lakes of about four miles in circumference, between which
" were many tine larch trees."

Next morning they walked on the ice of tlie river Ave or
six miles to the Delaware village, where the chiefs received them
cordially and regaled them with eggs and venison " Captain
" Brant being obliged to return to a council of tlie Six Nations,
" we stayed the whole day. The Delaware Castle is pleasantly
"situated upon the banks of the Thames; the meadows at the
" bottom are cleared to some extent, and in sunnner planted with
" Indian corn. .After walking twelve or fourteen miles this day,
" part of the way througk plains of white oak and ash, and
" passing several Chippawa Indians upon their hunting parties,
"and in their encampments, we arrived at a Canadian trader's;
" and a little beyond, in proceeding down the river the Indians
"discovered a spring of an oily nature, wnieh upon examination
" proved to be a kind of petroleum. We passed another wigwam
"of Chippawas, making maple sugar, the mildness of the winter
" having compelled them in a great measure to abandon their

THK COUNTRY UF THE NEUTRALS. 37

■'annual huntinjj. We soon arrived at an old hut where we
" passed the nij;ht."

On the 1 7th, after a journey of four or five miU;s, they passed
the Moravian Vilki<je which had been bejjun in May, 1792. The
Dehivvare Indians were "under the control, and in numy particu-
" hirs, under the command of four missionaries, Messrs. Zeis-
" ber^er, 8enseman, Etl wards and Younf;." They were niakinj^
progress towards civilization, and ah'ea<ly had corn fields and
were bein<;; instructed in different branches of agriculture. " At
" this place every respect was paid to the GovenKn', ami we
" procured a seasonable refreshment of eggs, milk and butter.
" Pursuing our journey eight or nine miles, we stopped for the
" night at the extremity of a new road, cut by the Intlians and
"close to a creek."

" 18th — Crossing the Thanies and leaving behind us a new log
"house, belonging to a sailor named Carpenter, we passed a
" thick, swampy wood of black walnut, where His Excellency's
"servant was lost for three or four hours. We then came to a
"bend of the La Tranche (^Thames) (/•) and were agreeably
" surprised to meet twelve or fourteen carioles coming to meet
" and conduct the (iovernor, who, with his suite, got into them,
"and at about four o'clock arriv^ed at Dolsen's, having })reviously
"reconnoitred a fork of the river, and examined a mill <<f -

" curious construction erecting upon it. TVi^^ nottiv^mtiui/ where ^j

" Dolsen resides is very promisnig, the land is well adapte<l for
" farmers, and there are some respectable inhabitants on both
" sides of the river: behind it to the south is a range of spacious
"meadows— elk are continually seen upon them— and the pools
" and ponds are full of cray fish."

" From Dolsen's we w^ent to the mouth of the Thames in
" carioles, about twelve miles, and saw the remains of a consider- |j

" able town of the Chippawas, where, it is reported, a desperate
" battle was fought between them and the Senecas, and upon
" which occasion the latter, being totally vanfjuished, abandoned
" their dominions to the con(iuerors. Certain it is, that human
" bones are scattered in abundance in the vicinity of the ground,
" and the Indians have a variety of traditions relative to this

(/-) Afterwtvida referred to by the diarist aa the high ha,nk.

THE COU.NTKV OK TllK NKt'TKAI-S

! I

ijij

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'(I

" traiiMaction." * *" .

VVc pa.ss over l)rit'fly the Governor's reception ut Detroit.
The Canadian militia on the east bank tired a fen <l(- joic. He
crossed the river in boats ann'dst floatin<^ ice. The {^arrisorj of
Detroit was und(M' anus to receive liis Majesty's representative.
A royal sahite was tircid.

'I'lie farms, the apj)l(' orchards, w in Imills and honses close
toj:ifetl)er on the river bank tra\'e an aj)pearance of po[)nlation
and respectability. Talbot's rej^iment, the 24th, was stationed
at Detroit. P^)rt Lenoult and the rest of the works were in-
spected, "^riie party visited at the River Rou<^e a sloop almost
ready to be lannched. They went to see the Pdo(Mly l>ri(Jge,
memorable for the slauj^htei' of British troops by Pontiac .SO
years before.

On the 2Jird, the Governor left Detroit on his homeward
journey, Col. McKee, Mr. Baby and others escorting His Excel-
lency as far as the hi^h bank wliei'e the carioles had met the
party on the 18th. " Here we separated ; and each lakin^ his
"pack or knapsack on his back, we walked that ni^^ht to the
"Moravian vilkii^e."

On the 27th the chiefs at the village entertained the party
with venison, and dancing, "a ccnemony they never dispense
" with wlien any of the King's officers of rank visit their

"28th. — At six we stopped ut an old Mississaga hut, upon the
" south side of the Tliames. After taking some refreshment of
" salt pork and venison, well cooked by Lieutenant Smith, who
" superintended that department, we, as usual, sang (nxl Save
" the King, and went to rest."

"March 1st. — We set out along the banks of the river:
"then, ascending a high hill, quitted our farmer path, and
" directe(,l oui- course to the northward. A good ileal of snow
"having fallen, and lying still on the ground, we saw tracks of
"otters, deer, wolves and bears and other animals many of which
" being ((uite fresh induced the Mohawks to pursue them, but
"without success. We walked 14 or 15 miles and twice crossed
"the river, and a few creeks, upon the ice; once Me came close

.1^

Note Peter Jones' atatetnent as quoted on page 28.

■HBMB

THK COUNTRY OK THE SKt'TUAF.S. 30 j ,1

f.s) Now the city of London.

, }

" to a Chippawa hunting; camp, oppnsito to a fine terrace, on the

" banks of wliicli we encainp^d, near a bay. ♦ ♦ ♦ 2ri<l. —

" We struck the Thames at one end of a low fiat island

"envolopiMl with shrubs and trees; the rapidity and strenojth of

"the current were such as to have forced a channel thr()u;,di

"the niiiin land, bein^ a peninsula, and to have foi'UUMl the

•' island. \V\> walked over a rich meadosv, and at its extr«;mity

" came to the forks of the river, (k) The (Jovernor wished to

" exanune this situation aixl its environs; and we therefore

•* rtMuained here all the day. He judo^ed it tf) Ix; a situation

"eminently calculated for the metropolis of Canada. Amonor j

"many other essentials, it po.sse.sses the following advantages :

"command of territory, — internal situation, — central po.sition, —

" facility of water communication up and down the Thames

"into Lakes St. Claii", Erie, Huron and Superior, -navif^oible

"loi- boats to near its source, and for small crafts pi-obabl}^ to

'' the Moravian settlement— to the northward by a small portage

" to the waters flowinj^ into Lake Huron — to the south-east by

"a carry in<,^ [)lace into Lake Ontario and th'> River St. Lawrence;

"the soil luxuriantly fertile, — the land rich, and capable of beinj.j

" easily cleared, and soon put into a stat<^ of ao-riculture. — a

" pinei-y upon an adjacent lii<,di knol!, and other tindier f»n the

"heights, well calculated for the erection of public buildings,— a

"climate not inferior to any ]iart of Canada."

"To the.se natural advantagf^s an object of great consideration
" is to be addeil, that the enormous expenses of the Indian
" Department wouM be greatly diminished, if not abolished
"the Lidians would, in all pi'obability, be induced to beconie the
"carriei's of their own peltrit^s, and they would find a ready,
" contiguou.-: connnodious, and e([uitable mai't, honorably ad-
" vantagcous to Government, and the community in general,
"without their becoming a prey to the monopolizing and
" unprincipled trader."

"The young Indians, who had chased a herd of deei" in
" company with Lieutenant Givons, returned unsuccessful, but
"brought with them a large porcuj)ine ; which was very
" seasonable, as our provisions were nearly expended. This

MHlAMI

TUB COUNTRY (»F THK NEUTRALS.

, t

■L

" aiiinial afiordtid us a very ^ooil repast, aixl tastod liki' a pi^.
" Tlio Nevvfoumllaiid dog attempted to bite the poivupine, but
" Hooii got liiH mouth filled with the barbed (juills, which gave
"him ex(|uinite pain. An Indian luuhMtook to extract them,
"and witli nnich perseverance pluci<e(i them out, one by one, and
"carefully applied a root or decoctioti, whicii speedily healed the
" woun<l."

" V^arious figures were delineated on trees at the forks of the
" River Thames, done with charcoal and vermillion ; the most
•'remarkable were the imitations (jf men with deer's heads"

" We saw a fine eagle on the wing, and two or three large
" birds, perhaps vultures."

" 8rd. — We were glad to leave our wigwaui early this
"morning, it having rained inces.santly the whole night; besides,
" the hendock branches on which we slept were wet before they
" were gathered for our use. — W^e fiivst ascended the height at
"least 120 feet into a continuation of the pinery already
" mentioned ; quitting that, we came to a beautiful plain with
" detached clumps of white oak, and open woods ; then cro.ssing
" a creek running into the south branch ol the Thames, we
"entered a thick swampy wood, where we were at a loss to
" discover any track ; but in a few minutes we were released
" from this dilennua by the Indians, who making a ca.st, soon
" descried our old path to Detroit. Descending a hill and
" crossing a brook, we came at noon to the encampment we left
"on the 14th of February, and were agreeably .surprised by
'■ meeting C/aptain Brant and a numerous retinue ; among them
" were four of the Indians we had despatched to him when we
" first altered our course for the fo:"ks of the River Thames."

On the 4tli, after crossing brooks and rivulets, much
swollen by a thunder-storm, and passing the hut occupied by
them on the 12th February they noticed " very fine beech trees."

Next day : — "We again crossed one of the branches of the
" south-east fork of the Thames, and halted in a cypress or cedar
"grove, where we were much amused by seeing Brant and the
" Indians chase a lynx witii their dogs and rifle guns, but they
" did not catch it. Several porcupines were seen."

On the 6th they reached the Mohawk village, crossing the
river at a different place and by a nearer route than before. The

i 4

■MMHMB

THK OOITNTKV <»K THK NBUTRAIJ). 41

Indians IukI met the (Jovernor with horHes at " the end of tlie

"phiin, near the Salt Liek C^reek." The party finally arrived at /

Navy Hall on the 10th day of Man-h.

At this period the overland rontt; from Detroit to Nia<^ara
waH apparently widl known. There was an ainnial "Winter-
" expresH*' (^acli way, which Hinicoe met on his westward journey
on the 12th February and on his homeward route on the 5th
March. Littlchales mentii^ns a Mr. Clarke as bein^ with it on
each occjusion. On their first meeting, the (express was
accotnpanied by a Wyandot and a Chippawa Indian. The
second titne, Mr. Auj^ustus Jone.s, the surveyor, was either with
or foUowinjj; it. He surveyed the north-west part of Southwold in
the following year. On the up trip, the Governor's party met
one man, who afterward proved to be a runaway thief from
V Detroit. They were also overtaken by a traveller, who, as they
y were subsecpiently informed, had ^ot himself supplied with
^ provisions and horses to the Grand Riv«'r, and a ^uide from
thence to Detroit, by the false representation that he had
despatches for the Governor. " He (piitted us under the
" plausible pretence of looking for land to establish a settlement."
It appears that immediately after the capture of Niagara by
Johnston in 1759, merchants from New Enghmd and Virginia
had rushed in to j)articipate in the fur-trade, which until that
time had been largely monopolized by the French. As might
be expected, many lawless acts wens connnitted by these
adventurers, and various })roceedings were adopted by the
Government to check and control them. After the American
Revolution land-hunters came into the peninsula and undertook
to purchase lands directly from the Indians. These I)urcha8e8
were ignored by the Land Boards, who always repudiated the
idea that the Indians were proprietors of the land. No steps
were talvcn however to locate settlers until the Indian title by
occupancy was surrendered to the Crown. Even then, Simcoe's
first step was to procure surveys for the purpose of establishing
military roads, fortified posts, dockyards, etc., in ordei- that when
the settlers came they might be easily defendcl against hostile '

attacks, whether from the Indians, the United States troops, or
the French or Spanish, who it was believed might invaile the h

province by way of the Mississippi, the Ohio and the upper lakea V

['■■^

,• i

42 THR COUNTRY OK THF NRlTTRAlJf.

Patrick McNifi's Hurvoy of tho Rivtjr TluiiufM, as lar as the
upper Dt^laware villa<i;(', ^^'>^^ fiiiished in I70'i. His map is dated
at Detroit on the 25th .Iiiiic of this year. In it he mentions that
" from the entrance to tht; Tith lot of tlie lird townshij) was
"surveyed two years since;, from the 12th lot * * to tlie
"upper villa<r(; was surveyed in April and May 17!)*{."

The map f^ives the " rojid leadin^r from the Ddavvares to the
" Moravian villa<;e," "corn- '»" alon^- the east bank of the
river, an Indian villajj^e in > Southwold l)en(i, and opposite on
the southerly bank the "nmd leadin;^ to the entrance of Kettle
^' Creek (f) on Lake Erie. Five hours' journey." Tt also sliows
the road leading- to the Mohawk villa<;e on the Grand River.

The Moravian village is near the site of the battle tieM, and
it is marked " conunenced in May, 1 702." Tlu; present h^cation
of Dundas Street and the Lon^woods Road wouM appear to
con'espond with the roads e>mt and west of Delaware as laid
down (w) Simcoe in forwar<linjij McNiti's survey to Mr. Dundas
on 20ih September, 17().S, thus refers to the Lake Erie region:

" The tr;ict of country which lies between the river (or rather
"navij^able catuil as its Indir*i name and French translation
"import) and Lake F]rie, is oi ' the finest for all atjjri cultural
"purpo.ses in North America, far exceeds the soil or climate

"of the Atlantic States. There are few or no interjacent
"swamps, and a variety of useful streams empty themselves into
"the lake or the river."

The Governor makes freciuent reference in his correspondence
and state papers to his plans for establishing the capital of
Upper Canada at the upper forks of the Thames, to be called
Geor^ina, London or New London. Down to the very time of
his departure in 179G, and after the seat of government had
been transferred to York (now Toronto), he remarried the latter
as but a temporary capital, the real metropolis liaving yet to
be built at London in accordance with his original design.
Talbot remained in the service of the Lieutenant (jlovernor

: '^

{/) This tUsposcs of the story told bv Colonel Talbot to Mrs. .Taniieson in 1837.
He informed hei' thitt the name originated from his men havinu lost a kettle
in the creek, liut the creek was called Riviere a la Ciuuidiere or Kettle
River by the French, and that is one of the names given to it in 1). W.
Smith's (iazetteer, of Jpper Canada publislied in 1799.

{u) The writer has not been able to see Mr. McNiffs report upon this survey.

THK OOJTNTRV ttK THK NKIJTRAI^. 4S

until .Tun*' 1704, when as Major of the 5th Rofjrimont he
<l<'j>art(M| Cor Kn^hiud uii<I«t ofdrrs for Fhuj<h'rs, carryiuj; with
liiiii special l(;tter8 of reeominoiulatioti from Siincot^ to DundaH
ami to Mr. Kinj(, the Un<lor Socrctarv of State. He had been
employed in varion.s contidential missionH. In 17J)3 he had been
H(;nt to Philadelphia to await news from Knrope, when wai-
with France was believed to be imminent. On the 2'2nd
Au;.fnst, ITO.'i. we find Talbot in "the most confidential inter-
"cour.so with tlie .several Indian tribes," as Simcoe expresses it,
at the Miamis Rapids, where he had met the United States
Commissioners and the Confederated Indians to consider the
bimndary (piestion. In April, 175)4, Sitncoe was him.self at the
I<'al!s of the Miami, and he repeated tlu^ visit during; the
following Septend)er, ^oin^ by way of Fort Erie. This visit
was a prolonged one; for we find that in October he met an
Indian Council at Brown'.s Town in the Miami country. It is
probable Talbot accompanied hin) in his capacit}' as military
secretary. The construction by Simcoe of the fort at the foot
of the rapids ol the Miann* in the sprinjif of that year was
an audacious step, which might easily have produced a new
war between the United States and England, although Simcoe
believed it had had the opposite result, and prevented war.
All disputes between the two nations were however concluded
by the treaty of 1794, usually called the Jay Treaty. Provision
was made for the abandonment of the frontier posts hitherto
occupied by English garrisons. Forts Niagara, Detroit, Miami
and Michilimackinac received American garrisons in 1706 or
shortly thereafter ; English troops were stationed in new forts
at St. Jo.seph's Island, Maiden, Turkey Point, Fort Erie, Toronto,
etc. The English flag floated no longer south of the great lakes.
During the year 1796, Simcoe went to England on leave of
absence, and he never returned to Canada.

COLONEL TALBOT.

The Honorable Thomas Talbot received his company and his
majority in the same year, 1703. He was Colonel of the Fifth
Regiment in 1795, at the early age of twenty-tive. After eight

•w^im^

44 THK COUNTKY OF THE NKUTRALS,

years of military service on the Continent, partly in Flanders
and partly at Gibraltar, he was still in 180.3 a younj^ man with
every prospect that is usually considered alluring to ambition.
Suddenly, to the amazement of his friends and the public, he
abandoned the brilliant career upon which he had entered under
so favorable auspices, cut himself loose from civilization itself,
and buried himself in the recesses of the Canadian forest. He
determined to settle on the north shore of Lake Erie, where he
had previously selected a location on one of his journeyings with
Governor Simcoe. Talbot ha<l formed plans for diverting the
stream of innnigration from the United States, or rather for
continuing its current as far as Upper Canada. He would
attract settlers from New York, Pennsylvania and New
England, who were dissatisfied with republican institutions or
allured by the fertility of the Lake Erie region, and would
build up a loyal British community, under the laws and institu-
tions of the mother land.

It was a memorable event in the history of the County of
Elgin, when on the 21st day of May, 1803, landing at Port
Talbot, he took an axe and chopped down the first tree, thus
inaugurating what has since been known as the Talbot Settle-
ment. Henceforward, Colonel Talbot, Port Talbot, the Talbot
Road, and the Talbot Settlement, are names inseparably
connected with the history of the making of Upper Canada.

At that time the nearest settlement on Lake Erie was near
Turkey Point, 60 miles away. In 1802 there was but one
settled minister west of Niagara, Father Marchand, of Sandwich,
a Roman Catholic priest. There were but seven clergymen
settled in the whole Province. The record (<;) states, however,
that " Besides, there are several missionaries of the Methodisticai
" order, whose residence is not fixed." Even at that early day
the circuit-rider threatled the maze of forest between the
Long Point clearings and those near the mouth of the Thau es,
and made his way down the Detroit River to the Essex shore of
Lake Erie, where there was a fringe of settlement. But,
generally speaking, the country north of Lake Erie to the
borders of Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay was still u
wilderness of continuous unbroken forest.
(») Tiffany's Upi)er ('anadu Almaimo, Niagara, 1802.

•Jim