lowers of the five leaders. In the early stages of settlement only the lots bordering on the water were valuable. The inland lots awaited the sons of the pioneers and later immigrants, while those 'on the front' soon began to rise in price and to change owners.

Of the reasons which impelled the Loyalists to seek a new home in the northern forests it is hardly necessary to speak. There were some among the more wealthy "Tories' who voluntarily withdrew from the colonies and could not have been induced to remain under Republican institutions. Yet most of these were, in one way or another, more closely connected with the British Government than with colonial institutions. The great mass of the Loyalists did not go into voluntary exile and many of them would have returned and accepted the Revolution as an accomplished fact if their property had been restored. Canniff is, no doubt, correct in quoting those whom he had known in his youth as saying that 'they would live anywhere, endure any toil, undergo any privation, as long as they were in the King's dominion';" yet this statement is, perhaps, as much the reaction to the treatment accorded them by the victorious Whigs as any abstract devotion to monarchical institutions. Flick, in his chapter on the emigration of the Loyalists, gives many specific examples which prove that the sentimental devotion to the land of their birth was strong enough to carry back not a few Americans in spite of the most severe penalties which might await them. It is probable that this attachment was stronger among those who came to the Bay of Quinte from New York city under Grass and Van Alstine than in the case of the bands which had been engaged in active warfare. The latter had come chiefly from the newer settlements of northern New York, from the Mohawk, the upper Hudson and the new state of Vermont. Many of them had not been born in America and the feelings of all must have been hardened by the events which they had passed through. But most of those who came by sea belonged to older and more established settlements, had, perhaps, sacrificed more in comfort and were less prepared for the rude life of the frontier.

"Canniff, Settlement of Upper Canada, ch. Ixix, p. 617.

It is easier to follow the course of the bands coming by the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence than those which came overland. These, in many cases, consisted of small parties of non-combatants fleeing to join their relatives who had fought in the war and were now expecting to occupy their grants of land. Sackett's Harbour, Carleton Island, Oswego and Niagara, all held by the British, were points of rendezvous. Many came by way of the Hudson, Mohawk, Wood Creek and Lake Oneida to Oswego; some by the Hudson, Mohawk, West Canada Creek and Black River to Sackett's Harbour; others up the Hudson and across the Mohegan Mountains, down the Moose and Black Rivers to Sackett's Harbour or across the Oswegatchie to Ogdensburg; still others, up the Hudson and either across the mountains to the St. Lawrence or, by way of Lakes George and Champlain, to Sorel; while not a few crossed western New York and reached the British post at Niagara. There were difficulties to be encountered upon every course. Yet the help which the exiles were able to afford each other and their natural hardiness made the journey somewhat less formidable than it would otherwise have been. The early flights to Sorel, undertaken by the families of Johnson's men, were apparently attended with more hardship than any of the later migrations by the western routes.

The region chosen for the settlement of the first Loyalists in the Bay of Quinte district is worthy of some attention. The selection of townships, if it occurred according to the tradition given at the beginning of our discussion, was the result of one consideration; the distance from the community centre, which was early recognized to be Cataraqui. The advance guard led by Grass in 1783 had, indeed, gone as far as Ernesttown, but, finding the ground rocky where they landed, had returned to Cataraqui; and we may conclude that, having the first choice, they willingly established themselves around that promising town site. So Johnson, who seems to have been dissatisfied with the precedence given to Grass, 10 chose the second township, Rogers and Van Alstine the third and fourth, until only the isolated Marysburgh remained for McDonnell's band, which did not come up the St. Lawrence until the next year. All the

10 Ryerson, The Loyalists of America, vol. II, ch. xli. p. 208.

townships had excellent water communications and the only question of preference, aside from the value, yet undetermined, of the land, lay in the ease with which a town could be reached.

Of the untilled land in the region we may say that, for several reasons, to be considered shortly, it was not then organized into townships. Wolfe Island and Amherst Island tended to shut in and protect the area of settlement, providing the headlands which might later be converted into outposts for the defence of Kingston harbour and of the Bay of Quinte. The splendid command which the hill at Pt. Henry gave at once of river and harbour ensured its use as a military site and, since the military centre was destined, in that age, to become also a trading and commercial centre, it was not difficult to foresee the future growth of a city within the first township. Since the Rush-Bagot agreement was as yet in the distant future, the naval importance of Kingston was closely linked with its strategic value. With the definite surrender of the southern shore of the St. Lawrence to the United States the naval station at Carleton Island was placed in a very exposed position. When, therefore, the post was definitely, ascertained to be within American waters, no reason remained for retaining it such as made the British loath to abandon Niagara or Detroit. Carleton Island, occupied in anticipation of the Revolution, had been strongly held throughout that period but the traders, who had made their centre there, had gone to Cataraqui and naturally wished that the post should follow; as did the settlers, whose market would thus be materially improved.11

The station was finally transferred in 1789 after Dorchester had considered the somewhat unfavourable report of the surveyor, Collins, upon Kingston harbour.

Concerning the history of the newly settled region prior to the coming of the Loyalists, there is little to relate apart from the romantic story of La Salle's seigneury and the hold

11 Memorial of the Inhabitants of Kingston and Settlements Adjacent to Lord Dorchester, June 20, 1788. From the letter-book of Hon. Richard Cartwright, Queen's University Library.

ing of Ft. Frontenac as an outpost of French dominion which is already so well known.

Canniff, though he does not state his sources,12 has some very interesting information regarding the old Indian routes across Lake Ontario. The Mohawks frequently crossed from the south and Champlain has recorded for us his experiences on that unfortunate journey when he went with the Hurons to attack the Iroquois. Sometimes the motive of voyageurs was to hunt or fish, sometimes they were bent on war. They often skirted the southern coast as far as Wolfe Island and entered the Bay of Quinte through the lower or the upper 'gap' situated at the eastern and western ends of Amherst Island respectively. Those who were more adventurous could follow the chain of islands extending from Sacketts Harbour to Pt. Traverse on the Prince Edward side of the upper 'gap.'

Dr. Coyne has pointed out that, although the Bay of Quinte was uninhabited in Champlain's time, yet, within the seventeenth century, numerous Indian villages had been established at various centres by the Cayugas, the Senecas, and other tribes.13 A map, dating about 1670, fixes Ganeyout, one of the more important villages, at Hay Bay, but the more famous Kante or Kenté is very difficult to place and may have been moved about from time to time. It was the centre for a mission begun in 1668 by Abbés Trouvé and Fénelon of the Seminary at Montreal and was later given over to the Récollets. Chesnel fixes Kente roughly at 'twenty leagues distant from the St. Lawrence', but the old maps have different distances and it is certain that, at the coming of the Loyalists, no important Indian centre of that name could be found. Apart from the legal claim which could still be made to a portion of La Salle's seigneury and, possibly, a few trappers lingering in the district or near the ruins of Fort Frontenac, but little remained to indicate that the cross and the fleur-de

14

12Canniff, Settlement of Upper Canada, ch. xii, p. 133.

13Ontario Historical Society. Papers and Records, vol. v. Toronto: Published by the Society, 1904. Ch. i, Discovery and Exploration of the Bay of Quinte. Jas. H. Coyne, B.A.

14 Histoire de Cavelier de La Salle. P. Chesnel, Professeur Agrégé de l'Université. Paris: Librairie Orientale et Américaine. J. Maisonneuve, Editeur, p. 60.

lis had pushed their way up the St. Lawrence more than a century before.

Thus, when the Loyalists arrived, it was their task to open up a country which no man had ever seriously attempted to reclaim. Yet evidences were not wanting that the government for which they had fought was not unmindful of their necessities. The soldiers from Carleton Island had been employed in building a mill for them on the Rideau and dozens of men were already marking out the land.

There had been no lack of surveyors when the work of demarcation commenced. The profession was a profitable one in the expanding American colonies and many able men among the Loyalists had received more or less training in it during their youth. Holland, the head of the department, was, like many of his staff, a Loyalist. He was an engineer of British birth and wide experience and his appointment as SurveyorGeneral by Dorchester was the natural reward for his adherence to the Crown. A deputy of considerable influence, named John Collins, was appointed for the Bay district. Holland himself came and established his headquarters in Adolphustown in 1784, but Collins had done some work from Ft. Frontenac westward in the previous year. Collins and Holland differed on certain matters relating to the survey, particularly on the right of Van Alstine's band to settle in Adolphustown: on this point the will of the former prevailed.15

That some of the surveying was faultily done is evidenced by the disputes which arose later, especially regarding lots in the rear of Fredericksburgh and along the water front. Yet these disputes were often due to the fact that permanent landmarks had not been set up; a defect for which the original surveyors could not be blamed. Their marks were only intended to be temporary. The work was pressing. There was little time for thoroughness when hundreds of settlers were waiting for land.

surveying was

Canniff is of the opinion that most of the done in the winter, if not in 1783-4, at least in 1784-5; and that many of the posts erected were later washed away. It

15 Third Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario. By Alexander Frazer, Provincial Archivist, 1905. Toronto; p. cxxix.