CHAPTER XLIII.
Contents—Name—Letter, Daily News—“Omega” Lines—The writer—Conjectures—Five Bays—Indian origin—Kentes—Villages—Les Couis—Modes of spelling—Canty—The occupants, 1783—Mississaugas—Origin—With the Iroquois—The Souter—Mississaugas, dark—At Kingston—Bay Quinté—Land bought—Reserves—Claim upon the islands—Wappoose Island—Indian agent—Indians hunting—Up the Sagonaska—Making sugar—Peaceable—To Kingston for presents.
THE NAME OF BAY QUINTÉ—THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF UPPER CANADA IN 1783.
There appeared in the “Daily News” of Kingston, October 20, 1856, the following letter and verses:
“Sir,—I send you a few lines in connection with what I believe to be an historical fact, though not generally known, even in the vicinity of the bay. When the French first took possession of Canada, or shortly after, they established posts at Frontenac, Niagara and Detroit.
In the fall following their establishment, the men under Col. Quinté, who commanded at Niagara, were driven out by the Indians, and pursued and harassed several days, when following the lake shore to the west of the bay, they took the south shore of the bay and got to the reach. The snow was falling and ice making on the bay, without sufficient strength to carry them; when, nearly starved and exhausted, they started back two or three miles to what is known as Stickney’s Hill, where (an extremely cold night coming on) they nearly all perished, including Quinté himself. Only two of the party (the ice having become strong) reached Frontenac. Hence the name of the bay.”—(Signed,)—“Omega.”
This note was accompanied with the following lines:
QUINTÉ.
On the Bay of Quinté gliding,
O’er its smooth and tranquil breast,
Whilst the sun is fast declining
To its waters in the west;
“And the gorgeous leaves of autumn,
In their varied gold and green,
Adds fresh glory to such beauty
As the eye hath seldom seen.
Yet this Bay had once its terrors,
Ere the red men were subdued,
And the scene that’s now so lovely,
Was terrific, wild and rude,
When the gallant Quinté flying
From the savage of the west,
On the cheerless hills lay dying,
With fierce cold and hunger pressed:
And his bones were left unburied,
But his name won’t pass away,
While there’s beauty on thy hill-side,
Or thy waters gently play.”
“Steamer Bay of Quinté.”
Mr. T. C. Wallbridge, to whom we are indebted for the foregoing, informs us that upon the day this was written, a learned judge (Robinson) now dead, was a passenger from Belleville to Kingston, and the inference was that he penned the lines, which must have been based upon what he considered facts. The same tradition has been received also, from other sources, and many living upon the bay, regard it as true. But it becomes our duty to question the matter. In the first place unfortunately, for the plausibility of the statement, the name of no such French officer can be found.
The nearest approach to the name of Quinté, held by any Frenchman known, was that of Prince de Conti. This person was a particular friend of Cavalier de la Salle, to whom was ceded the Seignory of Cataraqui. “Chevalier de Tonti, went with him, proposing to share his fortunes,” in western explorations. Now La Salle, named one of the islands near Cataraqui, (Amherst,) after this officer, and even yet may be found living, persons who call that island, “Isle Tanta.” Well, it might reasonably be supposed that La Salle would wish to do honor to his friend the Prince de Conti, and therefore named the bay after him. From Conti, it might gradually change to Canta, or Quinté. Now, however probable this may seem, it cannot be regarded as the origin of the name.
Again, it has been supposed to be derived from the Latin Quintanus, or Quinta,—the fifth place,—having reference to five bays, namely, the Lower Bay, Picton Bay, Hay Bay, the Reach, and Upper Bay; or, as some aver, it refers to five Indian stations, formerly existing in the vicinity of the bay. But, however much may be advanced in support of the plausibility of these theories, we think a more certain origin is perfectly intelligible.
The word Quinté, as at present spelled and pronounced, when rightly done, is undoubtedly a French one, being one of the few remaining memorials of French possession; but its origin can be distinctly traced to an Indian source.
We have seen elsewhere that the country lying north of Lake Ontario was called the “Country of the Northern Iroquois.” To the south of the lake was the Iroquois country proper. Among the several nations which composed the Iroquois Confederation, was the Seneques, or commonly called Seneca. Wentworth Greenhalgh in the “London Documents,” writing of a journey in May, 1677, from Albany to the Indians, westward, says “the Seneques have four towns, viz: Canagora, Tiotohalton, Canoenada,” (how like Canada), “and Keint-he—which contained about 24 houses, and was well furnished with corn.” In connection with this we find a statement made in the documentary History of New York, that some of the tribes belonging to the Iroquois proper, separated from them, and removed to the north of the lake. Now the Indian term, “Keint-he,” be it remembered, was written by an English explorer, and of course was spelled in accordance with the pronunciations of the Indians. Every one knows that the letters of the alphabet have a different sound in the French language. If therefore, a French writer were to write the English term Keint-he, it is not unlikely he would spell it Kanta or Kente. Examining the old French maps, made by some of the early travelers through Canada, but bearing date subsequent to 1677, we find marked with distinctness, an Indian village, sometimes in one place, sometimes another, by the name of Kente. This may be seen on quite a number of different maps, which we have examined in various libraries in Canada, and in the Imperial Library in Paris. It is not always spelled Kente, sometimes it is Kante, and upon one it is Kenti, and upon a map in the Imperial Library, Paris, it is Kento. This Indian village has its location upon most of the maps, at the eastern extremity of Hay Bay; but upon a few it is placed at the south shore of the peninsula of Prince Edward; upon one map it is put at South Bay; while in another Wappoose island, is called Isle de Quinté. Hence it is inferred, that a branch of the Seneca tribe separated from the main body, and removed to the north of the lake, and settled probably first at South Bay, and afterward, or at certain seasons visited at Hay Bay, to which, in time they gave their name—that of Kente, according to the pronunciation of the French. It was an easy matter to convert Kente into Quinté. In other words, we find that K and Qu are used indifferently among early writers of New France; for instance, Quebec is spelled by early writers, Kebec. The origin of the word Quinté seems to be in this way perfectly clear.
The Indian village of Kente was situated at the eastern extremity of Hay Bay, and it seems plain that this was regarded as the head of the bay by the French, and the waters leading to the village, was designated the Bay Kente, or the Bay to the Kentes. The waters above the entrance to Hay Bay were looked upon rather as the mouth of the River Trent; and as quite another bay, to which was given a different name. This was a water way from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron. Travelers passing along would at times receive imperfect ideas respecting the names of the several bays and lakes. Again, the early French explorers, and the Jesuits, in their maps would frequently give the names, derived from the Indians, in Latin, while later French travelers gave the names in French. The consequence was that several different names were at times bestowed upon the waters stretching between Lakes Huron and Ontario.
One of the old French maps, and perhaps, it may have been prepared before the Kentes had settled upon its shores, gives to the bay the name “Bayedes Couis,” while several islands between the south shore of Lake Ontario, and the north, are called “au des Couis,” as if indicating a line of travel. There is one larger island, called Les Couis.
The waters west of the Long Reach are, in several maps which have been examined, named Lac St. Lion, and Lionel. But whether this name was limited to the uppers waters of the bay, or applied to the Trent, with Rice Lake, is doubtful, inasmuch as the maps represent the River Trent as being very wide and seemingly navigable up to almost the river’s source. Again, the name of Quinto and Quintio are found upon a few maps, and are applied to Rice Lake. A map in the Imperial library, dated 1777, gives to Rice Lake, Quinto, and close by is the village of Tonnaonto; and the Bay Quinté proper, is called Lake Tento. Another map names it Kentsio. There is also a map which gives to Simcoe Lake, the name of Œntarion Lake, instead of Lake Taronto. From these varieties of names, we discover an indistinct connection between the words Kente and Toronto. Their origin and meaning it is impossible to trace. Perhaps they were names used only for a short time. It is worthy of remark, that upon an ancient map examined in the Imperial library, we find Lake Erie called Lac. Conty.
The word Quinté is in one or two places spelled Quintee, and also Quintie. The most common mode of pronunciation was that used by the loyalists. They spelled it generally Canty, or Kenty. Such they heard it called by the French and Indians when they came here; and, unacquainted with the French mode of spelling, they naturally rendered it according to the English idea; and we have found it in letters written, by the first settlers, mostly always spelled “Canty,” or “Cante,” and occasionally “Canta.” The last of these approaches the nearest to the correct way of pronouncing the name; and it is a cause for regret that some years ago there arose the belief that it ought to be called “Quinty.” We would request the inhabitants of the bay, to return to the old fashioned, and correct pronunciation.
The settlement upon the bay was sometimes identified with Cataraqui; being known by the refugees, as well as by those who stayed in the States, only by that name. Indeed, it may be said that all of Upper Canada was, for a few years, designated by that name; the settlements at Detroit and upon the Niagara, contiguous to the fort, being regarded as merely military stations. For many years the name Canada, was limited to the lower Provinces. After a few years the settlement along the bay came to be generally called, both by the settlers, and those who knew them abroad as that of the Bay “Canty.” The writer has in his possession a letter dated from one of the townships upon the bay, in which reference is made to Canada as a place quite distant and distinct from the British settlements.
Mr. Ferguson, in a letter dated at Sidney, 23rd July, 1791, to a person at Kingston, says, “I’ll send you a memorandum of what you’ll want from Canada,” and he further speaks about taking an Indian to Canada. By this we learn that the new townships were regarded as quite apart from Canada.
Before proceeding to speak of the appearance of the bay, a space must be given to speak more particularly of those Aborigines who occupied the territory of the bay, and Upper Canada generally, at the time of the revolutionary war, and from whom the British Government purchased the land to bestow upon the U. E. Loyalists, namely, the Mississaugas.
The meaning of the word Mississauga has reference to “many outlets,” or a place of settlement by the “fork of a stream.” The first notice we have found of this name is upon a map in the Imperial library, dated 1620. It is applied to a lake,—L’Missauga, or Buade. The location is not far from the source of the Mississippi River, and there is a small stream represented as running from this lake to empty into the Mississippi, the lake is doubtless the Itasca Lake in Minnesota. The Indians, then inhabiting that region, was the “Eastern Sioux.” There is no doubt some identity as to origin and meaning, between Mississippi and Mississauga. It will be remembered, we have in the north of Upper Canada a River Mississippi as well as River Mississauga. The Mississauga Indians first came into notice about the middle of last century, some time before the rebellion. They were then living east of the Georgian Bay upon the lake and the river, both of which have derived names from this tribe. Capt. Anderson thinks they took the name from living by this river, which has many outlets. It may be regarded as a question whether the river gave a name to the tribe, or the tribe a name to the river.
The Mississaugas have been more generally regarded as a branch of the Otchipewas. Father Charlevoix says, they are a branch of the Algonquins.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Iroquois had quite overrun the territory formerly designated by the French “the country of the Northern Iroquois,” and now constituting Upper Canada. As the Six Nations retired to their territory upon the south of Lake Ontario, the Chippewas, or Otchwas and the Mississaugas descended to the north shore of Ontario, the St. Lawrence, and around Bay Quinté. The exact time at which these tribes obtained possession of the land around the Bay, and its Islands, and other parts of Canada, is uncertain. But, long before the settlement of Upper Canada, they were the acknowledged owners of the soil, and Great Britain purchased from them the right of ownership. The first record we have of surrender of land, was by the Chippewas, in 1781, to Gov. St. Clair. The Mississaugas seem to have been a neutral nation, at least, they never appear to have taken any part in the wars between the French and English. But we find that at a great assembly of chiefs and warriors, at Albany, in August 17, 1746, the chief speaker of the Six Nations, informed the English Commissioners that they had taken the Mississaugas as a seventh nation. There certainly seems to have been a very friendly relationship between the Iroquois and Mississaugas.
The Mississaugas were divided into several tribes, or rather, were divided into several villages, which were scattered all along the St. Lawrence, from the river Gananoque to the Bay Quinté, and Lake Ontario. Thus, we find it recorded that “They were dispersed along Lake Ontario, South of Frontenac.” This means Prince Edward particularly; but they were as well settled in little villages at different points. Charlevoix speaks of the Mississaugas as having a village at Niagara and upon Lake St. Clair; most likely at the mouth of the Thames. They likewise had villages along the upper waters of the Trent, and at the Don. Their armorial bearing, or “totem” was the crane, crow, muskrat, and beaver. The Kentes and Ganneyouses, two tribes of the Mississaugas, although taking no part in the wars against the French, had practised upon them a base act of treachery. In 1687, M. de Nonville, who was then Governor of Canada, being at Frontenac, invited these two tribes to the fort to hold a conference, and while there, seized forty or fifty men, with eighty women and children, who were sent prisoners to France.
The French called the Mississauga, while living in the west, the Souter, or Jumpers, because of the numerous rapids in the river Mississauga down which their canoes were wont to jump.
The Mississaugas are of a darker hue than any other tribe in the northern part of America.
The uncertainty that attaches to the Mississaugas as to origin, and the fact that they were not given to warfare; but seemed to be at peace with all native tribes, causes us to think that possibly they may have sprung from the dispersed “Neutral Nation.”
At the time of the settlement of Upper Canada, the Mississaugas seem to have been the principal, if not the sole aboriginal occupants of the land. There are a great many “Mississauga Points” along the Bay, even at the present day, and there was a greater number at the first, all of which indicated the site of an Indian Village. At Cataraqui, just by the old fort, and Tete du Pont, was a Mississauga point, so called from its being the site of an Indian village. For years after the refugees entered, the Indians continued to dwell here, at least during certain periods of the year. The ground whereon a portion of the railway is laid, used to be the scene of many an Indian dance, to the tune of other music than the screaming of the iron horse, although no less inharmonious. Peter Grass was wont to tell of these scenes, whereat fearful orgies were witnessed by the lurid glare of their rude torches. “At the time of the peace, in 1783, the Mississaugas ceded to the Crown large tracts of land in the Johnstown, Midland and Newcastle Districts.”—(Report).
The whole of the land contiguous to the Bay was purchased from the “Mississaugas of the Bay Quinté.” The Indians, in relinquishing their claims to the land, had guaranteed to them certain stipulated payments yearly, in presents. We find it stated that “every man received two blankets, cloth for one coat and one pair of trowsers, two shirts, several small articles, besides a gun, ammunition, kettles, and other things.”—(Playter).
“They claim, however, to have retained the following reserves.” Mississauga Point, six miles below Belleville, about 1,200 acres; Grassy Point—in Sophiasburgh—about 600 acres; Cape Vesey, in Marysburgh, six miles east of Wappoose Island, 450 acres; Bald Head, at Weller’s Bay, Ameliasburgh, 100 acres. “They also claim the islands eastward from Presqu Isle to Gananoque, Nicholsons’ Island, in Lake Ontario, 250 acres, near West Lake, Wellington; Weir’s or Tubb’s Island, McDonald’s Island, and Sugar Island, in all about 1,000 acres. The islands from Trenton to Kingston, and thence to Gananoque. Also, Green’s Island, Timber Island, False Ducks, with others in Lake Ontario.”
The Commissioners considered that the Indians had claims to compensation for their lands. As for the islands, the following extract from a letter from Sir John Johnson to the Military Secretary, dated Lachine, 9th October, 1797, will show their right to the Islands. “No islands were ceded to the Crown but Grenadier Island and the Islands between it and Kingston; two of which were granted to me, with the lands at Gananoque, by the Governor and Council, together with the Island of Tontine above Kingston, at the entrance of Lake Ontario.” This was Amherst Island.
The portion of the Mississaugas to which the land belonged, were those subsequently known as the Bay Quinté, and the Kingston Indians. The same that lived for a time at Grape Island, and who now reside at Alnwick.
“The acceptance of the surrender of the Indians in 1856, by the Government, is an acknowledgment that these islands had never been ceded by them.”
We thus learn that the Indian claims made to the islands and reserves in Prince Edward, were allowed by the Government. But the Indians claimed also that the treaty of cession, as they understood it when made, did “not include, a portion of land bounded on the north by a line which marks where the waters flow into the Ottawa River, and thence to the south, some thirty miles, to the head waters of some streams which flow towards the Lake, with a length of some sixty miles.” But this claim was not considered as tenable.
According to the testimony of the first settlers, Wappoose Island, at the opening of Smith’s Bay, was the abode of the Indian Chief; at least, he came here yearly to receive the rates from the settlers who had squatted upon it. The Indians went from this to Kingston, to get their presents, which they obtained from one Lyons, who it is said, was the first Indian agent there. He lived a quarter of a mile from the Market Place.
From the several villages, placed by the water board, the Mississaugas were accustomed to ascend up the rivers to the interior of the country for game. Of the different rivers, the Sagonaska, (Moira), was, perhaps, more generally selected. Stoco Lake was a favorite hunting and fishing region, so named after a famous Mississauga Chief, Stougeong. They had a lot reserved at the mouth of the river, and also lot number four, in the second concession of Thurlow,—altogether 428 acres, which was sold in 1816, for £107. They generally ascended about the last of March, and returned the latter part of December. The writer can remember to have seen their birch canoes, well laden, passing up and down the river. Before the settlement of Belleville, they had their encampment on the plains by the river’s mouth, but in later years they selected grounds some way up the stream. At first the trading post, kept by Chisholm, east of the river on the bay, was a point of attraction to them.
The Indians would make sugar in the spring, and bring it to the settlers in small basswood bags, which they would exchange for different articles.
The Mississaugas being a race of naturally peaceful disposition, the settlers never had any reason to fear them, even had the Canadian Government, like the American, forgot to recognize the rights of the natives, and owners of the soil. When under the influence of liquor they might assume a mock heroic character to intimidate women and children, in order to get something; but no attempt was ever made to disturb the settlers along the Bay.
Every year the Indians would go to Kingston to receive their presents, annually given by Government; sometimes there would be a hundred canoes.