Not only the town of Niagara and its vicinity are unhealthy places, but almost every part of Upper Canada, and of the territory of the States bordering upon the lakes, is likewise unhealthy. The sickly season commences about the middle of July, and terminates about the first week of September, as soon as the nights become cold. Intermittent fevers are the most common disorders; but in some parts of the country the inhabitants suffer from continual fevers, of which there are different kinds, peculiar to certain districts. In the country, for instance, bordering upon the Genesee River, which falls into Lake Ontario on the southern side, a fever is common amongst the inhabitants of a malignant nature, vulgarly called the Genesee fever, of which many die annually: and in that bordering upon the Miami River, which falls into Lake Erie, within the north-western territory of the United States, a fever of a different kind, again, is common. It does not appear that the exact nature of these different fevers has ever been accurately ascertained. In the back parts of North America, in general, medical men are rarely to be met with, and indeed if they were, the settlements are so far removed from each other, that they could be of little service.
EMIGRATIONS.
It is very remarkable, that notwithstanding that medical assistance is so rarely to be had in case of sickness in the back country, yet the Americans, when they are about to change their place of abode, seldom or ever consider whether the part of the country to which they are going is healthy or otherwise, at least they are scarcely ever influenced in their choice of a place of residence either by its healthiness or unhealthiness. If the lands in one part of the country are superior to those in another in fertility; if they are in the neighbourhood of a navigable river, or situated conveniently to a good market; if they are cheap, and rising in value, thither the American will gladly emigrate, let the climate be ever so unfriendly to the human system. Not a year passes over, but what numbers of people leave the beautiful and healthy banks of the Susquehannah River for the Genesee country, where nine out of every ten of the inhabitants are regularly seized, during the autumn, with malignant fevers; but the lands bordering upon the Susquehannah are in general poor, whereas those in the Genesee country are in many places so rich, that until reduced by successive crops of Indian corn, wheat, to use the common phrase, “will run wholly to straw:” where it has been sown in the first instance, the stalks have frequently been found fourteen or fifteen feet in length, two thirds of them lying on the ground.
On the margin of Niagara River, about three quarters of a mile from the town, stands a building called Navy Hall, erected for the accommodation of the naval officers on the lake during the winter season, when their vessels are laid up. Opposite to it there is a spacious wharf to protect the vessels from the ice during the winter, and also to facilitate the landing of merchandize when the navigation is open. All cargoes brought up the lake, that are destined for Niagara, are landed here. Adjoining the wharf are very extensive stores belonging to the crown, and also to private persons. Navy Hall is now occupied by the troops; the fort on the opposite side of the river, where they were formerly stationed, having been delivered up pursuant to the late treaty between his Majesty and the United States. The troops, however, are only to remain at the hall until a blockhouse is erected on the top of the banks for their accommodation; this building is in a state of forwardness, and the engineer hopes to have it finished in a few months.
NIAGARA FORT.
FEDERAL ARMY.
The fort of Niagara stands immediately at the mouth of the river, on a point of land, one side of which is washed by the river and the other by the lake. Towards the water it is stockaded; and behind the stockade, on the river side, a large mound of earth rises up, at the top of which are embrasures for guns; on the land side it is secured by several batteries and redoubts, and by parallel lines of fascines. At the gates, and in various different parts, there are strong blockhouses; and facing the lake, within the stockade, stands a large fortified stone house. The fort and outworks occupy about five acres of ground; and a garrison of five hundred men, and at least from thirty to forty pieces of ordnance, would be necessary to defend it properly. The federal garrison, however, consists only of fifty men; and the whole of the cannon in the place amounts merely to four small field pieces, planted at the four corners of the fort. This fort was founded by the French, and constituted one link of that extensive chain of posts which they established along the lakes and the western waters. It was begun by the building of the stone house, after a solemn promise had been obtained from the Indians that the artificers should not be interrupted whilst they were going on with the work. The Indians readily made this promise, as, according to their notion, it would have been inhospitable and unfriendly in the extreme not to have permitted a few traders to build a house within their territory to protect them against the inclemency of the seasons: but they were greatly astonished when one so totally different from any that they had ever seen before, and from any that they had an idea of, was completed; they began to suspect that the strangers had plans in meditation unfavourable to their interests, and they wished to dispossess them of their new mansion, but it was too late. In the hall of the house a well had been sunk to keep it supplied with water; the house was plentifully stored with provisions in case of a siege; and the doors being once closed, the tenants remained perfectly indifferent about every hostile attack the Indians could make against it. Fortifications to strengthen the house were gradually erected; and by the year 1759 the place was so strong as to resist, for some time, the forces under the command of Sir William Johnston. Great additions were made to the works after the fort fell into the hands of the British. The stone house is a very spacious building, and is now, as it was formerly, appropriated for the accommodation of the principal officers of the garrison. In the rear of the house is a large apartment, commanding a magnificent view of the lake and of the distant hills at Toronto, which formerly was the officers mess room, and a pattern of neatness. The officers of the federal garrison, however, consider it more convenient to mess in one of the kitchens, and this beautiful room has been suffered to go to ruin; indeed every part of the fort now exhibits a picture of slovenliness and neglect; and the appearance of the soldiers is equally devoid of neatness with that of their quarters. Though it was on Sunday morning that we visited the fort, on which day it is usual even for the men of the garrisons in the States to appear better dressed than on other days, yet the greater part of the men were as dirty as if they had been at work in the trenches for a week without intermission: their grisly beards demonstrated that a razor had not approached their chins for many days; their hair, to appearance, had not been combed for the same length of time; their linen was filthy, their guns rusty, and their clothes ragged. That the clothes and accoutrements of the men should not be better is not to be wondered at, considering how very badly the western army of the States is appointed in every respect; but it is strange that the officers should not attend more than they do to the cleanliness of their men. Their garrisons on the frontiers have uniformly suffered more from sickness than those of the British; and it is to be attributed, I should imagine, in a great measure to their filthiness; for the men are as stout and hardy, apparently, as any in the world. The western army of the States has been most shamefully appointed from the very outset. I heard General Wayne, then the commander in chief, declare at Philadelphia, that a short time after they had begun their march, more than one third of his men were attacked in the woods, at the same period, with a dysentery; that the surgeons had not even been furnished with a medicine chest; and that nothing could have saved the greater part of the troops from death, had not one of the young surgeons fortunately discovered, after many different things had been tried in vain, that the bark of the root of a particular sort of yellow poplar tree was a powerful antidote to the disorder. Many times also, he said, his army had been on the point of suffering from famine in their own country, owing to the carelessness of their commissaries. So badly indeed had the army been supplied, even latterly, with provisions, that when notice was sent to the federal general by the British officers, that they had received orders to deliver up their respective posts pursuant to the treaty, and that they were prepared to do so whenever he was ready to take possession of them, an answer was returned, that unless the British officers could supply his army with a considerable quantity of provisions on arriving at the lakes, he could not attempt to march for many weeks. The federal army was generously supplied with fifty barrels of pork, as much as the British could possibly spare; notwithstanding which, it did not make its appearance till a considerable time after the day appointed for the delivery of the posts. The federal army is composed almost wholly of Irishmen and Germans, that were brought over as redemptioners, and enlisted as soon as they landed, before they had an opportunity of learning what great wages were given to labourers in the States. The natives of the country are too fond of making money to rest satisfied with the pay of a common soldier.
The American prints, until the late treaty of amity was ratified, teemed with the most gross abuse of the British government, for retaining possession of Niagara Fort, and the other military posts on the lakes, after the independence of the States had been acknowledged, and peace concluded. It was never taken into consideration, that if the British government had thought proper to have withdrawn its troops from the posts at once, immediately after the definitive treaty was signed, the works would in all probability have been destroyed by the Indians, within whose territories they were situated, long before the people of the States could have taken possession of them; for no part of their army was within hundreds of miles of the posts, and the country through which they must have past in getting to them was a mere wilderness; but if the army had gained the posts, the states were in no condition, immediately after the war, to have kept in them such large bodies of the military as would have been absolutely necessary for their defence whilst at enmity with the Indians, and it is by no means improbable, but that the posts might have been soon abandoned. The retention of them, therefore, to the present day, was, in fact, a circumstance highly beneficial to the interests of the States, notwithstanding that such an outcry was raised against the British on that account, inasmuch as the Americans now find themselves possessed of extensive fortifications on the frontiers, in perfect repair, without having been at the expence of building them, or maintaining troops in them for the space of ten years, during which period no equivalent advantages could have been derived from their possession. It is not to be supposed, however, that the British government meant to confer a favour on her late colonies by retaining the posts; it was well known that the people of the new states would be eager, sooner or later, to get possession or forts situated within their boundary line, and occupied by strangers; and as there were particular parts of the definitive treaty which some of the states did not seem very ready to comply with, the posts were detained as a security for its due ratification on the part of the States. In the late treaty of amity and commerce, these differences were finally accommodated to the satisfaction of Great Britain, and the posts were consequently delivered up. On the surrender of them very handsome compliments were paid, in the public papers throughout the States, to the British officers, for the polite and friendly manner in which they gave them up. The gardens of the officers were all left in full bearing, and high preservation; and all the little conveniences were spared, which could contribute to the comforts of the federal troops.
REMARKS
The generality of the people of the States were big with the idea, that the possession of these places would be attended with the most important and immediate advantages; and in particular they were fully persuaded, that they would thereby at once become masters of the trade to the lakes, and of three-fourths at least of the fur trade, which, they said, had hitherto been so unjustly monopolized by the British merchants, to their great prejudice. They have now got possession of them, and perceive the futility of all these notions.