The progress made in the former is highly creditable to the superintendent, considering the short time it has been established. I found it attended by thirty-one boys, mostly very young, who spelt and read fluently in English; they also answered several questions which I put to them promiscuously from the church catechism, and sung a hymn, remarkable for the loyalty of its sentiments. Finding the houses built for them too few for their numbers, they have added some of their own construction similar to those first erected.
They have two enclosures of about seven acres of wheat, and a field on the banks of the river, containing about thirty-five acres of Indian corn, in a promising state of cultivation. A small plot is attached to each house for their potatoes or other garden stuff.
The expense of these buildings has not exceeded, I believe, £14 currency each, say £250 sterling on the whole. A respectable Englishman, now a Methodist missionary, who receives a pension from the British government for the loss of an arm in the late war, when he served in the provincial marine of Upper Canada, resides amongst these Indians, and as his feelings towards Great Britain have been well tried, there is every reason to hope that his exertions for the perfect civilization of his flock will be crowned with success.
Mohawks and the Six Nations.—Under 2000 souls are settled on the banks of the Ouse, or Grand River, a fine and fertile tract of country, which was purchased from the Chippawas (the Aborigines) exclusively from them when they were brought to this country from the Mohawk River, in the State of New York, at the termination of the revolutionary American war.
The proclamation of Sir F. Haldimand, which constitutes, I believe, their only title, allots them “six miles deep from each side of the river, beginning at Lake Erie, and extending in that proportion to the head of the river.”
They are now considered as having retained about 260,000 acres of land, mostly of the best quality. Their possessions were formerly more extensive, but large tracts of land have been sold by them, with the permission of his majesty’s government; the monies arising from which sales were either founded in England, or lent on interest in this country. The proceeds amount to about £1500 per annum.
The principal village, or Mohawk Castle, as it is called, consists now of half a dozen miserable huts, scattered without any order, and a paltry church.
The town was formerly more respectable; but the increasing scarcity of fuel in its neighbourhood, and the fine quality of the soil, induced them by degrees to separate and settle on the bank of the river, where they cultivate the ground in companies or bands, a certain number of families divided amongst them the produce of certain numbers of acres. Their knowledge of farming is exceedingly limited, being chiefly confined to the cultivation of Indian corn, beans and potatoes; but those of more industrious habits follow the example of their white neighbours, and have separate farms, on which they raise most kind of English grain.
Were I to offer to your lordship all the observations which appear to me worthy of attention respecting these ancient allies of his majesty, this report would assume the character of a history and far exceed the expected limits. I hasten, therefore, to submit a statement, which has been compiled with great attention, showing their present possessions in houses, horses, cattle, &c.; viz.
| Dwelling-houses | 416 |
| Computed number of acres of land in cultivation | 6872 |
| Horses | 738 |
| Cows | 869 |
| Oxen | 613 |
| Sheep | 192 |
| Swine | 1630 |