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,