Directing our attention to the territory north of Lake Ontario, and the Upper St. Lawrence, we find some interesting facts relative to the original Indian paths; sometimes, followed on hunting and fishing expeditions, and sometimes in pursuit of an enemy. There is evidence that the Mohawks, upon the southern shore of Lake Ontario, were accustomed to pass across the waters, to the northern shores by different routes. Thus, one was from Cape Vincent to Wolfe Island, and thence along its shore to the west end, and then either to Cataraqui, or up the Bay Quinté, or perhaps across to Amherst Island, where, it seems, generally resided a Chief of considerable importance. A second route, followed by them, in their frail bark canoes, was from a point of land somewhat east of Oswego, called in later days Henderson’s Point, taking in their way Stony Island, the Jallup Islands, and stretching across to Yorkshire Island, and Duck Island, then to the Drake Islands, and finally to Point Traverse. Following the shore around this point, Wappoose Island was also reached; or, on the contrary, proceeding along the shore westward they reached East Lake. From the northernmost point of this lake they directed their steps, with canoes on their heads, across the carrying place to the head of Picton Bay, a distance of a little over four miles. It is interesting to notice that upon the old maps, by the early French navigators, the above mentioned islands are specified as “au des Couis;” while at the same time the Bay of Quinté bears the name of Couis, showing unmistakably that the Mohawk Indians passed by this way to the head waters of the bay and to the Trent River. Herriot designates one of these islands, Isle de Quinté. Two maps in the Imperial library of Paris, give these islands, above mentioned, the name of Middle Islands, and the waters east of them are named Cataraqui Bay. It is not at all unlikely that Champlain, when he first saw Lake Ontario, emerged from the water of East lake. Again, instead of entering the Bay Quinté with a view of passing up the River Moira, or Trent, they would continue along the south shore of Prince Edward, past West Lake and Consecon Lake, and proceed westward, sometimes to the river at Port Hope, sometimes further west, even to the Don, and ascend some one of the rivers to the head waters of the Trent or Lake Simcoe. The early maps indicate Indian villages along at several points. Owing to the dangerous coast along the south shore of Prince Edward, sometimes they chose the longer and more tedious route through the Bay Quinté to its head. That here was a common carrying place is well attested by the statements of many. Indeed, at this point upon the shores of the lake was an Indian village of importance. An old graveyard here, upon being plowed, has yielded rich and important relics, showing that the Indians were Christianized, and that valuable French gifts had been bestowed.
It would seem from a letter of DeNonville, that there were two ways to reach Lake Huron from Lake Ontario: one by the Bay Quinté and the Trent; the other by the way of the Don River and Lake Simcoe, called by him “Lake Taranto.” In the selection of routes they were guided by Indians.
The route by the Trent and the Bay Quinté was for many a day regarded as the most direct, and the best route to Lake Huron, even since the settlement by Europeans. Its supposed importance was sufficient to lead to the attempt to construct a canal with locks, to make it navigable. Gourlay says, sometime after the war of 1812, that “in course of time it may become an object of importance to connect Rice Lake by a canal with Lake Ontario direct, instead of following the present canoe route by its natural outlet into the Bay Quinté.”
The Marquis DeNonville, in 1685, moved on the Five Nations with his little army in canoes, in two divisions. On the 23rd June, one-half proceeded on the south side from the fort Cataraqui, and the other on the north side of the lake, and met near Oswego. Now, there can be no doubt, that the latter party crossed the bay to Indian Point, passed along its southern shore, then across the bay by Wappoose Island, and then around, or crossing Point Traverse struck far into the lake, by the islands which constituted the guides of this early Indian route. It may be that this was so commonly traveled that the old name of Point Traverse was thus derived.
We have indicated the several routes followed by the Indians, the French, the English, and finally by the Refugees, so far as relate to the territory now comprising Upper Canada, that is by which it was originally reached and settled. Beside, there were some who found their way by land from the head waters of the Susquehanna to Lake Erie and Niagara. But the vast majority of pioneers of Upper Canada entered by the channels aforesaid.
For many years, the only road from Lower Canada was by the St. Lawrence, ascending wearily up the dangerous rapids in canoes and batteaux; and it will be found that the lots in the first townships were surveyed narrow in order to secure a water frontage to as many as possible, because there was no other means of transit than by water. But those who settled in the second concessions, a year or two later, were obliged to tread the length of the long front lots, in order to reach the water. At the same time the communication with Lower Canada, up and down the rapids, was attended with many hazards and inconveniences. It consequently became a matter of no little importance to have a road through the settlements to Montreal, which might be traveled by horse, a King’s highway from the eastern Provincial line. It was, however, some years after the first settlement before this was secured. The original survey for a road was made by one Ponair, assisted by one Kilborne. “The opening” Sherwood says, “of this road from Lower Canada to Brockville and thence to Cataraqui, a distance of 145 miles, was an event long remembered by the pioneers. At the end of each mile was planted a red cedar post with a mark upon it indicating the number of miles from the Provincial line.”—(See First Years of Upper Canada—Construction of Roads).
CHAPTER XIII.
Contents—Indians traveled by foot or by canoe—Secreting canoes—Primeval scenes—Hunting expeditions—War path—In 1812—Brock—A night at Myers’ Creek—Important arrival—The North West Company—Their canoes—Route—Grand Portage—The Voyageurs—The Batteaux—Size—Ascending the rapids—Lachine—A dry dock—Loyalists by batteaux—Durham boats—Difficulties—In 1788, time from Lachine to Fredericksburgh—Waiting for batteaux—Extracts from a journal, travelling in 1811—From Kingston to Montreal—The expenses—The Schenectady boats—Trade between Albany and Cataraqui—The Durham boat—Duncan—Description of flat-bottomed boat by “Murray”—Statement of Finkle—Trading—Batteaux in 1812—Rate of traveling—The change in fifty years—Time from Albany to Bay Quinté—Instances—Loyalists traveling in winter—Route—Willsbury wilderness—Tarrying at Cornwall—The “French Train”—Traveling along north shore of Ontario—Indian path—Horseback—Individual owners of batteaux—Around Bay Quinté—The last regular batteaux—In 1819—“Lines” from magazine.
TRAVELING BY CANOE.
Having pointed out the several general routes by which the aborigines and the first Europeans in America, were wont to traverse the country from the seaboard to the far west, and indicated more particularly the smaller paths of the Indians around the Bay Quinté and Lake Ontario, we purpose glancing at the means by which they made their way through the wilderness.