[coyNE] THE TALBOT PAPERS 33 
The letter recommended Talbot to the Governor’s protection and 
good offices. It professed to be based upon the hemp project. 
At this time considerable grants had been made in the south of 
Yarmouth to the Baby’s, sons of Pontiac’s friend, and Talbot chose the 
Township of Dunwich as that from which his grant of 5,000 acres should 
be selected. Dunwich and, at a later period, the Township of Ald- 
borough, were reserved for his experiment. To Dunwich he accordingly 
hastened as soon as the necessary preliminaries had been arranged with 
the provincial authorities at York. 
XED=PorRT TALBOT. 
There is a sluggish, little stream in Dunwich, which at certain 
periods may be said, without too great a stretch of the imagination, 
to flow into Lake Erie. At other times it is quite stagnant, being 
dammed back by a sandbar across its mouth. The isthmus thus formed 
is dry and solid, a thoroughfare for men and teams, until a stiff south- 
easter comes along and unceremoniously tears open the channel again. 
On either side are lofty cliffs of sand, extending for many miles 
along the shore. Here and there they overhang the lake, which is 
constantly gnawing at their feet. Huge fragments fall from the top 
directly into the water. The process has been going on for ages, and 
thus the lake grows ever wider and shallower. At times a tall tree 
will remain for years, clinging to the very edge with its roots almost 
bare of soil. But at last it yields, and topples over. If it strikes the 
cliff-side, it remains reversed, its top buried in sand, its roots tending 
skyward. But the lake gnaws steadily below. Sooner or later the 
inexorable current seizes its reluctant prey. 
The creek is bordered by rich, though narrow, flats and verdant 
hillsides. Enough of the forest still remains to diversify the landscape, 
which forms one of the most picturesque bits of scenery along the lakes. 
It was at the mouth of this little stream that Colonel Thomas 
Talbot landed with four followers on the 21st day of May, 1803. He 
seized an axe, and with his own hands chopped down the first tree, thus 
formally inaugurating the new settlement. Since that day the spot has 
been called Port Talbot, the stream Talbot Creek, and the region the 
Talbot Settlement. From it extends the Talbot Road, eastward to Fort 
Erie, and westward to the Detroit River. 
In the following year he brought carpenters from Niagara, and they 
were employed during the years 1804 and 1805 in the erection of a 
house and outbuildings. Here, except for occasional visits to the prov- 
incial capital and to Europe, the remainder of his life was spent. 
Sec. II., 1907. 3. 
