88 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



by Haldimand's proclamation to the inhabitants of the back settle- 

 ments, in 1780, to surrender themselves at the frontier posts, with 

 a view to being sent into the interior parts of Canada until peace 

 should be restored, or by the two expeditions conducted into the 

 Mohawk Valley by Sir John Johnson in the same year, for the purpose 

 of enabling Loyalists to escape. As the result of the second of these 

 expeditions at least one group, comprising 29 persons, came in from 

 Schoharie, and was at once (November 20) forwarded to Lower Canada 

 on board the Seneca. From the country west of the upper Ohio 

 refugees were also coming in: in the preceding July, Lieutenant 

 Joseph Ferris wrote from Tuscarawas Town that he was on his way 

 to Niagara with a party of 23 white men, most of them Loyalists, 

 and that Sergeant Brass was likely to bring in many more.^ 



By this time Haldimand had made up his mind that the refugees 

 at Niagara could be best supported by colonizing them on the land 

 of the Mississauguas. Accordingly, Colonel (Guy) Johnson was 

 instructed to purchase this land for the government. Those settling 

 were to receive grants proportional to their merits, to be held without 

 rent; they were also to receive provisions for a twelvemonth, the 

 necessary implements of husbandry, and the use of horses. If they 

 should remove at any time, they were to be paid for their improve- 

 ments; but while they remained they were to sell any produce they 

 might raise beyond their own needs to the garrison. Lieutenant 

 Colonel Butler, who was at Quebec on official business at this time, 

 was to engage prospective settlers among the refugees in and about 

 Montreal, and thought he might supply others skilled in agriculture 

 from his corps of Rangers. The plan of colonizing the Loyalists 

 Haldimand decided to extend to the other localities in the Upper Coun- 

 try, including Detroit and Michilimackinac to the westward and 

 Genesee and Cataraqui to the eastward. At Carleton Island, near 

 the head of the St. Lawrence, the plan was already in a state of "some 

 forwardness," according to the Governor. Indeed, he expected that 

 the settlement there would be able to supply a quantity of potatoes 

 to Niagara in the fall. By December, 1780, the new settlement 

 across from Colonel Butler's headquarters was beginning to take 

 form; as yet it consisted of only four or five families, already oc- 

 cupying houses, and anxious for a forge and the implements and 

 seed necessary for the spring planting.^ 



In the meantime, there had been more than the usual amount 

 of sickness among the troops and Loyalists at the fort, due in the 



1 Haldimand Papers, B. 96-1, pp. 248-250; B. 96-2 ; B. 100, p. 165; B. 220, p. 

 173, 174; B. 147, p. 195; B. 100, p. 391; B. 103, p. 372; B. 100, p. 320. 



2 Haldimand Papers, B. 105, pp. 191, 376. 



