100 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



and at the same time enable the merchants to obtain the assistance 

 of the settlers, with their teams and wagons, in times of exigency.^ 

 Two years later, by order of the Land Board, Captain Mann's project 

 was carried into effect, a road being built by the inhabitants and 

 interested merchants from the new landing place (afterwards, Queen- 

 ston) to Chippawa Creek. 



COMMERCE ON THE LAKES, 1790-1795. 



About the time the new road was built, the superintendents 

 of inland navigation at Kingston (formerly, Cataraqui), Niagara, 

 Fort Erie, Detroit, and Michilimacinac reported that there were 

 four registered merchant vessels belonging to the ports named, of 

 which one — the schooner Good Intent (15 tons) — was trading on 

 Lake Ontario between Kingston, Oswego, the Bay of Quinte, and 

 Niagara, while two of the others — the sloop Sagina (36 tons) and the 

 sloop Espérance (20 tons) — plied on Lake Erie between Detroit and 

 Fort Erie. The last of the four vessels — the schooner Weasel (16 

 tons) — appears to have confined its trips to Lake Huron. Such 

 government supplies as were brought up to Niagara from Montreal 

 came, no doubt, on the King's ships, which seem to have carried 

 furs, and perhaps other commodities, on their return trips. During 

 the Revolution the British had built a few vessels at Carleton Island 

 for the transportation of their troops and provisions from one post 

 to another along Lake Ontario, among these being the Ontario which 

 carried 22 guns. After the War closed Murray's Point and Navy 

 Point turned out some ships for the government, including the Speedy 

 and the Mohawk, the Mississaugua and the Duke of Kent. These 

 ships must have been still in the service, while the merchant vessels 

 named above were engaged in carrying cargoes that consisted chiefly 

 of wine and spirits, cases, bales and boxes of various goods, packs of 

 furs, and some fish, flour, Indian corn, ginseng, pearl ashes, and shot 

 and ball. It was expected that Detroit would register six new vessels 

 for the fur trade during the year 1780. It was not, however, until 

 1792 that the first Canadian vessel was built on Lake Ontario. This 

 vessel was the York {IS tons), her place of construction being a dock- 

 yard lying eastward of the Niagara River and the fort. In the sum- 

 mer of 1795 the Duke De Liancourt saw two vessels on the stocks 

 here, besides four others afloat, which he described as gunboats and 

 schooners. In those days Niagara was a center of the wholesale 

 trade and of ship building. ^ 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 17, 27, 28. 



2 Ibid., 35-37, 39; Caniff, Settlement of Upper Canada, 148, 149, 152; Carnochan, 

 Niagara One Hundred Years Ago, 25; Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 4, 6. 



