[siebert] loyalists AND SIX NATION INDIANS 103 



orders. He issued rations in proportions recommended by two gentle- 

 men in the settlement, who became accountable to the Crown and 

 creditors for the provision^ furnished. Others living at a distance 

 from the fort, but near the water, could supply themselves with fish ; 

 but those dwelling inland had to forage in the woods for game, 

 herbs, and ground nuts. The experience of one family will suffice to 

 show the expedients resorted to by many to keep from starving. 

 Peter Bowman, one of Butler's men, who had settled with his family 

 and relatives in the Township of Stamford, was not so far from the 

 Niagara but that he could walk the distance — three miles — after 

 his day's work was done. In order to keep his table supplied with 

 fish, he made the journey twice each week, fishing all night and carry- 

 ing home his catch in the morning. The family ate this fare "without 

 salt or bread" until the middle of June, when moss became so thick 

 in the river as to prevent further fishing. Then, milk was resorted to 

 as the chief article of diet, and later when the grains of wheat had 

 grown large enough to be "rubbed out," they were boiled for the use 

 of the family. An early harvest came as a great boon to the famine- 

 stricken country.^ 



During the entire period of settlement the abundant supply 

 of fish in the waters surrounding the Peninsula and the creeks empty- 

 ing into these waters furnished a staple of diet to the dwellers nearby. 

 White fish and bass were taken in great numbers, a day's catch 

 sometimes amounting to 6,000. Captain Alexander Campbell of the 

 42nd ^Regiment tells of having witnessed the drawing of a seine con- 

 taining not less than 1,000 fish, chiefly whitefish, and adds that the 

 troops and inhabitants had stated days for fishing. The Duke de la 

 Rochefoucauld went seining one day with the soldiers, when they made 

 use of a net 100 feet long and 4 feet wide and caught 500 fish, 

 including sturgeon, pike, sunfish, salmon, trout, and herring.^ 



The numerous tributaries of Lakes Ontario and Erie were not 

 only the source of an unlimited supply of fish for the settlers, but also 

 of power for the mills that ground their wheat and corn and sawed 

 their lumber. No better index to the growth of the local communities 

 throughout the Peninsula may be had than the spread of these struc- 

 tures. The first mills had been erected by the government in the sum- 

 mer of 1783 at Four Mile Creek in Township No. 1. In 1789, 1791, 

 and 1792, three additional mills were built in this township along the 

 same stream, namely, a grist mill by Peter Secord, a saw mill by David 

 Secord, and anot her grist mill by Daniel Servos. In 1786 John 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 11, 50, 52, 53; Ryerson, Loyalists of America and Their 

 Times, II, 268. 



2 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 11, 34, 35. 



