124 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



kinds of food. So also potatoes, Indian corn, and maple sugar were 

 familiar products of the region. 



Despite the unfailing supply of these bounties during the first 

 three years of Long Point's history, the year 1796 witnessed an almost 

 total failure of the grain crops, and hunger drove numbers of rodents 

 into the settlement, where they consumed the pitiable remnant of 

 maize that had flourished. The Indians at Grand River saved them- 

 selves from a similar experience by their practice of suspending the 

 garnered ears of corn from the rafters of their houses, and were accord- 

 ingly able, as they were also willing, to share their stores with their 

 less fortunate neighbors at Long Point. By the end of 1796 the popu- 

 lation within 20 miles' distance of Port Ryerse had reached perhaps 

 100. Among those coming in were Yunkers and Quakers from the 

 States, who usually brought more or less property with them. While 

 these people cannot be called loyalists, they were non-belligerents 

 who entertained a real preference for British rule. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Timothy Culver from New Jersey joined other members of their 

 family in the Township of Townsend in this year. 



During the summer of 1795 Governor Simcoe had come to Long 

 Point and laid out a site of 600 acres for a town, with reservations for 

 government buildings, naming it Charlotte Villa in honor of Queen 

 Charlotte. The formal approval of the proposed settlement was 

 received from the Earl of Portland, December 6; but early in the fol- 

 lowing April Governor General Carleton objected to the maintenance 

 of a military establishment in connection with the town as a piece 

 of needless expense. Then, in the summer, followed Simcoe's de- 

 parture to England. It can scarcely be claimed, however, that this 

 incident interfered with the prospects of the settlement at Long Point, 

 for Simcoe's successor, acting Lieutenant Governor Peter Russell, 

 encouraged the movement of Loyalists from New Brunswick into 

 Western Canada, and gave considerable attention to the survey of 

 townships in Norfolk County, which were now divided into allotments. 

 It was Russell who, in the summer of 1796, sent Mr. Hamlin and Ser- 

 geant Daniel Hazen to run the lines of Charlotteville and Walsingham 

 townships. The former was surveyed by Hamlin and his successor, 

 Thomsa Welch, the latter by Hazen. Both Hazen and Welch were 

 Loyalists who had been previously employed in laying out lands for 

 their fellow exiles in New Brunswick. Having received a large grant 

 near Vension Creek in Walsingham, Hazen brought in his family 

 in 1797. On July 1 of the previous year Donald McCall landed with 

 20 or more persons at the mouth of Big Creek. The members of this 

 party were from New Jersey and obtained grants in Charlotteville. 

 Among them were Lieutenant James Munro, Doctor Robert Munro, 



