[coynk] ' DAVID RAMSAY AND LONG POINT 113 



historical aspect. Who was Doctor Troyer ? What was the relation 

 of Ramsay to the first settlers ? How did the two names come to be 

 associated with the Evil One ? How did it happen that the blended 

 folk-lore of European countries, transplanted to the shores of Lake 

 Erie, found congenial soil, took root, and thrived as if in its native 

 environment ? 



Making all necessary and proper allowance for Mr. McCall's 

 advanced age, and the time elapsed since the occurrences recalled by 

 him, the writer endeavoured to ascertain the historical basis for the 

 legend and discovered interesting particulars relating to both Ramsay 

 and Troyer, much light being thrown upon the former especially by 

 official correspondence between Sir William Johnson, Superintendent 

 of Indian Affairs in North America, and his superior officer, the 

 Colonial Secretary in England, as well as by autobiographical material 

 furnished by Ramsay himself. 



A brief summary of available information may not be unaccept- 

 able. 



In the early days of settlement on Lake Erie no names were more 

 widely known than those of David Ramsay and "Doctor" Troyer. 

 Troyer's name is prominent in other tales of witchcraft and magic 

 art, current among pioneer settlers, not only at Long Point, but 

 westward as far as the River Detroit and Lake St. Clair. Owen, 

 in his "Pioneer Sketches of the Long Point Settlement," has some- 

 thing to say about him. A pamphlet entitled, "The Belledoon 

 Mysteries, an O'er True Story, by Neil T. McDonald," first published 

 more than a generation ago, shows him as the active agent in solving 

 and ending certain mysterious manifestations on the Chenail Ecarté, 

 near Wallaceburg, which had caused wide-spread interest throughout 

 the lake-shore region, and even far beyond. Tasker's volume on 

 "The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie," 

 published as Volume II of the Ontario Historical Society's Papers 

 and Records, refers to Ramsay. Official records printed in Volume 

 VIII of "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State 

 of New York," show some of the grounds upon which his evil notoriety 

 was acquired. That very rare volume, "Captain Patrick Campbell's 

 Travels in the Interior Inhabited Parts of North America," published 

 in 1793, contains the case for the defence as presented to Campbell 

 by Ramsay himself. 



Ramsay, the Indian Killer. 



David Ramsay, a Fifeshire lad, came to Quebec as ship's boy 

 on board a transport, and after the war, in 1763, settled on the Mohawk 

 River. After serving the Northwest Fur Company of Montreal for 



