218 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Recently I had occasion to search among my pamphlets for some 
information and among others went carefully over two old bound vol- 
umes of Upper Canada Pamphlets, one labelled “ Religion, etc.,” the 
other “ Politics, ete.,” The third pamphlet in the second volume was 
entitled “Story of a Refugee,” York, printed at the Patriot office, 
1833, pp. 46. Across the title page the original owner had written 
“The late Chief Justice Powell.” Even if this had not appeared upon 
the title page, the reader would easily have identified the author, who 
concluded the pamphlet with this paragraph :— 
“The Refugee has given place in this narrative of his progress 
up and down the hill of life to divers reminiscences which may be 
thought not to belong to the subject but as his object was to redeem 
his memory from the odium attempted to be imposed on it by the 
several published calumnies affixed to it, he has thought it excus- 
able to enliven the narrative with foreign matter which had the 
slightest reference to any act of his; such as the Indian warfare, 
and sale of prisoners; the provision for the altar; and the abuse of 
Justice under the name, if not the garb, of Law.” 
Evidently we shall herein find the Chief Justice’s own statement or 
explanation of the matter set forth in The United States Gazette. 
After referring to his duties as a Commissioner to visit the Loyalists 
from Point au Bodet to the head of the Bay of Quinte, in order to in- 
vestigate their conditions and learn their desires, he states that he was 
given a responsible position in adjusting the accounts for freights on the 
Great Lakes incurred in the late war, and before this work could be 
completed he was appointed sole Judge in the District of Hesse. 
“This elevation of the humble Refugee, carrying law, equity 
and justice into that vast region, raised him to observation and 
envy, but to no direct censure, until 1792, after more than two 
years residence as sole administrator of the law; when on failure of 
all just cause, he was assailed by a vile forgery in the shape of a 
letter to the American Secretary of War, then carrying on exter- 
minating inroads upon the Indian nations under British protec- 
tion.” 
Then follows a copy of the forged letter addressed to Major-General 
Henry Knox, Secretary of War, Philadelphia. It was dated Feb. 2nd, 
1792, but had no signature. 
The letter, which was a long one with many details, purported to 
show that with a few resolute men Detroit could be taken and a garrison 
organized out of the discontents in the neighbourhood. When this letter 
was presented to the Refugee as a paper found in the garrison at Detroit 
“he could not but admit at first sight that it must be his writing, 
which however no one who knew him would believe on reading the 
