220 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
the loaded rifles and the bullet passing through the tent killed the 
father as he lay asleep. After recovering from the awful shock, they 
buried the father and then continued their westward journey as far as 
the Ohio, where they selected a promising location and decided to estab- 
lish their new plantation. As a protection against wild beasts, they sur- 
rounded their new home with a strong stockade. For years they lived 
unmolested and prospered. One day an “armed force of Indians and 
Britons prowling for prey” appeared. They entered the property, 
insults were offered, a fight took place, and the surviving whites and 
blacks were marched off as prisoners of war. They were first taken to 
Detroit where the slaves were sold and then the white prisoners were 
marched to Montreal, 600 miles away. Judge Powell was then in 
Montreal and saw the prisoners brought in. He had opportunity to 
talk with Mrs. La Force and collected sufficient money to obtain some 
food and clothing for the entire family. Mrs. La Force next day gave 
him a complete list of the slaves and their purchasers. This he trans- 
mitted to the Commander-in-Chief at Quebec, Sir Frederic Haldimand, 
who sent forward to Detroit orders for the return of the slaves to Mrs. 
La Force, but it was impossible to carry it out, and when Judge Powell 
went to Detroit some of the officers of the Indian Department still re- 
tained their booty in the shape of slaves. The attempt to get ridof the 
Judge by the forged letter was doubtless prompted by the fear that he 
might attempt to revive the claims of Mrs. La Force and her children. 
“The awful termination of the career of the libellers (one by 
drowning in a state of intoxication, the other in foreign dungeon 
for no good) gave quiet to the Refugee so long as he continued sole 
Judge of the District of Hesse when his removal to the Provincial 
Court of King’s Bench closes the first part of this narrative.” 
Andso it turns out that not only was the account of Judge Powell’s 
trip to Quebec in 1792 “very much exaggerated,” but that back of it 
there is a bit of Canadian history that, while it reveals a sad story of 
frontier life, reflects honor and credit upon the man who played an im- 
portant part in the formation of Upper Canada and in the War of 1812, 
and whose “manly, independent qualities endeared him to the people, 
and gained for him a high reputation as a Judge.” (Read) 
