302 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. IV. 



«nce of Captain Tvviss and Lieut. Glenie, of the Royal Engineers, in 

 1780 and 1781. 



Thirty years later, the latter officer referred with pride, in a letter to 

 Lord Bathurst, to his share in the construction of the Coteau canal. 



" At Coteau there is a violent rapid where formerly the loaded batteaux 

 in going up the river were obliged to be unloaded and every article had 

 to be carried across a neck of land composed of limestone. I cut a canal 

 through it and erected a storehouse on one side. It was the first canal 

 with locks ever made in Canada." 



The volume of trade at Niagara rather increased than diminished 

 in consequence of the war, although the quantity of furs brought in was 

 much less than formerly. There are no statistics available of the amount 

 of merchandise and peltry passing the portage around the falls, but it was 

 undoubtedly large. 



A letter from General Schuyler, dated in February 1776, contains the 

 statement that "Mr. Francis Phister, a half-pay lieutenant in the Royal 

 Americans who has bought an estate and resides in this county (Albany), 

 has a contract to supply the carriages on the Niagara Carrying Place, by 

 which, I have been informed, he clears between three and four hundred a 

 year." At the same time Philip Stedman had acquired a monopoly of 

 the right of transporting all goods over this portage. 



The traders frequenting the country of the Six Nations took sides in 

 the contest as their inclinations or interests dictated, the great majority 

 however remaining faithful to their allegiance. We hear on the one hand 

 of "Peter i\yckman, an Albany trader," acting as a spy for General 

 Schuyler at Niagara and regularly sending him intelligence, and on the 

 other, that " John Johnson, formerly an Oneida trader," was established 

 by Colonel Butler as his resident agent among the Senecas near Canan- 

 daigua Lake, and that despite habits of dissipation he rendered important 

 services. 



The official correspondence of successive commandants of Fort Nia- 

 gara with General Haldimand, and a stray bundle of letters from Francis 

 Goring, furnish occasional glimpses of the mercantile activity of that 

 post. 



Colonel Bolton wrote on the loth of November, 1777 : — 



" Governor Hamilton writes me that the merchants at Detroit have 

 come to an agreement to build a wharf at Fort Schlosser, and a store at 

 the water's edge 60 x 30, and also another of the same dimensions at the 

 landing place." 



