1892-93.] EARLY TRADERS AND TRADE ROUTES. 305 



It is to be regretted that this journal has not been preserved either 

 in the Haldimand collection or among the Colonial Office records. 



" Return of batteau loads of merchandise ordered by merchants at 

 Detroit for 1780 — 90 loads." 



Col. Watson Powell to Haldimand, 25th May, 1781. — "The Detroit 

 merchants having no cover for their goods at Fort Erie I desired the 

 engineers to mark out ground for a storehouse there and have given leave 

 to Mr. Garner who came from England last summer, to build one. 



Walter Butler to Capt. R. Matthews, 2nd August, 1781. — " The rangers 

 are made drudges of, for Mr. Stedman and others." 



Col. H. Dundas to Major R. Matthews, 13th September, 1782. — 

 " Mr. Thompson, a merchant here, has applied to me for leave to send a 

 person to Toronto, opposite this, to trade with the Indians. I told him I 

 could not grant his request until His Excellency's pleasure on that head 

 was known. I must observe that Mr. Thompson is a very modest sort 

 of man and has suffered much from the rebels on the Mohawk river." 



Extract from the humble address of farmers residing on the west side 

 of the river Niagara, 1783. — "We have no objection to furnish the 

 garrison at a reasonable price what quantity they may want, fixed by 

 the commanding officer, at the same time we beg leave to sell to the 

 merchants and others at the price we can agree on from being obliged to 

 pay merchants their own price for everything we want." 



Haldimand's letters show that he kept a watchful eye upon the conduct 

 of the traders everywhere, and that he was always anxious to promote 

 the true interests of commerce. 



In April, 1 78 r , he wrote Capt. Sinclair, lieutenant-governor of Mackinac. 

 — " The season for the departure of the trading canoes bound up the 

 Grand River being arrived, and the traders very solicitous for their passes, 

 I am obliged to gratify their wishes, although I should have been glad to 

 have heard from the Indian countries before they set out, which the 

 backwardness of the season has prevent-ed. I have, however, taken the 

 necessary precaution of laying on them the strictest injunctions of 

 submitting implicitly to such restrictions as from circumstances unknown 

 here and the good of his majesty's service you may see fit to lay them 

 under, and I must earnestly desire that you will pay the utmost attention 

 to the respective destinations of these traders who, I cannot help thinking, 

 under a pretext of exercising the fur trade, abuse the indulgences granted 

 them for that purpose, and do many things injurious to the king's 

 interest and likewise to the reputation of the trade. I am not so well 



