FRENCH INN. 201 



sary to enter a horse at the customhouse on crossing the 

 Detroit river ; and at the time suspected it was as much with 

 the view of obtaining the fees, as complying with law, the 

 owner of the horse requested me to apply at the customhouse 

 with which he was connected. 



The road from the town of Detroit, or rather Sandwich, 

 which is on the Canadian side of the river Detroit, to Chatham, 

 passes along the margin of Lake St Clair and the river 

 Thames, and is the chief line of communication with the 

 most westerly and other parts of Canada ; yet except in the 

 neighbourhood of Detroit and Chatham, I could not obtain 

 oats or Indian corn to feed my horse. My first application 

 was at the door of a newly erected house on Lake St Clair, 

 in which I observed two young men through the window, and 

 a voice answered to come round to the other door, on tapping 

 at which I was told to come in, and on lifting the latch I 

 found three men and two women, none of whom rose from 

 their seats, or could tell me where my horse could be fed. 

 At length I came to a house near the mouth of the Thames, 

 with a French signpost at the door, where I stopt for an hour, 

 my horse getting only coarse marsh hay. 



This inn is situated on a ridge of sand thrown up by the 

 lake, and about two feet above its waters; the surrounding 

 country, for miles on all sides, being a marsh and destitute of 

 inhabitants, another unoccupied house being a few hundred 

 yards distant. Here a Canadian Frenchwoman of prepossessing 

 appearance resided, and who spoke the English language 

 tolerably well. Her husband died the previous year of cholera, 

 and a young man who assisted her since, died a week or two 

 before my arrival, of small-pox, and two girls were then just 

 recovering from the same complaint. She told me a traveller 

 had scarcely entered her door for seven weeks, and there was 

 no one to fetch her oats and other necessaries. My poor 

 horse, which was the roughest-motioned creature I everbestrode, 

 became tired, and I was anxious to shorten his journey as 

 much as possible. 



I called on Mr John Goose, with whom I travelled to Bear 

 creek a month before, and who resided on the Thames, four 

 miles below Chatham. He was in the woods bringing home 



