Among the Thousand Islands. 



587 



DOCK WHERE THE STEAMER " PEEL " WAS BURNED. 



Johnston was originally a British subject, but turned renegade, 

 serving as a spy in the war of 181 2, in which capacity he is said to 

 have robbed the mails to gain intelligence. He hated his native 

 country with all the bitterness which a renegade alone is capable of 

 feeling. He was one of the earliest agitators upon the American 

 side of the border, and was the one who instigated the destruction 

 of the Peel. A reward was offered by the government of each 

 country for his apprehension, — so he was compelled to take to the 

 islands for safety. Here he continued for several months, though 

 with numbers of hair-breadth escapes, in which he was assisted by 

 his daughter, who seems to have been a noble girl, and who is still 

 living at Clayton. Many stories are told of remarkable acts per- 

 formed by him, — of his choking up the inlet of the Lake of the Isle 

 with rocks, so as to prevent vessels of any size entering that sheet 

 of water ; of his having a skiff in which he could outspeed any 

 ordinary sailing craft, and which he carried bodily across necks of 

 land when his enemies were in pursuit of him, and of his hiding in 

 all manner of out-of-the-way spots, once especially in the Devil's 

 Oven, previously described, to which his daughter, who alone was in 

 his confidence, disguised as a boy, carried provisions. He was finally 

 captured and sent to Albany, where, after suffering a slight penalty 



