Open Road — Guides — Railroads — Canals — Bridges 



the waters emptying into Lake Superior from the northward. — 1799 

 This town, when the banks of the different lakes and rivers are 8 en 

 settled by husbandmen, which is at no distant period, must have 

 a vast increase of trade, for without doubt all British manufac- 

 tures, thro' these vast water communications, will come much 

 cheaper, through the whole course of its windings, than can be 

 afforded from any other quarter. Goods on importation being 

 liable to no duty, which will undoubtedly give this country a vast 

 advantage over the new settlements that I have described in my 

 former letters ; indeed nature points out this place as the emporium 

 of trade for the people inhabiting both sides of these lakes and 

 rivers emptying into them as far as they extend to the west. From 

 Montreal, boats called by the Canadians batteaux, containing 

 twenty-five barrels bulk, are worked by four men to Kingston, a 

 distance of nigh two hundred miles up the river in the course of 

 six or eight days, and again return in three, loaded with furs, pot- 

 ash, and other produce of the country. — Vessels, generally 

 schooners, receive the goods at Kingston, and convey them in a 

 short time, to the landing at Queenston, below the great falls of 

 Niagara. Here the portage gives employment to a number of 

 teams in transporting them to Chipawa as before described ; — 

 they are again received at Fort Erie in vessels of the same burthen 

 as formerly, which navigate all Lake Erie, Huron, and Michigan. 

 The expences incurred during all this rout are comparatively 

 trifling, as you will observe there is but one portage, and that only 

 ten miles in the course of this communication. And when one 

 reflects on the temperate climate, rich soil, and other natural 

 advantages of this interior country, you anticipate a great popula- 

 tion in a short time. — The streights of Niagara, from its peculiar 

 situation, being the channel through which all the produce of the 

 vast country above must pass, is looked forward to as a place of 

 the first consequence, and where a farmer will at all times find a 

 market for his produce, the transport being easy from thence to 

 the Atlantic. 



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