of Smith, and in connection with that township, in a future page, will be found the names of those brave men, and such account as we have been able to gather, of the incidents, difficulties and privations attending their early settlement in the bush.

In May 1819, a party of gentlemen from "the front" came up the Otonabee in a skiff, for the purpose of selecting a mill site, and otherwise "prospecting" in the new townships. These were Charles Fothergill, Esq., at one time M. P. P. for Durham, Thomas Ward, Esq., of Port Hope, Clerk of the Peace for the District, John Farrelly, Surveyor, Adam Scott, Millwright, and Barnabas Bletcher. Mr. John Edmison, now of Smith, then an intending settler, who had already drawn a lot of land at hazard, accompanied them.

They landed just above Spaulding's bay, at a spot which was afterwards a steamboat landing, and near the site in after years of the steam saw mill of Messrs. Shaw and Fortune, the chimney of which alone is now standing. Scott here discharged his gun, and then by means of the flint of the lock a fire was kindled, the party assisting in gathering wood for the purpose. After a lunch, which sufficed for supper, they lay down around the fire, beneath the spreading branches of the trees and slept.

Next morning Edmison and Ward started for Mud Lake, following the blaze on the trees along the communication line, and sharing the meals of some of the settlers of the previous year. Ward was the owner of the land comprising the site of the present village of Bridgenorth; and having accomplished their object, they returned to the scene of their open air encampment. Here the other prospecting party were found in good spirits, and discussing the project for a future mill. By damming up the creek which still traverses the site of the Town, and conveying the water along a short excavation to the steep bank of the Otonabee river, an eligible mill-site would be obtained, and at a trifling cost compared with the expense of attempting to control the rapidly descending waters of the Otonabee, at any point in the neighborhood.

Well pleased with the results of this exploration visit, the party passed down the river, and across Rice Lake on the same evening. The little piece of engineering thus projected was successfully carried out, and in about two years Mr. Adam Scott had a small saw and grist mill in operation under one roof. The same water privilege is still in use, though turned to much better account in the large frame mill in active operation on the corner of King and Water streets.

Further reference will be made to this first mill, which, though necessarily a small structure, and the machinery imperfect, was nevertheless a great boon to the early settlers.

A reference to the first settlers in their several localities will be made as our task progresses. A cursory allusion to the settlement in Smith seemed necessary here, in order to preserve in the reader's mind the relative date of events which occurred prior to the survey or settlement of the Town, or the advent of the Immigration of 1825, to which we now address ourselves.

CHAPTER II.

THE IMMIGRATION OF 1825.

Not only was the Town of Peterborough without a single inhabitant in the Spring of 1825, save Mr. Scott, the proprietor of the mill and a workman or two who assisted him, but the settlers in the adjoining townships were few, and their prospects far from encouraging. Two families only were settled in Douro, those of Robert Reid, Esq., and the Honble Thos. Alex. Stewart, afterwards a life member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. Besides the little colony in Smith already referred to, a few adventurous settlers had found their way into Otonabee, Asphodel, Monaghan and Emily, but very little land had been brought into cultivation. The country languished and many even of the best settlers felt despondent as to the prospects of the future.*

Up till this period the entire number of settlers occupying the townships north of Rice Lake did not exceed five hundred.† During the autumn of that year a large accession was made to their numbers by an Emigration on an extensive scale chiefly from the south of Ireland, conducted by the Honble Peter Robinson, under the auspices of the British government, which greatly conduced to the speedy settlement and improvement of the country. Four hundred and fifteen families availed themselves of the advantages thus afforded them, comprising in all 2,024 souls.||

*Capt. Rubidge's Evidence before the Committee of the Brit. Par,-1847. Question 2653. +Capt. Rubidge's evidence before the Imperial Emigration Committee in 1847, as quoted in a pamphlet "Ireland and Canada," by Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, Bart., G. C. H. Page 41. Capt, Rubidge's evidence 1847. Question 2,665.

Horton's Ireland and Canada." Page 34.

The ships laden with the emigrants sailed from Cork in May, 1825, and after a very speedy passage, in only one case exceeding 31 days, arrived at Quebec, from whence they were immediately forwarded to Kingston. Here they remained for nearly two weeks, mostly in tents, and owing to the intense heat of the season many of them suffering from fever and ague. Mr. Robinson in the meantime had sailed from Liverpool to New York, and proceeded from thence to Toronto by way of Niagara. We mention this as illustrating the round about manner of reaching the capital of Canada from Great Britain in those days, compared with the direct routes and expedition of the present time.

Having procured from the Surveyor General such information as he could, in reference to the lands he was about to settle, he proceeded to Cobourg and thence to Peterborough, or "Scott's plains" as it was then. called, and spent six days in exploring the townships, aided by Mr., afterwards Colonel, McDonell, whom he describes as "an intelligent and respectable young man well acquainted with the country." In the minutes of his evidence taken before the Emigration Committee in London in 1827,† we find the following narrative of subsequent events:-" On the 11th August," said Mr. Robinson, "I embarked five hundred on board of a steam-boat, and landed them the next day at Cobourg on Lake Ontario, a distance of one hundred miles; the remainder of the settlers were brought up in the same manner, the boat making a trip each week. Our route from Cobourg to Smith, at the head of the Otonabee River, lay through a country as yet very thinly inhabited; the road leading from Lake Ontario to the Rice Lake (12 miles) hardly passable, and the Otonabee River in many places very rapid, and the water much lower than it had been known for many years. The first thing I did was to repair the road, so that loaded waggons might pass; and in this work I received every assistance from the magistrates of the District, who gave me fifty pounds from the District funds; and this sum, together with the labor of our people, enabled me to improve the road in ten days so much that our provisions and baggage could be sent across with ease, and three large boats were transported on wheels from Lake Ontario to the Rice Lake. The Otonabee River is navigable for twenty-five miles, although in many places it is very rapid, and at this season there was not water enough to float a boat of the ordinary construction over some of the shoals. To remedy this difficulty,

* Mr. Robinson's evidence before Select Committee of the Imperial Parliament. Third Report 1827. Page 346.

+ Third Report of Select Committee, 1827. Page 346.

I had a boat built of such dimensions as I thought might best answer to ascend the rapids, and had her completed in eight days. So much depended upon the success of this experiment that I felt great anxiety until the trial was made; and I cannot express the happiness I felt at finding that nothing could more fully have answered our purposes, and this boat, sixty feet in length and eight feet wide, carrying an immense burthen, could be more easily worked up the stream, than one of half the size carrying comparatively nothing. Now that I had opened the way to the depot at the head of the river, there was no other difficulty to surmount than that which arose from the prevailing sickness, the fever and ague, which at this time was as common among the old settlers as ourselves. The first party I ascended the river with consisted of twenty men of the country. hired as axe-men, and thirty of the healthiest of the settlers; not one of these men escaped the ague and fever, and two died."

The boat alluded to was flat bottomed, and was propelled by several oars at each side. It would carry between twenty and thirty persons with a large amount of luggage, and, with hard work, the distance from Gore's landing to "Scott's plains" could be made in a day. The landing place was that before mentioned, just above Spaulding's Bay, and at the spot afterwards used as a steamboat landing.

Immediately on arriving here with their slender store of worldly goods, the immigrants set about constructing rude huts or wigwams, composed of slabs, bark, or the branches of trees, and sods, to shelter them from the weather during the interval which must elapse before they could be located upon their lands in the neighboring Townships. As one boat load after another was discharged upon the landing, and the crowd of immigrants increased, the "plains" began to present a lively and animated appearance. The temporary huts were dotted here and there in groups, or singly, as the attraction of acquaintance or the facilities of shelter offered, while the bustle consequent upon landing and the details of perfecting the arrangements, and above all, the novelty of the present, and the uncertainty of the future, must have deeply impressed the minds of the more thoughtful and observing as they gazed upon the scene.

The buildings erected by Mr. Robinson on his arrival, to serve as a residence for himself, his clerks and servants, as well as those used as storehouses and offices, will be referred to hereafter, and described, both as to their appearance and location, in the chapter treating more especially of the early settlement of the Town of Peterborough.

Among those who assisted Mr. Robinson in dispensing the Government rations was Wesley Ritchie and Captain John Armstrong, who subsequently settled in Douro. These rations consisted of one pound of pork and one pound of flour for each person over 14 years of age, half a pound of these to children between five and 11 years. A pound of meat and flour was also allowed to every four children under five years of age,—a description of food to which they were unaccustomed, which more than supplied their wants, and the surplus of which was not unfrequently exchanged for whis. key or other less injurious commodities. These rations were continued for a period of 18 months, the chief portion of the provisions having to be brought in from Cobourg and elsewhere along the frontier.

*

The task of locating the emigrants, Mr. Robinson speaks of as "by far the most troublesome and laborious part of the service." In this he was ably assisted by Mr. Alexander McDonell, (subsequently Colonel of Militia) Mr. John Smith, and by Capt. Rubidge, R. N., who in 1819 had settled in Otonabee, nine miles south of Peterboro'. The latter gave his services gratuitously, and rendered efficient aid in locating the immigrants in Otonabee, and subsequently conducted two later immigrations on a smaller scale, to which reference will be made hereafter.

The plan adopted was to send out the immigrants in groups, accompanied by one or more guides, to examine the land and choose their locations. One hundred acres of land was allotted to each family of five persons, and a lot having been chosen was set down in the name of the head of the family. In some instances, even the sons, if they were grown up and of a certain age, received 100 acres of land also.† Contracts were then let by Mr. Robinson, to former settlers and others to erect a shanty upon each lot, at an average cost of $10 each; roads were hastily cut through the forest, and a few oxen and horse teams purchased by Mr. Robinson to transport the immigrants and their luggage to their new homes. The greater number of oxen and horse teams engaged in this work, however, belonged to old settlers south of Rice Lake, hired for this purpose, and brought up through the bush in the best way they could. A great deal of expense and inconvenience might have been spared, as Capt. Rubidge pointed out in his evidence before the select committee of the British Parliament in 1847, had roads been previously cut, and houses of accommodation provided at

*Capt. Rubidge's evidence before the Imperial Emigration Committee, 1847. Question 2675. Ibid. Question 2672.

Capt. Rubidge-Report of select committee, 1847. Page 283.