Page 25 [25]
town was to arise. Even the occupation of the
country by the British did not materially change
the condition of affairs, until the termination of the
American Revolution, which sent to our shores
thousands of King’s Men, who preferred the “Old
Flag" to Republican institutions.
At the time of the separation of the Provinces,
the population was not known, but was set down
at sixty-five thousand. This was probably an
exaggeration, as the total revenue for the thirteen
years from the rst of May, 1775, to the 1st of May,
1788, including arrears, was less than ten thousand
pounds,
Crna 4. iv
Tue JOHNSTOWN DistRICT—EARLY EXPLORATIONS
GOURLAY S REPORTS.
THE Johnston District, according to returns brought
down in 1849, contained 1,020,000 acres, of which
141,646 were Clergy Reserves. The District was
bounded on the west, north-west, north, and north¬
cast by the Midland, Bathurst, Daihcusie, and
Eastern Districts, and on the south, by the Kiver
St. Lawrence. Originally, portions of North Bur¬
gess, Montague, North Gower, and Marlborough
were integral parts of the District, the first survey
running the boundary line to the north of the
Rideau River. Subsequently, North Burgess and
Montague were changed to include the land south
to the Rideau, and attached to the County of
Lanark ; the same plan being pursued in reference
to Marlborough and North Gower, these townships
forming a part of the County of Carleton. Many
of the original settlers of Johnstown have, therefore,
by legislation, been removed from the jurisdiction
of the United Counties, yet deserve to be ranked
peers the pioneers of Leeds and Grenville.
. The County of Leeds contains the Townships of
Bastard and Burgess (united October 29th, 1849),
ae Crosby, South Crosby, Elizabethtown, Elms¬
he éj Escott, Kitley, Front of Leeds and Lansdowne,
Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne, Front of Yonge,
Re ear of Yonge and Escott, Incorporated Villages of
eeeenoaee and Newboro’, and the Town of
‘sella
eric.
_ The peeation of the Johnstown District was, in
)2 924 144741 ; in 1834, 28,061; in 1848, 43,436 ; and
L44208. Of Leeds and Grenville, in 1860,
Zz ™ . According to the census of 1871, Grenville
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South, 14,197 ; “North Leeds and Grenville, 13,5303
South Leeds, 20,716.
Previous to the declaration of war by the thirteen
original colonies against Great Britain, the Rev.
John Stuart, D.D., was acting missionary among the
Mohawks, reading the service regularly every
Sunday, first in English and then in Indian. Sir
William Johnston secured for the missionary a
handsome grant of land, which, in honor of his
patron, Mr. Stuart named Johnstown. Some time
after hostilities opened, Mr. Stuart was taken
prisoner of war by the Continental forces, in conse¬
quence of his loyalty to the British Crown, and his
estate forfeited; but, through the kindness of
Subsequently, he
settled at Cataraqui, receiving extensive grants of
land, partly in the vicinity of that place, and partly
at a point in Grenville, which, in memory of the
Johnstown, the village subsequently becoming the
entire District.
During the Indian supremacy, the unbroken
wilderness was traversed by ascending the great
streams in bark canoes, paddling, when compelled,
around the shores of the great lakes, surmount¬
ing rapids and other obstacles by carrying
their frail barks. Their frequent journeyings
created well-marked trails, that proved of the
greatest service to the early French missionaries
and explorers. The original routes from the sea¬
board were up the St. Lawrence River to ‘its
confluence with the Ottawa; thence, by that
stream, north to Lake Nipissing, and westward
to Georgian Bay. To reach Lake Ontario, the
path diverged so as to strike the head waters of
the Trent, descending which, the voyageurs found
themselves in the magnificent Bay of Quinte.
Lake Ontario was shown on the early maps as
Lake St. Louis, and subsequently as Lake Fron¬
tenac. A map is preserved in the Imperial Library
in Paris, in which the Indian name of Ontario is
given as Skaniadono, and bearing the date, 1688.
According to a map in the Patent Office at
Washington, the point on the Longley estate, at
the windmill below Prescott, where the battle was
fought in the so-called Patriot war, “Point aux
Lievres ;” the site of Brockville bearing the title,
“Fontaine Bequencourt.” Jones’ Creek is set down
s “Quagaran River.”
From Lake Ontario to Lake Huron, the route
was up the Bay of Quinte, the River Trent, Lake
Simcoe, and thence to Georgian Bay, Only