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Missionaries. The Indians at St. Regis possess a
vague tradition concerning them, which they relate
as follows: "A long time ago the Caughnawaga
Indians were going west on a warlike expedition
and made these paintings on their way up. They
were all killed. The number of marks denote the
number of the party.”
Opposite the village of Oak Point, in the Town¬
ship of Elizabethtown, is a painting on a rock, re¬
presenting thirty-five men in a canoe, and a cross,
evidently intended to commemorate some event.
The cross, the emblem of the Christian faith, and
especially held in reverence by the Roman Catholics,
indicates with sufficient clearness the modern origin
of the sketches. Perhaps they form a connecting
link in the chain of events that occurred under the
French dynasty. But whatever their origin, they
are interesting as examples of the symbolical records
used by savages, to preserve the memory of events
and the tastes of a race which is fast passing away.
The sketch opposite Oak Point was apparently done
in vermillion, while those at Brockville were ex¬
ecuted in ochre. When first observed by the British
settlers, they were very distinct, and for many years
it was customary for the Indians, when passing up
the river in the spring, to stop for a few days and re¬
paint the sketches. All traces of the drawings will
be obliterated in a few years, by the destroying hand
of time.
The telics of French occupation are scattered
along the frontier, and yet mark the untiring energy
with which they labored to preserve New France
from the encroachments of the English. The flag
was first planted on the St. Lawrence by these hardy
explorers, when Fort Frontenac, (Kingston), was
built in 1662. La Presentation, (Ogdensburg), with
its mission house and stockade, sprang into exist¬
ence, under the guidance and direction of the inde¬
fatigable missionary, Father Picquet. At Point au
Barril (Maitland), they constructed a ship-yard of
considerable capacity. Isle Royal (Chimney Island,
below Ogdensburg) was strongly fortified; and
offered a stubborn resistance to the force under Lord
Amherst. On the upper extremity of Carleton
Island, is an abrupt bluff, upon which was perched
an old French Fort. The following description of
the ruins is from the pen of an American writer :—
“Perched aloft, perceptible to all passers-by along
the river, and distinctly visible for miles around,
stand a number of toppling and half-ruined chim¬
neys. Like so many sentinels, standing, solemn
faced, waiting for the blessed time of rest that will
relieve them from duty, they watch over the ruins
of the fort. The early history of the place is almost
é
lost, insomuch that it is supposed by some to be the
ruin of old Fort Frontenac. In the year 1760, it fell
into the hands of the English, by whom it was gar¬
risoned. During the war of 1812, it was captured
by one Hubbard, an American, who found the
fortress garrisoned by two women and three invalids.
The fort was burned, and the prisoners removed to
Cape Vincent. An antiquated well, dug through
the Trenton limestone, has been converted by the
vivid imaginations of natives into a receptacle of
the doubloons which the French, upon evacuating
The
fortress was built in the most elaborate manner,
after the system of Vauban, and exhibits skill of the
very highest order in constructing defences. The
fortifications in the rear are semi-circular in form;
the trench, four feet deep and twenty feet broad, is
cut through the solid limestone, the glacis, which is
approached by a gradual elevation, being constructed
the fort are said to have thrown therein.
of the same material to the height of four feet.
nable, and the precipitous side was, probably, merely
defended by a stockade.”
‘Numbers of graves lie in a flat field immediately
back of the fort, many of which have been excavated
by relic-seekers. Back in the island, in a copse, are
the remains of an Indian burying ground, where
numbers of stone arrowheads, tomahawks, etc., have
been dug up. Immediately upon the bluff over¬
looking the Canadian channel are still older graves,
where, it is said, as the bluff slowly wears away, an
occasional grinning skull or grisly bone is exposed
to the long excluded light of heaven.”
During the war of 1812, block houses were built
at several points along the frontier, one occupying
the small island directly in front of Brockville,
(now occupied by the round-house of the Brockville
& Ottawa Railway); one situated on Chimney
Island, near Mallorytown landing; and one at
Gananoque. Rifle pits were also constructed on the
bank of the river, in the vicinity of La Rue’s Mills.
The historical points connected with the Rebellion
of 1837, are the windmill at Prescott, and fortifica¬
tions on Hickory Island, situated about four miles
from Gananoque.
The Thousand Islands have during the last few
years become a place of resort during the heated
term, no other locality on the Canadian frontier
equalling it in picturesque and beautiful scenery,
or in facilities for boating and gunning. The
number of islands is about ¢wo thousand; they
vary in size from a few square yards to eight
thousand acres, the latter being the extent of Wells
Island.