Part 5 (1/2)

”Ah!” said the Chief, turning away from him with a frown, and blowing a snort like a porpoise--his usual habit when angry--”bad weeds grow fast,” and immediately left the house.

While the people and McNab were involved in these disputes, they did not neglect the social duties imposed on them as heads of families.

Hitherto, there were no means of instruction, however poor, for the young, and they determined to procure some smattering of education for their children. Accordingly this year (1837) two schools were established in the towns.h.i.+p; one in ”Canaan,” near Mr. Wm. McNevin's, and the other in ”Goschen,” on the 4th concession line. Duncan Campbell, Peter McMillan, John McDermaid, and James Carmichael, four of the original settlers, with their families, had moved up to this more fertile locality in 1832, and their families were growing up without education of any kind. Indeed, some of the most intelligent men in the towns.h.i.+p, the sons of the first settlers are self-taught.

Three of them in particular, have occupied prominent positions; John Robertson and Duncan Campbell, of the Dochart, have been Reeves and Councillors, respectively. John Robertson was a J.P., and Duncan Campbell, for his smartness at figures, was Auditor for several years, and Donald McLaren, (son of Jas. McLaren, one of McNab's ”black sheep,”) was a Councillor for many years, and a thorough and well-posted politician.

The people, in conjunction with the inhabitants of the neighboring munic.i.p.ality of Horton, were beginning to agitate the question of getting a minister and building a church. The Presbytery hitherto had sent one of their number annually to preach and baptize the children, and remind the people of the faith and religion of their fathers. The preaching and meetings were held at the house and barn of Mr. Donald Fisher, until the bridge at Johnston's Rock was constructed, and the people flocked to the rendezvous, from a distance of twelve miles and upwards. A lamentable accident occurred in 1836 at one of these gatherings. While John Stewart and John McNab Achesson--two of the best and n.o.blest-hearted Highlanders that ever settled in McNab--were crossing the Madawaska at Johnston's Rock, in the middle of the Long Rapids, the canoe upset, and both of them were drowned. John McNab was an expert swimmer, but in endeavoring to save Stewart, he was locked in his struggling embrace and both sank never more to rise.

As soon as the bridge was completed, the people made preparations to organize a society to procure spiritual ministers; and they so far succeeded that the Bathurst Presbytery in 1838 sent out a reverend gentleman once every three months to officiate in what was then looked upon as a half-civilized country. The Rev. Mr. Fairbairn, of Ramsay, was the first who commenced this quarterly mission tour. Such was the state of affairs at the close of 1837 and the commencement of the following year. The rebellion in both provinces had been put down; the Family Compact, with their little bantam, Sir Francis, began to crow; the people of McNab were fast verging to a state of revolt themselves, when the news reached this side of the Atlantic that the Earl of Durham and a special set of Commissioners were coming out to investigate all complaints and redress all grievances. This was news, indeed! It gave hope to the desponding, and inspired the settlers with new vigor. All hope was nearly crushed out by the supercilious mockery of their pet.i.tion by Sir Francis and his Executive Council, and the delusive falsehoods which his reply contained; but when the advent of Lord Durham was announced, vigorous measures were taken, and a thorough and combined system of organization was planned and adopted. Messrs. Allan Stewart, Angus McNab, Donald Mohr McNaughton, Peter Campbell Dochart, Daniel (Dancie) and James Carmichael, tacitly became the recognized leaders of the movement, the details of which will be found in subsequent chapters.

CHAPTER XII.

AN ANTIc.i.p.aTION--MR. ALLAN'S REPORT.

The facts we are now about to record are incredible to persons who have had no act or part in the struggles of the settlers, and of so improbable a character that they might be treated as pure fiction, or at least as gross exaggerations. In order to do away with this impression, and preserve a connected thread to this very important narrative, the writer has now brought forward a doc.u.ment, which in point of time is subsequent to the events we are recording. While we are narrating facts we desire the reader to be satisfied with their truth and correctness; therefore we proceed to publish the Report of the Special Commissioner sent by Lord Sydenham to investigate the alleged grievances of the pet.i.tioners, and to report on their pet.i.tion.

[COPY.]

TORONTO, 8th July, 1840.

SIR,--I am directed by His Excellency, the Governor-General-in-Council, to inform you that his Excellency has appointed you a Special Commissioner to investigate the complaints of the settlers in the towns.h.i.+p of McNab in your District, and you will report direct to His Excellency in Council. You will proceed, immediately on the receipt of this communication, to the work of investigation, taking the pet.i.tion of Angus McNab and others as your basis.--You will be minute and particular in your examinations, and will visit every lot, value the same, and if possible see every settler personally, and ascertain from him the truth or falsity of the complaints made to the Government.

I have the honor to be, etc., (Signed), W. H. LEE, _C. E. Council_.

FRANCIS ALLAN, ESQ., } _Crown Land Agent_, } Bathurst District, Perth.}

[REPLY.]

BATH. DISTRICT OFFICE, } PERTH, 4th Nov., 1840. }

SIR,--In compliance with the desire of His Excellency in Council, I beg to enclose you remarks upon the pet.i.tion of Angus McNab and others, settlers in the towns.h.i.+p of McNab, which I trust will meet the approbation of the Council, and

I am, etc., (Signed), FRANCIS ALLAN, _Agent, Bathurst District_.

W. H. LEE, ESQ., } _C. E. Council, Toronto_. }

[REPORT.]

Remarks upon the Pet.i.tion of Angus McNab and other settlers in the Towns.h.i.+p of McNab, on the inspection and Report of the general affairs of the Towns.h.i.+p of McNab, by Francis Allan, Agent of the Honorable, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, in the Bathurst District:

With regard to the a.s.sertion of the Pet.i.tioners that the McNab ”cannot show where he has laid out one s.h.i.+lling for their behoof,”

I have to state that after the most minute enquiries on the subject, both amongst the settlers and others in the neighborhood, I have not found it in a single instance contradicted. The roads, except where naturally hard and dry, are in a most miserable condition; and the settlers state that they have been prevented from working upon the regular lines of road by the McNab's exercising his authority as a magistrate, and calling them to work upon roads which they allege was either to conduce to his own personal advantage, or gratify his caprice. They state that they have been frequently called upon by him to expend their statute labor upon a new road in one season, and before the next, it was laid aside and another projected. The two roads of approach on the south-east side of the towns.h.i.+p are most wretched--one of them all but impa.s.sable, a horse going to the belly every few rods, at least on one of them, for miles together, in the month of August. And yet I have not been able to discover that the MacNab ever laid out one s.h.i.+lling for the repair of roads, beyond his ordinary statute-labor. I heard, indeed, that he subscribed 20 to a.s.sist in building a bridge across the Madawaska at Arnprior; but he paid it in oak cut off the Crown or settlers' lands, hewn by the settlers, either on their own private time, or time which they had subscribed for the bridge, and sold to the contractors at so much a foot. Therefore, whatever he might have subscribed, I conceive he paid nothing.

McNab has stated (and he has done so in my presence), that he had to convey all the provisions for his settlers at the commencement upon men's backs, from Bolton's Mills in Beckwith. It is most confidently affirmed--and that in the most general way--that one pound of provisions was never conveyed from hence, or anywhere else, at his expense for the benefit of the settlers. They were under the necessity of travelling into Beckwith and Ramsay amongst their friends and acquaintances to procure provisions for themselves and families upon credit. And many of the settlers and others state that had it not been for the generosity of the Beckwith people they possibly might have perished; and worse than all, McNab wrote to one or more of the inhabitants of Beckwith, cautioning them against trusting or crediting his settlers.

That he has obtained timber-duties, less or more, since the year 1832 to the present time, is perfectly true--previous to his obtaining the privilege of the timber-duties in 1835, and even since, he was in the habit of granting licenses to cut timber on lands which he had actually located, and of locating lots in names of persons apparently for no other purpose than to obtain the timber. I have had no opportunity of judging of the amount of his receipts from this source, but felt confident it must have been immense, and do not discredit the statements in the pet.i.tion, either with regard to his receipts in general, or this season. A person named Duncan Campbell, residing on No. 23 in 12th concession stated to me that he was ready to prove that he got his license from McNab to cut timber in the month of January last, but it was dated in the month of August preceding.