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4th May 1827
Sir,
I have the honour to report for the
information of Lord Goderich, that having been appointed to select
and take charge of a limited numbers of Emigrants from the South
of Ireland, and settle them in the Province of Upper Canada, I left
London on the 8th April 1825 and reached Mitchelstown in the County
of Cork on the 12th. From this date to the 23rd day of May I was
employed in selecting persons agreeably to my instructions, superintending
their embarkations and discharging the different ships employed
in their transportation.
To choose about two thousand individuals
out of fifty thousand who were anxious to emigrate was found a very
difficult and in many cases an ungrateful task: and altho' I was
assisted in the most zealous and friendly manner by the Noblemen,
Magistrates and respectable gentlemen of the Baronies from which
they were taken, the utmost vigilance became neccessary to prevent
imposition.----
In making my selection I gave each
man (head of a family) after being approved, a certificate, and
retained a duplicate, [example
1 #26 - example
2 # 206 large files] a method which I found on trial
to be a much better plan than merely keeping a register of their
names in a book.---- In a few instances persons holding these certificates
sold them to others who were perhaps still more desirous of emigrating,
and whose families nearly corresponded in age and number to their
own, but I believe in no instance did the deception succeed. ----
The surgeon of each transport had
orders to report as soon as he had received his compliment of settlers
on board, on which I proceeded to the ship and mustered them on
the main deck, the hatches were then closed except one, when in
the presence of the surgeon and master I took the original certificates
which had been given over by the head of each family to the surgeon
at the time of his embarkation, and from there after comparing them
with the duplicates in my own possession, I called over the names
of each individual belonging to the different families, and made
them pass before me, and when I was satisfied they were of the age
and description given in by the father and that no impostion had
been practised, they were sent between decks. ----
In choosing the emigrants the instructions
that they should be small farmers, able to make good settlers, and
without the means of supporting themselves in Ireland were scrupulously
adhered to. ----
In one particular I was induced to
deviate in a few instances which was admitting a very small number
above the age of forty five -- they are however farmers of superior
intelligence and character to the other emigrants and appear from
their experience in agriculture and their greater practical knowledge
capable of giving a good example to the settlers, and of contributing
essentially to the making of this second experiment still more creditable
than the first. ----
My anxiety to produce this desirable
result and the intelligence manifested by the persons in question
and the good character which they produced will I hope be deemed
a sufficient excuse for this deviation in a few instances.
Nor is it irrelevant to remark that
aged men and women when carefully selected are of great service
by their influence and advice in keeping up order, temperance and
kindliness among the settlers, and in repressing discontent, insobriety
and contention. ----
It was of great importance to one
that in selecting the persons most proper to emigrate I was assisted
by the neighbouring Noblemen, Magistrates and Gentry, because notwithstanding
every precaution, murmers were heard, and accusations were made.
----
These were the more difficult to remove
or answer because they seldom descended to particular cases!
but were so conducted as to produce a general impression if not
contradicted the the emigrants selected wore the exterior appearance
at least of having been exempted from that distress which their
removal from the County was intended to remedy, and consequently
that they were not of the description of persons who it was the
intention of Parliament to relieve. ----
It was fortunate that these things
came to my ears before I left Ireland, as it afforded me the opportunity
of submitting my instructions to several gentlemen of the first
respectabilty and honour, who could not be supposed in any way interested
and who had an opportunity by personal inspection and enquiry to
ascertain how far these instructions had governed my conduct. ----
I therefore applied to the Mayor of
Cork and Sir Anthony Perrier to accompany me on board of the ships
Fortitude, Resolution, Albion and Brunswick
then at Cove and ready for sea, that by the most minute investigation
they might ascertain how far the settlers on board of these ships
corresponded with the description of persons whom I was instructed
to select. -- Their certificate I beg leave to annex. -- Nor was
this all, so deeply did I feel my responsibilty that I invited Mr.
Horace Townsend and Mr. Callaghan to examine the emigrants after
they were all on board, and to assist me in detecting any imposition
which might have been practised upon me, in order that even at that
late period the object of such imposition might be discovered and
punished. ----
I was the more anxious the procure
the assistance of these two Gentlemen because I had been given to
understand that they entertained a very unfavourable opinion of
the mode of delection [sic], and in particular imagined that the
recommendation of the Noblemen, Magistrates and gentry to whom I
had been particularly referred had been confined to their own tenancy.
---- The result was the most satisfactory, every suspicion was removed,
and the approbation of the Gentlemen above noticed given with the
utmost sincerity and good will to the faithfulness of my selection.
----
I beg to add the testimony of the
Magistrates attending the Petty Sessions at Ceciltown County of
Cork:-
We hereby certify that on Mr. Robinson's arrival in this country
in the year 1823 the people of our neighbourhood were disinclined
to accompany him to Canada, appearing to doubt the advantages
held out by the Government to persons willing to emigrate to that
country being realized on their arrival; and it was with great
difficulty, the Gentlemen in whom they had confidence, could induce
them to believe that no deception was intended. ---- That since
that time their minds have undergone a total change, in consequence
as we conceive of the favourable accounts that have been received
from the settlers of 1823 -- and that on Mr. Robinson's recent
arrival in this County the applications were so very numerous
that it became a matter of great difficulty to make a selection
from amongst them; claims and qualifications being so nearly balanced.
---- That no persons however were approved of, but such as were
recommended by the written or personal applications of the respectable
gentlemen from whose neighbourhood they came, and were of the
description we understood from Mr. Robinson it was the intention
of the Government to prefer, such as the inhabitants of the disturbed
Districts, and farmers, and others in reduced circumstances, unable
to obtain an honest livelyhood at home or to pay their passage
to Canada.
Before quitting this part of my subject,
I feel also great pleasure in adding the testimony of thirty of
the most respectable gentlemen in the County of Cork to the success
of the former emigration, and the effect which it had produced on
the population generally. ---- They also recommended one hundred
families from their populous District whom were totally without
the means of subsistence, but of those I could only take a few.
----
We the undersigned Magistrates, Clergy and principal Inhabitants
of the Parishes of Passaye, Monkstown, Shanabally, Barnaheely
and Carrigline, beg leave to call your humane attention to the
alarming states of our numerous labouring classes in these extremely
poor and populous parishes. ----
We have tried various expedients by voluntary contributors and
through the aid of collections at charity sermons to mitigate
the distress which so awfully exists in this part of the County
of Cork, and in the vicinity of the City on the verge of the harbour.
-- Various cause have arisen to create this peculiar distress,
especially the number of idle hands who congregated from all parts
and who were thrown out of employment by the stoppage of the great
works on the fortifications of Spike Island and the completion
of the Naval and ordnance works at the Haulbowlin [Haulbowline]
and Rocky Islands. ----
Superadded to this there are nearly two thousand acres of land
unleased and untilled in a great measure and consequently unproductive
close to the town of Vassage and the village of Monkstown. Poverty
induced fever, fever numerous deaths of heads of families, which
have thrown numbers of widows and orphans on the bounty of the
benevolent, who feel in this neighbourhood all the evils of absentee-ship.
-- You have sir reduced what was deemed theory in 1823 to practise
through your skill ability and zeal, and your knowledge of Canada.
----
You have removed the prejudices which ignorance produced against
emigration to that Colony, by the successful experiment already
tried. ----
We are of opinion that about one hundred heads of families in
this Barony would gladly avail themselves of the bounty of Parliament
to proceed under your directions to the proposed locations. --
We therefore hope that you will be pleased to take measures to
relieve this District from a portion of our unfortunate population
who have no honest means of subsistence in the absence of productive
employment.
The whole number of Emigrants embarked amounted to 2024 in nine
transports as follows:- (the numbers of men and women per ship,
expressed in italics, are full adults included in number of males
& females above 14)
|
|
Thomas Lewis, Master
|
| 61 Men |
Mr. Francis Connin, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 48 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
89
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
56
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
75
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
62
|
| 10th May |
Total
|
282
|
|
|
Anthony Ward, Master
|
| 40 Men |
Mr. G.H. Reade Esq., Surgeon
|
| 38 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
61
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
61
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
58
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
47
|
| 10th May |
Total
|
227
|
|
|
John Mills, Master
|
| 37 Men |
Mr. Jno. Thomson, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 31 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
56
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
39
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
52
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
44
|
| 11th May |
Total
|
191
|
|
|
Robert Blake, Master
|
| 63 Men |
Mr. Jno. Tarn, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 58 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
108
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
76
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
92
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
67
|
| 11th May |
Total
|
343
|
|
|
Joseph Becket, Master
|
| 35 Men |
Mr. Ninian McMorris, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 32 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
67
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
48
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
55
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
44
|
| 13th May |
Total
|
214
|
|
|
William Arrowsmith, Master
|
| 27 Men |
Mr. James McTeinan, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 24 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
47
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
40
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
42
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
18
|
| 16th May |
Total
|
147
|
|
|
George Dixon, Master
|
| 29 Men |
Mr. Matthew Burnside, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 25 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
52
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
39
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
36
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
30
|
| 16th May |
Total
|
157
|
|
|
Donald Morrison, Master
|
| 45 Men |
Mr. Pierce Power, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 31 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
84
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
40
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
56
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
30
|
| 18th May |
Total
|
210
|
|
|
Peter Roche, Master
|
| 48 Men |
Mr. W. Burnie, R.N. Surgeon
|
| 38 Women |
|
| |
Males above - 14
|
88
|
| |
Males under - 14
|
60
|
| |
Females above - 14
|
58
|
| Sailed |
Females under - 14
|
47
|
| 25th May |
Total
|
253
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=====<<<<<000O000>>>>>=====
Having seen all the
emigrants embarked and under weigh I found it requisite to return
to London to make pecuniary arrangements. Accordingly I left Cork
on the 24th and arrived in London on the 27th May, and having made
such arrangements as were deemed sufficient, I got to Liverpool
on the 8th and sailed in the Panthea for New York on the
9th June. -- The passage was unusually long, and I did not reach
Niagara till the 28th July. -- Here I learned that the transports
conveying the emigrants had all arrived, having had very short passages,
not any of them except the John Barry had more than 31 days.
-- The greater number of the settlers had been actually forwarded
to Kingston, where they were encamped in tents by order of His Excellency
Sir Peregrine Maitland, and were anxiously waiting my arrival. --
I likewise understood that some of them were suffering from fever
and ague occasioned by the exposure to the heat of the season, the
thermometer having stood at 100 in the shade within the last ten
days. ----
Having delivered Lord Bathurst's dispatches
to His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland and received the warmest
assurances of support in forwarding the settlement of the emigrants,
as had indeed been strongly manifested in the measure which had
been already adopted by His Excellency in setting apart for their
reception the Townships in the rear of the Rice Lake, which consist
of as fine land as there is in the Province. ----
Leaving Niagara on the 30th July I
proceeded to York and procured without delay from the Surveyor General
all the information in his possession relative to the land which
I was about to settle. -- On the third of August I arrived at Cobourg
in a Waggon a distance of 70 miles from York, and altho' I felt
impatient to proceed to Kingston to see the settlers, yet on consideration
I thought I should forward my object more, by viewing the lands
on which they were to be located, ascertaining the means of communication
and the proper place for the depot of stores and provisions. --
Instead therefore of going forward to Kingston I went back into
the interior to ascertain there respective objects. -- Having employed
Mr. McDonell an intelligent and respectable young man well acquainted
with the Country as my guide I explored the different Rivers and
avenues of access to the lands allotted for the emigrants and was
highly gratified in discovering greater facilities of communication
than I had anticipated and that the tract was in every respect highly
eligible. -- I found that we could get our provisions and stores
forwarded half the distance by water and that there was a central
situation at the head of the Osanabee River highly convenient for
a depot.----
Having spent six days in exploring
the Woods and satisfied myself as to the quality of the situation
of the land, I joined the emigrants at Kingston. -- Here I found
them as comfortable as could reasonably be expected, some of them
suffering from fever and ague oweing [sic] to the intense heat of
the weather, tho' not in a greater proportion than the inhabitants
of the Province generally. ----
Every thing possible had been done
for their benefit by His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland. He had
appointed Col. Burke deputy superintendent who was in charge at
Kingston on my arrival, and Dr. Reade the Surgeon had been left
at Prescott to forward the settlers who still remained behind. ----
On the 11th August I embarked five
hundred on board of a steam boat and landed them the next day at
Cobourg on Lake Ontario a distance of 100 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 Osanabee 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 Osanabee 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 labour of our people enabled me to improve the road in ten days
so much that our provisions and luggage could be sent across with
ease, and three large boats were transported on wheels from Lake
Ontario to Rice Lake. ----
The Osanabee River is navigable for
twenty-four miles, altho' in many places it is very rapid and at
this season the was not water sufficient to float a boat of ordinary
size over some of the shoals. -- To remedy this difficulty I had
a boat constructed of such dimensions as I thought might best answer
to ascend the rapids, and had her completed in eight days. So much
depended on 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 purpose,
and that this boat sixty feet in length, carrying an immense burden
could be more easily worked up the stream than one half the size
carrying comparitively 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
ague and fever, which at this time was as common among the settlers
as ourselves. ----
The first party I ascended the River
with consisted of twenty men of the Country hired as axemen, and
thirty of the healthiest settlers, not one of these men escaped
the ague and fever and two died. -- This circumstance affords abundant
proof that the settlers were much better off encamped in the open
Country during the greatest heat of the weather, where they were
not only less liable to contract disease, but were also exempt from
being tormented by the flies which swarm in the woods during the
summer months. ----
The location of the Emigrants, by
far the most troublesome and labourious part of the service was
completed before the Winter commenced, and I had a small log house
built for each head of a family on their respective lots where they
reside and it gives me much pleasure to be enabled to assure you
that they have been obedient and well conducted, and that they have
cleared and cultivated as great a proportion of their land as could
be expected, as will appear by the annexed return. ----
Their letters to their friends in
Ireland will sufficiently prove how far they are satisfied with
their present condition, and it will be easy for me to furnish you
with such abundant evidence of their actual residence and industry,
as will fully satisfy you of their happy and prosperous condition.
----
With regard to myself I shall only
remark that from the commencement of my appointment I have felt
the utmost anxiety for the success of the measure, and have not
only devoted my whole time and thoughts to its progress and happy
accomplishment, but (besides exploring the Country) I have resided
constantly with the Emigrants in the Woods from the 15th August
1825 to March 1827 and a greater part of that time under canvas.
I embrace with pleasure this opportunity
of acknowledging my obligations to Col. Burke the deputy superintendent
and Mr. Reade the Surgeon for their able and zealous assistance,
for altho' they suffered as well as myself from the unusual heat
and sickness of the season, they were nevertheless most assiduous
in the discharge of their duty. ---- After all the general summary
annexed of the actual state of the settlers, their improvements,
cattle and produce, will furnish his Lordship with more favourable
and pleasing evidence than any thing I can say of the inestimable
benefits conferred upon them, by their removal to Canada, and of
the unquestionable success of this second experiment. _______
I have the honour to be
Sir
Your Most Ob d't Humble Servant
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