My Lord: FROM J. G. SIMCOE TO LORD DORCHESTER. YORK, March 3rd, 1794. I do myself the honor of acknowledging the receipt of Your Lordship's letters, No. 3. 4. 5. I take this opportunity of forwarding to Your Lordship the several late communications which have been made to me on Indian Affairs. A Delaware Chief has been sent here by Captain Brant to give me information that it was resolved at the Council of the Western Indians to send Deputies to General Wayne, and that they took the opportunity of proceeding in the absence of Colonel McKee, who was much displeased. I particularly regret that the late Treaty between them and the United States has been rendered abortive, as its completion might have laid a solid foundation for that Barrier which I am directed by His Majesty's Ministers to consider as the main Object of their interference in respect to the United States and the Indians. I have lamented from the commencement of the Treaty, the absence of Sir John Johnson, as I then apprehended there would not be that Union between Colonel McKee and Butler which appeared to be necessary for His Majesty's Service. I have reason to believe that my apprehensions have been verified, tho' I am by no means prepared to say, or believe that their Union, or the presence of Sir John Johnson would have materially altered the result of the Treaty. In respect to the Lands on the Grand River, I shall still do my utmost to procrastinate any decision on them. I understand that Brant has lately held another Meeting on the Subject. I request of Your Lordship the blank deed in the Surveyor General's Office, to which is attached the devices of the three Chiefs of the Missassaga Nation. One of these Chiefs died lately but I have little apprehension but that they will readily recognize the transaction, and the deed may be filled up in a manner perfectly corresponding with its original intent to mutual satisfaction. I have taken every step to its ratification. In respect to the Marine on the Upper Lakes, I must beg leave to state to Your Lordship that on my arrival in this Province when the general Arrangement of all Commissions issued under the former Government was in agitation, it appeared that the Officers of that Department were termed Provincial and their Commissions evidently from Your Lordship in your Civil Capacity by a Commission which had determined. It was thought therefore proper to issue a Provincial Commission as in other cases. One or two had actually been made out, when the Commander-in-Chief, Major General Clarke, having sent Mr. Earle' as Lieutenant for one of the Ships, I immediately stopped the issuing of Naval Commissions, as it is neither my temper nor principle to question the Authority of a Superior Officer, and as the Proclamation which I had issued in Council gives a legal existence to such Commissions, I was naturally led into this Idea, as Your Lordship will no doubt have seen, from my communications from His Majesty's Ministers, previous to my leaving England, and with Major-General Clarke since that period, that I consider the utility of this Colony to Great Britain, and its own existence to depend upon the erection 1 Capt. Hugh Earle, afterward commander in the Provincial Marine; a native of Ayrshire, Scotland. His wife was Anne, a daughter of Sir William Johnson by Miss Molly Brant. He died at Kingston, Jan. 28, 1840, aged 71 years, and is buried in St. Paul's Churchyard, in the Johnson plot. of a Naval Power, and the absolute command of its Lakes. In consequence to shew the Object, I recommended the Arms of this Colony to bear the emblems of such Dominion. I think it proper to state these Circumstances to Your Lordship; I am still of the same Opinion, that from the Civil Governor of this Province all the Naval Commissions should issue-but I never had the most remote Idea this Establishment should not be under the absolute Control and Direction of the Commander-in-Chief, whether bearing a Civil Commission or not, or whether the Navy be equipped by the Colony or Great Britain. Personally to Your Lordship and in my subordinate capacity to myself, it is indifferent from which source, Civil or Military, the power over the Marine is derived. I conceive it to be far otherwise with respect to the Colony of Great Britain. Many and obvious reasons lead me to believe that if at its outset, every exertion be not used to induce the Upper Canadian to consider the Provincial Marine as most respectable and necessary to his existence, and which must hereafter be paid for and supported by the Colony, that no period will arrive when that Province will be induced to take upon itself the Expence of such an Equipment, or to raise its Views to preserve the Superiority of the Lakes, so important for the future Interests of Great Britain. I have the honor to be, &c., Rt. Honble. Lord Dorchester. J. G. SIMCOE.. My Lord: FROM J. G. SIMCOE TO LORD DORCHESTER. YORK, Upper Canada, Mar. 3, 1794. I take this opportunity in Answer to the various Communications which I have received from Your Lordship, to state such Observations as occur to me for the promotion of the King's Service in respect to the Marine Department. It is impossible that any recommendation or direction of mine can be necessary to enforce those Regulations and Orders which Your Lordship may think proper to establish for the Government of the Marine Department, and which there cannot exist a doubt but will be received with the most profound respect and instantaneous compliance by every Military Man under Your Lordship's command -and this obedience to Your Lordship's directions is the more to be depended upon, since not only the Headquarters commanded by the Field Officers of the several Regiments are the Ports of Transport, where such a Marine is principally employed, but that the lesser Posts are commanded by Officers who are entrusted with the execution of duties by no means beyond their rank or experience. It therefore appears to me, My Lord, that if my Situation, as commanding the King's Forces could in ordinary cases be of any Public Utility, it must be by an Executive Control over the various Military Departments and personal inspection, that they should be carried on agreeably to those Principles and Orders, which I should receive from Your Lordship, and tho' generally speaking I trust such would not be required, yet accidents may occur which may render it necessary. The various duties which the Command in the Province of Upper Canada must embrace, its extent, its new Establishments, incident to the important change that has taken place in its Circumstances, a War upon its Frontier, in which it would be wilfully negligent not to see that the necessary neutrality of Great Britain renders her suspected by both parties, all these Circumstances make it naturally impossible for me in person to execute my duty with that Vigilance, Promptitude, and Fidelity which is due to my own Military Character, and necessary to obtaining the Confidence of Your Lordship and the consequent Approbation of my Sovereign, which as in inferior Stations, I have hitherto received-so in the present employ for which I have been selected, I am the more emulous to preserve. Of course, My Lord, I applied to His Majesty's Ministers to allow me the subordinate branches of those Offices, into which the wise and established Custom of all Armies has distributed peculiar duties for the ease of transacting business, and its accurate performance. In the Adjutant-General's Department I was allowed a Brigade Major, as being absolutely wanted, but in that of the Quarter-Master-General I was not indulged, as there were "difficulties in increasing the American Staff, particularly as when that Establishment was fixed upon and provided by Parliament, no Officer of that description was supposed to be necessary." This was Mr. Dundas's reason for not complying with an Establishment that I conceived to be most necessary. The impracticability of executing my duty satisfactorily to my own Ideas, and in a variety of Objects in which I regard it without this Office, was the more strongly impressed upon my mind, When I arrived at Kingston I believed it almost impossible to do my duty without this influential or essential Officer to superintend general arrangements, not to be confined to one Post or a single Duty, but to be detached wherever Public Exigency should require. I therefore appointed Captain Stevenson, who had been previously offered to His Majesty's Ministers for this employ, to act as Deputy-Quarter-Master-General. He had been recommended to me by very high authority, was the oldest Captain in the Province, and, what I thought of great importance, is fond of Maritime pursuits and had seen much naval Service in a variety of engagements in the West Indies. Under his direction, the Public Service was carried on with an activity that was universally acknowledged, and I have to regret that family circumstances obliged him to solicit leave to return to England. But, My Lord, this particular Branch, the Navy of the Province of Upper Canada (as well as every Department within it), I consider as Subject to one uniform, general, and invariable Principle, namely, at its very outset a foundation should be laid for those Establishments, as ultimately shall be necessary for its Protection, and that may gradually relieve Great Britain from its Colonial Expences. It seemed to be politic, just, and necessary that such Establishment should be formed upon the British Model, that in perfect parity with the British Constitution, at the moment of its extension to the Colony, all its consequent Officers and permanent Arrangements should be so created that in both Substance and Form, Power and Execution, they might in every stage of its Progress assimilate and cement the Province with the Parent State. In pursuance therefore, My Lord, of these general Principles, and to which in an Object of greater Importance, the Civil Arrangements, I have steadily adhered to, as applicable to the Marine Department, I recommended to His Majesty's Ministers to select from those who were offered by Your Lordship as proper Persons for the Legislature of Upper Canada, Captain Grant, the Senior Officer on the Lakes, and requested that he might be placed in the Executive Council; at once to be stamped with eminence and respectability of his professional situation, and that the Government might avail themselves, if necessary, of his experience therein, and in this recommendation, look forward to that period in which it might be proper to confide to the Officers of the Marine, to Professional Men, the immediate Superintendence of that Department, subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief thro' the Lieut.-Governor. I presume Captn. Grant is fully conpetent to his technical trust and worthy of confidence, and as such, I think it proper, therefore, in obedience to Your Lordship's commands, to offer my Opinion that it would be for the Public Service, he should have the general Superintendancy of the Marine Department of the Province of Upper Canada, with a new Commission and Rank. I have the honor to be, &c., J. G. SIMCOE. Rt. Honble Lord Dorchester. FROM JOHN HAMILTON TO J. G. SIMCOE. Dear Sir: The French Fleet consisting of two 74-Gun ships, six large frigates and four sloops of war, still remains in the Chesapeake. It is preparing to convoy a numerous fleet of Merchantmen, loaded with sugar, coffee and flour and I presume will sail in all this month. A body of men commanded by General Clark has marched from Kentucky to proceed down the Mississippi against New Orleans, and although the General Government of the United States discountenance the proceedings, I must beg leave to assure you that this country is ripe for an attack on the British as well as the Spanish settlements on this Continent. His Majesty's Frigate Daedalus is still here, and notwithstanding any reports that may have reached you, remains untaken. She will sail the first convenient opportunity. It may afford you satisfaction to be informed that His Royal Highness Prince Edward, sailed from Boston in the Roebuck Packet for the West Indies on the 15th Ultimo. I have the honor to be with great respect, dear Sir, JOHN HAMILTON. BRITISH CONSUL'S OFFICE, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, 14th March, 1794. Dear Sir: FROM JOSEPH CHEW TO THOMAS ASTON COFFIN. MONTREAL, 6th March, 1794. You Cannot think it more Extraordinary that Lord Dorchester's Reply to the Indians should have been Copied and Circulated than I did when I heard of it, indeed I scarcely gave Credit to the report until a Gentleman I could depend upon assured me that he had seen the original under his Lordship's hand. I have heard that Lamothe delivered the Reply to Colonel Campbell from whom a Gentleman got it to Copy, by this means sundry Copies were taken, and it became Public, occasioning many Conjectures, &c. as Neither Colonel Campbell or Lamothe mentioned the matter to me and I saw none of the Indians, the above S.C.-13 is the best information I have been able to come at, how the Reply came to be Circulated. Yesterday I heard that one Smith of this Town, who is gone to Albany, had a Copy which a few days ago he read to a number of People at Gill's Tavern at St. Johns. A Mr. McNeal Lately from Boston last Evening was (torn) tion for a Copy to take with him (torn) to return to day-I am not ab (torn) he got one or not, had I known (torn) the Matter before the Reply (torn) made Public I would (torn) Endeavoured to have prevented it. I have got a Copy from a Rough one, believe it does not differ materially from the original, it shall be sent to Colonel McKee by the First Opportunity and I will Acquaint him with the Circumstances and the Manner of Obtaining it. I am, &c. JOSEPH CHEW. A Young Gentleman from Albany tells me he saw Tomo' of Caughnawaga there who told him he was going to Philadelphia on Great Business. Thomas Aston Coffin, Esquire, Quebec. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. NATHL. LINES TO JOSEPH CHEW, SECRETARY OF INDN. AFFAIRS DATED KINGSTON, 11TH MARCH, 1794. "A message has been Received from the Oneida Indians to the Mohawk Indians in the Bay of Quinti requesting them to inquire whether Government wou'd not indulge them in the same way that has been done before to some of their Brethren who have come into the Country, as they wou'd be glad to come and live in the Bay of Quinti with their Brothers the Mohawk Indians,-Captain John gives me this information and says he Expects the Oneidas will Send in the Course of this month for an Answer. "Captain John will be Glad to know whether any Nails and Window Glass for their Church & School House will come up in the Spring as they can do nothing without those Articles." MONTREAL, 31st March, 1794. A True Extract JOSEPH CHEW, S.I.A. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM JOSEPH CHEW TO THOMAS ASTON COFFIN, DATED AT MONTREAL, 31ST MARCH, 1794. "I have also inclosed an Extract of a Letter from Lines respecting a Message Sent by the Oneida Indians to the Mohawks of the Bay De Quinti, the Oneidas have sold their Land to the State of New York, and now are wishing to become a Burden to His Majesty's Government, those that came here about the Time Sir John left the Country gave little Proof of their Attachment to the King's Government." 1An Iroquois chief, otherwise known as Thomas. |