204

196.

settled from the United States called a meeting at
that period of their countrymen at which they came
to an unanomous resolution that in consequence of
their having become resident householders on the
Canadian soil, where their families, wives and property
had received the protection and lived under the
British laws, declared it to be their fixed determination,
under the trying circumstances and excitement
at that time prevailing, to defend their lives
and property, and that they all held it an imperative
duty to step forward and declare their allegiance
as faithful subjects of Her Majesty's the
Queen of England

Here I observed an ingenious and
economical method of cutting fire wood by means
of a circular saw fixed in a box, the rotary motion
given by means of an old horse turning a wheel
and cogs placed in a plain horizontal wooden
frame connected with the drum or barrel by an
Iron rod that communicated by means of a D
crank, or what is termed a universal joint.
with this simple machine a poor black-man obtained
an honest livelihood in supplying firewood
for the good house-holders of the town

This Wilberforce darkie the term given to those negroes
who desert their Masters and run from the United
States and so obtain their freedom by entering the
British Colony become settlers in Canada where
I am happy to state they receive every encouragement
which their universal good conduct fully
merits.