a strong
current, they made their way up the Mohawk river a long distance, until
they came to a place called Wood Creek, which they again navigated for a
long-distance toward Lake Ontario, until they approached a stream called
the Oswego, which to enter they had to draw their boat by hand across a
portage (I think some two miles); thence down this stream to the lake to
Oswego; thence up the lake in this boat westward to the Niagara river;
thence up the Niagara as far as Queenston, where again they had to pass
over a portage of nine miles around the Falls to Chipawa; thence up the
river eighteen miles to Lake Erie; thence up the lake westward eighty
miles to the place my father had selected (and which is now my home),
arriving here 1st July, 1795. It was in this boat that they went to
mill, as before stated to you. A kind Providence furnished plenty of
fish and game at this early day, or the people could not have survived.
The total absence of roads, schools, and religious teachers for many
years were among the heavy privations that the early settlers had to
endure.

"I remain, yours truly,

"GEORGE J. RYERSE.

"Rev. E. Ryerson."

_Historical Memoranda by Mrs. Amelia Harris, of Eldon House, London,
Ontario, only daughter of the late Colonel Samuel Ryerse, and sister of
the late Rev. Geo. J. Ryerse, writer of the foregoing short letters._

The husband of Mrs. Harris was an active and scientific officer in the
Royal Navy, having been employed with the late Admirals Bayfield and
Owen in the survey of the Canadian lakes and rivers, by the Admiralty,
during the years 1815 to 1817. It was during the progress of this survey
that Miss Ryerse married. After a few years' residence at Kingston, Mr.
and Mrs. Harris returned to a beautiful homestead on Long Point Bay,
intending to reside there permanently. In the days of the early
settlement, a more refined and cultivated society was to be found in the
country than usually in the towns and villages. Mr. Harris was at once
selected by the various Governments of the day to be the recipient of
various Government offices. During the years 1837-38 he took an active
part in quelling the rebellion, and is believed by many to have been the
head and front and organizer of the expedition which sent the steamer
_Caroline_ over the Falls. He was the first man on her deck, and the
last to leave, having set her on fire.

The late Edward Ermatinger, in his Life of Colonel Talbot, refers t