ve Mile Creek on the present site of the city of St.
Catharines. A third leading from Niagara through the dreaded "Black
Swamp," of which all trace has long since disappeared, united with the
road from St. Davids before crossing the Four Mile creek. Still another
beginning near the mouth of the Two Mile creek, ran nearly parallel with
the river, till it intersected Lundy's Lane. Besides these there were
the main travelled roads along the river from Queenston to Niagara, and
along the lake from Niagara to Burlington.

In 1794, Lieutenant Governor Simcoe styled the Niagara settlement, "the
bulwark of Upper Canada," and affirmed that the militia were loyal to a
man, and "very well calculated for offensive warfare." Since then the
character and feelings of the population had been essentially altered.
Many of the first settlers had died or removed with their families to
other parts of the Province, and their places had been taken by later
immigrants from the United States. The twenty townships extending from
Ancaster to Wainfleet, which then composed the County of Lincoln, were
supposed to contain 12,000 inhabitants in the spring of 1812. In the
entire province of Upper Canada, one-sixth of the population were
believed to be natives of the British Isles and their children; the
original loyalist settlers and their descendants were estimated to
number as many more, while the remainder, or about two-thirds of the
whole, were recent arrivals from the United States, chiefly attracted by
the fertility of the soil and freedom from taxation. Michael Smith
states (1813), that within twelve years, the population "had increased
beyond conjecture, as the terms of obtaining land have been extremely
easy." The proportion of loyalists in the County of Lincoln was perhaps
greater than elsewhere, but it is probably a safe estimate to say that
one-third of the inhabitants were recent settlers from the United
States, who had removed to escape taxation or avoid militia service.
John Maude met several families in 1800 on their way to Canada from
those counties in Pennsylvania, where the 'Whiskey Insurrection' had
just been suppressed who informed him that "they had fought seven years
against taxation, and were then being taxed more than ever. Hundreds of
them" he remarked "have removed, are removing, and will remove into
Upper Canada, where they will form a nest of vipers in the bosom that
fosters them."

In 1811, the Governor General estimated