oaded with goods for the upper country, sailed up the
river to this place, where they discharged their cargoes, and took in
furs and grain in return. Ever since its establishment, the "Carrying
Place" on the Canadian side of the river, had furnished much profitable
employment to the neighboring farmers, who were paid at the rate of
twenty pence, New York currency, a hundred weight for hauling goods
between Queenston and Chippawa; Maude relates that during his visit in
1800, he passed many carts and wagons on this road, taking up boxes and
bales of merchandise, or bringing down furs, each drawn by two horses or
two yoke of oxen. Three schooners were then moored at the wharf at
Queenston, and fourteen teams stood waiting to be loaded. Others had
noticed as many as fifty or sixty teams passing each other in a day. At
this time the old portage on the American bank was entirely dis-used,
but in 1806 the exclusive rights to the carrying place on that side were
granted to Porter, Barton & Co., and much of the traffic was
consequently diverted.

Christian Schultz, tells us that in 1807, the Canadian side of the river
was "one settled street, from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie," while the
other was still almost wholly "waste and uninhabited," which he
attributes chiefly to the fact, that the land on the American bank was
entirely held by speculators. The villages of Chippawa and Fort Erie
contained about twenty houses each. For upwards of twenty miles back, he
states that the country was pretty well settled from lake to lake. A
stage coach made three round trips weekly between Niagara and Fort Erie.
A considerable sum from the Provincial Treasury was annually spent in
opening and improving roads. Frenchman's, Miller's and Black creeks were
bridged only on the river road, but there was a bridge across Lyon's
creek, at Cook's Mills, and the Chippawa was bridged at its mouth, and
at Brown's sixteen miles higher up. From the Portage Road near the
Falls, a continuation of Lundy's Lane led westerly through the
Beechwoods and Beaver Dam settlements, crossed the Twelve Mile creek at
DeCew's, and following the crest of the mountain to the Twenty, ascended
that stream as far as a small hamlet, known as "Asswago" and finally
united with the main road from Niagara to York near Stoney Creek.
Another well travelled road from Queenston passed through St. Davids,
and joined the Lake Road from Niagara at Shipman's tavern, where they
crossed the Twel