It was in 1783 that there landed on the beach the first band of Loyalist refugees who left their homes in the revolted colonies for the sake of king and country, and who were to be the founders of a new nation in this wilderness. For more that two years rations were issued to the poor wanderers from Fort Niagara and Butler's barracks, but by the beginning of the new century the thriving farms in the neighbourhood of Newark showed that the "hungry years" had passed. Seven miles higher up the river was Queenston, a transport post which had, in 1803, grown to be a village of over a hundred houses with church and court-house and government stores for the Indian department. All the goods for the North-West were landed here from the vessels which brought them from Kingston, and were then sent by portage above the falls to Chippawa. [Sidenote: Erie, Amherstburg, Sandwich] Fort Chippawa, on Lake Erie, a mile and a half above the falls of Niagara, was the end of the carrying {59} place, and was also a transport post. It was sixteen miles from Fort George and it had a blockhouse and quarters for one officer and thirty-six men, enclosed with palisades which were much decayed and useless for defence. Eighteen miles up the lake was Fort Erie. General Hunter, in 1803, had planned a new fort at this place as the old one was in ruins, and had made a report on the subject to Lord Hobart, the secretary of the colonies, but this undertaking was not carried out for some years. Further west at Amherstburg was another poorly constructed fort. This village was the only British naval station on Lake Erie, and contained over a hundred houses, with a court-house, and stores for the Indian department. The other military post in this district was Sandwich, nearly opposite Detroit, and sixteen miles distant from Amherstburg. There was a mixed French and English population here, and many American settlers in the neighbourhood who had found their way to this lovely and fertile peninsula--the garden of Canada. At this time a regiment quartered in Upper Canada was divided into several parts, sometimes hundreds of miles asunder. The posts being on the frontier line, and new roads into the interior of the United States being constantly opened out, every facility was afforded for desertion. The pay of the British soldier was small, the discipline enforced at that time very severe, and by the insidious work of {60} agents from the neighbouring republic, desertions became very frequent.