I have interlined the above document, which indicates the first attempt to establish and fix firmly a system of feudal dependence upon the Chief. All the first settlers signed their original location tickets. Now, McNab held them under him by two instruments--the bond executed at Leney House in Callander, and the location ticket which bound themselves and their lands to the Chief and his heirs and successors forever. The reader will direct his attention to the Order in Council for the settlement of the Township of McNab, passed in 1823, and contrast it with the terms the Laird of McNab imposed upon his settlers. They were ignorant. They had implicit confidence in their Chief. His word was law, and they imagined that the land was his, as he had represented it, and they conceived that they could easily pay the bushel of wheat to the acre. They had no experience and they really and conscientiously believed that the lands in Canada were as fertile as those in the straiths of their own native country--the land they had so lately left and where they paid high rents, and this small tax of a bushel for every cleared acre was a mere nothing, which could be easily met. CHAPTER IV. PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT--PERSECUTION. And now the settlers proceeded to make small clearances round their rough and primitive homesteads. In the midst of the dense and primeval forest--unaccustomed to such work--unused to the woods, their hardships and difficulties can scarce be described; but manfully and courageously they set to work, undeterred by no obstacle and undaunted by no danger, however great. They looked forward to the future with glowing anticipations, but that future was darkened by clouds of adverse fortune and annoyances they had then no expectations to encounter or to dread. The three months provisions with which they had been furnished at Greenock, by Dr. Hamilton of Leney, were nearly exhausted, and something must be done for their families, and to procure seed for the fall and coming spring. They had been informed that Chief McNab would furnish them with a year's provisions, which they would be called upon to pay for on realizing the proceeds of their crops. They put full reliance upon this, and found soon after their arrival that the Laird could not supply them with even the bare necessaries of life. They discovered, when too late, that they had leant upon a reed and put faith in fallacy. They now saw that they would be compelled to leave off the clearing of their lands and go out to work for provisions; consequently some went to a Mr. Thos. Burns, of Fitzroy, and worked with him at haying and harvest and potato digging, and earned provisions--others went to Beckwith and hired out--others purchased provisions on credit in Beckwith. Now it became necessary to transfer to their families a sufficient supply to last till winter, when the carriage would be easier as soon as sleighing set in.