She had suffered so severely from exposure to the cold that she was confined to her bed for weeks. The cattle were sold and barely paid expenses. It was no joke to travel with an execution any distance in those days. The expense was enormous, owing to the paucity of travelling facilities and the state of the roads. In the fall of this year the Chief turned his attention toward the back settlement of the township. He had heard from the settlers and others that there was a good tract of hardwood land around White Lake. Thither he betook himself in October. He sent the "_fiery cross_" through the people, and assembled on a spot where the village now stands a large concourse of settlers to assist him in making a new colony. A few acres were instantly cleared, and a small stone house with pavilion roof was erected, which he named Waba Cottage. The Chief's first motive for settling here was to be at a distance from the Buchanans, with whom he had quarrelled a few weeks before he began his new undertaking; but upon inspection he at once perceived the natural advantages for milling purposes, and the employment of all kinds of machinery afforded by Waba brook--the outlet of the lake,--and it was judged both profitable and expedient to secure the land in this neighborhood for his son Allan, whom he represented to the Government as a settler; and his pliable friend, Sir Francis Bond Head, Lieut.-Governor of Upper Canada, the year following made and ordered out a patent for 720 acres, round the lake, to Allan McNab, _as a settler under McNab of McNab_. This was making a splendid provision for his son (_by the bar sinister_) without impairing his own grant of 4,000 acres--an amount of land formerly given to a field-officer.