[592] _History of Knox County, Illinois_ (published by Charles C. Chapman and Co.), p. 203. Here it is stated: "Mr. Wilson arranged with the authorities to have all supplies for the fugitive slaves admitted free of customs duty. Many were the large well-filled boxes of what was most needed by the wanderer taken from the wharf at Toronto during that winter [1841] by E. Child, mission-teacher. He was then a student at Oneida Institute, N.Y., but for many years has resided in Oneida, this county. He went into Canada for the purpose of teaching the fugitives." [593] Conversation with Jacob Cummings, a fugitive from Tennessee, now living in Columbus, O. Mr. Cummings was at one time a collecting agent for a settlement at Puce, Ont. He told the author, "While agent, I was sent to Sandusky. I would collect goods for the settlement, and ship it to Detroit, marked 'Fugitive Goods.' Brother Miller, at the Corners, a little place about fifteen miles from Detroit, would take care of these, and Canada wouldn't charge any duty on 'fugitive goods.'" The circumstances attending the settlement of the refugees from slavery in Canada were favorable to their kindly reception by the native peoples. It was generally known that they had suffered many hardships on their journey northward, and that they usually came with nought but the unquenchable yearning for a liberty denied them by the United States. The movement to Canada had begun when the inter-lake portion of Ontario was largely an unsettled region; and indeed, during the period of the refugees' immigration, much of the interior was in the process of clearing. Moreover, the movement was one of small beginnings and gradual development. It brought into the country what it then needed--agricultural labor to open up government land and to help the native farmers. In the elbow of land lying between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, the fugitives were early received by the Indians under Chief Brant, having possessions along the Grand River and near Burlington Bay. Finding hospitality on these estates, the negroes not infrequently adopted the customs and mode of life of their benefactors, and remained among them.[594] [594] J. C. Hamilton, _Magazine of American History_, Vol. XXV, p. 238.