Governor Simcoe’s proclamation, offering grants of land in Upper Canada to those who would come and occupy them, hurried Roger Conant’s journey. Arriving at the mouth of the Niagara River, and hiring a flat scow in which to ferry himself, his family and effects over, he landed at Newark, then the capital of Upper Canada. While there he met Governor Simcoe, who tried to induce him to go up Yonge Street to lands on Lake Simcoe; but not relishing the idea of leaving the shores of Lake Ontario for the wilderness, he refused. The Governor then asked him if he would fight against Canada if trouble came. Roger’s reply was, “No, sir, I will fight for the country which protects me.” And, as we shall presently see, he made good his promise by aiding the British cause in the subsequent war of 1812. Following the lake shore, camping at night, and fording the streams where they debouch, they at last reached the site of York, then a cluster of Indian wigwams with a few houses in process of erection. The river Don being too deep to ford, they hired Indians to convey them over in their canoes. The waggons were taken apart and so ferried across, when they were put together again, and the emigrants proceeded along the broken shores of the lake. CHAPTER III. A home in the wilderness--Salmon fishing--An idyllic life--Logging--Fur trade--Durham boats--Rapids of the St. Lawrence--Trading with the Indians--The Hudson’s Bay Company--_Coureurs du bois_--Maple sugar making--Friendly Indians. “Our young, wild land, the free, the proud! Uncrush’d by power, unawed by fear, Her knee to none but God is bow’d, For nature teaches freedom here; From gloom and sorrow, to light and flowers Expands this heritage of ours: Life, with its myriad hopes, pursuits, Spreads sails, rears roofs, and gathers fruits. But pass two fleeting centuries back, This land, a torpid giant, slept, Wrapp’d in a mantle, thick and black, That o’er its mighty frame had crept, Since stars and angels sang, as earth Shot from its Maker into birth.” Golden autumn days were those when the emigrants’ long journey was nearing its end. Provision must first be made for the cattle and horses. October was upon them and winter near. [Illustration: ROGER CONANT’S FIRST SETTLEMENT IN DARLINGTON, CO. DURHAM, UPPER CANADA, 1778.] At Arnall’s Creek--then known as Barber’s Creek--they found a flat of marsh-grass quite free from the forest trees which then were universal above the water’s edge of Lake Ontario. Here they pitched their tents, the creek and lake forming two sides of a triangle for defence from wolves, leaving one side only to be protected. Salmon would run in November, and the winter’s supply of fish could be secured from the creek, and the marsh-grass gathered for the stock from the flat at its mouth.