Chapter III

, pp. 82, 83.

[465] Letter of John G. Weiblen, Fairview, Erie Co., Pa., Nov. 26, 1895.

[466] The _Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, p. 77.

[467] Conversation with Nelson Watrous, Harbor, O., Aug. 8, 1892; conversation with J. D. Hulbert, Harbor, O., Aug. 7, 1892.

[468] The following incident given by Mr. Rush R. Sloane will serve as an illustration: "In the summer of 1853, four fugitives arrived at Sandusky. ... Mr. John Irvine ... had arranged for a 'sharpee,' a small sail-boat used by fishermen, with one George Sweigels, to sail the boat to Canada with this party, for which service Captain Sweigels was to receive thirty-five dollars. One man accompanied Captain Sweigels, and at eight o'clock in the evening this party in this small boat started to cross Lake Erie. The wind was favorable, and before morning Point au Pelee Island was reached, and the next day the four escaped fugitives were in Canada." The _Firelands Pioneer_, July, 1888, pp. 49, 50.

It is impossible to tell how many cities, towns and villages in Canada became terminals of the underground system. Outside of the interlake region of Ontario it is safe to name Kingston, Prescott, Montreal, Stanstead and St. John, New Brunswick. Within that region the terminals were numerous, being scattered from the southern shore of Georgian Bay to Lake Erie, and from the Detroit and Huron rivers to the Niagara. Owen Sound, Collingwood and Oro were the northernmost resorts, so far as now known. Toronto, Queen's Bush, Wellesley, Galt and Hamilton occupied territory south of these, and farther south still, in the marginal strip fronting directly on Lake Erie, there were not less than twenty more places of refuge. The most important of these were naturally those situated at either end of the strip, and along the shore-line, namely, Windsor, Sandwich and Amherstburg, New Canaan, Colchester and Kingsville, Gosfield and Buxton, Port Stanley, Port Burwell and Port Royal, Long Point, Fort Erie and St. Catherines. In the valley of the Thames also many refugees settled, especially at Chatham, Dresden and Dawn, and at Sydenham, London and Wilberforce. The names of two additional towns, Sarnia on the Huron River and Brantford on the Grand, complete the list of the known Canadian terminals. This enumeration of centres cannot be supposed to be exhaustive. A full record would take into account the localities in the outlying country districts as well as those adjoining or forming a part of the hamlets, towns and cities of the whites, whither the blacks had penetrated. The untrodden wilds of Canada, as well as her populous places, seemed hospitable to a people for whom the hardships of the new life were fully compensated by the consciousness of their possession of the rights of freemen, rights vouchsafed them by a government that exemplified the proud boast of the poet Cowper:--

"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free! They touch our country and their shackles fall."

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