vast and fertile tract of more than one million acres, at that time did
not contain a population of three hundred souls; no teeming fields of
golden grain, no manufactories, no mills, no roads; the rivers were
unbridged, and one vast solitude reigned around, unbroken, save by the
whoop of the red-man, or the distant shot of the trapper.

Reverse the picture, and behold what the energies and good management
of the Canada Company have effected. Stage-coaches travel with safety
and dispatch along the same tract where formerly I had the utmost
difficulty to make my way on horseback without the chance of being
swept from the saddle by the limbs of trees and tangled brushwood. A
continuous settlement of the finest farms now skirts both sides of this
road, from the southern boundary-line of this district to Goderich.

Another road equally good, traverses the block from the western
boundary. Thriving villages, saw and grist-mills, manufactories,
together with an abundance of horses, cattle, sheep, grain, and every
necessary of life enjoyed by a population of 26,000 souls, fully prove
the success caused by the persevering industry of the emigrants who
were so fortunate as to select this fruitful and healthy locality for
their future homes.

Much of this prosperity is due to the liberality and excellent
arrangements of the Canada Company, who have afforded every facility to
their settlers in regard to the payments for their land: I particularly
refer to their system of leasing, which affords the best chance
possible to the poor emigrant.

"This spirited and enterprising" Company's principal tract of land lies
nearly in a triangular form, commencing in latitude 43 degrees, and