which he was the head, was rapidly increasing his already
large fortune, when one of those autumnal hurricanes,
which even to this day continue to desolate the waters
of the treacherous lake last named, suddenly arose and
buried beneath its engulfing waves not less than six of
these schooners laden with such riches, chiefly furs, of
the West as then were most an object of barter.

Mr. Erskine, who had married the daughter of one of the
earliest settlers from France, and of a family well known
in history, a lady who had been in Detroit during the
siege of the British garrison by Ponteac, now abandoned
speculation, and contenting himself with the remnant of
his fortune, established himself near the banks of the
river, within a short distance of the Bloody Run. Here
he continued throughout the Revolution. Early, however,
in the present century, he quitted Detroit and repaired
to the Canadian shore, where on a property nearly opposite,
which he obtained in exchange, and which in honor of his
native country he named Strabane--known as such to this
day--he passed the autumn of his days. The last time I
beheld him was a day or two subsequent to the affair of
the Thames, when General Harrison and Colonel Johnson
were temporary inmates of his dwelling.

My father, of a younger branch of the Annandale family,
the head of which was attainted in the Scottish rebellion
of 1745, was an officer of Simcoe's well-known Rangers,
in which regiment, and about the same period, the present
Lord Hardinge commenced his services in this country.