MORE ABOUT NOTTAWASAGA AND ITS PEOPLE.
Among the duties handed over to my brother Thomas, by his predecessor in
the emigrant agency, was the care of a large medicine chest full of
quinine, rhubarb, jalap, and a host of other drugs, strong enough for
horses as well as men, including a long catalogue of poisons, such as
arsenic, belladonna, vitriol, &c. To assist in the distribution of this
rather formidable charge, a copy of "Buchan's Domestic Medicine" was
added. My brother had no taste for drugs, and therefore deputed the care
of the medicine chest to me. So I studied "Buchan" zealously, and was
fortunate enough to secure the aid of an old army sergeant, an Irishman
who had been accustomed to camp hospital life, and knew how to bleed,
and treat wounds. Time and practice gave me courage to dispense the
medicines, which I did cautiously, and so successfully as to earn the
soubriquet of "Doctor," and to be sought after in cases both dangerous
and difficult. As, however, about this time, a clever, licensed
practitioner had established himself at Barrie, thirty-four miles
distant, I declined to prescribe in serious cases, except in one or two
of great urgency. A Prussian soldier named Murtz, had received a
gun-shot wound in the chest at the battle of Quatre Bras, under Marshal
Bluecher, and had frequently suffered therefrom. One day in winter, when
the thermometer ranged far below zero, this man had been threshing in
our barn, when he was seized with inflammation of the chest, and forced
to return home. As it appeared to be a case of life and death, I
ventured to act boldly, ordered bleeding, a blister on the chest, and
poultices to the feet--in fact, everything that Buchan directed. My
brave serjeant took charge of the patient; and between us, or perhaps in
spite of us, the man got over the attack. The singular part of the case
was, that the old bullet wound never troubled him afterwards, and he
looked upon me as the first of living physicians.
In 1836, a band of Potawatomie Indians, claiming allegiance to the
Queen, was allowed to leave the State of Michigan and settle in Canada.
They travelled from Sarnia through the woods, along the eastern shore of
Lake Huron, and passed through Nottawasaga, on their way to
Penetanguishene. Between the Scotch line and Sunnidale, near the present
village of Stayner, lived an old Highland piper named Campbell, very
partial to whiskey and dirt. There were two or three small clearings
grouped together, and the principal crop was potatoes, nearly full
grown. The old man was sitting sunning himself at his shanty-door. The
young men were all absent at mill or elsewhere, and none but women and
children about, when a party of Indians, men and squaws with their
papooses, came stealing from the woods, and very quietly began to dig
the potatoes with their fingers and fill their bags with the spoil. The
poor old piper was horribly frightened and perplexed; and in his
agitation could think of nothing but climbing on to his shanty roof,
which was covered with earth, and there playing with all his might upon
his Highland pipes, partly as a summons for assistance from his friends,
partly to terrify the enemy. But the enemy were not at all terrified.
They gathered in a ring round the shanty, laughed, danced, and enjoyed
the fun immensely; nor would they pass on until the return of some of
the younger settlers summoned by the din of the bagpipes, relieved the
old piper from his elevated post. In the meantime, the presence and
efforts of the women of the settlement sufficed to rescue their potato
crop.