Page:Life and journals of Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by.djvu/21

     

S who are about to take a journey together naturally desire to know something of each other, I shall commence by giving the reader a short sketch of my life.

I was born at the heights of Burlington Bay, Canada West, on the first day of January, 1802. My father, Augustus Jones, was of Welsh extraction: his grandfather emigrated to America previous to the American Revolution, and settled on the Hudson River, State of New York. My father having finished his studies as a land surveyor in the city of New York, came with a recommendation from Mr. Colden, son of the Governor of that State, to General Simcoe, Governor of Upper Canada, and was immediately employed by him as the King's Deputy Provincial Surveyor, in laying out town plots, townships, and roads in different parts of the Province. This necessarily brought him in contact with the Indian tribes; he learned their language, and employed many of them in his service. He became much interested in the Indian character, so much so that he resolved on taking a wife from amongst them. Accordingly, he married my mother, Tuhbenahneequay,