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Both of us were surprised to see each other. Then another creature appeared in the distance followed by another one to my right. I had never seen such a creature in my life. They were short, approximately two feet tall. Short mousy brown hair covered their entire body. They stood upright on their hind legs. Their front legs were shorter. I recall their long rabbit-like ears that hung straight down their back. I had the feeling their ears could rise up like a rabbit in an alert position. The creature’s eyes were set in the front of their face. The eyes were quite expressive. The nose was flat. They had no tail.
    â€œThey communicated telepathically, by way of images, leaving you with a solid impression.
    â€œThen they led me over to the creek. They communicated that this was a special place for them. It was here that they would adjust the stones in the stream to create certain tones that would help them raise their consciousness. They told me that the lower the tone, the greater the level of consciousness.
    â€œThey communicated to me that they liked tobacco and to bring some the next time. Their favourite food was red squirrel.” This was another tale of the Memegwesi.
    In 2009 a radio special with a Cree elder was done on CBC about the Memegwesi. It is truly wonderful that these little-known creatures are being remembered.
    These mysterious stories help to introduce the possibilities of seeing our world in a new way, to awaken us to the magic and enchantment lurking in all four directions, to engage our souls.
    Here is a tradition, from those same Natives, to ponder. When you meet a person on the road, address them after you have passed them. Your soul and their soul will then continue on their separate ways and only your bodies and shadows will remain to converse. If there should be disagreement between you it will pass away quickly, and your souls will be unaffected.

Belleville
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    A crude log cabin on the banks of the Moira River near the Bay of Quinte was built by a fur trader named Asa Wallbridge. He is recorded as the first white settler in the area. Natives were known to have camped and hunted in the vicinity prior to his arrival; not far from the river’s mouth was a Native burial ground.
    Most communities were founded and developed by men, sometimes accompanied by women, but Belleville’s beginnings relied on the strength and determination of two pioneer women. Captain George Singleton and Lieutenant Isaac Ferguson were United Empire Loyalists and, incidentally, brothers-in-law, who set up a fur trading post together with their wives in 1794. By 1789 the Singletons had a child. That same year, Singleton died while on route to Kingston for winter staple supplies, and Ferguson died shortly thereafter. The two women, with the child John to care for, carried on at the trading post alone. Fortunately, other settlers were not long in joining them. Captain John Walden Meyers was next and he brought enterprise with him — a gristmill on the Moira River. He added a sawmill, a trading post, and a distillery. Meyers also operated a brick kiln and in 1794 erected, on a hill overlooking the Moira, what is recorded to be the first brick house in Upper Canada.
    It was this industrial base that quickly attracted other settlers, and a village soon appeared below the mill at the river’s mouth. The settlement became known as Meyers’ Creek. In 1816, the village was 48 houses strong, officially surveyed by Samuel G. Wilmot, and a post office was opened. The village was then given the name Belleville. The name came from Lady Arabella (Bella) Gore, wife of the provincial lieutenant-governor Francis Gore, who visited there that same year.
    In 1836 Belleville was incorporated as a police village, and Billa Flint, a local businessman, was elected as the first president of the Board of Police. Belleville was a rapidly developing lumber centre and became a town in 1850. Flint had been successful in