Bay of Quinte

The Bay of Quinte is a long, narrow inlet shaped like a Z on Lake Ontario's northern shore, sheltered from the open lake by a long peninsula. Its name comes from Kenté, an Iroquoian village on the bay's south shore, where a French Catholic mission was later built. Nearby stood Ganneious, an Oneida village. In 1687 a French force under Denonville took some two hundred prisoners from Kenté and Ganneious and destroyed both villages. On 22 May 1784, about twenty Mohawk families paddled from Lachine and settled the shore after the American Revolution, founding the Tyendinaga territory east of Belleville.