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1752.

From a despatch written by M. de Longueil in 1752, we gather that the post of the Toronto portage, in its improved, strengthened state, is known as Fort Rouillé, so named, doubtless from Antoine Louis Rouillé, Count de Jouy, Colonial Minister from 1749 to 1754. M. de Longueil says that "M. de Celeron had addressed certain despatches to M. de Lavalterie, the commandant at Niagara, who detached a soldier to convey them to Fort Rouillé, with orders to the store-keeper at that post to transmit them promptly to Montreal. It is not known," he remarks, "what became of that soldier." About the same time, a Mississagué from Toronto arrived at Niagara, who informed M. de Lavalterie that he had not seen that soldier at the Fort, nor met him on the way. "It is to be feared that he has been killed by Indians," he adds, "and the despatches carried to the English."

An uncomfortable Anglophobia was reigning at Fort Rouillé, as generally along the whole of the north shore of Lake Ontario in 1752. We learn this also from another passage in the same despatch. "The store-keeper at Toronto, says," M. de Longueil writes to M. de Verchères, commandant at Fort Frontenac, "that some trustworthy Indians have assured him that the Saulteux (Otchipways,) who killed our Frenchman some years ago, have dispersed themselves along the head of Lake Ontario; and seeing himself surrounded by them, he doubts not but they have some evil design on his Fort. There is no doubt," he continues, "but 'tis the English who are inducing the Indians to destroy the French, and that they would give a good deal to get the Savages to destroy Fort Toronto, on account of the essential injury it does their trade at Choueguen."

Such observations help us to imagine the anxious life which the lonely occupants of Fort Rouillé must have been leading at the period referred to. From an abstract of a journal or memoir of the Abbé Picquet given in the Documentary History of the State of New York (i. 283), we obtain a glimpse of the state of things at the same place, about the same period, from the point of view, however, of an interested ecclesiastic. The Abbé Picquet was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and bore the titles of King's Missionary and Prefect Apostolic of Canada. He established a mission at Oswegatchie (Ogdensburg) which was known as La Presentation, and which became virtually a military outpost of Fort Frontenac. He was very useful to the authorities at Quebec in advocating French interests on the south side of the St. Lawrence. The Marquis du Quesne used to say that the Abbé Picquet was worth ten regiments to New France. His activity was so great, especially among the Six Nations, that even during his lifetime he was complimented with the title of "Apostle of the Iroquois." When at length the French power fell he retired to France, where he died in 1781. In 1751 the Abbé made a tour of exploration round Lake Ontario. He was conveyed in a King's canoe, and was accompanied by one of bark containing five trusty natives. He visited Fort Frontenac and the Bay of Quinté; especially the site there of an ancient mission which M. Dollières de Kleus and Abbé d'Urfé, priests of the St. Sulpice Seminary had established. "The quarter is beautiful," the Abbé remarks, "but the land is not good." He then visited Fort Toronto, the journal goes on to say, seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac, at the west end of Lake Ontario. He found good bread and good wine there, it is stated, and everything requisite for the trade, whilst they were in want of these things at all the other posts. He found Mississagués there, we are told, who flocked around him; they spoke first of the happiness their young people, the women and children, would feel if the King would be as good to them as to the Iroquois, for whom he procured missionaries. They complained that instead of building a church, they had constructed only a canteen for them. The Abbé Picquet, we are told, did not allow them to finish; and answered them that they had been treated according to their fancy; that they had never evinced the least zeal for religion; that their conduct was much opposed to it; that the Iroquois on the contrary had manifested their love for Christianity. But as he had no order, it is subjoined, to attract them, viz., the Mississagués, to his mission at La Presentation—he avoided a more lengthened explanation.

The poor fellows were somewhat unfairly lectured by the Abbé, for, according to his own showing, they expressed a desire for a church amongst them.

A note on the Mississagués in the Documentary History (i. 22) mentions the neighbourhood of Toronto as one of the quarters frequented by that tribe: at the same time it sets down their numbers as incredibly few. "The Mississagués," the note says, "are dispersed along this lake (Ontario), some at Kenté, others at the river Toronto (the Humber), and finally at the head of the Lake, to the number of 150 in all; and at Matchedash. The principal tribe is that of the Crane."

The Abbé Picquet visited Niagara and the Portage above (Queenston or Lewiston); and in connection with his observations on those points he refers again expressly to Toronto. He is opposed to the maintenance of store-houses for trade at Toronto, because it tended to diminish the trade at Niagara and Fort Frontenac, "those two ancient posts," as he styles them. "It was necessary," he says, "to supply Niagara, especially the Portage, rather than Toronto. The difference," he says, "between the two first of these posts and the last is, that three or four hundred canoes could come loaded with furs to the Portage (Queenston or Lewiston); and that no canoes could go to Toronto except those which cannot pass before Niagara and to Fort Frontenac—(the translation appears to be obscure)—such as the Ottawas of the Head of the Lake and the Mississagués: so that Toronto could not but diminish the trade of these two ancient posts, which would have been sufficient to stop all the savages had the stores been furnished with goods to their liking."

In 1752, a French military expedition from Quebec to the Ohio region, rested at Fort Toronto. Stephen Coffen, in his narrative of that expedition, which he accompanied as a volunteer, names the place, but he spells the word in accordance with his own pronunciation, Taranto. "They on their way stopped," he says "a couple of days at Cadaraghqui Fort, also at Taranto on the north side of Lake Ontario; then at Niagara fifteen days."

1756.

In 1756, the hateful Choueguen, which had given occasion to the establishment of Toronto as a fortified trading-post, was rased to the ground. Montcalm, who afterwards fell on the Plains of Abraham, had been entrusted with the task of destroying the offensive stronghold of the English on Lake Ontario. He went about the work with some reluctance, deeming the project of the Governor-General, De Vaudreuil, to be rash. Circumstances, however, unexpectedly favoured him; and the garrison of Choueguen, in other words, of Oswego, capitulated. "Never before," said Montcalm, in his report of the affair to the Home Minister, "did 3,000 men, with a scanty artillery, besiege 1,800, there being 2,000 enemies within call, as in the late affair; the party attacked having a superior marine, also, on Lake Ontario. The success gained has been contrary to all expectation. The conduct I followed in this affair," Montcalm continues, "and the dispositions I made, were so much out of the ordinary way of doing things that the audacity we manifested would be counted for rashness in Europe. Therefore, Monseigneur," he adds, "I beg of you as a favour to assure his Majesty that if he should accord to me what I most wish for, employment in regular campaigning, I shall be guided by very different principles." Alas, there was to be no more "regular campaigning" for Montcalm. His eyes were never again to gaze upon the battle fields in Bohemia, Italy and Germany, where, prior to his career in Canada, he had won laurels.

The success before Choueguen in 1756 was followed by a more than counterbalancing disaster at Fort Frontenac in 1758. In that year a force of 3,000 men under Col. Bradstreet, detached from the army of Abercromby, stationed near Lake George, made a sudden descent on Fort Frontenac, from the New York side of the water, and captured the place. It was instantly and utterly destroyed, together with a number of vessels which had formed a part of the spoil brought away from Choueguen. On this occasion we find that the cry Hannibal ante Portas! was once more fully expected to be heard speedily within the stockade at Toronto. M. de Vaudreuil, the Governor-General, informs the Minister at Paris, M. de Massiac, "that should the English make their appearance at Toronto, I have given orders to burn it at once, and to fall back on Niagara."

1759.

One more order (the last), issuing from a French source, having reference to Toronto, is to be read in the records of the following year, 1759. M. de Vaudreuil, again in his despatch home, after stating that he had summoned troops from Illinois and Detroit, to rendezvous at Presqu'isle on Lake Erie, adds,—"As those forces will proceed to the relief of Niagara, should the enemy wish to besiege it, I have in like manner sent orders to Toronto, to collect the Mississagués and other natives, to forward them to Niagara."

1760.

The enemy, it appears, did wish to besiege Niagara; and on the 25th of July they took it—an incident followed on the 18th of the next September by the fall of Quebec, and the transfer of all Canada to the British Crown. The year after the conquest a force was despatched by General Amherst from Montreal to proceed up the country and take possession of the important post at Detroit. It was conveyed in fifteen whale-boats and consisted of two hundred Rangers under the command of Major Robert Rogers. Major Rogers was accompanied by the following officers: Capt. Brewer, Capt. Wait, Lieut. Bhreme, Assistant-Engineer, and Lieut. Davis of the Royal Train of Artillery. The party set out from Montreal on the 12th of September, 1760. The journal of Major Rogers has been published. It includes an account of this expedition. We give the complete title of the work, which is one sought after by book-collectors: "The Journals of Major Robert Rogers, containing an Account of the several Excursions he made under the Generals who commanded on the Continent of North America during the late War. From which may be collected the most material Circumstances of every Campaign upon that continent from the commencement to the conclusion of the War. London: Printed for the Author, and sold by J. Millan, bookseller, near Whitehall, MDCCLXV."

We extract the part in which a visit to Toronto is spoken of. He leaves the ruins of Fort Frontenac on the 25th of September. On the 28th he enters the mouth of a river which he says is called by the Indians "The Grace of Man." (The Major probably mistook, or was imposed upon, in the matter of etymology.)

Here he found, he says, about fifty Mississaga Indians fishing for salmon. "At our first appearance," he continues, "they ran down, both men and boys to the edge of the Lake, and continued firing their pieces, to express their joy at the sight of the English colours, until such time as we had landed." About fifteen miles further on he enters another river, which he says, the Indians call "The Life of Man."

"On the 30th," the journal proceeds:—"We embarked at the first dawn of day, and, with the assistance of sails and oars, made great way on a south-west course; and in the evening reached the river Toronto (the Humber), having run seventy miles. Many points extending far into the water," Major Rogers remarks, "occasioned a frequent alteration of our course. We passed a bank of twenty miles in length, but the land behind it seemed to be level, well timbered with large oaks, hickories, maples, and some poplars. No mountains appeared in sight. Round the place where formerly the French had a fort, that was called Fort Toronto, there was a tract of about 300 acres of cleared ground. The soil here is principally clay. The deer are extremely plenty in this country. Some Indians," Major Rogers continues, "were hunting at the mouth of the river, who ran into the woods at our approach, very much frightened. They came in however in the morning and testified their joy at the news of our success against the French. They told us that we could easily accomplish our journey from thence to Detroit in eight days; that when the French traded at that place (Toronto), the Indians used to come with their peltry from Michilimackinac down the river Toronto; that the portage was but twenty miles from that to a river falling into Lake Huron, which had some falls, but none very considerable; they added that there was a carrying-place of fifteen miles from some westerly part of Lake Erie to a river running without any falls through several Indian towns into Lake St. Clair. I think Toronto," Major Rogers then states, "a most convenient place for a factory, and that from thence we may very easily settle the north side of Lake Erie."

"We left Toronto," the journal then proceeds, "the 1st of October, steering south, right across the west end of Lake Ontario. At dark, we arrived at the South Shore, five miles west of Fort Niagara, some of our boats now becoming exceeding leaky and dangerous. This morning, before we set out, I directed the following order of march:—The boats in a line. If the wind rose high, the red flag hoisted, and the boats to crowd nearer, that they might be ready to give mutual assistance in case of a leak or other accident, by which means we saved the crew and arms of the boat commanded by Lieutenant M'Cormack, which sprang a leak and sunk, losing nothing except the packs. We halted all the next day at Niagara, and provided ourselves with blankets, coats, shirts, shoes, moccasins, &c. I received from the commanding officer eighty barrels of provisions, and changed two whale-boats for as many batteaux, which proved leaky. In the evening, some of my party proceeded with the provisions to the Falls (the rapid water at Queenston), and in the morning marched the rest there, and began the portage of the provisions and boats. Messrs. Bhreme and Davis took a survey of the great cataract of Niagara."

1761.

At the time of Major Rogers' visit to Toronto all trading there had apparently ceased; but we observe that he says it was most convenient place for a factory. In 1761, we have Toronto named in a letter addressed by Captain Campbell, commanding at Detroit, to Major Walters, commanding at Niagara, informing him of an intended attack of the Indians. "Detroit, June 17th, 1761, two o'clock in the morning. Sir,—I had the favour of yours, with General Amherst's despatches. I have sent you an express with a very important piece of intelligence I have had the good fortune to discover. I have been lately alarmed with reports of the bad designs of the Indian nations against this place, and the English in general. I can now inform you for certain it comes from the Six Nations; and that they have sent belts of wampum and deputies to all the nations from Nova Scotia to the Illinois, to take up the hatchet against the English, and have employed the Mississaguas to send belts of wampum to the northern nations. Their project is as follows:—The Six Nations, at least the Senecas, are to assemble at the head of French Creek, within five-and-twenty leagues of Presqu'isle; part of the Six Nations (the Delawares and Shawnees), are to assemble on the Ohio; and at the same time, about the latter end of the month, to surprise Niagara and Fort Pitt, and cut off the communication everywhere. I hope this will come time enough to put you on your guard, and to send to Oswego, and all the posts in that communication. They expect to be joined by the nations that are to come from the North by Toronto."

1767.

Eight years after the occupation of the country by the English, a considerable traffic was being carried on at Toronto. We learn this from a despatch of Sir William Johnson's to the Earl of Shelburne, on the subject of Indian affairs, bearing date 1767. Sir William affirms that persons could be found willing to pay £1,000 per annum for the monopoly of the trade at Toronto. Some remarks of his that precede the reference to Toronto give us some idea of the commercial tactics of the Indian and Indian trader of the time. "The Indians have no business to follow when at peace," Sir William Johnson says, "but hunting. Between each hunt they have a recess of several months. They are naturally very covetous," the same authority asserts, "and become daily better acquainted with the value of our goods and their own peltry; they are everywhere at home, and travel without the expense or inconvenience attending our journey to them. On the other hand, every step our traders take beyond the posts, is attended at least with some risk and a very heavy expense, which the Indians must feel as heavily on the purchase of their commodities; all which considered, is it not reasonable to suppose that they would rather employ their idle time in quest of a cheap market, than sit down with such slender returns as they must receive in their own villages?" He then instances Toronto. "As a proof of which," Sir William continues, "I shall give one instance concerning Toronto, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Notwithstanding the assertion of Major Rogers," Sir William Johnson says, "that even a single trader would not think it worth attention to supply a dependent post, yet I have heard traders of long experience and good circumstances affirm, that for the exclusive trade of that place, for one season, they would willingly pay £1,000—so certain were they of a quiet market—from the cheapness at which they could afford their goods there."

Although after the Conquest the two sides of Lake Ontario and of the St. Lawrence generally were no longer under different crowns, the previous rivalry between the two routes, the St. Lawrence and Mohawk river routes, to the seaboard continued; and it was plainly to the interest of those who desired the aggrandisement of Albany and New York to the detriment of Montreal and Quebec, to discourage serious trading enterprises with Indians on the northern side of the St. Lawrence waters. We have an example of this spirit in a "Journal of Indian Transactions at [Fort] Niagara, in the year 1767," published in the documentary History of New York (ii. 868, 8vo. ed.), in which Toronto is named, and a great chieftain from that region figures—in one respect, somewhat discreditably, however. We give the passage of the journal to which we refer. The document appears to have been drawn up by Norman M'Leod, an Indian agent, visiting Fort Niagara.

"July 17th, [1767.] Arrived Wabacommegat, chief of the Mississagas. [He came from Toronto, as we shall presently see.] July 18th. Arrived Ashenshan, head-warrior of the Senecas, belonging to the Caiadeon village. This day, Wabacommegat came to speak to me, but was so drunk that no one could understand him."

Again: "July 19th. Had a small conference with Wabacommegat. Present—Norman M'Leod, Esq.; Mr. Neil MacLean, Commissary of Provisions; Jean Baptiste de Couagne, interpreter. Wabacommegat spoke first, and, after the usual compliments, told that as soon as he had heard of my arrival, he and his young men came to see me. He then asked me if I had any news, and desired I should tell all I had. Then he gave four strings of wampum. I then told them—Children, I am glad to see you. I am sent here by your father, Sir William Johnson, to take care of your trade, and to prevent abuses therein. I have no sort of news, for I suppose you have heard of the drunken Chippewas that killed an Englishman and wounded his wife very much, above Detroit; they are sent down the country by consent and approbation of the head men of the nation. I am sorry to acquaint you that some of your nation that came here with Nan-i-bo-jou, killed a cow and a mare belonging to Captain Grant, on the other side of the river. I am persuaded that all here present think it was very wrong, and a very bad return for the many good offices done by the English in general towards them, and in particular by Captain Grant, who had that day fed the men that were guilty of the theft. I hope and desire that Wabacommegat and the rest of the chiefs and warriors here present, will do all in their power to discover the thief, and bring him in here to me the next time they return, that we may see what satisfaction he or they may give Captain Grant for the loss of his cattle. [I gave seven strings of wampum.] Children, I am sorry to hear you have permitted people to trade at Toronto. I hope you will prevent it for the future. All of you know the reason of this belt of wampum being left at this place. [I then showed them a large belt left here five or six years ago by Wabacommegat, by which belt he was under promise not to allow anybody whatever to carry on trade at Toronto.] Now, children, I have no more to say, but desire you to remember and keep close to all the promises you have made to your English father. You must not listen to any bad news. When you hear any, good or bad, come to me with it. You may depend upon it I shall always tell you the truth. [I gave four strings of wampum.]

"Wabacommegat replied: 'Father, we have heard you with attention. I think it was very wrong in the people to kill Captain Grant's cattle. I shall discover the men that did it, and will bring them in here in the fall. We will allow no more trade to be carried on at Toronto. As to myself, it is well known I don't approve of it, as I went with the interpreter to bring in those that were trading at that place. We go away this day, and hope our father will give us some provisions, rum, powder and shot, and we will bring you venison when we return.' I replied, it was not in my power to give them much, but as it was the first time I had the pleasure of speaking to them, they should have a little of what they wanted."

In the January previous to the conference, two traders had been arrested at Toronto. Sir William Johnson, in a letter to Gen. Gage, writes thus, under date of January 12, 1767. "Capt. Browne writes me that he has, at the request of Commissary Roberts, caused two traders to be apprehended at Toronto, where they were trading contrary to authority. I hope Lieut.-Gov. Carleton," Sir William continues, "will, agreeable to the declaration in one of his letters, have them prosecuted and punished as an example to the rest. I am informed that there are several more from Canada trading with the Indians on the north side of Lake Ontario, and up along the rivers in that quarter, which, if not prevented, must entirely ruin the fair trader." In these extracts from the correspondence of Sir William Johnson, and from the Journal of transactions at Fort Niagara, in 1767, we are admitted, as we suspect, to a true view of the status of Toronto as a trading-post for a series of years after the conquest. It was, as we conceive, a place where a good deal of forestalling of the regular markets went on. Trappers and traders, acting without license, made such bargains as they could with individuals among the native bands frequenting the spot at particular seasons of the year. We do not suppose that any store-houses for the deposit of goods or peltries were maintained here after the conquest. In a MS. map, which we have seen, of about the date 1793, the site of the old Fort Rouillé is marked by a group of wigwams of the usual pointed shape, with the inscription appended, "Toronto, an Indian village now deserted."

1788.

In 1788 Toronto harbour was well and minutely described by J. Collins, Deputy Surveyor General, in a Report presented to Lord Dorchester, Governor-General, on the Military Posts and Harbours on Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron. "The Harbour of Toronto," Mr. Collins says, "is near two miles in length from the entrance on the west to the isthmus between it and a large morass on the eastward. The breadth of the entrance is about half a mile, but the navigable channel for vessels is only about 500 yards, having from three to three and a half fathoms water. The north or main shore, the whole length of the harbour, is a clay bank from twelve to twenty feet high, and rising gradually behind, apparently good land, and fit for settlement. The water is rather shoal near the shore, having but one fathom depth at one hundred yards distance, two fathoms at two hundred yards; and when I sounded here, the waters of the Lake were very high. There is good and safe anchorage everywhere within the harbour, being either a soft or sandy bottom. The south shore is composed of a great number of sandhills and ridges, intersected with swamps and small creeks. It is of unequal breadths, being from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide across from the harbour to the lake, and runs in length to the east five or six miles. Through the middle of the isthmus before mentioned, or rather near the north shore, is a channel with two fathoms water, and in the morass there are other channels from one to two fathoms deep. From what has been said," Mr. Collins proceeds to observe, "it will appear that the harbour of Toronto is capacious, safe and well sheltered; but the entrance being from the westward is a great disadvantage to it, as the prevailing winds are from that quarter; and as this is a fair wind from hence down the Lake, of course it is that which vessels in general would take their departure from; but they may frequently find it difficult to get out of the harbour. The shoalness of the north shore, as before remarked, is also disadvantageous as to erecting wharfs, quays, &c. In regard to this place as a military post," Mr. Collins reports, "I do not see any very striking features to recommend it in that view; but the best situation to occupy for the purpose of protecting the settlement and harbour would, I conceive, be on the point and near the entrance thereof." (The knoll which subsequently became the site of the Garrison of York, is probably intended. Gibraltar point, on the opposite side of the entrance, where a block house was afterwards built, may also be glanced at.)

The history of the site of Fort Toronto would probably have differed from what it has been, and the town developed there would, perhaps, have assumed at its outset a French rather than an English aspect, had the expectations of three Lower Canadian gentlemen, in 1791, been completely fulfilled. Under date of "Surveyor General's Office [Quebec], 10th June, 1791," Mr. Collins, Deputy Surveyor-General, writes to Mr. Augustus Jones, an eminent Deputy Provincial Surveyor, of whom we shall hear repeatedly, that "His Excellency, Lord Dorchester, has been pleased to order one thousand acres of land to be laid out at Toronto for Mr. Rocheblave; and for Captain Lajorée, and for Captain Bouchette seven hundred acres each, at the same place, which please to lay out accordingly," Mr. Collins says, "and report the same to this office with all convenient speed."

We may suppose that these three French gentlemen became early aware of the spot likely to be selected for the capital of the contemplated Province of Upper Canada, and foresaw the advantages that might accrue from the possession of some broad acres there. Unluckily for them, however, delay occurred in the execution of Lord Dorchester's order; and in the meantime, the new Province was duly constituted, with a government and land-granting department of its own; and, under date of "Nassau [Niagara], June 15, 1792," Mr. Augustus Jones, writing to Mr. Collins, refers to his former communication in the following terms:—"Your order of the 10th of June, 1791, for lands at Toronto, in favour of Mr. Rocheblave and others, I only received the other day; and as the members of the Land Board think their power dissolved by our Governor's late Proclamation relative to granting of Lands in Upper Canada, they recommend it to me to postpone doing anything in respect of such order until I may receive some further instructions."

We hear no more of the order. Had M. Rocheblave, Captain Lajorée and Captain Bouchette become legally seized of the lands assigned them at Toronto by Lord Dorchester, the occupants of building-lots in York, instead of holding in fee simple, would probably have been burdened for many a year with some vexatious recognitions of quasi-seignorial rights.

On Holland's great MS. map of the Province of Quebec, made in 1791, and preserved in the Crown Lands Department of Ontario, the indentation in front of the mouth of the modern Humber river is entitled "Toronto Bay"; the sheet of water between the peninsula and the mainland is not named: but the peninsula itself is marked "Presqu'isle, Toronto;" and an extensive rectangular tract, bounded on the south by "Toronto Bay" and the waters within the peninsula, is inscribed "Toronto." In Mr. Chewett's MS. Journal, we have, under date of Quebec, April 22, 1792, the following entry: "Received from Gov. Simcoe a Plan of Points Henry and Frederick, to have a title page put to them: also a plan of the Town and township of Toronto, and to know whether it was ever laid out." We gather from this that sometime prior to Governor Simcoe's arrival, it had been in contemplation to establish a town at Toronto.

The name Toronto pleased the ear and took the fancy of sentimental writers. We have it introduced by an author of this class, in a work, entitled "Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie et dans l'Etat de New York, par un Membre adoptif de la nation Oneida;" published at Paris in 1801, but written prior to 1799, as it is inscribed to Washington. The author describes a Council pretended to be held at Onondaga, where chiefs and sachems speak. They discourse of the misery of man, of death, of the ravages of the small-pox. Siasconcet, one of the sages, relates his interview with Kahawabash, who had lost his wife and all his friends by the prevailing malady. Siasconcet exhorts him to suffer in silence like a wise man. Kahawabash replies, "Siasconcet! n'as-tu pas souvent entendu les cris plaintifs de l'ours, dont la compagne avoit été tuée? N'as-tu pas souvent vu couler les larmes des yeux du castor qui avait perdu sa femelle ou ses petits? Eh bien! moi, suis-je inférieur à l'ours ou au castor? Non: je suis homme, aussi bon chasseur, aussi brave guerrier que tes sachems: comment empêcher l'arc de s'étendre quand la corde casse? La cime du chêne ou la tige du roseau de ployer, quand l'orage éclate? Lorsque le corps est blessé, Siasconcet, il en découle du sang; quand le coeur est navré, il en découle des larmes: voilà ce que je dirai à tes vieillards; je verrai ce qu'ils me répondront."

In the reply of Siasconcet, we have the reference to Toronto to which we have alluded, and which somewhat startled us when we suddenly lighted upon it in the work above-named. "Eh, bien!" Siasconcet said: "eh, bien! Kahawabash, pleure sous mon toît, puisque ton bon génie le veut, et pour plaire au mauvais, que tes yeux soient secs quand tu seras au feu d'Onondaga." "Que faut-il donc faire sur la terre," rejoined Kahawabash, "puisque l'un veut ce que l'autre ne veut pas?" "Que faut-il faire?" answered Siasconcet, "considérer la vie comme un passage de Toronto à Niagara. Que de difficultés n'éprouvons-pas nous pour doubler les caps, pour sortir des baies dans lesquelles les vents nous forçent d'entrer? Que de chances contre d'aussi frêles canots que les nôtres? Il faut cependant prendre le temps et les choses comme ils viennent, puisque nous ne pouvons pas les choisir; il faut nourrir, aimer sa femme et ses enfans, respecter sa tribu et sa nation; jouir du bien quand il nous écheoit; supporter le mal avec courage et patience; chasser et pêcher quand on a faim, se reposer et fumer quand on est las; s'attendre à rencontrer le malheur puisque on est né; se réjouir quand il ne vient pas; se considérer comme des oiseaux perchés pour la nuit sur la branche d'un arbre, et qui, au point du jour, s'envolent et disparaissent pour toujours."

Familiar with the modern two-hours' pleasure-trip from Toronto to Niagara, we were, for the moment unprepared for the philosophic sachem's illustration of the changes and chances of mortal life. We forgot what an undertaking that journey was in the days of the primitive birch canoe, when in order to accomplish the passage, the whole of the western portion of Lake Ontario, was wont to be cautiously and laboriously coasted.

The real name of the author of the "Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie" was Saint-Jean de Crèvecoeur.

To the narrative just given is appended information, which, if superfluous, will nevertheless be read locally now, with some curiosity. The note explains that Toronto and Niagara, are "postes considérables de l'Ontario: le premier, situé à l'ouest de ce lac, est formé par une baie profonde et commode, où le Gouvernement Anglais a fait construire un chantier, et une ville à laquelle on a donné le nom d'York; le second, situé au sud-ouest, est formé par l'embouchure de la rivière Niagara, à l'est de laquelle est la forteresse du même nom, et à l'ouest la pointe des Missisagués, sur laquelle on construit une nouvelle ville, destinée à être la capitale du Haut Canada."

The annotator speaks, we see, of the town on Mississaga point and the other new town on the opposite side of the lake in the same terms: both are in process of construction; and the town on Mississaga point, he still thinks is destined to be the capital of Upper Canada.

1796.

The language of the note recalls the agitation in the public mind at Niagara in 1796, on the subject of the seat of Government for Upper Canada—a question that has since agitated Canada in several of its sub-sections. The people of Niagara in 1796, being in possession, naturally thought that the distinction ought to continue with them. Governor Simcoe had ordered the removal of the public offices to the infant York: there to abide, however, only temporarily, until the West should be peopled, and a second London built, on a Canadian Thames. Lord Dorchester, the Governor-in-Chief, at Quebec, held that Kingston ought to have been preferred, but that place, like Niagara, was, it was urged, too near the frontier in case of war. In 1796, Governor Simcoe had withdrawn from the country, and the people of Niagara entertained hopes that the order for removal might still be revoked. The policy of the late Governor, however, continued to be carried out.

1793.

Three years previously, viz., in 1793, the site of the trading post known as Toronto had been occupied by the troops drawn from Niagara and Queenston. At noon on the 27th of August in 1793, the first royal salute had been fired from the garrison there, and responded to by the shipping in the harbour, in commemoration of the change of name from Toronto to York—a change intended to please the old king, George III., through a compliment offered to his soldier son, Frederick, Duke of York.

For some time after 1793, official letters and other contemporary records exhibit in their references to the new site, the expressions, "Toronto, now York," and "York, late Toronto."

1795.

The ancient appellation was a favorite, and continued in ordinary use. Isaac Weld, who travelled in North America in 1795-7, still speaks in his work of the transfer of the Government from Niagara to Toronto. "Niagara," he says, "is the centre of the beau monde of Upper Canada: orders, however," he continues, "had been issued before our arrival there for the removal of the Seat of Government from thence to Toronto, which was deemed a more eligible spot for the meeting of the Legislative bodies, as being farther removed from the frontiers of the United States. This projected change," he adds, "is by no means relished by the people at large, as Niagara is a much more convenient place of resort to most of them than Toronto; and as the Governor, who proposed the measure, has been removed, it is imagined that it will not be put in execution."

1803.

In 1803-4, Thomas Moore, the distinguished poet, travelled on this continent. The record of his tour took the form, not of a journal in prose, but of a miscellaneous collection of verses suggested by incidents and scenes encountered. These pieces, addressed many of them to friends, appear now as a subdivision of his collected works, as Poems relating to America. The society of the United States in 1804 appears to have been very distasteful to him. He speaks of his experience somewhat as we may imagine the winged Pegasus, if endowed with speech, would have done of his memorable brief taste of sublunary life. Writing to the Hon. W. R. Spencer, from Buffalo,—which he explains to be "a little village on Lake Erie,"—in a strain resembling that of the poetical satirists of the century which had just passed away, he sweepingly declares—

"Take Christians, Mohawks, Democrats, and all, From the rude wigwam to the congress-hall, From man the savage, whether slav'd or free, To man the civilized, less tame than he,— 'Tis one dull chaos, one unfertile strife Betwixt half-polished and half-barbarous life; Where every ill the ancient world could brew Is mixed with every grossness of the new; Where all corrupts, though little can entice, And nought is known of luxury, but its vice!"

He makes an exception in a note appended to these lines, in favour of the Dennies and their friends at Philadelphia, with whom he says, "I passed the few agreeable moments which my tour through the States afforded me." These friends he thus apostrophises:—

"Yet, yet forgive me, oh! ye sacred few, Whom late by Delaware's green banks I knew: Whom known and loved thro' many a social eve, 'Twas bliss to live with, and 'twas pain to leave. Not with more joy the lonely exile scann'd The writing traced upon the desert's sand, Where his lone heart but little hoped to find One trace of life, one stamp of human kind; Than did I hail the pure, th' enlightened zeal, The strength to reason and the warmth to feel, The manly polish and the illumined taste, Which, 'mid the melancholy, heartless waste, My foot has traversed, oh! you sacred few, I found by Delaware's green banks with you."

After visiting the Falls of Niagara, Moore passed down Lake Ontario, threaded his way through the Thousand Islands, shot the Long Sault and other rapids, and spent some days in Montreal.

The poor lake-craft which in 1804 must have accommodated the poet, may have put in at the harbour of York. He certainly alludes to a tranquil evening scene on the waters in that quarter, and notices the situation of the ancient "Toronto." Thus he sings in some verses addressed to Lady Charlotte Rawdon, "from the banks of the St. Lawrence." (He refers to the time when he was last in her company, and says how improbable it then was that he should ever stand upon the shores of America):

"I dreamt not then that ere the rolling year Had filled its circle, I should wander here In musing awe; should tread this wondrous world, See all its store of inland waters hurl'd In one vast volume down Niagara's steep, Or calm behold them, in transparent sleep, Where the blue hills of old Toronto shed Their evening shadows o'er Ontario's bed; Should trace the grand Cadaraqui, and glide Down the white rapids of his lordly tide. Through massy woods, 'mid islets flowering fair, And blooming glades, where the first sinful pair For consolation might have weeping trod, When banished from the garden of their God."

We can better picture to ourselves the author of Lalla Rookh floating on the streams and other waters "of Ormus and of Ind," constructing verses as he journeys on, than we can of the same personage on the St. Lawrence in 1804 similarly engaged. "The Canadian Boat Song" has become in its words and air almost a "national anthem" amongst us. It was written, we are assured, at St Anne's, near the junction of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence.

Toronto should be duly appreciative of the distinction of having been named by Moore. The look and sound of the word took his fancy, and he doubtless had pleasure in introducing it in his verses addressed to Lady Rawdon. It will be observed that while Moore gives the modern pronunciation of Niagara, and not the older, as Goldsmith does in his "Traveller," he obliges us to pronounce Cataraqui in an unusual manner.

Isaac Weld, it will have been noticed, also preferred the name Toronto, in the passage from his Travels just now given, though writing after its alteration to York. The same traveller moreover indulges in the following general strictures: "It is to be lamented that the Indian names, so grand and sonorous, should ever have been changed for others. Newark, Kingston, York, are poor substitutes for the original names of the respective places, Niagara, Cataraqui, Toronto."

"Dead vegetable matter made the humus; into that the roots of the living tree were struck, and because there had been vegetation in the past, there was vegetation in the future. And so it was with regard to the higher life of a nation. Unless there was a past to which it could refer, there would not be in it any high sense of its own mission in the world. . . . . . They did not want to bring the old times back again, but they would understand the present around them far better if they would trace the present back into the past, see what it arose out of, what it had been the development of, and what it contained to serve for the future before them."—Bishop of Winchester to the Archæological Institute, at Southampton, Aug. 1872.