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I t OK IK I ( THE OLD FRENCH FORT AT TORONTO AND ITS MONUMENT BY HENRY SCADDING, DO., CAV'fN OF TOnONT*- ; AUTHOR OK "TOBONTH* OK OLD," "THK KOIIR IIKCADKH UK Vi(«K, t'I'I'KK CANADA," "TUK K1R8T RIKFIor OK TORONTO, A RP.VIK\V AND A HTl'DV," KTC TORONTO : THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED, PRINTERS. 1887. \ \ / 0: T. 'V { ■ (I J ' ' » * /. ^ vy '^ / ^i*J" 17 ..*.»>-«!lH':;i„;,i'j'";;. ■;;•• Monument on the site of the old French fort at joronto, unveiled by the povernoi^- peneral, j-ord ^ansdowne, PEPT. 6th, 1887. HISTORY or THE OLD FRENCH FORT AT TORONTO AND ITS MONUMENT. li. • V Br HENRY SCADDING, D.D., .AXON OK TOUO.NTO; Air.IOll (,K " TUKOSTO OK OM., rllK K.)LR DKCADES OK YORK, ITl-EB CANADA,' "rriK FIK.ST HISIIOK OK TOIiuXTO, A RKVIKW AXI) A STIDV," KTC. T O R O N T O . THE COPF, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED, PRINTERS. 1887 . r 7 7 A immunity is wantin- in sclf-rosi.i.ct whi.'h does not take an interest in its ..« n liistory, an.l seek to preserve those records ),y wl,i,.|, that history can l)o traced and authcnticuted." Lord Lanhiiownk at Toronto in 1887. tm t tm ■% C O N T 1-: NTS. I'llAITKIl 1. Keason of the Old Froiich Fort's Kxisltiice . , , Tlie Olil French Fort Fmimled CHAPTKIJ II, CKAI'TKI! III. Name and Nature of the Old Frunoli Fort Trade at the Old French Fort CHAITKU IV ClIAl'TFlt V. Fran(;oi.s I'i(|uet's Visit to the Old French Fort CHAPTKII IX. Notices of the remains of the Old French Fort : Major Rogers' 10 IH 1.1 IS ("HAl'TKU VI. A Friend in need Wanted at the Ohl French Fort in 17iVJ ; and Found.. 'JO CHAITKR VI 1. The Old French Fort Destroyed .,o CHAPTER VJII. Notices of the Remains of the Old French Fort : Sir William .lohnsou's.. . . 23 on CHAPTF]R X. Notices of the Remains of the Old French Fort : Capt. Gother Mann's 26 C!HAPTFU XI. Augustus Jones at the Site of the Old French Fort in 1793 28 CHAPTER XII. Some Later Notices of the Site of the Old French Fort 30 CHAPTER XIII. Site of the Old French Fort well known to the Invaders in 1813 31 CHAPTER XIV. Remains of the Old French Fort Effaced, but Site Marked by a Cairn. . , . 36 CHAPTER XV. Cairn Replaced by a Memorial Column, which is Finally made a Memento of the Queen's Jubilee, in the Year 1887 38 ■ A % 4- APPENDIX. ^ * « « to observe : " The exjtense will not be great : the timber is trans- ported there, and the reinaiuiug recjuisites will be conveyed by the barques belonging to Foi-t Frontenac." He then shews how the new post may be sustained and how its main object can be secured. "Too much care," he says, " cannot be taken to prevent tliose In- dians (from the north) continuing their trade with the Englisli ; and to furnish them at this jjost with all their necessaries, even as cheap as at Choueguen, Messrs, de la Jonquiere and Bigot," it is iidded, " will permit some canoes to go thei-e on license, and will apply the funds as a gratuity to the officer in comniand there." jMoreover, it is said, directions must be given to regidate the jxrices at the other posts. " It will be necessary to order the commandants at Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Frontenac, to be careful that the traders and store-keepers of those ))osts furnish goods for two or three years to come, at the same rate as the English ; by this means the Indians will disaccustom themselves from going to Choueguen, and the Eng- lish will be obliged to abandon that place." (It is scarcely necessary to say that Choueguen is the same name as Oswego, with an initial syllable dropped and a final n retained. The M. de la Jonquiere mentioned is Galissoniere's successor, just arrived, and M. Bigot is his co-adjutor or Intendant, as tlie expression was. It may be men- tioned that a fort at the " pass at Toronto " had Ijeen suggested some years before, namely, in 1686, by Governor-Genei'al de Denonville, but its situation was to have been at th« Lake Huron end of the " pass," and of a military character, so that English men, should they chance to trespass that way, might " have some one to speak to." No action, however, was taken on the suggestion). As to the form and size of the fort at Toronto erected in 1749, we obtain very precise information in th ■ " Memoir upon the late War in North America, in 1759 60," by Capt. Pouchot, the last French commandant at Fort Niagara. "The Fort of Toronto," Pouchot says (p. 119, vol. II.), "is at the end of the Bay (i. e. west end), on the side which is quite elevated, and covered (i. e. protected) by flat rock, so that vessels cannot approach within cannon-shot." The rock that crops up just below the site of the fort, in flat sheets, is very conspicuous when the lake is calm. Pouchot had seen the fort, but ho writes in the past tense, after its destruction. " This fort or post," he says, "was a square of about thirty toises (180 feet) on a s^/ \ ■.,!,-:vW 12 side externally, with 6auk.s of fifteen feet. The curtains formed the buildings of the fort. It was very well built, piece upon pece ; but was only useful f »r trade. A league west of the fort,'' he adds, " is the mouth of the Toronto river, which is of considerable size. This river communicates with Lake If uron by a portage of fifteen leagues, and is freoints of view, a dependency of the fort there. In 1754 the occupants of Fort Niagara were twenty- four soldiers, five officers, two sergeants, one drummer, a clmplain, a surgeon, and a store-keeper ; and the number of canoes annually despatched thither with supplies was ten ; while at Fort Toronto there were only five soldiers, one ofticer, two sergeants, and a store- keeper ; and the number of canoes sent uj) with goods was five. Each canoe destined for the western forts was freighted with a cargo wortli about seven thousand French livi-es, and the price given for good beaver was ft-om three livres ten sous to five livres per pound. As we have already seen, a considerable supply of " effects " was recpiired at Fort Toronto to make it answer the purpose of its estab- lishment. From the outset it was foreseen that the laisiness done there would diminish that done at Forts Frontenac and Niagara. But it was argued : "If there be less trade at those two last-incn- tioned forts, there will be less trans^jortation of merchandise : what will be lost on the one side will be gained on the other, and it will amount to much ihe same thing in the end. The King will even reap a great advantage, if we can accomplish the fall of Choueguen by disgusting the Indians with that place, and this can l)e effected only by selling cheap to them." Season after season then, for ten years, we may suppose a great variety of scenes occurring within and around the palisades <. f Fort Toronto, characteristic of the period and the s[)ecial circumstances and condition of the innnediate locality. Along the Indian road or trail from the North, bands of Mississagas (who wei-e simjjly Otchip- ways from Lakes Huron and Superior), would come down, bringing with them the furs collected during the hunting season, together with other articles of merchandise, the handiwork of themsfdves and their squaws in the lodges during the winter months. Bands bearing the jy<^ - ^ fif6' ■^T 16 sanio tribal appollation, and laden with similar burdens, would arrivo also from tho West, travelling alon-; through the " Missis saga Tract " by a path on the north shore of the lake ; and some moreover, would make their way thither from the westward in canoes. The trees which lined the broad sandy beach from the mouth of the Humber to what in modern days has been known as the iJug. way, was a very favourable sitiiation for encami)ments. This space would be dotted over with numerous temporary wigwams ; and a double file of traffickers, male and female, would be seen on the track leading eastward toward the Stockade on the cliff' a little wav down the bay, — some going, eager to effV^ct sales, others returning, pleased, or tho contrary, with terms secured, or gloating over some useful or sliewy jjurchase just made. At this Stockade on tho cliff" were thus spread out for the tirst time in these parts the products of human industry, for critical inspectio.i and mutual interchange. Displayed on the greensward inside the i)alisades, on the one side were wares brought laboriously hither from the Old World across the sea ; and on other, also brought laboriously hither, often from considerable distances, the ordinary products of the country, as it then was : the outcome of the common pursuits and toil of the natives of the land, with si)ecimens of thair handiwork and inge- nuity, rude it may be, in aspect, but evincing instincts, tendencies and capacities in germ, identical with those of the more favoiired members of the human family with whom they were here con. routed. On the one side, we have the Frenchman, all activity, and ffuent of !-^...,och, exliibiting to the best advantage, cheap fabrics in wool, in cotton, in flax, and it may be, to a limited extent, in silk, from the looms of old France, cloths, linens, ribbons, braids, very pronounced in colour and pattern, to suit the '■ savage " fancy ; tcsgether with cutlery of a certain class, hatchets, knives, and simple tools ; kettles, of brass and iron ; fusils, powder and shot and ball ; beads, toys mirrors, silver trinkets. On tlie other side we see the red man of the North, sedate in manner, tacitui-n, keen-sighted withal and shrewd, opening out his peltries of various kinds, his beaver, otter, fox, mar- ten, deer, bear, wolf and bufftilo skins ; his moccasins and shoe-packs of well-cured buckskin and buflfalo-hide ; his birch-bark mokuks filled with pemmecan or maize or dried berries ; his bass-wood basketsi tr o^Vi^ ,r 17 cliequoved red, wliite iind hliie ; ponclics, hclts and Icgyiuys fVinyt'd and iidornod with tl;e stained (|iiills of tlir ixirciipiiu' ; snowsliocs, ])0\vs iiud arrows, curved war chilis, stone jiipt's. Tlie f'iiscinatini,', fatal tirc-wuter was forbidden to he offereil in open ti'atHc, but some sujtply of it was not fai- off, to be dispensed in occa- sional treats. Here, then, at the priiiiiti\(,' Fort Toronto was inaii;,'uratcd. on a liunible scale, the coiniuerce which has been so hap|)ily sinc(^ dcvel" oped on the shoi-es of the adjoining iiay ; t Ik; coniiutMce now repre- sented by manifold symbols and sij^as in every (piarter of the wide- spread city of Toronto — the wcll-snpitlied stores of Kin«,' Stieet, Yonge Street Jiud Queen Street, the grand warehouses of Wellington Street and Front Street ; the freight depots, elevators, steamers, trains, crowded platfoi-nis and whaives of the Es]tlanade, and, and, though last to lu^ mentioned, yet by no means tlie least in sig- nificance and inn)ortance, l)y the multitudinous assemldage of Ijiiild- ings with their multifarious contents, mimate and inanimate; as stem during the time of the September exhibition of each successive year, in the great Industrial Exhibition Park, of which the monument commemorative of the early trading 2)ost now forms so consjiicuous an ornament. I have more than once spoken in other publications of a certain eai'ly MS. ma[> which I once had the advantage of seeing in Kngland, in which over a small group of little tent-shaped huts on the sliore of Toronto bay, was written, " Toronto, an Indian village, now deserted." As tjiere is nothing to lead us to supp'ose that there was ever at this point a village of sedentary Indians, it is reasonable to conjecture tliat the inscription in question was occasioned by a sight of the dismantled wigwams on the strand at tlie terminus of the Indian road from the north, without a knowledge of their origin and periodical use. Bouchette's two or three Mississaga families that, according to his exj)erience, were the only inhabitants of the shore of Toronto bay in 17'J2, were perha])s simjily casual utilizers of the same frail apologies for liouses, dining a hunting or fishing excursion. r 18 CHAPTER V. FRANCOIS PIQURT'S VISIT TO TlIK OLD FRENCH FORT. FiiiiK^ois Piquet wiis a pitisbytei- of the French Cliurch in Canai!a, a member of tlie religious confraternity of St. Sulpice. He was a man of great zeal and enterprise; and in 1749 accomplished, almo.st unaided, the establishment of a mission at the mouth of tlie River Oswegatchio (oi)j)osite the modei-n Prescott), in the territory of the Iro(juois Indians. By 1752, the Oswegatchie mission, after some disastrous experience, had developed in the usual way into an im l)ortaut trading- post and centre of Frencli iuHuence, especially among the Onondaga, Oneida and Cayuga native tribes. In 1752 Piquet made an exploratory tour of Lake Ontario. A king's boat was su))plied to him for the purpose. His journal of the expedition has been printed. In June he was at Fort Frontenac. Here he found the Indian trade ruined by the English {)ost at Choue^uen (Oswego). He complains of the fare he met with at Fort Fron- tenac : the pork and bacon were very bad ; and there was not brandy enough in the fort to wash ji wound. He jiassed on to the Bay of Quinte and visited the sitr of a mission formerly e.stablished there by two brother presbyters of the Sulpician order, DoUieres de Kleus and D'Urfe. On the twenty-sixth of June he reached the new fort of Toronto, which offered a striking contrast to Fort Frontenac. "The wine here is of the best," Piquet says; "nothing is wanting in the fort ; everything is abundant, line and good." He found a number ot Mississaga Indians there, who, he says, flocked around him, and spoke of the hajjpiness their young people, the women and children, would feel if the King of France would be as good to them as to the Iroquois Indians, for whom he j)rovided missionaries. They comjjlained that for them, instead of building a Church, only a can- teen had been constructed. He would not, however, allow them to proceed any further, and answered them to the effect that they had been ti'eated according to liieirfancy; that they had never evinced the least zeal fi v religion; that their conduct was much opposed to it ; that the Iroquois Indians, on the contrary, had manifested their love for Christianity. He was strongly impelled to persnade them y*r I '*^• ^ > I I Jl'^^ J. ^• 19 to join liiin at his mission jit Oswc^iitcliic, Iiiit tiir j;t)vri'iiui-iii-cliief liiul coinnmndf'd him to conliiir his efforts to tlie Iroquois triln-s ; so, lost tlie iinlor of his zeiil sliould heti'ay liini to (lisohcdiciicc, ho ro-emltarko(l and encamped six leaj^ues fiom tfjuiptation. Two (hiys moil' l)rout;lit him round tlio \ww\ of tlic hike to Niai,'ara, whcit- ho was warnd}' rccoiveil by thc^ commandant, tho chiiphiin, and the store-keeper. The next (hiy he pioceedt-d to the tradiiiy phic^; aliov(^ the Falls: and in connection with his oliservations on these two posts, lie refers ai^ain to the post at 'I'oronto, and exprt-sses the opinion that the storehouses there should not he kept up, l)ecause the traile at Fort Fi'ontenac and Niagara was ther(fl)y diminished. '• ft was necessary," he says, "to supply Niagara, and especially the trading places aliov(( the Falls, rjither than TonHito. The dillerence," he says, " l)(!tween the two tirst named of these posts, and the last, is that thr»;o or four hundred canoes could come loaded with furs to the Portage {i.e., the fiost above tlu^ Falls) ; and that no canoes at all could go to Toronto, except those which otherwi.se must necessarily have gone to Niagara or Fort Frontenac, such as tliosf^ of the Ottawas of the head of the lake and the Mi.ssissagas ; .so that Toronto . . . • could not but diminish tin; trade of these two ancient posts, which would have been sufficient to stop all the savages had the stores lieen furnished with goods to their liking." The storekeeper at Niagara had told him that th(< Inilians comj)aied the silver trinkets which were procured at Choueguen with those which were procured at the French posts, and they found that the Choueguen articles were as heavy as the others, of purer silver and better workmanship, but did not cost them quite two lieavers, whilst for those ofiered for sah^ at the Fi'ench King's posts ten beavers were demantled. Thus we are discredited, and this silverware remains a pure loss in the King's stores. "French brandy, indeed," Picpiet reprovingly adds, "was preferred to the English (rum) ; nevertheless that did not prevent the Indians from going to Choueguen. To destroy tJie trade there, the King's posts ought to have been supj)lied with the same good? as Choueguen, and at the same price." The closing up of the establish- ment at Toronto, however, as we shall presently see, was destined to be brought about in the way diff(u-ing from that suggested. (See Colonial Documents, N.Y., X., 201, where the name is given as Picquet; and Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe I., 68, and 11. Ai)pendix. 1 *«■ >* •J(» CHAPTEU VI. A FUIKNI) IN NKKl) WANTKD AT THK OLD FKKNOH FOHT IN 1752; AND FOUND. Tlu! iiicrwisiiij,' ciicioiiclimentH of tlic Kiiglisli colonists on tlio toiri- torifs owned oi- cluiniod by the Frendi Crown, created u generul unciisincHS througliout New France in 17") 1-2. The policy ach-'ptcd by tlu'so aggi'cssivc luiiglihonrs, of encouraging a .strong anti Fiench feeling among the Indians everywhere, was very troublesome. In u despatch already quoted, dated in 17r)2, we learn that the itnnates of the weak and solitary trading ]»ost at Toronto were kept in a state of much anxiety from this cause. M. de Lotigucuil, governor-general, informs tlu^ minister at Ver.saillos that the store- keeper at Toronto had l)een a.ssureil by some trustworthy Indians, that the Salteaux, i.e., Otchipways of the Sault, the same in fact as the Mississagas. had dispersed themselves round the head of Lake Ontario; and seeing himself sui-i'ounded by them, he doubts not but they have some evil design on his fort. "There is no doubt," M. de Longueuil then observes, "but it is the English who are inducing the Indians to destroy the French, and that they would give a good deal to get the savages to desti-oy Fort Toronto, on account of the essential injury it does their trade at Choueguen," And again in October of the same year de Longueuil writes of various outrages that had been committed on Frenchmen by Indians in the south-west, on the Wabash and the Illinois rivers. " Every letter," he says, " brings news of murder ; we are menaced with a general outbreak, and even Toronto is in danger. Before long the English on the Miami will gain over all the sun-ounding tribes, get possession of Fort Chartres, and cut our communications with Louisiana." 8uch a condition of things could not continue long. In 17fi6 open hostil- ities commenced between England and France on the question of boundaries on this continent : and the conflict, afterwards known as the Seven Years' War, began, which ended in the cession of almost all the French domain in America to England. In 1757 the fort at Toronto was the s-cene of a plot which Capt. Pouchot, the command- l^ ^yc^ 2i r aiit at Niiigiini; was tho iuean.s of fiustniting. It n|)|.nuH f,„m Poufliofs naiTutive (I., 82) that a contin-ont of Mvssi.ssa-a I.ulians to tl.e numlKT of ninety, prococ.ling to Montreal to assist the French in the .h.fence of that phioe, conceived, as it s.-enieU to then., th« happy thon.rht. of pilla-in- Fort Toronto, as they puss.-.l, notwith- stan.ling that it l.elon«e ')•> CHAPTKli YIl. TIIK OLD FKHNt'H FOKT DESTROYED. Tlie moves on tlu; world's choss-boui'd followed one uiiotlier in vatl'.er quick succession in tlie remote portion of it occupied l)y New Friince. lii ITHG de la .l()n(juier(.'"s suggestion, of which wi\ have already heard, that the French should become mastei'S of Choueguen, was carried into effect by no less a [)ersonage than Montcalm himself, who afterwards fell at Quebec. This blow to English interests was, however, returned three years latei" by Col. Bradstreet's cai)tuie of Fort Frontenac, and the destruction there of nine armed French sloops. At the same period, Choueguen was recovered by Col. ITaldimand for its foi'iner possessors. Fort Niagara was now the oidy remaining ptrongposton Lake Ontario nt)t in English hands. In IToS, after the capture of Fort Frontenac, ^I. de Vaudreuil, governor-geneial, the second of that name, wrot(! to the Minister de Mo.ssiac : '" If tlir English should make their appearance at Toronto, I have given ordei's to burn it at once, and to fall l)ack on Niajiara." 'J'hcn iri the followiiig year we have him informing the same Minister that Ik; had ordered down what reinforcements he could, from the Illinois andI)ti;'oit, for the protection of Fort Niagara. "These forces,'" he says, " wo'.dd proceed to the relief of Niagara should the enemy wish to beseige it; and I ha\(; in like manner." he adils, ''sent orders to Toi'onto to collect the Mississagas and other nations 'iml forward them to Niagara."' About this time, watcliers on the I'am- ])arts of Fort Niagara would see ascending from a, point on the far horizon to the north-west, across the lake, a dark column of smoke — sure indication of the fact that the orders of de Vaiulreuil were beiiig executed, and that in a few hours, all that the English or any one else, on apjiroaching Toronto, would discover of the once nourish- ing trading post there would be live heaps of charred timber and planks, with a low chimney stack of coarse brick and a shattered flooring at its foot, made of flag-stones from the adjoining beach, tlie whole surrounded on the inland side by tliree lines of cedar pickets more or less broken down and scathed bv fire. i i 23 On the 25th of June (1759), after a seige of about three weeks, first by Gen. Prhleaux, who was accidentally Jailed in the trenches, and then by Sir William Johnson, who succeediid to the conunantl', the fortress of Niagara fell, with the loss on the part of the beseigers of 63 killed and 185 wounded. The fort or trading-post above the Falls, known as Little Niagara and Fort Schlosser, where stands now the village of La Salle, liad been also, like Fort Toronto, i)reviously committed to the fiames, after removing its contents and little detachment of guards, to the princij)al fort, at the niouth of the Niagai'a river. <^'f^ CHAPTER VIII. NOTICES OF THE REMAINS OF THE OLD FRENCH FOllT : SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON'S. To make assurance doubly sure, Sir William Johnson, after get- ting possession of Fort Niagara, lost little time in sending over to Toronto, to give, should it be found necessary to do so, the coujxk- grace to the fort there. On the I'Sth of July (1759), he writes in his Journal: "The evening of the 27th I sent three whale-boats with a party of above thirty men to reconnoitre Fort Toronto, and on their return proj)Ose to send to destroy it." Then on the ;iUth he writes : " At night Lieutenant Francis returned from Toronto, and reported that the enemy had burned and abandonerise. Major Rogers was on his way to take formal possession of the forts in the west just vacated by the Fiench. He has left an account of his movements when on this mission. On tlie 13th of September he started from Montreal with two hundred Rangers in fifteen whale-boats. After describing the several stages of his journey up to about what is now Port Hope, his approach to Toronto is thus narrated : — " The wind being fair, the 30th of Sep- tember (17G0) we embarked at the first dawn of dav, and with the assistance of sails and oars, made great way on a south-west course and in the evening reached the River Toronto {i. e, the Humbor), having run seventy miles. . . . There was a tract of about three < hundred acres of cleared ground round the place where formerly the French had a fort, callcMl Fort Toronto. The soil here, he obsei-ves, is jtrincipally clay. The deer are extremely plenty in this country. Some Indians 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 we could easily accomplish our journey from thence to Detioit in eight days ; that when the French traded at that j)lace the Indians used to come with their peltry from Michilimackinac down the River Toronto ; that the mmmm V. V ' vj:^ 4^ ^ u c? ■26 portage was Imt twenty miles from that to a river falling into Lako Huron (Holland River, Lake Simcoo and the Severn, considered as one stream). I think Toronto," the Major adds, " a most convouit'nl 2)lace for a factory (i. e. a trading post) ; and that from thence we may easily settle the north side of Lake Erie. We left Toronto the 1st of Oeto])er, steering .south right across the west end of Lake On- tario. At dark we arrived at the south shore, five miles west of Fort Niagara, some of our boats having now become exceedingly leakv and dangerous." i « » CHAPTER X. NOTICES OF THE REMAINS OF THE OLD FRENCH FORT : CAPTAIN (JOTHER MANN'S. |H \ In 17(S8, Capt. Gother Mann, an eminent officer of the Royal Engineers, acting under orders, examined Toronto harboui- and peninsula ; took soundings, delineated roughly the course of the then unnamed Don where it enters the bay, and the great inlet into the marsh in the direction of AshV)ridge's Bay : he noted likewise, with a doul)Ie i-ow of dotted lines on the western portion of his map, '' Pa.t of the road towards Lake La Clie," L e. Lake Simcoe, which comes down with a bold zig-zag towards the mouth of the Humber. 13ut what is more to the present puri)0se, Gother Mann gives a miniature ground-plan of the old French fort, shewing by dotted lines the place of the pickets which formed the stockade on the three inland side.s, with five small oblong parallelograms enclosed, denoting doubtless the principal storehouse (a little in advance of the rest), and (quarters for the keeper, soldiers, and other men usually in charge of the place. The whole grou^) occupies of course the exact area which used to be known to all early inhabitants as " the old "Fi-ench fort," and is labelled by Capt. Mann, at the top, ''Ruins of a Trading Fort," and underneath, in continuation, "Toronto." In 17!<8, wind and weather, and cami)-tires from time to time in the neighl)ourhood, had not yet brought about the changes afterwards ia^ ^-^ f ^ 27 i I. . SO effectuiilly wrought ; and tlio " niins " could l)o doliueattMl with ease. Tlie whole locality was exaininod hy ("apt. ]\lann in anticipa- tion of a future town, township and si'ttlenient, to be fstablishod hereabout by the government in due time. The title of the map is as follows : " Plan of the })roposed Toronto Harbour, with tin- pro- posed Town and Port by the Settlement ;" and he had been directed to give an o])inion as to the best position for a military work calcu- lated to protect the new establishment whenever it should be called into existence. Accordingly, on his Plan he marks with tlie letter A, a little to the east of the site of the old Trading Post, the spot which he thought to be the tiitest for the purpose indicated — the s])ot '". fact occupied at the prc>5ent day by the "Stone Barracks" at Toronto ; and to show tlie character of the channel he gives, from this point slantingly across the entrance into the harbour, to the point of the peninsula on the opposite side, the soundings in lathoms : 2, 2|, 3, 4, 1, 3i, ;U, \\, 1. To show that a military work at the spot marked A would be calculated to give protection to a s(;ttle- ment along the northern shoi-e of the bay, he draws on his map a fancy town-plot exactly four-stpiare, consisting of eleven equal -sized blocks, each way, with a broail l)(dt of " Ground reserved " in front, and a large patch of " Common " in the rear. Moreover, the sur- rounding countrv from the line of the Humber to someway (^ast of the Don, he cuts u{) Iiito Concessions and farm-lots and roads after the usual foshion, with the utmost regularity, quite irrespective of hill and dale, river, ravine or morass. [It should be added that Capt. Mann, tlirnugh some caprice, elected in his Plan to spell "Toronto" with an i- in the second syllal)le ; carried away, ]>ro- bably, like Capt. Bonnycastle at a later date, l)y a notion tliat tliere was something Italian in the name, and l)eing (pute unaccpiainted with its real origin and meaning. In his Report to Lord Dorchester, accompanying tlie Plan, Capt. Maun, it is to l)e observed, adopts the ordinary and proper form of the word.] iarfBit f 28 CHAPTER XI. AUGUSTUS JONES AT THE SITE OF THE OLD FRENCH FORT IN 1793. w The pioneer land surveyor, Augustus Jones, largely employed by Governor Simcoe in laying out for the first time sevei-al portions of Upper Canada, set off and partially described, in 1793, a series of lots forming a broken front Concession on the edge of Lake Ontario, stretching westward from the boiindury between the townships of York and Scarborough. The interval between this line and a line running north from the mouth of " St. John's Kiver," /. e. the Hum- ber, measured along a base line now represented by Queen Street, was divided into thirty -nine lots, each twenty chains in width, with a public roadway of one chain in width after every fifth lot. (A roadway of the same width was also left between York and Scar- borough). At the western Km''} of each lot he passed down south- ward, at right angles to the base line, to the water's edge, where he planted a post. As he chains out this western limit of each lot, he makes notes of the timbei- soil and character of surface. Althousrh his descriptions have, all of them, more or less interest for the pre- sent occupants of this region, we are not particularly concerned with them just now, until we come to the western limit of lot number 29. In running this line he comes out upon the clearing in the woods which Major Rogers spoke of as having been made i-ound the old French fort Toronto. On the 10th of July, 1793, he makes this entry in his Field Book : " Lot 29. A Post on the bank a little below the old Fort " | /. e. he chains down from his baseline (Queen Street) to the water's edge, and plants a post there, a little to the east of the site of the old French fort]. His description of the sur- face, etc,, then follows. ■• Az 2.50 (two chains, fifty links from the base line) a wet hole ; at 6.50 a small ci'eek running to the left (i e. eastward . so .r little affluent of the garrison creek) ; at 8.70 a wet hole; ;i' aiiis a wet hole; at 19 chains wet one chain aci'o.ss ; at 20.50 •..•i:i .;i)ie 75 links across; at 35 chains a swamp; at 48 chains a wmali creek running to the left ; at 57.50 a wet hole; at 60.50 wet two chains acro.ss; at 63 chains to low wet ground, which li 'V >b' 29 w * I * continues to near the Lake, 8 chains. At 52 cliains to where the Trees have formerly been cut down, now grown up with small sap- lings. Timber: tall birch, maple, black oak, liickory; a ;ew hem- locks. The soil on the top appears black and hjose ; underneath, a hard clay." He now returns to his liase line and chains down, as before, the western boundary of the next lot. His entry is : " Tues- dey, 16th [July, 1703], Lot 30. To a Post on the bank of the Lake, At 2.50 a low wet hole ; at 13.40 a swamp two chains across ; at 23.70 a swamp three chains across ; at 41 chains, where the timber had been cut down at the time the F ench l)uilt the Fort (/. e. he comes out again on the three-hundred-acre clearing mentioned by ^lajor Rogers) ; at 54 chains on a ridge descending to 50 chains ; at 61 chains to clear ground ; at 66.40 on the bank of the Lake about two chains (i. e. 132 feet or 44 yards) aVjove the old Fort {i. e. to the west of the site of the old Fort). TimVjer : beech, maple, hemlock, and oak : clay soil." The western })0undary of Lot No. 31 is next run. Starting again from the base, it terminates, after 57 chains have been measured, at a point where a post was planted " about two chains above the Blacksmith's old house" (the reniains probably of a forge for the benetit of Indians and others requiring repairs for implements, guns, etc., and placed at that distance for safety's sake). After Lot 30, as after every other fifth lot of the Broken Front range, an allowance for road (one chain) was left. Tliis allowuuce for road is now rtufferin Street, at the western limit of the Exhibi- tion Park ; and is still to-day the dividing line between Lot 30 (in- cluded in the Park) and Lot 31 (commonly known, until recent sub- division into building lots, etc., as Dr. Gwynne's i»roperty). We thus have it conclusively demonstrated from the Field Book of the original surveyor of the " Broken Front " Concession of York, that the old French Fort Toronto was situated near the edge of the lake, between the east and west boundaries of Lot No. 30, and about two chains from the said western boundary. That is, it was situ- ated in the angle fonned by the lake-shore and the said western boundary, two chains east of that boundary ; and any one who may take the trouble to make the experiment by actual admeasurement, will find that two chains (132 feet or 44 yards) from Duflferin Street, i. e. the boundary between lots 30 and 31, will conduct him to the spot where the monument commemorative of the old French Fort Toronto" has been built. -L - '^99 I 30 CHAPTER XII. SOME hk'XYAX NOTICKS OF THE SITE OF THE OLD EJiENCH FORT. The remiiins of tlio old French fort, sliglit as tliev wore, consti- tuted, in the absence of granih-r " ruins," one of tlie " sights " in tlie vicinity of tlie infant cajntal of Upper Canaihi, and as such they were usually mentioned in the eai-ly piinted accounts of the j)Iace- In 1799 appeared David William Smyth's Topographical Description and Provincial Gazetteer of Upper Canada. Its full title reads iis follows : " A Short Topographical Description of His Majesty's Pro- vince of Upiier Canada, in North America, to whicli is annexed a Provincial Gazetteer. London : ])ul)lished by W. Faden, Geographer to His Majesty and to His Koyal Highness the Prince of Wale.s, Charing Cross, 1799. x^rinted by W. Buhner and Co., Pvussell Court, Cleveland Kow, St. James'." It is said in the Preface to liave been drawn up by '• David William Smyth, Em]., the very able Surveyor-General of Up[)er Canada, on the plan of the late Ca[)tain Hutchins, for the River Ohio, and the countries a(ijacent." Speak. mg of Yoi'k, in the Topographical Description, the compiler of this work says : " In passing out of the harbour of York, to the west- ward, you see the garrison on the mainland at the entrance of the harbour, which, and the block-houses on Gibialtar Point, are its security ; and a little to the westward of the garrison are the remains of the old French Fort Toronto ; adjoining to which is a deep l)ay that receives the River Humber, on which are saw-mills V)elonging to government; a little way up the i-iver the government yacht is building." Then again under York, in the Gazetteer pan: "The remains of the old French Fort Toronto stand a little to the west- ward of the p)-esent ganison, and the River Humber dischai-ges itself into Lake Ontario, about two miles and a half west of that ; on this river and the Don are excellent mills, and all the waters Hbound in fish." In 1813 appeared a second edition of D. W. Smyth's work, published under the innnediate inspection of Governor Gore, who was resident at the time in London. In this, reissue wKHmk itm ^c>-z:p 31 these allusions to the remuins of the old French Kurt Toronto aie unchiuij^t'd. In 1805 was puLlislu'tl in London a " Sketch of Mis Majesty's Province of Upper Canada, by D'Arcy Boulton, Uarrister-at-Law," a thin (piai'to volume of ninety -nine pa,i,'es, very handsomelv piiiited. At the end are seven jiaj^es of " Subscribers' Names." Ft has an excellent map, and is dedicated "To tlu; Kini,'." The author of this work was afterwards l)etter known in Upper Canada as Mi'. .Iiistire Boulton. In this Sketch, the remains of the olil French Fort Toronto are not overlooked. In connection with York they are spoken of in terms almost identical with tho.se employed by Surveyor-Ceneral Smvth. CHAPTER XIII. THE SITE OF THE Obi) FiavNCH FOIIT \VKb[. KNOWN T( » I'HF INVAUEKS IN ISI.S. In 1813 York was captured by a United States foi-ce. In the accounts of that incident, the remains of the old French Fort To- ronto agiiin curiously come into view. Their site, it appears, was well known to the American authorities, and in the original plan of operations against York, the spot selected for the debarkation of the troojts was there, although the landing actually took place some dis- tance to the west of that point. Mr. John Lewis Thomson, in " Historical Sketches of the Late War," writes thus (j). 120): — "Agreeably to .i previous arrangement with the Commodore, General Dearborn and his suite, with a force of 1,700 men, embarked [at Sackett's Harbour] on the 22nd and 23rd of April [1813|. but the prevalence of a violent storm prevented the sailing until the 2r)th. On that day it moved into Lake Ontaiio, and, having a favourable wind, arrived safely [before York] at seven o'clock on the morning of the 27th, aliout one mile to the westward of the ruins of Fort Toronto, ami two and SI half from the town of York. The execution of that })art of the plan which applied immediately to the attack upon Yoik was con- 60/ ■'■^^BH^BSiB 32 fided to Col. Pike of the 15th Regiment, who hud been piomotcd to the rank of Brigiidier-General, and the position which had heen fixed upon for landing the troops was the site of the old Fort. The approach of the Heet being discovered from the enemy's garrison, Gencjral Hheatl'e, the British Connnandant, iiastily collected his whole force, consisting of 750 regulars and militia and 100 Indians, and disposed them in the best manner to resist the landing of the x\meri- can force. . . . Bodies of Indians were ol)served in groups in different directions in and about the woods V)elow the site of the fort, and numbers of hor.semen stationed in the clear ground surrounding it. . . . At eight o'clock the debarkation commenced ; at ten it was completed. Major Forsyth and his ritiemen, in several large bateaux, were in the advance. They pulled vigorously for the de- signated ground at the site, but were forced by a strong wind a considerable distance above," etc. In Auchinleck's "History of the War of 1812-'13-'U," published at Toronto in 1855, a full-page plate is givon (p. 180) illustrative of the cajjture of York. Letters identify the ])oints of interest with great precision, as follows : A. The Humber ; B. Place where Anieiicans landed ; C. Old French Fort ; D. Western Battery ; E. Half-moon Battery ; F. F. Garrison Garden ; G. G. Government House, Garrison and Magazine ; H. H. Ships and Stores burned by British. I'he Lake road, Garrison road, and business part of York in 1812, i.re also given, and the note is appended: "The plate represents iu addition, the city of Toronto as it now is. [The pres- ent streets and wards are indicated.] The woods, however, have been left as they were [i.e., in 1812], to mark the difficulty which attended military movements generally." In the plate the letter C. is placed with great accuracy in the angle between the line of the shore and the road now known as Dufferin Street, on the east side of the road ; and B., the spot where the Americans landed, is seen very near where Queen Street, if produced in a right line, would strike the water, which also indicates what was the generally known fact. It is understood that Mr. Auchinleck, while writing his work on the war, which appeared originally in successive numbers of Mr. Maclear's Anglo-American Magazine in 1853, et seq., had the advan- tage of the best information, derived from such sources as Chief Justice Robinson, Mr. Chewett, and many other gentlemen, late I ► /^z 33 survivors of tlin critical period, who from pcrsoiml expcrionce, were well iicfjuainted with nil pajticulars connected with tlio war. This renders the carefully prepared plate at |). 170 of A'r. Auchinleck's ITistory of f,'r»'at value, as tixiiii,' with certainty, for future students, the exact situation of a nuiiilier of localiti(!S possessinj,' great inteiest, especially for inhal)itants of Toronto. Hr NOTK. Lossing's Pictorial Field IJook of the War of 181 "2, published l)y the Harpers in New York in iJSO'J, is a very valuable and most interesting work, which will long he a popular l)ook of reference. It is imi»ortant, therefore, and will be in place hei'e, to point out and to correct several of its inaccuracies in r(\gard to the old French Fort at Toronto. When Mr. Lossing visited Toronto in 1800, for the puri>ose of personally ex^imining the scene of action, wliere the ciip- ture of York was efl'ecttKl in 1813, by an American armed force, and making sketches for the forthcoming pul)lication, he sought out and obtained an interview with Mr. John Ross, a surviving veteran of 1812, and at the time the leading local undertaker of Toronto. Mr. Lossing obtained from Mr. Ro.ss accurate infoi-mation as to the situa- tion of the old French Fort, I »ut unfortunately, being up in years and an invalid, Mr. Ross did not accompany Mi\ Lossing to the spot. "Mr. Ross gave me such minute and clear directions concerning the inter- esting places ill and around Toronto, that I experienced no difficulty in tinding them," Mr. Lossing writes p. 592. " I hii-ed a hoi-se and light waggon, and a young num for di-iver, and spent a gi-eat portion of the day in the hot sun." Unluckily this young man had not the familiar knowledge of the difterent localities that Mr. Ross had ; and the consequence was that Mr. Lossing mistook the " Butts," set up in quite modern times, for rifle practice, " about 60 rods west of the New Barracks,'" considerably east of tlie real site, for remains of the old French Fort. This is evident from the sketch which he gives, and his explanatory remarks thereon. Mr. Lossing writes : " The principal remains of the Fort, in which may be seen some timber- work placed there when the fort was partially repaired in the winter of 1812-13 [so he fancied], are seen in the foreground. They pre- sented abrupt heaps covered with sod. On the right, in the distance 6^3 34 is seen (»ihmltur Point, witli tlif treos Hi»riiii,'in,<,' fioni tlio low Kiindy rturfiicf'. On tlio left ure tlie New I'liiTiicks." The KiippoHitioii tliut the old Kri'iicli Fort was ropiiircd with ii view to dct'eiico in iSlii-l.S, wiiH purely iniiigiuiivy. 'X\w tindier woi'k spoken of, and conspicu- ously shewn in tho sketch, was part of the construction of thn *' Hutts." 'I'here never wert? any remains of the old French fort of this conspicuous sort. The estaldislinient Immc was, as \ have again and u,t,'ain had occasion to set forth, simply an Indian trading post during the whole period of its existiM/ce, and not a nulitary work. Cui'i- ously enough, the rough, irregular piotuberances in the soil, on one of which, in the immediate foreground, th(! ai'tist represent himself as sitting while sketching the view before him, with th(( yoting driver standing by him, leally w/y the genuine remains which he was in search of. Exactly where he was fitting were scattei-ed about plen- tiful vestiges of the vanished buildings of tlie old French Fort, sliallow pits whfn-e the supports of the houses had been, and where tho chinniey stack had stood, and the shallow trenches or furrows formed by tlui earth slightly raised on each side, along where the palisades had formerly been planted in the ground. Tlio impression in the mind of the writer tliat the ohl Fort Toronto had been a military work is also seen in the wood-cut maj) (p. 590) where the shape of '' Fort Toronto" is made to lie, on the smallest scale of coui-se. but very distinctly, a fortress in the Vauban style, with the regidation angles, bastions, etc. (In S. (1. Goodrich's Pictorial History of America, anothay was Bay of Toronto, the l)ack lakes connecting with the Trent were the Toronto Lakes and the Humber wiis the Toronto Kiver : indicating that they were, all of them, water high-ways to the great interior central rendezvous or "Place of Meeting" of the Huron tribes. After vanishing from the maj) in the north, it obtained by a happy accident a permanent lodgement at the spot where it now rests. (Jood linguistic reasons could be givjn for tiie now generally received interpretation of " Toronto," !)ut the details would occupy too much space. — There was evidently a desire on the pr.rt of the .surveyor-general's de[)artment, at the beginning of Sir Peregrine Maitland's regime, to perpetuate on the map of Upper Canada the beautiful name which had been strangely discarded foi- York in 1793—1:. When the " Mis.sissaga Tract" was secured and laid out dne of the new townships was named Toronto, and a narrow trian- gular piece of territory belonging to it was called the " Gore of 3 i c- J O- 3G Toronto." Wlien the village in the township of Hope, afterwards known as Port Hope, wa::; first projected, Mr. Charles Fothei-gill gave it tlie name of Toronto ; and Kohert Gourlay, in the curious map prepared for the tirst volume of his Statistical Account of Upper Canada, gave the name of Toronto to what was to be the principal city of the province, according to a new \ ut very fanciful method suggested by him for laying out townships and roads, and figured on his map. CHAPTER XIV. REMAINS OF THE OLD FREXCH FORT EFFACED, BUT SITE MARKED BY A CAIRN. It thus appears that the site of the old French Fort Toronto was a matter of common notoriety at York from the outset of that place. And so it continued to be after York had merged into Toronto. Most of the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity were familiar with the spot. Sportsmen in the habit of looking after water-fowl of various kinds along the beach westward from tlie garrison, were specially cognizant of it. Young lads at school were fond of firing on "the old French Fort," as the terminus of a half-holiday's stroll towards Hum'oer Bay along the well-beaten path on the edge of the cliff. It was in this latter way the present writer first formed his acquaintance with the spot, his perfect familiarity with which was kept up by a visit every now and then during many subsequent years. In 1878, a large portion of the oo-called Garrison Common was secured from the Government, and set apart as a paik for Industrial Exhibition purposes. A survey of the ground was made, walks and drives were laid out in it, and nmny buildings required for carrying out the objects of the park were erected. By a hajipy accident the site of the old French Fort Toronto was in- cluded within the limits of the park. Up to 1878 a space round about the particular spot where the remains were, had been enclosed by a poorly-kept wooden fence, through which foot passengers, desirous of crossing the Common, could easily make their way. ^ 11 * ^ > it * 37 The lines of this fence failed to form a correct square. One of its angles was unaccountably obtuse, as may be seen in Sand ford Fleming's plan of Toronto, which shows the inclosure in question without any mention, however, of the cause of its existence. The irregularity in shape referred to had j)robably some relation to the former palisades, the lines of which did not run exactly at right angles either to the line of tlie present Dufferin street, or the present hue of the shore, as shown by the delineations in Auchinleck's plan, and also by the map given by Lossing. The fence spoken of, was, of course, taken down when the park was prepared for exhibition purposes ; but more than that ; it became necf.ssary to level and sod the enclosed area ; to grade it, in fact, somewhat towards the south, and to straigliten the Tine of the cliff on that side, which had become very irregular from the drscruc- tive action of the waves below. These necessary improvements in- volved the obliteration of the vestiges of the old French Fort, which for so long a time had imparted a charm to the ground hereabout, and the great probability of the site becoming obscure in the future^ and possibly at length being clean forgotten, obviously presented itself. The risk was manifest of tlie inhabitants of Toronto losing a valuable property, so to speak, viz., the knowledge of a spot situared in their niidst, possessed of very great historical interest ; of more historical interest, in point of fact, than any other spot within the limits of their city, or anywhere in its neigJiborhood, being chronologically connected with the old French and Indian eras in the annals of Western Canada. A determination to mark the memor. able site by some suitable structure was immediately come to on the part of the President of th(^ Industrial Exhibition Association, Mr. J. J. Withrow, who had l)epu chiefly instrumental in securing for Toronto its Exhibition Park, and was now actively en-., -d in maLmg it ready for exhibition purposes ou a very comprehonsx e scale. A cairn of unhewn stone was accordingly built through his influence with the city authorities, and a fine massive gmnite boulder, recently brought up by the dredging machine out "of the adjoining ship-channel of the entrance into Toronto Bay, mounted upon it, bearing the following inscription : — This cairn marks the exact site of Fort Rouille, com.wonly KNOWN AS Fort Toronto, an Indian Tua'>ing Post anj Stockade, 38 KSTABLISIIED A.D., 174!), IJV OKDKR OK THK GoVKHXMENT OF LoLlS XV., IX ACOOUDANCK WITH THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CoUNT I)E LA GaLISSONIERE, ADMINISTRATOR OF NeW FrANCE, 1717-1749. Erected hy the Cori'okation of the Citv op Toronto, a.d. 1878. This inemoi-itU object was vi.sited and attentively inspected bv His Excellency Loi-d DufFeiin, Governor-General of Canada, on tbe occasion of his inaiiu;urating tlie great Industrial Exhibition, held for the first time in the new nri'ounds. The cairn now erected answered an excellent purpose for about the space of six years, when from partial settlement and other causes, it became somewhat deteriorated in its appearance, and it was generally felt that something more woi-thy of the City of Toronto, and of tlie important site commemorated ouglit to take its place. ... CHAPTER XV. CAIUN UEPLACHD BY A MEMORIAL COLUMN, WHICH IS FINALLY MADE A ^n-]MENTO OF THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE IN THE YEAR 1887. The year 1884 was the never-to be-forgotten Semi-Centennial of the Incorj)oration of Toronto as a City, and the restoration of that beautiful and appropriate name, which for fifty years had been supplanted l)y that of "York." It was thought i"ipi)ropriate that one of the means of signalizing the occasion would be the coninience- ment, at all events, if not the completion, of a memorial object on the site of the old French Fort, Toronto, to take the place of the confessedly temporary and now dilapidated cairn. Mr. W. Barclay McMurrich, Chairman of the Semi-Centenni«l Committee appointed by the Corporation, and recently Mayor of the City, interested him- self in the matter, and on the last day of the" Semi-Centennial celebration, the foundation of a monumental pillar after a design by the Messrs. Langley and Burke, architects, of Toronto, was laid by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, the Honourable John I \ ^or # ... 39 Beverley Robiasoii. in tlie presence of the xAIayor of the City, Mr. A. R. Boswel!, and a hirge conconrse of citizens and visitoi's'fioui tlie United States. During tlie progress of tlie two following years two of the lower courses of tlu; pedestal were built with funds contributed by the Corporation and the Industrial Exhibition Association. The process of enaction seemed likely to bean affair of .several years' duration, when happiiy the fiftieth anniversary of the reign Lf Her .Alajesty Queen Victoria occurred in 1887, and it was determined to make the completion of t'-e memorial on the site of the old French Fort Toronto, an incid.-nt in the City's commemoi'ation of that event. Great good will was very generally shown to this project. On various grounds .several public bodies nnited in promoting the sehein.^ The Corporation of the City encouraged the undertaking from the outset by r(4)eated subsitlies, in order that the starting pont of trade and commerce in this region might be identified with precision in all future time. The Industrial Exhibition Asso- ciation of the City again and again liberally aided the scheme, deeming it most proper that a site of so much general interest luippily included within the limits of the Exhibition Park, should be boldly and lastingly distinguished. The Associated Pioneers of the City of Toronto and ancient County of York, with the helj) of many friends in sympathy with their Society and its aims, made large con- tributions towards tiie cost of the work, being desirous that the scene of the dr.jt dawn of civilized life on the shoi-es of Toronto Bay, in the little company of Europeans domiciled in the fort, and the rough .■h^•l,;u;,.,) ill the primitive forest of an area of about three hundrevl acrvs i;n, mediately around its palisades (as reported by Major Rogers) shoul i i- smolv known to coming generations. And the Government of the Proviiu-L of Outario granted prompt and generous a.ssistance to .secure the completion of the monument in the year named, so that, besides being a due memorial of one of the most notable historical sites in the Province, it might also form one of the abiding mementoes in Canada of the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queej; By ri„-o ir.'gf ment and funds thus supplied, the erection of the monunu it was comi)leted, anfl the ceremony of its unveilinc by His Excellency the Manpiis of Lansd jvvne, Governor-General of Canada, i Go^ \'i 40 took place among the proceedings of the opening day of tlie combined Dominion and Local Industrial Exhibition at Toronto, the Gth of September, 1887. The remarks of His Excellency on tlie occasion were as follows : — (It will be observed that the inauguration of the General Exiiibition had just occurred in another part of the park.) " Tlie ceremony which has recently been concluded in another part of the ground was one which had reference to the affairs of to-day, and to the material interests, present and future, of this city and its neiglil)ourhood. I am glad that you have asked me to take a part in another ceremony, which will for a moment carry our minds back from the present to the i)ast. We are met 'iis afternoon in order to preserve from obliteration the traces of th3 beginnings of the city of which you are so justly proud to-day. J • doing this you are, I think, showing a very proper and laudable feeling. A community is wanting in self-respect, which does not take an interest in its own history, and seek to preserve those records by which that history can be traced and authenticated. I have frequently noticed with pleasure that the people of Toronto are fond of dwelling upon the memories which live around the city, and this portion of the Province of what it is the capital ; and there is certainly no part of Canada in which men of the i)resent day have a better I'ight to refer with pride to the achievements of their forefathers, or to the courage with which the earliest settlers in the land, when they were as yet a mei'e handful of men, held their own in the face of desperate odds, fighting for the country of their adoption, and preserving to the British Empii-e one of its nobl st bulwarks. The monument which you have asked me to unveil, carries us back, however, to a past even more remote than that upon which you are fondest of dwelling ; it takes \is back to a period earlier than that of the United Empire Loyalists — earlier than the age of Simcoe and of Brock. It is erected on the site of tlie old French Trading Post, built here nearly a century and a half ago, by the French Government ; a post which was, in fact, the earliest civilized settlement rjtablished in this neighborhood ; that settlement you have very appropriately described in your address as the germ of the Toronto with which we are now acquainted. I think the gi-eatest credit is due to the public bodies, the Corporation, the Exhibition Association and the Provincial Government, as well as to the private \ . II 41 i t >>■ .. friends and supporters of the project, who have comlnoed for the purpose of securing the identification of so interesting a spot, and of commemorating it by the erection of a suitable monument. Stand- ing as that monument does in the midst of these Exhibition Grounds, it will serve, I hope, year after year, to remind the thousands who frequent them of the achievements of those who have built up the fortunes oft he City of Toronto upon a spot, where comparatively a short time ago the rough trading post of a foreign country was the only sign of approaching civilization, and to whose efforts spread over successive generations, you owe it that the solitude, the desola- tion, the dangers, the rude existence of the first settlers at this spot have been replaced by the teemiug population, the pie ity and [)ros- l^erity which we see around us on every side to day. I esteem myself fortunate in having been called upon to undertake this task, and I liave now much pleasure in dedicating this monument to the public of the City and Province " To adopt the words of one of the many chroniclers of the day's proceedings, — His Excellency then "seized the lines and undid the veil, and in a moment the round shaft was exposed to the view of the spectators. The crowd greeted the disclosure with clieers, which were again and again heartily repeated." The monument, it is then added, wliich is after a design by Messrs. Laugley and Burke architects, is a plain, rounded column or shaft, having somewhat the appearance of a lightliouse. Including the rough mason work, which forms the base, it reaches the height of thirty-two feet, and will be a conspicuous object of view from the bay. The stone is " Credit Valley Red," supplied from the quarries of Mr. K. Chisholm, of Brampton. It was executed, it sliould be subjoined, at the works of Mr. Lionel Yorke, on the Es[)hinade, and a tribute is due to th>; great practical skill of Mr. Vick, superintendent of those works. The following inscription appears on the north side of the l)edestal : — FORT TORONTO, AN INDIAN TRADING POST, FOR SO.ME TI.MG KNOWN AS FORT ROUILLE, WAS KSTABLISHED HERE A.D. MDCCXLIX., BY ORDER OF LOUIS XV. 42 iy Thus a work of no slight importance was brought to a close. A site of considerable historical signiticancc was definitively fixed and durably marked for the gratification of local residents, and the information of the Canadian public generally. And in doing this, a notable addition was made to the attractions of the parks and drives of Toronto, a monumental object being set U]) by the wayside in one of them, calculated to stimulate a wholesome curiosity in the minds of all beholders, especially in the minds of the many intelligent persons, young and old, who are draw? ' o the Capital of the Province on particular occasions yeal- after year ; a monumental object destined, wlien it shall itself have become a thing of antiquity, corroded, perhaps, by the tooth of time like one of the ancient round towers 0^" Ireland, — destined even then to be still named among the "sights" of Toronto, and characterized by its inhabitants as one • of their most valued lieii'looms from tlie past. 1 ' \ <><■ 7r I V « k S/ I 1, *>! V » APPENDIX, I. FORT TORONTO. BY MRS. S. A. CUKZOX. Tliis is our Gilgal. Here we set our stoues— Stones of memorial of tlie grace of God. Here, when our sons shall say, " What means that pile Ours the reply, " Here civil commerce dwelt ; Here the dusk remnants of an anticjue age, Of the first emigrants from Old World shores, Indians, met of their ancient blood again — Blood strained and fused through many an era's sieve Till brotherhood was lost. And yet 'twas there, But not to bless ; to trade, merely to trade. Here, when the Hand that guides the way o' the a orld Had, by hard ytress, driven to an unknown shore Champlain the wise. La Salle the brave and bold. And the white l)anner, lily-strewn, of France Flew o'er Quebec, a promise and a jjower ; Her sons, light-hearted as the morning gale, Struck friendly hands with Indians of the ^Vest, And taught them commerce of another kind Than their old simple rule of need and gift. Here, when the treasures of the forest vast, Of meadows, streams and pools met their wide gaze. The Frenchman built a post, tliat here might come Those wily craftsmen that could circumvent The laws of Nature, and beguile her wealth Into their packs ; and here might trade — Trade ermine that should deck the royal robe For gew-gaws ; give beaver for a bead ; Otter for cloth ; the silver fox of sheen So wonderful that great Kichelieu admired, For a bright bit of red ; and anything, Even their loves and wives, for cnu-dc-vie. And here they came — to Rouille, through the vales That skirt yon river with rich woods and deep From source to sea. How richer then than now ! From lake to lake they came, by many a stream. * ^/s 44 Brilliaut with fumy life, where otters played, And l)eaver8 built their dams, and ospreys perched ; Past lovely })ay8 they In-ought their long canoes. Where roseate water lilies, delicate And spotless white, queened all the emerald plain ; Past clear, cool depths, where the ranunculus Nttted the surface with its tiny cups ; And the shy bass lurked all a summer's day ; Past pebbly beaches, where the water glowed And the deer bent to count his forty tines ; O'er portages, all mossed with silken loops. Fragrant with ferns and skirted with morass. Where many a soft, sweet fruit hid luscious gifts To cheer the weary way ; 'neath trees they came — The like in stateliness we ne'er may see, For they were darlings of the centuries. From populous towns they came, an able race. Dwelling in greenwood bowers in kind estate. With Ijusy acts that make a people rich. They knew to grow and store the golden corn, To twine the hemp that made their nets and lines, And from the seed express the unctuous drops. Fair Simcoe saw their bowers ; and Mackinaw, And Mississaque that to Huron glides. A nation grei.t, and rich, and flourishing — Their bowers were homes where winter's bitter winds Pierced not their children, wrapped in furs, and full Oi' rich, warm blood, fed from the net and chase ; Their women toyed with wampum, and their men Lorded it royally at council tires. ■t % And when the Iroquois swept fiercely o'er The wealthy region, like a prairie tire. And left but blackness and despair and death He found rich spoil that tilled his heart with joy ; For he had learned to trade, and here he came To the old gathering place : brought peltry rich To change for silver toys, for raiment strange, And muskets, dear to the fierce warrior heart. The English trader loved to see him come, And lured him with more prize than Frenchmen gave, And flattered him — the powerful Loquois — The Iroquois, Old England's proud ally, Who helped her hold her own and grasp the West ; And for his pains got root in this rjjh soil f ^/^ 46 And flourishes, the maple with tlie oak, A people e'en to-day. Thus came the heritage in which we boast, These were the men, and those the daring times That, by potentiality of things They saw but faintly, built our fortunes up And poured into our coffers untold wealth — Wealth not all sordid, wealth of virtue's strain That finds its best return in widening The avenues of Nature ; looks far on And sees humanity a unit, one — Spending itself to prove the brotherhood. And shall not we, as loyal men and true — Nor surfeited with glut of sordid {^ain That dulls the head and palsies the strong heart — Enshrine forever these rich memories ? Theirs our Toronto, theirs our gathering place — How greatly greater than they e'er might dream ! To this proud memory of brave old times — Times that their lesson gave, we raise this pile. Stones of memorial of the grace of God." Toronto, Sept. 5 [The above lines appeared in the cjlumns of the Toronto Daili/ Mail, on the morning of the 6th September, 1887, the day of the unveiling of the monument. Mrs. Curzon is the author of " Laura Secord, the Heroine of 1812, and other Poems." Published in Toronto by C. Blackett Robiuson, 1887, pp. 215, post 8vo.] * I TT '' t/'^ ■% II. ?!200 00 i8,S7 .")00 OO I'loviiiciiil Government of Ontario, 1887 500 00 Industrial Exhibition Asso- ciation, 18St» Ditto 1887 I'ionucrs, As.sooiation of, To- ronto and County of York, 188(5 100 00 500 00 100 00 UON.VTIONS OF I'KtNKRRS AND FlUKNDS. Ceorge Gooderham, 1880 . Henry Scadding, D. U Lionel Vorke Langley & Burke J. Macdonald (now Senator), J. G. Howard ... Senator Mc Master William Gooderham Henry Cawthra G. B. Smith, M.P.P T. W. Anderson Charles Moss . . McCarthy, Osier, Hoskius & Creelman Maclaren, Macdonald, Mer- ritt & Shepley Watson, Thorne & Smoke . Kerr, Macdonald, Davidson, & Paterson Senator Allan A. McLean Howard John Hallam W. Barclay MoMurrich .... Kivas TuUy W. W. Copp C. Blackett Kobinson Larratt W. Smith, D.O.L.. . Senator Frank Smith Edward Pearce . John Smith Wm. Rennie W. H. Doel \y. Lea Silas James Wm. Tyrrell John HoldernesB 100 00 Taylor Bros 5 00 100 00 Withrow \ Hillock 5 00 100 00 J. Taylor 5 00 50 00 J. Ross, >L D 5 00 25 00 John Cudmore 5 00 25 00 Thos. 'Jhompson & Son . . . 4 00 10 00 And. Davis 4 00 10 00 J. B. Turner 3 00 10 00 'J\ Meredith, sen . 2 5(> 10 00 John Lea 2 50 10 00 J. Saurin McMurray 2 00 10 00 John Watson 2 00 J . Davison 2 00 10 00 Hugh Miller 2 00 M. Macfarlane 2 00 10 00 John Kemp 2 00 10 00 M . Evans 2 00 Sheriff Mowat . 2 (»0 10 00 J. W. Severs 2 00 5 00 J. H. Bull 2 00 5 00 K. Brown 2 00 5 00 Stephen Tabor, M. D 2 00 5 00 M. Parsons 2 00 5 00 W. Barchard 2 00 5 00 C. B.Hall, M.D 1 00 5 00 Hugh Miller 1 00 5 00 W^ Elliott 1 00 5 00 John G. Keid 1 00 5 00 T. A. Heintzman I 00 5 00 W. Smith 1 00 5 00 John Barron 1 00 5 00 J. Smithson 1 00 5 00 W. Brown 1 00 5 00 George Leslie, sen 1 00 5 00 George Eakin 1 00 5 00 F. T. Jones I 00 '• III. ^/6 :'^:- DL\rEX8lOX.S, ETC., OF THE MONUMENT. The monument consists, iirst, of a suljstruction of rough stone almnt Hve feet in depth ani)ut four feet, follows in cut Credit Valley stone, three courses, to a block fdriuiug the main body of the jjcilestal, live feet stjuare and five and a half feet in height. Over this is a course prcjjecting eight inches ; and then comes a block wrought to form a transition from the square to the round form, upon which rests the column proper ; a shaft in eight divisions, slightly tapering from live feet at the base, to al)Out two feet at the summit which terminates in a conical apex. The whole height fi'om the surface is a little over thiity fi.'et. The estimated cost at the outset, of tlie cut stone portion, was about two thousand five hundred dollars. The grants and collections have somewhat exceeded this sum, and the slight surplus is to be expended by the Indus- trial Exhibition Association in rendering the surroundings of the monument complete. The excess over the cjuota guaranteed by the Pioneer Associ- ation to secure the completion of the monument in 1887, has been placed by the Committee, charged witii the collection, to the credit of the Pioneers' general fund, with the approbation of the principal subscribi''-" OMVn'BU IN i^l^^ ^ James A««tiu • ■ $ (H) 48 Auchinleok, 32, 37. Bigot, li, 14. Boswell, A. R., 3y. Bouchette, 17. Boulton, Mr. Justice, 31. Hradstreet, Colonel, '22. Harnett, (Jovernor, 9, 10. Cairn, 36. Chewett, 32. Chou.'guen, 11, 19, 22. Doarborn, (General, 31. Detroit, 11, 25. Dutlerin, Lord, 38. iJufierin Street, 29. Frontenac, Kort, 13, 18, 19, 22, (Uvlissoni^re, 10, 11, .38. (lore, (iovernor, 30. Courlay, Robert, 30. (Jovernment, Provincial, .39. Huniber, 28. Hnrons, ii5. Industrial Exhibition Ass'n, 37. l)0(juoia Indians, 9, IS Johnson, Sir William, 23. .Jones, Augustus, 28. Jonqui^re, 11, 22. Jubilee Year, 39. Kingston, 13. La Salle, 9, 10. La Salle (Village), 23, Lansdowne, Marquis of, 39. Langley and Burke, 38. Levalterie, 14. Longueuil, 13, 14, 20. Lossing, 33. Maclear, 32. Mann, Gother, 26. Maurepas, Count, 13. Maitland, Sir Peregrine, Gov., 3.5. Michilimackinac, 9, 25. Mississagas, 15, 16, 19. t INDEX. Montcalm, 22. McMurrich, W. Barclay, 38. Niagara, Fort, 10, 15, 19, 21, 22. Oswego, River, 9. Oswego, 10, 24. Otchipways, 15, 20. Parkman, 19. " Pass," i.e. Portage, at Toronto, 10, 26. Pike, (ieneral, 32, 34. Pioneer Society, 39. Piquet, 18. " Place of Meeting," 35. Port Hope, .36. Pouchot, 11, 21, Prideaux, General, 23. Quinte, Bay of, 12, 18. Robinson, Chief Justice, .32. Robinson, Hon. ,f. B., 39. Rogers, Major, 25, 28, 29. Rouille, Count, 13. Rouille, Fort, 13. Ross, John, 33. Semi-Centennial, 38. Seven Years' War, 20. Simcoe, Lake, 12. Simcoe, Governor, 28. Smyth, D. W., 30. Tequakareigh, 23. Thomson, John Lewis, 31. Toronto River (Humber). 12. Toronto, Lake, 12. Toronto, City, 17, 38. Toronto, 27. Trent, 12. United Empire Loyalists, 40. Vaudreuil, 22. Vick, John, 41. Withrow, J. J., 37. Yorke, Lionel, 41. York, .30. If. '^ I ^ 22. to, ♦ I If