UC-NRLF $B 723 272 m ORONTO OF OLD W!5 a "/' ;,. ; 6ABDIS6. d.d T 9 S Toronto of Old Collections and Recollections ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CAPITAL OF ONTARIO. By HENRY SCADDING, D.D. TORONTO: ADAM, STEVENSON & CO 1873- Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year One Thou- sand Eight Hundred and Seventy-three, by Adam, Stevenson & Co,, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture. Hunter, Rose & Co., Printers, Stereotypers and Bookbinders, Toronto. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE % (fail of gn&ifo, i.C.g., GOVERNOR GENERAL OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, A KEEN SYMPATHIZER WITH THE MINUTE PAST, AS WELL AS THE MINUTE PRESENT, OF THE PEOPLE COMMITTED TO HIS CHARGE, Cj}b Uolmttt, TREATING OF THE INFANCY AND EARLY YOUTH OF AN IMPORTANT CANADIAN CIVIC COMMUNITY NOW FAST RISING TO MAN'S ESTATE, IS (BY PERMISSION GRACIOUSLY GIVEN,) THANKFULLY AND LOYALLY DEDICATED 274550 i PREFACE. T is singular that the elder Disraeli has not included in his " Curiosities of Literature" a chapter on Books originating in Accident. It is exactly the kind of topic we might have expected him to discuss, in his usual pleasant manner. Of such productions there is doubtless somewhere a record. Whenever it shall be discovered, the volume here presented to the reader must be added to the list. A few years since, when preparing for a local periodical a paper of "Early Notices of Toronto," the writer little imagined what the sheets then under his hand would final 1} grow to. The expectation at the time simply was, that the article on which he was at work would assist as a minute scintilla in one of those monthly meteoric showers of miscellaneous light literature with which the age is so familiar \ that it would engage, perhaps, the attention for a few moments of a chance gazer here and there, and then vanish in the usual way. But on a subsequent revision, the subject thus casually taken up seemed capable of being more fully handled. Two or three friends, moreover, had expressed a regret that to the memoranda given, gathered chiefly from early French documents, there had not been added some of the more recent floating folklore of the community, some of the homely table-talk of the older people of the place ; such of the mixed traditions, in short, of the local Past of Toronto as might seem of value as illus- trations of primitive colonial life and manners. It was urged, like- wise, in several quarters, that if something in this direction were not speedily done, the men of the next generation would be left vi (Preface. irremediably ignorant of a multitude of minute particulars relating to their immediate predecessors, and the peculiar conditions under which were so bravely executed the many labours whereby for pos- terity the path onward has been made smooth. For many years the writer had quietly concerned himself with such matters. Iden- tified with Toronto from boyhood, to him the long, straight ways of the place nowhere presented barren, monotonous vistas. To him innumerable objects and sites on the right hand and on the left, in almost every quarter, called up reminiscences, the growth partly of his own experience and observation, and partly the residuum of discourse with others, all invested with a certain degree of rational, human interest, as it seemed to him. But still, that he was some- time to be the compiler of an elaborate volume on the subject never seriously entered his thoughts. Having, however, as was narrated, once tapped the vein, he was led step by step to further explorations, until the result was reached which the reader has now placed before him. By inspection it will be seen that the plan pursued was to pro- ceed rather deliberately through the principal thoroughfares, noticing persons and incidents of former days, as suggested by buildings and situations in the order in which they were severally seen ; rely- ing in the first instance on personal recollections for the most part, and then attaching to every coigne of vantage such relevant informa- tion as could be additionally gathered from coevals and seniors, or gleaned from such literary relics, in print or manuscript of an early date, as could be secured. Here and there, brief digressions into adjacent streets were made, when a house or the scene of an inci- dent chanced to draw the supposed pilgrim aside. The perambu- lation of Yonge Street was extended to the Holland Landing, and even to Penetanguishene, the whole line of that lengthy route presenting points more or ' less noteworthy at short intervals. Finally a chapter on the Marine of the Harbour was decided on, the boats and vessels of the place, their owners and commanders, entering, as is natural, so largely into the retrospect of the inhabi- tants of a Port. Although the imposing bulk of the volume may look like evi- dence to the contrary, it has been our ambition all along not to incur the reproach of prolixity. We have endeavoured to express whatever we had to say as concisely as we could. Several narra- tives have been disregarded which probably, in some quarters, Preface. vii will be sought for here. But while anxious to present as varied and minute a picture as possible of the local Past, we considered it inexpedient to chronicle anything that was unduly trivial. Thus if we have not succeeded in being everywhere piquant, we trust we shall be found nowhere un pardonably dull : an achievement of some merit, surely, when our material, comprising nothing that was exceptionally romantic or very grandly heroic, is considered. And a first step has, as we conceive, been taken towards generating for Toronto, for many of its streets and byways, for many of its nooks* and corners, and its neighbourhood generally, a certain modicum of that charm which, springing from association and popular legend, so delightfully invests, to the prepared and sensitive mind, every square rood of the old lands beyond the sea. It will be proper, after all, however, perhaps to observe, that the reader who expects to find in this book a formal history of even Toronto of Old, will be disappointed. It was no part of the writer's design to furnish a narrative of every local event occurring in the periods referred to, with chronological digests, statistical tables, and catalogues exhibiting in full the Christian names and surnames of all the first occupants of lots. For such information recourse must be had to the offices of the several public function- aries, municipal and provincial, where whole volumes in folio, filled with the desired particulars, will be found. We have next gratefully to record our obligations to those who during the composition of the following pages encouraged the undertaking in various ways. Especial thanks are due to the Association of Pioneers, whose names are given in detail in the Appendix, and who did the writer the honour of appointing him their Historiographer. Before assemblages more or less numerous, of this body, large abstracts of the Collections and Recollections here permanently garnered, were read and discussed. Several of the members of this society, moreover, gave special stances at their respective homes for the purpose of listening to portions of the same. Those who were so kind as to be at the trouble of doing this were the Hon. W. P. Howland, C. B., Lieutenant-Governor ; the Rev. Dr. Richardson ; Mr. J. G. Worts (twice); Mr. R. H. Oates; Mr. James Stitt; Mr. J. T. Smith; Mr. W. B. Phipps (twice).— The Canadian Institute, by permitting the publication in its Jour- nal of successive instalments of these papers, contributed materi- ally to the furtherance of the work, as without the preparation for viii (Preface. the press from time to time which was thus necessitated, it is pos- sible the volume itself, as a completed whole, would never have appeared. To the following gentlemen we are indebted for the use of papers or books, for obliging replies to queries, and for items of information otherwise communicated : — Mr. W. H. Lee of Ottawa ; Judge Jarvis of Cornwall ; Mr. T. J. Preston of York- ville ; Mr. W. Helliwell of the Highland Creek ; the late Col. G. T. Denison of Rusholme, Toronto ; Mr. M. F. Whitehead of Port Hope ; Mr. Devine of the Crown Lands Department ; Mr. H. J. Jones of the same Department ; Mr. Russel Inglis of Toronto ; Mr. J. G. Howard of Toronto ; the Rev. J. Carry of Holland Landing j Major McLeod of Drynoch j the Rev. George Hallen of Penetanguishene ; the Ven. Archdeacon Fuller, of Toronto ; Mr. G. A. Barber, of Toronto j Mr. J. T. Kerby, of Niagara ; the Rev. Saltern Givins of Yorkville j the Rev. A. Sanson of To- ronto ; the Rev. Dr. McMurray of Niagara ; the Rev. Adam Elliott of Tuscarora ; Mr. H. J. Morse of Toronto ; Mr. W. Kirby of Niagara ; Mr. Morgan Baldwin of Toronto ; Mr. J. McEwan of Sandwich; Mr. W. D. Campbell of Quebec; Mr. T. Cot- trill Clarke of Philadelphia. — Mrs. Cassidy of Toronto kindly allowed the use of two (now rare) volumes, published in 1765, by her near kinsman, Major Robert Rogers. Through Mr. Homer Dixon of the Homewood, Toronto, a long loan of the earliest edi- tion of the first Gazetteer of Upper Canada was procured from the library of the Young Men's Christian Association of Toronto. — The Rev. Dr. Ryerson, Chief Superintendent of Education, and Dr. Hodgins, Deputy Superintendent, courteously permitted an unrestricted access to the Departmental Library, rich in works of special value to any one prosecuting researches in early Canadian history. To Mr. G. Mercer Adam we are much beholden for a careful, friendly interest taken in the typographical execution and fair appearance generally of the volume. The two portraits which, in no mere conventional sense, enrich the work, were engraved from miniatures very artistically drawn for the purpose, from original paintings never before copied, in the possession of Capt. J. K. Simcoe, R. N., of Wolford, in the County of Devon. The circulation to be expected for a book like the present must be chiefly local. Nevertheless, it is to be presumed that there are persons scattered up md down in various parts of Canada and the (Preface. ix United States, who, having been at some period of their lives fami- liar with T.oronto, and retaining still a kindly regard for the place, will like to possess such a memorial of it in the olden time as is here offered. And even in the old home-countries across the Atlantic — England, Scotland and Ireland — there are probably members of military and other families once resident at Toronto, to whom such a reminder of pleasant hours, as it is hoped, passed there, will not be unacceptable. For similar reasons the book, were its existence known, would be welcome here and there in Australia and New Zealand, and other colonies and settlements of England. In an attempt to narrate so many particulars of time, place, per- son and circumstance, it can scarcely be hoped that errors have been wholly avoided. It is earnestly desired that any that may be detected will be adverted to with kindness and charity, and not in a carping tone. Unfairly, sometimes, a slip discovered, however tri- vial, is emphatically dwelt on, to the ignoring of almost all the points in respect of which complete accuracy has been secured, at the cost of much painstaking. Conscious that our aim throughout has been to be as minutely correct as possible, we ask for consideration in this regard. A certain slight variety which will perhaps be noticed in the orthography of a few Indian and other names is to be attri- buted to a like absence of uniformity in the documents consulted. While the forms which we ourselves prefer will be readily discerned, it was not judged advisable everywhere to insist on them. 10 Trinity Square, Toronto, June 4th, 1873. CONTENTS. u PAGE. Introductory, . . . . . i Sect. I.— Palace Street to the Market Place, . -25 II. — Front Street : from the Market Place to Brock Street, . . . . . 48 III.— From Brock Street to the Old French Fort, . 67 IV. — From the Garrison back to the place of beginning, 78 V.— King Street : From John Street to Yonge Street, . 88 VI.— * From Yonge Street to Church Street 98 VII. — " Digression Southwards at Church Street : Market Lane, . 109 VIII.— " St. James' Church, . . .117 IX. — " " Continued, . 129 X.— " " " .139 XL — " Digression northward at Church Street : the Old District Gram- mar School, . . .152 XI L— . " From Church Street to George St., 172 XIII.— " Digression into Duke Street, . 180 XIV. — " From George Street to Caroline Street, . . . .184 XV.— " From Caroline Street to Berkeley Street, . . . .195 XVI. — From Berkeley Street to the Bridge and across It, 201 XVI L— The Valley of the Don : (1). From the Bridge on the Kingston Road to Tyler's, . . . .225 (2). From Tyler's to the Big Bend, . . 228 (3). From the Big Bend to Castle Frank Brook, . . . •234. (4). Castle Frank, . . . .236 (5). On to the Ford and the Mills, . .241 Xll Contents. Sect. XVIII, XIX.- XX.- * XXI.- Queen Street : from the Don Bridge to Caroline Street, ..... " Digression at Caroline Street : His- tory of the Early Press, " From George Street to Yonge St. Memories of the Old Court House " From Yonge Street to College Avenue, Digression Southward at Bay St., Osgoode Hall, Digression Northward at the Col- lege Avenue, PAGE. 244 258 284 290 305 308 312 3i8 " XXII.- u From the College Avenue to Brock Street and Spadina Avenue, . 326 *" XXIII.- k From Brock Street and Spadina Avenue to the Humber, . 345 " XXIV.- —Yonge Street : From the Bay to Yorkville, 375 " XXV.- — " From Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow, 411 " XXVI.- - #" From Hogg's Hollow to Bond's Lake, .... 445 " XXVII.- a From Bond's Lake to the Holland Landing, with Digressions to Newmarket and Sharon, 466 "XXVIII.- Upper Canada — a question that has since agitated Ca- nada in several of its sub-sections. The people ot Nia- gara 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 incase of war. In 1796, Governor Simcoe had withdrawn from the country, and the people of Nia- gara entertained hopes that the order for removal might still be revoked. The policy of the late Governor, however, continued to be carried out. 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 gar- Introductory. 2 1 rison 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 contempo- rary records exhibit in their references to the new site, the expres- sions, "Toronto, now York," and "York, late Toronto." The ancient appellation was a favorite, and continued in ordinary use. Isaac Weld, who travelled in North America in 1 795-7, still speaks in his work of the transfer of the Govern- ment 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 Legisla- tive 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 con- venient place of resort to most of them than Toronto j and as the Governor, who proposed the measure, has been removed, it is imagined that it will not be put in execution." In 1803-4, Thomas Moore, the distinguished poet, travelled on this continent. The record of his tour took the form, not of a jour- nal 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 sub- division 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 ex- plains 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 2 2 Toronto of Old. 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 apostro- phises : — " Yet, yet forgive me, oh ! ye sacred few, Whom late by Delaware's green banks T 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, hearties 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, Introductory. 23 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. Law- rence. 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 sub- stitutes 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 na- tion. 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 con- tained to serve for the future before them." — Bishop of Winchester to the Ar- chaeological Institute, at Southampton, Aug. 1872. TORONTO OF OLD PALACE STREET TO THE MARKET PLACE. N Rome, at the present day, the parts that are the most attractive to the tourist of archaeological tastes, are those that are the most desolate ; quarters that, apart from their associations, are the most uninviting. It is the same with many another venerable town of the world beyond the Atlantic, of far less note than the old Imperial capital, with Avignon, for example ; with Nismes and Vienne in France ; with Paris itself, also, to some extent ; with Chester, and York, and St. Albans, the Verulam of the Roman period, in England. It is the same with our American towns, wherever any relics of their brief past are extant. Detroit, we remember, had once a quaint, dilapidated, primaeval quarter. It is the same with our own Toronto. He that would examine the vestiges of the original settlement, out of which the actual town has grown, must betake himself, in the first instance, to localities now deserted by fashion, and be content to contemplate objects that, to the indifferent eye, will seem commonplace and insignificant. To invest such places and things with any degree of interest will appear difficult. An attempt in that direction may even be pro- nounced visionary. Nevertheless, it is a duty which we owe to our forefathers to take what note we can of the labours of their hands j to forbid, so far as we may, the utter oblivion of their early efforts, and deeds, and sayings, the outcome of their ideas, of their humours and anxieties ; to forbid, even, so far as we may, the utter oblivion of the form and fashion of their persons. 26 Toronto of Old. [§ i. The excavations which the first inhabitants made in the con- struction of their dwellings and in engineering operations, civil and military, were neither deep nor extensive ; the materials which they employed were, for the most part, soft and perishable. In a few years all the original edifices of York, the infant Toronto, together with all the primitive delvings and cuttings, will, of necessity, have vanished. Natural decay will have destroyed some. Winds, fires, and floods will have removed others. The rest will have been de- liberately taken out of the way, or obliterated in the accomplish- ment of modern improvements, the rude and fragile giving way be- fore the commodious and enduring. At St. Petersburg, we believe, the original log-hut of Peter the Great is preserved to the present day, in a casing of stone, with a kind of religious reverence. And in Rome of old, through the in- fluence of a similar sacred regard for the past, the lowly cottage of Romulus was long protected in a similar manner. There are pro- bably no material relics of our founders and forefathers which we should care to invest with a like forced and artificial perma- nence. But memorials of those relics, and records of the associa- tions that may here and there be found to cluster round them, — these we may think it worth our while to collect and cherish. Overlooking the harbour of the modern Toronto, far down in the east, there stands at the present day, a large structure of grey cut-stone. Its radiating wings, the turret placed at a central point aloft, evidently for the ready oversight of the subjacent premises ; the unornamented blank walls, pierced high up in each storey with a row of circular-heading openings, suggestive of shadowy corridors and cells within, all help to give to this pile an unmistakable pri- son-aspect. It was very nearly on the site of this rather hard-featured build- ing that the first Houses of Parliament of Upper Canada were placed — humble but commodious structures of wood, built before the close of the eighteenth century, and destroyed by the incen- diary hand of the invader in 1813. " They consisted," as a con- temporary document sets forth, " of two elegant Halls, with con- venient offices, for the accommodation of the Legislature and the Courts of Justice." — " The Library, and all the papers and records belonging to these institutions were consumed, and, at the same time/' the dooument adds, " the Church was robbed, and the Town Library totally pillaged." — The injuries thus inflicted were § i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 27 a few months afterwards avenged by the destruction of the Public Buildings at Washington, by a British force. " We consi- der," said an Address of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada to Sir George Prevost, " the destruction of the Public Buildings at Washington as a just retribution for the outrages committed by an American force at the seat of Government of Upper Canada." On the same site succeeded the more conspicuous and more capacious, but still plain and simply cubical brick block erected for legislative purposes in 1818, and accidentally burned in 1824. The conflagration on this occasion entailed a loss which, the Canadian Review of the period, published at Montreal, observes, " in the present state of the finances and debt of the Province, cannot be considered a trifling affair. " That loss, we are informed by the same authority, amounted to the sum of two thousand pounds. Hereabout the Westminster of the new capital was expected to be. It is not improbable that the position at the head, rather than the entrance, of the harbour was preferred, as being at once com- manding and secure. The appearance of the spot in its primaeval condition, was doubt- less more prepossessing than we can now conceive it ever to have been. Fine groves of forest trees may have given it a sheltered look, and, at the same time, have screened of! from view the ad- joining swamps. The language of the early Provincial Gazetteer, published by au- thority, is as follows : " The Don empties itself into the har- bour, a little above the Town, running through a marsh, which when drained, will afford most beautiful and fruitful meadows." In the early manuscript Plans, the same sanguine opinion is recorded, in regard to the morasses in this locality. On one, of 18 10, now before us, we have the inscription : " Natural Meadow which may be mown." On another, the legend runs: "Large Marsh, and will in time make good Meadows." On a third it is: " Large Marsh and Good Grass." At all events, hereabout it was that York, capital of Upper Ca- nada, began to rise. To the west and north of the site of the Houses of Parliament, the officials of the Government, with mer- chants and tradesmen in the usual variety, began to select lots and put up convenient dwellings ; whilst close by, at Berkeley Street or Parliament Street as the southern portion of the modern Berkeley 28 Toronto of Old. [§ i. Street was then named, the chief thoroughfare of the town had its commencing-point. Growing slowly westward from here, King Street developed in its course, in the customary American way, its hotel, its tavern, its boarding-house, its waggon-factory, its tin- smith shop, its bakery, its general store, its lawyer's office, its print- ing office, its places of worship. Eastward of Berkeley Street, King Street became the Kingston road, trending slightly to the north, and then proceeding in a straight line to a bridge over the Don. This divergency in the highway caused a number of the lots on its northern side to be awkwardly bounded on their southern ends by lines that formed with their sides, alternately obtuse and acute angles, productive of corresponding inconveniencies in the shapes of the buildings after- wards erected thereon j and in the position of some of them. At one particular point the houses looked as if they had been sepa- rated from each other and partially twisted round, by the jolt of an earthquake. At the Bridge, the lower Kingston road, if produced westward in a right line, would have been Queen Street, or Lot Street, had it been deemed expedient to clear a passage in that direction through the forest. But some way westward from the Bridge, in this line, a ravine was encountered lengthwise, which was held to present great engineering difficulties. A road cut diagonally from the Bridge to the opening of King Street, at once avoided this natural impediment, and also led to a point where an easy connection was made with the track for wheels, which ran along the shore of the harbour to the Garrison. But for the ravine alluded to, which now appears to the south of Moss Park, Lot Street, or, which is the same thing, Queen Street, would at an early period, have begun to dis- pute with King Street, its claim to be the chief thoroughfare of York. But to come back to our original unpromising stand-point. Objectionable as the first site of the Legislative Buildings at York may appear to ourselves, and alienated as it now is to lower uses, we cannot but gaze upon it with a certain degree of emotion, when we remember that here it was the first skirmishes took place in the great war of principles which afterwards with such determi- nation and effect was fought out in Canada. Here it was that first loomed up before the minds of our early law-makers the ecclesias- tical question, the educational question, the constitutional question. Here it was that first was heard the open discussion, childlike, in- § i.] Palace Street to the Market (Place. 29 deed, and vague, but pregnant with very weighty consequences, of topics, social and national, which, at the time, even in the parent state itself, were mastered but by few. Here it was, during a period of twenty-seven years (1 797-1824), at each opening and closing of the annual session, amidst the firing of cannon and the commotion of a crowd, the cavalcade drew up that is wont, from the banks of the Thames to the remotest colony of England, to mark the solemn progress of the sovereign or the sovereign's representative, to and from the other Estates in Parliament assembled. Here, amidst such fitting surroundings of state, as the circumstances of the times and the place admitted, came and went personages of eminence, whose names are now familiar in Canadian story : never, indeed, the founder and organ- iser of Upper Canada, Governor Simcoe himself, in this formal and ceremonious manner; although often must he have visited the spot otherwise, in his personal examinations of every portion of his young capital and its environs. But here, immediately after him, however, came and went repeatedly, in due succession, President Russell, Governor Hunter, Governor Gore, General Brock, Gene- ral Sheaffe, Sir Gordon Drummond, Sir Peregrine Maitland. And, while contemplating the scene of our earliest political con- flicts, the scene of our earliest known state pageants in these parts, with their modest means and appliances, our minds intuitively recur to a period farther removed still, when under even yet more primitive conditions the Parliament of Upper Canada assembled at Newark, just across the Lake. We picture to ourselves the group of seven crown-appointed Councillors and five representatives of the Com- mons, assembled there, with the first Speaker, McDonell, of Glen- gary; all plain, unassuming, prosaic. men, listening, at their first session, to the opening speech of their frank and honoured Gover- nor. We see them adjourning to the open air from their straight- ened chamber at Navy Hall, and conducting the business of the young Province under the shade of a spreading tree, introducing the English Code and Trial by Jury, decreeing Roads, and pro- hibiting the spread of Slavery ; while a boulder of the drift, lifting itself up through the natural turf, serves as a desk for the recording clerk. Below them, in the magnificent estuary of the river Niagara, the waters of all the Upper Lakes are swirling by, not yet recovered from the agonies of the long gorge above, and the leap at Table Rock. — Even here, at the opening and close of this pri- 30 Toronto of Old. [_§ i. maeval Legislature, some of the decent ceremonial was observed with which, as we have just said, the sadly inferior site at the em- bouchure of the Don became afterwards familiar. We learn this from the narrative of the French Duke de Liancourt, who affords us a glimpse of the scene at Newark on the occasion of a Parliament therein 1795. " The whole retinue of the Governor," he says, 4t consisted in a guard of fifty men of the garrison of the fort. Draped in silk, he entered the Hall with his hat on his head, attended by his adjutant and two secretaries. The two members of the Legislative Council gave, by their speaker, notice of it to the Assembly. Five members of the latter having appeared at the bar, the Governor delivered a speech, modelled after that of the King, on the political affairs of Europe, on the treaty concluded with the United States (Jay's treaty of 1794), which he mentioned in expres- sions very favourable to the Union ; and on the peculiar concerns of Canada." (Travels, i. 258.) By the Quebec Act, passed in 1791, it was enacted that the Legislative Council for Upper Canada should consist of not fewer than seven members, and the Assembly of not less than sixteen members, who were to be called together at least once in every year. To account for the smallness of the attendance on the occa- sion just described, the Duke explains that the Governor had de- ferred the session " on account of the expected arrival of a Chief Justice, who was to come from England : and from a hope that he should be able to acquaint the members with the particulars of the Treaty with the United States. But the harvest had now begun, which, in a higher degree than elsewhere, engages in Canada the public attention, far beyond what state affairs can do. Two mem- bers of the Legislative Council were present, instead of seven; no Chief Justice appeared, who was to act as Speaker ; instead of sixteen members of the Assembly, five only attended ; and this was the whole number that could be collected at this time. The law required a greater number of members for each house, to dis- cuss and determine upon any business ; but within two days a year would have expired since the last session. The Governor, there- fore, thought it right to open the session, reserving, however, to either house the right of proroguing the sitting, from one day to another, in expectation that the ships from Detroit and Kingston would either bring the members who were yet wanting, or certain intelligence of their not being able to attend.'' § i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 31 But again to return to the Houses of Parliament at York. — Extending from the grounds which surrounded the buildings, in the east, all the way to the fort at the entrance of the harbour, in the west, there was a succession of fine forest trees, especially oak; underneath and by the side of which the upper surface of the pre- cipitous but nowhere very elevated cliff was carpeted with thick green-sward, such as is still to be seen between the old and new gar- risons, or at Mississaga Point at Niagara. A fragment, happily preserved, of the ancient bank, is to be seen in the ornamental piece of ground known as the Fair-green ; a strip of land first pro- tected by a fence, and planted with shrubbery at the instance of Mr. George Monro, when Mayor, who also, in front of his property some distance further on, long guarded from harm a solitary sur- vivor of the grove that once fringed the harbour. On our first visit to Southampton, many years ago, we remem- ber observing a resemblance between the walk to the river Itchen, shaded by trees and commanding a wide water- view on the south, and the margin of the harbour of York. In the interval between the points where now Princes Street and Caroline Street descend to the water's edge, was a favourite land- ing-place for the small craft of the bay — a wide and clean gravelly beach, with a convenient ascent to the cliff above. Here, on fine mornings, at the proper season, skiffs and canoes, log and birch- bark, were to be seen putting in, weighed heavily down with fish, speared or otherwise taken during the preceding night, in the lake, bay, or neighbouring river. Occasionally a huge sturgeon would be landed, one struggle of which might suffice to upset a small boat. Here were to be purchased in quantities, salmon, pickerel, masquelonge, whitefish and herrings j with the smaller fry of perch, bass and sunfish. Here, too, would be displayed unsightly catfish, suckers, lampreys, and other eels ; and sometimes lizards, young alligators for size. Specimens, also, of the curious steel- clad, inflexible, vicious-looking pipe-fish were not uncommon. About the submerged timbers of the wharves this creature was often to be seen — at one moment stationary and still, like the dragon-fly or humming-bird poised on the wing, then, like those nervous denizens of the air, giving a sudden dart off to the right or left, without curving its body. Across the bay, from this landing-place, a little to the eastward, was the narrowest part of the peninsula, a neck of sand, destitute 32 Toronto of Old. [§ i. of trees, known as the portage or carrying-place, where, from time immemorial, canoes and small boats were wont to be transferred to and from the lake. Along the bank, above the landing-place, Indian encampments were occasionally set up. Here, in comfortless wigwams, we have seen Dr. Lee, a medical man attached to the Indian department, administering from an ordinary tin cup, nauseous but salutary draughts to sick and convalescent squaws. It was the duty of Dr. Lee to visit Indian settlements and prescribe for the sick. In the discharge of his duty he performed long journeys, on horse- back, to Penetanguishene and other distant posts, carrying with him his drugs and apparatus in saddle-bags. When advanced in years, and somewhat disabled in regard to activity of movement. Dr. Lee was attached to the Parliamentary staff as Usher of the Black Rod. — The locality at which we are glancing suggests the name of another never-to-be-forgotten medical man, whose home and property were close at hand. This is the eminent surgeon and physician, Christopher Widmer. It is to be regretted that Dr. Widmer left behind him no written memorials of his long and varied experience. Before his settle- ment in York, he had been a staff cavalry surgeon, on active ser- vice during the campaigns in the Peninsula. A personal narrative of his public life would have been full of interest. But his ambi- tion was content with the homage of his contemporaries, rich and poor, rendered with sincerity to his pre-eminent abilities and inex- tinguishable zeal as a surgeon and physician. Long after his retire- ment from general practice, he was every day to be seen passing to and from the old Hospital on King Street, conveyed in his well- known cabriolet, and guiding with his own hand the reins con- ducted in through the front window of the vehicle. He had now attained a great age ; but his slender form continued erect ; the hat was worn jauntily, as in other days, and the dress was ever scrupulously exact ; the expression of the face in repose was some- what abstracted and sad, but a quick smile appeared at the recog- nition of friends. The ordinary engravings of Harvey, the dis- coverer of the circulation of the blood, recall in some degree the countenance of Dr. Widmer. Within the General Hospital, a por- trait of him is appropriately preserved. One of the earliest, and at the same time one of the most graceful lady-equestrians ever seen in York was this gentleman's accomplished wife. At a later $ i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 33 period a sister of Mr. Justice Willis was also conspicuous as a skil- ful and fearless horse-woman. The description in the Percy Anec- dotes of the Princess Amelia, youngest daughter of George I\.\ is curiously applicable to the last-named lady, who united to the amiable peculiarities indicated, talents and virtues of the highest order. " She," the brothers Sholto and Reuben say, " was of a masculine turn of mind, and evinced this strikingly enough in her dress and manners : she generally wore a riding-habit in the Ger- man fashion with a round hat; and delighted very much in attending her stables, particularly when any of the horses were out of order." At a phenomenon such as this, suddenly appearing in their midst, the staid and simple-minded society of York stood for a while aghast. In the Loyalist of Nov. 15, 1828, we have the announcement of a Medical partnership entered into between Dr. Widmer and Dr. Diehl. It reads thus : " Doctor Widmer, finding his professional engagements much extended of late, and occasionally too arduous for one person, has been induced to enter into partnership with Doctor Diehl, a respectable practitioner, late of Montreal. It is expected that their united exertions will prevent in future any dis- appointment to Dr. Widmer's friends, both in Town and Country. Dr. Diehl's residence is at present at Mr. Hayes' Boarding-house. York, Oct. 28, 1828." Dr. Diehl died at Toronto, March 5, 1868. At the south-west corner of Princes Street, near where we are now supposing ourselves to be, was a building popularly known as Russell Abbey. It was the house of the Hon. Peter Russell, and, after his decease, of his maiden sister, Miss Elizabeth Russell, a lady of great refinement, who survived her brother many years. The edifice, like most of the early homes of York, was of one storey only ; but it exhibited in its design a degree of elegance and some peculiarities. To a central building were attached wings with gables to the south : the windows had each an architectural deco- ration or pediment over it. It was this feature, we believe, that was supposed to give to the place something of a monastic air ; to entitle it even to the name of " Abbey." In front, a dwarf stone wall with a light wooden paling surrounded a lawn, on which grew tall acacias or locusts. Mr. Russell was a remote scion of the Bedford Russells. He apparently desired to lay the foundation of a solid landed estate in Upper Canada. His position as Admi- nistrator, on the departure of the first Governor of the Province, c 34 Toronto of Old. [§ u gave him facilities for the selection and acquisition of wild lands. The duality necessarily assumed in the wording of the Patents by which the Administrator made grants to himself, seems to have been regarded by some as having a touch of the comic in it. Hence among the early people of these parts the name of Peter Russell was occasionally to be heard quoted good-humouredly, not mal- ignantly, as an example of "the man who would do well unto him- self." On the death of Mr. Russell, his property passed into the hands of his sister, who bequeathed the whole to Dr. William Warren Baldwin, into whose possession also came the valuable family plate, elaborately embossed with the armorial bearings of the Russells. Russell Hill, long the residence of Admiral Augus- tus Baldwin, had its name from Mr. Russell , and in one of the elder branches of the Baldwin family, Russell is continued as a baptismal name. In the same family is also preserved an interest- ing portrait of Mr. Peter Russell himself, from which we can see that he was a gentleman of portly presence, of strongly marked features, of the Thomas Jefferson type. We shall have occasion hereafter to speak frequently of Mr'. Russell. Russell Abbey became afterwards the residence of Bishop Mac- donell, a universally-respected Scottish Roman Catholic ecclesias- tic, whose episcopal title was at first derived from Rhesina in par- tibus, but afterwards from our Canadian Kingston, where his home usually was. His civil duties, as a member of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada, required his presence in York during the Parliamentary sessions. We have in our possession a fine mez- zotint of Sir M. A. Shee's portrait of Bishop Macdonell. It used to be supposed by some that the occupancy of Russell Abbey by the Bishop caused the portion of Front Street which lies eastward of the Market-place, to be denominated Palace Street. But the name appears in plans of York of a date many years anterior to that occupancy. In connection with this mention of Bishop Macdonell, it may be of some interest to add that, in 1826, Thomas Weld, of Lul- worth Castle, Dorsetshire, was consecrated as his coadjutor, in England, under the title of Bishop of Amylae. But it does not appear that he ever came out to Canada. (This was afterwards the well-known English Cardinal.) He had been a layman, and married, up to the year 1825 ; when, on the death of his wife, he took orders ; and in one year he was, as just stated, made a Bishop. § i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 35 Russell Abbey may indeed have been styled the " Palace" ; but it was probably from being the residence of one who for three years administered the Government ; or the name " Palac? Street'' itself may have suggested the appellation. " Palace Street" was no doubt intended to indicate the fact that it led directly to the Government reservation at the end of the Town on which the Par- liament houses were erected, and where it was supposed the " Pa- lais du Gouvernement," the official residence of the representative of the Sovereign in the Province would eventually be. On an Official Plan of this region, of the year 18 10, the Parliament Buildings themselves are styled " Government House." At the laying out of York, however, we find, from the plans, that the name given in the first instance to the Front street of the town was, not Palace Street, but King Street. Modern King Street was then Duke Street, and modern Duke Street, Duchess Street. These street names were intended as loyal compliments to members of the reigning family ; to George the Third ; to his son the popular Duke of York, from whom, as we shall learn here- after, the town itself was named ; to the Duchess of York, the eldest daughter of the King of Prussia. In the cross streets the same chivalrous devotion to the Hanoverian dynasty was exhibited. George street, the boundary westward of the first nucleus of York, bore the name of the heir-apparent, George, Prince of Wales. The next street eastward was honoured with the name of his next brother, Frederick, the Duke of York himself. And the succeeding street eastward, Caroline Street, had imposed upon it that of the Princess of Wales, afterwards so unhappily famous as George the Fourth's Queen Caroline. Whilst in Princes Street (for such is the correct orthography, as the old plans show, and not Princess Street, as is generally seen now,) the rest of the male members of the royal family were collectively commemorated, namely, the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of Kent, the Duke of Cumberland, the Duke of Sussex, and the Duke of Cambridge. When the Canadian town of York was first projected, the mar- riage of the Duke of York with the daughter of the King of Prus- sia, Frederica Charlotta Ulrica, had only recently been celebrated at Berlin. It was considered at the time an event of importance, and the ceremonies on the occasion are given with some minute- ness in the Annual Register for 1 791. We are there informed that " the supper was served at six tables; that the first was placed 36 Toronto of Old. [§ 1. under a canopy of crimson velvet, and the victuals (as the record terms them) served on gold dishes and plates j that Lieutenant- General Bornstedt and Count Bruhl had the honour to carve, without being seated , that the other five tables, at which sat the generals, ministers, ambassadors, all the officers of the Court, and the high nobility, were served in other apartments ; that supper being over, the assembly repaired to the White Hall, where the trumpet, timbrel, and other music, were playing j that the flambeau dance was then began, at which the ministers of state carried the torches ; that the new couple were attended to their apartment by the reigning Queen and the Queen dowager ; that the Duke of York wore on this day the English uniform, and the Princess Fre- derica a suit of drop d argent, ornamented with diamonds." In Ashburton's " New and Complete History of England, from the first settlement of Brutus, upwards of one thousand years before Julius Csesar, to the year 1793," now lying before us, two full-length portraits of the Duke and Duchess are given. — New York and Albany, in the adjoining State, had their names from titles of a Duke of York in 1664, afterwards James II. His brother, Charles II., made him a present, by Letters Patent, of all the territory, from the western side of the Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay ; that is, of the present States of Connecticut, New York, Delaware, and New Jersey. On the green sward of the bank between Princes street and George Street, the annual military " Trainings" on the Fourth of June, " the old King's birthday," were wont to take place. At a later period the day of meeting was the 23rd of April, St. George's day, the fete of George IV. Military displays on a grand scale in and about Toronto have not been uncommon in modern times, exciting the enthusiasm of the multitude that usually assembles on such occasions. But in no way inferior in point of interest to the unsophisticated youthful eye, half a century ago, unaccustomed to anything more elaborate, were those motley musterings of the militia companies. The costume of the men may have been va- rious, the fire-arms only partially distributed, and those that were to be had not of the brightest hue, nor of the most scientific make; the lines may not always have been perfectly straight, nor their constituents well matched in height ; the obedience to the word of command may not have been rendered with the mechanical precision which we admire at reviews now, nor with that total sup- § i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. t>7 pression of dialogue in undertone in the ranks, nor with that absence of remark interchanged between the men and their officers that are customary now. Nevertheless, as a military spec- tacle, these gatherings and manoeuvres on the grassy bank here, were effective ; they were always anticipated with pleasure and contemplated with satisfaction. The officers on these occasions, — some of them mounted — were arrayed in uniforms of antique cut ; in red coats with wide black breast lappets and broad tail flaps j high collars, tight sleeves and large cuffs ; on the head a black hat, the ordinary high-crowned civilian hat, with a cylindri- cal feather some eighteen inches high inserted at the top, not in front, but on the left side (whalebone surrounded with feathers from the barnyard, scarlet at the base, white above). Animation was added to the scene by a drum and a few fifes executing with liveliness "The York Quickstep," "The Reconciliation," and "The British Grenadiers." And then, in addition to the local cavalry corps, there were the clattering scabbards, the blue jackets, and bear-skin helmets of Captain Button's dragoons from Markham and Whitchurch. Numerously, in the rank and file at these musterings — as well as among the officers, commissioned and non-commissioned — were to be seen men who had quite recently jeopardized their lives in the defence of the country. At the period we are speaking of, only some six or seven years had elapsed since an invasion of Canada from the south. "The late war/' for a long while, very naturally, formed a fixed point in local chronology, from which times and seasons were calculated ; a fixed point, however, which, to the in- different new-comer, and even to the indigenous, who, when " the late war" was in progress, were not in bodily existence, seemed already to belong to a remote past. An impression of the miseries of war, derived from the talk of those who had actually felt them, was very strongly stamped in the minds of the rising generation ; an impression accompanied also at the same time with the un- comfortable persuasion derived from the same source, that another conflict was inevitable in due time. The musterings on " Training- day" were thus invested with interest and importance in the minds of those who were summoned to appear on these occasions, as also in the minds of the boyish looker-on, who was aware that ere long he would himself be required by law to turn out and take his part in the annual militia evolutions, and perhaps afterwards, possibly 38 Toronto of Old. [§ i. at no distant hour, to handle the musket or wield the sword in earnest. A little further on, in a house at the north-west corner of Frede- rick Street, ; a building afterwards utterly destroyed by fire, was born, in 1804, the Hon. Robert Baldwin, son of Dr. William Warren Baldwin, already referred to, and Attorney-General in 1842 for Upper Canada. In the same building, at a later period, (and previously in an humble edifice, at the north-west corner of King Street and Caroline Street, now likewise wholly destroyed,) the foundation was laid, by well-directed and far-sighted ventures in commerce, of the great wealth (locally proverbial) of the Cawthra family, the Astors of Upper Canada, of whom more here- after. It was also in the same house, prior to its occupation by Mr. Cawthra, senior, that the printing operations of Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie were carried on at the time of the destruction of his press by a party of young men, who considered it proper to take some spirited notice of the criticisms on the public acts of their fathers, uncles and superiors generally, that appeared every week in the columns of the Colonial Advocate; a violent act memo- rable in the annals of Western Canada, not simply as having been the means of establishing the fortunes of an indefatigable and powerful journalist, but more notably as presenting an unconscious illustration of a general law, observable in the early development of communities, whereby an element destined to elevate and re- generate is, on its first introduction, resisted, and sought to be crushed physically, not morally; somewhat as the white man's watch was dashed to pieces by the Indian, as though it had been a sentient thing, conspiring in some mysterious way with other things, to promote the ascendancy of the stranger. The youthful perpetrators of the violence referred to were not long in learning practically the futility of such exploits. Good old Mr. James Baby, on handing to his son Raymond the amount which that youth was required to pay as his share of the heavy damages awarded, as a matter of course, by the jury on the occa- sion, is said to have added : — " There ! go and make one great fool of yourself again !" — a sarcastic piece of advice that might have been offered to each of the parties concerned. A few steps northward, on the east side of Frederick Street, was the first Post Office,' on the premises of Mr. Allan, who was post- master : and southward, where this street touches the water, was I i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 39 the Merchants' Wharf, also the property of Mr. Allan ; and the Custom House, where Mr. Allan was the Collector. We gather also from Calendars of the day that Mr. Allan was likewise Inspec- tor of Flour, Pot and Pearl Ash ; and Inspector of Shop, Still and Tavern Duties. In an early, limited condition of society, a man of more than the ordinary aptitude for affairs is required to act in many capacities. The Merchants' Wharf was the earliest landing-place for the larger craft of the lake. At a later period other wharves or long wooden jetties, extending out into deep water, one of them named the Farmers' Wharf, were built westward. In the shoal water between the several wharves, for a long period, there was annually a dense crop of rushes or flags. The town or county authorities incurred considerable expense, year after year, in endeavouring to eradicate them — but, like the heads of the hydra, they were always re-ap- pearing. In July, 1 82 1, a " Mr. Coles' account for his assistants' labour in destroying rushes in front of the Market Square," was laid before the County magistrates, and audited, amounting to ;£i3 6s. $d. In August of the same year, the minutes of the County Court record that " Capt. Macaulay, Royal Engineers, offered to cut down the rushes in front of the town between the Merchants' Wharf and Cooper's Wharf, for a sum not to exceed ninety dollars, which would merely be the expense of the men and materials ' in executing the undertaking : his own time he would give to the public on this occasion, as encouragement to others to endeavour to destroy the rushes when they become a nuisance f it was accordingly ordered " that ninety dollars be paid to Capt. Macaulay or his order, for the purpose of cutting down the rushes, according to his verbal undertaking to cut down the same, to be paid out of the Police or District funds in the hands of the Trea- surer of the District." We have understood that Capt. Macaulay's measures for the extinction of the rank vegetation in the shallow waters of the har- bour, proved to be very efficient. The instrument used was a kind of screw grapnel, which, let down from the side of a large scow, laid hold of the rushes at their root and forcibly wrenched them out of the bed of mud below. The entire plant was thus lifted up, and drawn by a windlass into the scow. When a full load of the aquatic weed was collected, it was taken out into the open water of the Lake, and there disposed of. 40 Toronto of Old. [§ r - Passing on our way, we soon came to the Market Square. This was a large open space, with wooden shambles in the middle of it, thirty-six feet long and twenty-four wide, running north and south. By a Proclamation in the Gazette of Nov. 3, 1803, Governor Hunter appointed a weekly market day for the Town of York, and also a place where the market should be held. " Peter Hunter, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor, &c. Whereas great prejudice hath arisen to the inhabitants of the Town and Township of York, and of other adjoining Townships, from no place or day having been set apart or appointed for exposing publicly for sale, cattle, sheep, poultry, and other provisions, goods, and merchandize, brought by merchants, farmers, and others, for the necessary supply of the said Town of York ; and, whereas, great benefit and advantage might be derived to the said inhabitants and others, by establishing a weekly market within that Town, at a place and on a day certain for the purpose aforesaid ; " Know all men, That I, Peter Hunter, Esquire, Lieutenant- Governor of the said Province, taking the premises into considera- tion, and willing to promote the interest, and advantage, and accom- modation of the inhabitants of the Town and Township aforesaid, aud of others, His Majesty's subjects, within the said Province, by and with the advice of the Executive Council thereof, have ordained, erected, established and appointed, and do hereby ordain, erect, establish and appoint, a Public Open Market, to be held on Satur- day in each and every week during the year, within the said Town of York : — (The first market to be held therein on Saturday, the 5th day of November next after the date of these presents), on a certain piece or plot of land within that Town, consisting of five acres and a half, commencing at the south-east angle of the said plot, at the corner of Market Street and New Street, then north sixteenjjlegrees, west five chains seventeen links, more or less, to King Street ; then along King Street south seventy-four degrees west nine chains fifty-one links, more or less, to Church Street ; then south sixteen degrees east six chains thirty-four links, more or less, to Market Street ; then along Market Street north seventy- four degrees east two chains j then north sixty-four degrees, east along Market Street seven chains sixty links, more or less, to the place of beginning, for the purpose of exposing for sale cattle, sheep, poultry, and other provisions, goods and merchandize, as aforesaid. Given under my hand and seal at arms, at York, this. § i.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 41 twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three, and in the forty-fourth year of His Ma- jesty's reign. P. Hunter, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor. By His Excellency's command, Wm. Jarvis, Secretary." In 1824, the Market Square was, by the direction of the County magistrates, closed in on the east, west, and south sides, " with a picketting and oak ribbon, the pickets at ten feet distance from each other, with three openings or foot-paths on each side." The digging of a public well here, in the direction of King Street, was an event of considerable interest in the town. Groups of school-boys every day scanned narrowly the progress of the undertaking ; a cap of one or the other of them, mischievously pre- cipitated to the depths where the labourers' mattocks were to be heard pecking at the shale below, may have impressed the execu- tion of this public work all the more indelibly on the recollection of some of them. By referring to a volume of the Upper Canada Gazette, we find that this was in 1823. An unofficial advertisement in that periodical, dated June the 9th, 1823, calls for proposals to be sent in to the office of the Clerk of the Peace, "for the sinking a well, stoning and sinking a pump therein, in the most approved manner, at the Market Square of the said town (of York), for the convenience of the Public." It is added that persons desirous of contracting for the same, must give in their proposals on or before Tuesday, the first day of July next ensuing; and the signature, " by the order of the Court," is that of " S. Heward, Clerk of the Peace, H. D." (Home District). The tender of John Hutchison and George Hetherington was accepted. They offered to do the work " for the sum of ^25 currency on coming to the rock, with the addition of seven shil- lings and sixpence per foot for boring into the rock until a suffi- cient supply of water can be got, should it be required." The work was done and the account paid July 30th, 1823. The charge for boring eight feet two inches through the rock was £$ is. 3d. The whole well and pump thus cost the County the modest sum of only £2% is. $d. The charge for flagging round the pump, for " logs, stone and workmanship," was £$ 2s. 4^d, paid to Mr. Hugh Carfrae, pathmaster. Near the public pump, auctions in the open air occasionally took place. A humourous chapman in that line, Mr. Patrick Handy, used often here to be seen and heard, disposing of his miscella- 42 Toronto of Old. [§ i. neous wares. With Mr. Handy was associated for a time, in this business, Mr. Patrick McGann. And here we once witnessed the horrid exhibition of a public whipping, in the case of two culprits whose offence is forgotten. A dischaiged regimental drummer, a native African, administered the lash. The sheriff stood by, keep- ing count of the stripes. The senior of the two unfortunates bore his punishment with stoicism, encouraging the negro to strike with more force. The other, a young man, endeavoured for a little while to imitate his companion in this respect ; but soon wasi obliged to evince by fearful cries the torture endured. Similar scenes were elsewhere to be witnessed in Canada. In the Montreal Herald of September 16th, 1815, we have the following item of city news, given without comment : " Yesterday, between the hours of 9 and 10, pursuant to their sentences, Andr6 Latulippe, Henry Leopard, and John Quin, received 39 lashes each, in the New Market Place." The practice of whipping and even branding of culprits in public had begun at York in 1798. In the Gazette and Oracle of Dec. 1st, 1 798, printed at York, we have the note : " Last Monday William Hawkins was publicly whipped, and Joseph Mc- Carthy burned in the hand, at the Market Place, pursuant to their sentence." The crimes are not named. In the Market Square at York, the pillory and the stocks were also from time to time set up. The latter were seen in use for the last time in 1834. In 1804, a certain Elizabeth Ellis was, for " being a nuisance," sentenced by Chief Justice Allcock to be im- prisoned for six months, and " to stand in the pillory twice during the said imprisonment, on two different market days, opposite the Market House in the town of York, for the space of two hours each time." In the same year, the same sentence was passed on one Campbell, for using " seditious words." In 1 83 1 the wooden shambles were removed, and replaced in T ^33 D 7 a collegiate-looking building of red brick, quadrangular in its arrangement, with arched gateway entrances on King Street and Front Street. This edifice filled the whole square, with the ex- ception of roadways on the east and west sides. The public well was now concealed from view. It doubtless exists still, to be dis- covered and gloated over by the antiquarian of another century. Round the four sides of the new brick Market ran a wooden gallery, which served to shade the Butchers' stalls below. It was here that a fearful casualty occurred in 1834. A concourse of § I.] (Palace Street to the Market (Place. 43 people were being addressed after the adjournment of a meeting on an electional question, when a portion of the overcrowded gal- lery fell, and several persons were caught on the sharp iron hooks of the stalls underneath, and so received fatal injuries. The killed and wounded on this memorable occasion were : — Son of Col. Fitz Gibbon, killed ; Mr. Hutton, killed j Col. Fitz Gibbon, in- jured severely j Mr. Mountjoy, thigh broken j Mr. Cochrane, injured severely j Mr. Charles Daly, thigh broken ; Mr. George Gurnett, wound in the head ; Mr. Keating, injured internally ; Mr. Fenton, injured ; Master Gooderham, thigh broken ; Dr. Lithgow, contused severely ; Mr. Morrison, contused severely ; Mr. Alderman Denison, cut on the head ; Mr. Thornhill. thigh broken ; Mr. Street, arm broken j Mr. Deese, thigh broken ; an- other Mr. Deese, leg and arm broken ; Mr. Sheppard, injured in- ternally j Mr. Clieve, Mr. Mingle, Mr. Preston, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Leslie (of the Garrison), Master Billings, Mr. Duggan, Mr. Thomas Ridout, Mr. Brock, Mr. Turner, Mr. Hood (since dead), severely injured, &c. The damage done to the northern end of the quadrangle during the great fire of 1849 * e d to the demolition of the whole building, and the erection of the St. Lawrence Hall and Market. Over windows on the second storey at the south east corner of the red brick structure now removed, there appeared, for several years, two signs, united at the angle of the building, each indicating by its inscription the place of " The Huron and Ontario Railway" office. This was while the Northern Railway of Canada was yet exist- ing simply as a project. In connection with our notice of the Market, we give some col- lections which may serve to illustrate — EARLY PRICES AT YORK. During the war it was found expedient by the civil authorities to interfere, in some degree, with the law of supply and demand. The Magistrates, in Quarter Sessions assembled, agreed, in 18 14, upon the following prices, as in their opinion fair and equitable to be paid by the military authorities for provisions :— Flour, per barrel, jQ$ 10s. Wheat, per bushel, 10s. Pease, per bushel, 7* 6d. Barley and Rye, the same. Oats, per bushel, 5^. Hay, per ton, ^5. Straw, £$. Beef, on foot, per cwt. £2 5* ; slaughtered, 44 Toronto of Old. [§ i„ per lb., 7 T /id. Pork, salted, per barrel, £7 10s. j per carcass, 7^. Mutton, per lb., gd. Veal, 8 an architectural object regarded with no kindly glance by the final holders of shares in the Bank of Upper Canada — an institution which in the infancy of the country had a mission and fulfilled it, but which grievously betrayed those of the second generation who, relying on its traditionary sterling repute, continued to trust it. With Kearsny House, too, is asso- ciated the recollection, not only of the president, so long identified with the Bank of Upper Canada, but of the financier, Mr. Cassells, who, as a kind of deus ex machind, engaged at an annual salary of ten thousand dollars, was expected to retrieve the fortunes of the institution, but in vain, although for a series of years after being pronounced moribund it continued to yield a handsome addition to the income of a number of persons. Mr. Alexander Murray, subsequently of Yorkville, and a mer- chant of the olden time at York, occupied the residence which preceded Kearsny House, on the Frank property. One desires, in passing, to offer a tribute to the memory of a man of such genuine worth as was Mr. Murray, although the singular unobtru- siveness which characterized him when living seems almost to forbid the act. Ths residue of the Sandhill rise that is still to be discerned westward of Yonge Street has its winsome name, Clover Hill, from the designation borne by the home of Captain Elmsley, son of the z 402 Toronto of Old. [§ 24. Chief Justice, situate here. The house still stands, overshadowed by some fine oaks, relics of the natural woods. The rustic cottage lodge, with diamond lattice windows, at the gate leading in to the original Clover Hill, was on the street a little further on. At the time of his decease, Captain Elmsley had taken up his abode in a building apart from the principal residence of the Clover Hill estate j a building to which he had pleasantly given the name of Barnstable, as being in fact a portion of the outbuildings of the homestead turned into a modest dwelling. Barnstable was subsequently occupied by Mr. Maurice Scollard, a veteran attach^ of the Bank of Upper Canada, of Irish birth, remembered by all frequenters of that institution, and by others for numerous estimable traits of character, but especially for a gift of genuine quiet humour and wit, which at a touch was ever unfailingly ready to manifest itself in word or act, in some unexpected, amusing, genial way. Persons transacting business at the India House in London, when Charles Lamb was a book-keeper there, must have had the solemn routine of the place now and then curiously varied by a dry " aside " from the direction of his desk. Just so the habitues of the old Bank, when absorbed in a knotty question of finance, affecting themselves individually, or the institution, would oftentimes find themselves startled from their propriety by a droll view of the case, gravely suggested by a venerable personage sure to be somewhere near at hand busily engaged over a huge ledger. They who in the mere fraction of a lifetime have seen in so many places the desert blossom as the rose, can with a degree of certainty, realize in their imagination what the whole country will one day be, even portions of it which to the new comer seem at the first glance very unpromising. Our Sandhill here, which but as yesterday we beheld in its primeval condition, with no trace of human labour upon it except a few square yards cleared round a solitary Indian grave, to-day we see crowned along its crest for many a rood east- ward and westward with comfortable villas and graceful pleasure- grounds. The history of this spot may serve to encourage all who at any time or anywhere are called in the way of duty to be the first to attack and rough-hew a forest-wild for the benefit of another generation. If need were to stay the mind of a newly-arrived immigrant friend wavering as to whether or not he should venture permanently to cast in his lot with us, we should be inclined to direct his regards, § 24.] Yonge Street—from the (Bay to Yorkville. 403 for one thing, to the gardens of an amateur, on the southern slope of the rise, at which we are pausing, where choice fruits and flowers are year after year produced equal to those grown in Kent or Devon ; we should be inclined to direct his regards, likewise, to the amateur cultivator himself of those fruits and flowers, Mr. Phipps — a typical Englishman after a residentership in York and Toronto of half a century. But we must push on. — To the north of our Sandhill, a short distance, on the east side, was a sylvan halting place for weary teams, known as the Gardeners' Arms. It was an unpretending rural wayside inn, furnished with troughs and pump. The house lay a little way back from the road. Its sign exhibited an heraldic arrangement of horticultural implements. Another rural inn, with homely name, might have been noted, while we were nearer Lot Street : the Green Bush Tavern. But this was a name transferred from another spot, far to the north on Yonge Street, when the landlord, Mr. Abrahams, moved into town. In the original locality, the sign was a painted pine-tree or spruce of formal shape — not the ivy-bush, the sign referred to by the ancient proverb when it said, "Wine needeth it not" — "Vino vendibili non opus est suspensa hedera." On the right, beyond the Gardeners' Arms, appeared in this region at an early date, at a considerable distance from each other, two or perhaps three flat, single-storey square cottages, clapboarded and painted white, with flat four-sided roofs, dooi in the centre and one window on either side : little wooden boxes set down on the surface of the soil apparently, and capable, as it might seem, of being readily lifted up and transported to any other locality. They were the first of such structures in the outskirts of York, and were speedily copied and repeated in various directions, being thought models of neatness and convenience. Opposite the quarter where these little square hutches were to be seen, there are to be found at the present day, the vineyards of Mr. Bevan ; to be found, we say, for they are concealed from the view of the transient passenger by intervening buildings. Here again we have a scene presenting a telling contrast to the same spot and its surroundings within the memory of living men : a considerable area covered with a labyrinth of trellis work, all overspread with hardy grapes in great variety and steadily productive. To this sight likewise we should introduce our timid, hesitating new comer, 404 Toronto of Old. [§ 24. as also to the originator of the spectacle — Mr. Bevan, who after a forty years' sojourn in the vicinity of York and Toronto, continues as genuinely English in spirit and tone now as when he first left the quay of his native Bristol for his venture westward. While engaged largely in the manufacture of various articles of wooden ware, Mr. Bevan adopted as a recreation the cultivation of the grape, and the making of a good and wholesome wine. It is known in commerce and to physicians, who recommend it to invalids for its real purity, as Clintona. Just before reaching the first concession-road, where Yorkville now begins, a family residence of an ornamental suburban character, put up on the left by Mr. Lardner Bostwick, was the first of that class of building in the neighbourhood.' His descendants still occupy it. Mr. Bostwick was an early property owner in York. The now important square acre at the south-east angle of the intersection of King Street and Yonge Street, regarded probably when selected, as a mere site for a house and garden in the out- skirts of the town, was his. The price paid for it was ;£ioo. Its value in 1873 may be ;£ 100,000. The house of comparatively modern date, seen next after Mr. Bostwick, is associated with the memory of Mr. de Blaquiere, who occupied it before building for himself the tasteful residence — The Pines — not far off, where he died ; now the abode of Mr. John He ward. Mr. de Blaquiere was the youngest son of the first Lord de Blaquiere, of Ardkill, in Ireland. He emigrated in 1837, and was subsequently appointed to a seat in the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. In his youth he had seen active service as a midshipman. He was present at the battle of Camperdown in the Bounty, commanded by Captain Bligh. He was also in the Fleet at the Nore during the mutiny. He died suddenly here in his new house in i860, aged 76. His fine character and prepossessing outward physique are freshly remembered. Thus again and again have we to content ourselves with the interest that attaches, not to the birth-places of men of note, as would be the case in older towns, but to their death-places. Who of those that have been born in the numerous domiciles which we pass are finally to be ranked as men of note, and as creators con- sequently of a sentimental interest in their respective birth-places, remains to be seen. In our portion of Canada there has been § 24.] Yonge Street — from the (Bay to Yorkville. 405 time for the application of the requisite test in only a very few instances. The First Concession Road-line derived its modern name of Bloor Street from a former resident on its southern side, eastward of Yonge Street. Mr. Bloor, as we have previously narrated, was for many years the landlord of the Farmers' Arms, near the market place of York, an inn conveniently situated for the accommodation of the agricultural public. On retiring from this occupation with a good competency, he established a Brewery on an extensive scale in the ravine north of the first concession road. In conjunction with Mr. Sheriff Jarvis, he entered successfully into a speculation on land, projecting and laying out the village of Yorkville, which narrowly escaped being Bloorville. That name was proposed : as also was Rosedale, after the Sheriff's homestead ; and likewise "Cumberland," from the county of some of the surrounding inhabitants. The monosyllable " Blore " would have sufficed, without having recourse to a hackeyned suffix. That is the name of a spot in Staffordshire, famous for a great engagement in the wars between the Houses of Lancaster and York. But Yorkville was at last decided on, an appellation preservative in part of the name just discarded in 1834 by Toronto. Mr. Bloor was an Englishman, respected by every one. That his name should have become permanently attached to the Northern Boulevard of the City of Toronto, a favourite thoroughfare, several miles in extent, is a curious fact which may be compared with the case of Pimlico, the famous west-end quarter of London. Pimlico has its name, it is said, from Mr. Benjamin Pimlico, for many years the popular landlord of a hotel in the neighbourhood. Bloor Street was for a time known as St. Paul's road : also as the Sydenham road. While crossing the First Concession Line, now in our northward journey, the moment comes back to us when on glancing along the vista to the eastward, formed by the road in that direction, we first noticed a church-spire on the right-hand or southern side. We had passed that way a day or two before, and we were sure no such object was to be seen there then; and yet, unmistakeably now, there rose up before the eye a rather graceful tower and spire, of considerable altitude, complete from base to apex, and coloured white. The fact was : Mr. J. G. Howard, a well-known local architect, 406 Toronto of Old. [§ 24. had ingeniously constructed a tower of wood in a horizontal, or nearly horizontal, position in the ground close by, somewhat as a shipbuilder puts together "the mast of some vast ammiral," and then, after attending to the external finish of, at least, the higher portion of it, even to a coating of lime wash, had, in the space of a few hours, by means of convenient machinery raised it on end, and secured it, permanently, in a vertical position. We gather some further particulars of the achievement from a contemporary account. The Yorkville spire was raised on the 4th of August, 1 841. It was 85 feet high, composed of four entire trees or pieces of timber, each of that length, bound together pyramidically, tapering from ten feet base to one foot at top, and made to receive a turned ball and weather-cock. The base was sunk in the ground until the apex was raised ten feet from the ground ; and about thirty feet of the upper part of the spire was completed, coloured and painted before the raising. The operation of raising commenced about two o'clock p.m., and about eight in the evening, the spire and vane were seen erect, and appeared to those unacquainted with what was going on, to have risen amongst the trees, as if by magic. The work was performed by Mr. John Richey ; the framing by Mr. Wetherell, and the raising was super- intended by Mr. Joseph Hill. The plan adopted was this : three gin-poles, as they are called, were erected in the form of a triangle ; each of them was well braced, and tackles were rove at their tops : the tackles were hooked to strong straps about fifty feet up the spire, with nine men to each tackle, and four men to steady the end with following poles. It was raised in about four hours from the commencement of the straining of the tackles, and had a very beautiful appearance while rising. The whole operation, we have been told, was conducted as nearly as possible in silence, the architect himself regulating by signs the action of the groups at the gin-poles, being himself governed by the plumb-line suspended in a high frame before him. "No workman steel, no ponderous axes rung ; Like some tall palm, the noiseless fabric sprung. " Perhaps Fon tana's exploit of setting on end the obelisk in front of St. Peter's, in Rome, suggested the possibility of causing a tower and spire complete to be suddenly seen rising above the roof of the Yorkville St. Paul's. On an humble scale we have Fontana's § 24.] Yonge Street— from the (Bay to Yorkville. 407 arrangements reproduced. While in the men at the gin-poles worked in obedience to signs, we have the old Egyptians over again — a very small detachment of them indeed — as seen in the old sculptures on the banks of the Nile. The original St. Paul's before it acquired in this singular manner the dignified appurtenance of a steeple, was a long, low, barn-like, wooden building. Mr. Howard otherwise improved it, enlarging it by the addition of an aisle on the west side. When some twenty years later, viz., in 1861, the new stone church was erected, the old wooden structure was removed bodily to the west side of Yonge Street, together with the tower, curtailed, however, of its spire. We have been informed that the four fine stems, each eighty-five feet long, which formed the interior frame of the tower and spire of 1 84 1, were a present from Mr. Allan, of Moss Park; and that the Rev. Charles Matthews, occasionally officiating in St. Paul's, gave one hundred pounds in cash towards the expense of the ornamental addition now made to the edifice. The history of another of Mr. Howard's erections on Yonge Street, which we are perambulating, illustrates the rapid advance and expansion of architectural ideas amongst us. In the case now referred to it was no shell of timber and deal-boards that was taken down, but a very handsome solid edifice of cut-stone, which might have endured for centuries. The Bank of British North America, built by Mr. Howard, at the corner of Yonge Street and Wellington Street in 1843, was deliberately taken down, block by block, in 187 1, and made to give place to a structure which should be on a par in magnificence and altitude with the buildings put up in Toronto by the other Banks. Mr. Howard's building, at the time of its erection, was justly regarded as a credit to the town. Its design was preferred by the directors in London to those sent in by several architects there. Over the principal entrance were the Royal Arms, exceedingly well carved in stone on a grand scale, and wholly disengaged from the wall \ and conspicuous over the parapet above was the great scallop-shell, emblem of the gold- digger's occupation, introduced by Sir John Soane, in the archi- tecture of the Bank of England. (The Royal Arms of the old building have been deemed worthy of a place over the entrance to the new Bank.) The Cemetery, the gates and keeper's lodge of which, after 408 Toronto of Old. [§ 24. crossing the concession road and advancing on our way northward, we used to see on the left, was popularly known as " The Potter's Field " — " a place to bury strangers in." Its official style was " The York General or Strangers' Burying Ground." In practice it was the Bunhill Fields of York — the receptacle of the remains of those whose friends declined the use of the St. James's churchyard and other early burial-plots. Walton's Directory for 1833, gives the following information, which we transfer hither, as well for the slight degree of quaintness which the narrative has acquired, as also on account of the familiar names which it contains. " This institution," Walton says, " owes its origin to Mr. Carfrae, junior. It comprises six acres of ground, and has a neat sexton's house built close by the gate. The name of the sexton is John Wolstencroft, who keeps a registry of every person buried therein. Persons of all creeds and persons of no creed, are allowed burial in this cemetery : fees to the sexton, 5s. It was instituted in the fall of 1825, and incorporated by Act of Parliament, 30th January, 1826. It is managed by five trustees, who are chosen for life ; and in case of the death of any of them, a public meeting of the inhabitants is called, when they elect a successor or successors in their place. The present trustees (1833) are Thomas Carfrae, jun., Thomas D. Morrison, Peter Paterson, John Ewart, Thomas Helliwell." (Mr. Carfrae was for some years the collector of Customs of the Port of York. The other trustees named were respectively the medical man, iron-merchant, builder, and brewer, so well known in the neighbourhood.) A remote sequestered piece of ground in 1825, the Potter's Field in 1845 was m °re or less surrounded by buildings, and regarded as an impediment in the way of public improvement. Interments were accordingly prohibited. To some extent it has been cleared of human remains, and in due time will be built over. Its suc- cessor and representative is the Toronto Necropolis, the trustees of which are empowered, after the lapse of twenty-one years, to sell the old burying-ground. Proceeding on, we were immediately opposite the Red Lion Tavern, anciently Tiers', subsequently Price's, on the east side ; a large and very notable halting-place for loaded teams after the tre- mendous struggle involved in the traverse of the Blue Hill ravine, of which presently. § 24.] Yonge Street — -front the (Bay to Yorkville. 409 In old European lands, in times by-gone, the cell of a hermit, a monastery, a castle, became often the nucleus of a village or town. With us on the American continent, a convenient watering or baiting place in the forest for the wearied horses of a farmer's waggon or a stage-coach is the less romantic punctum saliens for a similar issue. Thus Tiers's, at which we have paused, may be regarded as the germ of the flourishing incorporation of Yorkville. Many a now solitary way-station on our railroads will probably in like manner hereafter prove a centre round which will be seen a cluster of human habitations. We discover from a contemporary Gazette that so early as 1808, previous, perhaps, to the establishment of the Red Lion on Yonge Street, Mr. Tiers had conducted a public house in the Town of York. In the Gazette of June 13, 1808, we have the following announcement. It has an English ring : " Beefsteak and Beer House. — The subscriber informs his friends and the public that he has opened a house of entertainment next door to Mr. Hunt's, where his friends will be served with victualing in good order, on the shortest notice, and at a cheap rate. He will furnish the best strong beer at 8d. New York currency per gallon if drank in his house, and 2 s. 6d. New York currency taken out. As he in- tends to keep a constant supply of racked beer, with a view not to injure the health of his customers, and for which he will have to pay cash, the very small profits at which he offers to sell, will put it out of his power to give credit, and he hopes none will be asked. N.B. He will immediately have entertainment for man and horse. Daniel Tiers. York, 12th January, 1808." The singular Hotel de Ville which in modern times distinguishes Yorkville, has a Flemish look. It might have strayed hither from Ghent. Nevertheless, as seen from numerous points of view, it cannot be characterized as picturesque, or in harmony with its surroundings. — The shield of arms sculptured in stone and set in the wall above the circular window in the front gable, presents the following charges arranged quarterly : a Beer-barrel, with an S below ; a Brick-mould, with an A below ; an Anvil, with a W below ; and a Jackplane, with a D below. In the centre, in a shield of pretence, is a Sheep's head, with an H below. These symbols commemorate the first five Councillors or Aldermen of Yorkville at the time of its incorporation in 1853, and their trades or callings \ the initials being those respectively of the surnames 410 Toronto of Old. [§ 24. of Mr. John Severn, Mr. Thomas Atkinson, Mr. James Wallis, Mr. James Dobson, and Mr. Peter Hutty. Over the whole, as a crest, is the Canadian Beaver. The road which enters from the west, a little way on, calls up memories of Russel-hill, Davenport and Spadina, each of them locally historic. We have already spoken of them in our journey along Front Street and Queen Street, when, in crossing Brock Street, Spadina-house in the distance caught the eye. It is a pecu- liarity of this old bye-road that, instead of going straight, as most of our highways monotonously do, it meanders a little, unfolding a number of pretty suburban scenes. The public school, on the land given to Yorkville by Mr. Ketchum, is visible up this road. In this direction were the earliest public ice-houses established in our region, in rude buildings of slab, thickly thatched over with pine branches. Spring-water ice, gathered from the neighbouring mill-ponds, began to be stored here in quantities by an enterpris- ing man of African descent, Mr. Richards, five-and-thirty years ago. On the east side of Yonge Street, near the northern toll-gate, stood Dr. R. C. Home's house, the lurid flames arising from which somewhat alarmed the town in 1837, when the malcontents of the north were reported to be approaching with hostile intent. Of Dr. Home we have already spoken, in connexion with the early press of York. Were the tall and very beautiful spire which in the present day is to be seen where the Davenport Road enters Yonge Street, the appendage of an ecclesiastical edifice of the mediaeval period — as the architecture implies — it would indicate, in all probability, the presence of a Church of St. Giles. St. ^Egidius or Giles presided, it was imagined, over the entrances to cities and towns. Conse- quently, fancy will always have it, whenever we pass the inte- resting pile standing so conspicuously by a public gate, or where for a long while there was a public gate, leading into the town, that here we behold the St. Giles' of Toronto. XXV. YONGE STREET, FROM YORKVILLE TO HOGG'S HOLLOW. F long standing is the group of buildings on the right after passing the Davenport Road. It is the Brewery and malting-house Of Mr. Severn, settled here since 1835. The main building over-looks a ravine which, as seen by the passer-by on Yonge Street, retains to this day in its eastern recess a great deal of natural beauty, although the stream below attracted manufacturers at an early period to its borders at numerous points. There is a pictu- resque irregularity about the outlines of Mr. Severn's brewery. The projecting galleries round the domestic portion of the build- ing pleasantly indicate that the adjacent scenery is not unappre- ciated: nay, possibly enjoyed on many a tranquil* autumn evening. Further on, a block-house of two storeys, both of them rectan- gular, but the upper turned half round on the lower, built in con- sequence of the troubles of 1837, and supposed to command the great highway from the north, overhung a high bank on the right (Another of the like build was placed at the eastern extremity of the First Concession Road. It was curious to observe how rapidly these two relics acquired the character and even the look, gray and dilapidated, of age. With many, they dated at least from the war of 1812.) A considerable stretch of striking landscape here skirts our route on the right. Rosedale-house, the old extra-mural home, still existent and conspicuous, of Mr. Stephen Jarvis, Registrar of the Province in the olden time, afterwards of his son the Sheriff, of both of whom we have had occasion to speak repeatedly, was 412 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. always noticeable for the romantic character of its situation ; on the crest of a precipitous bank overlooking deep winding ravines. Set down here while yet the forest was but little encroached on, access to it was of course for a long time, difficult and laborious. The memorable fancy-ball given here at a comparatively late period, but during the Sheriff's lifetime, recurs as we go by. On that occasion, in the dusk of evening, and again probably in the gray dawn of morning, an irregular procession thronged the high- way of Yonge Street and toiled up and down the steep approaches to Rosedale-house — a procession consisting of the simulated shapes and forms that usually revisit the glimpses of the moon at masquerades, — knights, crusaders, Plantagenet, Tudor and Stuart princes, queens and heroines ; all mixed up with an incongruous ancient and modern canaille, a Tom of Bedlam, a Nicholas Bottom " with amiable cheeks and fair large ears," an Ariel, a Paul Pry, a Pickwick, &c, &c, not pacing on with some veri-similitude on foot or respectably mounted on horse, ass, or mule, but borne along most prosaically on wheels or in sleighs. This pageant, though only a momentary social relaxation, a tran- sient but still not unutilitarian freak of fashion, accomplished well and cleverly in the midst of a scene literally a savage wild only a few years previously, may be noted as one of the many outcomes of precocity characterizing society in the colonies of England. In a burlesque drama to be seen in the columns of a contem- porary paper (the Colonist, of 1839) we nave an allusion to this memorable entertainment. The news is supposed to have just arrived of the union of the Canadas, to the dismay, as it is pre- tended, of the official party, among whom there will henceforth be no more cakes and ale. A messenger, Thomas, speaks : List, oh, list — the Queen hath sent A message to her Lords and trusty Commons — All — What message sent she ? Thomas. — Oh the dreadful news ! That both the Canadas in one be joined. — {faints.) Sheriff William then speaks : Farewell ye masquerades, ye sparkling routs : Now routed out, no more shall routs be ours ; No gilded chariots now shall roll along ; No sleighs that sweep across our icy path, — Sleighs ! no : this news that slays our warmest hopes, Ends pageantry, and pride and masquerades. § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 413 The characters in the dramatic jeu d'esprit, from which these lines are taken, are the principal personages of the defeated party, under thinly disguised names, Mr. Justice Clearhead, Mr. John Scott, William Welland, Judge Brock, Christopher, Samuel, Sheriff William, as above, and Thomas, &c. Rosedale is a name of plea- sant sound. We are reminded thereby of another of the same genus, but of more recent application in these parts — Hazeldean — the pretty title given by Chief Justice Draper to his rural cottage, which overhangs and looks down upon the same ravine as Rosedale r but on the opposite side. (A residence of the Earl of Shaftesbury in Kew-foot Lane near Richmond, on the Thames is called Rose- dale House, and is associated with the memory of the poet Thom- son, who is said to have written his Castle of Indolence there.) The perils and horrors encountered every spring and autumn by travellers and others in their ascent and descent of the precipitous sides of the Rosedale ravine, at the point where the primitive Yonge Street crossed it, were a local proverb and by-word : perils and horrors ranking for enormity with those associated with the passage of the Rouge, the Credit, the Sixteen, and a long list of other deeply ploughed watercourses intersected of necessity by the two great highways of Upper Canada. The ascent and descent of the gorge were here spoken of collec- tively as the " Blue Hill." Certain strata of a bluish clay had been remarked at the summit on both sides. The waggon-track passed down and up by two long wearisome and difficult slopes cut in the soil of the steep sides of the lofty banks. After the autumnal rains and during the thaws at the close of winter, the condition of the route here was indescribably bad. At the period referred to, how- ever, the same thing, for many a year, was to be said of every rood of Yonge Street throughout its thirty miles of length. Nor was Yonge Street singular in this respect. All our roads were equally bad at certain seasons every year. We fear we con- veyed an impression unfavourable to emigration many years ago, when walking with two or three young English friends across some flat clayey fields between Cambridge and the Gogmagogs. It chanced that the driftways for the farmers' carts — the holls as they are locally called, if we remember rightly — at the sides of the ploughed land were mire from end to end. Under the impulse of the moment, pleased in fact with a reminder of home far-distant, we exclaimed, " Here are Canadian roads ! " The comparison was 414 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. altogether too graphic ; and our companions could never afterwards be got to entertain satisfactory notions of Canadian civilization. But English roads were not much better a century ago. We made a note once of John Moody's account of Lady Townley's journey with her coach-and-four and large household to London, from the veritable old-country York, in Sir John Vanbrugh's comedy of the Provoked Husband, so perfect a parallel did it furnish to the traveller's experience here on Yonge Street on his way from the Canadian York to the Landing in stage-coach or farmer's waggon in the olden time. " Some impish trick or other," said John Moody, " plagued us all the day long. Crack goes one thing : bounce goes another : Woa, says Roger — then sowse ! we are all set fast in a slough. Whaw, cries Miss : scream go the maids : and bawl just as thof they were stuck : and so, mercy on us ! this was the trade from morning to night." The mode of extricating a vehicle from a slough or mudhole when once in, may be gathered from a passage in McTaggart's " Three Years in Canada," ii., 205. The time referred to is 1829 : " There are few roads," McTaggart says, " and these are generally exces- sively bad, and full of mudholes in which if a carriage fall, there is great trouble to get it out again. The mail coaches or waggons are often in this predicament, when the passengers instantly jump off, and having stripped rails off the fence, they lift it up by sheer force. Coming up brows they sometimes get in ; the horses are then taken out, and yoked to the stern instead of the front ; and it is drawn out backwards." The country between York and Lake Huron was, as we have already seen, first explored by Governor Simcoe in person, in 1793. It was also immediately surveyed, and in some measure occupied ; and so early as 1794, we read in a Gazette the following notice : " Surveyor-General's Office, Upper Canada, 15th July, 1794. Notice is hereby given that all persons who have obtained assignments for land on Dundas Street, leading from the head of Burlington Bay to the upper forks of the River Thames, and on Yonge Street leading from York to Lake Simcoe, that unless a dwelling-house shall be built on every lot under certificate of location, and the same occupied within one year from the date of their respective assignments, such lots will be forfeited on the said Roads. D. W. Smith, Acting Surveyor General." § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 415 All the conditions required to be fulfilled by the first settlers were these : " They must within the term of two years, clear fit for cultivation and fence, ten acres of the lot obtained ; build a house 16 by 20 feet of logs or frame, with a shingle roof; also cut down all the timber in front of and the whole width of the lot (which is 20 chains, 133 feet wide), 33 feet of which must be cleared smooth and left for half of the public road." To issue injunctions for the performance of such work was easy. To do such work, or to get such work effectually done, was, under the circumstances of the times, difficult. Hence Yonge Street continued for some years after 1794 to be little more than a rambling forest wheel-track through the woods. In 1794, as we have before heard, Mr. William Berczy, brought over from the Pulteney Settlement, on the south side of Lake Ontario, sixty German families, and conducted them to the town- ship of Markham, north-east of York, where lands had been assigned them. In effecting this first lodgement of a considerable body of colonists in a region entirely new, Mr. Berczy necessarily cut out by the aid of his party, and such other help as he could obtain, some kind of track through the forest, along the line of Yonge- Street. He had already once before successfully accomplished a similar work. He had, we are told, hewn out a waggon road for emigrants through trackless woods all the way from Philadelphia to the Genesee country, where the Pulteney Settlement was. In 1795, Mr. Augustus Jones, a Deputy Provincial Surveyor, who figures largely in the earliest annals of Upper Canada, was directed by the Lieutenant Governor to survey and open in a more effective manner the route which Mr. Berczy and his emigrants had travelled. A detachment of the Queen's Rangers was at the same time ordered to assist. On the 24th December, 1795, Mr- Jones writes to D. W. Smith, Acting Surveyor General : — " His Excellency was pleased to direct me, previous to my surveying the township of York, to proceed on Yonge Street, to survey and open a cart-road from the harbour at York to Lake Simcoe, which I am now busy at (/. e. I am busily engaged in the preparations for this work.) Mr. Pearse is to be with me in a few days' time with a detachment of about thirty of the Queen's Rangers, who are to assist in opening the said road." Then in his Note-book and Journal for the new year 1796, he records the commencement of the survey, thus : — " Monday, 4th 416 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. (January, 1796). Survey of Yonge Street. Begun at a Post near the Lake, York Harbour, on Bank, between Nos. 20 and 21, the course being Mile No. 1, N. 16 degrees W., eighty chains, from Black Oak Tree to Maple Tree on the right side, along the said Yonge Street : at eighteen chains, fifty links, small creek ; at twenty-eight chains, small creek ; course the same at thirty-two eighty : here First Concession. At , N. 35 W. to 40-50, At 39-50 swamp and creek, 10 links across, runs to the right : then N. 2 E., to 43 chains in the line. At 60-25, small creek runs to right ; swampy to 73 ; N. 29 W. to 77, swamp on right. Then N. to 80 on line. Timber chiefly white and black oak to 60, and in many places windfalls thereon : maple, elm, beech, and a few oaks, black ash ; loose soil. Mile No. 2 do. 80 chains ; rising Pine Ridge to 9 on top," &c, and so on day by day, until Tuesday, February 16th, when the party reached the Landing. For Mile No. ^ we have the entry. " Course do. (N. 9 W.) 80 chains ; descended ; at 10 chains, small creek; cross aforesaid small creek j at 30, several cedars to 35-50 j at 33, creek about 30 links across, runs to left ; at 80 chains, hemlock tree on the right bank small creek ; hemlock, pine, a few oak ; broken soil. At Mile 34, do., 53 chains to Pine tree marked at Landing; timber, yellow and white Pines ; sandy soil ; slight winds from the north ; cloudy, cold weather." The survey and opening of the Street from York bay to the Landing thus occupied forty-three days (January 4, to February 16). Three days sufficed for the return of the party to the place of begin- ning. The memoranda of these three days, and the following one, when Mr. Jones presented himself before the Governor, in the Garrison at York, run thus : "Wednesday, 17th, returned back to a small Lake at the twenty-first mile tree ; pleasant weather, light winds from the west. Thurday, 18th, came down to five mile tree from York ; pleasant weather. Friday, 19th, came to the town of York ; busy entering some of my field notes ; weather as before. Saturday, 20th, went to Garrison, York, and waited on His Excel- lency the Governor, and informed him that Yonge Street is opened from York to the Pine Fort Landing, Lake Simcoe. As there is no provision to be had at the place," Mr. Jones proceeds, " His Excellency was pleased to say that I must return to Newark, and report to the Surveyor General, and return with him in April next, §25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 417 when the Executive will sit, and that my attendance would be wanted. Pleasant weather, light winds from the west." The entry on the following Monday is this : " The hands busy at repairing (caulking) the boat to return to Burlington Bay, and thence to Newark ; light winds from south, a few clouds. Tuesday, 23rd, high winds from the south-west hinder going on the Lake. Wednesday, 24th, high winds from the south drove a great quantity of ice into the harbour ; obliged me to leave the boat and set out by land ; went to the Etobicoke. Thursday, 25th, came along the Lake to the 16 mile creek ; winds left from south, thaw. Friday, 26th, came down to my house, Long Beach ; calm, thaw," &c. Then on Tuesday, the 1st of March, 1876, the entry is : "Came down to 12-mile creek j lame in my feet ; high winds from N. W., frosty night. Wednesday, 2nd, came down to Newark j some snow, calm, frosty weather. Thursday, 3rd, busy entering some field notes ; some snow, calm weather. Friday, 4th, busy protracting Yonge Street j cold weather, high winds from N. W." Finally, on Monday, 7th March (1796), we have the entry : " Busy copying of Yonge Street ; high winds from the north, cold, snow fell last night about six inches." Some romance attaches to the history of Mr. Augustus Jones. We have his marriage mentioned in a Gazette of 1798, in the fol- lowing terms : " May 21, Married, at the Grand River, about three weeks since, A. Jones, Esq., Deputy Surveyor, to a young lady of that place, daughter of the noted Mohawk warrior, Terrihogah. ,, — The famous Indian Wesleyan missionary, Peter Jones, called in the Indian tongue Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by, Sacred Waving Feathers, was the issue of this marriage. Peter Jones, in his published autobiography, thus speaks : " I was born at the heights of Burlington Bay, Canada West, on the first day of January. 1802. My father, Augustus Jones," he con- tinues, " was of Welsh extraction. His grandfather emigrated to America previous to the American Revolution, and settled on the Hudson River, State of New York. My father, having finished his studies as a land surveyor in the City of New York, came with a recommendation from Mr. Colden, son of the Governor of that State, to General Simcoe, Governor of Upper Canada, and was immediately employed by him as the King's Deputy Provincial Surveyor, in laying out town plots, townships and roads in dif- ferent parts of the Province. This necessarily brought him in AA 41 8 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. contact with the Indian tribes, and he learned their language and employed many of them in his service. He became much interested in the Indian character — so much so that he resolved to take a wife from amongst them. Accordingly, he married my mother, Tuh-ben-ah-nee-quay, daughter of Wahbanosay, a chief of the Mississaga tribe of the Ojibway nation. I had one brother, older than myself, whose name was Tyenteneget (given to him by the famous Captain Joseph Brant), but better known by the name of John Jones. I had also three younger brothers and five sisters. My father being fully engaged in his work, my elder brother and myself were left entirely to the care and management of our mother, who, preferring the customs and habits of her nation, taught us the superstitions of her fathers — how to gain the approbation of the Munedoos (or gods,) and how to become suc- cessful hunters. I used to blacken my face with charcoal, and fast, in order to obtain the aid of personal gods or familiar spirits, and likewise attended their pagan feasts and dances. For more than fourteen years I lived and wandered about with the Indians in the woods, during which time I witnessed the woful effects of the fire- water which had been introduced amongst us by the white people." There is a discrepancy, it will be observed, between the Gazette and the autobiography, in regard to the name and tribe of the father of Mr. Jones' Indian bride. The error, no doubt, is on the side of the Gazette. It is pleasant to find, in 1826, the now aged surveyor writing in the following strain to his missionary son, in a letter accompanying the gift of a horse, dated Coldsprings, Grand River : " Please to give our true love to John and Christina/' he says, " and all the rest of our friends at the Credit. We expect to meet you and them at the camp meeting. I think a good many of our Indians will come down at that time. I send you Jack, and hope the Lord will preserve both you and your beast. He is quiet and hardy : the only fault I know he stumbles sometimes ; and if you find he does not not suit you as a riding horse, you can change him for some other J but always tell your reasons. May the Lord bless you ! Pray for your unworthy father, Augustus Jones." Augnstus Jones was, as has been already seen, concerned in the very earliest survey of York and the township attached. As we have at hand the instructions issued for this survey, we give them. It will be noticed that the Humber is therein spoken of as the § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 419 Toronto River, and that the early settler or trader St. John is named, from whom the Humber was sometimes called St. John's River. The document likewise throws light on the mode of laying out townships by concessions. On general grounds, therefore, it will not be inappropriate in an account of the early settlement of Yonge Street. " Surveyor-General's Office, Province of Upper Canada, 26th January, 1793. — Description of the Township of York (formerly Toronto), to be surveyed by Messrs. Aitken and Jones. — The front line of the front concession commences adjoining the town- ship of Scarborough, (on No. 10), at a point known and marked by Mr. Jones, running S. 74 W. from said front one chain, for a road ; then five lots of twenty chains each, and one chain for a road ; then five lots more of twenty chains each, and one chain for a road ; and so on till the said line strikes the River Toronto, whereon St. John is settled. The concessions are one hundred chains deep, and one chain between each concession, to the ex- tent of twelve miles." We subjoin a further early notice of Mr. Augustus Jones, which we observe in a letter addressed to him by John Collins, Deputy Surveyor - General, dated " Quebec, Surveyor-General's Office, January 23rd, 1792." Mr. Collins mentions that he has recom- mended Mr. Jones to the notice of Governor Simcoe, who was at the time in Quebec, en route for his new Province in the west. — " Colonel Simcoe, the Governor of your Province," Mr. Collins says, " is now with us. I have taken the liberty to recommend you to him in the manner I think you merit, and I cannot doubt but that you will be continued in your salary." Another early surveyor of note, connected with the primitive history of Yonge Street, was John Stegmann, a German, who had been an officer in a Hessian regiment. He was directed in 1801, by the Surveyor-General, D. W. Smith, to examine and report upon the condition of Yonge Street. The result was a document occu- pying many sheets. We will give some extracts from it. They will furnish a view of the great thoroughfare which we are begin- ning to perambulate, as it appeared a few years after Jones' expe- dition. Though somewhat dryly imparted, the information will probably not be without interest. (The No. 1 referred to is the first lot after crossing the Third Concession Road from the Lake Shore.) "Agreeable to your 420 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. instructions/' Mr. Stegmann says to Mr. Smith, "bearing date June the 10th, [1801], for the examination of Yonge Street, I have the honor to report thereon as follows : That from the town of York to the three mile post on the Poplar Plains the road is cut, and that as yet the greater part of the said distance is not passable for any carriage whatever, on account of logs which lie in the street. From thence to Lot No. 1 on Yonge Street the road is very difficult to pass, at any time, agreeable to the present situation in which the said part of the street is. The situation of the street from No. 1 to Lot 95 on Yonge Street will appear as per margin." "We have then a detail of his notes as to the condition of the road opposite every lot all the way to the northern limit of the townships of King and Whitchurch. Of No. 1 in the township of York, on the west side of Yonge Street, it is reported that the "requisition of Government" is "complied with, except a few logs in the street not burnt." Of Lot 1 on the east side also, that it is complied with, except a "few logs not burnt." — No. 2, west side, complied with; the street cut but not burnt. East side, complied with ; some logs in the street not burnt ; and in some places narrow. No. 3, west side, complied with, except a few logs not burnt ; east side, complied with j the clear- ing not fenced ; no house ; some logs in the street not burnt. No. 5, west side, complied with ; east side, non-compliance. No. 8, west side, complied with ; the street cut, but not burnt. East side, complied with ; the street cut, but logs not burnt ; here the street, it is noted, goes to the eastward of the line on account of the hilly ground. No. 3, west side, complied with in the clearing; the street bad and narrow. East side, non-compliance ; street bad and narrow, and to the east of the road. No. 16, west side, nothing done to the road j about 5 acres cut ; not fenced and no house thereon. East side, complied with. No. 17, west side, complied with ; the underbrush in the street cut but not burnt. — East side, complied with, except logs in the street not burnt. No. 18, west side, well complied with. East side, well complied with. No. 25, west side, complied with. East side, complied with ; — nothing done to the street, and a school-house erected in the cen- tre of the street. This is the end of the township of York. Then on No. 33, west side, Vaughan, clearing is complied with ; no house, and nothing done to the street. East side, Markham> § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 421 clearing is complied with ; south part of the street cut but not burnt; and north part of the street nothing done. No. 37, Vaughan, clearing complied with, but some large trees and some logs left in the street. Markham, some trees and logs left in the streets ; some acres cut, but not burnt ; no fence, and a small log house. No. 55, Vaughan, clearing complied with ; the street cut and logs not burnt. Markham, clearing complied with ; the street cut and logs not burnt ; a very bad place for the road and may be laid out better. No. 63, west side, King, non-compliance. East side, Whitchurch, non-compli- ance ; and similarly on to No. 88, on which, in King, the clear- ing is complied with ; not fenced ; the street good ; in Whitchurch clearing is complied with, and nothing done to the street. No. 93, King, four acres cut, and nothing done to the street. Whitchurch, six acres clear land, and nothing done to the street. Here King and Whitchurch and the Report end. Mr. Stegmann then perorates thus : " Sir, — This was the real situation of Yonge Street when examined by me ; and I am sorry to be under the necessity to add at the conclusion of this report, that the most ancient inhabitants of Yonge Street have been the most neglectful in clearing the street j and I have reason to believe that some trifle with the requisition of Government in respect of clearing the street." Mr. Berczy brought over his sixty-four families in 1794. The most ancient inhabitants were thus of about seven years' standing. If we men of the second generation regarded Yonge Street as a route difficult to travel, what must the first immigrants from the Genesee country and Pennsylvania have found it to be ? They brought with them vehicles and horses and families and some household stuff. " The body of their waggons," we are told in an account of such new-comers in the Gazetteer of 1799, "is made of close boards, and the most clever have the ingenuity to caulk the seams, and so by shifting off the body from the carriage, it serves to transport the wheels and the family." Old settlers round Newmarket used to narrate how in their first journey from York to the Landing they lowered their waggons down the steeps by ropes passed round the stems of saplings, and then hauled them up the ascent on the opposite side in a similar way. We meet with Mr. Stegmann, the author of the above quoted report, in numerous documents relating to surveys and other pro- 422 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. fessional business done for the Surveyor-General. His clear, bold handwriting is always recognizable. His mode of expressing him- self is vigorous and to the point, but slightly affected by his im- perfect mastery of the English language. He gives the following account of himself in his first application to the Surveyor-General, asking for employment. " My name is John Stegmann," he says, "late lieutenant in the Hessian Regiment of Lossberg, com- manded by Major-General de Loos, and served during the whole war in America till the reduction took place in the month of August, 1783, and by the favour and indulgence of His Excellency, Lord Dorchester, I obtained land in this new settlement and township of Osnabruck, and an appointment as Surveyor in the Province; I have a wife and small family to provide for." — Descendants of his are still to be found in the neighbourhood of Pine Grove in Vaughan. Their name is now Anglicised by the omission of one of the final n's. The rivulet at the Blue Hill was spoken of, in 1799, as "Castle Frank Creek." It is the stream which runs through the Castle Frank lot. Mr. Stegmann was concerned in the building of the first bridge at this point. We have a letter of his to the Acting Surveyor-General, D. W. Smith, referring to timber, which he has provided for the structure. In the same he also takes occasion to mention that the fatigue party of soldiers who were assisting Mr. Jones in the opening of Yonge Street, had as yet received no compensation. He says : " Sir, — You were pleased to order me to inform you what time I should want a team for to get the timber for the bridge at Castle Frank Creek, for which I am ready, whenever you please to send the same." He then adds: "The party of Rangers now on this road begged of me to inform you that they have not received any pay for the work since they have been out with Mr. Jones." This note is dated, " Castle Frank Creek, Feb. 27, 1799." On the 4th of the following March, he dates a note to Mr. D. W. Smith in the same way, " Castle Frank Creek," and asks to have a " bush-sextant " supplied to him. He says : " Sir, — I beg you will have the goodness to send me by the bearer a Bush-sextan t r and am, sir, your most obedient and very humble servant, John Stegmann, Deputy-Surveyor/' (According to some, the Blue Hill had its name from the circumstance that the bridge at its foot was painted blue). The names of other early surveyors may be learned from the § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 423 following notice, taken from a Gazette: "Surveyor-General's Office, York, 25th April, 1805. That it may be known who are authorized to survey lands on the part of the Crown within this Province, the following list is communicated to the public of such persons as are duly licensed for that purpose, to be surveyors therein, viz., William Chewett, York j Thomas Smith, Sandwich ; Abraham Iredell, Thomas Welch, Augustus Jones, William For- tune, Lewis Grant, Richard Cockrell, Henry Smith, John Rider, Aaron Greeley, Thomas Fraser, Reuben Sherwood, Joseph For- tune, Solomon Stevens, Samuel S. Wilmot, Samuel Ryckman, Mahlon Burwell, Adrian Marlet, Samuel Ridout, George Lawe. (Signed), C. B. Wyatt, Surveyor-General. ,, Of Mr. Berczy, above spoken of, we shall soon have to give fur- ther particulars. We must now push on. Just beyond the Blue Hill ravine, on the west side, stood for a long while a lonely unfinished frame building, with gable towards the street, and windows boarded up. The inquiring stage-passen- ger would be told, good-humouredly, by the driver, that it was Rowland Burr's Folly. It was, we believe, to have been a Carding or Fulling Mill, worked by peculiar machinery driven by the stream in the valley below ; but either the impracticability of this from the position of the building, or the as yet insignificant quan- tity of wool produced in the country made the enterprise abortive. Mr. Burr was an emigrant to these parts from Pennsylvania in 1803, and from early manhood was strongly marked by many of the traits which are held to be characteristic of the speculative and energetic American. Unfortunately in some respects for himself, he was in advance of his neighbours in a clear perception of the capabilities of things as seen in the rough, and in a strong desire to initiate works of public utility, broaching schemes occasionally beyond the natural powers of a community in its veriest infancy. A canal to connect Lake Ontario with the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, via Lake Simcoe and the valley of the Humber, was pressed by him as an immediate necessity, years ago ; and at his own expense he minutely examined the route and published thereon a report which has furnished to later theorizers on the same subject much valuable information. Mr. Burr was a born engineer and mechanician, and at a more auspicious time, with proper opportunities for training and culture, he would probably have become famed as a local George Ste- 424 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. phenson. He built on his own account, or for others, a number of mills and factories, providing and getting into working order the complicated mechanism required for each ; and this at a time when such undertakings were not easy to accomplish, from the unimproved condition of the country and the few facilities that existed for importing and transporting inland, heavy machinery. The mills and factories at Burwick in Vaughan originated with him, and from him that place takes its name. The early tramway on Yonge Street of which we have already spoken was suggested by Mr. Burr ; and when the cutting down of the Blue Hill was decided on, he undertook and effected the work. It is now some forty years since the peculiar clay of the Blue Hill began to be turned to useful account. In or near the brick- fields, which at the present time are still to be seen on the left, Messrs. James and William Townsley burnt kilns of white brick, a manufacture afterwards carried on here by Mr. Nightingale, a family connection of the Messrs. Townsley. Mr. Worthington also for a time engaged on the same spot in the manufacture of pressed brick and drain tiles. The Rossin House Hotel, in To- ronto, and the Yorkville Town Hall were built of pressed brick made here. Chestnut Park, which we pass on the right, the residence now of Mr. McPherson, is a comparatively modern erection, put up by Mr. Mathers, an early merchant of York, who, before building here, lived on Queen Street, near the Meadows, the residence of Mr. J. Hillyard Cameron. Oaklands, Mr. John McDonald's residence, of which a short distance back we obtained a passing glimpse far to the west, and Rathnally, Mr. McMaster's palatial abode, beyond, are both modern structures, put up by their re- spective occupants. Woodlawn, still on the left, the present resi- dence of Mr. Justice Morrison, was previously the home of Mr. Chancellor Blake, and was built by him. Summer Hill, seen on the high land far to the right, and com- manding a noble view of the wide plain below, including Toronto with its spires and the lake view along the horizon, was originally built by Mr. Charles Thomson, whose name is associated with the former travel and postal service of the whole length of Yonge Street and the Upper Lakes. In Mr. Thompson's time, how- ever, Summer Hill was by no means the extensive and handsome § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 425 place into which it has developed since becoming the property and the abode of Mr. Larratt Smith. The primitive waggon track of Yonge Street ascended the hill at which we now arrive, a little to the west of the present line of road. It passed up through a narrow excavated notch. Across this depression or trench a forest tree fell without being broken, and there long remained. Teams, in their way to and from town, had to pass underneath it like captured armies of old under the yoke. To some among the country folk it suggested the beam of the gallows-tree. Hence sprang an ill-omened name long attached to this particular spot. Near here, at the top of the hill, were formerly to be seen, as we have understood, the remains of a rude windlass or capstan, used in the hauling up of the North-West Company's boats at this point of the long portage from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron. So early as 1799 we nave ** announced that the North-West Company intended to make use of this route. In the Niagara Constellation, of August, 3, 1799, we read : "We are informed on good authority that the North- West Company have it seriously in contemplation to establish a communication with the Upper Lakes by way of York, through Yonge Street to Lake Simcoe, a distance of about 33 miles only.'' The Constellation embraces the occasion to say also, " That the government has actually begun to open that street for several miles, which example will undoubt- edly be no small inducement to persons who possess property on that street and its vicinity to exert themselves in opening and com- pleting what may be justly considered one of the primary objects of attention in a new country, a good road." The Gazette of March 9, in this year (1799) had contained an announcement that " The North-West Company has given twelve thousand pounds towards making Yonge Street a good road, and that the North-West commerce will be communicated through this place (York) : an event which must inevitably benefit this coun- try materially, as it will not only tend to augment the population, but will also enhance the present value of landed property." Bouchette, writing in 181 5, speaks of improvements on Yonge Street, " of late effected by the North-West Company." " This route," he says in his Topographical description, " being of much more importance, has of late been greatly improved by the North- West Company for the double purpose of shortening the distance 426 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. to the Upper Lakes, and avoiding any contact with the American frontiers." As stated already in another connection, we have conversed with those who had seen the cavalcade of the North-West Company's boats, mounted on wheels, on their way up Yonge Street. It used to be supposed by some that the tree across the notch through which the road passed had been purposely felled in that position as a part of the apparatus for helping the boats up the hill. The table-land now attained was long known as the Poplar Plains. Stegmann uses the expression in his Report. A pretty rural by- road that ascends this same rise near Rathnally, Mr. McMaster's house, is still known as the Poplar Plains road. A house, rather noticeable, to the left but lying slightly back, and somewhat obscured by fine ornamental trees that overshadow it, was the home for many years of Mr. J. S. Howard, sometime Post- master of York, and afterwards Treasurer of the counties of York and Peel : an estimable man, and an active promoter of all local works of benevolence. He died in Toronto in 1866, aged 68. This house used to be known as Olive Grove ; and was originally built by Mr. Campbell, proprietor and manager of the Ontario House Hotel, in York, once before referred to ; eminent in the Masonic body, and father of Mr. Stedman Campbell, a local barrister of note, who died early. Mashquoteh to the left, situated a short distance in, on the north side of the road which enters Yonge Street here, is a colony trans- planted from the neighbouring Spadina, being the home of Mr. W. Warren Baldwin, son of Dr. W. W. Baldwin, the builder of Spadina. "Mashquoteh" is the Ochipway for "meadow." We hear the same sounds in Longfellow's " Mushkoda-sa," which is, by inter- pretation, " prairie-fowl." Deer Park, to the north of the road that enters here, but skirting Yonge Street as well, had that name given it when the property of Mrs. Heath, widow of Col. Heath of the H. E. I. Company's Service. On a part of this property was the house built by Colonel Carthew, once before referred to, and now the abode of Mr. Fisken. Colonel Carthew, a half-pay officer of Cornish origin, also made large improvements on property in the vicinity of Newmarket. Just after Deer Park, to avoid a long ravine which lay in the line of the direct route northward, the road swerved to the left and then descended, passing over an embankment, which was the dam § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 427 of an adjacent sawmill, a fine view of the interior of which, with the saw usually in active motion, was obtained by the traveller as he fared on. This was Michael Whitmore's sawmill. Of late years the apex of the long triangle of Noman's land that for a great while lay desolate between the original and subse- quent lines of Yonge Street, has been happily utilized by the erection thereon of a Church, Christ Church, an object well seen in the ascent and descent of the street. Anciently, very near the site of Christ Church, a solitary longish wooden building, fronting southward, was conspicuous ; the abode of Mr. Hudson, a pro- vincial land surveyor of mark. Looking back southward from near the front of this house, a fine distant glimpse of the waters of Lake Ontario used to be obtained, closing the vista made in the forest by Yonge Street. Before reaching Whitmore's sawmill, while passing along the brow of the hill overlooking the ravine, which was avoided by the street as it ran in the first instance, there was to be seen at a little distance to the right, on some rough undulating ground, a house which always attracted the eye by its affectation of " Gothic " in the outline of its windows. On the side towards the public road it showed several obtuse-headed lancet lights. This peculiarity gave the building, otherwise ordinary enough, a slightly romantic air j it had the effect, in fact, at a later period, of creating for this habitation, when standing for a considerable while tenantless, the reputation of being haunted. This house and the surrounding grounds constituted Springfield Park, the original Upper Canadian home of Mr. John Mills Jackson, an English gentleman, formerly of Downton in Wiltshire, who< emigrated hither prior to 1806 ; but finding public affairs managed in a way which he deemed not satisfactory, he returned to England, where he published a pamphlet addressed to the King, Lords and Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, entitled, " A View of the Political Situation of the Province," a brochure that made a stir in Upper Canada, if not in England, the local House of Assembly voting it a libel. Our Upper Canadian Parliament partially acquired the habit of decreeing reflections on the local government to be libels. Society in its infancy is apt to resent criticism, even when legitimate. Witness the United States and Mrs. Trollope. At the same time critics of infant society should be themselves sufficiently large- 428 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. minded not to expect in infant society the perfection of society well developed, and to word their strictures accordingly. In the preface to his pamphlet, which is a well-written production, Mr. Jackson gives the following account of his first connection with Canada and his early experience there : — " Having by right of inheritance," he says, " a claim to a large and very valuable tract of land in the Province of Quebec, I was induced to visit Lower Canada for the purpose of investigating my title ; and being desirous to view the immense lakes and falls in Upper Canada, where I had purchased some lands previous to my leaving England, I extended my travels to that country, with which I was so much pleased, that I resolved to settle on one of my estates, and expended a considerable sum on its improvement (the allusion is probably to Springfield Park) j but considering neither my person nor property secure under the system pursued there, I have been obliged to relinquish the hope of its enjoyment." The concluding sentences of his appeal will give an idea of the burden of his complaint. To his mind the colony was being governed exactly in the way that leads finally to revolt in colonies. The principles of the constitution guaranteed by the mother country were violated. One of his grievances was — not that a seventh of the public land had been set apart for an established Church, but — that "in seventeen years not one acre had been turned to any beneficial account ; not a clergyman, except such as England pays or the Missionary Society sends (only five in number), without glebe, perquisite or parsonage house; and still fewer churches than ministers of the established religion." He concludes thus : " I call upon you to examine the Journals of the House of Assembly and Legislative Council ; to look at the distribution and use made of the Crown Lands ; the despatches from the Lieutenant-Governor [Gore] ; the memorials from the Provincial Secretary, Receiver-General and Surveyor-General ; the remonstrances of the Six Nations of Indians ; and the letters from Mr. Thorpe [Judge Thorpe], myself and others, on the state of the Colony, either to the Lords of the Treasury or to the Secretary of State. Summon and examine all the evidence that can be procured here (England), and, if more should appear necessary, send a commission to ascertain the real state of the Province. Then you will be confirmed in the truth of every representation I have made, and much more which, for the safety of individuals, I am con- § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 429 strained to withhold. Then you will be enabled to relieve England from a great burden, render the Colony truly valuable to the mother country, and save one of the most luxuriant ramifications of the Empire. You will perform the promise of the crown \ you will establish the law and liberty directed by the (British) Parliament ; and diffuse the Gospel of Christ to the utmost extremity of the West. You will do that which is honourable to the nation, beneficial to the most deserving subjects, and lovely in the sight of God." This pamphlet is of interest as an early link (its date is 1 809) in the catena of protests on the subject of Canadian affairs, from Whiggish and other quarters, culminating at last in Lord Durham's Report. Nevertheless, what the old French trader said of Africa — "Toujoursen maudissant ce vilain pays, on y reviens tou jours " — proved true in respect to Canada in the case of Mr Jackson, as in the case likewise of several other severe critics of Canadian public affairs in later times. He returned and dwelt in the land after all, settling with his family on Lake Simcoe, where Jackson's Point and Jackson's Landing retain his name, and where descendants of his still remain. Mr. Jackson had possessions likewise in the West Indies, and made frequent visits thither, as also to England, where at length he died in 1836. Up to about that date, we observe his name in the Commission of the Peace. In the Loyalist of May 24, 1828, a Biblical work by Mr. Jackson is advertised for sale at York. Thus runs the notice: — "Just received from England, and for sale at the book stores of Messrs. Meighan and Lesslie & Sons, York, a few volumes of ' The History from the Creation of the World to the death of Joshua, authenti- cated from the best authorities, with Notes, Critical, Philosophical, Moral and Explanatory : by John Mills Jackson, Esq., formerly Gentleman Commoner of Ball. Coll. in the University of Oxford/ " (Then follow laudatory notices of the work from private sources.) Fifty years ago, in Canada, English families, whose habits and ideas were more in harmony with Bond Street than with the back- woods, had, in becoming morally acclimatised to the country, a tremendous ordeal to pass through : how they contrived to endure the pains and perils of the process is now matter of wonder. One of Mr. Jackson's sons, Clifton, is locally remembered as an early example in these parts of the exquisite of the period — the era 430 Toronto oj Old. [§ 25. of the Prince Regent and Lord Byron. By extra-sacrificing to the Graces, at a time when articles de cosmeiique et de luxe generally were scarce and costly in Canada, he got himself into trouble. — In 1822 he had occasion to make his escape from " durance vile " in York, by opening a passage, one quiet Sunday morning, through the roof of the old jail. He was speedily pursued by Mr. Parker, the warden, and an associate, Mr. Garsides ; overtaken at Albany, in the State of New York ; apprehended under a feigned charge ; and brought back to York. Among the inhabitants of some of the villages between Albany and Youngstown, a suspicion arose that a case of kidnapping was in progress, and Messrs. Parker and Garsides were exposed to risk of personal violence before they could reach the western bank of the Niagara river, with their prey. By a happy turn of affairs, a few years later, Mr. Clifton Jackson obtained a situation in the Home Colonial Office, with a good salary. To distinguish Mr. Mills Jackson from another proprietor on Yonge Street, also called Jackson, the alliterative epithet, " Jacobin," was sometimes applied to him, in jocose allusion to his political principles, held by the official party to be revolutionary. In regard to the other Jackson, some such epithet as " Jacobin " would not have been inapplicable. On the invasion of Canada in 181 2 by the United States, he openly avowed his sympathy with the invaders, and was obliged to fly the country. He was known and distinguished as " Hatter Jackson," from the business which he once followed. After the war he returned, and endeavoured, but in vain, to recover possession of the land on Yonge Street which he had temporarily occupied. In the Gazette of Nov. 11, 1807, we have Mr. Jackson's adver- tisement. Almost anticipating the modern " Hats that are Hats," it is headed " Warranted Hats," and then proceeds : " The sub- scriber, having established a hat manufactory in the vicinity of York on a respectable scale, solicits the patronage and support of the public. All orders will be punctually attended to, and a general assortment of warranted hats be continually kept at the store of Mr. Thomas Hamilton, in York. Samuel Jackson. Yonge Street, Nov. 10, 1807." An earlier owner of the lot, at which we are now pausing, was Stillwell Wilson. In 1 799, at the annual York Township meeting, held on the 4th March in that year at York, we find Stillwell § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 431 Wilson elected one of the Overseers of Highways and Fence- viewers for the portion of Yonge Street from lot 26 to lot 40, in Markham and Vaughan. At the same meeting, Paul Wilcot is elected to the same office, " from Big Creek to No. 25, inclusive, and half Big Creek Bridge ; and Daniel Dehart, from Big Creek to No. 1, inclusive, and half Big Creek Bridge." " The Big Creek " referred to was, as we suppose, the Don at Hogg's Hollow. In 182 1, Stillwell Wilson is landlord of the Waterloo House, in York, and is offering to let that stand ; also to let or sell other valuable properties. In the Gazette of March 25, 1820, we have his advertisement : — " For sale or to let, four improved farms on Yonge Street, composed of lots Nos. 20 and 30 on the west side, and 15 and 20 on the east side of the street, in the townships of York and Vaughan. These lands are so well known that they require no further encomiums than the virtues they possess. For title of which please apply to the subscriber at Waterloo House, York, the proprietor of said lands. P. S. — The noted stand known by the name of the Waterloo House, which the subscriber at present possesses, is also offered to be let on easy terms ; as also an excellent Sawmill, in the third concession of the township of York, east of Yonge Street, only ten miles from town, on the west branch of the river Don. Stillwell Wilson." In 1828, for moneys due apparently to Jairus Ashley, some of Stillwell's property has been seized. Under the editorial head of the Loyalist of December 27th of that year, we find the following item : — " Sheriff's Sale. — At the Court House, in the Town of York, on Saturday, 31st January next, will be sold, Lot No. 30, in the first Concession of the Township of Vaughan, taken in execu- tion as belonging to Stillwell Wilson, at the suit of Jairus Ashley. Sale to commence at 12 o'clock noon." In our chapter on the Early Marine of York, we shall meet with Stillwell Wilson again. We shall then find him in command of a slip-keel schooner plying on the Lake between York and Niagara. The present owner of his lot, which, as we have seen, was also once Mr. Jackson's — Mr. Jacobin Jackson's, is Mr. Cawthra. (Note the tendency to distinguish between individuals bearing the name of Jackson by an epithet prefixed. A professional pugilist patro- nized by Lord Byron was commonly spoken of as " Gentleman Jackson.") As we reach again the higher land, after crossing the dam of 432 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. Whitmore's mill, and returning into the more direct line of the street, some rude pottery works met the eye. Here in the midst of woods, the passer-by usually saw on one side of the road, a one horse clay- grinding machine, laboriously in operation j and on the other, displayed in the open air on boards supported by wooden pins driven into the great logs composing the wall of the low windowless building, numerous articles of coarse brown ware, partially glazed, pans, crocks, jars, jugs, demijohns, and so forth ; all which primi- tive products of the plastic art were ever pleasant to contemplate. These works were carried on by Mr. John Walmsley. A tract of rough country was now reached, difficult to clear and difficult to traverse with a vehicle. Here a genuine corduroy causeway was encountered, a long series of small saw-logs laid side by side, over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season, portions of it, being afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load ; and occasionally a horse's leg would be entrapped, and possibly snapped short by the sudden yielding or revolution of one of the cylinders below. We happen to have a very vivid recollection of the scene pre- sented along this particular section of Yonge Street, when the woods, heavy pine chiefly, after having been felled in a most con- fused manner, were being consumed by fire, or rather while the effort was being made to consume them. The whole space from near Mr. Walmsley's potteries to the rise beyond which Eglinton is situated, was, and continued long, a chaos of blackened timber, most dismaying to behold. , To the right of this tract was one of the Church glebes so curiously reserved in every township in the original laying out of Upper Canada — one lot of two hundred acres in every seven of the same area — in accordance with a public policy which at the present time seems sufficiently Utopian. Of the arrangement alluded to, now broken up, but expected when the Quebec Act passed in 1780 to be permanent, a relic remained down to a late date in the shape of a wayside inn, on the right near here, styled on its sign the " Glebe Inn" — a title and sign reminding one of the " Church Stiles " and " Church Gates " not uncommon as village ale-house designations in some parts of England. Hitherto the general direction of Yonge Street has been north, sixteen degrees west. At the point where it passes the road mark- ing the northern limit of the third concession from the bay, it § 25.] Yonge St. ; from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 433 swerves seven degrees to the eastward. In the first survey of this region there occurred here a jog or fault in the lines. The portion of the street proposed to be opened north failed, by a few rods, to connect in a continuous right line with the portion of it that led southward into York. The irregularity was afterwards corrected by slicing off a long narrow angular piece from three lots on the east side, and adding the like quantity of land to the opposite lot — it happening just here that the lots on the east side lie east and west, while those on the west side lie north and south. After the third concession, the lots along the street lie uniformly east and west. With young persons in general perhaps, at York in the olden time, who ever gave the cardinal points a thought, the notion pre- vailed that Yonge Street was " north." We well remember our own slight perplexity when we first distinctly took notice that the polar star, the dipper, and the focus usually of the northern lights, all seemed to be east of Yonge Street. That an impression existed in the popular mind at a late period to the effect that Yonge Street was north, was shown when the pointers indicating east, west, north and south came to be affixed to the apex of a spire on Gould Street. On that occasion several compasses had to be successively taken up and tried before the workmen could be convinced that " north " was so far " east M as the needle of each instrument would persist in asserting. The first possessor of the lot on the west side, slightly augmented in the manner just spoken of, was the Baron de Hoen, an officer in one of the German regiments disbanded after the United States Revolutionary War. His name is also inscribed in the early maps on the adjacent lot to the north, known as No. 1 in the township of York, west side. At the time of the capture of York in 18 13, Baron de Hoen's house, on lot No. 1, proved a temporary refuge to some ladies and others, as we learn from a manuscript narrative taken down from the lips of the late venerable Mrs. Breakenridge by her daughter, Mrs. Murney. That record well recalls the period and the scene. " The ladies settled to go out to Baron de Hoen's farm," the narra- tive says. " He was a great friend," it then explains, " of the Baldwin family, whose real jname was Von Hoen ; and he had come out about the same time as Mr. St. George, and had been in the British army. He had at this time a farm about four miles up BB 434 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. Yonge Street, and on a lot called No. 1. Yonge Street was then a corduroy road immediately after leaving King Street, and passing through a dense forest. Miss Russell, (sister of the late President Russell) loaded her phaeton with all sorts of necessaries, so that the whole party had to walk. My poor old grandfather (Mr. Bald- win, the father of Mrs. Breakenridge) by long persuasion at length consented to give up fighting, and accompany the ladies. Aunt Baldwin (Mrs. Dr. Baldwin) and her four sons, Major Fuller, who was an invalid under Dr. Baldwin's care, Miss Russell, Miss Willcox, and the whole cavalcade sallied forth : the youngest boy St. George, a mere baby, my mother (Mrs. Breakenridge) carried on her back nearly the whole way. " When they had reached about half way out," the narrative proceeds, " they heard a most frightful concussion, and all sat down on logs and stumps, frightened terribly. They learned afterwards that this terrific sound was occasioned by the blowing up of the magazine of York garrison, when five hundred Americans were killed, and at which time my uncle, Dr. Baldwin, was dressing a soldier's wounds j he was conscious of a strange sensation : it was too great to be called a sound, and he found a shower of stones falling all around him, but he was quite unhurt. The family at length reached Baron de Hoen's log house, consisting of two rooms, one above and one below. After three days Miss Russell and my mother walked into town, just in time to prevent Miss Russell's house from being ransacked by the soldiers. " All now returned to their homes and occupations," the narra- tive goes on to say, "except Dr. Baldwin, who continued dressing wounds and acting as surgeon, until the arrival of Dr. Hackett, the surgeon of the 8th Regiment. Dr. Baldwin said it was most touching to see the joy of the poor wounded fellows when told that their own doctor was coming back to them." It is then added : u My mother (Mrs. Breakenridge) saw the poor 8th Grenadiers come into town on the Saturday, and in church on Sunday, with the handsome Captain McNeil at their head, and the next day they were cut to pieces to a man. My father (Mr. Breakenridge) was a student at law with Dr. Baldwin, who had been practising law after giving up medicine as a profession, and had been in his office about three months, when he went off like all the rest to the battle of York." The narrative then gives the further particulars : " The Baldwin § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 435 family all lived with Miss Russell after this, as she did not like being left alone. When the Americans made their second attack about a month after the first, the gentlemen all concealed them- selves, fearing to be taken prisoners like those at Niagara. The ladies received the American officers : some of these were very- agreeable men, and were entertained hospitably j two of them were at Miss Russell's j one of them was a Mr. Brookes, brother- in-law of Archdeacon Stuart, then of York, afterwards of Kingston. General Sheaffe had gone off some time before, taking every surgeon with him. On this account Dr. Baldwin was forced, out of humanity, to work at his old profession again, and take care of the wounded." Lot No. 1 was afterwards the property of an English gentleman, Mr. Harvey Price, a member of our Provincial Government, as Commissioner of Crown Lands, whose conspicuous residence, castellated in character, and approached by a broad avenue of trees, was a little further on. In 1820, No. 1 was being offered for sale in the following terms, in the Gazette of March 25th : "That well known farm No. 1, west side of Yonge Street, belonging to Captain de Hoen, about four or five miles from York, 210 acres. The land is of excellent quality, well- wooded, with about forty acres cleared, a never failing spring of excellent water, barn and farm house. Application to be made to the subscriber at York. — W. W. Baldwin." Baron de Hoen was second to Mr. Attorney-General White, killed in the duel with Mr. Small in 1800 (January 3rd). In the contemporary account of that incident in the Niagara Constellation, the name is phonetically spelt De Hayne. In the above quoted MS. the name appears as de Haine. In our progress northward we now traverse ground which, as having been the scene of a skirmish and some bloodshed during the troubles of 1837, has become locally historic. The events alluded to have been described from different points of view at sufficient length in books within reach of every one. We throw over them here the mantle of charity, simply glancing at them and passing on. Upper Canada, in miniature and in the space of half a century, curiously passed through conditions and processes, physical and social, which old countries on a large scale, and in the course of long ages, passed through. Upper Canada had, in little, its pri- maeval and barbaric but heroic era, its mediaeval and high-prero- 436 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. gative era, and then, after a revolutionary period of a few weeks, its modern, defeudalized, democratic era. Without doubt the intro- duction here in 1792 of an " exact transcript " of the contemporary constitution of the mother country, as was the boast at the time, involved the introduction here also of some of the spirit which animated the official administrators of that constitution in the mother country itself at the period — the time of the Third George. We certainly find from an early date, as we have already seen, a succession of intelligent, observant men, either casual visitors to the country, or else intending settlers, and actual settlers, openly expressing dissatisfaction at some of the things which they noted, experienced or learned, in respect of the management of Cana- dian public affairs. These persons for the most part were them- selves perhaps only recently become alive to the changes which were inevitable in the governmental principles of the mother coun- try ; and so were peculiarly sensitive, and even, it may be, petu- lant in regard to such matters. But, however well-meaning and advanced in political wisdom they may have been, they neverthe- less, as we have before intimated, exhibited narrowness of view themselves, and some ignorance of mankind, in expecting to find in a remote colonial out-station of the empire a state of things better than that which at the moment existed at the heart of the empire ; and in imagining that strictures on their part, especially when acrimonious, would, under the circumstances, be amiably and submissively received by the local authorities. The early rulers of Canada, Upper and Lower, along with the members of their little courts, were not to be lightly censured. — They were but copying the example of their royal Chief and his circle at Kew, Windsor, or St. James'. Of the Third George Thackeray says : " He did his best ; he worked according to his lights ; what virtue he knew he tried to practice ; what knowledge he could master he strove to acquire." And so did they. The same fixity of idea in regard to the inherent dignity and power of the Crown that characterized him characterized them, together with a like sterling uprightness which commanded respect even when a line of action was adopted that seemed to tend, and did in reality tend, to a popular outbreak. All men, however, now acquiesce in the final issue. The social turmoil which for a series of years agitated Canada, from whatever cause arising ; the explosion which at length took place, by what- § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 437 ever instrumentality brought on, cleared the political atmosphere of the country, and hastened the good time of general contentment and prosperity which Canadians of the present day are enjoying. — After all, the explosion was not a very tremendous one. Both sides, after the event, have been tempted to exaggerate the cir- cumstances of it a little, for effect. The recollections which come back to us as we proceed on our way, are for the most part of a date anterior to those associated with 1837 j although some of the latter date will of course occa- sionally recur. The great conspicuous way-side inn, usually called Montgomery's was, at the time of its destruction by the Government forces in 1837, in the occupation of a landlord named Lingfoot. The house of Montgomery, from whom the inn took its name, he having been a former occupant, was on a farm owned by himself, beautifully situated on rising ground to the left, subsequently the property and place of abode of Mr. James Lesslie, of whom already. Mr. Montgomery had once had a hotel in York, named " The Bird in Hand," on Yonge Street, a little to the north of Elliott's. We have this inn named in an advertisement to be seen in the Canadian Freema?i of April 17, 1828, having reference to the " Farmer's Store Company." " A general meeting of the Far- mer's Storehouse Company," says the advertisement, "will be held on the 22nd of March next, at 10 o'clock, a.m., at John Montgomery's tavern, on Yonge Street, 'The Bird in Hand.' — The farmers are hereby also informed that the storehouse is pro- perly repaired for the accommodation of storage, and that every possible attention shall be paid to those who shall store produce therein. John Goessmann, clerk;" The Farmer's Store was at the foot of Nelson Street. Mr. Goess- mann was a well-known Deputy Provincial Surveyor, of Hanoverian origin. In an address published in the Weekly Register of July 15, 1824, on the occasion of his retiring from a contest for a seat in the House as representative for the counties of York and Simcoe, Mr. Goessmann alluded as follows to his nationality : " I may pro- perly say," he observed, " that I was a born British subject before a great number of you did even draw breath ; and have certainly borne more oppressions during the late French war than any child of this country, that never peeped beyond the boundary even of this continent, where only a small twig of that all-crushing war 438 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. struck. Our sovereign has not always been powerful enough to defend all his dominions. We, the Hanoverians, have been left the greater part during that contest, to our own fate ; we have been crushed to yield our privileges to the subjection of Bonaparte, his greatest antagonist," &c. Eglinton, through which, at the present day, Yonge Street passes hereabout, is a curious stray memorial of the Tournament in Ayr- shire, which made a noise in 1839. The passages of arms on the farther side of the Atlantic that occasionally suggest names for Canadian villages, are not always of so peaceful a character as that in the Earl of Eglin ton's grounds in 1839 ; although it is a matter of some interest now to remember that even in that a Louis Napo- leon figured, who at a later period was engaged in jousts of a rather serious kind, promoted by himself. About Eglinton the name of Snider is notable as that of a Uni- ted Empire Loyalist family seated here, of German descent. Mr. Martin Snider, father of Jacob and Elias Snider and other brothers and sisters, emigrated hither at an early period from Nova Scotia, where he first took up his abode for a time after the revolution. — Among the names of those who volunteered to accompany General Brock to Detroit in 18 13, we observe that of Mr. Jacob Snider. In later years, a member of the same family is sheriff for the County of Grey, and repeatedly a representative in Parliament of the same county. The Anglicised form of the German name Schneider, like the Anglicised form of a number of other non-English names occur- ring among us, illustrates and represents the working of our Cana- dian social system ; the practical effect of our institutions, educa- tional and municipal. Our mingled population, when permitted to develop itself fairly ; when not crushed, or sought to be crushed into narrow alien moulds invented by non-Teutonic men in the pre-prin ting-press, feudal era, becomes gradually — if not English — at all events Anglo-Canadian, a people of a distinct type on this continent, acknowledged by the grand old mother of nations, — Alma Britannia herself, as eminently of kin. We have specially in mind a group from the neighbourhood of Eglinton, genuine sons of our composite Canadian people, Sniders, Mitchells, Jackeses, who, now some years ago, were to be seen twice every day at all seasons, traversing the distance between Eglinton and Toronto, rising early and late taking rest, in order to § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 439 oe punctually present at, and carefully ready for, class-room or lecture room in town j and this process persevered in for the length- ened period required for a succession of curriculums ; with results finally, in a conspicuous degree illustrative of the blending, Angli- cising power of our institutions when cordially and loyally used. Similar happy effects springing from similar causes have we seen, in numerous other instances and batches of instances, among the youth of our Western Canada, drawn from widely severed portions of the country. Beyond Eglinton, in the descent to a rough irregular ravine, the home of Mr. Jonathan Hale was passed on the east side of the street ; one of the Hales, who, as we have seen, were forward to undertake works of public utility at a time when appliances for the execution of such works were few. Mr. Hale's lot became after- wards a part of the estate of Jesse Ketchum of whom we have spoken. In 1808, the Gazette (October 22) informs us, the sheriff, Miles Macdonell, is about to sell "at Barrett's Inn, in the Town of York," the goods and chattels of Henry Hale, at the suit of Elijah Ketchum. Likewise, at the same time, the goods and chattels of Stillwell Wilson, at the suit of James McCormack and others. On the west side, opposite Mr. Ketchum's land, was a farm that had been modernized and beautified by two families in succession, who migrated hither from the West Indies, the Murrays and the Nantons. In particular, a long avenue of evergreen trees, planted by them and leading up to the house, was noticeable. While these families were the owners and occupants of this property, it was named by them Pilgrims' Farm. Subsequently Pilgrims' Farm passed into the hands of Mr. James Beaty, one of the representa- tives of Toronto in the House of Commons in Canada, who made it an occasional summer retreat, and called it Glen Grove. It had been at one period known as the MacDougall farm, Mr. John MacDougall, of York, having been its owner from 1801 to 1820. Mr. MacDougall was the proprietor of the principal hotel of York. Among the names of those elected to various local offices at the annual Town-meeting held in 1799 at " the city of York," as the report in the Gazette and Oracle ambitiously speaks, that of Mr. MacDougall appears under the head of " Overseers of Highways and Roads and Fence-viewers." He and Mr. Clark were elected to act in this capacity for " the district of the city of 44-0 Toronto of Old. [§ 2 5. York/' That they did good service we learn from the applause which attended their labours. The leading editorial of the Gazette and Oracle of June 29, 1799, thus opens : " The public are much indebted to Mr. John MacDougall, who was appointed one of the pathmasters at the last Town-meeting, for his great assiduity and care in getting the streets cleared of the many and dangerous (especially at night) obstructions thereon; and we hope," the writer says, " by the same good conduct in his successors in the like office, to see the streets of this infant town vie with those of a maturer age, in cleanliness and safety." In the number of the same paper for July 20 (1799), Mr. Mac- Dougall's colleague is eulogized, and thanked in the following terms : "The inhabitants of the west end of this Town return their most cordial thanks to Mr. Clark, pathmaster, for his uncom- mon exertions and assiduity in removing out of their street its many obstacles, so highly dangerous to the weary traveller." Mr. MacDougall was the first grantee of the farm immediately to the south of Glen Grove (lot number three). On high land to the right, some way off the road, an English- looking mansion of brick with circular ends, was another early innovation. A young plantation of trees so placed as to shelter it from the north-east winds, added to its English aspect. This was Kingsland, the home of Mr. Huson, likewise an immigrant from the West Indies. It was afterwards the abode of Mr. Vance, an Alderman of Toronto. One or two old farm houses of an antique New Jersey style, of two storeys, with steepish roofs and small windows, were then passed on the left. Some way further on, but still in the low land of the irregular ravine, another primitive rustic manufactory of that article of prime necessity, leather, was reached. This was " Lawrence's Tannery/' A bridge over the stream here, which is a feeder to the Don, was sometimes spoken of as Hawke's bridge, from the name of its builder. In the hollow on the left, close to the Tannery, and overlooked from the road, was a cream-coloured respectable frame-house, the domicile of Mr. Lawrence himself. In his yard or garden, some hives of bees, when such things were rarities, used always to be looked at with curiosity in passing. The original patentees of lots six, seven, eight and nine, on the west side of the street just here, were four brothers, Joseph, Duke, Hiram and John, Kendrick, respectively. They all had nautical § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 441 proclivities j or, as one who knew them said, they were, all of them, "water-dogs ;" and we shall hear of them again in our chapter on the Early Marine of York harbour. In 1799, Duke Kendrick was about to establish a pot-ashery on number seven. His advertisement appears in the Gazette, of December, 21, 1799. It is headed "Ashes! Ashes! Ashes !" The announcement then follows : " The subscriber begs leave to inform the public that he is about to erect a Pot-ashery upon lot No. 7, west side of Yonge Street, where he will give a generous price for ashes ; for house-ashes, ninepence per bushel \ for field-ashes, six- pence, delivered at the Pot-ash." It is then added : " He con- ceives it his duty to inform those who may have ashes to dispose of, that it will not be in his power to pay cash, but merchandize at cash price. Duke W. Kendrick. York, Dec. 7, 1799." In the year following, Mr. .Allan advertises for ashes to be delivered at pot-ash works in York. In the Gazette for November 29, 1800, we have: "Ashes wanted. Sevenpence Halifax currency per bushel for house-ashes will be given, delivered at the Pot-ash works, opposite the Gaol ; and fivepence same currency, if taken from the houses j also, eightpence, New York currency for field- ashes delivered at the works. W.Allan. York, 21st November, [1800]." We now speedily arrived at the commencement of the difficult descent into the valley of the great west branch of the Don. Yonge Street here made a grand detour to the east, and failed to regain the direct northerly course for some time. As usual, wherever long inclined planes were cut in the steep sides of lofty clay banks, the condition of the roadway hereabout was, after rain, indescribably bad. After reaching the stream and crossing it on a rough timber bridge, known anciently sometimes as Big Creek bridge and sometimes as Heron's bridge, the track ascended the further bank, at first by means of a narrow hogsback, which con- veniently sloped down to the vale ; afterwards it made a sweep to the northward along the brow of some broken hills, and then finally turned westward until the direct northern route of the street was again touched. The banks of the Don are here on every side very bold, divided in some places into two stages by an intervening plateau. On a secondary flat thus formed, in the midst of a grass-grown clearing, to the left, as the traveller journeyed from York, there was erected 44 2 Toronto of Old. [§ 25. at an early date the shell of a place of worship appertaining to the old Scottish Kirk, put up here through the zeal of Mr. James Hogg, a member of that communion, and the owner, for a time at least, of the flour mills in the valley, near the bridge. From him this locality was popularly known as Hogg's Hollow, despite the postal name of the place, York Mills. Mr. Hogg was of Scottish descent and a man of spirit. He sent a cartel in due form in 1832 to Mr. Gurnett, editor of the Courier. An article in that paper had spoken in offensive terms of supposed attempts on the part of a committee in York to swell the bulk of a local public meeting, by inviting into town persons from the rural parts. " Every wheel of their well-organized political machine was set in motion," the Courier asserted, " to transmute country far- mers into citizens of York. Accordingly about nine in the mor- ning, groups of tall, broad-shouldered, hulking fellows were seen arriving from Whitby, Pickering and Scarborough, some crowded in waggons, and others on horseback : and Hogg, the miller, headed a herd of the swine of Yonge Street, who made just as good votes at the meeting as the best shopkeepers in York." No hostile encounter, however, took place, although a burlesque ac- count of an " affair of honour" was published, in which it was pretended that Mr. Hogg was saved from a mortal wound by a fortunate accumulation, under the lappel of his coat, of flour, in which his antagonist's bullet buried itself. Mr. Hogg died in 1839. Here is an extract from the sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Leach on the occasion of his funeral : " He was faithful to his word and promise," the preacher said, — " and when surrounded with danger and strongly instigated, and tempted to a departure from public faith by the enemies of his •country his determination expressed in his own words, was ' I will die a Briton.' Few men had all the veins of nature more clearly and strongly developed ; and few men had a better sense of what is due to God." The circuit of the hills overhanging the mills below was always tedious ; but several good bits of scenery were caught sight of. On the upland, after escaping the chief difficulties, on the left hand a long low wooden building was seen, with gable and door towards the road. This was an early place of worship of the Church of England, an out-post of the mission at York. The long line of its roof was slightly curved downwards by the weight of a short § 25.] Yonge St., from Yorkville to Hogg's Hollow. 443 chimney built at its middle point for the accommodation of an iron stove within. Just before arriving at the gat ^ of the burying-ground attached to this building, there were interesting glimpses to the left down into deep woody glens, all of them converging southward on the Don. In some of them were little patches of pleasant grass land. But along here, for the most part, the forest long re- mained undisturbed. The church or chapel referred to was often served by divinity students sent out from town J and frequently, no doubt, had its walls echoed with prentice-attempts at pulpit oratory. Gourlay says that this chapel and the Friends' Meeting House near New- market were the only two places of public worship on Yonge Street in 181 7, "a distance of nearly forty miles." A notice of it is in- serted in " A visit to the Province of Upper Canada in 18 19, by James Strachan," (the Bishop's brother) — a work published at Aberdeen in 1820. " My brother," Mr. Strachan says, p. 141, " had, by his exer- tions and encouragement among the people, caused a chapel to be built about eight miles from York, where he officiates once a month, one of the young students under his care reading the service and a sermon on the intermediate Sundays. On his day of doing duty," Mr. S. continues, " I went with him and was highly gratified. The chapel is built in a thick wood The dimensions are 60 by 30 feet ; the pews are very decent, and what was much better, they were filled with an attentive congregation. As you see very few inhabitants on your way out, I could not con- ceive where all the people came from." A public baptism of five adults is then described. Some six and twenty years later (in 1843), the foundation stone of a durable brick church was laid near the site of the old frame chapel. On that occasion Dr. Strachan, now Bishop Strachan, named as especial promoters of the original place of worship, Mr. Seneca Ketchum and Mr. Joseph Sheppard, u the former devoting much time and money in the furtherance of the work, and the lat- ter giving three acres of land as a site, together with a handsome donation in cash." A silver medal which had been deposited under the old building was now transferred to a cavity in the foundation stone of its proposed successor. It bore on the obverse, " Fran- cis Gore, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor, 18 16," and on the reverse — " Fifty-sixth of George* Third." To it were now added a couple 444 . Toronto of Old. R 2 5* of other medals of silver : one bore on the obverse, " John Stra- chan, D.D., Bishop of Toronto j Alexander Sanson, Minister, 1843 f and on the reverse, " Sixth of Victoria." The other had inscribed on it the name of the architect, Mr. J. G. Howard, with a list of other churches erected in Upper Canada under his direc- tion. Among the persons present during the ceremony were Chief Justice Robinson, Vice-Chancellor Jameson, the Hon. and Rev. A. Cavendish, and the Rev. G. Mortimer, of Thornhill. Prior to the out-door proceedings a remarkable scene had been witnessed within the walls of the old building. Four gentlemen received the rite of confirmation at the hands of the Bishop, all of them up to a recent date, non-conformists ; three of them non-conformist ministers of mark, Mr Townley, Mr. Leach (whom we heard just now pronouncing an eulogy on Mr. Hogg,) and Mr. Ritchie ; the fourth, Mr. Sanson, not previously a minister, but now in Holy Orders of the Church of England, and the minister appointed to officiate in the new church. At the present day Yonge Street crosses Hogg's Hollow in a direct line on a raised embankment which the ancient Roman road-makers would have deemed respectable — a work accom- plished about the year 1835, before the aid of steam power was procurable in these parts for such purposes. Mr. Lynn was the engineer in charge here, at that time. The picturesque character of the valley has been considerably interfered with. Nevertheless a winding road over the hills to the right leading up to the church (St. John's) has still some sylvan surroundings. In truth, were a building or two of the chalet type visible, the passer-by might fancy himself for a moment in an upland of the High Alps, so Swiss- like is the general aspect. It may be added that the destruction of the beautiful hereabout has to some extent a set-off in the fine geological studies displayed to the eye in the sides of the deep cuts at both ends of the great causeway. Lake Ontario's ancient floor here lifted up high and dry in the air, exhibits, stratum super stratum, the deposits of suc- cessive periods long ago. (The action of the weather, however, has at the present time greatly blurred the interesting pictures of the past formerly displayed on the surface of the artificial escarp- ments at Hogg's Hollow.) XXVI. YONGE STREET, FROM HOGG S HOLLOW TO BOND S LAKE. EYOND the hollow, Mr. Humberstone's was passed on the west side, another manufacturer of useful pot- tery ware. A curious incident used to be narrated as having occurred in this house. The barrel of an Indian fowling-piece turned up by the plough in one the fields, and made to do duty in the management of unwieldy back logs in the great fire-place, suddenly proved itself to have been charged all the while, by exploding one day in the hands of Mr. Humberstone's daughter while being put to its cus- tomary use, and killing her on the spot. Somewhat similarly, at Fort Erie, we have been told, in the fire which destroyed the wharf at the landing, a condemned cannon which had long been planted in the pier as a post, went off, happily straight upwards, without doing any damage. Mr. Humberstone saw active service as a lieutenant in the incor- porated militia in 1812. He was put in charge of some of the prisoners captured by Colonel Fitzgibbon, at the Beaver Dams, and when now nearing his destination, Kingston, with his pris- oners in a large batteau, he, like the famous Dragoon who caught the Tartar, was made a prisoner of himself by the men whom he had in custody, and was adroitly rowed over by them to the United States shore, where being landed he was swiftly locked up in jail, and thence only delivered when peace was restored. The next memorable object, also on the left, was Shephard's inn, a noted resting-place for wayfarers and their animals, flanked on the north by large driving sheds, on the south by stables and barns : 446 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. over the porch, at an early period, was the effigy of a lion gardant, attempted in wood on the premises. Constructiveness was one of the predominant faculties in the first landlord of the Golden Lion. He was noted also for skilful execution on several instruments of music : on the bassoon for one. In the rear of the hotel, a little to the south, on a fine eminence, he put up for himself after the lapse of some years, a private residence, remarkable for the originality of its design, the outline of its many projecting roofs presenting a multitude of concave curves in the Chinese pagoda style. In several buildings in this neighbourhood an effort was at one time made, chiefly, we believe, through the influence of Mr. Shep- hard, to reproduce what in the west of England are called cob- walls ; but either from an error in compounding the material, or from the peculiar character of the local climate, they proved unsa- tisfactory. — The Sheppards, early proprietors of land a little farther on, were a different family, and spelt their name differently. It was some members of this family that were momentarily concerned in the movement of 1837. In Willowdale, a hamlet just beyond Shephard's, was the resi- dence of Mr. David Gibson, destroyed in 1837 by the Government forces. We observe in the Gazette of January 6th, 1826, the announcement, " Government House, York, 29th' December, 1825. His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to appoint David Gibson, gentleman, to be a surveyor of land in the Province." In the practice of the profession indicated he was prosperous, and also as a practical farmer. He likewise repre- sented North York in the Provincial Parliament. When the calm came after the tumult of 1837, he was appointed one of the Super- intendents of Colonization Roads. He died at Quebec in 1864. A road turning off at right angles to the eastward out of Willow- dale led to a celebrated camp-meeting ground, on the property of Mr. Jacob Cummer, one of the early German settlers. It was in a grand maple forest — a fine specimen of such trysting places. It was here that we were for the first time present at one of the pecu- liar assemblies referred to, which, over the whole of this northern continent, in a primitive condition of society at its several points, have fulfilled, and still fulfil, an important, and we doubt not, beneficent function. This, as we suppose, was the scene of the camp-meeting described in Peter Jones' Autobiography. "About noon," he writes on § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 447 Tuesday, the 10th of June, 1828, "started for the camp ground. When we arrived we found about three hundred Indians collected from Lake Simcoe and Scugog Lake. Most of those from Lake Simcoe have just come in from the back lakes to join with their converted brethren in the service of the Almighty God. They came in company with brother Law, and all seemed very glad to see us, giving us a hearty shake of the hand. The camp ground enclosed about two acres, which was surrounded with board tents, having one large gate for teams to go in and out, and three smaller ones. " The Indians occupied one large tent, which was 220 feet long and 15 feet broad. It was covered overhead with boards, and the sides were made tight with laths to make it secure from any en- croachments. It had four doors fronting the camp ground. In this long house the Indians arranged themselves in families, as is their custom in their wigwams. Divine service commenced towards evening. Elder Case first gave directions as to the order to be observed on the camp ground during the meetings. Brother James Richardson then preached from Acts ii. 21; after which I gave the substance in Indian, when the brethren appeared much affected and interested. Prayer-meeting in the evening. The watch kept the place illuminated during the night." The meeting continued for four days. Where the dividing line occurs between York and Markham, at the angle on the right was the first site of the sign of the Green Bush, removed afterwards, as we have noted, to the immediate outskirts of York ; and to the left, somewhere near by, was a sign that used to interest from its peculiarity, the Durweston Gate : a small white five-barred gate, hung by its topmost bar to a projection from a lofty post, and having painted on its lower bars " Durweston Gate/' and the landlord's name. It was probably a reproduction by a Dorsetshire immigrant of a familiar object in his native village. Not excluding from our notes, as will be observed, those places where Shenstone sighed to think a man often " found the warmest welcome/' we must not forget Finch's — a great hostelry on the right, which we soon reached as we advanced northward, of high repute about 1836, and subsequently among excursion parties from town, and among the half-pay settlers of the Lake Simcoe region, for the contents of its larder and the quality of its cooking. Another place of similar renown was Crew's, six or eight miles further on. When for long years, men, especially Englishmen, called by their 448 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. ■occasions away from their homes, had been almost everywhere doomed to partake of fare too literally hard, and perilous to the health, it is not to be wondered at, when, here and there, at last a house for the accommodation of the public did spring up where, with cleanly quarters, digestible viands were to be had, that its fame should speedily spread ; for is it not Dr. Samuel Johnson himself who has, perhaps rather sweepingly said, " there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn." Where a long slope towards the north begins soon after Finch's a village entitled Dundurn was once projected by Mr. Allan Mc- Nab, afterwards the famous Sir Allan, acting, we believe at the time as agent for Mr. H. J. Boulton ; but Dundurn never advanced beyond incipience. The name was afterwards familiar as that of .Sir Allan's chateau close by Hamilton. A well-travelled road now soon turned off to the right leading to •certain, almost historic mills in Markham, known as the German Mills. In the Gazetteer of 1 799 these mills are referred to. " Mark- ham township in the east riding of the County of York fronts Yonge Street/' it is stated in that early work, " and lies to the northward of York and Scarborough. Here" it then adds "are good mills and a thriving settlement of Germans." The German Mills are situated on Lot No. 4 in the third con- cession, on a portion of the Rouge or Nen — a river which the same Gazetteer informs its readers was " the back communication from the German settlement in Markham to Lake Ontario. The expec- tation in 1799 was, as the Gazetteer further shows, that this river, and not either the Humber or the Don, would one day be connected with the Holland river by a canal. It was not certainly known in 1794, where the river which passed the German Mills had its outlet. In Iredell's plan of Markham of that date, the stream is marked " Kitcheseepe or Great River," with a memorandum attached — " waters supposed to empty into Lake Ontario to the eastward of the Highlands of York." Information, doubtless, noted down, by Iredell, from the lips of some stray native. Kitche-seepe, " Big River" is of course simply a descriptive expression, taken as in so many instances, by the early people, to be a proper name. (It does not appear that among the aborigines there were any proper local names, in our sense of the expression.) The German Mills were founded by Mr. Berczy, either on his § 26.1 Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 449 own account or acting as agent for an association at New York for the promotion of German emigration to Canada. When, after failing to induce the Government to reconsider its decision in regard to the patents demanded by him for his settlers, that gentle- man retired to Montreal, the German Mills with various parcels of land were advertised for sale in the Gazette of April 27, 1805, in the following strain : " Mills and land in Markham. To be sold by the subscriber for payment of debts due to the creditors of William Berczy^ Esq., the mills called the German Mills, being a grist mill and a saw mill. The grist mill has a pair of French burs, and complete machinery for making and bolting superfine flour. These mills are situated on lot No. 4 in the third concession of Markham j with them will be given in, lots No. 3 and 4 in the third concession, at the option of the purchaser. Also, 300 acres being the west half of lot No. 31, and the whole of lot 32 in the second concession of Markham. Half the purchase money to be paid in hand, and half in one year with legal interest. W. Allan. N.B. — Francis Smith, who lives on lot No. 14 in the third conces- sion, will show the premises. York, nth March, 1805." It appears from the same Gazette that Mr. Berczy's vacant house in York had been entered by burglars after his departure. A reward of twenty dollars is offered for their discovery. " Whereas," the advertisement runs, "the house of William Berczy, Esq., was broken open sometime during the night of the 14th instant, and the same ransacked from one end to the other j this is to give notice that whoever shall lodge an information, so that the offen- der or offenders may be brought to justice, shall upon conviction thereof receive Twenty Dollars. W. Chewett. York 1 8th April, 1805." We have before referred to Mr. Berczy's embarrassments, from which he never became disentangled ; and to his death in New York, in 18 13. His decease was thus noticed in a Boston paper, quoted by Dr. Canniff, p. 364, " Died — In the early part of the year 1813, William Berczy, Esq., aged 68 j a distinguished inhabi- tant of Upper Canada, and highly respected for his literary acquire- ments. In the decease of this gentleman society must sustain an irreparable loss, and the republic of letters will have cause to mourn the death of a man eminent for genius and talent." • The German Mills were purchased and kept in operation by Capt. Nolan, of the 70th Regiment, at the time on duty in Canada ; cc 450 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. but the speculation was not a success. We have heard it stated that this Captain Nolan was the father of the officer of the same name and rank who fell in the charge of the Light Brigade at the very first outset, when, at Balaclava, " Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred." The Gazette of March 19, 1818, contains the following curt an- nouncement : " Notice. The German Mills and Distillery are now in operation. For the proprietors, Alexander Patterson, Clerk, nth March, 1818." Ten years later they are offered for sale or to lease in the U. C. Loyalist of* April 5, 1828. (It will be observed that they once bore the designation of Nolanville.) " For sale or to be leased," thus runs the advertisement, " all or any part of the property known and described as Nolanville or German Mills, in the third concession of the township of Markham, consisting of four hundred acres of land, upwards of fifty under good fences and improvements, with a good dwelling-house, barn, stable, saw-mill, grist-mill, distillery, brew-house, malt-house, and several other out- burldings. The above premises will be disposed of, either the whole or in part, by application to the subscriber, William Allan, York, January 26, 1828. The premises can be viewed at any time by applying to Mr. John Duggan, residing there." In the absence of striking architectural objects in the country at the time, we remember, about the year 1828, thinking the extensive cluster of buildings constituting the German Mills a rather impres- sive sight, coming upon them suddenly, in the midst of the woods, in a deserted condition, with all their windows boarded up. One of our own associations with the German Mills is the me- mory of Mr. Charles Stewart Murray, afterwards well-known in York as connected with the Bank of Upper Canada. He had been thrown out of employment by Capt. Nolan's relinquishment of the mills. He was then patronized by Mr. Thorne of Thornhill. In our boyish fancy, a romantic interest attached to Mr. Murray from his being a personal friend of Sir Walter Scott's, and from his being intimately associated with him in the excursion to the Ork- neys, while the Pirate and the Lord of the Isles were simmering in the Novelist's brain. " Not a bad Re-past," playfully said Sir Walter after partaking one day of homely meat-pie at the little inn of one Rae. Lo ! from Mr. Murray's talk, a minute grain to be § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 45 1 added to Sir Walter's already huge cairn of ana. Mr. M., too, was imagined by us, quite absurdly doubtless, to be an hereditary ■devotee of the Pretender, if not closely allied to him by blood. {His grandfather, or other near relative, had, we believe, really been for a time secretary to Prince Charles Edward Stuart) A mile or two beyond where the track to the German Mills turned off, Yonge Street once more encountered a branch of the Don, flowing, as usual, through a wide and difficult ravine. At the point where the stream was crossed, mills and manufactories made their appearance at an early date. The ascent of the bank towards the north was accomplished, in this instance, in no round-about way. The road went straight up. Horse-power and the strength of leather were here often severely tested. On the rise above, began the village of Thornhill, an attractive and noticeable place from the first moment of its existence. Here- about several English families had settled, giving a special tone to the neighbourhood. In the very heart of the village was the home, unfailingly genial and hospitable, of Mr. Parsons, one of the chief founders of the settlement j emigrating hither from Sherborne in Dorsetshire in 1820. Nearer the brow of the hill overlooking the Don, was the house of Mr. Thorne, from whom the place took its name : an English gentleman also from Dorsetshire, and asso- ciated with Mr. Parsons in the numerous business enterprises which made Thornhill for a long period a centre of great activity and prosperity. Beyond, a little further northward, lived the Gappers, another family initiating here the amenities and ways of good old west-of-England households. Dr. Paget was likewise an element of happy influence in the little world of this region, a man of high culture \ formerly a medical practitioner of great repute in Tor- quay. Another character of mark associated with Thornhill in its palmy days was the Rev. George Mortimer, for a series of years the pastor of the English congregation there. Had his lot been cast in the scenes of an Oberlin's labours or a Lavater's, or a Felix NefFs, his name would probably have been conspicuously classed with theirs in religious annals. He was eminently of their type. Constitu- tionally of a spiritual temperament, he still did not take theology to be a bar to a scientific and accurate examination of things visi- ble. He deemed it " sad, if not actually censurable, to pass blind- folded through the works of God, to live in a world of flowers, and 452 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. stars, and sunsets, and a thousand glorious objects of Nature, and never to have a passing interest awakened by any one of them."' Before his emigration to Canada he had been curate of Madeley in Shropshire, the parish of the celebrated Fletcher of Madeley, whose singularly beautiful character that of Mr. Mortimer resembled. Though of feeble frame his ministerial labours were without inter- mission ; and his lot, as Fletcher's also, was to die almost in the act of officiating in his profession. An earlier incumbent of the English Church at Thornhill was the Rev. Isaac Fidler. This gentleman rendered famous the scene of his Canadian ministry, as well as his experiences in the United States, by a book which in its day was a good deal read. It was entitled " Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners, and Emigration in the United States and Canada." Although he indulged in some sharp strictures on the citizens of the United States, in relation to the matters indicated, and followed speedily after by the never-to-be-forgotten Mrs. Trollope, his work was. reprinted by the Harpers. Mr. Fidler was a remarkable person, — of a tall Westmoreland mould, resembling the common pictures of Wordsworth. He was somewhat peculiar in his dress, wearing always an extremely high shirt-collar, very conspicuous round the whole of his neck, forming a kind of spreading white socket in . which rested and revolved a head, bald, egg-shaped and spectacled. Besides being scholarly in the modern sense, Mr. Fidler possessed' the more uncommon accomplishment of a familiarity with the oriental languages. The notices in his book, of early colonial life have now to us an archaic sound. We give his narrative of the overturn of a family party on their way home from church. " The difficulty of descend- ing a steep hill in wet weather may be imagined," he says, " The heavy rains had made it (the descent south of Thornhill) a com- plete puddle which afforded no sure footing to man or beast. In returning from church, the ladies and gentlemen I speak of," he continues, " had this steep hill to descend. The jaunting car being filled with people was too heavy to be kept back, and pressed heavy upon the horses. The intended youthful bridegroom (of one of the ladies) was, I was told, the charioteer. His utmost skill was ineffectually tried to prevent a general overturn. The horses became less manageable every moment. But yet the ladies and gentlemen in the vehicle were inapprehensive of danger, and their § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 453 mirth and jocularity betrayed the inward pleasure they derived from his increasing struggles. At last the horses, impatient of control, and finding themselves their own masters, jerked the carriage against the parapet of the road and disengaged themselves from it. The carriage instantly turned over on its side ; and as instantly all the ladies and gentlemen trundled out of it like rolling pins. No- body was hurt in the least, for the mire was so deep that they fell very soft and were quite imbedded in it. What apologies the gen- tleman made I am unable to tell, but the mirth was perfectly sus- pended. I overtook the party at the bottom of the hill, the ladies walking homewards from the church and making no very elegant appearance." As an example of the previously undreamt of incidents that may happen to a missionary in a backwoods settlement, we mention what occurred to ourselves when taking the duty one fine bright summer morn, many years ago, in the Thornhill Church, yet in its primitive unenlarged state. A farmer's horse that had been moon- ing leisurely about an adjoining field, suddenly took a fancy to the shady interior disclosed by the wide-open doors of the sacred building. Before the churchwardens or any one else could make out what the clatter meant, the creature was well up the central passage of the nave. There becoming affrighted, its ejection was an awkward affair, calling for tact and manoeuvring. The English Church at Thornhill has had another incumbent not undistinguished in literature, the Rev. E. H. Dewar, author of a work published at Oxford in 1844, on the Theology of Modern Germany. It is in the form of letters to a friend, written from the standpoint of the Jeremy Taylor school. It is entitled " German Protestantism and the Right of Private Judgment in the Interpreta- tion of Holy Scripture." The author's former position as chaplain to the British residents at Hamburg gave him facilities for becom- ing acquainted with the state of German theology. Mr. Dewar, to superior natural talents, added a refined scholarship and a wide range of accurate knowledge. He died at Thornhill in 1862. The incumbent who preceded Mr. Dewar was the Rev. Dominic E. Blake, brother of Mr. Chancellor Blake ; a clergyman also of superior talents. Previous to his emigration to Canada in 1832, he had been a curate in the county of Mayo. He died suddenly in 1859. It is remarked of him in a contemporary obituary that •" his productions indicated that while intellect was in exercise his 454 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. heart felt the importance of the subjects before him/' These pro- ductions were numerous, in the form of valuable papers and reports, read or presented to the local Diocesan Society. It is curious to observe that in 1798, salmon ascended the waters of the Don to this point on Yonge Street. Among the recom- mendations of a farm about to be offered for sale, the existence thereon of " an excellent salmon fishery" is named. Thus runs the advertisement (Qazette, May 16, 1798): " To be sold by public auction, on Monday, the 2nd of July next, at John McDougalPs hotel, in the town of York, a valuable Farm, situated on Yonge Street, about twelve miles from York, on which are a good log- house, and seven or eight acres well improved. The advantages of the above farm, from the richness of its soil and its being well watered, are not equalled by many farms in the Province j and above all, it affords an excellent salmon fishery, large enough to support a number of families, which must be conceived a great advantage in this infant country. The terms will be made known on the day of sale." As we move on from Thornhill with Vaughan on the left and Markham on the right, the name of another rather memorable early- missionary recurs, whose memory is associated with both these townships — Vincent Philip Mayerhoffer. Notwithstanding its drawbacks, early Canadian life, like early American life generally, became, in a little while, invested with a curious interest and charm j by means, for one thing, of the variety of character encountered. A man might vegetate long in an ob- scure village or country town of the old mother country before he rubbed against a person of V. P. Mayerhoffer's singular experience, and having his wits set in motion by a sympathetic realization of such a career as his. He was a Hungarian ; born at Raab in 1784 ; and had been ordained a presbyter in the National Church of Austria. On emi- grating to the United States, he, being himself a Franciscan, fell into some disputes with the Jesuits at Philadelphia, and withdrew from the Latin communion and attached himself, in company with a fellow presbyter named Huber, to the Lutheran Reformed. As a recognized minister of that body he came on to Buffalo, where he officiated for four years to three congregations, visiting at the same time, occasionally, a congregation on the Canada side of the river, at Limeridge. He here, for the first time, began the study § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 455 of the English language. Coming now into contact with the clergy of the Anglican communion, he finally resolved to conform to the Anglican Church, and was sent by Bishop Stewart, of Quebec, to the German settlement in Markham and Vaughan. Here he offi- ciated for twenty years, building in that interval St. Stephen's Church in Vaughan, St. Philip's in the 3rd concession of Markham, and the Church in Markham village, and establishing a permanent congre- gation at each. He was a vigorous, stirring preacher in his acquired English tongue, as well as in his vernacular German. He possessed also a colloquial knowledge of Latin, which is still a spoken language in part of Hungary. He was a man of energy to the last : ever cheerful in spirit, and abounding in anecdotes, personal or other- wise. It was from him, as we remember, we first heard the after- wards more familiarized names of Magyar and Sclave. His brother clergy of the region where his duty lay were indebted to him for many curious glimpses at men and things in the great outer world of the continent of Europe. During the Napoleonic wars he was " Field Chaplain of the Imperial Infantry Regiment, No. 60 of the Line," and accompanied the Austrian contingent of 40,000 men furnished to Napoleon by the Emperor of Austria. — He was afterwards, when the Austrian Emperor broke away from Napoleon, taken prisoner with five regiments of the line, and sent to Dresden and Mayence. He was at the latter place when the battle of Leipsic was fought (Oct. 16, 17, 18, 19, 18 13.) He now left Mayence without leave, the plague breaking out there, and got to Oppenheim, where a German presbyter named Muller concealed him, till the departure of the French out of the town. After seve- ral adventures he found his way back to the quarters of his regi- ment now acting in the anti-French interest at Manheim, where he duly reported himself, and was well received. After the war, from the year 1816, he had for three years the pastoral charge of Klin- genmunster in the diocese of Strasbourg. He died in Whitby, in 1859. A memoir of Mr. Meyerhoffer has been printed, and it bears the following title : " Twelve years a Roman Catholic Priest ; or, the Autobiography of the Rev. V. P. Meyerhoffer, M.A., late Military Chaplain to the Austrian Army and Grand Chaplain of the Orders of Free Masons and Orangemen of Canada, B.N. A., containing an account of his career as Military Chaplain, Monk of the Order 456 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. of St. Francis, and Clergyman of the Church of England in Vaughan, Markham and Whitby, C.W." He had a musical voice which had been properly cultivated — This, he used to say, was a source of revenue to him in the early part of his public career, those clergy being in request and receiv- ing a higher remuneration, who were able to sing the service in a superior manner. His features were strongly marked and peculiar, perhaps Mongolian in type ; they were not German, English, or Italian. Were the concavity of the nose and the projection of the mouth a little more pronounced in " Elias Howe," the medallions of that personage would give a general idea of Mr. Mayerhoffer's profile and head. In his younger days he had acquired some medical knowledge, which stood him in good stead for a time at Philadelphia, when he and Huber first renounced the Latin dogmas. His taste for the healing art was slightly indulged even after the removal to Ganada, as will be seen from an advertisement which appears in the Courier of February 29, 1832. (From its wording it will be observed that Mayerhoffer had not yet become familiarized with the English lan- guage.) It is headed thus : " The use and direction of the new- invented and never-failing Wonder Salve, by D. V. P. Mayerhoffer, of Markham, U.C., H.D., 5th concession." It then proceeds : " Amongst all in the medicine-invented un- guents his salve takes the first place for remedy, whereby it not in vain obtains, the name of Wonder Salve for experience taught in many cases to deserve this name ; and being urged to communi- cate it to the public, I endeavour to satisfy to the common good of the public. It is acknowledged by all who know the virtue of it, and experienced its worth, it ought to be kept in every house, first for its inestimable goodness, and, second, because the medi- cine the older it gets the better it is : money spent for such will shew its effect from its beginning for twenty years, if kept in a dry place, well covered. In all instances of burns, old wounds, called running sores, for the tetter-worm or ring, &c, as the discussions and use will declare, wrapped round the box or the medicine. " It is unnecessary to recommend by words this inestimable medicine, as its value has received the approbation of many inha- bitants of this country already, who sign their names below for the surety of its virtue and the reality of its worth, declaring that they never wish to be without it in their houses by their lifetimes. In § 26.] Yonge St , Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 457 Markham, Mr. Philip Eckhardt, jun., do. do., sen., Godlieb Eck- hardt, Abraham Eckhardt, John Pingel, jun., Mr. Lang, Mr. Large, John Perkins, John Schall, Charles Peterson, Luke Stantenkough, Peter March. In Vaughan, Jacob Fritcher, Daniel Stang. Recom- mended by Dr. Baldwin, of York. The medicine is to be had in the eighth concession of Markham, called Riarstown, by Sinclair Holden ; in the fifth concession by Christopher Hevelin and T. Amos j in the town of York, in J. Baldwin's and S. Barnham's stores ; on Yonge Street, by Parsons and Thorne. Price of a box, two shillings and sixpence, currency. January 11, 1832. * Military associations hang about the lands to the right and left of Richmond Hill. The original possessor of Lot No. 22 on the west side, was Captain Daniel Cozens, a gentleman who took a very active part in opposition to the revolutionary movement which resulted in the independence of the United States. He raised, at his own expense, a company of native soldiers in the royalist in- terest, and suffered the confiscation of a considerable estate in New Jersey. Three thousand acres in Upper Canada were subse- quently granted him by the British Crown. His sons, Daniel and Shivers, also received grants. The name of Shivers Cozens is to be seen in the early^plans of Markham on lots 2, 4 and 5 in the 6th concession. Samuel died of a fit at York in 1808 ; but Shivers returned to New Jersey and died there, where family connexions of Captain Cozens still survive. There runs amongst them a tradition that Captain Cozens built the first house in our Canadian York Of this we are informed by Mr. T. Cottrill Clarke, of Philadelphia. We observe in an early plan of York the name of Shivers Cozens on No. 23 in Block E, on the south side of King Street : the name of Benjamin Cozens on No. 5 on Market Street : and the name of Captain Daniel Cozens on No. 4 King Street, (new town), north side, with the date of the grant, July 20, 1799. It is thus quite likely that Captain Cozens, or a member of his family, put up buildings in York at a very early period. We read in the Niagara Herald, of October 31, 1801, the follow- ing : " Died on the 6th ult, near Philadelphia, Captain Daniel Cozens." In the Gazette & Oracle, of January 27, 1808, we have a memorandum of the decease of Samuel Cozens : " Departed this life, on the 29th ult., Mr. Samuel D. Cozens, one of the first 458 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. inhabitants of this town [York]. His remains were interred with Masonic honours on the 31st" Another officer of the Revolutionary era was the first owner, and for several years the actual occupant, of the lot immediately opposite Captain Cozens'. This was Captain Richard Lippincott, a native of New Jersey. A bold deed of his has found a record in all the histories of the period. The narrative gives us a glimpse of some of the painful scenes attendant on wars wherein near re- latives and old friends come to be set in array one against the other. On the 1 2th of April, 1782, Captain Lippincott, acting under the authority of the " Board of Associated Loyalists of New York,"" executed by hanging, on the heights near Middleton, Joshua Huddy, an officer in the revolutionary army, as an act of retalia- tion, — Huddy having summarily treated, in the same way, a rela- tive of Captain Lippincott's, Philip White, surprised within the lines of the revolutionary force, while on a stolen visit of natural affection to his mother on Christmas Day. On Huddy's breast was fastened a paper containing the follow- ing written notice, to be read by his co-revolutionists and friends when they should discover the body suspended in the air. — "We, the Refugees, having long with grief beheld the cruel murders of our brethren, and finding nothing but such measures carrying into execution, therefore determined not to suffer without taking ven- geance for the numerous cruelties ; and thus begin, having made use of Captain Huddy as the first object to present to your view; and further determine to hang man for man while there is a Refugee existing. Up goes Huddy for Philip White." When the surrender of Capt. Lippincott was refused by the Royalist authorities, Washington ordered the execution of one officer of equal rank to be selected by lot out of the prisoners in his hands. The lot fell on Capt. Charles Asgill of the Guards, aged only nineteen. He was respited however until the issue of a court-martial, promised to be held on Capt. Lippincott, should be known. The court acquitted ; and Capt. Asgill only narrowly escaped the fate of Andre, through prompt intervention on the part of the French Government. The French minister of State, the Count de Vergennes, to whom there had been time for Lady Asgill, the Captain's mother, to appeal — received directions to ask his release in the conjoint names of the King and Queen as " a § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to Bond's Lake. 459 tribute to humanity." Washington thought proper to accede to this request ; but it was not until the following year, when the revolutionary struggle ended, that Asgill and Lippincott were set at liberty. The former lived to succeed to his father's baronetcy and to become a General officer. Colonel O'Hara, of Toronto, remem- bered dining at a table where a General Sir Charles Asgill was pointed out to him as having been, during the American revolu- tionary war, for a year under sentence of death, condemned by General Washington to be hanged in the place of another person. Capt. Lippincott received from the Crown three thousand acres in Upper Canada. He survived until the year 1826, when, aged 81, and after enjoying half-pay for a period of forty-three years, he expired at the house of his son-in-law in York, Colonel George Taylor Denison, who gave to his own eldest son, Richard Lippin- cott Denison, Captain Lippincott's name. (A few miles further on, namely, in North and East Gwillimbury, General Benedict Arnold, known among United States citizens as " the traitor/' received a grant of five thousand acres.) In connexion with Richmond Hill, which now partially covers the fronts of Captain Cozens' and Captain Lippincott's lots, we subjoin what Captain Bonnycastle said of the condition of Yonge Street hereabout in 1846, in his " Canada and the Canadians." " Behold us at Richmond Hill," he exclaims, " having safely passed the Slough of Despond which the vaunted Yonge Street mud road presents between the celebrated hamlet of St. Albans and the aforesaid hill." And again : " We reached Richmond Hill, seventeen miles from the Landing, at about 8 o'clock (he was moving southward) having made a better day's journey than is usually accomplished on a road which will be macadamized some fine day; — for the Board of Works," he proceeds to inform the reader, " have a Polish engineer hard at work surveying it ; of course, no Canadian was to be found equal to this intricate piece of engineering ; and I saw a variety of sticks stuck up ; but what they meant I cannot guess at. I sup- pose they were going to grade it, which is the favourite American term." The prejudices of the Englishman and Royal Engineer routinier here crop out. The Polish engineer, who was commencing operations on this subdivision of Yonge Street, was Mr. Casimir 460 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. Stanislaus Gzowski, whose subsequent Canadian career renders it probable that in setting up " the variety of sticks," the meaning of which Capt. Bonnycastle does after all guess at, he understood his business. We are assured that this portion of Yonge Street was in fact conspicuous for the superior excellence of its finish. Captain Bonnycastle indulges in a further little fling at civilians who presume to undertake engineering duties, in a story which serves to fill a page or two of his book, immediately after the above remarks on Yonge Street, about Richmond Hill. He narrates an incident of his voyage out : — " A Character," he says, " set out from England to try his fortune in Canada. He was conversing about prospects in that country, on board the vessel, with a person who knew him, but whom he knew not. ' I have not quite made up my mind,' said the charac- ter, * as to what pursuit I shall follow in Canada j but that which brings most grist to the mill will answer best ; and I hear a man may turn his hand to anything there, without the folly of an appren- ticeship being necessary; for if he have' only brains, bread will come ; now what do you think would be the best business for my market V ' Why,' said the gentleman, after pondering a little, 1 1 should advise you to try civil engineering j for they are getting up a Board of Works there, and want that branch of industry very much, for they won't take natives : nothing but foreigners and strangers will go down.' 'What is a civil engineer?' said the Character. 'A man always measuring and calculating,' responded his adviser, ' and that will just suit you.' ' So it will,' rejoined Character, and a civil engineer he became accordingly, and a very good one into the bargain, for he had brains, and had used a yard measure all his lifetime." — Who "the Character" was, we do not for certain know. A short distance beyond Richmond Hill was the abode of Colonel Moodie, on the right, — distinguished by a flag-staff in front • of it, after the custom of Lower Canada, where an officer's house used to be known in this way. (In the neighbourhood of Sorel, as we remember, in the winter of 1837, it was one of the symptoms of disaffection come to a head, when in front of a substantial habitant home a flag-staff was suddenly seen bearing the inscription " , Capitaine, 61 u par le peuple.") Colonel Moodie's title came from his rank in the regular army. He had been Lieut-Colonel of the 104th regiment. Sad, that a § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to Bond's Lake. 461 distinguished officer, after escaping the perils of the Peninsular war, and of the war with the United States here in 181 2-13, should have yet, nevertheless, met with a violent death in a petty local civil tumult. He was shot, as all remember, in the troubles of 1837, while attempting to ride past Montgomery's, regardless of the insurgent challenge to stop. " Thou might'st have dreamed of brighter hours to close thy chequered life Beneath thy country's victor-flag, sure beacon in the strife ; Or in the shadow of thy home with those who mourn thee now, To whisper comfort in thine ear, to calm thine aged brow. Well ! peaceful be thy changeless rest, — thine is a soldier's grave ; Hearts like thine own shall mourn thy doom — meet requiem for the brave — And ne'er 'till Freedom's ray is pale end Valour's pulse grown cold Shall be thy bright career forgot, thy gloomy fate untold." So sang one in the columns of a local contemporary paper, in "Lines suggested by the Lamented Death of the late Colonel Moodie." At a certain period in the history of Yonge Street, as indeed of all the leading thoroughfares of Upper Canada, about 1830-33, a frequent sign that property had changed hands, and that a second wave of population was rolling in, was the springing up, at inter- vals, of houses of an improved style, with surroundings, lawns, sheltering plantations, winding drives, well-constructed entrance- gates, and so on, indicating an appreciation of the elegant and the comfortable. We recall two instances of this, which we used to contemplate with particular interest, a little way beyond Richmond Hill, on the left : the cosy, English-looking residences, not far apart, with a cluster of appurtenances round each — of Mr. Larratt Smith, and Mr. Francis Boyd. Both gentlemen settled here with their fami- lies in 1836. Mr. Smith had been previously in Canada in a military capacity during the war of 181 2-13, and for many years subsequently he had been Chief Commissary of the Field Train Department and Paymaster of the Artillery. He died at Southampton in i860. Mr. Boyd, who emigrated hither from the county of Kent, was- one of the first, in these parts, to import from England improved breeds of cattle. In his house was to be seen a collection of really fine paintings, amongst them a Holbein, a Teniers, a Domini- chino, a Smirke, a Wilkie, and two Horace Vernets. The families- 462 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. of Mr. Boyd and Mr. Smith were related by marriage. Mr. Boyd died in Toronto in 1861. Beyond Mr. Boyd's, a solitary house, on the same side of Yonge Street, lying back near the woods, used be eyed askance in pas- sing : — its occupant and proprietor, Mr. Kinnear, had in 1843 been murdered therein by his man-servant, assisted by a female domestic. It was imagined by them that a considerable sum of money had just been brought to the house by Mr. Kinnear. Both criminals would probably have escaped justice had not Mr. F. C. Capreol, of Toronto, on the spur of the moment, and purely from a sense of duty to the public, undertaken their capture, which he cleverly effected at Lewiston in the United States. The land now began to be somewhat broken as we ascended the rough and long-uncultivated region known as the Oak Ridges. The predominant tree in the primitive forest here was the pine, which attained a gigantic size ; but specimens of the black oak were intermingled. Down in one of the numerous clefts and chasms which were to be seen in this locality, in a woody dell on the right, was Bond's Lake, a pretty crescent-shaped sheet of water. We have the sur- rounding property offered for sale in a Gazette of 1805, in the fol- lowing terms ; "For Sale, Lots No. 62 and 63, in the first conces- sion of the township of Whitchurch, on the east side of Yonge Street, containing 380 acres of land : a deed in fee simple will be given by the subscriber to any person inclined to purchase. John- son Butler. N.B. The above lots include the whole of the Pond commonly called Bond's Lake, the house and clearing round the same. For particulars enquire of Mr. R. Ferguson and Mr. T. B. Gough at York, and the subscriber at Niagara. March 23, 1805." Bond's farm and lake had their name from Mr. William Bond, who so early as 1800 had established in York a Nursery Garden, and introduced there most of the useful fruits. In 1801 Mr. Bond was devising to sell his York property, as appears from a quaint advertisement in a Gazette of that year. He therein professes to offer his lot in York as a free gift ; the recipient however being at the same time required to do certain things. " To be given away," he says, " that beautifully situated lot No. one, fronting on Ontario and Duchess Streets : the buildings thereon are — a small two-and-a-half storey house, with a gallery in front, which commands a view of the lake and the bay : in the cellar §26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 463 a never failing spring of fine water ; and a stream of fine water running through one corner of the lot ; there is a good kitchen in the rear of the house, and a stable sufficient for two cows and two horses, and the lot is in good fence. " The conditions are, with the person or persons who accept of the above present, that he, she or they purchase not less than two thousand apple-trees at three shillings, New York currency, each ; after which will be added, as a further present, about one hundred apple, thirty peach, and fourteen cherry trees, besides wild plums, wild cherries, English gooseberries, white and red currants, &c. There are forty of the above apple trees, as also the peach and cherry trees, planted regular, as an orchard, much of which appeared in blossom last spring, and must be considered very valuable : also as a kitchen garden, will sufficiently recommend itself to those who may please to view it. — The above are well calculated for a professional or independent gentleman ; being somewhat retired — about half-way from the Lake to the late Attorney General's and opposite the town-farm of the Hon. D. W. Smith [afterwards Mr. Allan's property.] Payment will be made easy ; a good deed ; and possession given at any time from the first of November to the first of May next. For further particulars enquire of the subscriber on the premises. William Bond. York, Sep. 4, 1801." — The price expected was, as will be made out, 750 dollars. The property was evidently the northern portion of what became afterwards the homestead-plot of Mr. Surveyor General Ridout. It would appear that Mr. Bond's property did not find a purchaser on this occasion. In 1804 he is advertising it again, but now to be sold by auction, with his right and title to the lot on Yonge Street. In the Gazette of August 4, 1804, we read as follows : — " To be sold by auction, at Cooper's tavern, in York, on Monday, the twentieth day of August next, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon (if not previously disposed of by private contract), that highly cultivated lot opposite the Printing Office [Bennett's] containing one acre, together with a nursery thereon of about ten thousand apple, three hundred peach, and twenty pear trees, and an orchard containing forty-one apple trees fit for bearing, twenty-seven of which are full of fruit j thirty peach and nine cherry trees full of fruit j besides black and red plums, red and white currants, English gooseberries, lilacs, rose bushes, &c, &c, also a very rich kitchen garden. 464 Toronto of Old. [§ 26. " The buildings are a two-and-a-half storey house, a good cellar, stable and smokehouse. On the lot is a never-failing spring of excellent water, and fine creek running through one corner most part of the year. The above premises might be made very com- modious for a gentleman at a small expense ; or for a tanner, brewer, or distiller, must be allowed the most convenient place in York. A view of the premises (by any person or persons desirous of purchasing the same) will be sufficient recommendation. The nursery is in such a state of forwardnesss that if sold in from two to three years (at which time the apple trees will be fit to trans- plant) at the moderate price of one shilling each, would repay a sum double of that asked for the whole, and leave a further gain to the purchasers of the lot, buildings, and flourishing orchard thereon. A good title to the above, and possession given at any time after the first of October next. " Also at the same time and place the right as per Register, to one hundred acres in front of lot 62, east side Yonge Street, for which a deed can be procured at pleasure, and the remainder of the lot procured for a small sum. It is an excellent soil for orchard, grain and pasture land. There is a field of ten acres in fence besides other clearing. It is a beautiful situation, having part of the Lake commonly called Bond's Lake, within the said lot, which affords a great supply of Fish and Fowl. Terms of payment will be made known on the day of sale. For further particulars enquire of the subscriber on the former premises, or the printer hereof. William Bond. York, 27th June, 1804." Thirty years later we meet with an advertisement in which the price is named at which Lot No. 63 could have been secured. Improvements expected speedily to be made on Yonge Street are therein referred to. In a Gazette of 1834 we have : " A delightful situation on Yonge Street, commonly called Bond's Farm, contain- ing 190 acres, beautifully situated on Bond's Lake upon Yonge Street, distant about 16 miles from the city of Toronto : price ^"350. The picturesque beauty of this lot," the advertisement says, " and its proximity to the flourishing capital of Upper Canada, make it a most desirable situation for a gentleman of taste. The stage- coaches between Toronto and Holland Landing and Newmarket pass the place daily ; and there appears every prospect of Yonge Street either having a railroad or being macadamized very shortly. § 26.] Yonge St., Hogg's Hollow to (Bond's Lake. 465 Apply (if by letter, free of postage) to Robert Ferrie, at Hamilton, the proprietor." In the advertisement of 1805, given above, Bond's Lake is styled a pond. The small lakes in these hills seemed, of course, to those who had become familiarized with the great lakes, simply ponds. The term " lake " applied to Ontario, Huron, and the rest, has given a very inadequate idea of the magnitude and appearance of those vast expanses, to externs who imagine them to be picturesque sheets of water somewhat/ exceeding in size, but resembling, Winder- mere, Loch Lomond, or possibly Lake Leman. " Sea" would have conveyed a juster notion : not however to the German, who styles the lakes of Switzerland and the Tyrol, " seas." Bond's Lake inn, the way-side stopping place in the vale where Yonge Street skirts the lake, used to be, in an especial degree, of the old country cast, in its appliances, its fare, its parlours and other rooms. DD XXVII. FONGE STREET : FROM BOND'S LAKE TO THE HOLLAND LANDING, WITH DIGRESSIONS TO NEWMARKET AND SHARON. E now speedily passed Drynoch, lying off to the left, on elevated land, the abode of Capt Martin McLeod, formerly of the Isle of Skye. The family and do- mestic group systematized on a large scale at Drynoch here, was a Canadian reproduction of a chieftain's household. Capt. McLeod was a Scot of the Norse vikinger type, of robust manly frame, of noble, frank, and tender spirit ; an Ossianist too, and, in the Scandinavian direction, a philologist. Sir Walter Scott would have made a study of Capt. McLeod, and may have done so. He was one of eight brothers who all held commissions in the army. His own military life extended from 1808 to 1832. As an officer successively of the 27th, the 79th, and the 25th regi- ments, he saw much active service. He accompanied the force sent over to this continent in the War of 181 2-13. It was then that he for the first time saw the land which was to be his final home. He was present, likewise, at the affair of Plattsburg ; and also, we believe, at the attack on New Orleans. He afterwards took part in the so-called Peninsular war, and received a medal with four clasps for Toulouse, Orthes, Nive, and Nivelle. He missed Waterloo, " unfortunately," as he used to say ; but he was present with the allied troops in Paris during the occupation of that city in 181 5. Of the 25th regiment he was for many years adjutant, and then paymaster. Three of his uncles were general officers. § 27.] Yonge St. ; (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 467 It is not inappropriate to add that the Major McLeod who received the honour of a Companionship in the Order of St. Michael and St. George for distinguished service in the Red River Expedi- tion of 1870, was a son of Captain McLeod of Drynoch. That in and about the Canadian Drynoch Gaelic should be familiarly heard was in keeping with the general character of the place. The ancient Celtic tongue was in fact a necessity, as among the dependents of the house there were always some who had never learned the English language. Drynoch was the name of the old home in Skye. The Skye Drynoch was an unfenced, hilly pasture farm, of about ten miles in extent, yielding nutriment to herds of wild cattle and some 8,000 sheep. Within its limits a lake, Loch Brockadale, is still the haunt of the otter, which is hunted by the aid of the famous terriers of the island ; a mountain stream abounds with salmon and trout; while the heather and bracken of the slopes shelter grouse and other game. Whittaker, in his History of Whalley, quoted by Hallam in his Middle Ages, describes the aspect which, as he supposes, a certain portion of England presented to the eye, as seen from the top of Pendle Hill, in Yorkshire, in the Saxon times. The picture which he draws we in Canada can realize with great perfectness. " Could a curious observer of the present day," he says, " carry himself nine or ten centuries back, and ranging the summit of Pendle, survey the forked vale of Calder on one side and the bolder margins of Ribbie and Hodder on the other, instead of populous towns and villages, the castles, the old tower-built house, the elegant modern mansion, the artificial plantation, the enclosed park and pleasure-ground, instead of uninterrupted enclosures which have driven sterility almost to the summit of the fells, how great then must have been the contrast when, ranging either at a distance or immediately beneath, his eye must have caught vast tracts of forest-ground, stagnating with bog or darkened by native woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag and the wolf, had scarcely learned the supremacy of man, when, directing his view to the intermediate spaces, to the widening of the valleys, or expanse of plains beneath, he could only have distinguished a few insulated patches of culture, each encircling a village of wretched cabins, among which would still be remarked one rude mansion of wood, scarcely equal in comfort to a modern cottage, yet there rising proudly eminent above the rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded 468 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. by his faithful cotarii, enjoyed a rude and solitary independence, having no superior but his sovereign.'' This writer asks us to carry ourselves nine or ten centuries back, to realize the picture which he has conceived. From the upland here in the vicinity of Drynoch, less than half a century ago, gaz- ing southwards over the expanse thence to be commanded, we should have beheld a scene closely resembling that which, as he supposed, was seen from the summit of Pendle in the Saxon days ; while at the present day we see everywhere, throughout the same expanse, an approximation to the old mother-lands, England, Ire- land, and Scotland, in condition and appearance : in its style of agriculture, and the character of its towns, villages, hamlets, farm- houses, and country villas. We now entered a region once occupied by a number of French military refugees. During the revolution in France, at the close of the last century, many of the devotees of the royalist cause passed over into England, where, as elsewhere, they were known and spoken of as bmigris. Amongst them were numerous officers of the regular army, all of them, of course, of the noblesse order, or else, as the inherited rule was, no commission in the King's service could have been theirs. When now the royal cause became desperate, and they had suffered the loss of all their worldly goods, the British Government of the day, in its sympathy for the monar- chical cause in France, offered them grants of land in the newly organized province of Upper Canada. Some of them availed themselves of the generosity of the Bri- tish Crown. Having been comrades in arms they desired to occupy a block of contiguous lots. Whilst there was yet almost all west- ern Canada to choose from, by some chance these Oak Ridges, especially difficult to bring under cultivation and somewhat sterile when subdued, were preferred, partly perhaps through the influence of sentiment ; they may have discovered some resemblance to re- gions familiar to themselves in their native land. Or in a mood inspired and made fashionable by Rousseau they may have longed for a lodge in some vast wilderness, where the " mortal coil " which had descended upon the old society of Europe should no longer harass them. When twitted by the passing wayfarer who had se- lected land in a more propitious situation, they would point to the gigantic boles of the surrounding pines in proof of the intrinsic § 27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing 469 excellence of the soil below, which must be good, they said, to nourish such a vegetation. After all, however, this particular locality may have been selected rather for them than by them. On the early map of 1798 a range of nine lots on each side of Yonge Street, just here in the Ridges, is bracketed and marked, " French Royalists : by order of his Honor," i.e., the President, Peter Russell. A postscript to the Gazetteer of 1799 gives the reader the information that "lands have been appropriated in the year of York as a refuge for some French Royalists, and their settlement has commenced." On the Vaughan side, No. 56 was occupied conjointly by Michel Saigeon and Francis Reneoux ; No. 57 by Julien le Bugle; No. 58 by Ren6 Aug. Comte de Chalus, Amboise de Farcy and Quet- ton St. George conjointly ; No. 59 by Quetton St. George j No. 60 by Jean Louis Vicomte des Chalus. In King, No. 61 by Ren6 Aug. Comte de Chalus and Augustin Boiton conjointly. On the Markham side : No. 52 is occupied by the Comte de Puisaye ; No. 53 by Ren6 Aug. Comte de Chalus ; No. 54 by Jean Louis Vi- comte de Chalus and Ren6 Aug. Comte de Chalus conjointly ; — No. 55 by Jean Louis Vicomte de Chalus; No. 66 by le Cheva- lier de Marseuil and Michael Fauchard conjointly ; No. 57 by the Chev. de Marseuil ; No. 58 by Ren<§ Letourneaux, Augustin Boi- ton and J. L. Vicomte de Chalus conjointly ; No. 59 by Quetton St. George and Jean Furon conjointly; No. 60 by Amboise de Farcy. In Whitchurch, No. 61 by Michel Saigeon. After felling the trees in a few acres of their respective allot- ments, some of these emigres withdrew from the country. Hence in the Ridges was to be seen here and there the rather unusual sight of abandoned clearings returning to a state of nature. The officers styled Comte and Vicomte de Chalus derived their title from the veritable domain and castle of Chalus in Normandy, associated in the minds of young readers of English History with the death of Richard Cceur de Lion. Jean Louis de Chalus, whose name appears on numbers 54 and in 55 Markham and on other lots, was a Major-General in the Royal Army of Brittany. At the balls given by the Governor and others at York, the jewels of Ma- dame la Comtesse created a great sensation, wholly surpassing everything of the kind that had hitherto been seen by the ladies of Upper Canada. Amboise de Farcy, of No. 58 in Vaughan and No. 60 in Markham, had also the rank of General. Augustin Boi- 470 Toronto of Old. [§ 2 7* ton, of No. 48 in Markham and No. 61 in Vaughan, was a Lieute- nant-Colonel. The Comte de Puisaye, of No. 52 in Markham, figures conspi- cuously in the contemporary accounts of the royalist struggle against the Convention. He himself published in London in. 1803 five octavo volumes of Memoirs, justificatory of his proceedings in that contest. Carlyle in his " French Revolution" speaks of de Puisaye's work, and, referring to the so-called Calvados war, says that those who are curious in such matters may read therein " how our Girondin National forces, i.e., the Moderates, marching off with plenty of wind music, were drawn out about the old chateau ■ of Br6court, in the wood-country near Vernon (in Brittany), to meet the Mountain National forces (the Communist) advancing from Paris. How on the fifteenth afternoon of July, 1793, they did meet : — and, as it were, shrieked mutually, and took mutually to flight, without loss. How Puisaye thereafter, — for the Mountain Nationals fled first, and we thought ourselves the victors, — was- roused from his warm bed in the Castle of Brdcourt and had to gallop without boots ; our Nationals in the night watches having fallen unexpectedly into sauve qui pent." Carlyle alludes again to this misadventure, when approaching the subject of the Quiberon expedition, two years later, towards the close of La Vendee war. Affecting for the moment a pro- phetic tone, in his peculiar way Carlyle proceeds thus, introducing at the close of his sketch de Puisaye once more, who was in command of the invading force spoken of, although not undividedly so. "In the month of July, 1795, English ships," he says, "will ride in Quiberon roads. There will be debarkation of chivalrous ci-devants, {i.e. ex-noblesse), of volunteer prisoners of war — eager to desert; of fire-arms, proclamations, clothes chests, royalists, and specie. Whereupon also, on the Republican side, there will be rapid stand-to arms ; with ambuscade-marchings by Quiberon beach at midnight ; storming of Fort Penthi£vre ; war-thunder mingling with the roar of the mighty main j and such a morning light as has seldom dawned ; debarkation hurled back into its boats, or into the devouring billows, with wreck and wail j — in one word, a ci-devant Puisaye as totally ineffectual here as he was at Calvados, when he rode from Vernon Castle without boots." The impression which Carlyle gives of M. de Puisaye is not greatly bettered by what M. de Lamartine says of him in the His- § 27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 471 tory of the Girondists, when speaking of him in connexion with the affair near the Chateau of Brecourt. He is there ranked with adventurers rather than heroes. " This man," de Lamartine says, " was at once an orator, a diplomatist, and a soldier, — a character eminently adapted for civil war, which produces more adventurers than heroes." De Lamartine describes how, prior to the repulse at Chateau Brecourt, " M. de Puisaye had passed a whole year con- cealed in a cavern in the midst of the forests of Brittany, where, by his manoeuvres and correspondence he kindled the fire of re- volt against the republic." He professed to act in the interest of the moderates, believing that, through his influence, they would at last be induced to espouse heartily the cause of constitutional royalty. Thiers, in his " History of the French Revolution," vii. 146, speaks in respectful terms of Puisaye. He says that " with great intelligence and extraordinary skill in uniting the elements of a party, he combined extreme activity of body and mind, and vast ambition :" and even after Quiberon, Thiers says " it was certain that Puisaye had done all that lay in his power." De Puisaye ended his days in England, in the neighbourhood of London, in 1827. — In one of the letters of Mr. Surveyor Jones we observe some of the improvements of the Oak Ridges spoken of as " Pui- saye's Town." It is possibly to the settlement, then only in contemplation, of emigre's here iu the Oak Ridges of Yonge Street, that Burke al- ludes, when in his Reflections on the French Revolution he says : " I hear that there are considerable emigrations from France, and that many, quitting that voluptuous climate and that seductive Circean liberty, have taken refuge in the frozen regions, and under the British despotism, of Canada." " The frozen regions of Canada," the great rhetorician's expres- sion in this place, has become a stereotyped phrase with declaim- ers. The reports of the first settlers at Tadousac and Quebec made an indelible impression on the European mind. To this day in transatlantic communities, it is realized only to a limited extent that Canada has a spring, summer and autumn as well as a winter, and that her skies wear an aspect not always gloomy and inhospi- table. " British despotism " is, of course, ironically said, and means, in reality, British constitutional freedom. (In some in- stances these Royalist officers appear to have accepted commis- 472 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. sions from the British Crown, and so to have become nominally entitled to grants of land.) There are some representatives of the original 6migr6s still to be met with in the neighbourhood of the Oak Ridges ; but they have not in every instance continued to be seised of the lands granted in 1798. The Comte de Chalus, son of Rene" Augustin, retains property here ; but he resides in Montreal. An estate, however, at the distance of one lot eastward from Yonge Street, in Whitchurch, is yet in the actual occupation of a direct descendant of one of the first settlers in this region. Mr. Henry Quetton St. George here engages with energy in the various operations of a practical farmer, on land inherited immediately from his father, the Chevalier de St. George, at the same time dis- pensing to his many friends a refined hospitality. If at Glenlonely the circular turrets and pointed roofs of the old French chateau are not to be seen, — what is of greater importance, the amenities and gentle life of the old French chateau are to be found. More- over, by another successful enterprise added to agriculture, the present proprietor of Glenlonely has brought it to pass that the name of St. George is no longer suggestive, as in the first instance it was, of wars in La Vendee and fightings on the Garonne and Dordogne, but redolent in Canada, far and wide, only of vine- yards in Languedoc and of pleasant wines from across the Pyrenees. A large group of superior farm buildings, formerly seen on the right just after the turn which leads to Glenlonely, bore the grace- ful name of Larchmere, — an appellation glancing at the mere or little lake within view of the windows of the house : a sheet of water more generally known as Lake Willcocks — so called from an early owner of the spot, Col. Willcocks, of whom we have spoken in another section. Larchmere was for some time the home of his great grandson, William Willcocks Baldwin. The house has since been destroyed by fire. Just beneath the surface of the soil on the borders of the lakelets of the Ridges, was early noticed a plentiful deposit of white shell- marl, resembling the substance brought up from the oozy floor of the Atlantic in the soundings preparatory to laying the telegraph- cable. It was, in fact, incipient chalk. It used to be employed in the composition of a whitewash for walls and fences. It may since have been found of value as a manure. In these quarters, § 27.] Yonge St. y (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 473 as elsewhere in Canada, fine specimens of the antlers of the Wapiti, or great American stag, were occasionally dug up. The summit level of the Ridges was now reached, the most elevated land in this part of the basin of the St. Lawrence ; a height, however, after all, of only about eight hundred feet above the level of the sea. The attention of the wayfarer was hereabout always directed to a small stream, which the road crossed, flowing out of Lake Willcocks : and then a short distance further on, he was desired to notice a slight swale or shallow morass on the left. The stream in question, he was told, was the infant H umber, just starting south for Lake Ontario ; while the swale or morass, he was assured, was a feeder of the east branch of the Holland River, flowing north into Lake Simcoe. Notwithstanding the comparative nearness to each other of the waters of the Holland and the Humber, thus made visible to the eye, the earliest project of a canal in these parts was, as has once before been observed, for the connection, not of the Holland river and the Humber, but of the Holland river and the Rouge or Nen. The Mississaga Indians attacted great importance to the Rouge and its valley as a link in one of their ancient trails between Huron and Ontario ; and they seem to have imparted to the first white men their own notions on the subject. "It apparently rises," says the Gazetteer of 1799, speaking of the Rouge or Nen, " in the vicinity of one of the branches of Holland's river, with which it will probably, at some future period, be connected by a canal." A " proposed canal n is accordingly here marked on one of the first manuscript maps of Upper Canada. / Father St. Lawrence and Father Mississippi pour their streams — so travellers assure us — from urns situated at no great distance apart. Lake Itaska and its vicinity, just west of Lake Superior, possess a charm for this reason. In like manner, to compare small things with great, the particular quarter of the Ridges where the waters of the Humber and the Holland used to be seen in near proximity to each other, had always with ourselves a special interest. Two small lakes, called respectively Lake Sproxton and Lake Simon, important feeders of the Rouge, a little to the east of the Glenlonely property, are situated very close to the streams that pass into the east branch of the Holland river ; so that the con- jecture of the author of the Gazetteer was a good one. He says, 474 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. " apparently the sources of the Rouge and Holland lie near each otherV' After passing the notable locality of the Ridges just spoken of, the land began perceptibly to decline ; and soon emerging from the confused glens and hillocks and woods that had long on every side been hedging in the view, we suddenly came out upon a brow where a wide prospect was obtained, stretching far to the north, and far to the east and west. From such an elevation the acres here and there denuded of their woods by the solitary axemen could not be distinguished ; accordingly, the panorama presented here for many a year continued to be exactly that which met the eyes of the first exploring party from York in 1793. As we used to see it, it seemed in effect to be an unbroken forest ; in the foreground bold and billowy and of every variety of green ; in the middle distance assuming neutral, indistinct tints, as it dipped down into what looked like a wide vale ; then apparently rising by successive gentle stages, coloured now deep violet, now a tender blue, up to the line of the sky. In a depression in the far horizon, immediately in front, was seen the silvery sheen of water. This, of course, was the lake known since 1793 as Lake Simcoe ; but previously spoken of by the French sometimes as Lake Sinion or Sheniong j sometimes as Lake Ouentironk, Ouentaron, and Toronto — the very name which is so familiar to us now, as apper- taining to a locality thirty miles southward of this lake. The French also in their own tongue sometimes designated it, perhaps for some reason connected with fishing operations, Lac aux Claies, Hurdle Lake. Thus in the Gazetteer of 1799 we have " Simcoe Lake : formerly Lake aux Claies, Ouentironk, Sheniong, situated between York and Gloucester upon Lake Huron : it has a few small islands and several good harbours." And" again on another page of the same Gazetteer, we have the article : " Toronto Lake (or Toronto) : lake le Clie [/. e. Lac aux Claies] was formerly so called by some: (others," the same article proceeds to say, " called the chain of lakes from the vicinity of Matchedash towards the head of the Bay of Quints, the Toronto lakes and the com- munication from the one to the other was called the Toronto river : " whilst in another place in the Gazetteer we have the in- formation given us that the Humber was also styled the Toronto river, thus : " Toronto river, called by some St. John's \ now called the Humber.") § 27.] Yonge St. /Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 475 The region of which we here obtained a kind of Pisgah view, where " The bursting prospect spreads immense around " on the northern brow of the Ridges, is a classic one, renowned in the history of the Wyandots or Hurons, and in the early French missionary annals. It did not chance to enter into the poet Longfellow's plan to lay the scene of any portion of his song of Hiawatha so far to the east- ward j and the legends gathered by him From the great lakes of the Northland, From the mountains, moors and fenlands, Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes — tell of an era just anterior to the period when this district becomes invested with interest for us. Francis Parkman, however, in an agreeably written work, entitled " The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century," has dwelt somewhat at length on the history of this locality, which is the well-peopled Toronto region,. lieu oil il y a beaucoup de gens, of which we have formerly spoken. (P- 74.) In the early Reports of the Jesuit fathers themselves, too,, this area figures largely. They, in fact, constructed a map, which must have led the central mission-board of their association, at Rome, to believe that this portion of Western Canada was as. thickly strewn with villages and towns as a district of equal area in old France. In the " Chorographia Regionis Huronum," attached to Father du Creux's Map cf New France, of the date 1660, given in Bressani's Abridgment of" the Relations," we have the following places conspicuously marked as stations or sub-missions in the peninsula bounded by Notawasaga bay, Matchedash or Sturgeon bay, the river Severn, Lake Couchichin, and Lake Simcoe, implying population in and round each of them : — St. Xavier, St. Charles, St. Louis, St. Ignatius, St. Denis, St. Joachim,. St. Athanasius, St. Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph,. St. Mary, St. Michael, La Conception, St. Mary Magdalene, and others. (In Schoolcraft's American Indians, p. 130, ed. 1851, the scene of the story of Aingodon and Naywadaha is laid at Toronto, by 476 Toronto of Old. [§ 2.7. which a spot near Lake Simcoe seems to be meant, and not the trading-post of Toronto on Lake Ontario.) But we must push on. The end of our journey is in sight. The impediments to our advance have been innumerable, but unavoid- able. In spite of appearances, " Semper ad eventum festina," has all along been secretly goading us forward. The farmhouses and their surroundings in the Quaker settlement through which, after descending from the Ridges on the northern side, we passed, came to be notable at an early date for a charac- teristic neatness, completeness, and visible judiciousness ; and for an air of enviable general comfort and prosperity. The farmers here were emigrants chiefly from Pennsylvania. Coming from a •quarter where large tracts had been rapidly transformed by human toil from a state of nature to a condition of high cultivation, they brought with them an inherited experience in regard to such matters ; and on planting themselves down in the midst of an unbroken wild, they regarded the situation with more intelligence perhaps than the ordinary emigrant from the British Islands and interior of Germany, and so, unretarded by blunders and by doubts as to the issue, were enabled very speedily to turn their industry to profitable account. The old Gazetteer of 1799 speaks in an exalted sentimental strain of an emigration then going on from the United States into Canada. " The loyal peasant," it says, " sighing after the government he lost by the late revolution, travels from Pennsylvania in search of his former laws and protection ; and having his expectations fulfilled by new marks of favour from the Crown in a grant of lands, he turns his plough at once into these fertile plains [the immediate reference is to the neighbourhood of Woodhouse on Lake Erie], and an abundant crop reminds him of his gratitude to his God and to his king." We do not know for certain whether the Quaker settlers of the region north of the Ridges came into Canada under the influence of feelings exactly such as those described by the Gazetteer of 1799. In 1806, however, we find them coming forward in a body to congratulate a new Lieutenant-Governor on his arrival in Upper Canada. In the Gazette of Oct. 4, 1806, we read : " On Tuesday, the 30th September (1806), the following address from the Quakers residing on Yonge Street was presented to his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor : " The Society of the people called Quakers, § 27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 477 to Francis Gore, Governor of Upper Canada, sendeth greeting. Notwithstanding we are a people who hold forth to the world a principle which in many respects differs from the greater part of mankind, yet we believe it our reasonable duty, as saith the Apostle, 'Submit yourselves unto every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well :' in this we hope to be his humble and peaceful subjects. Although we cannot for conscience sake join with many of our fellow-mortals in complimentary customs of man, neither in taking up the sword in order to shed human blood — for the Scripture saith that ' it is righteousness that exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people ' — we feel concerned for thy welfare and the prosperity of the province, hoping thy admin- istration may be such as to be a terror to the evil-minded and a pleasure to them that do well : then will the province flourish and prosper under thy direction j which is the earnest desire and prayer of thy sincere friends. — Read and approved in Yonge Street monthly meeting, held the 18th day of the ninth month, 1806. Timothy Rogers and Amos Armitage are appointed to attend on the Governor therewith. Signed by order of the said meeting, Nathaniel Pearson, clerk." To this address, characteristic alike in the peculiar syntax of its sentences and r£ the well-meant platitudes to which it gives expression, his Excellency was pleased to return the following answer : " I return you my thanks for your dutiful address and for your good wishes for my welfare and prosperity of this province. I have no doubt of your proving peaceful and good subjects to his Majesty, as well a§v industrious and respectable members of society. I shall at all times be happy to afford to such persons my countenance and support. Francis Gore, Lieut-Governor. Government House, York, Upper Canada, 30th Sept., 1806." The Timothy Rogers" here named bore a leading part in the first establishment of the Quaker settlement. He and Jacob Lundy were the two original managers of its affairs. On the arrival of Governor Peter Hunter, predecessor to Gov. Gore, Timothy Rogers and -Jacob Lundy with a deputation from the settlement, came into town to complain to him of the delay which they and their co-religionists had experienced in obtaining the patents for their lands. 478 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. Governor Hunter, who was also Commander-in-Chief and a Lieut. -General in the army, received them in the garrison, and after hearing how on coming to York on former occasions they had been sent about from one office to another for a reply to their inquiries about the patents, he requested them to come to him again the next day at noon. Orders were at the same instant -despatched to Mr. D. W. Smith, the Surveyor-General, to Mr. Small, Clerk of the Executive Council, to Mr. Burns, Clerk of the •Crown, and to Mr. Jarvis, Secretary and Registrar of the Province {all of whom it appeared at one time or another had failed to reply satisfactorily to the Quakers), to wait at the same hour on the Lieut.-Governor, bringing with them, each respectively, such papers and memoranda as might be in their possession, having relation to patents for lands in Whitchurch and King. Governor Hunter had a reputation for considerable severity of character ; and all functionaries, from the judge on the bench to the humblest employe, held office in those days very literally during pleasure. "These gentlemen complain," — the personages above enu- merated having duly appeared, together with the deputation from Yonge Street — " These gentlemen complain," the Governor said, pointing to the Quakers, " that they cannot get their patents." Each of the official personages present offered in succession some indistinct observations ; expressive it would seem of a degree of regret, and hinting exculpatory reasons, so far as he individually was concerned. On closer interrogation, one thing however came out very clear, that the order for the patents was more than twelve months old. At length the onus of blame seemed to settle down on the head of the Secretary and Registrar, Mr. Jarvis, who could only say that really the pressure of business in his office was so great that he had been absolutely unable, up to the present moment, to get ready the particular patents referred to. "Sir !" was the Governor's immediate rejoinder, "if they are not forthcoming, every one of them, and placed in the hands of these gentlemen here in my presence at noon on Thursday next (it was now Tuesday), by George ! I'll un-Jarvis you ! " — im- plying, as we suppose, a summary conge" as Secretary and Registrar. It is needless to say that Mr. Rogers and his colleagues of the deputation carried back with them to Whitchurch lively accounts § 2J.~] Yonge St. {Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 479 of the vigour and rigour of the new Governor — as well as their patents. General Hunter was very peremptory in his dismissals occasion- ally. In a Gazette of July 16, 1803, is to be seen an ominous announcement that the Governor is going to be very strict with the Government clerks in regard to hours : " Lieut.-Governor's office, 21st June, 1803. Notice is hereby given that regular atten- dance for the transaction of the public business of the Province will in future be given at the office of the Secretary of the Pro- vince, the Executive Council office, and the Surveyor-General's office, every day in the year (Sundays, Good Friday, and Christ- mas day only excepted) from ten o'clock in the morning until three in the afternoon, and from five o'clock in the afternoon until seven in the evening. By order of the Lieutenant-Governor, Jas. Green, Secretary." Soon after the appearance of this notice, it happened one forenoon that young Alexander Macnab, a clerk in one of the public offices, was innocently watching the Governor's debarkation from a boat, preparatory to his being conveyed up to the Council-chamber in a sedan-chair which was in waiting for him. The youth suddenly caught his Excellency's eye, and was asked — "What business he had to be there? Did he not belong to the Surveyor-General's office ? Sir ! your services are no longer required !" For this same young Macnab, thus summarily dismissed, Governor Hunter, we have been told, procured subsequently a commission. He attained the rank of captain and met a soldier's fate on the field of Waterloo, the only Upper Canadian known to have been engaged or to have fallen in that famous battle. (We have before mentioned that so late as 1868, Captain Macnab's Waterloo medal was presented, by the Duke of Cambridge per- sonally, to the Rev. Dr. Macnab, of Bowmanville, nephew of the deceased officer.) Two stray characteristic items relating to Governor Hunter may here be subjoined. The following was his brief reply to the Address of the Inhabitants of York on his airival there in 1799 : — "■ Gentlemen, nothing that is in my power shall be wanting to con- tribute to the happiness and welfare of this colony." {Gazette, Aug. 24, 1799) — At Niagara, ah Address from "the mechanics and husbandmen " was refused by him, on the ground that an address professedly from the inhabitants generally had been pre- 480 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. sented already. On this, the Constellation of Sep. 10 (1799), prints the following " anecdote," which is a hit at Gov. Hunter. " Anec- dote. — When Governor Simcoe arrived at Kingston on his way here to take upon him the government of the Province, the magistrates and gentlemen of that town presented him with a very polite address. It was politely and verbally answered. The inhabitants of the country and town, who move not in the upper circles, presented theirs. And this also his Excellency very politely answered, and the answer being in writing, is carefully pre- served to this day." Among the patents carried home by Mr. Timothy Rogers, above named, were at least seven in which he was more or less personally interested. His own lot was 95 on the west or King side of Yonge Street. Immediately in front of him on the Whitchurch or east side, on lots 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, and 96, all in a row, were enjoyed by sons or near relatives of his, bearing the names respectively of Rufus Rogers, Asa Rogers, Isaac Rogers, Wing Rogers, James Rogers, and Obadiah Rogers. Mr. Lundy's name does not appear among those of the original patentees; but lots or portions of lot in the "Quaker Settlement" are marked at an earlier period with the names of Shadrach Lundy, Oliver Lundy, Jacob Lundy, Reuben Lundy, and perhaps more. In the region just beyond the Ridges there were farmers also of the community known as Mennonists or Tunkers. Long beards, when such appendages were rarities, dangling hair, antique-shaped, buttonless, home-spun coats, and wide-brimmed low-crowned hats, made these persons conspicuous in the street. On the seat of a loaded country-waggon, or on the back of a solitary rustic nag, would now and then be seen a man of this community, who might pass for John Huss or John a Lasco, as represented in the pictures. It was always curious to gaze upon these waifs and strays from old Holland, perpetuating, or at least trying to perpetuate, on a new continent, customs and notions originating in the peculiar circum- stances of obscure localities in another hemisphere three hundred years ago. Simon Menno, the founder and prophet of the Mennonists, was a native of Friesland in 1496. He advocated the utmost rigour of life. Although there are, as we are informed, modernized Men- nonists now in Holland, at Amsterdam, for example, who are distinguished for luxury in their tables, their equipages and their §27.] Yonge St. ; (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing 481 country seats, yet a sub-section of the community known as Uke- Wallists, from one Uke Walles, adhere to the primitive strictness enjoined by Menno. Their apparel, we are told, is mean beyond expression, and they avoid everything that has the most distant appearance of elegance or ornament. They let their beards grow to an enormous length j their hair, uncombed, lies in a disorderly manner on their shoulders ; their countenances are marked with the strongest lines of dejection and melancholy; and their habita- tions and household furniture are such as are only fitted to answer the demands of mere necessity. " We shall not enlarge," Mosheim adds, " upon the circumstances of their ritual, but only observe that they prevent all attempts to alter or modify their religious dis- cipline, by preserving their people from everything that bears the remotest aspect of learning and science ; from whatever, in a word, that may have a tendency to enlighten their devout ignorance." The sympathies of our primitive Tunkers beyond the Ridges, were, as we may suppose, with this section of the fatherland Men- nonists. Thus, to get the clue to social phenomena which we see around us here in Canada, we have to concern ourselves occasionally with uninviting pages, not only of Irish, Scottish and English religious history, but of German and Netherlandish religious history likewise. Pity 'tis, in some respects, that on a new continent our immigrants could not have made a tabula rasa of the past, and taken a start de novo on another level — a higher one ; on a new gauge — a widened one. Though only a minute fraction of our population, an exception was early made by the local parliament in favour of the Mennonists or Tunkers, allowing them to make affirmations in the Courts, like the Quakers, and to compound for military service. — Like Lollard, Quaker and some other similar terms, Tunker, /*. e. Dipper, was probably at first used in a spirit of ridicule. Digression to Newmarket and Sharon. When Newmarket came in view off to the right, a large portion of the traffic of the street turned aside for a certain distance out of the straight route to the north, in that direction. About this point the ancient dwellers at York used to take note of signs that they had passed into a higher latitude. Haifa degree EE 482 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. to the south of their homes — at Niagara, for example — they were in the land, if not of the citron and myrtle, certainly of the tulip- tree and pawpaw — where the edible chestnut grew plentifully in the natural woods, and the peach luxuriantly nourished. Now, half a degree the other way, in the tramontane region north of the Ridges, they found themselves in the presence of a vegeta- tion that spoke of an advance, however minute, towards the pole. Here, all along the wayside, beautiful specimens of the spruce-pine and balsam-fir, strangers in the forest about York, were encountered. Sweeping the sward with their drooping branches and sending up their dark green spires high in the air, these trees were always regarded with interest, and desired as graceful objects worthy to be transferred to the lawn or ornamental shrubbery. A little way off the road, on the left, just before the turn leading to Newmarket, was the great Quaker meeting-house of this region — the " Friends' Meeting-house" — a building of the usual plain cast, generally seen with its solid shutters closed up. This was the successor of the first Quaker meeting-house in Upper Canada. Here Mr. Joseph John Gurney, the eminent English Quaker, who- travelled on this continent in 1837-40, delivered several addresses, with a view especially to the re-uniting, if possible, of the Orthodox and the Hicksites. Gourlay, in his " Statistical Account of Upper Canada," took note that this Quaker meeting-house and a wooden chapel at Hogg's Hollow, belonging to the Church of England, were the only two places of public worship to be seen on Yonge Street between York and the Holland Landing — a distance, he says, of nearly forty miles. This was in 181 7. Following now the wheel-marks of clearly the majority of vehi- cles travelling on the street, we turn aside to Newmarket. Newmarket had for its germ or nucleus the mills and stores of Mr. Elisha Beaman, who emigrated hither from the State of New York in 1806. Here also, on the branch of the Holland river, mills at an early date were established by Mr. Mordecai Millard, and tanneries by Mr. Joseph Hill. Mr. Beaman's mills became subsequently the'property of Mr. Peter Robinson, who was Com- missioner of Crown Lands in 1827, and one of the representatives of the united counties of York and Simcoe ; and afterwards, the property of his brother, Mr. W. B. Robinson, who for a time resided here, and for a number of years represented the County of § 27.] Yonge St., (Bond' sLake to Holland Landing. 483 Simcoe in the provincial parliament. Most gentlemen travelling north or to the north-west brought with them, from friends in York, a note of commendation to Mr. Robinson, whose friendly and hos- pitable disposition were well known : " Fast by the road his ever-open door Oblig'd the wealthy and reliev'd the poor." Governors, Commodores, and Commanders-in-chief, on their tours of pleasure or duty, were glad to find a momentary resting-place at a refined domestic fireside. Here Sir John Franklin was enter- tained for some days in 1835 : and at other periods, Sir John Ross and Capt. Back, when on their way to the Arctic regions. In 1847, Mr. W. B. Robinson was Commissioner of Public Works ; and, at a later period, one of the Chief Commissioners of the Canada Company. Mr. Peter Robinson was intrumental in settling the region in which our Canadian Peterborough is situated, and from him that town has its name. At Newmarket was long engaged in prosperous business Mr. John Cawthra, a member of the millionaire family of that name. Mr. John Cawthra was the first representative in the Provincial Parliament of the County of Simcoe, after the separation from the County of York. In 181 2, Mr. John Cawthra and his brother Jonathan were among the volunteers who offered themselves for the defence of the country. Though by nature inclined to peace, they were impelled to this by a sincere sense of duty. At Detroit, John assisted in conveying across the river in scows the heavy guns which were expected to be wanted in the attack on the Fort. On the slopes at Queenston, Jonathan had a hair-breadth escape. At the direction of his officer, he moved from the rear to the front of his company, giving place to a comrade, who the following instant had a portion of his leg carried away by a shot from Fort Gray, on the opposite side of the river. Also at Queenston, John, after per- sonally cautioning CoL Macdonell against rashly exposing himself, as he seemed to be doing, was called on a few minutes afterwards, to aid in carrying that officer to the rear, mortally wounded. With Newmarket too is associated the name of Mr. William Roe y a merchant there since 18 14, engaged at one time largely in the fur-trade. It was Mr. Roe who saved from capture a considerable portion of the public funds, when York fell into the hands of Gene- ral Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey in 18 13. Mr. Roe was 484 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. at the time an employe in the office of the Receiver General, Pri- deaux Selby j and by the order of General Sheaffe and the Execu- tive Council he conveyed three bags of gold and a large sum in army-bills to the farm of Chief Justice Robinson, on the Kingston road east of the Don bridge, and there buried them. The army-bills were afterwards delivered up to the enemy ; but the gold remained secreted until the departure of the invaders, and was handed over to the authorities in Dr. Strachan's parlour by Mr. Roe. The Receiver General's iron chest was also removed by Mr. Roe and deposited in the premises of Mr. Donald McLean, Clerk of the House of Assembly. Mr. McLean was killed while bravely opposing the landing of the Americans, and his house was plundered ; the strong chest was broken open and about one thou- sand silver dollars were taken therefrom. The name of Mr. Roe's partner at Newmarket, Mr. Andrew Borland, is likewise associated with the taking of York in 18 13. He was made prisoner in the fight, and in the actual struggle against capture he received six severe rifle wounds, from the effects of which he never wholly recovered. He had also been engaged at Queenston and Detroit. In the Report of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada, we have an entry made of a donation of sixty dollars to Mr. Andrew Borland on the nth June, 1813, with the note appended : " The committee of the Loyal and Patriotic Society voted this sum to Mr. Borland for his patriotic and eminent ser- vices at Detroit, Queenston and York, at which latter place he was severely wounded." We also learn from the Report that Mr. D'Arcy Boulton had pre- sented a petition to the Society in favour of Mr. Borland. The mem- bers of committee present at the meeting held June 1 ith,i8i3, were Rev. Dr. Strachan, chairman, Wm. Chewett, Esq., Wm. Allan, Esq., John Small, Esq., and Alex. Wood, Esq., secretary : and the mi- nutes state that " The petition of D'Arcy Boulton, Esq,, a member of the Society, in favour of Andrew Borland, was taken into con- sideration, and the sum of Sixty Dollars was voted to him, on account of his patriotic and eminent services at Detroit, Queenston and York, at which latter place he was most severely wounded." Mr. Borland had been a clerk in Mr. Boulton 's store. In the order to pay the money, signed by Alexander Wood, Mr. Borland is styled "a volunteer in the York Militia." He afterwards had a pension of Twenty Pounds a year. § 27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 485 In 1838 his patriotic ardour was not quenched. During the troubles of that period he undertook the command of 200 Indians who had volunteered to fight in defence of the rights of the Crown of England, if there should be need. They were stationed for a time at the Holland Landing, but their services were happily not required. From being endowed with great energy of character, and having also a familiar knowledge of the native dialects, Mr. Borland had great influence with the Indian tribes frequenting the coasts of Lakes Huron and Simcoe. Mr. Roe likewise, in his dealings with the aborigines, had acquired a considerable facility in speaking the Otchibway dialect, and had much influence among the natives. Let us not omit to record, too, that at Newmarket, not very many years since, was successfully practising a grandson of Sir William Blackstone, the commentator on the Laws of England — Mr. Henry Blackstone, whose conspicuous talents gave promise of an eminence in his profession not unworthy of the name he bore. But his career was cut short by death. The varied character of colonial society, especially in its early crude state, the living elements mixed up in it, and the curious changes and interchanges that take place in the course of its development and consolidation, receive illustrations from ecclesi- astical as well as civil annals. We ourselves remember the church-edifice of the Anglican communion at Newmarket when it was an unplastered, unlathed clap-board shell, having repeatedly officiated in it while in that stage of its existence. Since then the congregation represented by this clap-board shell have had as pastors men like the following : a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, not undistinguished in his University, a protege of the famous Archbishop Magee, a co-worker for a time of the distinguished Dr. Walter Farquhar Hook, of Leeds, and minister of one of the modern churches there — the Rev. Robert Taylor, afterwards of Peterborough here in Canada. And since his incumbency, they have been ministered to by a former vicar of a prominent church in London, St. Michael's, Burleigh Street, a dependency of St. Martin's in Trafalgar Square — the Rev. Septimus Ramsay, who was also long the chief secretary and manager of a well-known Colonial Missionary Society which had its headquarters in London. While, on the other hand, an intervening pastor of the same 486 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. •congregation, educated for the ministry here in Canada and admitted to Holy Orders here, was transferred from Newmarket first to the vicarage of Somerton in Somersetshire, England, and, secondly, to the rectory of Clenchwarden in the county of Norfolk in England — the Rev. R. Athill. And another intervening incum- bent was, after having been also trained for the ministry and admitted to orders here in Canada, called subsequently to clerical work in the United States, being finally appointed one of the canons of the cathedral church at Chicago, by Bishop Whitehouse of Illinois : this was the Rev. G. C. Street, a near relative of the distinguished English architect of that name, designer and builder of the New Law Courts in London. As to the name " Newmarket " — in its adoption there was no desire to set up in Canada a memorial of the famous English Cambridgeshire racing town. The title chosen for the place was an announcement to this effect : " Here is an additional mart for the convenience of an increased population : a place where farmers and others may purchase and exchange commodities without being at the trouble of a journey to York or elsewhere.'' The name of the Canadian Newmarket, in fact, arose as probably that of the English Newmarket itself arose, when first established as a newly- opened place of trade for the primitive farmers and others of East Anglia and Mercia in the Anglo-Saxon period. It deserves to be added that the English church at Newmarket was, a few years back, to some extent endowed by a generous gift of valuable land made by Dr. Beswick, a bachelor medical man, whose large white house on a knoll by the Wayside was always noted by the traveller from York as he turned aside from Yonge Street for Newmarket. Proceeding onwards now from Newmarket, we speedily come to the village of Sharon (or Hope as it was once named), situated also off the direct northern route of Yonge Street. David Willson, the great notability and founder of the place, had been in his younger days a sailor, and, as such, had visited the Chinese ports. After joining the Quakers, he taught for a time amongst them as a schoolmaster. For some proceeding of his, or for some peculiarity of religious opinion, difficult to define, he was cut off from the Hicksite sub-division of the Quaker body. He then began the formation of a denomination of his own. In the bold policy of giving to his personal ideas an outward embodi- § 27.] Yonge St. {Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 487 ment in the form of a conspicuous Temple, he anticipated the shrewd prophets of the Mormons, Joseph and Hiram Smith. Willson's building was erected about 1825. Nauvoo was not commenced until the spring of 1840. In a little pamphlet published at Philadelphia in 181 5, Willson gives the following account of himself: " I, the writer," he says, " was born of Presbyterian parents in the county of Dutchess, state of New York, in North America. In 1801 I removed with my family into this province (Upper Canada), and after a few years became a member of the Society of the Quakers at my own request, as I chose a spiritual people for my brethren and sisters in religion. But after I had been a member thereof about seven years, I began to speak something of my knowledge of God or a Divine Being in the heart, soul or mind of man, all which signifies the same to my understanding, — but my language was offensive, my spirit was abhorred, my person was disdained, my company was forsaken by my brethren and sisters. After which I retired from the society and was disowned by them for so doing ; but several retired with me and were disowned also, because they would not unite in the disowning and condemning the fruits of my spirit; for, as I had been accounted a faithful member of the society for many years, they did not like to be hasty in condemna- tion. Therefore we became a separate people, and assembled ourselves together under a separate order which I immediately formed. After I retired from my former meetings — as our disci- pline led to peace with all people more than any one in my knowledge — we called ourselves Children of Peace, because we were but young therein." The following account of the Templejerected by Willson at Sha- ron is by a visitor to the village in 1835. "The building," says Mr. Patrick Shirreff in his "Tour through North America," pub- lished in Edinburgh in 1835, "* s of wood painted white externally, seventy feet high ; and consists of three storeys. The first is sixty feet square, with a door in the centre of each side and three large windows on each side of the door. On two sides there is a repre- sentation of the setting sun and the word \ Armageddon ' inscribed below. The second storey is twenty-seven feet square with three windows on each side ; and the third storey nine feet square with one window on each side. " The corners of each of the storeys are terminated by square 488 Toronto of Old. [§ 2 7- lanterns, with gilded mountings j and the termination of the build- ing is a gilded ball of considerable size. The interior was filled with wooden chairs placed round sixteen pillars, in the centre of which is a square cabinet of black walnut with a door and windows on each side. There was a table in the centre of the cabinet covered with black velvet, hung with crimson merino and fringe, in which was deposited a Bible. On the four central pillars were painted the words Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love j and on the twelve others, the names of the Apostles. The central pillars seemed to support the second storey ; and at the foot of each was- a table covered with green cloth. The house was without orna- ment, being painted fawn, green and white ; and had not a pulpit or place for addressing an audience. It is occupied once a month for collecting charity; and contains 2,952 panes of glass, and is lighted once a year with 116 candles." The materials of the frame-work of the Temple were, as we have been told, prepared at a distance from the site, and run rapidly up as far as possible without noise, in imitation of the building of Solomon's Temple. By the side of the principal edifice stood a structure 100 feet by 50 feet, used for ordinary meetings on Sun- days. On the first Friday in September used to be an annual feast, when the Temple was illuminated. In this was an organ built by Mr. Coates of York. David was an illiterate mystic, as his writings shew, in which, when the drift of his maundering is made out, there is nothing new or remarkable to be discerned. At the close of the war of 1812-13-14, he appears to have been under the impression that the Government designed to banish him as a seditious person, under c. 1. 44 Geo. III. He accordingly published a document deprecating such action. It was thus headed 1 " Address to thy Crown, O England, and thy great name. I write as follows to all the inhabitants thereof." In the course of it he says: "After I have written, I will leave God to judge between you and me ; and also to make judges of you, whether you will receive my ministry in your land in peace, yea or nay. . . . Ye are great indeed. I cannot help that, neither do I want to - r but am willing ye should remain great in the sight of God, although I am but small therein, in the things thereof. Now choose whether I should or might be your servant in these things, yea or nay. As I think, it would be a shame for a minister to be banished from § 2 7.] Yonge St. .(Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 489 your nation for preaching the gospel of peace therein. I am a man," he continues, " under the visitation of God's power in your land ; and many scandalous reports are in circulation against me. The intent of the spirit of the thing is to put me to flight from your dominions, or that I should be imprisoned therein. For which cause I, as a dutiful subject, make myself known hereby unto you of great estate in the world, lest your minds should be affected and stirred up against me without a cause by your inferiors, who seek to do evil to the works of God, whenever the Almighty is trying to do you good/' In some verses of the same date as this address to the home authorities, viz., 1815, he refers to the peril he supposed himself to- be in. A stanza or two will suffice as a specimen of his poetical productions, which are all of the same Sternhold and Hopkins type,, with the disadvantage of great grammatical irregularity. Thus he sings : (The tone of the ci-devant Jack-tar is perhaps to be slightly detected.) The powers of hell are now combin'd — If God doth give what I receive With war against me rage : The same is due to thee ; But in my God my soul's resigned — And thou in spirit must believe The rock of every age, &c. In gospel liberty, &c. Some thou doth set in king's estate, It's also mine, by George our king, And some on earth must serve ; The ruler of my day ; And some hath gold and silver plate, And yet if I dishonour bring, When others almost starve, &c. Cut short my feeble stay, &c. The earth doth hunger for my blood, For this is in your hearts to do, And Satan for my soul ; Ye inferiors of the earth ; And men my flesh for daily food, And it's in mine to do so too, That they may me control, &c. And stop that cursed birth, &c. The style of a volume entitled " Impressions" — a kind of Alco- ran, which used formerly to be sold to visitors in the Temple — does not rise much above the foregoing, either in its verse or prose. What Mosheim says of Menno's books, may be said with at least equal truth of Willson's : "An extensively diffuse and rambling style, frequent and unnecessary repetitions, an irregular and con- fused method, with other defects of equal moment, render the peru- sal of the productions highly disagreable." Nevertheless, the reduction of his solitary meditations to writing had, we may con- ceive, a pious operation and effect on Willson's own spirit ; and the 490 Toronto of Old. [§ 2 7. perusal of them may, in the simple-minded few who still profess to be his followers, ' have a like operation and effect, even when in the reading constrained, with poor monk Felix, to confess that, though believing, they do not understand. The worthy man neither won martyrdom nor suffered exile ; but lived on in great worldly prosperity here in Sharon, reverenced by his adherents as a sort of oracle, and flattered by attentions from successive political leaders on account of the influence which he might be supposed locally to possess — down to the year 1866, when he died in peace, aged eighty-nine years and seven months. Of Willson's periodical missionary expeditions into town, we have spoken in another connection. We return now to the great northern route, from which we have been deviating, and hasten on with all speed to the Landing. We place ourselves at the point on Yonge Street where we turned off to Newmarket. Proceeding onward, we saw almost immediately, on the left, the conspicuous dwelling of Mr. Irving — the Hon. Jacob ^Emilius Irving, a name historical in Canada, a Paulus ^Emilius Irving hav- ing been Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in British America in 1765, and also President for a time of the Province of Quebec. (This Paulus ^Emilius Irving had previously taken part under General Wolfe in the capture of Quebec.) The house of his descendant, Jacob ^Emilius Irving, here on Yonge Street, was known as Bonshaw, from some ancient family property in Dumfriesshire. He had been an officer in the 13th Light Dragoons, and was wounded at Waterloo. In addition to many strongly-marked English traits of character and physique, he possessed fine literary tastes, and histrionic skill of a high order, favoured by the possession of a grand barytone voice. He retained a professional liking for horses. A four-in-hand, guided by him- self, issuing from the gates at Bonshaw and whirling along Yonge Street into town, was a common phenomenon. — He died at the Falls of Niagara in 1856. Since 1843 Mr. Irving had been a member of the Upper House of United Canada. A little way back, ere we descended the northern slope of the Ridges we caught sight, as we have narrated, of the Holland River, •or at least of some portion of the branch of it with which we are immediately concerned — issuing, "anew-born rill," from one of its fountains. § 27.] Yonge St. /Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 49 1 As we traversed the Quaker settlement it was again seen, a brook meandering through meadows. This was the eastern branch of the river. The main stream lies off to the west, flowing past the modern Bradford and Lloydtown. It is at the head of the main stream that the most striking approximation of the waters of the Humber and Holland rivers is to be seen. We arrive now at the Upper Landing, the ancient canoe-landing, and we pause for a moment. Here it was that the war-parties and hunting-parties embarked and disembarked, while yet these waters were unploughed by the heavy boats of the white man. The Iroquois from the south-side of Lake Ontario penetrated the well-peopled region of the Hurons by several routes, as we have already intimated : by the great Bay of Quint6 highway ; by the trails whose termini on Lake Ontario were near respectively the modern Bowmanville and Port Hope : and thirdly by a track which we have virtually been following in this our long ramble from York j virtually, we say, for it was to the west of Yonge Street that the trail ran, following first the valley of the Humber and then that of the main stream of the Holland river. The route which Mr. Holland took when he penetrated from Toronto Bay to the head waters of the river which now bears his name, is marked in the great MS. map which he constructed in 1791. He passed up evidently along the great water-course of the Humber. "You can pass from Lake Frontenac, i. e., Ontario," Lahontan says (ii. 23), " into Lake Huron by the River Tan-a-hou-ate (the Humber), by a portage of about twenty-four miles to Lake Toronto, which by a river of the same name empties into Lake Huron," i.e. by the River Severn, as we should now speak. Hunting-parties or war-parties taking to the water here at the Upper Landing, in the pre-historic period, would probably be just about to penetrate the almost insular district, of which we have spoken, westward of Lake Simcoe, — the Toronto region, the place of concourse, the well-peopled region. But some of them might perhaps be making for the Lake Huron country and North- west generally, by the established trail having its terminus at or near Orillia (to use the modern name). In the days of the white man, the old Indian place of embarka- tion and debarkation on the Holland river, acquired the name of of the Upper Canoe-landing ; and hither the smaller craft continued to proceed. 492 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. Vessels of deeper draught lay at the Lower Landing, to which we now move on, about a mile and a half further down the stream. Here the river was about twenty-five yards wide, the banks low and bordered by a woody marsh, in which the tamarac or larch was a conspicuous tree. In a cleared space on the right, at the point where Yonge Street struck the stream, there were some long low buildings of log with strong shutters on the windows, usually closed. These were the Government depositories of naval and military stores, and Indian presents, on their way to Penetanguishene. The cluster of buildings here was once known as Fort Gwillimbury. Thus we have it written in the old Gazetteer of 1799 : " It is thirty miles from York to Holland river, at the Pine Fort called Gwillimbury, where the road ends." Gait, in his Autobiography, speaks of this spot. He travelled from York to Newmarket in one day. This was in 1827. " Then next morning, " he says, " we went forward to a place on the Hol- land river, called Holland's Landing, an open space which the Indians and fur-traders were in the habit of frequenting. It presented to me," he adds, "something of a Scottish aspect in the style of the cottages ; but instead of mountains the environs were covered with trees. We embarked at this place." He was on his way to Goderich at the time, via Penetanguishene. The river Holland, at which we have so long been labouring to arrive, had its name from a former surveyor-general of the Province of Quebec, prior to the setting-off of the Province of Upper Canada — Major S. Holland. In the Upper Canada Gazette of Feb. 13, 1802, we have an obituary notice of this official personage. His history also, it will be observed, was mixed up with that of General Wolfe. " Died," the obituary says, "on the 28th instant (that is, on the 28th of December, 1801, the article being copied from the Quebec Gazette of the 3 1st of the preceding December), of a lingering illness, which he bore for many years with Christian patience and resignation, Major S. Holland. " He had been in his time," the brief memoir proceeds to say, "an intrepid, active, and intelligent officer, never making difficulties, however arduous the duty he was employed in. He was an excel- lent field-engineer, in which capacity he was employed in the year 1758 at the siege of Louisbourg in the detachment of the army § 27.] Yonge St. pond's Lake to Holland Landing, 493 under General Wolfe, who after silencing the batteries that opposed our entrance into the harbour, and from his own setting fire to three ships of the line, and obliging the remainder in a disabled state to haul out of cannon shot, that great officer by a rapid and unexpected movement took post within four hundred yards of the town, from whence Major Holland, under his directions, carried on the approaches, destroyed the defences of the town, and making a practicable breach, obliged the enemy to capitulate. He distinguished himself also at the conquest of Quebec in 1759, and was made honourable mention of in Gen. Wolfe's will as a legatee. He also distinguished himself in the defence of Quebec in 1760, after General Murray's unsuccessful attack on the enemy. — After the peace he was appointed Surveyor- General of this Province, and was usefully employed in surveying the American coasts, from which survey those draughts published some years since by Major Debarres have been principally taken." Major Holland was succeeded in the Surveyor-generalship of Lower Canada by a nephew — the distinguished Colonel Joseph Bouchette. In 1791 Major Holland constructed a map of the British Province of Quebec, on the scale of six inches to the square mile. It exists in MS. in the Crown Land Office of Ontario. It is a magnificent map. On it, Lake Simcoe is left undefined on one side, not having been explored in 1791. It was in 1832 that the project of a steamer for the Holland river and Lake Simcoe was mooted. We give a document relating to this undertaking which we find in the Courier of Feb. 29, in that year, published at York. The names of those who were willing to embark, however moderately, in the enterprise are of interest. It will be observed that the expenditure contemplated was not enor- mous. To modern speculators in any direction, what a bagatelle seems the sum of ,£2,000 ! " Steamboat on Lake Simcoe : " thus runs an advertisement in the Courier of Feb. 29, 1832. " Persons who feel interested in the success of this undertaking, are respectfully informed that Capt. McKenzie, late of the Alciope, who has himself offered to subscribe one-fourth of the sum required to build the proposed steamboat, is now at Buffalo for the purpose of purchasing an Engine, to be delivered at Holland Landing during the present winter. Capt. McKenzie, who visited Lake Simcoe last summer, is of opinion that a boat of sufficient size and power for the business of the Lake 494 Toronto of Old. [§ 27. can be built for ^1,250. In order, however, to ensure success, it is proposed that stock to the amount of ^2,000 should be subscribed ; and it is hoped that this sum will be raised without delay, in order that the necessary steps may be taken, on the return of Capt Mc- Kenzie, to commence building the boat with the view to its com- pletion by the opening of the navigation. — The shares are Twelve Pounds ten shillings each, payable to persons chosen by the Stock- holders. The following shares have been already taken up, viz. : The Hon. Peter Robinson, 8 shares ; F. Hewson, 1 j Edw. O'Brien, 2 ; W. B. Robinson, 4 ; W. R. Raines, 4 ; J. O. Bouchier, 2 ; Wm. Johnson, 2 ; John Cummer, 1 ; T. Mossington, 2 ; A. M. Raines, 1 j Robert Clark, 1 ; Robert Johnston, 1 ; M. Mossington, 1 : B. Jefferson, 1 j J. M. Jackson, 1 ; R. Oliver, 1 ; Wm. Turner, 2 ; L. Cameron, 1 j F. Osborne, 2 ; j. Graham, 1 \ J. White, 1 ; S. H. Farnsworth, 1 ; Andrew Mitchell, 5 ; Murray, Newbigging and Co., 2 ; Capt. Creighton, 2 j Captain McKenzie, 40 ; Canada Com- pany, 8 ; J. F. Smith, 2 j John Powell, 1 ; Grant Powell, 2 j A. Smalley, 1 j Samuel P. Jarvis, 1 ; James E. Small, 1 ; R. W. Parker, 1 j D. Cameron, 1 ; Capt. Castle, 79th Regt., 8 ; James Doyle, 2 ; Francis Phelps, East Gwillimbury, 1 j G. Lount, West Gwillimbury, 1 j Samuel Lount, West Gwillimbury, 1 ; George Playter, Whit- church, 1 ; Joseph Hewett, 1 ; Thomas A. Jebb, 2 j Charles S. Monck, Haytesbury, 1 ; G. Ridout, 2 ; T. G. Ridout, 1 j Thomas Radenhurst, 1 j Major Barwick, 2 ; Capt. W. Campbell, 2 ; C. C. Small, 1 ; J. Ketchum, i j Capt. Davies, 2 j Lieut. Car- thew, 2 j Capt. Ross, 1 ; C. McVittie, 1 j Lieut. Adams, 1 j S. Washburn, 2 ; J. C. Godwin, 1 ; F. T. Billings, 2 j Thorne and Parsons, 2 j James Pearson, 1 ; R. Mason, 2 ; Wm. Laughton, 2 ; Wm. Ware, 1 ; A. H. Tonge, 1 j Sheldon, Dutcher & Co., 1 ; Jabez Barber, 1 ; R. W. Prentice, 1 j T. Bell, 1 j Lucius O'Brien, 1 ; — Total, 162 shares. Persons who are desirous of taking shares in this boat are respectfully informed that the subscription paper is lying at the Store of Messrs. Murray, Newbigging and Co., where they can have an opportunity of entering their names. York, 21st Dec, 183 1." The movement here initiated resulted in the steamer Simcoe, which plied for some years between the Landing and the ports of Lake Simcoe. The Simcoe was built at the Upper Landing, and after being launched, it was necessary to drag the boat by main force down to deep water, through the thick sediment at the bottom §27.] Yonge St., (Bond's Lake to Holland Landing. 495 of the stream. During the process, while the capstan and tackle or other arrangement was being vigorously worked, — instead of the boat advancing — the land in considerable mass moved bodily towards the boat, like a cake of ice set free from the main floe. Much of the ground and marsh in the great estuary of the Holland river is said to be simply an accumulation of earthy and vegetable matter, resting on water. The Simcoe was succeeded by the Peter Robinson, Capt Bell ; the Beaver, Capt. Laughton, and other steamers. Standing on the deck of the Beaver, we have ourselves more than once threaded the windings of the Holland river ; and we well remember how, like sentient things in a kind of agony, the- broad floating leaves of the lilies along its eastern margin writhed and flapped as the waters were drawn away from under them by the powerful action of the wheels in the middle of the stream. " The navigation of the . Holland river," Capt. Bonnycastle observes in his " Canada in 1841," " is very well worth seeing, as it is a natural canal flowing through a vast marsh, and very narrow, with most serpentine convolutions, often doubling on itself. Con- ceive the difficulty of steering a large steamboat in such a course ; yet it is done every day, in summer and autumn, by means of long poles, slackening the steam, backing, &c. \ though very rarely without running a little way into the soft ground of the swamp. The motion of the paddles has, however, in the course of years, widened the channel, and prevented the growth of flags and weeds." We have been told that in the bed of the Holland river, near its mouth, solid bottom was not reached with a sounding-line of ninety feet. XXVIII. YONGE STREET : ONWARD, FROM HOLLAND LANDING TO PENETANGUISHENE. O render our narrative complete, we give in a few parting words some of the early accounts of the route from the Landing, northward as far as Penetangui- shene, which, after the breaking up of the establish- ment on Drummond's island, was for some years the most remote station in Upper Canada where the naval and military power of England was visibly represented. "After leaving Gwillimbury [/. e., the Landing]," says the Gazetteer of 1799, "you enter the Holland river and pass into Lake Simcoe, by the head of Cook's bay, to the westward of which are oak-plains, where the Indians cultivate corn ; and on the east is a tract of good land. A few small islands shew themselves as the lake opens, of which Darling's island in the eastern part, is the most considerable. To the westward is a large deep bay, called Kempenfelt's bay, from the head of which is a short carrying-place to the river Nottawasaga, which empties itself into the Iroquois bay, in Lake Huron. In the north end of the lake, near the Narrows leading to a small lake is Francis island, between which and the north shore vessels may lie in safety." It will be proper to make one or two remarks in relation to the proper names here used, which have not in every case been retained. Cook's bay, it will be of interest to remember, had its name from the great circumnavigator. Kempenfelt's bay recalls the name of the admiral who went down in the Royal George " with twice four hundred men." Darling's island was intended to preserve the § 28.] Yonge St., the Landing to (Penetanguishene. 497 name of Gen. Darling, a friend and associate of the first governor ; and Francis island bore the name of the same governor's eldest son. Canise island retains its name. The name of another island in this lake, "parallel to Darling's island," is elsewhere given in the Gazetteer as Pilkington's island — a compliment to Gen. Pilkington, a distinguished engineer officer. Darling's island, at the present day, is, we believe, known as Snake island ; and Francis island and Pilkington's island, by other names. Iroquois bay is the same as Nottawasaga bay : the interpretation, in fact, of the term " Notta- wasaga," which is the " estuary of the Nodoway " — the great indentation whence often issued on marauding expeditions the canoes of the Nodoway — so the Ochibways called the Iroquois. Lake Simcoe itself, the Gazetteer of 1799 informs us, was so named by its first explorer, not with reference to himself, but to his father. " Lake Simcoe," we read in a note at p. 138 of the work just named, was " so named by Lieut-Governor Simcoe in respect to his father, the late Capt. Simcoe of the Royal Navy, who died in the River St. Lawrence on the expedition to Quebec in 1759. In the year 1755, this able officer," the Gazetteer adds, " had furnished Government with the plan of operations against Quebec, which then took place. At the time of his death, Capt. Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator, was master of his ship the Pembroke." We here see the link of association which led to the application of the great circumnavigator's name to the bay into which the Holland river discharges itself. The Holland itself also, as we have already heard, had its name from a companion of Gen. Wolfe. We have on this continent no " old poetic mountains," no old poetic objects of any description, natural or artificial, " to breathe enchantment all around." It is all the more fitting, therefore, that we should make the most of the historic memories which, even at second hand, cling to our Canadian local names, here and there. The old Gazetteer next goes on to inform us that " from the bay west of Francis island there is a good path and a short portage into a small lake. This is the nearest way to Lake Huron, the river which falls from Lake Simcoe into Matchedash bay, called the Matchedash river, making a more circuitous passage to the north- ward and westward ; " — and Matchedash bay " opens out," it after- wards states — " into a larger basin called Gloucester or Sturgeon bay, in the chops of which lies Prince William Henry's island, open FF 498 Toronto of Old. [§ 28. to Lake Huron." It is noted also that on a peninsula in this basin some French ruins are still extant : and then it says, " between two larger promontories is the harbour of Penetanguishene, around which is good land for settlement." " Penetanguishene," it is finally added, " has been discovered to be a very excellent harbour." Again some annotations on names will not be out of place. Matchedash bay is now Sturgeon bay, and Matchedash river, the river Severn. Both bay and river have a peculiar interest for the people of Toronto, as being respectively the Toronto bay and Toronto river of the old French period. "To the north-east of the French river," Lahontan says (ii. 19), "you see Toronto bay, in which a small lake of the same name empties itself by a river not navigable on account of its rapids." (He elsewhere says this river also bore the name of the lake — Toronto.) The Duke of Gloucester was intended to be complimented in the name Gloucester bay. Prince William Henry's island has not retained its name. When it was imposed, the visit of that prince, afterwards the Duke of Kent and father of the reigning Queen, to Upper Canada, was a recent event. — The French ruins spoken of are the ruins of Fort Ste Marie near the mouth of the river Wye — the chief mission-house of the Jesuits, abandoned in 1649, s tiU visible. The " good path " and " nearest way to Lake Huron," from the bay west of Francis island, indicates the well-known trail by Coldwater, which was long the chief route to Penetanguishene j and the bay itself, west of Francis island, is the bay known in later times as Shingle bay. In 1834 an attempt was made to found a town at Shingle bay in connection with the road to Penetanguishene. In a Courier of 1834, we have the announcement : " New Town of Innisfallen. Shortly will be offered for sale several building lots in the above new Town, beautifully situated on Shingle Bay, Lake Simcoe. This being the landing-place for the trade to Penetanguishene and the northern townships," the advertisement goes on to say, " persons inclined to speculate in trade or business of any description will find this a peculiarly valuable situation, as the townships are settled with persons of respectability and capital. It will command the trade to and from the lake. Further particulars can be obtained by application to Wm. Proudfoot, Esq., or from P. Handy, auctioneer, or Francis Hewson, Esq., Lake Simcoe. April 1st, 1834." § 28.] Yonge St.,the Landing to (Penetanguishene. 499 Innisfallen, however, did not mature into a town. Orillia, just within the narrows, appears to have been a site more suited to the needs or tastes of the public. At p. 154, in the article on Yonge Street, the old Gazetteer of 1799 speaks again of the portage from Lake Simcoe to Lake Huron, via Coldwater, and calls it " a continuation of Yonge Street." It then adds the prediction, which we have once before quoted, that 41 the advantage would certainly be felt in the future of transporting merchandize from Oswego to York, and from thence across Yonge Street and down the waters of Lake Simcoe into Lake Huron, in preference to sending it by Lake Erie." And in the article on ** Lac auxClaies," i.e., as we have already said, Lake Simcoe, it is curiously stated — this is before the year 1799 — that "a vessel is now building for the purpose of facilitating the communication by that route," — but it is not said where. A " continuation of Yonge Street " in a more perfect sense, was at a later period surveyed and partially opened by the military authorities, from a point on Kempenfelt bay, a little east of the modern Barrie, in a direct line to Penetanguishene; but the natural growth of the forest had in a great degree filled up the track. In 1847, however, through the instrumentality of the Commis- sioner of Public Works of the day, the Hon. W. B. Robinson, the highway in question, sixty-six feet in width and thirty miles in length, was thoroughly cleared out and made conveniently prac- ticable for general travel. This grand avenue is almost in a direct line with Yonge Street, after the traverse of Lake Simcoe from the Landing has been accomplished. Penetanguishene, indeed, as a port, no longer requires such an approach as this. The naval and military dep6t which existed there has been abolished j and Collingwood, since it has been made the primary terminus on Lake Huron of the Northern Railway of Canada, is the place of resort for the steamers and shipping of the upper lakes. Nevertheless, the fine highway referred to yields permanently to the inhabitants of Vespra and Oro, Flos and Medonte, Tiny and Tay, the incalculable advantage of easy com- munication with each other and markets to the [south, — the same advantage that Yonge Street yielded to the settlers of Vaughan and Markham, King and Whitchurch, and the threej townships of Gwillimbury, in the primitive era of their local history. 5 Toronto of Old. [§ 28- It is, however, not improbable that Penetanguishene itself will again acquire importance when hereafter properly connected with our railway system, now so surely advancing to the north shore of Lake Huron : thence to push on to the North-West. Dr. Thomas Rolfe, in his Statistical Account of Upper Canada,, appended to his book on the West Indies and United States, spoke in 1836 of the region which we have now reached, thus : "The country about Penetanguishene on Lake Huron is remarkably healthy j the winter roads to it, crossing Lake Simcoe, excellent. In the summer months," he says, " it is delightful to persons who are pleased and entertained by the wild grandeur and simplicity of nature. The pure and transparent waters of the beautiful bay, and the verdant foliage of the vast woods on the east side of the harbour, form a very picturesque scene." Capt. Bonnycastle visited Penetanguishene in 1841. He was present at one of the periodical distributions of government presents to the Indians. A great concourse of the native people, from far and near, was assembled on the occasion. Under such circumstances, Penetanguishene and its surroundings must have presented a peculiarly interesting appearance. " I happened to be at Penetanguishene," Capt. Bonnycastle says, " when the unfortunate Pou-tah-wah-tamies and nearly two thousand other Indians arrived there, the latter to receive their annual gifts, the former to implore protection. [They had been recently removed from their lands in the United States by the U. S. authorities.] I had never seen the wild and heathen Indians before," the Captain observes, " and shall never forget the im- pression their appearance, on an August evening, with everything beautiful in the scene around, made upon me. To do honour to the commandant of the British port and his guests, these warlike savages selected for the conference a sloping green field in front of his house, whose base was washed by the waters of the Huron, which exhibited the lovely expanse of the basin, with its high and woody background, and the single sparkling islet in the middle. No spot could have been imagined more suitable. Behind it rose the high hill which, cleared of timber, is dotted here and there with the neat dwellings of the military residents." He then describes the dresses of the Indians, their painted faces, their war-dances, &c. " The garrison," he says, " is three miles from the village, and is always called the Establishment ; and in the forest between the § 28.] Yonge St. ; the Landing to (Penetanguishene. 501 two places is a new church built of wood, very small, but suffi- cient for the Established Church, as it is sometimes called, of that portion of Canada. A clergyman is constantly stationed here for the army, navy, and civilians." In regard to the provisions supplied to the soldiers and others, Capt. Bonnycastle has the following remarks : " A farmer [Mr. M airs, as we presume] on the Penetanguishene road has introduced English breeds of cattle and sheep of the best kind. He was, and perhaps still is," he says, " the contractor for the troops, and his •stock is well worth seeing. Thus the garrison is constantly sup- plied with finer meat than any other station in Canada, although more out of the world and in the wilderness, than any other ; and, as fish is plentiful, the soldiers and sailors of Queen Victoria in the Bay of the White Rolling Sand live well." Penetanguishene means " the place of the falling sands ; " the reference being to a remark- able sandy cliff which has been crumbling away from time imme- morial, on the western side of the entrance to the harbour. We have a notice of Penetanguishene in 1846, in a volume of Travels in Canada, by the Rev. A. W. H. Rose, published in 1849. " Penetanguishene," the writer says, " is situated at the bottom of a bay extremely shallow on one side, and is a small military and naval station, the latter force consisting of two iron war-steamers, of about sixty-horse power each. There is said to be a nice little society in this (until lately) out of the way station of Upper Canada. The probability is, however," remarks the same writer, " that it will, as a naval and military depdt, have to be eventually shifted to Owen Sound, where there is a military reserve specially retained in the survey, as, from the number of shoals about Penetanguishene, the island, &c, the harbour is said generally to close up with the ice three weeks earlier, and to continue shut three weeks later than at the Sound." A diagram in the Canadian Journal (i. 225), illustrating a paper by Mr. Sandford Fleming, shews the remarkable terraced character •of the high banks of the harbour at Penetanguishene. " There are appearances in various parts of this region," Mr. Fleming says, M that lead us to infer that the waters of Lake Huron, like those of Ontario, formerly stood at higher levels than they at present oc- cupy. Parallel terraces and ridges of sand and gravel can be traced at different places winding round the heads of bays and points of high land with perfect horizontality, and resembling in every res- 502 Toronto of Old. [§ 28. pect the present lake beaches. One of them particularly strikes the attention in the bay of Penetanguishene, at a height of about seventy feet above the level of the lake. It can be seen distinctly on either side from the water, or by a spectator standing on one bank while the sun shines obliquely on the other, so as to throw the deeper parts of the terrace in shadow." Mr. Fleming then gives a section " sketched from a cutting a little below Jeffery's tavern in the village of Penetanguishene,, serving to shew the manner in which the soil has been removed from the side hill and deposited in a position formerly under water by the continued mechanical action of the waves. Not only does the peculiar stratification of the lower part of the terrace confirm the supposition that it was deposited on the shore of the ancient lake, but the fact that such excavations have been made in this land-locked position, where the waves could never have had much force, goes far to prove that the lake stood for a long period at this high level." (From the successive subsidences here spoken of by Mr. Fleming, the island known as the Giant's Tomb, in the entrance to Georgian Bay, has its peculiar appearance, viz., that of a colossal grave elevated on a high platform or pedestal.) In 1827, John Gait, the well-known writer, had been at Pene- tanguishene. He was on his way from York to make an explora- tion of the Lake Huron west of the Canada Company's Huron tract, from Cabot's head in the north to the Riviere aux Sables in the south. For this purpose, a Government vessel, the Bee, lying in Penetanguishene harbour, had been placed at his disposal. In his Autobiography he gives the following incidents of his journey from the shore of Kempenfelt bay. " About half-way to Penetanguishene," he says, " we were compelled by the weather to- take shelter in a farm house, and a thunderstorm coming on obliged us to remain all night. The house itself was not inferior to a com- mon Scottish cottage, but it was rendered odious by the landlady, who was, all the time we stayed, l drunk as a sow, Huncamunca r (a snatch, probably, of some Christmas pantomime). Next day we proceeded," he continues, " to the military station and dockyard of Penetanguishene by a path through the woods, which, to the honour of the late Mr. Wilberforce, bears his name. Along it are settled several negro families. As I walked part of the way," Gait says, " I went into a cottage pleasantly situated on a rising ground, and found it inhabited by a crow-like flock of ne- § 28.] Yonge St., the Landing to (Penetanguishene. 503 gro children. The mother was busy with them, and the father, a good-natured looking fellow, told me that they were very comfort- able, but had not yet made any great progress in clearing the land, as his children were still too young to assist." " We reached Penetanguishene," Gait then says, " the remotest and most inland dockyard that owns obedience to the ' meteor-flag of England/ where, by orders of the Admiralty, his Majesty's gun- boat the Bee was placed at my disposal. By the by," he adds, " the letter from the Admiralty was a curious specimen of the geo- graphical knowledge which then prevailed there, inasmuch as it mentioned that the vessel was to go with me on Lake Huron in Lower Canada. In the village of Penetanguishene," he then in- forms us, " there is no tavern. We were therefore obliged to billet ourselves on the officer stationed there, of whose hospitality and endeavour to make the time pass pleasantly till he had the Bee ready for the lake, I shall ever retain a pleasant remembrance." — He then describes his voyage in the little gun-boat as far as De- troit, and his examination of the river subsequently called the Maitland, and the site where Goderich was afterwards built. Since 1840, the Rev. George Hallen has been a resident clergy- man at Penetanguishene. From him have been obtained the fol- lowing particulars of detachments of military stationed from time to time at that post. In 1838 a detachment of the 34th regiment, Lieut. Hutton commanding. In 1838 also, there were some incor- porated Militia there under Colonel Davis. In 1840, a detachment of the 93rd Highlanders, under Lieut. Hay. In 1844, a detach- ment of the 84th regiment, under Lieut. West. In 1846, a detach- ment of the Royal Canadian Rifles, under Lieut. Black. In 1850, a detachment of the Royal Canadian Rifles, under Lieut. Fitz gerald. In 185 1, a detachment of the Royal Canadian Rifles, under Lieut. MorTatt. In 185 1, some of the Enrolled Pensioners, under Captain Hodgetts. In regard to the Navy. In 1843, J une 8th, the Minos, a large gun-boat, in charge of Mr. Hatch and three men, arrived to be laid up. In the same year, the steamer Experiment, Lieut. Boxer, was stationed there. In 1847, the same steamer, but commanded by Lieut. Harper. In 1847 also, the steamer Mohawk, commanded by Lieut. Tyssen. In 1850, the same steamer, but commanded by Lieut. Herbert. The place was also visited by Captain Ross, R.N., when on his way to the North Seas ; and by Lord Morpeth, Lord 504 Toronto of Old. [§ 28. Prudhoe, and Sir Henry Harte, (the two latter Captains in the Navy), on their way to or from the Manitoulin Islands. From Poulett Scrope's Life of Lord Sydenham, we learn that Penetanguishene was visited by that Governor of Canada in 1840. " From Toronto across Lake Simcoe to Penetanguishene on Lake Huron again, and back to Toronto, which I left again last night for the Bay of Quinte." — Private Letter, p. 190. The following account of the removal of the British post from Drummond's island to Penetanguishene in 1828, has been also derived from the Rev. Mr. Hallen, who gathered the par- ticulars from the lips of Mr. John Smith, aged 80, still living (1872) near Penetanguishene, formerly employed in the Ordnance Department at Quebec, and then as Commissariat Issuer at Drum- mond's island. " Mr. John Smith and his wife remained on the island till the 14th of November, 1828, when it was given up to the Americans- Lieut. Carson commanding a detachment of the 68th regiment was there at the time ; and Mr. Smith well remembers Lieut. Carson giving up the keys to the American officers, and that ' they shook hands quite friendly/ The Government sent the brig Wellington to take away the British from the island, but it was too small, and they were obliged in addition to hire an American vessel. Mr Keating was at that time Fort adjutant at the island, and Mr. Raw- son, barrack master. Smith arrived at Penetanguishene as a Com- missariat Issuer on the 20th or 21st November, 1828. He does not remember any vessels at Drummond's island. He says that Commodore Barrie came up in the Bullfrog, and that the gossip of the island was, that he was the cause of its being given up to the Americans. Mr. Keating, the Fort adjutant, was afterwards Fort adjutant at Penetanguishene, where he arrived in the spring of 1829, having been detained at Amherstburgh. He died in the year 1849." " Mr. Smith said that, as far as he could recollect, the detach- ments stationed on the island were, of the 71st Regiment, under Lieut. Impett; of the 79th, under Lieut. Matthews j of the 24th, under Lieut James j of the 15th, under Lieut. Ingall. (The last- named officer lived afterwards at Penetanguishene). In 1828, there were at Penetanguishene 20 or 30 Marines, under the com- mand of Lieut Woodin, R.N. In regard to the four gun-boats which are sunk in the harbour, Mr. Smith said they were sunk § 28.] Yonge St., the Landing to (Penetanguishene. 505 there before 1828. He remembers the name of only one of them, the Tecumseh.'" Mr. Hallen remarks : " The account I heard of these gun-boats when I came to Penetanguishene was that they were brought here, I think, from Nottawasaga bay after the American war and were sunk to prevent their rotting. Vessels must have been built at Penetanguishene," Mr. H. adds, " as I remember a place on the Lake Shore, about five miles N.W. of Penetanguishene, being pointed out to me as the ' Navy Yard.' Many of the logs were still there." The Bee, which conveyed Mr. Gait when on his voyage of ex- ploration along the western coast of Lake Huron, was sold by public auction in 1832. In that year the first great reduction of the naval and military establishment at Penetanguishene took place. Step by step the process went on until the ancient depdt was finally extinguished j and in 1859 the stone barracks were con- verted into a Public Reformatory. The enumeration of the stores disposed of by public vendue, on Thursday, the 15th of March, 1830, and six following days, at Penetanguishene, will not be without pathos. At all events, those who have, at any time, made boats and the appurtenances of boats one of their hobbies, will not dislike to read the homely names of the articles then brought to the hammer. (It will be observed that no mention is made of a certain memo- rable anchor laboriously dragged from York as far as the Landing en route to Penetanguishene, but taken no further, becoming, when half embedded in the earth there, an object of perpetual wonder- ment to beholders : a thing too ponderous to be conveniently han- dled and removed by an ordinary purchaser, let the amount paid for it be ever so trifling.) The following, then, were the miscellaneous articles belonging to the Crown advertised to be sold to the highest bidder on the 15th and following days of March, 1832, at Penetanguishene, and so, we may conclude, disposed of accordingly : —The Tecumseh, schooner, 175 tons. The Newash, brigantine, 175 tons. The Bee, gunboat, 41 tons. The Mosquito, gunboat, 31 tons. The Wasp, gunboat, 41 tons. Batteaux, three in number. Thirty-two feet cutter. Two thirty-two feet gigs and their furniture. One whale boat One jolly boat. One nineteen feet gig. Twenty-two pounds old bunting. Canvas, mildewed slightly, 366 yards. Canvas, of 506 Toronto of Old. [§ 28. all sorts, cut from frigate sails, 2170 yards. Old canvas, 491 yards. Packing cases. 23. Iron casks, 12. Iron bound casks, 8. Wood bound casks, 24. Chests, common, 2. Chests, top, 2. Cordage, worn, 988 fathoms. Cordage, in. rounding, 318 fathoms. Cordage, in junk, 28 cwt. 20 lbs. Cordage, in paper stuff, 1 cwt. 3 qrs. ilb. Covers, hammock, 5. Iron, old wrought, 12 cwt. 3 qrs. 163^ lbs. Rigging, brigantine, standing, complete, 1 set. Running, in part, 1 set. Rigging, schooner, standing and running, complete, 1 set. Rigging, Durham boats, standing and running, in part, 2 sets. — Rigging, boats, standing, worn, 1 set. Sails for a 32 gun ship, 1 set brigantine sails, 1 set schooner sails, 1 set Durham boat sails, 1 8 in number ; boat sails 18 in number ; unserviceable stores. Axes, felling, 8. Bellows, camp forge, 2 pairs. Blocks, single, 1 1 inch, 1. Blocks, double, 10 inch, 1. Brushes, tar, 15. Buckets, leather, 14. Chisels, of sorts, 12. Compass glasses, 1. Cordage, 552 fathoms. Glass, broken, 16 panes. Hammocks, 16. Locks, stock, 1. Mallet, caulking, 1. Oars, fir, 7. Paint, white, 1 qr. 2 lbs. Paint, yellow, 2 qrs. 18 lbs. Planes, 10 in number. Punts, boats, 1. Saws, crosscut, 5 ; Saws, hand, 6 ; Saws, dove-tail, 1 j Saws, rip, 3. Spout for pump, 1. Sweeps, 4. Shovels, 9. Twine, fine, 2,% lbs. Twine, ordinary, 17^ lbs. Seines, 1. The document which supplies us with the foregoing list announ- ces that, " the stores will be put up in convenient lots, and that a deposit of 25 per cent, will be required at the time of sale, and the remainder of the purchase money previous to the removal of the articles, for which a reasonable time will be allowed." The whole is signed — Wm. Henry Woodin, Lieutenant commanding, June 1 8th, 1832. We here bring to a close our Collections and Recollections in regard to Yonge Street. That our narrative might be the more complete, we have given a notice of the ancient terminus of that great thoroughfare, on Lake Huron. It will be seen that in Pene- tanguishene and its environs, Toronto has a place and a neigh- bourhood at the north abounding with interesting memories almost as richly as Niagara itself and that vicinity, at its south : memo- ries intimately associated with its own history, not alone before the present century began, but also before even the preceding century began, that is, taking into view the local history of this part of Canada prior to the acquisition of the country by the English. From remote Penetanguishene, dismantled and abolished in a § 28.] Yonge St., the Landing to (Penetanguishene. 507 naval and military sense, our thoughts naturally turn to more con- spicuous places that have in our day successively undergone the same process : to Kingston, to Niagara, to Montreal, to our own fort, here at Toronto, and finally, in 187 1, to Quebec. The 8th of November, 1871, will be a date noted in future histories. On that day the Ehrenbreitstein of the St. Lawrence, symbol for a hundred years and more, of British power on the northern half of the North American continent, was voluntarily evacuated, in accordance with a deliberate public policy. The 60th Regiment, it is singular to add, which on the 8th of November, 1871, marched forth from the gates of the citadel of Quebec, was a regiment that was present on the heights of Abra- ham in 1759, and helped to capture the fortress which it now peacefully surrendered. Is the day approaching when artistic tourists will be seen sketch- ing, at Point Levi, the bold Rock in front of them for the sake of the ruins at its summit, not picturesque probably, but for ever famed in story ? XXIX. THE HARBOUR: ITS MARINE, 1 793-99. HE first formal survey of the harbour of Toronto was made by Joseph Bouchette in 1793. His description of the bay and its surroundings at that date is, with the historians of Upper Canada, a classic passage. For the completeness of our narrative it must be pro- duced once more. " It fell to my lot," says Bouchette," to make the first survey of York Harbour in 1793." And he explains how this happened. " Lieutenant-Governor, the late Gen. Simcoe, who then resided at Navy Hall, Niagara, having," he says, " formed extensive plans for the improvement of the colony, had resolved upon laying the foundations of a provincial capital. I was at that period in the naval service of the Lakes, and the survey of Toronto (York) Harbour was entrusted by his Excellency to my performance." He then thus proceeds, writing, we may observe, in 1831 : "I still distinctly recollect the untamed aspect which the country ex- hibited when first I entered the beautiful basin, which thus became the scene of my early hydrographical operations. Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake and reflected their inverted images in its glassy surface. The wandering savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage — the group then consisting of two families of Mississagas, — and the bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys of wild fowl. Indeed, they were so .abundant," he adds, " as in some measure to annoy us during the night." The passage is to be found in a note at p. 89 of volume I 29.] The Harbour : its Marine, lyg^gg. 509 one of the quarto edition of " The British Dominions in North America," published in London in 183 1. The winter of 1792-3 was in Upper Canada a favourable one for explorers. "We have had a remarkably mild winter," says the Gazette in its first number, dated April 18, 1793 ; " the thermometer in the severest time has not been lower than nine degrees above zero, by Fahrenheit's scale. Lake Erie has not been frozen over, and there has been very little ice on Lake Ontario." The same paper informs us that " his Majesty's sloop, the Caldwell, sailed the 5th instant (April), from Niagara, for fort Ontario (Oswego) and Kingston." Also that "on Monday evening (13th) there arrived in the river (at Niagara) his Majesty's armed schooner, the Onondago, in company with the Lady Dorchester, merchantman, after an agreeable passage (from Kingston) of thirty-six hours." (The following gentlemen, it is noted, came passengers : — J. Small, Esq., Clerk of the Executive Council j Lieut.-McCan, of the 60th regiment ; Capt. Thos. Fraser, Mr. J. Denison, Mr. Joseph Forsyth, merchant, Mr. L. Crawford, Capt. Archibald Macdonald, — Hathaway.) Again, on May 2nd, the information is given that " on Sunday morning early, his Majesty's sloop Caldwell arrived here (Niagara) from Kingston, which place she left on Thursday ; but was obliged to anchor off the bar of this river part of Saturday night. And on Monday also arrived from Kingston the Onondago, in twenty -three hours." Joseph Bouchette in 1793 must have been under twenty years of age. He was born in 1774. He was the son of Commodore Bouchette, who in 1793 had command of the Naval Force on Lake Ontario. When Joseph Bouchette first entered the harbour of Toronto, as described above, he was not without associates. He was probably one of an exploring party which set out from Niagara in May, 1793. It would appear that the Governor himself paid his first visit to the intended site of the capital of his young province on the same occasion. In the Gazette of Thursday, May 9th 1793, published at Newark or Niagara, we have the following record : — " On Thursday last (this would be May the 3rd) his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, accompanied by several military gentlemen, set out in boats for Toronto, round the Head of the Lake Ontario, by Burlington Bay ; and in the evening his Majesty's vessels the Caldwell and Buffalo, 510 Toronto of Old. [§ 29* sailed for the same place." Supposing the boats which proceeded round the Head of the Lake to have arrived at the cleared spot where the French stockaded trading-post of Toronto had stood, on Saturday, the 4th, the inspection of the harbour and its surround- ings by the Governor and " military gentlemen ; ' occupied a little less than a week ; for we find that on Monday, the 13th, they are back again in safety at Niagara. The Gazette of Thursday, the 1 6th of May, thus announces their return : "On Monday (the 13th) about 2 o'clock, his Excellency the Lieut. -Governor and suite arrived at Navy Hall from Toronto ; they returned in boats round the Lake." It is probable that Bouchette was left behind, perhaps with the Caldwell and Buffalo, to complete the survey of the harbour. (In the work above named is a reduction of Bouchette's chart of the harbour with the soundings and bottom j also with lines shewing " the breaking of the ice in the spring." His minute delineation of the pinion-shaped peninsula of sand which forms the outer boundary of Toronto bay, enables the observer to see very clearly how, by long-cbntinued drift from the east, that barrier was gradually thrown up ; as, also, how inevitable were the marshes at the outlet of the Don.) The excursion from Niagara, just described, was the Governor's first visit to the harbour of Toronto, and we may suppose the Caldwell and the Buffalo to have been the first sailing-craft of any considerable magnitude that ever stirred its waters. In April, 1793, the Governor had not yet visited Toronto. We learn this from a letter dated the 5th of that month, addressed by him to Major-General Clarke, at Quebec. Gen. Clarke was the Lieut- Governor in Lower Canada. Lord Dorchester, the Governor- General himself, was absent in England. " Many American officers," Gen. Simcoe says to Gen. Clarke on the 5th of April, " give it as their opinion that Niagara should be attacked, and that Detroit must fall of course. I hope by this autumn," he continues, " to show the fallacy of this reasoning, by opening a safe and expeditious communication to La Tranche. But on this subject I reserve myself till I have visited Toronto." The safe and expeditious communication referred to was the great military road, Dundas Street, projected by the Governor to connect the port and arsenal at Toronto with the Thames and Detroit. It was in the February and March of this very same year, §29.] The Harbour : its Marine, ljg^gg. 511 1793, that the Governor had made, partly on foot, and partly in sleighs, his famous exploratory tour through the woods from Niagara to Detroit and back, with a view to the establishment of this com- munication. On the 31st of May he is writing again to Gen. Clarke, at Quebec. He has now, as we have seen, been at Toronto ; and he speaks warmly of the advantages which the site appeared to him to possess. "It is with great pleasure that I offer to you," he says, "some observations upon the Military strength and Naval convenience of Toronto (now York) [he adds]; which I propose immediately to occupy. I lately examined the harbour," he continues, " accom- panied by such officers, naval and military, as I thought most competent to give me assistance therein, and upon minute investi- gation I found it to be, without comparison, the most proper situation for an arsenal, in every extent of that word, that can be met with in this Province." The words, " now York," appended here and in later documents to " Toronto," show that an official change of name had taken place. The alteration was made between the 15th and 31st of May. No proclamation, however, announcing its change, is to be found either in the local Gazette or in the archives at Ottawa. Nor is there any allusion to the contemplated works at York either in the opening or closing speech delivered by the Governor to the houses of parliament, which met at Niagara for their second session on the 28th of May, and were dismissed to their homes again on the 9th of the following July. We may suppose the minds of the members and other persons of influence otherwise prepared for the coming changes, chiefly perhaps by means of friendly conferences. The Governor's scheme may, for example, have been one of the topics of conversation at the lev£e, ball and supper on the King's birthday, which, happening during the parliamentary session, was observed with considerable ceremony. — " On Tuesday last, the fourth of June," says the Gazette of the period, " being the anni- versary of his Majesty's birthday, his Excellency the Lieutenant- Governor held a lev6e at Navy Hall. At one the troops in garrison and at Queen ston fired three volleys. The field pieces above Navy Hall under the direction of the Royal Artillery, and the guns at the garrison, fired a royal salute. In the evening," the Gazette further reports, " his Excellency gave a Ball and elegant 512 Toronto of Old. [§ 29. supper in the Council Chamber, which was most numerously attended." Of this ball and supper another brief notice is extant. It chanced that three distinguished Americans were among the guests — Gen. Lincoln, Col. Pickering, and Mr. Randolph, United States com- missioners on their way, via Niagara, to a great Council of the Western Indians, about to be held at the Miami river. In his private journal, since printed in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, Gen. Lincoln made the following note of the Governor's entertainment at Niagara : — " The ball/' he says, " was attended by about twenty well-dressed and handsome ladies, and about three times that number of gentlemen. They danced," he records, " from seven o'clock till eleven, when supper was announced, and served in very pretty taste. The music and dancing," it is added, " was good, and everything was conducted with propriety." This pro- bably was the first time the royal birthday was observed at Niagara in an official way. Soon after the prorogation, July the 9th, steps preparatory to a removal to York began to be taken. Troops, for example, were transported across to the north side of the Lake. " A few days ago," says the Gazette of Thursday, August the 1st, 1793, "the first Division of his Majesty's Corps of Queen's Rangers left Queenston for Toronto — now York [it is carefully added], and proceeded in batteaux round the head of the Lake Ontario, by Burlington Bay. And shortly afterwards another division of the same regiment sailed in the King's vessels, the Onondago and Caldwell, for the same place." It is evident the Governor, as he expressed himself to Gen. Clarke, in the letter of May 31, is about " immediately to occupy" the site which seemed to him so eligible for an arsenal and strong military post. Accordingly, having thus sent forward two divisions of the regiment whose name is so intimately associated with his own, to be a guard to receive him on his own arrival, and to be otherwise usefully employed, we find the Governor himself embark- ing for the same spot. "On Monday evening [this would be Monday, the 29th of July]," the Gazette just quoted informs us, "his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor left Navy Hall and embarked on board his Majesty's schooner, the Mississaga, which sailed immediately with a favourable gale for York, with the remainder of the Queen's Rangers." — On the following morning, I 29.] The Harbour : its Marine , i7g3=gg. 513 July 30, 1793, they would, with the aid of the " favourable gale," be at anchor in the harbour of York. Major Littlehales, the Governor's faithful secretary, remains behind until the following Thursday, August the 1st, engaged probably in arranging household matters for the Governor, an absence from Navy Hall of some duration being contemplated. He then crosses the Lake in the Caldwell, and joins his Chief. At the same time start Chief Justice Osgoode and Mr. Attorney- General White for the East, to hold the circuit. " On Thursday •evening, the 1st instant," says the Gazette oi the 8th of August, " his Majesty's armed vessels the Onondago and the Caldwell sailed from this place (Niagara). The former, for Kingston, had on board the Hon. William Osgoode, Chief Justice of this Province, and John White, Esq., Attorney General, who are going to hold the circuits at Kingston and Johnstown. Major Littlehales sailed in the latter, for York, to join his Excellency's suite." We should have been glad of a minute account of each day's proceedings on the landing of the troops at York, and the arrival there of the Governor and his suite. But we can readily imagine the Rangers establishing themselves under canvas on the grassy glade where formerly stood the old French trading-post. We can imagine them landing stores — a few cannon and some other muni- tions of war — from the ships ; landing the parts and appurtenances of the famous canvas-house which the Governor had provided for the shelter of himself and his family, and which, as we have before noted, was originally constructed for the use of Captain Cook in one of the scientific expeditions commanded by that celebrated circumnavigator. The canvas-house must have been a pavilion of considerable capacity, and was doubtless pitched and fixed with particular care by the soldiers and others, wherever its precise situation was determined. It was, as it were, the prsetorium of the camp, but moveable. We can conceive of it as being set down, in the first instance, on the site of the French fort, and then at a later period, or on the occasion of a later visit to York, shifted to one of the knolls overlooking the little stream known subsequently as the Garrison creek ; and shifted again, at another visit, to a position still farther east, where a second small stream meandered between steep banks into the Bay, at the point where a Government ship- GG 514 Toronto of Old. [§ 29, building yard was in after years established. (Tradition places the canvas-house on several sites.) We can conceive, too, all hands, sailors as well as soldiers, busy in opening eastward through the woods along the shore, a path that should be more respectable and more useful for military and civil purposes than the Indian trail which they would already find there, leading directly to the quarter where, at the farther end of the Bay, the town-plot was designed to be laid out, and the Government buildings were intended to be erected. On the 8th of August we know the Governor was engaged at York in writing to the Indian Chief Brant, from whom a runner has just arrived all the way from the entrance to the Detroit river. Brant, finding the conference between his compatriots and the United States authorities likely to end unsatisfactorily, sent to solicit Governor Simcoe's interposition, especially in regard to the boundary line which the Indians of the West insisted on — the Ohio river. Thus runs the Governor's reply, written at York on the 8th : — " Since the Government of the United States," he says, " have shown a disinclination to concur with the Indian nations in requesting of his Majesty permission for me to attend at Sandusky as mediator, it would be highly improper and unreasonable in me to give an opinion relative to the proposed boundaries, with which I am not sufficiently acquainted, and which question I have studiously avoided entering into, as I am well aware of the jealousies entertained by some of the subjects of the United States of the interference of the British Government, which has a natural and decided interest in the welfare of the Indian nations, and in the establishment of peace and permanent tranquillity. In this situation, I am sure you will excuse me from giving to you any advice, which, from my absence from the spot, cannot possibly arise from that perfect view and knowledge which so important a subject necessarily demands." The controversy in the West, in relation to which the Governor is thus cautiously expressing himself to the Indian Chief on the 8th of August, was a subject for cabinet consideration ; a matter only for the few. But towards the close of the month, news from a different quarter — from the outer world of the far European East — reached the infant York, suitable to be divulged to the many and turned to public account. It was known that hostilities were going on between the allied forces of Europe and the armies of Revolu- § 29.] The Harbour : its Marine, ijg^gg. 515 tionary France. And now came intelligence that the English contingent on the continent had contributed materially to a success over the French in Flanders on the 23rd of May last. Now this contingent, 10,000 men, was under the command of the Duke of York, the King's son. A happy thought strikes the Governor. What could be more appropriate than to celebrate the good news in a demonstrative manner on a spot which in honour of that Prince had been named York. Accordingly, on the 26th of August, we find the following General Order issued: — "York, Upper Canada, 26th of August, 1793. His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor having received informa- tion of the success of his Majesty's arms, under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, by which Holland has been saved from the invasion of the French armies, — and it appearing that the com- bined forces have been successful in dislodging their enemies from an entrenched camp supposed to be impregnable, from which the most important consequences may be expected; and in which arduous attempts His Royal Highness the Duke of York and His Majesty's troops supported the national glory : — It is His Excel- lency's orders that on the rising of the Union Flag at twelve o'clock to-morrow a Royal Salute of twenty-one guns is to be fired, to be answered by the shipping in the Harbour, in respect to His Royal Highness and in commemoration of the naming this Harbour from his English title, York. E. B. Littlehales, Major of Brigade." These orders, we are to presume, were punctually obeyed; and we are inclined to think that the running up of the Union Flag at noon on Tuesday, the 27th day of August, and the salutes which imme- diately after reverberated through the woods and rolled far down and across the silvery surface of the Lake, were intended to be regarded as the true inauguration of the Upper Canadian York. The rejoicing, indeed, as it proved, was somewhat premature. The success which distinguished the first operations of the royal duke did not continue to attend his efforts. Nevertheless, the report of the honours rendered in this remote portion of the globe, would be grateful to the fatherly heart of the King. On the Saturday after the Royal Salutes, the first meeting of the Executive Council ever held in York, took place in the garrison ; in the canvas-house, as we may suppose. " The first Council," writes Mr. W. H. Lee from Ottawa, " held at the garrison, York, late Toronto, at whichLieutenant-Governor Simcoe was present, 516 Toronto of Old. [§ 29. was on Saturday, 31st August, 1793." It transacted business there, Mr. Lee says, until the following fifth of September, when the Government returned to Navy Hall. Still, the Governor and his family passed the ensuing winter at York. Bouchette speaks of his inhabiting the canvas-house " through the winter ; " and under date of York, on the 23rd of the following February (1794), we have him writing to Mr. Secretary Dundas. In the despatch of the day just named, after a now prolonged experience of the newly-established post, the Governor thus glowingly speaks of it : " York," he says, " is the most important and defensible situation in Upper Canada, or that I have seen," he even adds, "in North America. I have, sir/' he continues, " formerly entered into a detail of the advantages of this arsenal of Lake Ontario. An interval of Indian land of six and thirty miles divides this settlement from Burlington Bay, where that of Niagara commences. Its communication with Lake Huron is very easy in five or six days, and will in all respects be of the most essential importance. * Before the channel at the entrance of the Harbour of York was visibly marked or buoyed, the wide-spread shoal to the west and south must have been very treacherous to craft seeking to approach the new settlement. In 1794 we hear of the Commodore's vessel, " the Anondaga, of 14 guns," being stranded here and given up for lost. We hear likewise that the Commodore's son, Joseph Bouchette, the first surveyor of the harbour, distinguished himself by managing to get the same Anondaga off, after she had been abandoned ; and we are told of his assuming the command and sailing with her to Niagara, where he is received amidst the cheers of the garrison and others assembled on the shores to greet the rescued vessel. This exploit, of which he was naturally proud, and for which he was promoted on the 12th of May, 1794, to the rank of Second Lieutenant, Bouchette duly commemorates on his chart of York Harbour by conspicuously marking the spot where the stranded ship lay, and appending the note — " H. M. Schooner Anondaga, 14 guns, wrecked, but raised by Lieutenant Joseph Bouchette and brought to." (A small two-masted vessel is seen lying on the north- vest bend of the great shoal at the entrance of the Harbour.) — A ,econd point is likewise marked on the map " where she again grounded but was afterwards brought to." (Here again a small vessel is seen lying at the edge of the shoal, but now towards its §29.] The Harbour : its Marine, 17 g3=99- 517 northern point.) The Chart, which was originally engraved for Bouchette's octavo book, "A Topographical Description of Canada, &c," published in 181 5, is repeated with the marks and accompanying notes, from the same plate, in the quarto work of 1 83 1 — " The British Dominions in North America." The Anondaga of the Bouchette narrative is, as we suppose, the Onondago of the Gazette, which, as we have seen, helped to take over the Rangers in August, 1793. The same uncertainty, which we have had occasion repeatedly to notice, in regard to the orthography of aboriginal words in general, rendered it doubtful with the public at large as to how the names of some of the Royal vessels should be spelt. It is to be observed in passing, that when in his account of the first survey of the Harbour in 1793, Bouchette speaks of the Lieutenant-Governor removing from Niagara with his regiment of Queen's Rangers " in the following spring," he probably means in the later portion of the spring of the same year 1793, because, as we have already seen, the Gazettes of the day prove that the Lieutenant-Governor did proceed to the site of the new capital with the Rangers in 1793. Bouchette's words as they stand in his quarto book, imply, in some degree, that 1 794 was the year in which the Governor and his Rangers first came over from Niagara. In the earlier octavo book his words were: "In the year 1793 tne spot on which York stands presented only one solitary wigwam ; in the ensuing spring the ground for the future metropolis of Upper Canada was fixed upon, and the buildings commenced under the immediate superintendence of the late General Simcoe, the Lieut.- Governor : in the space of five or six years it became a respectable place." Bouchette was possibly recalling the commencement of the Public Buildings in 1794, when in his second work, published in 183 1, he inserted the note which has given rise, in the minds of some, to a slight doubt as to whether 1793 or 1794 was the year of the founding of York. The Gazettes, as we have seen, shew that 1793 was the year. The Gazettes also shew that the so- called Public Buildings, /. e., the Parliamentary Buildings, were not begun until 1794. Thus, in the Gazette of July 10, 1794, we read the advertisement : " Wanted : Carpenters for the Public Build- ings to be erected at York. Application to be made to John Mc- Gill, Esq., at York, or to Mr. Allan Macnab at Navy Hall.'^ 5 1 8 Toronto of Old. [§ 29. On the 23rd of February, 1794, Governor Simcoe was, as we noted above, writing a despatch at York to Mr. Secretary Dundas. So early in the season as the 17th of March, however, he is on the move for the rapids of the Miami river, at the upper end of Lake Erie, to establish an additional military post in that quarter, the threatened encroachments on the Indian lands north of the Ohio by the United States rendering such a demonstration expedient. He is, of course, acting under instructions from superior authority. In the MS. map to which reference has before been made, the Governor's route on this occasion is marked ; and the following note is appended : — " Lieut-Governor Simcoe's route from York to the Thames, down that river in canoes to Detroit ; from thence to the Miami to build the fort Lord Dorchester ordered to be built ; left York March 17th, 1794; returned by Erie and Niagara to York, May 5th, 1794." In the following August, Gov. Simcoe is at Newark or Niagara. On the 1 8th of that month he has just heard of an engagement between the United States forces under General Wayne and the Indians, close to the new fort on the Miami, and he writes to Brant that he. is about to proceed in person to the scene of action "by the first vessel." On the 30th of September he is there ; and on the 10th of October following, he is attending a Council of Chiefs in company with Brant, at the southern entrance of the Detroit river. A cessation of hostilities on the part of the Indians is urged, until the spring ; and, for himself, he says to the assembly : " I will go down to Quebec and lay your grievances before the Great Man [the Onnontio probably was the word]. From thence they will be forwarded to the King your Father. Next spring you will know the result of everything — what you and I will do." On the 14th of November the Governor is at Newark embarking again for York and the East. In the Gazette of Dec. 10, we have the announcement : " His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor left this town (Newark) on the 14th ultimo, on his way, via York, to the eastern part of the Province, where it is expected he will spend the winter." He appears to have left York on the 5th of December in in an open boat. The MS. map gives the route, with the note : " Lieut. -Gov. Simcoe's track from York to Kingston in an open boat, Dec. 5, 1794." On the 20th of the same month he is writin a despatch at Kingston to the " Lords of the Committee of His Majesty's Council for Trade and Plantations ; " and we learn from §29.] The Harbour : its Marine, ijg$=gg. 519 the document that the neighbourhood of York, if not York itself, was becoming populous. The Governor says to their Lordships : "Having stated to Mr. Secretary Dundas the great importance which I attached to York (late Toronto), and received directions to give due encouragement to the settlement, it is with great pleasure that I am to observe that seventy families at least are settling in its vicinity, and principally on the communication be- tween York and Holland's River, which falls into Lake Simcoe." (The German families these, principally, who were brought over by Mr. Berczy from the Pulteney settlement in the Genesee country, on the opposite side of the Lake.) The proposed journey to and from Quebec may have been accomplished after the 20th of December. In June of the following year, 1795, tne Governor is at Navy Hall, Newark. He receives and entertains there for eighteen days the French Royalist Duke de Liancourt, who is on his travels on the American continent. The Duke does not visit York j but two of his travelling companions, MM. du Pettithouars and Guille- mard take a run over and report to him that there " had been no more than twelve houses hitherto built at York." The barracks, they say, stand on the roadstead two miles from the town, and near the Lake. The duke adds : " Desertion, I am told, is very frequent among the soldiers." While staying at Navy Hall, the Duke de Liancourt was taken over the Fort on the opposite side of the river \ he also afterwards dined there with the officers. " With very obliging politeness," the duke says, "the Governor conducted us over the Fort, which he is very loth to visit, since he is sure that he will be obliged to deliver it up to the Americans." — In fact it was made over to them under Jay's Treaty in this very year 1794, along with Oswego, Detroit, Miami, and Michilimackinac, though not actually surrendered until 1796. And this was the somewhat inglorious termination of the difficulties between the Indian allies of England and the United States Govern- ment, which had compelled the Governor again and again to under- take toilsome journeys to the West — " Thirty artillerymen," the duke notes, " and eight companies of the Fifth Regiment form the garrison of the Fort. Two days after the visit," he continues, " we dined in the Fort at Major Seward's, an officer of elegant, polite and amiable manners, who seems to be much respected by the gen- tlemen of his profession. He and Mr. Pilkington, an officer of the 520 Toronto of Old. [§ 29. corps of Engineers, are the military gentlemen we have most frequently seen during our residence in this place, and whom the Governor most distinguishes from the rest" In 1796 Governor Simcoe was ordered to the West Indies. He met his Parliament at Newark on the 16th of May, and prorogued it on the 3rd of June, after assenting to seven Acts. In the Gazette of Sept. 11, 1796, a proclamation from Peter Russell announces that " His most gracious Majesty has been pleased to grant his royal leave of absence to his Excellency Major General Simcoe," and that consequently the government /r 528 Toronto of Old. [§30. 1803, reports that " a gentleman from Oswego, by the name of Mr. Dunlop, was on Wednesday last accidentally knocked from on board a vessel near the Highlands by the gibbing of the boom, and un- fortunately drowned." The disappointment occasioned to merchants sometimes by the uncertainty of communication between York and the outer world in the stormy season, may be conceived of from a postscript to an advertisement of Mr. Quetton St. George's in the Gazette of Dec. 10, 1803. It says : " Mr. St. George is very sorry, on account of his customers, that he has not received his East India Goods and Groceries : he is sure they are at Oswego j and should they not arrive this season, they may be looked for early in the spring." It was tantalizing to suppose they were so near York as Oswego, and yet could not be had until the spring. The principal incident connected with the marine of the harbour of York in 1804 was the loss of the Speedy. We give the contem- porary account of the disaster from the Gazette of Saturday, Nov. 3, 1804. " The following," the Gazette says, " is as accurate an account of the loss of the schooner Speedy, in His Majesty's service on Lake Ontario, as we have been able to collect. The Speedy, Capt. Pax- ton, left this port (York) on Sunday evening, the 7th of October last, with a moderate breeze from the north-west, for Presqu'isle, and was descried off that island on the Monday following before dark, where preparations were made for the reception of the pas- sengers, but the wind coming round from the north-east, blew with such violence as to render it impossible for her to enter the harbour; and very shortly after she disappeared. A large fire was then kindled on shore as a guide to the vessel during the night ; but she has not since been seen or heard of; and it is with the most painful sensa- tions we have to say, we fear is totally lost. Inquiry, we understand, has been made at almost every port of the Lake, but without effect ; and no intelligence respecting the fate of this unfortunate vessel could be obtained. It is, therefore, generally concluded that she has either upset or foundered. It is also reported by respectable authority that several articles, such as the compass-box, hencoop and mast, known to have belonged to this vessel, have been picked up on the opposite side of the Lake. — The passengers on board the ill-fated Speedy, as near as we can recollect," the narrative goes on to say, " were Mr. Justice Cochrane ; Robert J. D. Gray, Esq., §30.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1800=14. 529 Solicitor-General, and Member of the House of Assembly ; Angus Macdonell, Esq., Advocate, Member of the House of Assembly ; Mr. Jacob Herchmer, Merchant ; Mr. John Stegman, Surveyor ; Mr. George Cowan, Indian Interpreter ; James Ruggles, Esq. ; Mr. Anderson, Student in the Law ; Mr. John Fisk, High Consta- ble, all of this place. The above named gentlemen were proceed- ing to the District of Newcastle, in order to hold the Circuit, and for the trial of an Indian (also on board the Speedy) indicted for the murder of John Sharp, late of the Queen's Rangers. It is also reported, but we cannot vouch for its authenticity j that exclusive of the above passengers, there were on board two other persons, one in the service of Mr. Justice Cochrane, and the other in that of the Solicitor-General ; as also two children of parents whose indigent circumstances necessitated them to travel by land. The crew of the Speedy, it is said, consisted of five seamen (three of whom have left large families) exclusive of Captain Paxton, who also had a very large family. The total number of souls on board the Speedy is computed to be about twenty. A more distressing and melancholy event has not occurred to this place for many years ; nor does it often happen that such a number of persons of respectability are collected in the same vessel. Not less than nine widows, and we know not how many children, have to lament the loss of their husbands and fathers, who, alas, have, perhaps in the course of a few minutes, met with a watery grave. It is somewhat remarkable," the Gazette then observes, "that this is the third or fourth accident of a similar nature within these few years, the cause of which appears worthy the attention and investigation of persons conversant in the art of ship-building." Two of the disasters to vessels probably alluded to by the Gazette were noted above. In 1802 the Lady Washington, Captain Mur- ray, foundered in the Lake, leaving scarcely a trace. And three years previously, the York, in command of the same Captain Mur- ray, was lost at the point known as the Devil's Nose, not far from the entrance to the River Genesee. And again, some years earlier, in 1780, before the organization of the Province of Upper Canada, the Ontario, Capt Andrews, carrying twenty-two guns, went down with all on board, while conveying troops, a detachment of the King's Own, under Col. Burton, from Niagara to Oswego. One hundred and seventy-two persons perished on this occasion, Capt. Andrews was, at the time, First Commissioner of the Dock Yard HH 530 Toronto of Old. [§ 30. at Kingston, and Commodore of the small flotilla maintained on the Lake, chiefly for transport service. (For several of these par- ticulars we are indebted to Capt. Andrews' grandson, the Rev. Saltern Givins.) As to the apparent fragility of the government vessels, on which the Gazette remarks, the use of timber insufficiently seasoned may have had something to do with it. The French Duke de Liancourt, in 1795, observed that all the vessels which he saw at Niagara were built of timber fresh cut down and not seasoned j and that, for that reason, "they never lasted longer than six or eight years. To preserve them for even this length of time," he says, " requires a thorough repair : they must be heaved down and caulked, which costs, at least, from one thousand to one thousand two hundred guineas. The timbers of the Mississaga," he says, " which was built three years ago, are almost all rotten." A particular account of the homicide for which the Indian prisoner, lost in the Speedy, was about to be tried, and of his arrest r is given in a subdivision of one of our chapters, "entitled "Some Memories of the Old Court House." Of the perils encountered by early navigators of Lake Ontario we have an additional specimen furnished us by the Gazette of Sept 8th, 1804. That paper reports as follows : " Capt. Moore's sloop, which sailed from Sackett's Harbour on the 14th July for Kingston with a load of pot and pearl ashes, struck on Long Point near Kingston in a gale of wind ; and having on board a number of passengers, men, women, and children, he was under the necessity of throwing over forty-eight barrels of ashes in order to lighten the vessel." It is then briefly added : " She arrived at Kingston." We hear of the Toronto Yacht in 1805, casually. A boat puts off from her to the rescue of some persons in danger of drowning, near the Garrison at York, in November of that year. " On Sun- day last, the 10th," says the Gazette of Nov. 16th, 1805, "a boat from the River Credit for this place (York), containing four persons, and laden with salmon and country produce, overset near the Garrison, at the entrance of this harbour ; and notwithstanding the most prompt assistance rendered by a boat from the Toronto Yacht, we are sorry to add that one person was unfortunately drowned, and a considerable part of the cargo lost." At this date, the Toronto Yacht was under the command of Capt. Earl. In December, 1805, a member of the Kendrick family of York §3°-] The Harbour : its Marine, 1800=14. 531 was lost in a vessel wrecked on the New York side of the Lake. "We understand," says the Gazette of Feb. 15th, 1806, " that a boat, sometime in December last, going from Oswego to Sandy Creek, was lost near the mouth of Salmon river, and four persons drowned. One of the bodies, and the articles contained in the boat, were driven ashore ; the remainder, it is supposed, were buried in the sand. The persons who perished were — John Mc- Bride (found), John Kendrick of this place (York), Alexander Miller and Jessamin Montgomery." — In November of this year (1805), Miss Sarah Kendrick was married. It will be observed that her taste, like that of her brothers, of whom more hereafter, lay in a nautical direction. " Married, on Tuesday, the 12th inst., by licence," records the Gazette, "Jesse Goodwin, mariner, to Miss Sarah Kendrick." (This is the Goodwin from whom the small stream which ran into York Bay at its eastern extremity used to be called — Goodwin's Creek.) In the Gazette of Oct. nth, i8o6,it is noted that Governor Gore crossed from York to Niagara in little more than four hours. The vessel is not named. Probably it was the Toronto Yacht. In 1807, Governor Gore crossed from York to Niagara to hold a -levee, on the King's birthday. The vessel that conveyed him again is not named. The following notice appears in the Gazette of May 16th, 1807 : "Government House, York, 16th May, 1807. The Lieut. -Governor will hold a levee at the Commanding Officer's Quarters at Niagara, at 2 o'clock on Tuesday, the 4th of June. Wm. Halton, Secretary." Then follows a second notice : " Govern- ment House, York, 16th May, 1807. There will be a Ball and Supper at the Council House, Niagara, on his Majesty's Birthday, for such ladies and gentlemen as have been presented to the Lieut. - Governor and Mrs. Gore. Wm. Halton, Secretary." An accident to the Toronto Yacht is reported in the Gazette of Oct. 17th, 1807. That paper says: "The Toronto Yacht, in attempting her passage across on Wednesday or Thursday last, met with an accident that obliged her to put back to Niagara, which port, we understand, she reached with difficulty." The Gazette of October 31st, 1807, speaks of the inconveniences to itself, arising from the irregularity in the communication between York and Niagara. " The communication with Niagara by water," it says, " from being irregular lately, has prevented us receiving our papers this week. The Indian Express," the Gazette then 532 Toronto of Old. [§ 30. adds, "having commenced its regular weekly route, our publishing day will be changed to Wednesday. We have nothing of moment or interest. Should anything occur we will give an extra sheet." On the 1 8th of November the Gazette appears printed on blue paper, such as used to be seen on the outside of pamphlets and magazines. An apology is offered. "We have to apologize to our readers for the necessity of publishing this week on an inferior quality of paper, owing to the non-arrival of our expected supply/' The same kind of paper is used in a succession of numbers. It is curious to observe that the effect of time has been to produce less disfigurement in the bright appearance of the pages and print of the blue numbers of the Gazette, than in the ordinary white paper numbers, which have now assumed a very coarse, dingy, inferior aspect. In 1808 the important announcement is made in the Gazette of March 16th, that a lighthouse is about to be immediately estab- lished on Gibraltar Point, at the entrance of York Harbour. " It is with pleasure we inform the public," the Gazette says, " that the dangers to vessels navigating Lake Ontario will in a great measure be avoided by the erection of a Lighthouse on Gibraltar Point, which is to be immediately completed, in compliance with an Address of the House of Assembly to the Lieutenant-Governor." We have understood that a lighthouse was begun at the point of York peninsula before the close of the last century; that the Mohawk was employed in bringing over stone for the purpose, from Queenston \ and that Mr. John Thompson,still living in 1873, was engaged in the actual erection of the building. It was perhaps then begun. In 1803 an Act was passed by the Provincial Legis- lature for the establishment of lighthouses " on the south-western- most point of a certain island called Isle Forest, situated about three leagues from the town of Kingston, in the Midland District j another upon Mississaga point,at the entrance of the Niagara river, near to the town of Niagara ; and the other upon Gibraltar point." It was probably not practicable to carry the Act fully into effect before 1806. According to the Act a fund for the erection and maintenance of such lighthouses was to be formed by levying three- pence per ton on every vessel, boat, raft, or other craft of ten tons burthen and upwards, doubling the point named, inward bound. That lighthouse duty should be levied at ports where there was no lighthouse, became a grievance ; and in 1 818 it was enacted that § 30.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1800=14. 533 " no vessel, boat, raft or other craft of the burthen of ten tons and upwards shall be liable to pay any Lighthouse Duty at any port where there shall be no lighthouse erected, any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. H Mr. Cartwright (Judge Cartwright) built in 1808 two vessels on Mississaga Point at the mouth of the Cataraqui, one for himself, the Elizabeth ; the other for the North-West Company, the Governor Simcoe. The North-West Company had previously a vessel on the lake called the Simcoe, which was now worn out. In June, 1808, Governor Gore departs from York for a tour in the western part of the Province. The Gazette seems mildly to rebuke him for having swerved from his first design in regard to this tour. He had intended to proceed via Lake Huron ; that is, by the Yonge Street route, but he had finally preferred to go via Lake Ontario. " His Excellency the Lieut.-Governor left this place, York," the Gazette announces, "on the 15th instant, on a visit to Sandwich, etc. We are sorry," the editor then ventures to observe, " that he did not, as he originally destined, proceed by Lake Huron, according to his amiable intention and view of pro- moting the first interests of this province." In the Gazette of October 22nd, in this year, we hear once more of the Toronto Yacht. — Governor Gore has returned to York in safety, and has left again for Niagara in the Toronto. " On the 1 7th instant/' the above-named Gazette reports, "his Excellency the Lieut. -Governor and Major Halton sailed for Niagara in the Toronto Yacht. It was his Excellency's intention to have gone there on Monday last." The Gazette says : " He embarked for the purpose, and received an honorary salute from the Garrison. Excessive gales and a succession of violent head winds delayed his proceed- ing until Thursday morning." (He returned in the Toronto on Tuesday, the 6th of November.) On the 14th of December in this year, the editor of the Gazette again announces a change in the day of publication, in conse- quence of the suspension of water communication between York and Niagara. " The suspension of our water communication with Niagara at the present season obliges us to alter the day of publi- cation, which will now be on Wednesday. John Cameron." A postal notice issued in the Gazette of Jan. 4th, in the follow- ing year, 1809, is interesting now. It reads thus : " For General Information. The winter mail will be despatched from Quebec 534 Toronto of Old. [§ 30. for Upper Canada on the following days : Monday, 2nd Jan., 1809: do. 6th Feb. : do. 6th March : do. 3rd April. Each mail may be looked for here (York) from 16 to 18 days after the above periods. The Carrier from Kingston (the Indian Express probably of which we have heard already) is to go on to Niagara without making any stay (unless found necessary) at this place ; so that all persons will have time to prepare their letters by the time he returns from King- ston again. W. Allan, Deputy P. M., York, 2nd Jan. 1809." The mail between Montreal and Kingston was carried on the back of one Anderson. Between these two places the postage was nine- pence. Between 1809 and 181 2 we do not light upon many notices of vessels frequenting York Harbour. In 18 10, a schooner called the Lady Gore or the Bella Gore, commanded by Captain Sanders, and plying to Kingston, was a well known vessel. (It may be noted that in 181 1 Governor Gore left York for England, on leave of absence, and was away during the four eventful years that fol- lowed.) In 1 81 2, and previously, a sloop commanded by Cap- tain Conn was running between York and Niagara. From some peculiarity in her contour, she was popularly spoken of as " Cap- tain Conn's Coffin. " Another sloop, commanded by Captain Grace, was plying between York, Niagara and Kingston about the same time. The Government vessels with whose names we have become familiar were now either unseaworthy or wrecked. The Mohawk, the Onondaga, the Caldwell, the Sophia, the Buffalo, are no longer heard of as passing in and out of the harbour of York. It had been the fate of the Toronto Yacht, while under the command of Capt. Fish, to run on the sands at Gibraltar Point through a mis- take as to the position of the light. Her skeleton was long a con- spicuous object, visited by ramblers on the Island. This incident occurred just before the outbreak of the war. Most of the vessels which had been engaged in the ordinary traffic of the Lake were, during the war, employed by the govern- ment in the transport service. Captain Murney's vessel, the Prince Edward, built, as we have already heard, wholly of red cedar, and still in good order in 181 2, was thus employed. In the fleet on Lake Ontario in 181 2-14 new names prevail. Not one of the old titles is repeated. Some changes made in the nomenclature of vessels during the contest have created confusion § 30.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1800=14. 535 in regard to particular ships. In several instances which we shall specify immediately, in the following list, two names indicate the same vessel at different periods of the war. The Prince Regent, the commodore's ship, (Capt. Earl), the Princess Charlotte, the Montreal, the Wolfe, the Sir Sidney Smith, the Niagara, the Royal George, the Melville, the Star, the Moira, the Cherwell, the Gloucester (Capt. Gouvereau), the Magnet, the Netley, the St. Lawrence; and the gunboats Cleopatra, Lais, Ninon, Nelly, Regent, Thunderer, Welling- ton, Retaliation, Black Snake, Prescott, Dreadnought. In this list the Wolfe and the Montreal are the same vessels ; as also are the Royal George and the Niagara ; the Melville and the Star; the Prince Regent and the Netley ; the Moira and the Cherwell; the Montreal and the Wolfe; the Magnet and the Sir Sidney Smith. The Moira was lying off the Garrison at York when the Simcoe transport came in sight filled with prisoners taken on Queenston Heights, and bringing the first intelligence of the death of General Brock. We have heard the Rev. Dr. Richardson of Toronto, who at the time was Sailing Master of the Moira, under Captain Samp- son, describe the scene. — The approaching schooner was recog- nized at a distance as the Simcoe : it was a vessel owned and com- manded, at the moment, by Dr. Richardson's father, Captain James Richardson. Mr. Richardson accordingly speedily put off in a boat from the Moira, to learn the news. He was first startled at the crowded appearance of the Simcoe 's deck, and at the unwonted guise of his father, who came to the gangway conspicuously girt with a sword. ' A great battle had been fought,' he was told, 4 on Queenston Heights. The enemy had been beaten. The Simcoe was full of prisoners of war, to be transferred instanter to the Moira for conveyance to Kingston. General Brock was killed ! ' — Elated with the first portion of the news, Dr. Richardson spoke of the thrill of dismay which followed the closing announcement as something indescribable and never to be forgotten. Among the prisoners on board the Simcoe was Winfield Scott, an artillery officer, afterwards the distinguished General Scott. He was not taken to Kingston, but, with others, released on parole. The year following (1813), York Harbour was visited by the United States fleet, consisting of sixteen vessels. The result other pages will tell. It has been again and again implied in these papers. The government vessel named the Prince Regent narrowly escaped capture. She had left the port only a few days before the arrival 536 Toronto of Old. [§ 30. of the enemy. The frames of two ships on the stocks were de- stroyed, but not by the Americans. At the command of General Sheaffe, they were fired by the royal troops when beginning the retreat in the direction of Kingston. A schooner, the Gover- nor Hunter, belonging to Joseph Kendrick, was caught in the har- bour and destroyed ; but as we have understood, the American commander paid a sum of money to the owner by way of compen- sation. — At the taking of York, Captain Sanders, whom we have seen in command of the Bella Gore, was killed. He was put in charge of the dockyardmen who were organized as a part of the small force to be opposed to the invaders. We can imagine a confused state of things at York in 18 13. Nevertheless the law asserts its supremacy. The magistrates in sessions fine a pilot £2 15s. for refusing to fulfil his engagement with Mr. Mcintosh. " On the 19th October, 1813, a complaint was made by Angus Mcintosh, Esq., late of Sandwich, now of York, merchant, against Jonathan Jordan, formerly of the city of Montreal, a steersman in one of Angus Mcintosh's boats, for refus- ing to proceed with the said boat, and thereby endangering the safety of the said boat. He is fined £2 15s. currency, to be de ducted from wages due by Angus Mcintosh." It was in May the following year (1814), that Mr. Richardson, while Acting Master on board the Montreal (previously the Wolfe), lost his left arm in Sir James Yeo's expedition against Oswego. — The place was carried by storm. After describing the mode of attack and the gallantry of the men, Sir James Yeo in his official despatch thus speaks in particular of the Montreal : " Captain Popham, of the Montreal" he says, "anchored his ship in a most gallant style ; sustaining the whole fire until we gained the shore. She was set on fire three times by red-hot shot, and much cut up in her hull, masts and rigging. Captain Popham," he then pro- ceeds to say, " received a severe wound in his right hand ; and speaks in high terms of Mr. Richardson, the Master, who from a severe wound in the left arm, was obliged to undergo amputation at the shoulder joint." The grievous mutilation thus suffered did not cause Mr. Rich- ardson to retire from active service. Immediately on his recovery he was, at his own desire, appointed to a post of professional duty in the fleet. In October, when the great hundred-gun ship, the St. Lawrence, was launched at Kingston, he was taken by Sir §3°-] The Harbour : its Marine, 1800=14. 537 James Yeo on board that vessel, his familiarity with the coasts of the Lake rendering his services in the capacity of Acting Pilot of great value. In the record of disbursements made by the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada in 181 5, we have the sum of One Hun- dred Pounds allotted on the 22nd of April to " Mr. James Rich- ardson, of the Midland District," with the following note appended: " This gentleman was first in the Provincial Navy, and behaved well : he then became Principal Pilot of the Royal Fleet, and by his modesty and uncommon good conduct gained the esteem of all of the officers of the Navy. He lost his arm at the taking of Oswego, and as he was not a commissioned offcer, there was no allowance for his wounds. The Society, informed of this and in consideration of his services, requested his acceptance of ;£ioo." By a curious transition, instances of which are now and then afforded in the history of individuals in every profession, Mr. Richardson became in after years an eminent minister in the Methodist Society j and at the age of 82 was known and honoured far and wide throughout Upper Canada as the indefatigable bishop or chief superintendent of that section of the Methodist body which is distinguished by the prefix Episcopal. In 18 14 it would appear that Commodore Chauncey and his fleet were no longer dominating the north shore. The JVet/ey, for- merly the Prince Regent, is mentioned as being again in the har- bour of York. On the 24th of July she took over Lieut. -General and President Drummond, when on his way to support General Rial at Lundy's Lane. " I embarked," General Drummond says in his despatch to Sir George Prevost describing the engagement at Lundy's Lane ; " I embarked on board His Majesty's schooner Netley, at York, on Sunday evening, the 24th instant (July), and reached Niagara at daybreak the following morning." He then pushed on from Niagara to Lundy's Lane with 800 rank and file, and was the undoubted means of preventing a hard-contested fight from ending in a defeat. On the 24th of December in this year the Treaty of Ghent was signed, by which, to adopt its own language, " a firm and univer- sal peace was re-established between His Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their respective countries, territo- ries, cities, towns and people of every degree, without exception of persons or places." XXXI. the harbour: its marine, 1815 — 1827. OON after the close of the war with the United States in 18 14, the era of steam navigation on Lake Ontario opens. The first steamer, the Frontenac, was launched at Ernesttown, on the Bay of Quinte, in 1816. Her trips began in 181 7. The length of her deck was 170 j .the breadth, 32 feet ; her burden, 700 tons ; her cost, ,£15,000; her commander, Capt. James McKenzie, a retired officer of the Royal Navy. In 1818 we observe an enactment of the Provincial Legislature, having reference to steam navigation. It is decreed that the usual space occupied by the engine and machinery in a steam vessel, with the requisite stowage of wood, should be taken to occupy one- third of such vessel, and that such vessel should only pay Light- house or Tonnage Duty on two-thirds of her admeasurement. In successive numbers of the Kingston Chronicle, the advertise- ment of the Frontenac, occupying the width of two columns, conspi- cuously appears, with a large rude woodcut of a steamer with two smoke-pipes at the top. For the sake of the fares and other parti- culars, we copy this document (from the Chronicle of April 30 1819). " The Steamboat Frontenac, Tames McKenzie, Master, will in future leave the different ports on the following days : viz., Kingston for York, on the 1st, nth and 21st days of each month. York for Queenston, 3rd, 13th and 23rd days of each] month. Niagara for Kingston, 5 th, 15 th and 25 th days of each month. Rates of Pas- sages : From Kingston to York and Niagara, £$. From York to § 3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 539 Niagara, £1. Children under three years of age, half-price ; above three, and under ten, two-thirds. A Book will be kept for entering the names of passengers, and the berths which they may choose at which time the passage money must be paid. Passengers are allowed sixty pounds weight of baggage j surplus baggage to be paid for at the usual rate. Gentlemen's servants cannot sleep or eat in the Cabin. Deck passengers will pay fifteen shillings, and may either bring their own provisions, or be furnished by the Steward. For each dog brought on board, five shillings. All applications for passage to be made to Capt. McKenzie, on board. Freight will be transported to and from the above places at the rate of four shillings per barrel bulk, and Flour at the customary rate delivered to the different consignees. A list of their names will be put in a conspicuous place on board, which must be deemed a sufficient notice ; and the Goods, when taken from the Steam- boat will be considered at the risk of the owners. For each small parcel, 2s. 6d., which must be paid on delivery. Kingston, April 28th, 1819." Capt. McKenzie has acquired confidence in himself and his vessel in 181 9. An earlier notice in the Chronicle, relating to the Frontenac, was the following. Its terms show the great caution and very salutary fear which governed the action of sea captains, hitherto without experience in such matters, when about to encounter by the aid of steam the perils of a boisterous Lake. " Steamboat Frontenac will sail from Kingston for Niagara, calling at York, on the 1st and 15th days of each month, with as much punctuality as the nature of the Lake navigation will admit of." The ordinary sailing craft of the Lake of course still continued to ply. We hear of a passenger-boat between York and Niagara in 181 5, called the Dove; also of the Reindeer, commanded for a time by Captain Myers. In 1819-20 Stillwell Wilson, with whom we are already acquainted, is in command of a slip-keel schooner, carrying passengers and freight between York and Niagara. The Wood Duck was another vessel on this route. (In 1828 the Wood Duck is offered for sale, with her rigging and sails complete, for Four Hundred Dollars cash. "Apply to William Gibbons, owner, York." She is afterwards the property of Mr. William Arthurs.) The Red Rover, Captain Thew, and the Comet, Captain Ives, were others. The Britannia, Captain Miller, was a visitant of York harbour about the same period ; a top-sail schooner of about 1 20 tons, remarkable for her specially fine model. She was 54-0 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. built by Roberts, near the site of what is now Wellington Square, and was the property of Mr. Matthew Crooks, of Niagara. Captain Thew, above named, afterwards commanded the John Watkins, a schooner plying to York. Captain Thew encountered a little difficulty once at Kingston, through a violation, unconsciously on his part, of naval etiquette. A set of colours had been presented to the John Watkins, by Mr. Harris of York, in honour of his old friend and a co-partner whose name she perpetuated. It happened, however, through inadvertency, that these colours were made of the particular pattern which vessels in the Royal Service are alone entitled to carry ; and while the John Watkins was lying moored in the harbour at Kingston, gaily decorated with her new colours, Captain Thew was amazed to find his vessel suddenly boarded by a strong body of men-of-war's men, from a neighbouring royal ship, who insisted on hauling down and taking possession of the flags flying from her masts, as being the exclusive insignia of the Royal Navy. It was necessary to comply with the demand, but the bunting was afterwards restored to Captain Thew on making the proper representations. In 1820, Capt. Sinclair was in command of the Lady Sarah Maitland. We gather from an Observer of December in that year, that Lake Ontario, according to its wont, had been occasioning alarms to travellers. An address of the passengers on board of Capt. Sinclair's vessel, after a perilous passage from Prescott to York, is recorded in the columns of the paper just named. It reads as follows : " The subscribers, passengers in the Lady Mait- land schooner, beg to tender their best thanks to Capt. Sinclair for the kind attention paid to them during the passage from Pres- cott to this port ; and at the same time with much pleasure to bear testimony to his propriety of conduct in using every exertion to promote the interest of those concerned in the vessel and cargo, in the severe gale of the morning of the 4th instant (Dec. 1820). The manly fortitude and unceasing exertions of Capt. Sinclair, when the situation of the vessel, in consequence of loss of sails, had become extremely dangerous, were so highly conspicuous as to induce the subscribers to make it known to the public, that he may meet with that support which he so richly deserves. The exertions of the crew were likewise observed, and are deserving of praise. — D. McDougal, James Alason, . G. N. Ridley, Peter McDougal." §3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 541 This was probably the occasion of a doleful rejoinder of Mr. Peter McDougal's, which became locally a kind of proverbial expression : " No more breakfast in this world for Pete McDoug." The story was that Mr. McDougal, when suffering' severely from the effects of a storm on the Lake, replied in these terms to the cook, who came to announce breakfast. The phrase seemed to take the popular fancy, and was employed now and then to express a mild despair of surrounding circumstances. In 1820 a Traveller, whose journal is quoted by Willis, in Bart- lett's Canadian Scenery (ii. 48), was six days in accomplishing the journey from Prescott to York by water. " On the 3rd of Septem- ber," he says, "we embarked for York at Prescott, on board a small schooner called the Caledonia. We performed this voyage, which is a distance of 250 miles, in six days." In 181 8, Mr. M. F. Whitehead, of Port Hope, was two days and a-half in crossing from Niagara to York. " My first visit to York," Mr. Whitehead says in a communication to the writer, "was in September, 1818, crossing the Lake from Niagara with Dr. Baldwin — a two and a-half days' passage. The Doctor had thoughtfully provided a leg of lamb, a loaf of bread, and a bottle of porter: all our fare," adds Mr. Whitehead, " for two days and a-half." We have our- selves more than once, in former days, experienced the horrors of the middle passage between Niagara and York, having crossed and re-crossed, in very rough weather, in the Kingston Packet, or Brothers, and having been detained on the Lake for a whole night and a good portion of a day in the process. The schooners for Niagara and elsewhere used to announce the time of their depar- ture from the wharf at York in primitive style, by repeated blasts from a long tin horn, so called, sounded at intervals previous to their casting loose, and at the moment of the start. Fast and large steamers have, of course, now reduced to a minimum the miseries of a voyage between the North and South shores ; but these miseries are still not slight at the stormy seasons, when Lake Ontario often displays a mood by no means amiable — ' ' Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, Up from the bottom turned by furious winds And surging waves." It is some consolation to reflect, that with all the skill and appliances at the command of English engineers and shipbuilders, 542 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. it has been found hitherto impossible to render the passage from Dover to Calais a luxury ; nor possibly will that result be secured even by the enormous ferry-steamers which are projected. In 1 791, twenty-four hours were occasionally occupied in the passage from Dover to Calais. "I am half-dead," writes the learned traveller Dr. E. D. Clarke, at Calais, to his mother j "lam half- dead with sea-sickness : twenty-four hours' passage from Dover." Again, the mode in which the first Lake steamers were made to near the landing-place in the olden time, was something which would fill a modern steamboat captain with amazement. Accustomed as we are every day to see huge steamers guided without any ado straight up to the margin of a quay or pier, the process of putting in seems a simple affair. Not so was it, however, in practice to the first managers of steamboats. When the Frontenac or William IV. was about to approach the wharf at York, the vessel was brought to a standstill some way out in the harbour. From near the fore and after gangways boats were then lowered, bearing hawsers ; and by means of these, when duly landed, the vessel was solemnly drawn to shore. An agitated multitude usually witnessed the operation. In the Gazette of July 20, 1820, we have the information that " on Saturday evening, a schooner of about sixty tons, built for Mr. Oates and others, was launched in this port (York). She went off," the Gazette says," in very fine style, until she reached the water, where, from some defect in her ways, her progress was checked ; and from the lateness of the hour, she could not be freed from the impediment before the next morning, when she glided into the Bay in safety. Those who are judges say that it is a very fine vessel of the class. It is now several years," con- tinues the Gazette, " since any launch has been here ; it therefore r though so small a vessel, attracted a good deal of curiosity." This was the Duke of Richmond packet, afterwards a favourite on the route between York and Niagara. The Gazette describes the Richmond somewhat incorrectly as a schooner, and likewise under- states the tonnage. She was a sloop of the Revenue cutter build, and her burthen was about one hundred tons. Of Mr. Oates we have had occasion to speak in our perambulation of King Street. In an Observer of 1820, we have the first advertisement of the Richmond. It reads thus : " The Richmond Packet, Edward Oates, §31.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 543 commander, will commence running between the Ports of York and Niagara on Monday, the 24th instant (July), as a regular Packet. She will leave York on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, at 9 o'clock a.m., precisely; and Niagara on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, at 10 a.m., to the 24th of September, when the hour of departure will be made known to the Public. The Richmond has excellent accommodations for Ladies, Gentle- men and other Passengers, and nothing will be omitted to make her one of the completest and safest passage vessels of the class in America, being manned with experienced mariners. Rates of passage : After Cabin, 10s. ; Fore Cabin, 6s. 3d. Children under twelve years, half-price. Sixty pounds baggage allowed to each passenger; above that weight, od. per cwt., or 2s. per barrel bulk. For freight or passage apply to John Crooks, Esq., Niagara j the Captain on board ; or at the Subscriber's store. Ed. Oates, York, July 17, 1820." Captain Vavassour, commandant at Fort George, presented Capt. Oates with a gun and a set of colours. The former used to announce to the people of York the arrival and departure of the Richmond; and a striped signal-flag found among the latter, was hoisted at the Lighthouse on Gibraltar Point whenever the Rich- mond Packet hove in sight. (For a considerable period, all vessels were signalized by a flag flying from the Lighthouse.) Two years later, the Richmond is prospering on the route between York and Niagara. In the Gazette of June 7th, 1822, we have an advertisement of tenor similar to the one given above. " Rich- mond Packet, Edward Oates, master, will regularly leave York for Niagara on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays ; and Niagara for York on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, from the 1st of June until the 1st of September." The advertisement then goes on to say : " Edward Oates respectfully informs his friends and the Public, that his Packet shall leave York and Niagara on the above days, either in the morning or evening, as the wind and passengers may suit ; and that passengers may depend on a pas- sage on the above days. The superiority of sailing and accom- modation for ladies and gentlemen are too well known to the public to make any comment upon. York, June 1st, 1822. "By the following year, however, the Richmond's occupation was coming to an end. Steam on the route between York and Niagara had its effect. From the Gazette of Jan. 16, 1823, we learn that Mr. 544 Toronto of Old. [§ 3 1 - Oates is about to dispose of his interest in the Richmond; is virtually about to sell the vessel. In the paper just named we read the following advertisement : " Auction. Fifty Shares, or three-quarters and two sixty-fourths of that superior vessel the Richmond Packet, will positively be sold by auction, at the Town of York, on Saturday, the 25th instant, together with all her tackle, apparel, stores and furniture ; an inventory of which may be seen on application to R. Coleman, Esq., York j Mr. Edward Oates, Niagara. N.B. — Terms of sale: one-third down J the remainder in two equal payments at three and six months, with approved endorsers. York, Jan. 6, 1823." In a Gazette of this year we have a pleasure boat offered for sale at York, apparently a bargain. In the number for May 15, 1823, is the following advertisement : " Pleasure-boat to be sold : built of oak, an extremely fast sailer, and in every respect a complete vessel of the kind. It is rigged with jib, foresail, mainsail, and driver. Original cost, upwards of forty guineas (and not more than four years old). It will now be sold, with everything belonging to it, at the low price of fifteen pounds currency. Enquire at the Gazette Office, York. 7th May, 1823." As the Richmond Packet filled an important place in the early marine of the harbour, it will be of interest to mention her ultimate fate. While engaged, in 1826, in conveying a cargo of salt from Oswego, she was wrecked near Brighton, on the bay of Presqu'isle, towards the eastern part of Lake Ontario. The Captain, no longer Mr. Oates, losing his presence of mind in a gale of wind, cut the cable of his vessel and ran her ashore. The remains of the wreck, after being purchased by Messrs. Willman, Bailey and Co., were taken to Wellington, on the south side of the peninsula of Prince Edward county, where the cannon which had ornamented the deck of the defunct packet, and had for so many years daily made the harbour of York resound with its detonations, did duty in firing salutes on royal birthdays and other public occasions up to 1866, when, being overcharged, it burst, the fragments scattering them- selves far and wide in the waters round the wharf at Wellington. Just as the Richmond disappears, another favourite vessel, for some years distinguished in the annals of York harbour, and com- manded by a man of note, comes into the field of view. " The new steamer Canada" says the Loyalist of June 3, 1826, "was towed into port this week by the Toronto^ from the mouth of the §31.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815*27. 545 river Rouge, where she was built during the last winter. She will be shortly fitted up for her intended route, which, we understand, will be from York and Niagara round the head of the Lake, and will add another to the increasing facilities of conveyance in Upper Canada." The Loyalist then adds : " Six steamboats now navigate the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, in this Province, besides the Canada, and a boat nearly ready for launching at Brockville." We shall presently hear much of the career of the Canada and her commander. The Toronto (Capt. Shaw), named above as towing the Canada into the harbour, was a steam-packet of peculiar make, built af York. She was constructed without any difference of shape at the bow and stern, and without ribs. She was a shell of successive layers of rather thin boards placed alternately lengthwise and athwart, with coatings, between, of stout brown paper pitched. She proved a failure as a vessel for the Lake traffic, and was speedily taken down the river, where she was also unfortunate. We hear of her in the Loyalist of June 17, 1826. " By a letter," the Editor says, " received from Kingston we are sorry to hear that the steamboat Toronto, on her first trip from that place to Prescott, had unfortunately got aground several times, and that in consequence it had been found necessary to haul her out of the water at Brockville, to be repaired. The damage is stated not to be very great, but the delay, besides occasioning inconvenience, must be attended with some loss to the proprietors/' The Editor then adds : " The navigation of the St. Lawrence, for steamboats, between Kingston and Prescott, is in many places extremely diffi- cult, and requires that the most skilful and experienced pilots should be employed." In the same number of the Loyalist is an advertisement of the Martha Ogden, a United States boat. " Notice. The steamboat Martha Ogden, Andrew Estes, master, will ply between York and Youngstown during the remainder of the season, making a daily trip from each place, Saturdays excepted, when she will cross but once. Hours of sailing, 6 o'clock in the morning and 3 o'clock in the afternoon. To accommodate the public, her hours of departure from each place will be changed alternately every week, of which notice will be regularly given. This arrange- ment will continue in effect, weather permitting, until further notice is given. Passengers wishing to cross the river Niagara will be sent over in the ferry-boat free of charge. Cabin passage, two dollars. II 546 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. Deck passage, one dollar. Agents at York, Messrs. M. and R. Meighan. June 13, 1826." The Frontenac is still plying to York. In 1826 she brings up the Lieut-Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, from Kingston. The Loyalist of Saturday, June 3, 1826, duly makes the announcement. " His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor arrived here (York) on Wednesday afternoon, on board the Frontenac, Capt. McKenzie, from Kingston. His Excellency landed at the King's Wharf under a salute from the Garrison. Major Hillier and Captain Maitland accompanied his Excellency. On Thursday morning, his Excel- lency embarked on board the Frontenac for Niagara." The following week she brings over from Niagara Col. McGregor and the 70th Regiment. The Loyalist of June 10, 1826, thus speaks. " We have much pleasure in announcing the arrival in this place of the Head Quarter Division of the 70th Regiment, under the command of Lieut. -Col. McGregor. They landed from the steamboat Frontenac yesterday morning, and marched into the York Garrison." The Loyalist then proceeds to eulogize the 70th, and to express satisfaction at the removal of that regiment to York. " The distinguished character of this fine regiment, and the honour- able testimony which has been given of their uniformly correct and praiseworthy conduct, wherever they have been stationed, affords the most perfect assurance that from the esteem in which they have so deservedly been held, during a period of more than thirteen years' service in Canada, their stay at this Garrison will be rendered highly satisfactory to the inhabitants, and, we should hope, pleasant to themselves." It was on this occasion that many of the inhabi- tants of York beheld for the first time the impressive sight of a Highland regiment, wearing the kilt and the lofty plumed cap. A full military band, too, which accompanies only Head Quarter Divisions, was a novelty at York ; as previous to this year Niagara, and not York, was regarded as Military head quarters. The Pipers increased the excitement. The band of the 70th displayed, more- over, at this period further accessories of pomp and circumstance in the shape of negro cymbal players, and a magnificent oriental- looking standard of swaying tails surmounted by a huge glittering crescent bearing small bells. In the down-trip from York, the same week, the Frontenac took away a detachment of the 76th Regiment. "The detachment of the 76th Regiment," the Loyalist of June 10 reports, "under com- § 3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 547 mand of Lieut. Grubbe, embarked on board the Frontenac yesterday, on its destination to join the regiment at Montreal. Lieut. Grubbe takes with him," the Editor of the Loyalist says, " the cordial re- gard of the inhabitants of York j and the exemplary conduct of the detachment under his command has been such as to merit from them their best wishes for their future prosperity." — During the same week the steamer Queenstofi had arrived at York, as we learn from the following item in the same Loyalist of June 10 : "The Rev. Mr. Hudson, Military Chaplain, who accompanied the Lord Bishop from England, arrived here in the Queenston on Tuesday last. Mr. Hudson is appointed Chaplain to the Garrison at York." (In August, 1828, Mr. Hudson must have been in England. We read the following in the Loyalist of Oct. 11, in that year: — "Married, on the 12th of August last, at Crosby-on-Elden, Cum- berland, by the Rev. S. Hudson, B.A., the Rev. J. Hudson, M.A., Fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and Chaplain to the Forces at York, in Upper Canada, to Barbara Wells, second daughter of the Rev. Thomas Lowry, D.D.") In the Loyalist of July 29, in this year (1826), we hear of " the new steamer Niagara, built at Prescott, John Mosier, captain." This new steamer Niagara was in reality Capt. Mosier's schooner The Union of Wellington Grove, turned into a steamer. Some error had been committed in the build of the Union, and she suddenly capsized in the river near Prescott. Capt. Mosier then cut her in two, added to her length thirty feet by an insertion, and converted her into the Niagara steam-packet. Her arrival at York is announced in the Loyalist of July 29, and her return thither from Niagara with American tourists on board. The Loyalist says : " The new steam- boat Niagara, built at Prescott, John Mosier, captain, arrived here (York) on Monday last, the 24th instant. She proceeded the same day to Niagara, and returned on Tuesday afternoon, with a num- ber of American ladies and gentlemen making the Northern tour. This arrangement," continues the Loyalist, " of visiting York twice on the route round the Lake will be continued, we hope, as the number of persons travelling at this season of the year, having an opportunity of seeing York, will tend to enliven the town. The Niagara" it is added, " is a handsome and well-built boat, with a powerful engine, and most excellent accommodation for travellers." A Loyalist of the following month (the number for Aug. 12, 1826) reports the Niagara as bearing another kind of freight. She has 548 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. on board, for one thing, 60 hogsheads of tobacco. " The steam- boat Niagara, Capt Mosier, arrived in port on Monday last from Prescott via Niagara. On going on board," says the Editor of the Loyalist, " it afforded us much pleasure to find that her cargo con- sisted in part of sixty hogsheads of Leaf Tobacco for the Montreal market, the produce of the western part of the Province. The cultivation of this article of consumption," continues the Loyalist, " is attracting the attention of the farmers in the Western District, and a large quantity of it will be offered in the market this year. The next season it will be very much increased. The soil and climate of that part of the Province is represented as being well adapted to the growth of the tobacco plant, and the enterprize which is exhibited to secure the advantages thus held out, gives fair promise that the article will before long be added to the list of the staple productions of our country, and afford not only a suffi- cient supply for home consumption, but also form an important item in the schedule of Canadian exports." In the same number of the Loyalist we hear again of Capt. Richardson's new steamboat, the Canada. We read of her first passage across from York to Niagara, thus : " The new steamboat Canada, Capt. Richardson, made her first trip to Niagara on Mon- day last, and went out of the harbour in fine style. Her appear- ance reflects much credit on her builder, Mr. Joseph Dennis ; and the machinery, manufactured by Messrs. Wards of Montreal, is a specimen of superior workmanship. The combined excellence of the model and machinery of this boat is such," says the Loyalist, " as will render her what is usually termed ' a fast boat/ The trip to Niagara was performed in four hours and some minutes. Her present route, we observe, is advertised from York to Niagara and the Head of the Lake. In noticing this first trip of another steam- boat," continues the Loyalist, " we cannot help contrasting the pre- sent means of conveyance with those ten years ago. At that time only a few schooners navigated the Lake, and the passage was attended with many delays and much inconvenience. Now there are five steamboats, all affording excellent accommodation, and the means of expeditious travelling. The routes of each are so arranged that almost every day of the week the traveller may find opportunities of being conveyed from one extremity of the Lake to the other in a few hours. The Niagara and Queenston from Prescott, and the Frontenac from Kingston once a week, and the §3i-] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 549 Canada and Martha Ogden between York and Niagara and the Head of the Lake every day, afford facilities of communication which the most sanguine could scarcely have anticipated at the period we speak of. Independent of these boats, it must be men- tioned that the Cornwall on Lake St. Louis makes a trip every day from Coteau du Lac to Cornwall ; the Dalhousie runs between Prescott and Kingston twice a week and conveys the mail ; the Charlotte and Toronto once a week from Prescott to the Head of the Bay of Quints ; thus affording to every part of the country the same advantages of convenient intercourse. These are some of the evidences of improvement among us during the last few years which require no comment. They speak for themselves, and it must be pretty evident from such facts as these, that those who cannot, or will not, see the progress we are making, must be wil- fully blind." (The closing remark was of course for the benefit of contemporary editors at York and elsewhere, who, from their politi- cal view of things, gave their readers the impression that Canada was a doomed country, going rapidly to perdition.) From the Loyalist of Aug. 19, 1826, we learn that " the steam- boat Niagara, on her trip from York to Kingston, had her machi- nery injured, and has put back into Bath to repair." In the same number of the Loyalist, we are told that the proprietor of the Fron- tenac had fractured his leg. " We regret to hear/' the Loyalist says, " that an accident happened last week to John Hamilton, Esq., the proprietor of the steamboat Frontenac. In stepping out of a carriage at the Falls, he unfortunately broke his leg." In a Loyalist of the following month (Sept. 2, 1826), we hear again of Sir Pere- grine Maitland's movements in the Frontenac. The Loyalist says : " His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor and suite arrived in town (York) from Kingston yesterday morning, on board the Fron- tenac, and after remaining a few hours, proceeded to Stamford." The next Loyalist (Sep. 9, 1826) speaks of an expeditious trip made by Capt. Mosier's Niagara. " The Steamboat Niagara, Capt. Mosier, made/' it says, " her trip last week, from York to Prescott, and back again, in something less than four days, touch- ing at the ports of Kingston, Gananoque and Brockville, going and returning, independent of the usual delay at Prescott. The dis- tance is nearly five hundred miles. ' From the Loyalist of Sept. 30, 1826, we hear of the steamboat Queenston, Capt. Whitney. A notice appears that " The steam- 550 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. boat Queenston, Capt. W. Whitney, will, during the remainder of the season, leave Niagara for Kingston and Prescott every Thurs- day at eight o'clock a.m., instead of 10 o'clock as heretofore. Queenston, Sept. 8, 1826." From a number of the Loyalist in the following month (Oct. 7, 1826), we gather that an accident, which might have been very disastrous, had happened to the Queenston, " With pleasure," the Editor says, " we state that the steamboat Queenston arrived here (York) on Thursday last, without having sustained any serious injury in consequence of the late accident which happened by her getting aground near Kingston. The ap- prehensions which were entertained for the safety of this fine boat are therefore happily removed. After getting off she returned to Prescott, where the necessary repairs were immediately made, and brought up several passengers and a full cargo." A communication from Hugh Richardson, Captain of the Canada, appears in the Loyalist of Oct. 14, 1826. A passenger has leaped overboard from his vessel and been drowned. " To the Editor of the U. E. Loyalist. Sir, — On Friday evening a pas- senger on board the Canada, on her way from Burlington Beach to Niagara, was seen by the man at the helm to jump overboard. On the alarm being given, in an instant the sails were in, engine stopped, and boat lowered, into which I jumped with two hands, and rowed a quarter of a mile in our wake, but, I am sorry to say, without success. On returning aboard, his hat was found, as if deliberately placed near the gangway whence he jumped. The hat is a new white one, and beside the maker's name is written 'Joseph Jewell Claridge, Jersey City.' The hat contained a new red and yellow silk handkerchief, a pair of white cotton gloves, and three-quarters of a dollar in silver. He was a good-looking young man, well dressed, in blue coat, yellow waistcoat, black or blue pantaloons and boots. He had neither bundle nor luggage, and came on board at Burlington Beach. I am inclined to think from all appearances, and the trifle of money left in the hat, that distressed circumstances had pourtrayed, in a too sensitive mind, insurmountable evils, producing temporary derangement, during which the barriers of nature were broken down ; and he rushed in frenzy before his Maker. Perhaps by your kindly inserting this it may meet the eye of some relation or friend, to whom, on applica- tion, the little articles he left will be restored. I am, Sir, your most obedient servant, Hugh Richardson. York, Oct. 3, 1826." § 3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 551 (We shall have other communications of Capt. Richardson's brought under our notice shortly. They are always marked by vigour ; and are now and then pleasantly racy of the profession to which the writer belonged.) The Loyalist of Nov. 11, 1826, notices a second accident which has befallen Captain Mosier's vessel. It says : " The steamer Niagara, on her way from Prescott last week, unfortunately struck on a reef of rocks off Poplar Point, about fifty miles from Kingston, where, at the latest dates, she was lying on her beam ends, in about five feet of water. The Queenston brought her passengers up," it is added, " on Saturday last ; and we are informed that, owing to the exertions of Capt. Mosier, the greater part of her cargo has been forwarded to York. Yesterday a person who came from the Niagara, stated that she had received no damage from the late gales of wind, and as she has weathered these, we sin- cerely hope that she may be got off without much difficulty or injury." In the next number it is noted that " at the latest dates the steamboat Niagara was still aground. The greatest exertions are making by Capt. Mosier to get her off. The weather has been tempestuous ; but we are happy to hear that the Niagara has not received any material injury." In this number is a notice that " a meeting of the stockholders of the Steampacket Canada will be held at York, on board of the Boat, on Monday, the 4th of December, at 1 2 o'clock. By order of the Committee of Management. J. W. Gamble, Treasurer. York, 15th Nov., 1826." — One result of the meeting thus adver- tised is an address to the stockholders from Capt. Richardson, which appears in the Loyalist of Dec. 9. The Captain is plainly uneasy in view of the possibility of the majority deciding that he shall not be in the' sole charge and management of the Canada in the ensuing year. He announces his intention to visit England during the winter, for the purpose' of raising funds among his friends which may enable him to buy out the few persons who are asso- ciated with him in the ownership of the boat. " Gentlemen," he says, " it having been decided at a Meeting of the Stockholders, held on board the Canada, that I should be invested with the sole charge and management of the boat the ensuing year, unless at a Meeting to be held the first Monday in March, other arrangements take place, I seize this opportunity, on the eve of my departure for England, to assure the Stockholders that I have made every 552 Toronto of Old. [§ 3 1 - arrangement for the safety of the boat and the necessary repairs. And at the same time I respectfully submit to them the ostensible motive of my voyage. Gentlemen, I am so deeply embarked in the speculation I have entered into, that the prospect of the stock depreciating, and of the boat's services and my own labours being rendered abortive in so lucrative a ferry as that betwixt York and Niagara, mainly by a plurality of the management, fills me with dis- may. And, as I trust I am entitled to the confidence the Stock- holders generally placed in my abilities, and am convinced that unless the power of management be invested in one person to act with all his energies in the scene of profits, to seize the advantages of market in the economy of the outlay with the discretion of a sole owner, loss and ruin to myself must ensue. With this view of the subject I embark for England to endeavour to raise funds and relieve those gentlemen who are averse to my management, and to take up the remainder of the stock, that they who so kindly confided in my assurances of individual profit, and placed implicit reliance in my integrity and abilities, may not be disappointed in their fair expectations. Confident that I possess the hearty wishes of success from many valuable patrons, in taking leave, I am happy to subscribe myself, Gentlemen, your most obedient humble ser- vant, Hugh Richardson. York, Dec. 6, 1826." By the 24th of March in the following year (1827) he is back again in York. In the Loyalist of the date just given is a second address to the stockholders, preparatory to the meeting which is to take place on the 2nd of April. He recounts his proceedings in England, and urges again his own appointment as sole manager of the Canada. As illustrative of the anxieties attendant at an early period, and at all periods, on individual personal enterprise, insufficiently supported, the document possesses an interest. " To the Stockholders in the Canada Steamboat. Gentlemen, it must be fresh in the memory of you all that I am the original projector of the Canada ; that my abilities, in whatever light they may be viewed, were wholly employed in planning, constructing and fitting her out. Facts have already proved that I led no one astray by false theories in her construction j and her engine is upon the model of the very best now generally in use in England. I have been all along by far the largest shareholder, and nearly the whole of the shares were taken up by gentlemen upon my personal solicitations, in doing which I did not fear, in the strongest Ian- § 3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1 8 * 15=27. 553 guage I was master of, to pledge the success of the undertaking, not only on the prospect of the lucrative ferry, but also upon the faith of my own personal exertions. Then do I infer too much by saying that a friendly disposition towards me, a confidence in my abilities and my integrity (with very few exceptions), was the basis upon which I met with such general patronage? However, after a certain period it was no longer possible to raise sufficient stock to complete the vessel ; the expedient of borrowing was resorted to, and a debt of ^1,200 contracted with the Bank. Upon this the boat commenced her operations, and ran from the 7th of August, a period of 98 days ; during which time, Gentlemen, I look upon it as a matter of congratulation that at her very first starting, having an American boat to oppose her, the proceeds of the Canada not only paid her current expenses, but also a sum of upwards of ,£200 in extraordinary outfit, including ^40 insurance on money borrowed, also the interest thereon ; ^50 nearly for replacing her wheels repeatedly destroyed, and considerable repairs. I see nothing but what is most flattering in this her first outset. Thus it would have appeared had I made my report : and had I done it in the most favourable light, I should have thought, as one of the guardians of the property entrusted to my charge, that I was only fulfilling a duty I owed the Stockholders when I enhanced, rather than depreciated, its value. At the end of the season, from disappointments and expenses in collecting the amount of the shares taken up, there was found still wanting a sum of ^"400 ; and at the last general meeting this further sum was borrowed, hamper- ing the boat with a debt of ^1,000. At this crisis, at a very great personal expense, and at a greater sacrifice of domestic com- fort, I set out for England to trespass upon my own immediate friends j and now return prepared to relieve the embarrassments of the boat, and am willing, in the face of representations that went to disparage the stock, to invest a much larger capital in the Canada; in doing which I confer a benefit upon the whole, and trust I give further proof of the sincerity of my professions, when I undertook the arduous task of getting up a Steamboat. But, Gentlemen, things have not gone as I wished, or as I intended ; and, perhaps, I am the only person who will have property invested in this vessel to such an amount as to make it of vital importance that success should attend the adventure. Therefore, upon this ground, upon the ground of my being the projector of this vessel, upon the 554 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. responsibility of my situation as Master, ostensible agent, and pos- sessing owner, I most earnestly solicit your particular support to my appointment as managing owner of this vessel ; and to that effect may I again solicit the most general attendance of the Stock- holders at the meeting to be held on board the Canada the second of April. I am, Gentlemen, your very obedient and very humble servant, Hugh Richardson. York, 24th March, 1827." It is to be supposed that Capt. Richardson's views were adopted at the meeting. In the Loyalist for May 5, 1827, we have him subscribing him- self " Managing Owner," to the following notice : " The Canada British Steam-Packet, Capt. Hugh Richardson, leaves Niagara daily for York at 7 o'clock in the morning, and starts from York for Nia- gara every day at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The Canada crosses the Lake in the short space of four hours and a half, and affords travellers arriving at the Falls an expeditious and convenient oppor- tunity of visiting the Capital of Upper Canada. Fare : Cabin pas- sage, two dollars J Deck and Fore Cabin, one dollar. Passengers returning immediately with the boat will only pay half the above prices for the return. Hugh Richardson, Managing Owner. York, April 21, 1827." In 1827 Capt. Richardson was the recipient of an honorary present of a Key Bugle. In the Loyalist of June 30, '27, we read the following card : — " Mr. Richardson takes this opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of a Key Bugle from the young gentle- men of York, accompanied by a letter expressive of their esteem and approbation of his conduct in the management of the Canada. In returning his sincere thanks for the above mark of their valued esteem and the high compliment paid him in the accompanying letter, he must look upon the warm and friendly colouring which they have been pleased to give to his conduct, as a picture drawn by the free and generous hand of youth, rather to emulate, than having semblance to the original. Nevertheless, his aim has ever been, and ever will be, to do credit to those who placed him where he is, and to support the character of a British seaman. York, 30th June, 1827." From a preceding number of the Loyalist in this year we learn that on the 20th of April the mate of the Canada was accidentally drowned. The paper just mentioned says : — " George Reid, mate of the Steamboat Canada, was last night drowned by falling from §3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 18 ij =2 j. 555 the plank leading from the wharf to the vessel. It is painful to hear that the unfortunate man leaves a wife and five children to deplore his sudden loss." The Loyalist of the 7th of that month says : " His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor and family left York for Stamford on Wednesday morning last, on board the Steamboat Queenston. His Excellency's departure was announced by a salute from the Garri- son. On May the 12th the Queenston has returned from Niagara, and meets with a casualty at York. The Loyalist of the 19th says : "The Steamboat Queenston met with an accident while lying at the wharf here on Saturday last. In raising the steam before pro- ceeding to Niagara, the boiler was partially burst. The accident was not attended with any serious consequences. The Queenston was delayed until the following Thursday in making the necessary repairs, before she proceeded on her voyage." In June this year (1827) the Niagara has been removed from the spot where she was run ashore last year, and is undergoing repairs at Kingston. In the Loyalist of June 16, 1827, we read : " We are happy to hear that the Steamboat Niagara has been got off the rocks near Long Point, and that she is now lying in the har- bour at Kingston, undergoing repairs. She is stated to have received but little damage ; and it was expected that in the course of a month she would commence her regular trips across the Lake." In the Loyalist of May 26, 1827, we hear once more of the Fron- tenac. She is laid up, we are told, and a steamer to succeed her is to be built : " We are happy to hear," the Loyalist says, " that Captain McKenzie, late in command of the Frontenac (now laid up), has made arrangements for building a new boat, to be pro- pelled by an engine of greater power than that of any other now navigating the Lake. The acknowledged ability of Capt. McKen- zie while in command of the Frontenac, the regularity with which her trips were performed, and the attention he at all times bestowed to the comfort and convenience of his passengers, induce us to hope that the undertaking he has commenced will be speedily carried into effect. " In the Loyalist of June 9th, 1827, the Frontenac is offered for sale by auction at Kingston. In the advertisement, the historical machinists Boulton & Watt are named as the makers of her engine: 556 Toronto of Old. [§ 3 1 - *' By Public Auction. Will be sold on Monday, the second of July next, at Kingston, as she now lays (sic) at the wharf,the Steam- boat Frontenac, with her anchors, chain-cables, rigging, &c. Also the engine, of 50 horse power, manufactured by Messrs. Watt & Boulton. Sale to commence at 10 o'clock a.m., on board. For any further information application to made to Mr. Strange, King- ston, or to John Hamilton, Queenston. June 1, 1827." Possibly no sale was effected, for we learn from the Loyalist of Sept. 1 that the Frontenac was to be removed to Niagara by Mr. Hamilton. The Loyalist copies from the Upper Canada Herald, published at Kingston, the following paragraph : " Yesterday the old Frontenac, under the care of R. Hamilton, Esq., left Kingston for Niagara, where, we understand, she is to be broken up. Mr. Hamilton is preparing materials for a new boat of about 350 tons. We then gather from a Loyalist of Sept. 29,1827, that while lying at the wharf at Niagara, the* Frontenac was mischievously set fire to. The paper just named says : " The Messrs. Hamilton, proprietors of the Steamboat Frontenac, have offered a reward of £ 100 for the discovery of the persons who set fire to that vessel some time ago. The Frontenac, after being fired, was loosed from her moorings, and had drifted some distance into the Lake, when she was met by the Niagara, Capt. Mosier, who took her in tow, and succeeded in bringing her to the wharf at Niagara, where after some exertions the flames were extinguished." This, as we suppose, terminates the history of the Frontenac, the first steamboat on Lake Ontario. As associated with Boulton & Watt's engine, spoken of above, we must mention the name of Mr. John Leys, for some years Capt. McKenzie's chief engineer on board the Frontenac. At the outset of steam navigation, men competent to superintend the working of the machinery of a steamboat were, of course, not numerous, and Cap- tains were obliged in some degree to humour their chief engineer when they had secured the services of one. Capt. McKenzie, it would be said, was somewhat tyrannized over by Mr. Leys, who was a Scot, not very tractable ; and the Frontenac 's movements, times of sailing, and so on, were very much governed by a will in the hold, independent of that of the ostensible Commander. Mr. Leys, familiarly spoken of as Jock Leys, was long well known in York. In July, 1827, the Queenston was engaged in the transfer of §31.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 557 troops. In the Loyalist of July 21, 1827, we read : "Detachments of the 68th Regiment for Amherstburg, under the command of Captain North ; Fort George, Captain Melville ; and Penetangui- shene, Ensign Medley, were on board the Queenston, and pro- ceeded on Tuesday last to their several destinations. On Thurs- day the Queenston returned to York from Niagara, when the first division of the 70th Regiment embarked to proceed to Lower Canada." In her next trip the Queenston brought more troops, and took more away. In the Loyalist of the 28th of July we read : " The first division of the 68th Regiment for this Garrison arrived by the Queenston on Tuesday, and on her return a second detachment of the 70th proceeded to Lower Canada. The ex- changes are now we believe nearly completed," the Loyalist adds. In the number for August 4, the Queenston is once more spoken of as engaged in the conveyance of troops to and from York. " The head-quarter division of the 68th Regiment, under the command of Major Winniett, arrived on Tuesday morning, and on Thursday that of the 70th Regiment, under Lieut.-Colonel Evans, embarked on board the steamboat Queenston. During the short stay made by the 70th Regiment in this garrison," the Loyalist says, " their conduct has been such as to secure to them the same kind feel- ings which have been expressed towards them by the inhabitants of the towns in both Provinces where they have at different times been stationed. They are now on their return to their native coun- try, after a long and honourable period of service in the Canadas, and they carry with them the best wishes of the inhabitants for their future welfare and prosperity." When thus announcing the departure of the 70th Regiment, the Loyalist adds: "We cannot but notice with pleasure the arrival of so distinguished a corps as the 68th amongst us." The standing advertisement of the Queen- ston for this year may be added : " Lake Ontario Steam-Boat No- tice : The Public are informed that the Steam-Boat Queenston, Captain James Whitney, has commenced making her regular trips, and will during the summer leave the different Ports as follows : Leave Niagara for Kingston, Brockville, and Prescott, every Thurs- day morning at 8 o'clock precisely ; and leave Prescott on her return for Brockville, Kingston and York, every Sunday, at 12 o'clock, noon. Arrangements have been made with Messrs. Nor- ton and Co., Stage Proprietors, Prescott, by which passengers going down will arrive at Montreal on Saturday evening ; and passengers 558 Toronto of Old. [§31. proceeding upwards will, by leaving Montreal on Saturday morn- ing, arrive at Prescott in time to take the Boat. Every endeavour has been made to render the accommodation and fare on board of the best description. Queenston, May 25, 1827." In a Loyalist of this period we have a communication from Captain- Richardson, of the Canada, giving an authentic account of the swamping of a small boat in the attempt to put a passenger on board his steamer in the Niagara river. This characteristic letter contains some excellent directions as to the proper method of boarding a steamer when under way. " To the Editor of the U. E. Loyalist. — Sir, according to your re- quest, and to prevent misrepresentation, I herewith furnish you with the particulars of the little accident that occurred to a Ferry Boat in Niagara River, in attempting to board the Canada. On Saturday last as the Canada passed the lower ferry, coming out of Niagara river, a boat put off with a passenger, and contrary to the rule laid down to admit of no delays after the hour of departure, I ordered the engine to be stopped, to take the passenger on board. The Ferryman, instead of rowing to the gangway of the Canada, pulled the boat stem on to her bow before the water wheel. The vessel going through the water, all possibility of retreat from that position was precluded, and the inevitable swamping of the boat ensued. Fortunately the engine was entirely stopped : the Ferryman had the good luck to get hold of the wheel and ascend by it. The pas- senger, after passing under it, clung to the floating skiff. No time was lost in going to his relief with the boats of the Canada, and both escaped uninjured. Any comment upon the impropriety of boarding a steam vessel before the water wheel would be absurd ; but I may be allowed to advise this general rule to all persons going alongside of a steam vessel, viz. : always to board to leeward, never to attempt to cross her hawse, but to bring the boat's head round in the same direction with the vessel under way ; row up on her lee quarter double oar's length distance, until abreast of the gangway j then gradually sheer alongside, keeping as much as possible in parallel line with the direction of the vessel you are boarding. I am, sir, your very obedient servant, Hugh Richard- son, Master of the Canada." A passage from Captain Richardson's " Report on the Preser- vation and Improvement of the Harbour," to which in 1S54 a supplementary or extra premium of ^75 was awarded by the §3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1815=27. 559 Harbour Commissioners, may be quoted as a further example of the neat employment of a sailor's technical language. (He is arguing against cutting a canal into the Harbour at the Carrying Place, where the great irruption of the waters of the Lake subse- quently took place.) " With wind at S. W., and stormy," he says, " (such a canal) would be valuable for exit, but for entrance from, the east, every nautical man would prefer making a stretch out into the open Lake, weathering the Light at one long board, and rounding into the Harbour with a fair wind, to hauling through the Canal, coming in dead upon a lee shore, and having to beat up the Bay in short tacks." Some twenty years previously similar views had been expressed in a printed essay on York Harbour — a pro- duction in which, in his zeal for the well-being of the Bay, Captain Richardson said some hard things of the river Don, which we may here notice. The person who had uttered an imprecation on the North Pole, Sidney Smith pronounced capable of speaking evil next even of the Equator. Of what enormity of language must not the dwellers by the stream which pours its tribute into the Harbour of York, have thought Captain Richardson capable, when they heard him in his haste call that respectable stream " a mon- ster of ingratitude," " an insidious monster," " the destroying can- cer of the Port ? " " From the moment that the peninsula raised its protecting head above the waters, and screened the Don from the surges of the Lake, the Don." Captain Richardson says, " like a monster of ingratitude, has displayed such destructive industry as to displace by its alluvial disgorgings by far the greater part of the body of water originally enclosed by the peninsula. The whole of the marsh to the East, once deep and clear water, is," he asserts, " the work of the Don, and in the Bay of York, where now its destructive mouths are turned, vegetation shews itself in almost every direction, prognosticating * as he speaks, " the approaching conversion of this beautiful sheet of water into another marshy delta of the Don." Fothergill, too, in an address to the Electors of the County of Durham, in 1826, indulges in a fling at the river which pays its tribute to the Harbour of York. After quoting some strong words of the elder Pitt in the British House of Com- mons on the subject of public robbery and national plunder, he adds : " Perhaps the very quoting of such language will be deemed treasonable within the pestilential range of the vapours of the marsh of the great Don, and of the city of many waters," mean- 560 Toronto of Old. [§ 31. ing York, the head-quarters of the Government. But the Don, the poor unconscious object of all this invective, is in reality no more to blame than is the savage because he is a savage, not having had a chance to be anything else. In proceeding to lay the foundation of a delta of solid land at its mouth, the Don followed the prece- dent of other streams, in conformity with the physical conditions of its situation. When at length the proper hour arrived, and the right men appeared, possessed of the intelligence, the vigour and the wealth equal to the task of bettering nature by art on a con- siderable scale, then at once the true value and capabilities of the Don were brought out into view. Speedily then were its channel and outlet put to their proper and foreordained use, being trans- formed by means of cribwork and embankments into a convenient interior harbour for Toronto, an arrangement of high importance to the interests of a now populous quarter, where some of the most striking developments of business activity and manufacturing enter- prise that the capital of Ontario can boast of, have been witnessed. " But to return. We were tracing the fortunes of Captain Rich- ardson's boat, the Canada, in 1827. In July, 1827, the Canada met with an accident. She broke her main shaft on the Lake. The Loyalist of the 4th of August says : " We regret to state that the steam-boat Canada, while cros- sing the Lake from Niagara on Tuesday last, unfortunately broke her main shaft. The accident we hope is not of such a nature as to deprive us any great length of time of the convenience which that excellent Boat has afforded us of daily communication with Niagara." In the paper of August 18th it is announced that the Canada is all right again. " The Canada, we are happy to state, has again commenced making her usual trips to Niagara : she left the Harbour yesterday afternoon." Towards the close of the sea- son we have a record of the brave bufferings of this vessel with an easterly gale on the Lake. " On Monday last," says the Loy- alist of the 27th October, "we were visited by one of those violent gales of easterly wind, accompanied with torrents of rain, not un- usual at this season of the year. The Steam-Boat Canada, at 10 o'clock in the morning, when there was an appearance of the storm moderating, left the Niagara river for York. She had not proceeded far on her voyage however, when the gale increased with greater violence than before, and in a short time both her masts were car- ried away, and some damage done to her chimney. Fortunately §3i.] The Harbour : its Marine, 18 15=2 J. 561 her engine remained uninjured, and enabled her at about five in the afternoon to reach the wharf in safety. The Canada has made some of her trips in the most boisterous weather, and deservedly bears the name of an excellent sea boat. She suffered no delay from the damage she had sustained, and left the Harbour the fol- lowing morning for Niagara. The weather since Monday continues boisterous and cold." On December 1st, the Loyalist announces that " the Canada Steam Boat made her last trip from Niagara on Tuesday, and is now laid up for the winter. " In the following spring, on the 27th of March, she takes over Sir Peregrine Maitland. " His Excel- lency the Lieutenant-Governor and family left York," says the Loyalist of March 29, 1828, " on Thursday morning for Stamford* His Excellency embarked on board the Canada Steam Packet under a salute from the Garrison." A communication from the Captain appears in the Loyalist of the 12 th of April, having refc rence to this trip. He replies to some strictures in the Colonial Advocate on some alleged exclusiveness exhibited by Sir Pere- grine while crossing the Lake in the Canada. " Having observed in the Colonial Advocate of the 3rd of April, under the head of Civilities, that His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor engaged the whole of the two cabins of the Canada for himself and family, and would not allow even the Members of Assembly who were returning home to go over that day, except as deck passengers, I have to declare the same an impudent falsehood. His Excellency having condescended to intimate to me his desire to remove his family and household as early as possible, I hastened the equip- ment of the Canada expressly on His Excellency's account, con- trary to my intentions, and the requisite delay for outfit until 1st April. To all applications for passage on the day fixed for His Excellency's embarkation I replied, I considered the vessel at His Excellency's orders. The moment His Excellency came on board, and understood that I was excluding passengers, I received His Excellency's orders to take on board every passenger that wished to embark. The only further intimation I received of His Excel- lency's pleasure was, on my application to know if I should stop at Niagara, I received for answer that His Excellency had no desire to stop there, but if I wished it, it could make no difference to His Excellency. Born and bred under a Monarchical Govern- ment, educated in the discipline of a British seaman, I have not JJ 562 Toronto of Old. US 3 1 - yet learned the insolence of elbowing a desire (in right, an order) of the Representative of my Sovereign, by an impertinent wish of my own. I have only to say that as long as I command the Ca- nada, and have a rag of colour to hoist, my proudest day will be when it floats at her mast-head indicative of the presence and com- mands of the Representative of my King. Hugh Richardson, Master and Managing Owner of the Canada Steam-Packet. April nth, 1828. RS. Perhaps Dr. Lefferty being a Member on the right side, who embarked on board the Canada, and who did me the honour of a call a night or two before, for information, may confirm this." Captain Richardson, as we can see, was a man of chivalrous temperament. His outward physique, moreover, corresponded with his character. His form was lithe, graceful and officer-like. It was not alone when the Governor of the Province happened to be present that established distinctions in society were required to be observed on board the Canada steam-packet. At all times he was particular on this point. This brought him into collision occa- sionally with democratically disposed spirits, especially from the opposite side of the Lake ; but he did not scruple to maintain his rules by main force when extreme measures were necessary, calling to his aid the stout arms of a trusty crew. XXXII. THE HARBOUR '. ITS MARINE 1828-1863. HE Canada's advertisement for the season of 1828 appears in the Loyalist of April 2. It differs a little from the one previously given. "The British steam- packet Canada, Captain Hugh Richardson, plying between York and Niagara, weather permitting, leaves Niagara, &c, &c, as before. N.B. — A gun will be fired and colours hoisted twenty-five minutes before starting." It is interesting to observe that the traffic of the harbour carried on by schooners is still such as to require additional vessels of that class. In the Loyalist of April 19, 1828, the following item appears : — " A new schooner called the Canadian was launched here (York) yesterday morning. She is owned by Mr. Gamble and Capt. Bowkett, the latter of whom, we understand, takes command of her." From the same number of the Loyalist we learn that " the launch of Mr. Hamilton's new Steam Boat at Niagara was expected to take place on the 21st instant. In the paper of the 1 7th, the launch of another schooner at York is recorded. " A fine schooner called George the Fourth was launched here on Wednesday last. Burthen about 70 or 80 tons." In June this schooner is bringing emigrants to York. " During the last week," the Loyalist of June 7th says, " several families of emi- grants, arrived from Great Britain by the spring shipping at Quebec, have reached York. The new schooner George the Fourth landed nearly one hundred persons, besides those which have been brought up by the steam-boats and other vessels." The case is then men- 564 Toronto of Old. [§ 32. tioned of the very reprehensible conduct of the master of one of the Lake schooners (the name is withheld), " who, regardless of the consequences to several families who had taken passage from Prescott to York on board his vessel, landed a body of emigrant settlers on Gibraltar Point, during the last week, instead of putting them, with their baggage, on one of the wharves in the Harbour — in consequence of which, women and helpless children were ex- posed during a whole night to the violence of a tremendous storm of rain, without any shelter, and, from ignorance of their situation, unable to get to the town. On Thursday morning the schooner Catherine, Captain Campbell, relieved them from their uncom- fortable situation, and landed them safely in York. In the Loyalist of June 28, 1828, the arrival in York Harbour of the steamer lately launched at Niagara as successor to the Frontenac is noticed. She is named the Alciope. "The new steam-boat Alciope, lately built at Niagara, owned by Robert Ham- ilton, Esq., and under the command of Capt. McKenzie, late of the Frontenac, with a number of ladies and gentlemen on a party of pleasure, made her first entry into our Harbour on Thursday last. She is a fine model, and fitted up in a most elegant and convenient manner for passengers. She commences her regular trips, we understand, next week : and under the command of Capt. McKenzie, so well known for his skill and experience as a seaman, and for attention to his passengers, we have no doubt the Alciope will be found a valuable acquisition to the regular communication which is now afforded by means of the several steamboats plying on the Lake ; and that she will receive a share of that public patronage which is so deservedly bestowed upon the owners and commanders of other boats, whose public spirited exertions are deserving of the highest praise." Alciope is a singular name, taken as we suppose from the Greek mythology, betokening, it may have been thought, one of the Nereids, although we are not aware that the name occurs on the roll of that very large family. One of the several wives of the mighty Hercules was a daughter of Alciopus ; she consequently may be conceived to have been an Alciope. But how Mr. Hamil- ton, of Queenston, or Captain McKenzie, came to think of such a recherche name for the new steamer is a mystery which we wish we could clear up. It is certain that the selection led to mispro- nunciations and misconceptions on the part of the general public. §32.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1828=63. 565 By the unlearned she was usually spoken of as the Alci-ope, of course. By a kind of antagonism among the unwashed she was the All-soap. In a similar way, Captain Mcintosh's vessel, the Eunice, which frequented the harbour at an early period, was almost always popularly and excusably termed the Euneece. In the year 1828, Commodore Barrie was in York Harbour. " His Majesty's schooner Cockburn" says the Loyalist of June 7, "bearing the broad pennon of Commodore Barrie, entered this port on Monday last, and on landing at the Garrison, the Com- modore was received by a salute, which was returned from the schooner. The yacht Bullfrog was in company with the Cockburn. Commodore Barrie," it is added, " proceeds by land to Lake Sim- coe, and thence on a tour of inspection at the several Naval Depots of the Lakes." In the Loyalist of June 21, Capt. Richardson is taking time by the forelock and advertising for dry pine to be supplied as fuel for the Canada in the following season of 1829. " Steam-boat Notice. Persons willing to supply the Canada Steam-packet with dry pine for the ensuing season of 1829, will please make application im- mediately to the subscriber for the contract. Hugh Richardson, Master and Managing Owner of the Canada Steam-packet. York, June, 20, 1828." On the 30th of August we have : — " Until further notice the Canada Steam-packet will leave York as soon after her arrival as she has received her supply of wood, firing a gun, and hoisting colours half an hour before starting." We have also a notice in regard to the Alciope in the Loyalist of Sept. 6 : — " The steam-boat Alciope will take freight and passengers from this port (York) during the remainder of the season, every Saturday morn- ing at 6 o'clock, on her way down from Niagara to Prescott, to commence to-morrow. York, 20th August." From the Loyalist of Sept. 27, 1828, we learn that Mr. George Savage has been appointed to the Collectorship of the port of York. He himself announces the fact to the public in the following adver- tisement : — " His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor having been pleased to appoint me to the Collectorship of Customs for this port, I beg leave to acquaint the merchants, shipowners, and others having business to transact with this branch of the revenue after the first day of October next, that I have temporarily established an office in part of the premises fronting on Duke Street, occupied by Mr. Columbus. George Savage, Collector. York, 26thSeptem- 566 Toronto of Old. [§ 32. ber, 1828." Bulky in form and somewhat consequential in manner, Mr. Savage was a conspicuous figure in York down to the time of his death in 1835, when he was succeeded by Mr. Thos. Car- frae. Mr. Savage was, as his office required him to be, vigilant in respect of the dues leviable at the Port of York. But the con- trabandists were occasionally too adroit for him. We have heard of a number of kegs or barrels, supposed to contain spirits, confi- dentially reported to him as sunk in the depths of the bay, near one of the wharves, which kegs or barrels, when carefully fished up and conveyed to Mr. Mosley's rooms to be disposed of by auction, were found, on being tapped, to contain harmless water j but while Mr. Savage and his men were busily engaged in making this pro- fitless seizure, the real wares — teas, spirits, and so on — which were sought to be illicitly introduced, were landed without molestation in Humber Bay. The practice of smuggling was, we believe, rather rife in and about the harbour of York in the olden time. In a Gazette of 1820 (Nov. 30), we observe the schooner Industry advertised for sale by the Custom House authorities as having been taken in the act ; and on the 17th of October, 1821, Mr. Allan reports to the magistrates, at Quarter Sessions, that he had seized ten barrels of salt, in which were found concealed kegs of tobacco to the value of five pounds and upwards, brought to York from the United States in an American schooner, called the New Haven, A. Johnson, master. The Magistrates declared the whole forfeited to the " King." At the same time a system of illicit reciprocity was in vogue, and the products of Canada were introduced, or sought to be introduced, into the domain of the United States, sometimes in singular ways. On one occasion Daniel Lambert, a gigantic wax-figure, returned from Canada to the United States replete with articles designed for import without entry. The Albany Argus of the day thus describes the adventure : — " Daniel Lambert turned smuggler. — This mammoth gentleman of wax, who is exhibited for the admiration of the curious in every part of the country, was lately met on his way from Canada by a Custom House officer, who, remarking the rotundity of Daniel's corporation, had the curiosity to subject it to a critical inspection ; when, lo ! instead of flesh and blood, or even straw, the entire fabric of this unwieldy gentleman was found to be composed of fine English cloths and kerseymeres.'' Towards the close of the year 1828 we have Capt. Mosier's mar- riage mentioned in a number of the Loyalist (for Dec. 13), thus : §32.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1828*63. 567 " Married at Prescott, on the 20th ult., Capt. JohnMosier, Master of the Niagara Steam-packet, to Miss Caroline F. Munro, second daughter of Major Munro, of Edwardsburgh." In January, 1829, the schooner George Canning was plying between York and Niagara, the weather being open. In the Nia- gara Herald of Jan. 29, 1829, we have the notice, "Conveyance to York, Upper Canada, by the fast-sailing schooner George Can* ning, commanded by Capt. J. Whitney. The public are respect- fully informed that during the continuance of the present open sea- son the above schooner will ply as a Packet between York and Niagara. From being perfectly new and thoroughly found, she is with confidence recommended as a safe and easy mode of convey- ance to the capital of Upper Canada. For information in regard to time of departure, application to be made to Capt. Whitney on board, or at Chrysler's Inn, Niagara. January 22, 1829." The Loyalist of April 4 in this year, 1829, reports that " the steamboat Canada is ready to commence her trips to and from Niagara as soon as the ice is out of the bay. It has broken up a good deal," the Loyalist says, " within the last few days, and from its appear- ance after the late rain we may hope that the navigation will soon be open. Schooners have been crossing the Lake for some time past. Last year the first steamboat from Kingston arrived here on the fifth of April." The usual advertisement of the Canada's movements for the season appears in this number of the Loyalist. In May the steamer Niagara brought up Bishop Macdonell. The Loyalist of May 9, 1829, notes his arrival at York : — " The R. C. Bishop, the Rev. Mr. Macdonell, arrived here in the steam- boat Niagara on Tuesday last, accompanied by the Rev. W. Mac- donell." It is added : — " The Rev. Messrs. Fraser and Chisholm arrived on the Thursday following in the Alciope." In this month the Queenston takes away troops from York. In the Loyalist of May 16, 1829, the following item appears: — "The first division of the 68th Regiment, under the command of Capt. Macdonell, m route to Montreal, left York on Tuesday last, on board the Queenston. The Alciope, from Kingston, brings intelligence of their having arrived at that place on the following day." The same paper reports that " the steam-boats have some difficulty in getting into the Niagara River from the large quantities of ice passing down from the Upper Lake." And again in the same paper, under date of Niagara, May 1 1 : — " The ice from Lake 568 Toronto of Old. [§ 3 2 - Erie has been running most of the last week, and continues to run to-day — so much so that the river, we believe, has not been pass- able since nine o'clock this morning." A notice of the opening of navigation at Buffalo this year ap- pears in the Loyalist of May 23, copied from the Buffalo Republican of the 1 6th of May. The scene is graphically depicted. "The schooner Eagle" the Republican says, " was the first vessel that entered our harbour this season. She ploughed her way through three or four miles of floating ice to the gratification of about a thousand spectators." The Republican also gives the following, which presents us with even grander spectacles : — " On Thursday morning the steamboat Pioneer started through the ice on her first trip to Dunkirk, with a full load of passengers. In the afternoon the steamer William Penn, Capt. Wright, commenced her first trip to Detroit, having on board upwards of 400 passengers destined to Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. " On Friday, about noon," the Buffalo paper then adds, " the steamboat Henry Clay, Norton, having previously arrived from Black Rock, left our harbour in fine style, having a heavy and full load of passengers. The steam- boat Niagara, Pease, will leave on Monday for Detroit, as we under- stand." A casualty in York Bay is noticed in the Loyalist of Oct. 4, 1828. "Mr. William Crone, contractor for gravelling the streets of the town, was unfortunately drowned on Saturday last. It appears that Mr. Crone was knocked overboard from the Durham boat, in which he was bringing a load of gravel from the Island, by the sudden shifting of the boom, and, being stunned by the blow, sunk before assistance could be rendered to him." In Oct., 1828, Sir Peregrine Maitland arrives in York Harbour on board of the yacht Bullfrog, compelled to put in by stress of weather. He was on his way from the Lower Province to Niagara. " His Excellency Sir P. Maitland, after having visited Quebec, returning by the route of the Rideau Canal, arrived at York," says the Loyalist of Oct. 18, " on Monday morning from Kingston, on board His Majesty's yacht Bullfrog, Commodore Barrie, and on landing was received by a salute from the garrison. It was His Excellency's intention, we understand, to have landed at Niagara, but the Bullfrog having encountered a heavy gale on the previous night, was obliged to make for York. His Excellency proceeded to Niagara on Wednesday by the Canada, and Commodore Barrie § 3 2 -] The Harbour : its Marine, 1828=63. 569 with the Bullfrog left the harbour on the same day on return to Kingston." Sir Peregrine, we may observe, was on the .point of leaving Upper Canada, having been appointed to the Government of Nova Scotia. The arrival of his successor at New York is announced in the same paper. " The packet ship Corinthian arrived at New York on the evening of the 7th instant. Sir John Colborne and family were passengers in the Corinthian, and may therefore be daily expected at this place (York)." It is announced in the same paper that " a public dinner will be given to His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland, previous to his departure from this Province. Tickets of admission to be had at Messrs. Meig- han's." In the number for November 4, we have an account of the addresses which are being presented to Sir Peregrine on the occasion of his departure, with the remark : — " The expressions of respect for his administration of the Government, and of personal esteem towards His Excellency and family, which these addresses contain, afford the most satisfactory testimonials that the sincere and anxious desire of His Excellency for the improvement of the country and the happiness of its inhabitants are duly appreciated when the period of a long and arduous administration is about to terminate. These, together with the approbation of his Sovereign, fully evinced by the more important Civil and Military honours conferred upon him, cannot but be gratifying, as well to His Excellency as to the inhabitants of the Province generally." And again in the Loyalist of the 15th Nov., it is stated that " the last Gazette contains addresses to His Excellency Sir Peregrine Mait- land, on his departure from the Province — from the Magistrates, Grand Jury, and Bar of the London District, in Quarter Sessions assembled ; from the towns of Kingston and Brockville, and from Grimsby, all expressing the same sentiments of personal regard and respect for his administration of this Government, as those which were previously presented from other places to His Excel- lency." On Monday, the 10th of November, the new Governor, Sir John Colborne, is at the Falls, making explorations there, while the steamer Canada is taking the luggage on board at Lewiston, pre- paratory to the passage over to York. The Niagara Gleaner, quoted in the Loyalist, says : — " On Monday last His Excellency Sir John Colborne paid a visit to the Falls. His own elegant car- riage, drawn by four spirited horses, furnished by Mr. Chrysler, 570 Toronto of Old. [§3 2 - carried his Excellency's lady, her sister Miss Yonge, and five chil- dren. His Excellency went on horseback, accompanied by Capt. Phillpotts, of the Royal Engineers. In the meantime the steamer Canada went to Lewiston, took in His Excellency's luggage, and was ready to receive His Excellency and family at an early hour on Tuesday morning. On the departure of the vessel a salute was fired from Fort George. We have been informed," the Gleaner adds, " that His Excellency was highly gratified with the first view of the Province and the friendly reception he met with ; also of the good things he partook of at the hotel, much of which was the produce of the Province." Capt McKenzie died August 27, 1832, aged 50. At the time of his death he was engaged in the construction of a steamer at the head of the Lake, and of another on Lake Simcoe. In 1832 Capt. Elmsley is offering for sale his yacht the Dart. In the York Sapper and Miner of Oct' 25, 1832, we read the notice : — "For sale, the fast-sailing cutter Dart, 22 J tons burden, with or without rigging, sails, and other furniture. For particulars enquire of the Hon. John Elmsley. York, 24th May, 1832." There is an acci- dental prolepsis in the " Hon." He was not appointed to a seat in the Upper House until after 1837. Capt. Elmsley, with his friend, Mr. Jeffrey Hale, afterwards of Quebec, left the service of the Royal Navy about 1832. In 1837 Captain Elmsley was appointed to the command of a Government vessel carrying two swivel-guns on the Lower St. Lawrence. He subsequently settled for a time on his estate known as Clover Hill, where he expended considerable sums of money in farming operations. Later he again undertook the command of a vessel, the James Coleman, trading on his own account between Halifax and Quebec. He afterwards, for a time, commanded one of the mail steamers on Lake Ontario, the Sovereign. (In several other connections we have had occa- asion to give particulars of Captain Elmsley's career.) The Dart, above named, was built at York by Mr. Purkis, a well-known shipwright there. In 1834, we notice, in MacKenzie's Advocate of March 13, a marine item following an observation on the mild- ness of the season : — "The weather is very mild for the season," the Advocate says : " occasional showers ; plenty of sunshine and slight frosts. A schooner sailed last Tuesday for Niagara, and is expected back to-morrow." It was in 1834 the grand old name Toronto was recovered by §32.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1828=63. 571 the harbour and town, whose early marine we have sought in some degree to recall. We have evidence in the Toronto Recorder of July 30, 1834, that, at that period, at least seven steamers were frequenting the harbour of Toronto. In the paper named we read in succession seven rather long steamboat advertisements. " The splendid low- pressure steamboat the Constitution, Edward Zealand, master. >r She runs from Hamilton to Toronto, touching at Oakville ; thence to Cobourg, touching at Port Hope j thence to Rochester, and vice versa. It is stated that " the Constitution will afford a safe and expeditious opportunity for merchants from New York and other places to forward their goods by way of Rochester to the head of the Lake Ontario." Agents at Hamilton, Messrs. E. and J. Ritchie ; Oakville, Mr. Thomas ; Toronto, James F. Smith, Esq. j Rochester, Mr. Greene, forwarder ; Cobourg, E. Perry, Esq. ; Port Hope, J. Brown, Esq. Captain Zealand had formerly been in the command of an ocean-going merchant ship. " The steam- boat William IV, Charles Paynter, Commander, propelled by a Low-Pressure Engine of a Hundred Horse-power." She runs be- tween Prescott, Niagara, and Lewiston, touching at Brockville, Gananoque, Kingston, Cobourg, Port Hope, Toronto, Hamilton, and vice versa. " For freight or passage, apply at the Post-office, Toronto, or to the Captain on board." Four smoke funnels ren- dered the William IV recognizable at a distance. " The fast-sail- ing steamboat, St. George, Lieut. Harper, R.N., Commander." She runs between Prescott, Brockville, Kingston, Toronto, and Niagara, and vice versa. " This beautiful vessel," the advertise- ment says, "is propelled by a Low-Pressure Engine of Ninety Horse-power, is schooner rigged, and has accommodation for sixty cabin passengers. The St. George will wait the arrival of the pas- sengers who leave Montreal by Thursday morning's stage." "The splendid fast-sailing steamboat Cobourg, Capt. Charles Mcintosh, Master, propelled by two low-pressure engines of fifty-horse power each." She runs between Prescott, Brockville, Kingston and Toronto, and vice versa. " This boat will be found by the travel- ling community not surpassed by any on Lake Ontario for ele- gance, comfort and speed. The Cobourg will wait the arrival of the Montreal stage before leaving for her upward trip. For freight or passage apply to the Master or Purser on board." " The Queenston, Capt. James Sutherland." This is the Queenston of 572 Toronto of Old. [§ 32. which we have heard already. She runs, according to the adver- tisement in the Recorder, between Toronto and Hamilton. " Cabin passage each way, two dollars (meals extra). Deck passage each way, one dollar. All baggage and small parcels at the risk of the ^owners, unless delivered to the Captain and entered as freight. Freight payable on delivery. As the boat will be punctual to the hour of sailing, passengers are requested to be on board in due time." Captain Sutherland has been chief officer of the first steamer which crossed the Atlantic to Quebec, the Unicorn. He had before been engaged in the Hudson's Bay trade. " The splendid low-pressure steamboat Great Britain, Capt. Whitney." She runs between Prescott, Brockville, Kingston, Oswego, Cobourg, Port Hope, Toronto, and vice versa. " The accommo- dations on board the Great Britain have been much enlarged and improved during last winter, and every exertion will be used to ensure regularity and comfort to the passengers. The above boat will await the arrival of the passengers that leave Montreal on Mon- day by the Upper Canada stage. Emigrants and others desirous of taking this conveyance are requested to call at the Ontario Steam- boat Office in this town (Prescott), and procure tickets." Finally, the Recorder displays the usual advertisement of the Steam-packet Canada, Hugh Richardson, Master. She leaves Toronto daily for Niagara, at seven in the morning, and Niagara daily for Toronto, at one in the afternoon The fares continue unchanged. " Passengers returning to either of the Ports within ;the week will only be charged half-price for the return. Accom- modation for Horses, Carriages, and Cattle." About the same period the Oneida, of Oswego, the Hamilton, the Sir Robert Peel, and the Commodore Barrie, are other steamers entering the harbour of Toronto. Near the landing place at Niagara, a row of capacious warehouses is still to be seen, disused and closed up, over the large double portals of which, respectively, are to be dimly discerned the fol- lowing inscriptions in succession : — Great Britain j William IV. j St. George j United Kingdom j Cobourg ; Commodore Barrie ; Canada ; Schooners. This is a relic of the period to which we are now referring. These warehouses were the places of deposit for freight, tackling, and other property appertaining to the vessels named, with a compartment for the accommodation of Schooners collectively. Niagara was then the headquarters of § 32.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1828=63. 575 the shipping interests of the Lake, and the place where the prin- cipal wholesale mercantile houses were situated. Sailing craft visiting the Harbour in 1835, and later, were : — the Three Brothers, the Superior, the Emily, the Robert Burns, the Prosperity, the Fanny, the Perseverance, the Matilda, of Oswego, the Elizabeth, of Lewiston, the Guernsey, the Peacock, the Caro- line, the Fair American, the Sovereign, the Jessie Woods, the Erin, the Charlotte, the Winnebago, the Lord Nelson, the Enter- prise, the Boxer. The T^ra Brothers was so named from the three brothers Mcintosh — John, Robert, and Henry. John commanded the Three Brothers) Charles commanded the Superior, named second above j Robert commanded the Eunice, of which we have heard already. Two other brothers of this marine family were early owners of contiguous building lots on the east side of Yonge street, south of Shuter street. Prosperous descendants of the same name are still to be found in business on a portion of this property. Modern improvements have caused the removal of many of the original buildings of this locality j but one of the Mcintosh family residences yet remains, at the present time converted into the show rooms of a carriage manufactory. (Capt. Wm. Mcintosh, of the Minerva Ann, a schooner of this period, was of another family). The Fanny is noticeable as having been the first craft com- manded by Captain Dick of Toronto, who speedily afterwards became distinguished in connection with the steam marine of Lake Ontario, not only as a builder, large proprietor, and sailing master, but also as commander of a Despatch vessel in the Public Service, especially daring the troubles of 1837. The Fanny was the pro- perty of Mr. James Lockhart of Niagara, as also were the Sovereign and the Jessie Woods. The Boxer was commanded by a veteran Lake captain, Wm. Peeke. Capt. Peeke, it is stated, supplied lime burnt at Duffin's Creek before the close of the last century, for the foundation of the Lighthouse on Gibraltar Point, and other structures in York. In 1835, the harbour was visited by Capt. George and his barge from Quebec. Capt. George — for so he was styled in these parts, although, as we shall see, not a professional navigator — was a com- bined nautical and mechanical genius, who vigorously urged on Government and the forwarding community the adoption of a scheme of his for enabling loaded vessels to overcome the rapids 574 Toronto of Old. [§ 32. of the St. Lawrence, and reach the upper ports without breaking bulk. Pulleys and chains were to be anchored at points in the river, or along the banks of the stream. He contrived to get his own barge in this way up to Toronto, well filled with merchandize, and made the return trip with cargo of the upper country products, possibly more than once, but the undertaking, being found too expensive for a private individual, was abandoned ; and soon after, the construction of canals round the rapids rendered needless all such ingenious projects. Mr. George had been long a merchant in Quebec ; and it was simply his inability to secure a satisfactory person for the superintendence of his experiment, that induced him to take the command of his own vessel in her perilous venture up and down the St. Lawrence. Mr. George continued to reside at Quebec ; and for an annual stipend of ^200, he offered the cor- poration of the city to create for them every winter a " pont," or ice-bridge, opposite the city. From the action of the tides, the " pont " fails occasionally to form, to the great inconvenience of the inhabitants. Here again Mr. George gave ocular proof of the practicability of his plan. Proceeding up the river above the influence of the tide, he cut loose a vast field of ice and floated it down whole to Quebec, where it fixed itself fast between Cape Diamond and the opposite shore, and formed a "pont." It did not, however, prove sufficiently durable. Some eccentricity in language is remembered as characterizing Mr. George. A person conversing with him occasionally found himself addressed in rhym- ing couplets, as if, of their own accord, his words would run into doggerel. " Some chance of wreck between this and Quebec ! Mishap befall ere I reach Montreal ! You're a fool ! go to school ! " &c. His barge likewise is described as possessing a peculiar rig. Its masts, or rather the two spars which served to support his sails, formed above the deck, as we are told, a sort of large St. Andrew's cross, such being, according to him, the most convenient arrange- ment for working the leg of mutton or triangular sails which he used. (We note here the two heroic captains who were the first to encounter appalling risks on the waters of the St. Lawrence in vessels propelled by steam. Captain Maxwell, in the employment at the time of Messrs. McPherson and Crane, first discovered and navigated in a steamboat the deep channel of the Long Sault ; and Captain Hilliard, on board the steamer Ontario, first descended the rapids at Lachine.) § 32.] The Harbour : its Marine, 1828=63. 575 In 1835 and years immediately following, additional names ap- pear in the Toronto harbour steam-marine lists — the Experiment, the Queen, the Gore, the Princess Royal, the Traveller, the City of Toronto (the first steamer so named), all of them boats built at Niagara under the superintendence of Capt. Dick, and all of them, with the exception of the Traveller, in the Royal Mail Ser- vice. The City of Toronto, built in 1841, and commanded by Captain Dick, was the first steamer that conveyed the mails west- ward. The mail-service previously had been performed by Mr. Weller and his stage-coaches. The principal owners of the vessels named were Mr. James Lockhart, of Niagara, Capt. Dick himself, Mr. Andrew Heron, also of Niagara, and Mr. Donald Bethune. The Experiment, above mentioned, was the Government Despatch boat which, under the command of Capt. Dick, did such good service on the Lake during the troubles of 1837. When the steam-packet Canada was finally sold, Capt. Richard- son commanded and principally owned the Transit, on the route be- tween York and Niagara. This Transit wa.s in reality the steamer Constitution, of which we have already heard as being commanded by Capt. Zealand, conjointly with the Transit. A steamer named the Queen was for a time maintained by Capt. Richardson on the route between Niagara, the head of the Lake, and York. The Queen was under the charge of Capt. Richardson's son, Mr. Hugh Rich- ardson, assisted by two brothers, Charles and Henry Richardson. Simultaneously with the Transit and Queen, the City of Toronto (the first steamer so named) also plied to Niagara, under the com- mand of Capt. Dick. After some years the Transit was sold and became a tug-boat on the river below. The steamer Chief Justice Robinson was then built by Capt. Richardson for the Niagara route, in some respects after a model of his own, being provided, like the ancient war-galleys, with a rostrum or projecting beak low down on a level with the water, for the purpose, as was generally sup- posed, of breaking a way through ice when such an impediment existed j but by Capt. Richardson himself, the peculiar confirma- tion of the prow was expected to facilitate the vessel's progress through the heavy surges of the Lake. About 1850 the Chief Justice Robinson became the property of Capt. Dick and Mr. Heron. This transfer closed the career of Capt. Richardson as a comman- der on the Lake. From 1852 to 1870 he filled the post of Har- bour-master at Toronto, and on the 2nd of July, 1870, he died, in 576 Toronto of Old. [§ 32. the 87th year of his age. The Chief Justice continued to ply between Toronto and Niagara, in company with the City of Toronto, until the removal of the latter vessel to the waters of Lake Huron, where she became famous as the Algoma. In 1855 the Peerless was placed on the Niagara route. The Peerless was an iron vessel, first constructed in the Clyde in parts,, then taken asunder and shipped to Canada, where she was put together again under the eye of her owner, Capt. Dick, at Niagara. The number of pieces entering into the composition of the Peerless- was six thousand. Such a method of transporting an iron ship from the Clyde to Niagara, if complicated and troublesome, was- shown to be, at all events, a dictate of prudence by the fate which befell a vessel intended to be a companion to the Peerless, on Lake- Ontario. A steamship of iron named Her Majesty, built in the Clyde expressly for Capt. Dick, was lost in the Atlantic, with all the men in charge on board, sixteen in number j so that no clue was ever attained as to the cause of the disaster. We now find our- selves treating of times which, strictly speaking, do not come within the scope of these 'collections and recollections.' For the sake of imparting roundness and completeness to our narrative, we have ventured on the few details just given. We finish by simply naming the successor of the Peerless on the route to Niagara, Capt. Milloy's splendid steamer, the Zimmerman. It fell to our lot to witness the last agonies of this vessel in the devouring flames as she lay at the Niagara quay, near the mouth of the Niagara River. On that never-to-be-forgotten occasion (Aug. 21, 1863), the long-continued shrieking of the steam whistle, the resounding moans and convulsive sighs issuing fitfully,, in a variety of keys, from the tubes of the boiler and other parts of the steam apparatus, gave to all hearers and on-lookers the painful and most affecting impression of some gigantic sentient creature helplessly undergoing a fiery death, suffering in the process griev- ous pangs, protracted and inexpressible. HOC OPUS EXEGI ; FESS.E DATE SERTA CARINA; CONTIGIMUS PORTUM, QUO MIHI CURSUS ERAT. APPENDIX •£j* N 1869, the survivors of the early occupants of York, Upper Canada, formed themselves into a Society entitled The Pio- neers, for the joint purpose of mutual conference, and of gathering together and preserving whatever memorials of the local Past might be found to be yet extant. The names of the members of this Association are subjoined, all of whom were resident at York customably or occasionally, at some period prior to March 6th, 1834., when the name of the town was changed to Toronto. The date which precedes each group shows the year in which the members in- cluded in the group became identified with York, whether by birth or other- wise. In numerous instances, the father of the individual named in the follow- ing list, having been the establisher of a family in these parts and its first bread- winner here, was the true pioneer. (By a change in the original constitution of the Society, the sons and descendants of the first members of the Association, and of all the first grantees or occupants of land in the county of York, as defined in 1798, are, on their attaining the age of 40 years, eligible to be mem- bers.) 1794. — Edward Simcoe Wright, Toronto. — Isaac White, do. 1795. — Lieut. Francis Button, Buttonville. 1797. —John Thompson, Toronto. 1798. — Hon. W. B. Robinson, Toronto. — Tohn Bright, do. 1799. — John W. Gamble, Pine Grove, Vaughan. 1800. — Andrew Heron, Toronto.— Cornelius Van Nostrand, Yonge Street. 1 801. — Robert Bright, Toronto. 1805. — John Murchison, Toronto. 1806. — Hon. H. J. Boulton, Toronto. — William Cawthra, do.— John Ridout, do. 1808. — Rev. Saltern Givins, Toronto.— Allan Macdonell, do. — Joseph Gould, ex-M.P.P., Uxbridge. — James Marshall, Youngstown, N.Y. 1809. — Judge G. S. Jarvis, Cornwall — William Roe, Newmarket. KK 578 Toronto of Old. !8io. — Rev. William MacMurray, D.D., Niagara. — Richard P. Will- son, Holland Landing. 181 1. — George Bostwick, Yorkville. — Joseph Lawrence, Collingwood. — Rev. D. McMullen, Picton. 1812. — Francis H. Heward, Toronto. — William Dougall, Picton. 1813. — R. E. Playter, Toronto. — George Snider, M.P.P., Owen Sound. — ■ f or "James" write "Samuel" ; at p. 455, lines 35 and 37, for "Meyerh." write "Mayerh" ; at p. 355, line 16, for "Chewitt" write "Chewett." INDEX. Page Abrahams, Mr 403 Adams, Mr 401 Addison, Rev. Mr 140 Adelaide Street 152 Advertisements 336, 337 Albany 14 Albert Street 392 Albion, New York 282 Albion Packet, Wreck of 56 Alexander, Sir James 142 Alexander Street 395 Alien Question 207, 208 Allan, Hon. William .. 38, 39, 79. 80, 118, 120, 134, 138, 249, 257, 303, 371, 385, 407, 440, 449, 525, 533 Allan, W., junior 159 Allcock, Chief Justice... 42, 147, 336 Almanacs, Early 267 Amelia, Princess 33 Amherst, General 10 Anderson, Mr 138 Anderson, R. and B 185 Andrews, Capt 529 Andrus, Samuel 378 Angel!, Mr. E 84, 207, 219 Ansley, Christopher 314 Appleton, Mr HO, 165 Archbold, Mr., Actor no, 216 Arthur, Sir George 275 Arthurs, Mr. W 539 Armitage, Amos 477 Armour, Rev. Samuel 166 Armstrong, J 31 1 Arnold, Benedict, 459 Page Ashbridge, Mr 221, 337 Ashley, Jairus 431 Ashenshan 14, Athill, Rev. R 486 Atkinson, Mr. Thomas 410 Avenue, College 325 B. Baby, Hon. James.... 38, 53, 82, 84, 157. 350 Baby, Raymond 112, 157 Baby, Mr. W. L 370 Bagot, Capt. Henry 323 Bagot, Sir Charles 323 Baker, Simon and John 296 Baldwin, Admiral 34 Baldwin, Mr. J. S...84, 134, 196, 210 Baldwin, Hon. Robert ..38, 157, 158, 280, 434 Baldwin, Robert, senior 82, 434 Baldwin, St. George 112, 157 Baldwin, Dr. William Warren. ..34, 66, 134. 138, 280, 298, 309, 340, 348, 426 Baldwin, Mr. William Willcocks 472 Baldwin. Mr. William... 1 12, 157, 426 Barber, Mr. G. A 94, 112, 170 Barclay, Commodore J 156 Barnstable 402 Barre, de la 4. Barrett's Inn 439 Banie, Commodore 568 Bartlett, Dr 282 Bastedo, Mr. John 173 582 Toronto of Old. Bathurst Street 70, 354 Battersbv, Capt 65 Bay Street 94, 308, 380 Bazaar, first 62 Beaman, Mr. Elisha 385, 482 Beard, Mr. Joshua 209 Beasley, Richard 524 Beaty, Mr. James 205, 439 Beaver, steamer 495 Beckett, Mr 94 Beikie, Mr. J... 62, 99, 100, 134, I38, 290 Belcour, F 198 Belleville 361 Bellevue 354 Belin, King 389 Bennett, J. Printer 82, 264, 266, 272, 386 Berczy, Mr.. 108, 119, 415, 421, 423, 448 Berkeley Street 27, 201 Berry, Thomas 524 Berthon, Mr 313 Beswick. Dr 486 Bevan, Mr. J . .. 404 Beverley House 326 Bid well, Barnabas 208, 209,309 Bid well, Marshall S 208, 309 Big Bend 234 Bigelow, James 84, 157 Bigelow, Levi 363 Billings, Mr. Commissariat ..134, 350 Blackstone, Mr. Henry 485 Blake, Mr. Chancellor 424 Blake, Rev. Dominic 453 Block Houses, 357, 411 Blois, Capt 136 Bloor, Mr 178, 405 Bloor Street 405 Blue Bell ... 371 Blue Hill .' 413 Boerstler, Col 345 Bond, George . 303 Bond, Mr. W , 79,401,462 Bond's Lake 462 Bonnycastle, Capt ... 62, 75, 86, 106, 459, 495, 5oo Bonshaw 490 Borland, Mr. Andrew 484 Boiton, Col. Aug 469 Bostwick, Mr. Lardner, 363, 381,404 Bottom, Nicholas 412 Boulton, Charles 185 Boulton, Mr. D'Arcy... 138, 328, 484 Boulton, Hon. George... 84, 157, 185 Boulton, Hon. H. J 55, 84, 297, 396, 448 Boulton, John , 157 Page Boulton, Mr. Justice 55, 84, 133, 138, 148, 221, 303, 308, 328 Boulton, Rev. W 94 Boulton, Mr. W. H 157 Bouchette, Joseph... 17, 60, 61, 213, 332, 355/358,492, 508, 516 Bowbeer, Mr 357 Bowkett, William 185, 381, 385, 563 Boyd, Mr. Francis 461 Boyle, Hon. Robert 136 Bradstreet, Col 10 Brant, Capt. Joseph ... 418, 515, 518 Breakenridge, Mr. James 82 Breakenridge, Mrs 433 Brewery, First, at Newark 259 Bridgeford, Mr 79 Bridges, Don 84 Brides from a distance 136 Bright, Mr 84, 138 Britain Street 63, 257 Brock, Gen 29, 61, 79, 268, 362 Brock Street 64, 345 Brooke, Capt. sen 134, 138 Brooke, Mr. D 84, 185 Brooke, Mr. R 185 Browne, Major 136 Buchanan, Isaac 105 Buchanan, Mr., son of the Consul 112 Buffalo 21,568 Burlington Bay 368,370 Burnham, Rev. Mark 159 Burns, Alexander 401 Burns, Mr. David 355, 365, 371, 385 Burnside, Dr 192, 310 Burr, Rowland 423, 424 Burton, Col 529 Burwell, Mahlon 137, 423 Burying Ground, Military 64, 367 Button, Capt 37, 89 By, Col 310 Byng, Admiral 6 C. Caer Howell 326 Caldicott, Mr no Caldwell, Mrs , 332 Caldwell, W. R 381 Cameron, Archibald 222 Cameron, Hon. Duncan 80, 118, 138, 356, 371, 385 Cameron, Miss Janet 357 Cameron, Hon. J. H 424 Cameron, J., Printer 59, 268, 385, 533 Campbell, Capt 12 Campbell, SirW., Chief Justice.. 1 31, 181, 303 Index. 583 Page •Campbell, Mr 426 Campbell, Stedman 426 Canada, Etymology of 74 Canadian Review of 1824 27 Canvas House, Gov. Simcoe's 60, 513 Capreol, Mr. F. C 462 Carey, Mr. John 269, 310 Carfax, Toronto 377 Carfrae, Hugh 41 Carfrae, Mr. Thomas 408, 566 Carleton, Gov 15 Carleton Street 395 Carmyllie 155 Caroline Street 31, 35 Carthew, Col 285, 426 Cartwriyhr, Hon. R 82, 533 Carvers Travels 73 Case, Mr. James 229 Cassell. Orville 157 Castle Frank 202, 236, 288 Cataraqui 9, 23 Cavendish, Hon. and Rev. A 444 Cawdell, Mr. J. M 399 Cawthra, Mr. John 483 Cawthra, Mr. J., senr... 38, 138, 192, 363. Cawthra, Mr. W 150, 185, 431 Cayley, Hon. W 323 Cayley, Mr. F 242 Celeron 7 Cemetery, St. James 240 Chalus, Comte de 469 Chalus, Vicomtede ..188, 469 Champion, T 311 Chestnut Park 424 Chestnut Street 316 Chewett, Alexander 185 Chewett, Mr. J. G 363, 366 Chewett, Mr. W.. 18, 118, 132, 138, .355- 363, 366, 433, 449, 484 Chisholm, Mr. Alexander 82 Chisholm, Mr., of Oakville 137 Chiniquy, Lieut 526 Choueguen 5. 6, 7 Christian Guardian 89, 279 Chronicle. Kingston 271 Chrysler, Mr. John 253 Church, St. James... 1 1 7-145, 147, 172 Claies, Lac aux 474 Clark, Mr 222, 440 Clark, Mr. John 338 Clark, Hon. Thomas 364 Clarke, Gen ... 510 Claridge, J. J 550 Claus, John 159, 160 Claus, Warren 158, 363 Claus, William 82 Clement, Mrs 294 Page Clench, Ralph 254, 255 Clinkenbroomer, Mr. C 107, 220 Clinton, Sir Henry 348 Clover Hill 401 Coates, Mr. Richard 202, 482 Coates, Mr. W. J 28 Cochrane, Mr. Justice. ..138, 291, 528 CofTen, Stephen 9 Coffin, Col 62, 84, 124, 259 Coffin, Col. W. F 400 Colborne, Sir John, (Lord Seaton) 86, 9i, 93, 125, 359, 569 Coleman, Mr. Robert 173 Coleraine House 179 Coleridge, Hartley 67 Collins, Francis... 270, 277, 310, 396 Collins, J 16, 17, 419 Colonial Advocate 272, 279 Columbus, Mr. Isaac 182 Commissariat Stores 59 Conn, Capt 534 Cook, Capt 61, 487 Cook's Bay 496 Cooper, Mr. W ... 50, 118, 138, 386 Coote's Paradise 369 Court House of 1824 101 Cowan, David 254 Cozens, Benjamin 363 Cozens, Capt. D 386, 457 Cozens. J. B 386 Craig, Mr. John 147, 202 Crawford, Mr. L 509 Creux, Peredu 475 Cr^vecoeur 20 Crewe's 447 Crone, W 568 Crooks, Mr. Matthew 540 Crooks, W. & J 294 Crookshank, Hon. George.. 62, 80, 84, 134, 138, 148, 287 Crookshank's Lane 355 Cumberland, Mr F. W 149. 324 Cummer, Mr. Jacob 446 Cummins, Mr 207 Curiae Canadenses 314 Cutter, George 385 D. Dade, Rev. C 94 Dalton, Mr. Thomas . 279 Daly, Mr. Charles 202 Darling, Gen 497 Danforth Road 307 Davenport 66, 410 Davenport Road 410 Davis, Benjamin 222 5^4 Toronto of Old. Page Davis, Mr. Calvin 376 Dawson, George 157 Dawson, James 157 Dawson Road 307 Deary, Thomas 363 De Blaquiere, Hon. P 404 Deer Park 426 De Forest, Mr 196 De Grassi, Mr. Alfio 284 De Haresi, Major 346 Dehart, Daniel ... 222, 431 De Hoen, Baron 433 De Koven, K 160 De la Haye, Mr. J. P 94 Des Jardins, Peter 399 Denino , 155 Denison Avenue 353 Denison, Capt. John. . 84, 134, 240, 338, 340. 341, 353, 354, 509 Denison, Col. G. T. (primus) 84, 353, 354, 37i, 372, 459 Denison Col. G. T. (>ecundus) (Rus- holme) 354 Denison, Lt.-Col. G. T. (tertius) 354 Denison, Lt.-Col. R. L 459 Denison, Lt.-Col. R. B 454 Denison, Mrs. Sophia, 296, 342, 372 Denison (Speaker) 124 Dennis, Mr. John 98, 363, 378 Dennis, Mr. Joseph 98, 523 548 Denonville 1, 2, 4 Derby, Earl of 124 Detlor, G. H 185 Detroit 10, 11, 29 Devans, Abr .. 222 Dewar, Rev. E. H 453 Dickson, Hon. W .. 254, 364 Dickson, Mr. Thomas 335 Diehl, Dr 33 Dixon, Mr. Alexander 206 Dobson, Mr. James 410 Doel, Mr. John 308 Don Bridge 28, 218 Don, Indian name of 233 Don, Lesser 83 Don Mills 242 Don River 27, 30, 233 Dongan 2, 4 Dorchester, Lord 16, 17, 285, 389 Dorland, Thomas 254 Dovercourt 354 Doyle, James 157 Doyle, John 157 Diaper, Chief Justice. .173, 296, 322, ,-. 4I3 Draper, Mr. W. G 322 Drean, Henry 84, 334 Drummond, Sir Gordon... 29, 356, 362 Page Drummond, Peter 82 Drummond's Island 504 Diury, Mr 94 Drumsnab 241 Drynoch 466 Duchess Street 257 Duels 2d.6, 254, 396 Dufferin, Earl of 55 Duggan, Col. George... 84, 139, 184, 297, 363 Duggan, Mr. Thomas 363 Duke Street 180 Du Lhu (Duluth) 2, 4 Dumraer Street 317 Duncan, Hon. Richard 82 Dundas, Mr. Secretary . 305, 516, 518 Dundas Street 245, 510 Do. do. Sandford's Corner. .371 Dunlop, Dr 210, 358 Dunn, Mrs 135, 342 Dunn, Col 342 Dunn, Hon. J. H...84, 105, 134, 146, 342 Du nst able 305 Durand, Mr. Charles 397 Durand, Mr. James 398 Durand, Mr., senior 398 Durantaye 1*2,4 Durham, Lord 126 Durweston Gate Inn 447 Dundurn 448 Dutcher, F, R 378 Earl, Capt 525, 530, 535 Eastwood, Mr., senior 224, 242 Edgell, John 385 Eglinton, 438 Elgin, Lord 392, 394 Elizabeth College 91 Elliott, John 84 Elliott, Matthew 254 Elm Street 316 Elmsley, Capt. John ...392, 402, 570 Elmsley, Chief Justice ... 64, 78, 90, 118, 138, 311, 383, 385,387,523 Elmsley House 78, 90 Elmsley Villa ... 392, 395 Emigre's, French 468 Englefield 350 Ernest, Peter 206, 255, 296 Ernest, Henry 185 Esplanade 81 Estes, Capt 545 Et, Township of 362 Evans, Col 557 Index. 585 Page Everson, James ... 222 Ewart, Mr. John 203,408 Express from Quebec 49 Fair Green 31 Fairbairn, L • 84 Fancy Balls Ill, 114,412 Farcy, General Amboisede. .189, 469 Farmers' Arms 178 Farmers' Store 39, 437 Farr, Mr 357 Fair's Brewery 357 Fawcett, Lieut.-Col 308 Fenton, Mr. John 109, 145, 165 Ferguson, Barnabas 271 Ferguson, Mr. John 82 Fidler, Rev. Isaac 452 Field, C 295 Finch's 447 Firth, Attorney-General 138, 336 Fish, Moses 109, 310 Fisher, Ur ...*. 291 Fiske, Mr 162 Fisken, Mr 428 Fitzgerald, Capt 351 Fitzgerald, John 157 Fitzgibbon, Col 89, 134, 345, 445 Flagging King Street 198 Fleming, Mr. Sandford 501 Flos, Tay and Tiny 362 Forfar, Thomas 386 Forsyth, Mr. Joseph 509 Fortune, Joseph 423 Fortune, William 82, 423 Foster, Col 124, 333 Foster, Mr. Colley 333 Fothergill, Charles.. 85, 209, 269, 273, 279, 358, 559 Foxley Grove 373 Frank, Mr 115, 401 Frank, Castle 236, 245 Frank's Hotel no Fraser, Hon. Thomas 364, 509 Freder, Francis 108 Frederick, Duke of York 21 Frederick Street 35 Freeman, Newspaper 270 French Fort, Old 73 French, John 84 Frontenac, Count 5 Frontenac, Fort 45 Frontenac, Steamer 538 Fuller, Archdeacon 340 Fuller, Major 340, 434 Furon, Jean 469 Page Gage, Gen 15 Gait, Mr. Benjamin 363 Galissoniere 5,6 Gal ows Hill 425 Gait, Mr. John... in, 112, 114, 115, 502 Gamble, Mrs 192 Gamble, Mr. Clarke 248 Gamble, Dr 138 Gamble, Mr. John W... 84, 134, 551 Gamble, Mr. William 134 Gardeners' Arms 403 Garneau, M 314 Garrison 28, 71 Garsides, Mr 430 Gandatsi-tiagon 4 Gazette, First, at Newark .. 159, 573 George, Capt 573 George III 21, 436 George Street 180,184 George Street, Upper 382 Georgina 352 German Mills 448, 450 Gibson, Mr. David 446 Gillespie, Mr.J 150 Givins, Rev. Saltern 158, 530 Givins, Adolphus 112 Givins, James 160,185 Givins, Col.. 112, 134, 138, 201, 239, 351, 352, 358, 359 Glassco. Thomas 157 Globe Inn, Yonge Street 432 Glengary , 29 Glen Grove 439 Glenlonely . 472 Glennon, B. H. and M 185 Glennon, Edward 157 Goats 87 Goessmann, John 437 Good, Mr 391 Good's Foundry .. . 391 Gooderham, Mr., senior 150, 204 Gooderham and Wort's Mills 204 Goodman, Mrs.. 181 Good win's Creek 201 Gordon, Hon. J 150, 181 Gordon, Miss 150 Gore, Mrs. Arabella 360 Gore, Gov.... 29, 148, 160 244, 360, 362, 387, 428, 443, 477, 531, 533 Gore Vale 356 Gould Street 433 Gouvereau, Capt 535 Gourlay, Robert... 103, 104, 275, 324, 331 Grace, Capt 534 5 86 Toronto of Old. Page Graham, Mr. William 371 Grange, The 328 Grant, Hon. Alexander 82, 351 Grasett, Very Rev. H. J 150 Graves Street 328 Gray, John and Robert 185 Gray, Mr. Solicitor-General 138, 253, 295- 328, 337, 385, 528 Gray, W., Montreal 52 Green Bush Tavern 403, 447 Greenland Fishery 58 Gregg, Mr 112 Grenadier's Pond 72 Grindstone Stolen 260 Grosvenor Street 395 Grubbe, Capt 136, 547 Guardian, U. C, Newspaper 271 Gurnett. Mr. George 279, 442 Gurney, Joseph John 482 Gurwood, Col 128 Gwillimbury, Fort 492 Gzowski, Mr. C. S 150, 460 H. Hagerman, Mr. Justice 70, 114 Hale, Eliphalet 383, 387 Hale, Jonathan 303, 385, 439 Hale, Henry 180, 439 Hallen, Rev. George 503 Hallowell, Sir Benjamin 366 Hallowell, Mr. Benjamin ... 355, 366 Halton, Major 531 Hamilton, Mr. Alexander .. 202, 393 Hamilton, George 84 Hamilton, Gilbert 185 Hamilton, Mr. Jame> 202 Hamilton, Hon. Robert. ..82, 335, 564 Hamilton, Mr. Thomas 363, 430 Hamilton, T. G 185 Hamilton, W. A 185 Hamilton, Wilson 185 Handy, Patrick, 41, 498 Harbour, the first Survey 508 Harper, Capt 571 Harraway, John 160 Harris, Rev. Mr 308 Harris, Rev. Dr 93 Harris, Mr. T. D 184, 186, 540 Harrison, Hon. S. B 373 Harrison, Joseph and William ... 303 Hartney, Edward 185 Hartney, Mr. P. K 363 Has'ings, Warren 221 Hathaway, Mr 509 Hatt, Mr. Richard .. 335 Hawke's Bridge 440 Hayden, John 101 Hayes' Boarding- House 33 Hayes, John 84, 185, 199, 363 Hayne, de, sec Hoen Hazeldean 413 Heath, Mrs Col... 426 Helliwell, Mr. Thomas 408 Helliwell, Mr., senior 224, 242 Henderson, R. C 84 Henderson, Mr. R 282, 386 Hennepin 79 Henry, Dr 126, 128, 131 Herchmer, Mr. J.. 265, 291, 385, 529 Heron, Mr. A 263, 675 Heron, Mr. S 222 Heron's Bridge 441 Herring, R 303 Hetherington, George 41, 146 Heward, Charles 157, 194 Heward, Mr. F. H.... 157 Heward, Henry 157 Heward, Mr. Hugh , 332 Heward, Mr. John 494 Heward, Major Stephen ..41, 79, 84, ' 134, 193, 298 Hewson, Mr. Francis 498 Higgins, Mr. Chief Constable.... 142 Hi^gins, Mr., senr 138, 372 Hill, Mr. Joseph 406 Hill, Solomon 254 Hill, Mr., Caxton Press 207 Hilliard, Capt 574 Hillier, Major... 5 5, 84, 136, 341, 359 Hincks, Sir Francis 280 Hodges, Dr., (Organist) 147 Hoen, Baron de 248,433,435 Hogan, Mr. J. S 219 Hogg, Mr 442 Hogg's Hollow 442,444 Holland House 55 Holland Landing 492 Holland, Major 492 Holland's Map 491, 493 Hop Garden 229 Home, Dr. R. C 258, 269, 410 Horner, Mr 137 Horton, John 385 Hospital, General 32 Hospital, Old 88 Hospital Street 384 Hough, John 303 Howard, Mr. J. G 405, 407 Howard, Mr. J. S 426 Howard, Mr. Peter 253 Hudson, Rev. Joseph 70, 140 Hudson, Mr. Surveyor 427 Hughes, Samuel 107 Hugill's Brewery 203 Index. 587 Page Humber River 3 Humber Bay 72, 367, 370 Humber Plains 373 Humberstone, Mr 79, 445 Humphrey, Mr. Caleb 138 Hunt, Mr. Joseph 138, 386 Hunter, Governor... 40, 249, 267, 478, 522, 525 Hunter, Mr William .203, 386 Huskisson, Mr 360 Huson, Mr 440 Hutchinson, John 41, 203 Hutty, Mr. Peter 410 I. Iknield Street 395 Indian's Grave 309 Innisfallen 498 Iredell, Abraham 423 Ives, Capt 539 Irving, Hon. J. AL 490 J- Jack of Clubs 176 Jackes, Mr 198, 438 Jackson, Mr. Clifton 429 Jackson, Mr. J. Mills 427 Jackson, Samuel 298, 430 Jail 26, 99, 100 Jail Limits ico James, Mr. John 196 James Street 307 Jameson, Mrs. 49, 68,69, 94> I2 8, 136, 147, 347 Jameson, Vice Chancellor .... 67, 444 Jarvis, Mr. G. S 79, 185, 328 Jarvis, Secretary... 41, 138, 181, 247, 282, 292, 385, 478 Jarvi s , Mr. S. P 182, 257, 284 Jarvis, Mr. Stephen, Registrar .. 134, 138, 181, 411 Jarvis, Mr. W. B 84, 185, 405 Jay's Treaty 30 Jeune, Bishop of Lincoln ... 127 John Street 58, 328 Johnson, Dr 448 Johnson, Sir John 370 Johnson, Sir William 13, 15 Johnson, Mr. William 82 Jones, Augustus 17, 18, 415, 417, 419, 521 Jones, Aug., Report on Yonge Street 416 Jones, Rev. Peter 417, 447 Page Jordan's Hotel 197 Jordan Mr 138, 363 Jordan Street 96 Jutes, Sampson 260 K. Kane, Michael 379 Kane, Paul 203, 379 Kahawabash 18 Kearsny House 401 Kern penfelt Bay 496 Kendrick, John 531 Kendrick, Joseph 536 Kendrick, Duke 441 Kendrick, Mr 138 Kent, Duke of 285, 358, 498 Kent, Mr. John 273 Kerr, Chief 112, 345 Kerr, John 385 Ketchum, Mr. Jesse 84, 102, 138, 308, 310, 379, 380, 388, 410, 439 Ketchum, Mr. Seneca 381, 443 Kettle 155 Kildonan 300 King's Head, Burlington Bay .... 368 Kingsland 440 King Street 28 Kinnear, Mr 462 Kirby, Mr. W 263 Klinger, Mr. Philip 363, 376, 381 Knott, John 79, 158, 160 Knox College 395 Lachine 5 Lajor6e 17 Lakeshore Road 368, 370 Lancaster, W 160 Land or, Walter Savage 367 Larchmere 472 LaSalle , 76 Lavalterie 7 Lawe, Geo 423 Lawrence, Mr 440 Lawrence, Peter 303 Lawrence, W 363 Lawrence's Tannery 440 Lea, Mr., senior 224 Leach, John 386 Leach, Joshua 303 Leach, Rev. Mr 442, 444 Lee, Dr 32, 134, 138, 181, 355 Lee, Mr. W. H 515 Leeke, Rev. W.. 128 588 Toronto of Old. Page Legge, Mr. Alexander 138, 363 Lefferty, Dr 137, 562 Lennox, Col ... 397 Lennox, Lord Arthur 124 Lesslie, Mr. James 437 Lesslie, Mr. E 186 Lewis, Mr 219 Lewiston 9 Leys, Mr. J 556 Liancourt, Duke of 30, 108, 353, 519, r.. 53 ° Library, Parliamentary 364 Lieutenants of Counties 82 Lighthouse 532 Lincoln, General 512 Lindsey, Mr. Charles 280 L'ons, Golden, in Chancery 174 Lippincott, Capt. Richard 458 Littlehales, Major. .239, 351, 353, 513 Lockhart, Mr. James 573 Locomotive, Toronto 391 Longeu i 1 6 Loring, Col 350 Lot Street 28, 245, 381, 384 Louisa Street 308 Lowry, Rev. Dr. 547 Loyal and Patriotic Society 52 Lumsden, Mrs 193 Lumsden, S. A 363 Lundy, Jacob 477, 480 Lundy, Shadrach, Oliver, Reuben 480 Lynn, Mr 444 Lyons, Mr 134 M. McBeth, John 386 McBride, E. W 363 McBride, John 531 McCaul, Rev. Dr 322 McCormack, Mr 12 McCormack, James, 439 McCutcheon, Mr 286 McGann, Patrick. 42 McGregor, John 254 McGregor, Col 546 McGill, Col. ..118, 134, 138,257,260, 267, 286, 385, 517 McGrath, Major T. W 194 Mcintosh, Augus 536 Mcintosh, Charles 391, 571 Mcintosh, James 185 Mcintosh, John 391, 392, 573 Mcintosh, Robert 391 McKay, John 255 McKenzie, Capt 493, 538, 553 McKenzie, Daniel 303 Page McLean, Allan 253, 364 McLean, Chief Justice 217, 344 McLean, Donald 138, 484 McLean, Hon. Neil 14, 364 McLean, Mr. Speaker 142,364 McLeod, Norman 14 McLeod, Capt. Martin ... 466 McLeod, Major 467 McLeod, Murdoch 107 McMahon, Mr. E 248, 367 McMurtrie, Joseph 385 McPherson, Hon. D. L 424 McTaggart on Canada 414 Macaulay, Allan 158 Macaulay, Capt. J. S 39, 307, 392 Macaulay, Dr. ... 118, 134, 138, 307, 311, 385,392 Macaulay, Sir James .... 54, 84, 147, 376 Macaulay Town 307 Macdonald, Mr John 425 Macdonell, Hon. Alexander.. 29, 138, 253, 330, 385, 586 Macdonell, Mr Allan 157, 331 Macdonell, Angus 185, 249, 250, 291, 355. 366 Macdonell, Archibald 82, 509 Macdonell, Attorney-General 50, 119, 355, 356 Macdonell, Bishop 34, 300, 567 Macdonell, Capt. ^Eneas 526 Macdonell, Capt., 68th 567 Macdonell, Donald 185 Macdonell, Mr. James 51, 157 Macdonell, John 82 Macdonell, Miles 300, 331, 439 Macdonell, Peter 185 Macdonell, Sheriff 248 MacDougall, Mr. John.. 222, 303, 386, 439 MacDougall, Peter 52, 84, 541 MacKenzie, William Lyon... 38, 102, 104, 137, 242, 310, 392 MacMaster, Hen. W 424 MacMurray, Rev. Dr 140, 157 Macnab, Sir Allan.. .85, 134. 185, 216, 448 Macnab, Capt. Alexander... 355, 366, 479 Macnab, Rev. Dr 366, 479 Macnab, The Chief... 212, 213, 214, 216 Macnab, Mr. David 160. 212 Macnab, Mr. D., senr 134, 215 McNabb, Simon 385 MacNiel, Capt 72. 434 Mairs, Mr 501 Maitland, Lady Sarah 135, 213 Index. 589 Page. Maitland, Sir Peregrine... 29, 90,, 122 123. 142, 359, 549 Mall (Esplanade) 80 Mallory, Benaiah 254 Manitoba 300 Mansion House Hotel 196 Manning, Aid 55 Market Lane, 109 Marketplace, falling of gallery... 42 Market, Weekly, for York 40 Marriages, Record of 334, 335 Marseuil, Chevalier de 469 Marsh, William 380 March Street 170, 317 Marian, Paul 18S, 198,386 Mashquoteh 426 Masonic Hall 109 Massiac 10 Mathers, Mr. J 424 Mathews, Rev. Charles 94, 407 Maxwell. Capt 574 Maxwell, Mr no Mayerhoffer, Rev. V. P . .. 454 Mealy, Sergeant 335, 385 Mechanics' Institute, First 109 Medals 52 Medley, Ensign 557 Meighan, Messrs 546, 569 Melinda Street 96 Melville, Capt 557 Mennonists 480 Mercer, Andrew. 55, 84, 269, 363, 366 Merchants' Wharf 39 Methodist, First, Chapel 95 Michilimackinac I, 2, 3 Midford, Capt 94 Miles, Abner, his Day-book... 45, 193 Miller, Capt 539 Millard, Mordecai 482 Milloy, Capt 576 Mills, Mr 222 Mississaga Point 31 Mississaga Tract 369 Mississagas 8 Mitchell, Mr 438 Moffatt, Lieut 503 Mohawk, Etymology of 76 Monro, Mr. George... 3 1, 84, 134, 187 Monro, Mr. John 84, 134 Montcalm 9 Montgomery, Alexander 289. 303 Montgomery, Mr. John 437 Montmagny 4 Montreal Gazette 281 Montreal Herald 281 Moodie, Col 460 Moore, Capt : ... 530 Moore, John 185 Page Moore, Sir John 125 Moore, William 303 Moore, Mr 181 Moore, the Poet 21 Morley, Benjamin 221 Morrison, Dr. T. D 310, 408 Morrison, Mr. Justice 424 Mortimer, Rev. George 444, 451 Morton, Simeon 298 Mosier, Capt 547, 451. 567 Mosley, Henry.. 159 Mosley, John 159 Mosley, Mr., senior 186, 566 Moss Park 28, 249 Mottoes, Newspaper 281 Mountain, Bishop. 527 Mount, Roswell 131 Mudge, Capt. Zachary 136 Muirhead, Dr 255 Munro, Major , 567 Munshaw, Balser 223 Murchison, Mr. J 138. 181, 355, 363 Murney, Capt 521, 524, 527, 534 Murney, Mrs 433 Murray, Mr 439 Murray, Mr. Alexander 401 Murray, Capt 529 Murray, Charles Stewart 450 Murray, Daniel 160 Murray, Jock 175 Myers, Capt 539 Myers, James 157 Myers, William 157 N. Nanton, Mr 439 Napier, Lord, ofMagdala 342 Nash, James 222 Nash, Samuel 386 Nation, Mr. James 84 Navy Hall 29 Nelles, Abraham 157 Nelles, Henry 160 Nelles, Robert 254, 255 Nelson Street 178 Newgate Street 152 Newmarket 482,486 New Town 63 Niagara 20 Niagara, Early Press at 258 Nicholl, Col 137 Nightingale, Mr 424 Nolan, Capt 449 Norris, Mr. James 386 North, Capt 557 North- West Company 425 590 Toronto of Old. o. Page Oakhill 358 Oaklands 424 Oak Ridges 471 Oates, Capt 195,542 Oates, Mr. R. H 157 Observer 269 Ogetonicut 291 O'Grady, Rev. Mr 203 O'llara, James ... 175 O'Hara, Col. Walter... 367, 368, 459 O'Keefe, Andrew 363 O'Neill, Mr. J 225 Olive Grove 426 Ontario House 49, Ontario Street 200 Osgoode, Chief Justice... 138, 313, 513 Osgoode Hall 312 Oswegatchie 7 Oswego 5, 13, 390 Owens, John 157 Padfield, Mr. J 94 Paget, Dr 451 Paper Mills 242 Park Lane 316 Park, The 255 Parker, Mr 99, 430 Parkman, referred to 479 Parliament, Houses of, Upper Canada 26 Parsons, Mr. W 451 Paterson, Mr. P ... 185, 408 Paxton, Capt 290, 528 Paynter, Capt 571 Peacock Tavern 374 Pearson, Nathaniel 477 Peeke, Capt 262 Penetanguishene 390, 500 Perry, Charles 379 Perry, Mr. Peter 142, 310 Peter Street ,...63. 342 Peters, W. B 386 Petersfield 63, 336 Peterson, Paul 310 Pettit, William 175 Petto, J 338 Phair, Mr 84 Phipps, Mr. W. B.... 403 Phipps, Mr. Thomas 142 Phillips, Rev. Dr 94, 141, 167 Phillpotts, Capt 136, 570 Pickering, Col 512 Picq-et 5, 7 Page Pilgrims' Farm 439 Pilkington, General 497, 519 Pilkington, Isaac 201 Pilkington, W 185 Pimlico 405 Pinhey, Hamnet 137 Pine Grove 360 Pines, The 404 Piper, Mr. Hiram 378 Playter, Mr. Eli 288, 386 Playter, Mr. Emanuel 224 Playter, Mr. George .. 84, 222, 288 Playter, Capt. George 134, 138, 241, 287 Playter, Capt. John 224 Playter, Mr. James 222, 383, 385 Playter, Mr. Thomas 185 Polwhele 60 Pontiac 53 Poplar Plains 426 Portland Street 70, 354 Post, Jordan 96, 31 1, 363, 381 Post Office, First 38 Potteries, Walmsley's 432 Potter's Field 408 Poulett Thomson 326 Powell, Chief Justice,... 56, 129, 138, 142, 297, 303, 328, 365. Powell, Dr. Grant, 80, 84, 88, 102, 112, 134, 363 Powell, Major 136 Powell's Pump 209 Power, Bishop 89 Power Street 204 Prentice, R, E 84 Press, Early, at Niagara 259 Press, Early, at York 258 Prevost, Sir George ....27, 61, 537 Prices Early, at York 43, 44, 45 Price's Tavern 408 Primrose, Dr 139 Princes Street 31 Proudfoot, Mr. W 84, 401 Provincial Gazetteer, The first... 27 Puisaye, Comte de 189, 469 Pump, Public 41, 196 Purcell, Miss 1-35, 181 Q. Quaker Settlement 476 Quebec 10, 507 Quebec Mercury 281 Queenston 9 Queen Street 28 Quinte, Bay of. 8, 206 Index. 59i R. Page Race Course 83 Raddish, Rev. T 312 Railway, Huron and Ontario 42 Ramsay, Dean 214 Ramsay, Rev. S 485 Randal, Mr. Robert 309 Randolph, Mr 512 Rathnally 424 Reade, C 185 Red Lion Inn 408 Rees, Dr 210, 358 Reid,' George 554 Reynolds, Mr 198 Richards, Mr. (ice) 410 Richardson, Lieut 79 Richaidson, Rev. Dr 447, 535 Richardson, Capt Hugh 548, 561, 565. 572 Richardson, C. and H 575 Richardson, Capt. James. . . .535, 536 Richey, Mr. John 406 Richmond, Duke of 123 Richmond Packet 195, 542, 544 Ridout, Charles 157 Ridout, Francis 157 Ridout, Horace 160 Ridout, Mr. John 157 Ridout, Mr. Joseph 378 Ridout, Mr. Percival 378 Ridout, Mr. S., Sheriff . . 34, 84, 248 Ridout, Surveyor-General 84, 120, 133, 138, 152, 182, 244. 371, 385, 423, 463 Ripley, Rev. W. H 206 Ritchie, Rev. W 444 Robinson, Mr. Christopher, senior 138 Robinson, Sir J. B 51, 57, 79, 80, 120, 138, 303, 312, 326, 442 Robinson, Hon. Peter 482, 494 Robinson, Hon. W. B..84, 185, 482, 483, 494, 499 Rocheblave 17, 18 Roe, Mr. W 84, 483 Rogers, Mr. David McGregor 254 Rogers, Mr. Joseph 84, 173 Rogers, Major 10 Rogers, Rufus, Asa, Isaac, Wing, James, Obadiah 480 Rogers, Timothy 477, 480 Rolph, Hon. J 309, 348 Rolph, Dr. Thomas 210 Rosedale 405, 411 Rose, Rev. A. W. H 501 Rose, Miss 135, 181 Ross, Mr. J., Undertaker . . 138, 333 Rossi, Franco 94 Page Rottenburg, Baron de 342 Rouge River 448, 472 Rouille 3, 6, 73 Royalists, French 469 Roy, Louis 259 Ruggles, C 185 Rujjgles, Mr. James 371, 529 Rumsey, Mr. John 314 Rusholme 354 Russell Alley 33, 34 Russell Hill 340, 410 Russell, Miss Elizabeth 33, 434 Russell, President.. 29, 118, 138, 294, 336, 338, 339, 385, 40i, 520 Russell Square 90 Russell's Creek 58 Rutherford, Mr. E. H 150 Ryerse, Mr Samuel 82 S. Sagard, Gabriel 74 Saigeon, Michel .. 469 Salmon Fishing 228 Sanders, Capt 536 Sandlord's Inn 372 Sandhill 399 Sanson, Rev. Alex 444 Savage, Mr. George 565 Sayer Street 316 Scarlett, Mr. J 134,363, 374 School, District Grammar 98, 152, 166 School, Dr. Strachan's, at Cornwall... 156, 163 Scollard, Mr. Maurice 402 Scoresby, Capt 394 Scott, Chief Justice 51, 130, 138, 376, 386 Scott, General Winfield 535 Scott Street 51 Secord, Peter 260 Seignelay 1 Selby, Mr. Receiver-General 138, 336, 484 Selkirk, Lord 299, 303, 330 Sell^ck, Capt 524 Selwyn, Bishop 394 Semple, Gov 301 Seneca, Ety mology of 76 Severn, Mr. John 410, 411 Shade, Absolom 137 Shank, Col. David ... 355 Sharon, 486 Shaver, Mr. Peter 142 Shaw, Capt. Alexander 358 Shaw, Capt 345 Shaw, General iEneas..8o, 138, 334, 355, 356, 358, 523 59 2 Toronto of Old. Page Shaw, David 160 Shaw, Warren 160 Sheaffe, General 29, 120, 347, 362 Sheehan, James 159 Sheldon, W. B 378 Shepard, Harvey 242, 311 Shephard, Mr 446 Shephard's inn ." 445 Sheppard, Joseph 310, 443 Sherborne Street 248 Sherwood, Mr. Justice 303, 376 Sherwood, Reuben 423 Sherwood, Mr. Samuel 253, 303 Sherwood, Mr. Speaker 137, 142 Siasconcet 18 Sicotte, Mr. Speaker , 278 Simcoe, Governor 18, 20,29, 2 4-8> 356, 388, 389, 480, 510 Simcoe, Lake 3, 474 Simcoe Place 59 Simcoe, Steamer 494 Simcoe Street 317, 329 Simons, T. G., Printer 263, 385 Sinclair, Capt 540 Sinclair, Mr., senior 224 Skeldon, George, , 159 Skeldon, John 159 Skinner, Mr. Colin 224 Skinner's Sloop 527 Slavery 29, 292, 293 Small, Mr. Charles 84, 185, 199 Small, Hon. J. E 84, 185, 396 Small, Mr. John... 84, 133, 138, 199, 246, 249, 385, 435, 478, 484, 509 Smith, Col., President ..133, 138, 331, 353, 355, 364 Smith, Hon. D. W ... 82, 248, 382, 385, 414, 419, 478 Smith, Mr. James F ,.,571 Smith, Dr. Larratt W 425 Smith, Mr. Larratt, senior 461 Smith, Thomas 386 Smith, Under- Sheriff. 304 Smith, Walker 157 Smith, William ...84, 185, 197, 363, 386 Smythe, Sir John 177 Snider, Elias 438 Snider, Jacob 438 Snider, Martin 438 Spadina Avenue 66, 345 Spadina House 66, 410 Spectator, New York 282, 283 Spencer, Hazelton... 82 Spoon-bill, Governor Gore's 364 Spragge, Chancellor 165, 314 Spragge, Mr. Joseph 84, 165 Spragge, Mr. William 165 Page Springfield Park 427 Sproxton Lake 473 Squires, Philemon 185 St. George, Quetton, senior, 138, 188- 192, 469, 528 St. George, Quetton, Mr. Henry 472 St. Giles 410 St. James' Church 117 St. Paul's Church 407 Stafford, Mr 176 Stage to Niagara 49 Stanley Street 170, 317 Stanton, Mr. R ... 185, 269, 279, 333 Stanton, Mr., senior 336 Stanton, Mr. W 138 Steamboat Hotel 48 Stedman 87 Stegman, Mr. J. ... 64, 382, 419, 422, 529 Stegman, David 84 Stegman, Report on Yonge Street 419 Stewart, Mr no Stewart, Bishop of.Quebec 139 Stimpson, Harbour 303 Stocking, Mr. Jared 173 Stoyell, Dr 199, 222, 310 Strachan, Dr... 57, 84, 120, 141, 155, 161, 209, 277, 278, 364, 444 Strachan, James McGill 158, 160, 286 Strachan, Mr. James 57, 443 Strange, Mr 556 Street, Rev. G. C 486 Stuart, Okill, Archdeacon... 118, 139, 184, 340, 435 Stump Act 262 Sugar-loaf Hill 241 Sullivan, Augustus 112 Sullivan, Mr. Justice 87 Sullivan, Thomas 84 Summer Hill 424 Sun Tavern 391 Sutherland, Capt 571 Swayzey, Isaac 254, 255 Swift, Patrick '. 103,276 Sydenham, Lord 326, 504 T. Taiaiagons, several 76 Talbot, Col.." 124, 239, 351 Talbot, Mr., Actor... no Taylor, Mr. John Fennings 372 Taylor, Rev. Robert 485 Taylor, Thomas 84 Taylor, Mr., senior 224 Taylor's Paper Mills 242 Index. 593 Page Temperance Street 380 Teraulay Cottage 393 Teraulav Street 307 Terry, Parshall 222, 223 Thames, Canadian 351 Thames, English 29 Theatre 96, no Thew, Capt 539 Thomas, Dr * 255 Thompson, Arch 222 Thompson, David 222 Thompson, Mr. Charles ; 424 Thomson, Mr., Canada Co 112 Thome, Mr. B 451 Thornhill 451 Thorpe, Mr. Justice 256, 428 Tiers, Mr. Daniel 285, 409 Tiffany, G 260,306 Titus, John 386 Toby, Horse, Case of 299 Todmorden 224 Toronto, Etymology of 74 Toronto, Fort 8 Toronto Harbour . 16, 510 Toronto Purchase 369 Toronto Street 63, 381, 382 Townley, Rev. A 444 Townsley, James and William . . 424 Training Day 36 Trinity College, University of 356, 357 Trinity Square 392, 393 Turner, Mr. Enoch 206 Turner, Mr. R. T 314 Turquand, Mr. Bernard... 84, 125, 350 Tyler, Joseph 228 U. University.., 324 University Street 316 Upper Canada College 93 Vance, Mr. Alderman 440 Vaudreuil 9, 10 Vankoughnet, Mr., senior 361 Vannorman, J. & B 379 Vansittart, Admiral 336 Vanzante, J 108, 387 Vaughan, Mr., Actor no Vercheres 7 Veritas 61 Victoria Street 63, 382 Vineyard 404 W. Page Wabbecomegat 14 Wabbekisheco, Chief 291 Wales, Prince of 313, 329 Wallis, Mr. James 410 Walmsley, John 432 Walton, George 392, 408 Ward, Mr. Thomas 288, 386 Warffe, Mr. Andrew 84, 182 Warffe, Mr. John 182 Washburn, Mrs 347 Washburn, Ebenezer 254 Washburn, Simon 84, 134, 180, 217, 225. Washington (City) 27 Waters, W 263, 385 Watson, Mr., printer 207 Wax- work figures hung 48 Weekes, Mr 249, 254, 291, 385 Well in Market Square 41 Weld, Cardinal 34 Weld, Isaac 21, 33 Weller, Mr. W 49 Wellington, Duke of 127 Wells, Mrs 135 Wells, Col 66, 134 Wells, Col. Frederick 66 West, Dr 255 Westminster 27 Wetherill, Mr . ' 406 Wharncliffe, Lord 124 Wheler, SirGeorge... 95 White, Attorney-General 246, 435, 513 Whitehead, Col. M. F 288, 542 White Swan Inn 48 Whitmore, Michael 303, 427 Whitney, Peter 303 Whitney, Capt 550, 567 Whippings, Public 42 Widmer, Dr. Christopher, 32, 33, 85, 199. Wilcot, Paul 431 Wilberforce Settlement 5 02 Wilkie, D., artist 156 Wilkinson, Mr. W. B 253 Willard, Levi 527 Willcocks, Mr. Charles 349 Willcocks, Mr. Joseph 271 Willcocks, Lake 472 Willcocks, Mr. William 138, 349, 385 Williamson, Capt 108 William Street 317 Willis, Judge 22, III, 113 Willis, Lady Mary Ill Willis, Miss 33, 112, 114 Wilson, David 105, 296,486 Wilmot, Samuel S 244, 423 LL 594 Toronto of Old. Page Wilson, Mr. D 177 Wilson, Stillwell 430, 439, 539 Windsor Street 62 Winniett, Major 350, 587 Wolfe, Gen 492 Wood, Mr. Alexander, 138, 187, 383, 385. 484 Woodin, Lieut 504, 506 Woodlawn 424 Woodruffe, H 185 Wood Street 395 Worthington, Mr. John 150, 424 Worts, Mr. James 150, 204 Worts, Mr., senior. 265 Wragg & Co 185 Wright, E. S 58, 363 Wright, Miss M 335 Wyatt, C. B., Surveyor-General ..423 Wykham Lodge 392, 395 Y. Page Yeo, Sirjames 536 Yonge, Sir George 307, 355, 356, 388 Yonge Street 375, 390 Yonge Street, Stegman's Report.. 420 York, Capital of Upper Canada... 27 York, Duke of 513 York Mills 442 York Street 94, 315 Yorkville 380, 383, 405 Yorkville, Town-hall 409 Young, J., Architect 59, 101. 321 Young, Mr. R 385 Z. Zealand, Capt 571 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. 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