Toronto of Old Part 47

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XXIX.

THE HARBOUR: ITS MARINE, 1793-99.

The 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 cla.s.sic pa.s.sage.

For the completeness of our narrative it must be produced 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 exhibited 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 gla.s.sy 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 pa.s.sage is to be found in a note at p. 89 of volume one of the quarto edition of "The British Dominions in North America,"

published in London in 1831.

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 pa.s.sage (from Kingston) of thirty-six hours." (The following gentlemen, it is noted, came pa.s.sengers:--J. Small, Esq., Clerk of the Executive Council; 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 a.s.sociates. 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_, 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 Sat.u.r.day, the 4th, the inspection of the harbour and its surroundings 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 16th 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; 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-continued 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 a.r.s.enal at Toronto with the Thames and Detroit. It was in the February and March of this very same year, 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 communication.

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, "accompanied by such officers, naval and military, as I thought most competent to give me a.s.sistance therein, and upon minute investigation I found it to be, without comparison, the most proper situation for an a.r.s.enal, in every extent of that word, that can be met with in this Province."

The words, "now York," appended here and in later doc.u.ments 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 levee, 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 anniversary of his Majesty's birthday, his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor held a levee at Navy Hall. At one the troops in garrison and at Queenston 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 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 commissioners 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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 probably 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 a.r.s.enal and strong military post.

Accordingly, having thus sent forward two divisions of the regiment whose name is so intimately a.s.sociated 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 embarking 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, 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_ of 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 establis.h.i.+ng themselves under canvas on the gra.s.sy glade where formerly stood the old French trading-post. We can imagine them landing stores--a few cannon and some other munitions of war--from the s.h.i.+ps; 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 circ.u.mnavigator.

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 praetorium 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, s.h.i.+fted to one of the knolls overlooking the little stream known subsequently as the Garrison creek; and s.h.i.+fted 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 s.h.i.+p-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 sh.o.r.e, 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 Revolutionary 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 information 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 combined 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 Excellency'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 s.h.i.+pping in the Harbour, in respect to His Royal Highness and in commemoration of the naming this Harbour from his English t.i.tle, 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 immediately 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 Sat.u.r.day 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 which Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe was present, was on Sat.u.r.day, 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.r.s.enal 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 a.s.suming the command and sailing with her to Niagara, where he is received amidst the cheers of the garrison and others a.s.sembled on the sh.o.r.es 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 s.h.i.+p 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-west bend of the great shoal at the entrance of the Harbour.)--A second 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 northern point.) The Chart, which was originally engraved for Bouchette's octavo book, "A Topographical Description of Canada, &c.," published in 1815, is repeated with the marks and accompanying notes, from the same plate, in the quarto work of 1831--"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 pa.s.sing, 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 1794 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 the 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 s.p.a.ce 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 1831, 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, _i. e._, the Parliamentary Buildings, were not begun until 1794. Thus, in the _Gazette_ of July 10, 1794, we read the advertis.e.m.e.nt: "Wanted: Carpenters for the Public Buildings to be erected at York. Application to be made to John McGill, Esq., at York, or to Mr. Allan Macnab at Navy Hall."

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 18th 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 a.s.sembly: "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 writing a despatch at Kingston to the "Lords of the Committee of His Majesty's Council for Trade and Plantations;" and we learn from the doc.u.ment that the neighbourhood of York, if not York itself, was becoming populous. The Governor says to their Lords.h.i.+ps: "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 princ.i.p.ally on the communication between York and Holland's River, which falls into Lake Simcoe." (The German families these, princ.i.p.ally, 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, the 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; but two of his travelling companions, MM. du Pett.i.thouars and Guillemard take a run over and report to him that there "had been no more than twelve houses. .h.i.therto 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 Government, which had compelled the Governor again and again to undertake 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 gentlemen of his profession. He and Mr. Pilkington, an officer of the 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 a.s.senting to seven Acts.