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TORONTO OF OLD
[Illustration]
H. SCADDING. D.D.
[Illustration]
Toronto of Old:
Collections and Recollections
ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE
EARLY SETTLEMENT AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THE CAPITAL OF ONTARIO.
By HENRY SCADDING, D.D.
[Illustration]
TORONTO:
ADAM, STEVENSON & CO.
1873.
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year One
Thousand 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
The Earl of Dufferin, K.C.B.
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,
This Volume,
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
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
It 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 finally 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 illustrations of primitive colonial life and manners. It was
urged, likewise, in several quarters, that if something in this
direction were not speedily done, the men of the next generation would
be left 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
posterity the path onward has been made smooth. For many years the
writer had quietly concerned himself with such matters. Identified 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 sometime 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 proceed
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; relying in
the first instance on personal recollections for the most part, and then
attaching to every coigne of vantage such relevant information 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 incident chanced to draw the
supposed pilgrim aside. The perambulation 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
inhabitants of a Port.
Although the imposing bulk of the volume may look like evidence 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 narratives have been disregarded which
probably, in some quarters, 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 unpardonably 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 functionaries, 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 _seances_
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 Journal of successive instalments of
these papers, contributed materially to the furtherance of the work, as
without the preparation for the press from time to time which was thus
necessitated, it is possible 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 Yorkville; 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; Major McLeod of Drynoch; the Rev. George Hallen of
Penetanguishene; the Ven. Archdeacon Fuller of Toronto; Mr. G. A. Barber
of Toronto; Mr. J. T. Kerby of Niagara; the Rev. Saltern Givins of
Yorkville; the Rev. A. Sanson of Toronto; 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. Cottrill 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 edition 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 and down in various parts of Canada and the United States,
who, having been at some period of their lives familiar with Toronto,
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, person 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 trivial, 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 attributed 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.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Introductory, 1
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
" XI. " Digression northward at Church
Street: the Old District Grammar
School, 152
" XII. " 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
" XVII. 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
Sect. XVIII. Queen Street: from the Don Bridge to Caroline
Street, 244
" XIX. " Digression at Caroline Street:
History of the Early Press, 258
" XX. " From George Street to Yonge St. 284
Memories of the Old Court House, 290
" XXI. " From Yonge Street to College
Avenue, 305
Digression Southward at Bay St., 308
Osgoode Hall, 312
Digression Northward at the College
Avenue, 318
" XXII. " From the College Avenue to Brock
Street and Spadina Avenue, 326
" XXIII. " 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. " From Bond's Lake to the Holland
Landing, with Digressions to
Newmarket and Sharon, 466
" XXVIII. " Onward, from Holland Landing to
Penetanguishene, 496
" XXIX. The Harbour: Its Marine, 1793-99, 508
" XXX. Do. do. 1800-14, 525
" XXXI. Do. do. 1815-27, 538
" XXXII. Do. do. 1828-63, 563
Appendix. 577
Index. 581
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
INTRODUCTORY.
In French colonial documents of a very respectable antiquity, we meet
with the name Toronto again and again. It is given as an appellation
that is well-known, and its form in the greater number of instances is
exactly that which it has now permanently assumed, but here and there
its orthography varies by a letter or two, as is usually the case with
strange terms when taken down by ear. In a Memoir on the state of
affairs in Canada, transmitted to France in 1686, by the Governor in
Chief of the day, the Marquis de Denonville, the familiar word appears.
Addressing the Minister de Seignelay, the Marquis says: "The letters I
wrote to Sieurs du Lhu and de la Durantaye, of which I sent you copies,
will inform you of my orders to them to fortify the two passages leading
to Michilimaquina. Sieur du Lhu is at that of the Detroit of Lake Erie,
and Sieur de la Durantaye at that of the portage of Toronto. These two
posts" the marquis observes, "will block the passage against the
English, if they undertake to go again to Michilimaquina, and will serve
as retreats to the savages our allies either while hunting or marching
against the Iroquois."
Again, further on in the same Despatch, Denonville says: "I have heard
that Sieur du Lhu is arrived at the post of the Detroit of Lake Erie,
with fifty good men well-armed, with munitions of war and provisions and
all other necessaries sufficient to guarantee them against the severe
cold, and to render them comfortable during the whole winter on the spot
where they will entrench themselves. M. de la Durantaye is collecting
people to entrench himself at Michilimaquina and to occupy the other
pass which the English may take by Toronto, the other entrance to lake
Huron. In this way" the marquis assures de Seignelay, "our Englishmen
will have somebody to speak to. All this, however," he reminds the
minister, "cannot be accomplished without considerable expense, but
still" he adds, "we must maintain our honour and our prosperity."
Du Lhu and de la Durantaye here named were the French agents or
superintendents in what was then the Far West. Du Lhu is the same person
whose name, under the form of Duluth, has become in recent times so well
known, as appertaining to a town near the head of Lake Superior,
destined in the future to be one of the great Railway Junctions of the
continent, like Buffalo or Chicago.
The Englishmen for whom M. de Denonville desired an instructive
reception to be prepared were some of the people of Governor Dongan of
the province of New York. Governor Dongan either could not or would not
restrain his people from poaching for furs on the French King's domain.
When Denonville wrote his despatch in 1686 some of these illicit traders
had been recently seen in the direction of Michilimackinac, having
passed up by the way of Lake Erie. To intercept them on their return,
the Marquis reports that he has stationed "a bark, some canoes and
twenty good men" at the river communicating from Lake Erie with that of
Ontario near Niagara, by which place the English who ascended Lake Erie
must of necessity pass on their return home with their peltries. "I
regard, Monseigneur," continues Denonville to the minister, "as of
primary importance the prohibition of this trade to the English, who,
without doubt, would entirely ruin ours both by the cheaper bargains
they could give the Indians, and by attracting to them the Frenchmen of
our colony who are accustomed to go into the woods." Governor Dongan was
also always holding communications with the Iroquois and spiriting them
on to resist French encroachments. He even audaciously asserted that his
own sovereign--it soon became doubtful who that was, whether James II.
or William of Orange--was the rightful supreme lord of the Iroquois
territory.
As to the particular spot intended when Denonville says M. de la
Durantaye is about to occupy "the pass which the English may take by
Toronto," there may seem at first to be some ambiguity.
In 1686 the vicinage of Lake Simcoe, especially the district between
Lake Simcoe and Lake Huron, appears to have been commonly known as the
Toronto region. We deduce this from the old contemporary maps, on one or
other of which Matchedash bay is the Bay of Toronto; the river Severn is
the Toronto river; Lake Simcoe itself is Toronto Lake; the chain of
Lakes passing south-eastward from the neighbourhood of Lake Simcoe and
issuing by the Trent in the Bay of Quinte is also the Toronto river or
lake-chain, and again, the Humber, running southwesterly from the
vicinity of Lake Simcoe into Lake Ontario, is likewise occasionally the
Toronto river; the explanation of all which phraseology is to be found
in the supposition that the Severn, the Trent chain of lakes, and the
Humber, were, each of them, a commonly-frequented line of
water-communication with a Toronto region--a well-peopled district--"a
place of meeting," the haunt of numerous allied families and friendly
bands. (That such is the most probable interpretation of the term
Toronto, we shall hereafter see at large.)
The spot to be occupied by de la Durantaye for the purpose of defending
"the Pass at Toronto" might therefore be either in the Toronto region
itself at the Lake Huron end of the trail leading from Lake Ontario, or
at the Lake Ontario end of the same trail, at the point where English
trespassers coming from the direction of the Iroquois territory would
disembark, when intending to penetrate to Michilimackinac by this route.
At the first-mentioned point, viz, the Lake Huron end of the trail, it
was early recommended that a fort should be established, as we learn
from letter twenty-three of Lahontan, but we do not hear that such a
structure was ever erected there. The remains of solid buildings that
have been found in that quarter are those of Jesuit mission-houses, and
not of a formal fort established by the French government. At the
last-mentioned spot, on the contrary, viz, the Lake Ontario end of the
trail, it is certain that a fortified trading-post was early erected;
the official designation of which, as we shall presently learn, was Fort
Rouille, but the name by which it came in the course of time to be
popularly known was Fort Toronto, as being the object which marked and
guarded the southern terminus of the trail or portage leading to the
district in the interior commonly called the Toronto region.
It was here then, near the embouchure of the modern Canadian Humber,
that "our Englishmen," as Denonville expressed himself, crossing over on
illicit errands from Governor Dongan's domain to that of the King of
France, were to find "somebody to speak to."
[Sidenote: 1687.]
The order sent to Durantaye was indeed not immediately executed. In 1687
Denonville reports as follows to the authorities at Paris: "I have
altered" he says, "the orders I had originally given last year to M. de
la Durantaye to pass by Toronto and to enter Lake Ontario at
Gandatsi-tiagon to form a junction with M. du Lhu at Niagara. I have
sent him word," he continues, "by Sieur Juchereau, who took back the two
Hurons and Outaouas chiefs this winter, to join Sieur du Lhu at the
Detroit of Lake Erie, so that they may be stronger, and in a condition
to resist the enemy, should he go to meet them at Niagara."
In 1687 the business in contemplation was something more serious than
the mere repression of trespass on the part of a few stray traders from
Governor Dongan's province. The confederated Iroquois were, if possible,
to be humbled once for all. From the period of Montmagny's arrival in
1637 the French settlements to the eastward had suffered from the fierce
inroads of the Iroquois. The predecessor of Denonville, de la Barre, had
made a peace with them on terms that caused them to despise the French;
and their boldness had since increased to such a degree that the
existence of the settlements was imperilled. In a Report to the minister
at Paris on this subject M. de Denonville again names Toronto; and he
clearly considers it a post of sufficient note to be classed, for the
moment, with Fort Frontenac, Niagara and Michilimackinac. To achieve
success against the Iroquois, he informed the minister, 3000 men would
be required. Of such a force, he observes, he has at the time only one
half; but he boasts of more, he says, for reputation's sake: "for the
rest of the militia are necessary to protect and cultivate the farms of
the country; and a part of the force," he then adds, "must be employed
in guarding the posts of Fort Frontenac, Niagara, Toronto, and
Michilimackinac, so as to secure the aid which he expects from Illinois
and from the other Indians, on whom however he cannot rely," he says,
"unless he shall be able alone to defeat the five Iroquois nations."
The campaign which ensued, though nominally a success, was attended with
disastrous consequences. The blows struck, not having been followed up
with sufficient vigour, simply further exasperated "the five Iroquois
nations," and entailed a frightful retaliation. In 1689 took place the
famous massacre of Lachine and devastation of the island of Montreal.
Denonville was superseded as his predecessor de la Barre had been. The
Count de Frontenac was appointed his successor, sent out for the second
time, Governor General of New France.
[Sidenote: 1749.]
Some years now elapse before we light on another notice of Toronto. But
at length we again observe the familiar word in one of the Reports or
Memoirs annually despatched from Canada to France. In 1749 M. de la
Galissoniere, administrator in the absence of the Governor in Chief, de
la Jonquiere, informs the King's minister in Paris that he has given
orders for erecting a stockade and establishing a royal trading post at
Toronto.
This was expected to be a counterpoise to the trading-post of Choueguen
on the southern side of the Lake, newly erected by the English at the
mouth of the Oswego river, on the site of the present town of Oswego.
Choueguen itself had been established as a set-off to the fort at the
mouth of the Niagara river, which had been built there by the French in
spite of remonstrances on the part of the authorities at New York.
Choueguen at first was simply a so-called "beaver trap" or trading-post,
established by permission, nominally obtained, of the Iroquois; but it
speedily developed into a strong stone-fort, and became, in fact, a
standing menace to Fort Frontenac, on the northern shore of the Lake.
Choueguen likewise drew to itself a large share of the valuable peltries
of the north shore, which used before to find their way down the St.
Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec. The goods offered at the English
trading-post of Choueguen were found to be superior to the French goods,
and the price given for furs was greater there than on the French side
of the water. The storekeeper at Niagara told the Abbe Picquet, of whom
we shall hear again presently, that the Indians compared the
silver-trinkets which were procured at Choueguen with those which were
procured at the French Stores; and they found that the Choueguen
articles were as heavy as the others, of purer silver and better
workmanship, but did not cost them quite two beavers, whilst for those
offered for sale at the French King's post, ten beavers were demanded.
"Thus we are discredited" the Abbe complained, "and this silver-ware
remains a pure loss in the King's stores. French brandy indeed," the
Abbe adds, "was preferred to the English: nevertheless that did not
prevent the Indians going to Choueguen. To destroy the trade there," he
affirms, "the King's posts ought to have been supplied with the same
goods as Choueguen and at the same price. The French ought also," he
says, "to have been forbidden to send the domiciliated Indians thither:
but that" he confesses, "would have been very difficult."
Choueguen had thus, in the eyes of the French authorities, come to be a
little Carthage that must be put down, or, at all events, crippled to
the greatest possible extent.
Accordingly, as a counterpoise in point of commercial influence,
Toronto, as we have seen, was to be made a fortified trading post. "On
being informed" says M. de la Galissoniere, in the document referred to,
bearing date 1749, "that the northern Indians ordinarily went to
Choueguen with their peltries by way of Toronto on the northwest side of
Lake Ontario, twenty-five leagues from Niagara, and seventy-five from
Fort Frontenac, it was thought advisable to establish a post at that
place and to send thither an officer, fifteen soldiers, and some
workmen, to construct a small stockade-fort there. Its expense will not
be great," M. de la Galissoniere assures the minister, "the timber is
transported there, and the remainder will be conveyed by the barques
belonging to Fort Frontenac. Too much care cannot be taken," remarks the
Administrator, "to prevent these Indians continuing their trade with the
English, and to furnish them at this post with all their necessaries,
even as cheap as at Choueguen. Messrs. de la Jonquiere and Bigot will
permit some canoes to go there on license and will apply the funds as a
gratuity to the officer in command there. But it will be necessary to
order the commandants at Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Frontenac, to be
careful that the traders and store-keepers of these posts furnish goods
for two or three years to come, at the same rates as the English. By
these means the Indians will disaccustom themselves from going to
Choueguen, and the English will be obliged to abandon that place."
De la Galissoniere returned to France in 1749. He was a naval officer
and fond of scientific pursuits. It was he who in 1756, commanded the
expedition against Minorca, which led to the execution of Admiral Byng.
[Sidenote: 1752.]
From a despatch written by M. de Longueil in 1752, we gather that the
post of the Toronto portage, in its improved, strengthened state, is
known as Fort Rouille, so named, doubtless from Antoine Louis Rouille,
Count de Jouy, Colonial Minister from 1749 to 1754. M. de Longueil says
that "M. de Celeron had addressed certain despatches to M. de
Lavalterie, the commandant at Niagara, who detached a soldier to convey
them to Fort Rouille, with orders to the store-keeper at that post to
transmit them promptly to Montreal. It is not known," he remarks, "what
became of that soldier." About the same time, a Mississague from Toronto
arrived at Niagara, who informed M. de Lavalterie that he had not seen
that soldier at the Fort, nor met him on the way. "It is to be feared
that he has been killed by Indians," he adds, "and the despatches
carried to the English."
An uncomfortable Anglophobia was reigning at Fort Rouille, as generally
along the whole of the north shore of Lake Ontario in 1752. We learn
this also from another passage in the same despatch. "The store-keeper
at Toronto, says," M. de Longueil writes to M. de Vercheres, commandant
at Fort Frontenac, "that some trustworthy Indians have assured him that
the Saulteux (Otchipways,) who killed our Frenchman some years ago, have
dispersed themselves along the head of Lake Ontario; and seeing himself
surrounded by them, he doubts not but they have some evil design on his
Fort. There is no doubt," he continues, "but 'tis the English who are
inducing the Indians to destroy the French, and that they would give a
good deal to get the Savages to destroy Fort Toronto, on account of the
essential injury it does their trade at Choueguen."
Such observations help us to imagine the anxious life which the lonely
occupants of Fort Rouille must have been leading at the period referred
to. From an abstract of a journal or memoir of the Abbe Picquet given in
the Documentary History of the State of New York (i. 283), we obtain a
glimpse of the state of things at the same place, about the same period,
from the point of view, however, of an interested ecclesiastic. The Abbe
Picquet was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and bore the titles of King's
Missionary and Prefect Apostolic of Canada. He established a mission at
Oswegatchie (Ogdensburg) which was known as _La Presentation_, and which
became virtually a military outpost of Fort Frontenac. He was very
useful to the authorities at Quebec in advocating French interests on
the south side of the St. Lawrence. The Marquis du Quesne used to say
that the Abbe Picquet was worth ten regiments to New France. His
activity was so great, especially among the Six Nations, that even
during his lifetime he was complimented with the title of "Apostle of
the Iroquois." When at length the French power fell he retired to
France, where he died in 1781. In 1751 the Abbe made a tour of
exploration round Lake Ontario. He was conveyed in a King's canoe, and
was accompanied by one of bark containing five trusty natives. He
visited Fort Frontenac and the Bay of Quinte; especially the site there
of an ancient mission which M. Dollieres de Kleus and Abbe d'Urfe,
priests of the St. Sulpice Seminary had established. "The quarter is
beautiful," the Abbe remarks, "but the land is not good." He then
visited Fort Toronto, the journal goes on to say, seventy leagues from
Fort Frontenac, at the west end of Lake Ontario. He found good bread and
good wine there, it is stated, and everything requisite for the trade,
whilst they were in want of these things at all the other posts. He
found Mississagues there, we are told, who flocked around him; they
spoke first of the happiness their young people, the women and children,
would feel if the King would be as good to them as to the Iroquois, for
whom he procured missionaries. They complained that instead of building
a church, they had constructed only a canteen for them. The Abbe
Picquet, we are told, did not allow them to finish; and answered them
that they had been treated according to their fancy; that they had never
evinced the least zeal for religion; that their conduct was much opposed
to it; that the Iroquois on the contrary had manifested their love for
Christianity. But as he had no order, it is subjoined, to attract them,
viz., the Mississagues, to his mission at _La Presentation_--he avoided
a more lengthened explanation.
The poor fellows were somewhat unfairly lectured by the Abbe, for,
according to his own showing, they expressed a desire for a church
amongst them.
A note on the Mississagues in the Documentary History (i. 22) mentions
the neighbourhood of Toronto as one of the quarters frequented by that
tribe: at the same time it sets down their numbers as incredibly few.
"The Mississagues," the note says, "are dispersed along this lake
(Ontario), some at Kente, others at the river Toronto (the Humber), and
finally at the head of the Lake, to the number of 150 in all; and at
Matchedash. The principal tribe is that of the Crane."
The Abbe Picquet visited Niagara and the Portage above (Queenston or
Lewiston); and in connection with his observations on those points he
refers again expressly to Toronto. He is opposed to the maintenance of
store-houses for trade at Toronto, because it tended to diminish the
trade at Niagara and Fort Frontenac, "those two ancient posts," as he
styles them. "It was necessary," he says, "to supply Niagara, especially
the Portage, rather than Toronto. The difference," he says, "between the
two first of these posts and the last is, that three or four hundred
canoes could come loaded with furs to the Portage (Queenston or
Lewiston); and that no canoes could go to Toronto except those which
cannot pass before Niagara and to Fort Frontenac--(the translation
appears to be obscure)--such as the Ottawas of the Head of the Lake and
the Mississagues: so that Toronto could not but diminish the trade of
these two ancient posts, which would have been sufficient to stop all
the savages had the stores been furnished with goods to their liking."
In 1752, a French military expedition from Quebec to the Ohio region,
rested at Fort Toronto. Stephen Coffen, in his narrative of that
expedition, which he accompanied as a volunteer, names the place, but he
spells the word in accordance with his own pronunciation, Taranto. "They
on their way stopped," he says "a couple of days at Cadaraghqui Fort,
also at Taranto on the north side of Lake Ontario; then at Niagara
fifteen days."
[Sidenote: 1756.]
In 1756, the hateful Choueguen, which had given occasion to the
establishment of Toronto as a fortified trading-post, was rased to the
ground. Montcalm, who afterwards fell on the Plains of Abraham, had been
entrusted with the task of destroying the offensive stronghold of the
English on Lake Ontario. He went about the work with some reluctance,
deeming the project of the Governor-General, De Vaudreuil, to be rash.
Circumstances, however, unexpectedly favoured him; and the garrison of
Choueguen, in other words, of Oswego, capitulated. "Never before," said
Montcalm, in his report of the affair to the Home Minister, "did 3,000
men, with a scanty artillery, besiege 1,800, there being 2,000 enemies
within call, as in the late affair; the party attacked having a superior
marine, also, on Lake Ontario. The success gained has been contrary to
all expectation. The conduct I followed in this affair," Montcalm
continues, "and the dispositions I made, were so much out of the
ordinary way of doing things that the audacity we manifested would be
counted for rashness in Europe. Therefore, Monseigneur," he adds, "I beg
of you as a favour to assure his Majesty that if he should accord to me
what I most wish for, employment in regular campaigning, I shall be
guided by very different principles." Alas, there was to be no more
"regular campaigning" for Montcalm. His eyes were never again to gaze
upon the battle fields in Bohemia, Italy and Germany, where, prior to
his career in Canada, he had won laurels.
The success before Choueguen in 1756 was followed by a more than
counterbalancing disaster at Fort Frontenac in 1758. In that year a
force of 3,000 men under Col. Bradstreet, detached from the army of
Abercromby, stationed near Lake George, made a sudden descent on Fort
Frontenac, from the New York side of the water, and captured the place.
It was instantly and utterly destroyed, together with a number of
vessels which had formed a part of the spoil brought away from
Choueguen. On this occasion we find that the cry _Hannibal ante Portas_!
was once more fully expected to be heard speedily within the stockade at
Toronto. M. de Vaudreuil, the Governor-General, informs the Minister at
Paris, M. de Massiac, "that should the English make their appearance at
Toronto, I have given orders to burn it at once, and to fall back on
Niagara."
[Sidenote: 1759.]
One more order (the last), issuing from a French source, having
reference to Toronto, is to be read in the records of the following
year, 1759. M. de Vaudreuil, again in his despatch home, after stating
that he had summoned troops from Illinois and Detroit, to rendezvous at
Presqu'isle on Lake Erie, adds,--"As those forces will proceed to the
relief of Niagara, should the enemy wish to besiege it, I have in like
manner sent orders to Toronto, to collect the Mississagues and other
natives, to forward them to Niagara."
[Sidenote: 1760.]
The enemy, it appears, did wish to besiege Niagara; and on the 25th of
July they took it--an incident followed on the 18th of the next
September by the fall of Quebec, and the transfer of all Canada to the
British Crown. The year after the conquest a force was despatched by
General Amherst from Montreal to proceed up the country and take
possession of the important post at Detroit. It was conveyed in fifteen
whale-boats and consisted of two hundred Rangers under the command of
Major Robert Rogers. Major Rogers was accompanied by the following
officers: Capt. Brewer, Capt. Wait, Lieut. Bhreme, Assistant-Engineer,
and Lieut. Davis of the Royal Train of Artillery. The party set out from
Montreal on the 12th of September, 1760. The journal of Major Rogers
has been published. It includes an account of this expedition. We give
the complete title of the work, which is one sought after by
book-collectors: "The Journals of Major Robert Rogers, containing an
Account of the several Excursions he made under the Generals who
commanded on the Continent of North America during the late War. From
which may be collected the most material Circumstances of every Campaign
upon that continent from the commencement to the conclusion of the War.
London: Printed for the Author, and sold by J. Millan, bookseller, near
Whitehall, MDCCLXV."
We extract the part in which a visit to Toronto is spoken of. He leaves
the ruins of Fort Frontenac on the 25th of September. On the 28th he
enters the mouth of a river which he says is called by the Indians "The
Grace of Man." (The Major probably mistook, or was imposed upon, in the
matter of etymology.)
Here he found, he says, about fifty Mississaga Indians fishing for
salmon. "At our first appearance," he continues, "they ran down, both
men and boys to the edge of the Lake, and continued firing their pieces,
to express their joy at the sight of the English colours, until such
time as we had landed." About fifteen miles further on he enters another
river, which he says, the Indians call "The Life of Man."
"On the 30th," the journal proceeds:--"We embarked at the first dawn of
day, and, with the assistance of sails and oars, made great way on a
south-west course; and in the evening reached the river Toronto (the
Humber), having run seventy miles. Many points extending far into the
water," Major Rogers remarks, "occasioned a frequent alteration of our
course. We passed a bank of twenty miles in length, but the land behind
it seemed to be level, well timbered with large oaks, hickories, maples,
and some poplars. No mountains appeared in sight. Round the place where
formerly the French had a fort, that was called Fort Toronto, there was
a tract of about 300 acres of cleared ground. The soil here is
principally clay. The deer are extremely plenty in this country. Some
Indians," Major Rogers continues, "were hunting at the mouth of the
river, who ran into the woods at our approach, very much frightened.
They came in however in the morning and testified their joy at the news
of our success against the French. They told us that we could easily
accomplish our journey from thence to Detroit in eight days; that when
the French traded at that place (Toronto), the Indians used to come
with their peltry from Michilimackinac down the river Toronto; that the
portage was but twenty miles from that to a river falling into Lake
Huron, which had some falls, but none very considerable; they added that
there was a carrying-place of fifteen miles from some westerly part of
Lake Erie to a river running without any falls through several Indian
towns into Lake St. Clair. I think Toronto," Major Rogers then states,
"a most convenient place for a factory, and that from thence we may very
easily settle the north side of Lake Erie."
"We left Toronto," the journal then proceeds, "the 1st of October,
steering south, right across the west end of Lake Ontario. At dark, we
arrived at the South Shore, five miles west of Fort Niagara, some of our
boats now becoming exceeding leaky and dangerous. This morning, before
we set out, I directed the following order of march:--The boats in a
line. If the wind rose high, the red flag hoisted, and the boats to
crowd nearer, that they might be ready to give mutual assistance in case
of a leak or other accident, by which means we saved the crew and arms
of the boat commanded by Lieutenant M'Cormack, which sprang a leak and
sunk, losing nothing except the packs. We halted all the next day at
Niagara, and provided ourselves with blankets, coats, shirts, shoes,
moccasins, &c. I received from the commanding officer eighty barrels of
provisions, and changed two whale-boats for as many batteaux, which
proved leaky. In the evening, some of my party proceeded with the
provisions to the Falls (the rapid water at Queenston), and in the
morning marched the rest there, and began the portage of the provisions
and boats. Messrs. Bhreme and Davis took a survey of the great cataract
of Niagara."
[Sidenote: 1761.]
At the time of Major Rogers' visit to Toronto all trading there had
apparently ceased; but we observe that he says it was most convenient
place for a factory. In 1761, we have Toronto named in a letter
addressed by Captain Campbell, commanding at Detroit, to Major Walters,
commanding at Niagara, informing him of an intended attack of the
Indians. "Detroit, June 17th, 1761, two o'clock in the morning. Sir,--I
had the favour of yours, with General Amherst's despatches. I have sent
you an express with a very important piece of intelligence I have had
the good fortune to discover. I have been lately alarmed with reports of
the bad designs of the Indian nations against this place, and the
English in general. I can now inform you for certain it comes from the
Six Nations; and that they have sent belts of wampum and deputies to all
the nations from Nova Scotia to the Illinois, to take up the hatchet
against the English, and have employed the Mississaguas to send belts of
wampum to the northern nations. Their project is as follows:--The Six
Nations, at least the Senecas, are to assemble at the head of French
Creek, within five-and-twenty leagues of Presqu'isle; part of the Six
Nations (the Delawares and Shawnees), are to assemble on the Ohio; and
at the same time, about the latter end of the month, to surprise Niagara
and Fort Pitt, and cut off the communication everywhere. I hope this
will come time enough to put you on your guard, and to send to Oswego,
and all the posts in that communication. They expect to be joined by the
nations that are to come from the North by Toronto."
[Sidenote: 1767.]
Eight years after the occupation of the country by the English, a
considerable traffic was being carried on at Toronto. We learn this from
a despatch of Sir William Johnson's to the Earl of Shelburne, on the
subject of Indian affairs, bearing date 1767. Sir William affirms that
persons could be found willing to pay L1,000 per annum for the monopoly
of the trade at Toronto. Some remarks of his that precede the reference
to Toronto give us some idea of the commercial tactics of the Indian and
Indian trader of the time. "The Indians have no business to follow when
at peace," Sir William Johnson says, "but hunting. Between each hunt
they have a recess of several months. They are naturally very covetous,"
the same authority asserts, "and become daily better acquainted with the
value of our goods and their own peltry; they are everywhere at home,
and travel without the expense or inconvenience attending our journey to
them. On the other hand, every step our traders take beyond the posts,
is attended at least with some risk and a very heavy expense, which the
Indians must feel as heavily on the purchase of their commodities; all
which considered, is it not reasonable to suppose that they would rather
employ their idle time in quest of a cheap market, than sit down with
such slender returns as they must receive in their own villages?" He
then instances Toronto. "As a proof of which," Sir William continues, "I
shall give one instance concerning Toronto, on the north shore of Lake
Ontario. Notwithstanding the assertion of Major Rogers," Sir William
Johnson says, "that even a single trader would not think it worth
attention to supply a dependent post, yet I have heard traders of long
experience and good circumstances affirm, that for the exclusive trade
of that place, for one season, they would willingly pay L1,000--so
certain were they of a quiet market--from the cheapness at which they
could afford their goods there."
Although after the Conquest the two sides of Lake Ontario and of the St.
Lawrence generally were no longer under different crowns, the previous
rivalry between the two routes, the St. Lawrence and Mohawk river
routes, to the seaboard continued; and it was plainly to the interest of
those who desired the aggrandisement of Albany and New York to the
detriment of Montreal and Quebec, to discourage serious trading
enterprises with Indians on the northern side of the St. Lawrence
waters. We have an example of this spirit in a "Journal of Indian
Transactions at [Fort] Niagara, in the year 1767," published in the
documentary History of New York (ii. 868, 8vo. ed.), in which Toronto is
named, and a great chieftain from that region figures--in one respect,
somewhat discreditably, however. We give the passage of the journal to
which we refer. The document appears to have been drawn up by Norman
M'Leod, an Indian agent, visiting Fort Niagara.
"July 17th, [1767.] Arrived Wabacommegat, chief of the Mississagas. [He
came from Toronto, as we shall presently see.] July 18th. Arrived
Ashenshan, head-warrior of the Senecas, belonging to the Caiadeon
village. This day, Wabacommegat came to speak to me, but was so drunk
that no one could understand him."