Part 2

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 Denonville was superseded as his predecessor de la Barre had been.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.]