Part 52

The _Bee_, which conveyed Mr. Galt when on his voyage of exploration along the western coast of Lake Huron, was sold by public auction in 1832. In that year the first great reduction of the naval and military establishment at Penetanguishene took place. Step by step the process went on until the ancient depot was finally extinguished; and in 1859 the stone barracks were converted into a Public Reformatory.

The enumeration of the stores disposed of by public vendue, on Thursday, the 15th of March, 1830, and six following days, at Penetanguishene, will not be without pathos. At all events, those who have, at any time, made boats and the appurtenances of boats one of their hobbies, will not dislike to read the homely names of the articles then brought to the hammer.

(It will be observed that no mention is made of a certain memorable anchor laboriously dragged from York as far as the Landing _en route_ to Penetanguishene, but taken no further, becoming, when half embedded in the earth there, an object of perpetual wonderment to beholders: a thing too ponderous to be conveniently handled and removed by an ordinary purchaser, let the amount paid for it be ever so trifling.)

The following, then, were the miscellaneous articles belonging to the Crown advertised to be sold to the highest bidder on the 15th and following days of March, 1832, at Penetanguishene, and so, we may conclude, disposed of accordingly:--The _Tecumseh_, schooner, 175 tons. The _Newash_, brigantine, 175 tons. The _Bee_, gunboat, 41 tons. The _Mosquito_, gunboat, 31 tons. The _Wasp_, gunboat, 41 tons. Batteaux, three in number. Thirty-two feet cutter. Two thirty-two feet gigs and their furniture. One whale boat One jolly boat. One nineteen feet gig. Twenty-two pounds old bunting. Canvas, mildewed slightly, 366 yards. Canvas, of all sorts, cut from frigate sails, 2170 yards. Old canvas, 491 yards. Packing cases, 23. Iron casks, 12. Iron bound casks, 8. Wood bound casks, 24. Chests, common, 2. Chests, top, 2. Cordage, worn, 988 fathoms. Cordage, in rounding, 318 fathoms. Cordage, in junk, 28 cwt. 20 lbs. Cordage, in paper stuff, 1 cwt. 3 qrs. 1 lb. Covers, hammock, 5. Iron, old wrought, 12 cwt. 3 qrs. 161/2 lbs. Rigging, brigantine, standing, complete, 1 set. Running, in part, 1 set. Rigging, schooner, standing and running, complete, 1 set. Rigging, Durham boats, standing and running, in part, 2 sets.--Rigging, boats, standing, worn, 1 set. Sails for a 32 gun ship, 1 set brigantine sails, 1 set schooner sails, 1 set Durham boat sails, 18 in number; boat sails 18 in number; unserviceable stores. Axes, felling, 8. Bellows, camp forge, 2 pairs. Blocks, single, 11 inch, 1. Blocks, double, 10 inch, 1. Brushes, tar, 15. Buckets, leather, 14. Chisels, of sorts, 12. Compass glasses, 1. Cordage, 552 fathoms. Glass, broken, 16 panes. Hammocks, 16. Locks, stock, 1. Mallet, caulking, 1. Oars, fir, 7. Paint, white, 1 qr. 2 lbs. Paint, yellow, 2 qrs. 18 lbs. Planes, 10 in number. Punts, boats, 1. Saws, crosscut, 5; Saws, hand, 6; Saws, dove-tail, 1; Saws, rip, 3. Spout for pump, 1. Sweeps, 4. Shovels, 9. Twine, fine, 31/2 lbs. Twine, ordinary, 171/4 lbs. Seines, 1.

The document which supplies us with the foregoing list announces that, "the stores will be put up in convenient lots, and that a deposit of 25 per cent. will be required at the time of sale, and the remainder of the purchase money previous to the removal of the articles, for which a reasonable time will be allowed." The whole is signed--Wm. Henry Woodin, Lieutenant commanding, June 18th, 1832.

We here bring to a close our Collections and Recollections in regard to Yonge Street. That our narrative might be the more complete, we have given a notice of the ancient terminus of that great thoroughfare, on Lake Huron. It will be seen that in Penetanguishene and its environs, Toronto has a place and a neighbourhood at the north abounding with interesting memories almost as richly as Niagara itself and that vicinity, at its south: memories intimately associated with its own history, not alone before the present century began, but also before even the preceding century began, that is, taking into view the local history of this part of Canada prior to the acquisition of the country by the English.

From remote Penetanguishene, dismantled and abolished in a naval and military sense, our thoughts naturally turn to more conspicuous places that have in our day successively undergone the same process: to Kingston, to Niagara, to Montreal, to our own fort, here at Toronto, and finally, in 1871, to Quebec. The 8th of November, 1871, will be a date noted in future histories. On that day the Ehrenbreitstein of the St. Lawrence, symbol for a hundred years and more, of British power on the northern half of the North American continent, was voluntarily evacuated, in accordance with a deliberate public policy.

The 60th Regiment, it is singular to add, which on the 8th of November, 1871, marched forth from the gates of the citadel of Quebec, was a regiment that was present on the heights of Abraham in 1759, and helped to capture the fortress which it now peacefully surrendered.

Is the day approaching when artistic tourists will be seen sketching, at Point Levi, the bold Rock in front of them for the sake of the ruins at its summit, not picturesque probably, but for ever famed in story?

XXIX.

THE HARBOUR: ITS MARINE, 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 classic passage. 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 glassy surface. The wandering savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage--the group then consisting of two families of Mississagas,--and the bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys of wild fowl. Indeed, they were so abundant," he adds, "as in some measure to annoy us during the night." The passage is to be found in a note at p. 89 of volume 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 passage (from Kingston) of thirty-six hours." (The following gentlemen, it is noted, came passengers:--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 Saturday night. And on Monday also arrived from Kingston the _Onondago_, in twenty-three hours."

Joseph Bouchette in 1793 must have been under twenty years of age. He was born in 1774. He was the son of Commodore Bouchette, who in 1793 had command of the Naval Force on Lake Ontario. When Joseph Bouchette first entered the harbour of Toronto, as described above, he was not without associates. He was probably one of an exploring party which set out from Niagara in May, 1793. It would appear that the Governor himself paid his first visit to the intended site of the capital of his young province on the same occasion.

In the _Gazette_ of Thursday, May 9th 1793, published at Newark or Niagara, we have the following record:--"On Thursday last (this would be May the 3rd) his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, accompanied by several military gentlemen, set out in boats for Toronto, round the Head of the Lake Ontario, by Burlington Bay; and in the evening his Majesty's vessels the _Caldwell_ and _Buffalo_, sailed for the same place." Supposing the boats which proceeded round the Head of the Lake to have arrived at the cleared spot where the French stockaded trading-post of Toronto had stood, on Saturday, the 4th, the inspection of the harbour and its 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 arsenal 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 assistance therein, and upon minute investigation I found it to be, without comparison, the most proper situation for an arsenal, in every extent of that word, that can be met with in this Province."

The words, "now York," appended here and in later documents to "Toronto," show that an official change of name had taken place. The alteration was made between the 15th and 31st of May. No proclamation, however, announcing its change, is to be found either in the local _Gazette_ or in the archives at Ottawa.

Nor is there any allusion to the contemplated works at York either in the opening or closing speech delivered by the Governor to the houses of parliament, which met at Niagara for their second session on the 28th of May, and were dismissed to their homes again on the 9th of the following July. We may suppose the minds of the members and other persons of influence otherwise prepared for the coming changes, chiefly perhaps by means of friendly conferences.

The Governor's scheme may, for example, have been one of the topics of conversation at the 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 Massachusetts Historical Collections, Gen. Lincoln made the following note of the Governor's entertainment at Niagara:--"The ball," he says, "was attended by about twenty well-dressed and handsome ladies, and about three times that number of gentlemen. They danced," he records, "from seven o'clock till eleven, when supper was announced, and served in very pretty taste. The music and dancing," it is added, "was good, and everything was conducted with propriety." This 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 arsenal and strong military post. Accordingly, having thus sent forward two divisions of the regiment whose name is so intimately associated with his own, to be a guard to receive him on his own arrival, and to be otherwise usefully employed, we find the Governor himself 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 establishing themselves under canvas on the grassy glade where formerly stood the old French trading-post. We can imagine them landing stores--a few cannon and some other munitions of war--from the ships; landing the parts and appurtenances of the famous canvas-house which the Governor had provided for the shelter of himself and his family, and which, as we have before noted, was originally constructed for the use of Captain Cook in one of the scientific expeditions commanded by that celebrated circumnavigator.

The canvas-house must have been a pavilion of considerable capacity, and was doubtless pitched and fixed with particular care by the soldiers and others, wherever its precise situation was determined. It was, as it were, the 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, shifted to one of the knolls overlooking the little stream known subsequently as the Garrison creek; and shifted again, at another visit, to a position still farther east, where a second small stream meandered between steep banks into the Bay, at the point where a Government ship-building yard was in after years established. (Tradition places the canvas-house on several sites.)

We can conceive, too, all hands, sailors as well as soldiers, busy in opening eastward through the woods along the shore, a path that should be more respectable and more useful for military and civil purposes than the Indian trail which they would already find there, leading directly to the quarter where, at the farther end of the Bay, the town-plot was designed to be laid out, and the Government buildings were intended to be erected.

On the 8th of August we know the Governor was engaged at York in writing to the Indian Chief Brant, from whom a runner has just arrived all the way from the entrance to the Detroit river. Brant, finding the conference between his compatriots and the United States authorities likely to end unsatisfactorily, sent to solicit Governor Simcoe's interposition, especially in regard to the boundary line which the Indians of the West insisted on--the Ohio river. Thus runs the Governor's reply, written at York on the 8th:--"Since the Government of the United States," he says, "have shown a disinclination to concur with the Indian nations in requesting of his Majesty permission for me to attend at Sandusky as mediator, it would be highly improper and unreasonable in me to give an opinion relative to the proposed boundaries, with which I am not sufficiently acquainted, and which question I have studiously avoided entering into, as I am well aware of the jealousies entertained by some of the subjects of the United States of the interference of the British Government, which has a natural and decided interest in the welfare of the Indian nations, and in the establishment of peace and permanent tranquillity. In this situation, I am sure you will excuse me from giving to you any advice, which, from my absence from the spot, cannot possibly arise from that perfect view and knowledge which so important a subject necessarily demands."

The controversy in the West, in relation to which the Governor is thus cautiously expressing himself to the Indian Chief on the 8th of August, was a subject for cabinet consideration; a matter only for the few. But towards the close of the month, news from a different quarter--from the outer world of the far European East--reached the infant York, suitable to be divulged to the many and turned to public account. It was known that hostilities were going on between the allied forces of Europe and the armies of 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 shipping in the Harbour, in respect to His Royal Highness and in commemoration of the naming this Harbour from his English title, York. E. B. Littlehales, Major of Brigade."

These orders, we are to presume, were punctually obeyed; and we are inclined to think that the running up of the Union Flag at noon on Tuesday, the 27th day of August, and the salutes which 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.