Chapter XII
[Toronto]
It is believed that the word Toronto is of Huron origin, and that it signified "Place of Meeting." This has been contested; in any case it should be spelled To-ron-tah. The word is also interpreted as "Oak Trees beside the Lake," a derivation rather divergent from the above version and we must leave this to the learned etymologists.
Glancing over maps of the middle of the eighteenth century designed after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), we see the names of many forts and posts intended to keep up "the communications" between Canada and Louisiana, and overawe the English colonies then confined to their narrow strip of territory on the Atlantic coast. Conscious of the mistake that they had made in giving up Acadia, the French at this moment claimed that its "ancient limits" did not extend beyond the isthmus of Chignecto—in other words, included Nova Scotia. Accordingly they proceeded to construct the forts of Gaspereau and Beauséjour on that neck of land, and also one on the St. John River, so that they might control the land and sea approaches to Cape Breton from the St. Lawrence, where Quebec, enthroned on her picturesque heights, and Montreal at the confluence of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, held the keys to Canada. The approaches from New England by the way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu were defended by the fort of St. John, near the northern extremity of the lake, and by the more formidable works known as Fort Frederick or Crown Point—to give the better known English name—on a peninsula at the narrows towards the South. The latter was the most advanced post of the French until they built Fort Ticonderoga or Carillon on a high, rocky promontory at the head of Lake St. Sacrament. At the foot of this lake, associated with so many memorable episodes in American history, Sir William Johnson erected Fort William Henry, about fourteen miles from Fort Edward or Layman, at the great carrying place on the upper waters of the Hudson. Returning to the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, we find Fort Frontenac at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, where the old city of Kingston now stands.
Within the limits of the present city of Toronto, La Gallissonière then built Fort Rouille[38] as an attempt to control the trade of the Indians of the North, who were finding their way to the English fort of Oswego which had been commenced with the consent of the Iroquois by Governor Burnet of New York, and was now a menace to the French dominion of Lake Ontario. At the other extremity lay Fort Niagara. When the French were establishing this chain of forts or posts through the West and down the Mississippi valley Fort Rouille was founded on a site even then commonly called "Fort Toronto." It does not seem ever to have been a dominant strategic point; the probabilities are there was no force stationed here worth mentioning and, possibly, it was a mere dependency of Fort Niagara. It was destroyed in 1756 to prevent its fall into the hands of the English.
Little is known about the region of Toronto prior to Revolutionary times save the above records. It was untrodden wilderness. But when the fort was erected here the district in a general sense appears to have been known as "Toronto." Under French dominion it was a royal trading post and in the course of time the name attached itself to the fort and village at the neighbouring bay, which have grown to be the beautiful Capital City of Ontario. But the Toronto of the river Don and the great bay is strictly of English origin, and had for its Romulus Lieutenant-General Simcoe (1752-1806), first governor of Upper Canada.
