When John Graves Simcoe arrived in Canada in 1792, the site of the present city of Toronto was covered by the primeval forest, its only human tenants being two or three families of wandering savages who had happened to select the spot for the erection of their temporary wigwams. One hundred years later we find at that very spot a magnificent city having a population of 250,000 people, a prosperous and enterprising community, possessed of all the comforts and appliances of modern civilisation and refinement,—and, instead of the sombre, impenetrable wilderness, the most wealthy and populous city of Upper Canada, with streets and private dwellings, and public edifices that will compare favourably with those of many other cities which have had centuries for their development. For its rapid rise to its present eminence Toronto is almost exclusively indebted to its admirable commercial position, its advantages in that respect having been appreciated by the far-seeing sagacity of Governor Simcoe, when selecting the site for a capital.
In 1791, when the former province of Quebec was divided into the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, Upper Canada contained about ten thousand inhabitants, chiefly Loyalists, who, as noted elsewhere, when the United States threw off allegiance to Great Britain, sought new hope in the wilds of Canada; where, though deprived of many comforts, they had the satisfaction of feeling that they kept inviolate their loyalty to their sovereign and preserved their connection with the beloved mother country.
In 1792 General Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; and in the summer of that year arrived in the colony. In the first instance the Government was established at Niagara, and there the first Legislature of Upper Canada was convened on the 17th of September, 1792. It was seen, however, that from its position on the frontier, Niagara was not well adapted for being the seat of government, and one of the first subjects which occupied the attention of Governor Simcoe was the selection of another site for a capital. On this point he very soon came into collision with the views of the Governor-General, Lord Dorchester, who was in favour of making Kingston the capital on account of its proximity to Lower Canada which he regarded as a matter of the first importance from a standpoint of trade, and also because of its possibility of defence, as, in the event of an invasion, troops from Lower Canada could be more easily forwarded to Kingston than to a more westerly point. Governor Simcoe, however, had visited Toronto Harbour, and had traversed the route thence to Penetanguishene on the Georgian Bay. He perceived that that was the most advantageous route for the then existing North-west trade,—the vast development of which since his time he may have dimly foreseen—and that so soon as a road was opened up to Lake Simcoe (then Lacaux Claics) merchandise from New York for the North-west, would be sent by Oswego to Toronto, and then via Lake Simcoe to Lake Huron, avoiding the circuitous passage of Lake Erie. Finally the Lieutenant-Governor's views prevailed, and the site of a town having been surveyed on the margin of Toronto Bay, his first step thereafter was to commence the construction of a road (Yonge Street) to Lake Simcoe. In recent years the idea which thus originated with the first governor has been completely carried out until to-day Toronto is, with Montreal, the chief railway centre and the second city of the Dominion. How long ere it will outrank its rival?
"York Harbor."
A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.
The very next year after his assumption of the government of Upper Canada General Simcoe ordered the survey of Toronto Harbour, and entrusted the task to Colonel Bouchette, the Surveyor-General of Lower Canada, who gives us our first historical glimpse of Toronto a hundred years ago, or so, in the following passage:
It fell to my lot to make the first survey of York Harbour in 1793. Lieutenant-Governor, the late General Simcoe, who then resided at Navy Hall, Niagara, having formed extensive plans for the improvement of the colony, had resolved upon laying the foundation 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. 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 Missassagas—and the Bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of the wild fowl; indeed they were so abundant as in some measure to annoy us during the night. In the spring following, the Lieutenant-Governor removed to the site of the new capital, attended by the regiment of Queen's Rangers and commenced at once the realisation of his favourite project. His Excellency inhabited, during the summer and through the winter, a canvas house which he imported expressly for the occasion, but, frail as was its substance, it was rendered exceedingly comfortable, and soon became as distinguished for the social and urbane hospitality of its venerated and gracious host, as for the peculiarity of its structure.
Governor Simcoe gave the name of York to the capital he had selected, and the rivers on either side received the names of the Don and Humber. His own residence he built at the brow of the hill overlooking the valley of the Don, at the junction of what was a few generations later Saint James Cemetery with the property of F. Cayley, Esq., calling it "Castle Frank," the name which the property still retains.
While the gubernatorial residence was being erected Governor Simcoe returned to Niagara, where he opened the third session of the Upper Canada Parliament on June 20, 1794. In the fall of that year, orders were given for the construction of Parliament buildings at York on a site at the foot of what in 1857 was Parliament Street, adjoining the place where the "gaol stands." In 1795 the Duc de Rochefoucauld was in Upper Canada, and in his published Travels alludes to a visit paid to York by some of his companions: