"Wabacommegat replied: 'Father, we have heard you with attention. I think it was very wrong in the people to kill Captain Grant's cattle. I shall discover the men that did it, and will bring them in here in the fall. We will allow no more trade to be carried on at Toronto. As to myself, it is well known I don't approve of it, as I went with the interpreter to bring in those that were trading at that place. We go away this day, and hope our father will give us some provisions, rum, powder and shot, and we will bring you venison when we return.' I replied, it was not in my power to give them much, but as it was the first time I had the pleasure of speaking to them, they should have a little of what they wanted."
In the January previous to the conference, two traders had been arrested at Toronto. Sir William Johnson, in a letter to Gen. Gage, writes thus, under date of January 12, 1767. "Capt. Browne writes me that he has, at the request of Commissary Roberts, caused two traders to be apprehended at Toronto, where they were trading contrary to authority. I hope Lieut.-Gov. Carleton," Sir William continues, "will, agreeable to the declaration in one of his letters, have them prosecuted and punished as an example to the rest. I am informed that there are several more from Canada trading with the Indians on the north side of Lake Ontario, and up along the rivers in that quarter, which, if not prevented, must entirely ruin the fair trader." In these extracts from the correspondence of Sir William Johnson, and from the Journal of transactions at Fort Niagara, in 1767, we are admitted, as we suspect, to a true view of the status of Toronto as a trading-post for a series of years after the conquest. It was, as we conceive, a place where a good deal of forestalling of the regular markets went on. Trappers and traders, acting without license, made such bargains as they could with individuals among the native bands frequenting the spot at particular seasons of the year. We do not suppose that any store-houses for the deposit of goods or peltries were maintained here after the conquest. In a MS. map, which we have seen, of about the date 1793, the site of the old Fort Rouillé is marked by a group of wigwams of the usual pointed shape, with the inscription appended, "Toronto, an Indian village now deserted."
1788.
In 1788 Toronto harbour was well and minutely described by J. Collins, Deputy Surveyor General, in a Report presented to Lord Dorchester, Governor-General, on the Military Posts and Harbours on Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron. "The Harbour of Toronto," Mr. Collins says, "is near two miles in length from the entrance on the west to the isthmus between it and a large morass on the eastward. The breadth of the entrance is about half a mile, but the navigable channel for vessels is only about 500 yards, having from three to three and a half fathoms water. The north or main shore, the whole length of the harbour, is a clay bank from twelve to twenty feet high, and rising gradually behind, apparently good land, and fit for settlement. The water is rather shoal near the shore, having but one fathom depth at one hundred yards distance, two fathoms at two hundred yards; and when I sounded here, the waters of the Lake were very high. There is good and safe anchorage everywhere within the harbour, being either a soft or sandy bottom. The south shore is composed of a great number of sandhills and ridges, intersected with swamps and small creeks. It is of unequal breadths, being from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide across from the harbour to the lake, and runs in length to the east five or six miles. Through the middle of the isthmus before mentioned, or rather near the north shore, is a channel with two fathoms water, and in the morass there are other channels from one to two fathoms deep. From what has been said," Mr. Collins proceeds to observe, "it will appear that the harbour of Toronto is capacious, safe and well sheltered; but the entrance being from the westward is a great disadvantage to it, as the prevailing winds are from that quarter; and as this is a fair wind from hence down the Lake, of course it is that which vessels in general would take their departure from; but they may frequently find it difficult to get out of the harbour. The shoalness of the north shore, as before remarked, is also disadvantageous as to erecting wharfs, quays, &c. In regard to this place as a military post," Mr. Collins reports, "I do not see any very striking features to recommend it in that view; but the best situation to occupy for the purpose of protecting the settlement and harbour would, I conceive, be on the point and near the entrance thereof." (The knoll which subsequently became the site of the Garrison of York, is probably intended. Gibraltar point, on the opposite side of the entrance, where a block house was afterwards built, may also be glanced at.)
The history of the site of Fort Toronto would probably have differed from what it has been, and the town developed there would, perhaps, have assumed at its outset a French rather than an English aspect, had the expectations of three Lower Canadian gentlemen, in 1791, been completely fulfilled. Under date of "Surveyor General's Office [Quebec], 10th June, 1791," Mr. Collins, Deputy Surveyor-General, writes to Mr. Augustus Jones, an eminent Deputy Provincial Surveyor, of whom we shall hear repeatedly, that "His Excellency, Lord Dorchester, has been pleased to order one thousand acres of land to be laid out at Toronto for Mr. Rocheblave; and for Captain Lajorée, and for Captain Bouchette seven hundred acres each, at the same place, which please to lay out accordingly," Mr. Collins says, "and report the same to this office with all convenient speed."
We may suppose that these three French gentlemen became early aware of the spot likely to be selected for the capital of the contemplated Province of Upper Canada, and foresaw the advantages that might accrue from the possession of some broad acres there. Unluckily for them, however, delay occurred in the execution of Lord Dorchester's order; and in the meantime, the new Province was duly constituted, with a government and land-granting department of its own; and, under date of "Nassau [Niagara], June 15, 1792," Mr. Augustus Jones, writing to Mr. Collins, refers to his former communication in the following terms:—"Your order of the 10th of June, 1791, for lands at Toronto, in favour of Mr. Rocheblave and others, I only received the other day; and as the members of the Land Board think their power dissolved by our Governor's late Proclamation relative to granting of Lands in Upper Canada, they recommend it to me to postpone doing anything in respect of such order until I may receive some further instructions."
We hear no more of the order. Had M. Rocheblave, Captain Lajorée and Captain Bouchette become legally seized of the lands assigned them at Toronto by Lord Dorchester, the occupants of building-lots in York, instead of holding in fee simple, would probably have been burdened for many a year with some vexatious recognitions of quasi-seignorial rights.
On Holland's great MS. map of the Province of Quebec, made in 1791, and preserved in the Crown Lands Department of Ontario, the indentation in front of the mouth of the modern Humber river is entitled "Toronto Bay"; the sheet of water between the peninsula and the mainland is not named: but the peninsula itself is marked "Presqu'isle, Toronto;" and an extensive rectangular tract, bounded on the south by "Toronto Bay" and the waters within the peninsula, is inscribed "Toronto." In Mr. Chewett's MS. Journal, we have, under date of Quebec, April 22, 1792, the following entry: "Received from Gov. Simcoe a Plan of Points Henry and Frederick, to have a title page put to them: also a plan of the Town and township of Toronto, and to know whether it was ever laid out." We gather from this that sometime prior to Governor Simcoe's arrival, it had been in contemplation to establish a town at Toronto.
The name Toronto pleased the ear and took the fancy of sentimental writers. We have it introduced by an author of this class, in a work, entitled "Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie et dans l'Etat de New York, par un Membre adoptif de la nation Oneida;" published at Paris in 1801, but written prior to 1799, as it is inscribed to Washington. The author describes a Council pretended to be held at Onondaga, where chiefs and sachems speak. They discourse of the misery of man, of death, of the ravages of the small-pox. Siasconcet, one of the sages, relates his interview with Kahawabash, who had lost his wife and all his friends by the prevailing malady. Siasconcet exhorts him to suffer in silence like a wise man. Kahawabash replies, "Siasconcet! n'as-tu pas souvent entendu les cris plaintifs de l'ours, dont la compagne avoit été tuée? N'as-tu pas souvent vu couler les larmes des yeux du castor qui avait perdu sa femelle ou ses petits? Eh bien! moi, suis-je inférieur à l'ours ou au castor? Non: je suis homme, aussi bon chasseur, aussi brave guerrier que tes sachems: comment empêcher l'arc de s'étendre quand la corde casse? La cime du chêne ou la tige du roseau de ployer, quand l'orage éclate? Lorsque le corps est blessé, Siasconcet, il en découle du sang; quand le coeur est navré, il en découle des larmes: voilà ce que je dirai à tes vieillards; je verrai ce qu'ils me répondront."
In the reply of Siasconcet, we have the reference to Toronto to which we have alluded, and which somewhat startled us when we suddenly lighted upon it in the work above-named. "Eh, bien!" Siasconcet said: "eh, bien! Kahawabash, pleure sous mon toît, puisque ton bon génie le veut, et pour plaire au mauvais, que tes yeux soient secs quand tu seras au feu d'Onondaga." "Que faut-il donc faire sur la terre," rejoined Kahawabash, "puisque l'un veut ce que l'autre ne veut pas?" "Que faut-il faire?" answered Siasconcet, "considérer la vie comme un passage de Toronto à Niagara. Que de difficultés n'éprouvons-pas nous pour doubler les caps, pour sortir des baies dans lesquelles les vents nous forçent d'entrer? Que de chances contre d'aussi frêles canots que les nôtres? Il faut cependant prendre le temps et les choses comme ils viennent, puisque nous ne pouvons pas les choisir; il faut nourrir, aimer sa femme et ses enfans, respecter sa tribu et sa nation; jouir du bien quand il nous écheoit; supporter le mal avec courage et patience; chasser et pêcher quand on a faim, se reposer et fumer quand on est las; s'attendre à rencontrer le malheur puisque on est né; se réjouir quand il ne vient pas; se considérer comme des oiseaux perchés pour la nuit sur la branche d'un arbre, et qui, au point du jour, s'envolent et disparaissent pour toujours."