Familiar with the modern two-hours' pleasure-trip from Toronto to Niagara, we were, for the moment unprepared for the philosophic sachem's illustration of the changes and chances of mortal life. We forgot what an undertaking that journey was in the days of the primitive birch canoe, when in order to accomplish the passage, the whole of the western portion of Lake Ontario, was wont to be cautiously and laboriously coasted.
The real name of the author of the "Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie" was Saint-Jean de Crèvecoeur.
To the narrative just given is appended information, which, if superfluous, will nevertheless be read locally now, with some curiosity. The note explains that Toronto and Niagara, are "postes considérables de l'Ontario: le premier, situé à l'ouest de ce lac, est formé par une baie profonde et commode, où le Gouvernement Anglais a fait construire un chantier, et une ville à laquelle on a donné le nom d'York; le second, situé au sud-ouest, est formé par l'embouchure de la rivière Niagara, à l'est de laquelle est la forteresse du même nom, et à l'ouest la pointe des Missisagués, sur laquelle on construit une nouvelle ville, destinée à être la capitale du Haut Canada."
The annotator speaks, we see, of the town on Mississaga point and the other new town on the opposite side of the lake in the same terms: both are in process of construction; and the town on Mississaga point, he still thinks is destined to be the capital of Upper Canada.
1796.
The language of the note recalls the agitation in the public mind at Niagara in 1796, on the subject of the seat of Government for Upper Canada—a question that has since agitated Canada in several of its sub-sections. The people of Niagara in 1796, being in possession, naturally thought that the distinction ought to continue with them. Governor Simcoe had ordered the removal of the public offices to the infant York: there to abide, however, only temporarily, until the West should be peopled, and a second London built, on a Canadian Thames. Lord Dorchester, the Governor-in-Chief, at Quebec, held that Kingston ought to have been preferred, but that place, like Niagara, was, it was urged, too near the frontier in case of war. In 1796, Governor Simcoe had withdrawn from the country, and the people of Niagara entertained hopes that the order for removal might still be revoked. The policy of the late Governor, however, continued to be carried out.
1793.
Three years previously, viz., in 1793, the site of the trading post known as Toronto had been occupied by the troops drawn from Niagara and Queenston. At noon on the 27th of August in 1793, the first royal salute had been fired from the garrison there, and responded to by the shipping in the harbour, in commemoration of the change of name from Toronto to York—a change intended to please the old king, George III., through a compliment offered to his soldier son, Frederick, Duke of York.
For some time after 1793, official letters and other contemporary records exhibit in their references to the new site, the expressions, "Toronto, now York," and "York, late Toronto."
1795.