The Walter O'Hara whom we here have Landor speaking of as "a sensible man and excellent officer" is the Col. O'Hara at whose homestead, on a portion of the Hallowell park-lot, we have arrived, and whose name is one of our household words. Colonel O'Hara built on this spot in 1831, at which date the surrounding region was in a state of nature. The area cleared for the reception of the still existing spacious residence, with its lawn, garden and orchards, remained for a number of years an oasis in the midst of a grand forest. A brief memorandum which we are enabled to give from his own pen of the Peninsular portion of his military career, will be here in place, and will be deemed of interest.
"I joined," he says, "the Peninsular army in the year 1811, having obtained leave of absence from my British Regiment quartered at Canterbury, for the purpose of volunteering into the Portuguese army, then commanded by Lord Beresford. I remained in that force until the end of the war, and witnessed all the varieties of service during that interesting period, during which time I was twice wounded, and once fell into the hands of a brave and generous enemy."
From 1831 Col. O'Hara held the post of Adjutant-General in Upper Canada. His contemporaries will always think of him as a chivalrous, high-spirited, warm-hearted gentleman; and in our annals hereafter he will be named among the friends of Canadian progress, at a period when enlightened ideas in regard to government and social life, derived from a wide intercourse with man in large and ancient communities, were, amongst us, considerably misunderstood.
After passing the long range of suburban properties on which we have been annotating, the continuation, in a right line westward, of Lot Street, used to be known as the Lake Shore Road. This Lake Shore Road, after passing the dugway, or steep descent to the sands that form the margin of the Lake, first skirted the graceful curve of Humber Bay, and then followed the irregular line of the shore all the way to the head of the Lake. It was a mere track, representing, doubtless, a trail trodden by the aborigines from time immemorial.
So late as 1813 all that could be said of the region traversed by the Lake Shore Road was the following, which we read in the "Topographical Description of Upper Canada," issued in London in that year, under the authority of Governor Gore:—"Further to the westward (i. e. of the river Humber)," we are told, "the Etobicoke, the Credit, and two other rivers, with a great many smaller streams, join the main waters of the Lake; they all abound in fish, particularly salmon......the Credit is the most noted; here is a small house of entertainment for passengers. The tract between the Etobicoke and the head of the Lake," the Topographical Description then goes on to say, "is frequented only by wandering tribes of Mississaguas."
"At the head of Lake Ontario," we are then told, "there is a smaller Lake, within a long beach, of about five miles, from whence there is an outlet to Lake Ontario, over which there is a bridge. At the south end of the beach," it is added, "is the King's Head, a good inn, erected for the accommodation of travellers, by order of his Excellency Major-General Simcoe, the Lieutenant-Governor. It is beautifully situated at a small portage which leads from the head of a natural canal connecting Burlington Bay with Lake Ontario, and is a good landmark. Burlington Bay," it is then rather boldly asserted, "is perhaps as beautiful and romantic a situation as any in interior America, particularly if we include with it a marshy lake which falls into it, and a noble promontory that divides them. This lake is called Coote's Paradise, and abounds with game." (Coote's Paradise had its name from Capt. Coote, of the 8th, a keen sportsman.)
As to "the wandering tribes of Mississaguas," who in 1813 were still the only noticeable human beings west of the Etobicoke, they were in fact a portion of the great Otchibway nation. From time to time, previous and subsequent to 1813, and for pecuniary considerations of various amounts they surrendered to the local Government their nominal right over the regions which they still occupied in a scattered way. In 1792 they surrendered 3,000,000 acres, commencing four miles west of Mississagua point, at the mouth of the river Niagara for the sum of £1,180 7s. 4d. On the 8th of August, 1797, they surrendered 3,450 acres in Burlington Bay for the sum of £65 2s. 6d. On the 6th September, 1806, 85,000 acres, commencing on the east bank of the Etobicoke river, brought them £1,000 5s. On the 28th of October, 1818, "the Mississagua tract Home District," consisting of 648,000 acres, went for the respectable sum of £8,500. On the 8th of February, 1820, 2,000 acres, east of the Credit reserve, brought in £50.
All circumstances at the respective dates considered, the values received for the tracts surrendered as thus duly enumerated may, by possibility, have been reasonable. Lord Carteret, it is stated, proposed to sell all New Jersey for £5,000, 150 years ago. But there remains one transfer from Mississaga to White ownership to be noticed, for which the equivalent, sometimes alleged to have been accepted, excites surprise. On the 1st of August, 1805, a Report of the Indian Department informs us, the "Toronto Purchase" was made, comprising 250,880 acres, and stretching eastward to the Scarboro' Heights; and the consideration accepted therefor was the sum of ten shillings. Two dollars for the site of Toronto and its suburbs, with an area extending eastward to Scarboro' heights. The explanation, however, is this, which we gather from a manuscript volume of certified copies of early Indian treaties, furnished by William L. Baby, Esq., of Sandwich. The Toronto purchase was really effected in 1787, by Sir John Johnson, at the Bay of Quinté Carrying-place; and "divers good and valuable considerations," not specified, were received by the Mississagas on the occasion. But the document testifying to the transfer was imperfect. The deed of August 1, 1805, was simply confirmatory, and the sum named as the consideration was merely nominal.
On the early map from which we have been taking the names of the first locatees of the range of park-lots extending along Queen Street from Parliament Street to Humber Bay, we observe the easternmost limit of the "Toronto Purchase" conspicuously marked by a curved line drawn northwards from the water's edge near the commencement of the spit of land which used to fence off Ashbridge's Bay and Toronto Harbour from the lake.