XXIX.
THE HARBOUR: ITS MARINE, 1793-99.
he first formal survey of the harbour of Toronto was made by Joseph Bouchette in 1793. His description of the bay and its surroundings at that date is, with the historians of Upper Canada, a classic passage. For the completeness of our narrative it must be produced once more. "It fell to my lot," says Bouchette, "to make the first survey of York Harbour in 1793." And he explains how this happened. "Lieutenant-Governor, the late Gen. Simcoe, who then resided at Navy Hall, Niagara, having," he says, "formed extensive plans for the improvement of the colony, had resolved upon laying the foundations 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."
He then thus proceeds, writing, we may observe, in 1831: "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 Mississagas,—and the bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys of wild fowl. Indeed, they were so abundant," he adds, "as in some measure to annoy us during the night." The passage is to be found in a note at p. 89 of volume one of the quarto edition of "The British Dominions in North America," published in London in 1831.
The winter of 1792-3 was in Upper Canada a favourable one for explorers. "We have had a remarkably mild winter," says the Gazette in its first number, dated April 18, 1793; "the thermometer in the severest time has not been lower than nine degrees above zero, by Fahrenheit's scale. Lake Erie has not been frozen over, and there has been very little ice on Lake Ontario." The same paper informs us that "his Majesty's sloop, the Caldwell, sailed the 5th instant (April), from Niagara, for fort Ontario (Oswego) and Kingston." Also that "on Monday evening (13th) there arrived in the river (at Niagara) his Majesty's armed schooner, the Onondago, in company with the Lady Dorchester, merchantman, after an agreeable passage (from Kingston) of thirty-six hours." (The following gentlemen, it is noted, came passengers:—J. Small, Esq., Clerk of the Executive Council; Lieut.-McCan, of the 60th regiment; Capt. Thos. Fraser, Mr. J. Denison, Mr. Joseph Forsyth, merchant, Mr. L. Crawford, Capt. Archibald Macdonald,—Hathaway.)
Again, on May 2nd, the information is given that "on Sunday morning early, his Majesty's sloop Caldwell arrived here (Niagara) from Kingston, which place she left on Thursday; but was obliged to anchor off the bar of this river part of Saturday night. And on Monday also arrived from Kingston the Onondago, in twenty-three hours."