Soon after the prorogation, July the 9th, steps preparatory to a removal to York began to be taken. Troops, for example, were transported across to the north side of the Lake. "A few days ago," says the Gazette of Thursday, August the 1st, 1793, "the first Division of his Majesty's Corps of Queen's Rangers left Queenston for Toronto—now York [it is carefully added], and proceeded in batteaux round the head of the Lake Ontario, by Burlington Bay. And shortly afterwards another division of the same regiment sailed in the King's vessels, the Onondago and Caldwell, for the same place."
It is evident the Governor, as he expressed himself to Gen. Clarke, in the letter of May 31, is about "immediately to occupy" the site which seemed to him so eligible for an arsenal and strong military post. Accordingly, having thus sent forward two divisions of the regiment whose name is so intimately associated with his own, to be a guard to receive him on his own arrival, and to be otherwise usefully employed, we find the Governor himself embarking for the same spot. "On Monday evening [this would be Monday, the 29th of July]," the Gazette just quoted informs us, "his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor left Navy Hall and embarked on board his Majesty's schooner, the Mississaga, which sailed immediately with a favourable gale for York, with the remainder of the Queen's Rangers."—On the following morning, July 30, 1793, they would, with the aid of the "favourable gale," be at anchor in the harbour of York.
Major Littlehales, the Governor's faithful secretary, remains behind until the following Thursday, August the 1st, engaged probably in arranging household matters for the Governor, an absence from Navy Hall of some duration being contemplated. He then crosses the Lake in the Caldwell, and joins his Chief. At the same time start Chief Justice Osgoode and Mr. Attorney-General White for the East, to hold the circuit. "On Thursday evening, the 1st instant," says the Gazette of the 8th of August, "his Majesty's armed vessels the Onondago and the Caldwell sailed from this place (Niagara). The former, for Kingston, had on board the Hon. William Osgoode, Chief Justice of this Province, and John White, Esq., Attorney General, who are going to hold the circuits at Kingston and Johnstown. Major Littlehales sailed in the latter, for York, to join his Excellency's suite."
We should have been glad of a minute account of each day's proceedings on the landing of the troops at York, and the arrival there of the Governor and his suite. But we can readily imagine the Rangers establishing themselves under canvas on the grassy glade where formerly stood the old French trading-post. We can imagine them landing stores—a few cannon and some other munitions of war—from the ships; landing the parts and appurtenances of the famous canvas-house which the Governor had provided for the shelter of himself and his family, and which, as we have before noted, was originally constructed for the use of Captain Cook in one of the scientific expeditions commanded by that celebrated circumnavigator.
The canvas-house must have been a pavilion of considerable capacity, and was doubtless pitched and fixed with particular care by the soldiers and others, wherever its precise situation was determined. It was, as it were, the prætorium of the camp, but moveable. We can conceive of it as being set down, in the first instance, on the site of the French fort, and then at a later period, or on the occasion of a later visit to York, shifted to one of the knolls overlooking the little stream known subsequently as the Garrison creek; and shifted again, at another visit, to a position still farther east, where a second small stream meandered between steep banks into the Bay, at the point where a Government ship-building yard was in after years established. (Tradition places the canvas-house on several sites.)
We can conceive, too, all hands, sailors as well as soldiers, busy in opening eastward through the woods along the shore, a path that should be more respectable and more useful for military and civil purposes than the Indian trail which they would already find there, leading directly to the quarter where, at the farther end of the Bay, the town-plot was designed to be laid out, and the Government buildings were intended to be erected.
On the 8th of August we know the Governor was engaged at York in writing to the Indian Chief Brant, from whom a runner has just arrived all the way from the entrance to the Detroit river. Brant, finding the conference between his compatriots and the United States authorities likely to end unsatisfactorily, sent to solicit Governor Simcoe's interposition, especially in regard to the boundary line which the Indians of the West insisted on—the Ohio river. Thus runs the Governor's reply, written at York on the 8th:—"Since the Government of the United States," he says, "have shown a disinclination to concur with the Indian nations in requesting of his Majesty permission for me to attend at Sandusky as mediator, it would be highly improper and unreasonable in me to give an opinion relative to the proposed boundaries, with which I am not sufficiently acquainted, and which question I have studiously avoided entering into, as I am well aware of the jealousies entertained by some of the subjects of the United States of the interference of the British Government, which has a natural and decided interest in the welfare of the Indian nations, and in the establishment of peace and permanent tranquillity. In this situation, I am sure you will excuse me from giving to you any advice, which, from my absence from the spot, cannot possibly arise from that perfect view and knowledge which so important a subject necessarily demands."
The controversy in the West, in relation to which the Governor is thus cautiously expressing himself to the Indian Chief on the 8th of August, was a subject for cabinet consideration; a matter only for the few. But towards the close of the month, news from a different quarter—from the outer world of the far European East—reached the infant York, suitable to be divulged to the many and turned to public account. It was known that hostilities were going on between the allied forces of Europe and the armies of Revolutionary France. And now came intelligence that the English contingent on the continent had contributed materially to a success over the French in Flanders on the 23rd of May last. Now this contingent, 10,000 men, was under the command of the Duke of York, the King's son, A happy thought strikes the Governor. What could be more appropriate than to celebrate the good news in a demonstrative manner on a spot which in honour of that Prince had been named York.
Accordingly, on the 26th of August, we find the following General Order issued:—"York, Upper Canada, 26th of August, 1793. His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor having received information of the success of his Majesty's arms, under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, by which Holland has been saved from the invasion of the French armies,—and it appearing that the combined forces have been successful in dislodging their enemies from an entrenched camp supposed to be impregnable, from which the most important consequences may be expected; and in which arduous attempts His Royal Highness the Duke of York and His Majesty's troops supported the national glory:—It is His Excellency's orders that on the rising of the Union Flag at twelve o'clock to-morrow a Royal Salute of twenty-one guns is to be fired, to be answered by the shipping in the Harbour, in respect to His Royal Highness and in commemoration of the naming this Harbour from his English title, York. E. B. Littlehales, Major of Brigade."
These orders, we are to presume, were punctually obeyed; and we are inclined to think that the running up of the Union Flag at noon on Tuesday, the 27th day of August, and the salutes which immediately after reverberated through the woods and rolled far down and across the silvery surface of the Lake, were intended to be regarded as the true inauguration of the Upper Canadian York.