Newark or Niagara
Fort George was on the west bank of the river Niagara, about a mile from its entrance into Lake Ontario. It was, in 1803, a low square fort with earthen ramparts and palisades of cedar. It contained very badly planned loop-holed barracks of logs, and mounted no heavier metal than nine pounders. Newark, or Niagara, for it resumed its old name in 1798, by act of parliament, was the village near by, and had enjoyed for a brief period the distinction of being the capital of the Upper Province. It lay directly opposite Fort Niagara where the river is eight hundred and seventy-five yards wide.
Here the first parliament of Upper Canada met in 1792, and to add to the glory of the occasion we are told that a guard of the 26th Cameronians, then stationed at Fort Niagara, was brought across the river to escort Governor Simcoe in state to the opening. Five sessions were held here before the seat of government was removed to York, and during the last years of the eighteenth century Newark was, next to Kingston, the most flourishing place in Upper Canada. It was here at Navy Hall that Governor Simcoe and his wife dispensed their gracious hospitality. Among their distinguished guests were the Duke of Kent, who rode from their house to see the famous falls of Niagara, and the Duke de Rochefoucauld de Liancourt, who wrote a lengthy account of his visit.
The 5th Regiment and part of the 26th Cameronians were then stationed at Fort Niagara, and Butler's Rangers and the Queen's Rangers occupied the barracks at Newark.
The first newspaper in the country, the Upper Canada Gazette, was published here, and there was a public library and a court-house and churches (St. Mark's and St. Andrew's) long before York, its rival and supplanter across the lake, was provided with any public buildings. It was Governor Simcoe who planned Fort George and gave to it its first rough outlines. In 1803 there was a lighthouse on Mississaga Point, at the entrance of the river near where a fort of that name was afterwards constructed. A dockyard where many workmen were employed, was one of the industries of the place, and here was built and launched in 1792 the first Canadian merchant vessel.
It was in 1783 that there landed on the beach the first band of Loyalist refugees who left their homes in the revolted colonies for the sake of king and country, and who were to be the founders of a new nation in this wilderness. For more that two years rations were issued to the poor wanderers from Fort Niagara and Butler's barracks, but by the beginning of the new century the thriving farms in the neighbourhood of Newark showed that the "hungry years" had passed.
Seven miles higher up the river was Queenston, a transport post which had, in 1803, grown to be a village of over a hundred houses with church and court-house and government stores for the Indian department. All the goods for the North-West were landed here from the vessels which brought them from Kingston, and were then sent by portage above the falls to Chippawa.
Erie, Amherstburg, Sandwich
Fort Chippawa, on Lake Erie, a mile and a half above the falls of Niagara, was the end of the carrying place, and was also a transport post. It was sixteen miles from Fort George and it had a blockhouse and quarters for one officer and thirty-six men, enclosed with palisades which were much decayed and useless for defence. Eighteen miles up the lake was Fort Erie. General Hunter, in 1803, had planned a new fort at this place as the old one was in ruins, and had made a report on the subject to Lord Hobart, the secretary of the colonies, but this undertaking was not carried out for some years.
Further west at Amherstburg was another poorly constructed fort. This village was the only British naval station on Lake Erie, and contained over a hundred houses, with a court-house, and stores for the Indian department.