Introductory.—Character and Limits of Our Local History.—The Twilight of Fable.— Michmimackinac, the Western Centre of the Fur Trade.— The Various Routes thither.— The Huron Nation.—The "Pass" by Toronto.—Destruction of the Hurons by the Iroquois.—Fort Rouillé.—The Province of Upper Canada Constituted.—Governor Simcoe.—York.—The Aborigines.

THE history of the County of York, like that of almost every county in Western Canada, is closely bound up with the general history of the Province; insomuch that, in treating of those subjects, it occasionally becomes a matter of no little difficulty to keep the respective narratives perfectly clear and distinct from each other. Much of what commonly passes for local history is the inseparable birthright of the Dominion at large, and cannot adequately be represented upon a narrow canvas. Put the Metropolitan County has nevertheless a consecutive series of incidents which are exclusively its own; which no other community can claim to share with it, and which consequently are of special interest to dwellers upon its soil. In some few cases these incidents are of genuine and undoubted historical value. In others they are transitory and ephemeral in their nature, and have no further interest for posterity than that which arises from their local associations; but they are not on that account to be contemptuously rejected by any one who undertakes to chronicle the local annals for the mingled instruction and amusement of future generations of local readers. The greatest historian of modern times declared that he would cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if he could succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors. In like manner, a less ambitious historian may leave "the dignity of history" to take care of itself, and may venture to declare that he shall feel as though his task had been well accomplished, if he can succeed in placing before his readers a faithful panorama of the mutations through which the scenes immediately surrounding them have passed in the course of the last two hundred years.

The known and actual history of the County Of York reaches back to a time

"When wild in woods the noble savage ran,"

and extends over a period of about a hundred and thirty-five years; that is to say, from the year 1749. Prior to that time we have merely a few tolerably well authenticated but widely disconnected facts with reference to it. These facts, however, are generally founded upon no written data, and fable and tradition enter so largely into the record that if is frequently difficult to separate them, or to say whether or not they rest upon any substantial foundation of truth. About others there is such an amount of vastness that but little real significance can be attached to them, even assuming them to be true. For instance, what importance can be attached to the conjectural visit of mendacious Father Hennepin to the mouth of the Humber, in 1678? Or to the subsequent visit of that bold discoverer in unknown regions, Robert Cavelier de la Salle?

There seems to be no manner of doubt that the territory comprised within the present limits of the County of York was trodden as long ago as the middle of the seventeenth century, and even earlier, by some of those intrepid adventurers of New France who were the first European explorers of the wild western wilderness. Whether the territory adjoining the beaten track which lay northward from Lake Ontario along the course of what is now the Humber River was to any considerable extent explored by them seems extremely doubtful. That an occasional courevy des hois man have varied his adventurous enterprises by more or less prolonged sojourns among the natives is likely enough. But such voyageurs, if any, have left no permanent traces behind them. All that is absolutely essential for us in these days to know on the subject is, that no portion of the domain now forming the County of York was the fixed abode of any civilized human being until near the middle of the eighteenth century. The Indians, however, have left very perceptible traces behind them, and with a view to comprehensiveness of outline, t is here desirable to say something about their connection with the region under consideration.

At a very early period in the history of western exploration, the attention alike of explorers and of natives was turned in the direction of the fur trade. The beeting cliffs of Cape Diamond would yield neither gold nor precious stones; but the contiguous forest, extending indefinitely in all directions, contained a seemingly never-failing supply of fur-bearing animals which promised to yield a princely revenue. The cupidity of French capitalists was aroused. They formed various companies for the purpose of developing the trade, and despatched their agents to all points of the compass. Some of these agents were scions of illustrious families, and were impelled to adopt this mode of life merely from a wild spirit of adventure. The picturesqueness and freedom of the pathless forest had for them an irresistible fascination. They fraternized with the natives, and left the adjuncts of civilization far behind them, . By degrees they pushed their explorations into far-distant regions where their white faces afforded never-ceasing wonderment to the red barbarians of the wilderness. Their eagerness to obtain furs necessarily aroused a similar spirit in the breasts of the Indians, who found that the pale-faces at Quebec would give them knives, beads, and various other much-desired commodities in exchange for the skins of the beaver, the mink, the fox and the otter. Quebec, however, was a long way to go from the upper lakes where these animals were most abundant, and erelong the companies found it to their interest to establish trading-posts at various points along the St. Lawrence. These were but the precursors of still more distant posts along the shores of the lakes. Finally, a post was established on an island in the remote lake region of the west, at a place which is now a delightful summer resort, but which was then regarded by the French voyageurs as the very farthest limit of exploration. The island was called Michilimackinac, and is now known as Mackinaw. Its situation is well known to every summer tourist of the present day. It soon became the great western centre of the fur trade. Thither, at stated periods, the Indians of the Lake Superior region, and even from the head waters of the Mississippi, resorted m countless multitudes, to exchange their peltries with the representatives of the great Company of One Hundred Partners.

Michilimackinac having thus become a great central place of resort, all the land-trails and water-ways were chosen with a special eye to convenient and expeditious arrival thither. The route most traversed from Quebec and the Lower St. Lawrence was by way of the Ottawa and French Rivers to the inlet of Lake Huron now known as the Georgian Bay, whence the course was open and unrestricted. But those who adopted this route were perforce compelled to neglect the traffic of the upper St. Lawrence, and of Lakes Ontario and Erie, which yielded an abundant annual supply of the much-coveted furs. In order to catch this traffic., some agents made their way to and from Michilimackinac by a more southerly route than that by the Ottawa. Pursuing their way up the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, they thence struck across by the River Trent and the chain of lakes and streams intervening between there and the Georgian Bay. This route was invariably productive, for it was literally alive with fur-bearing animals, but it was very toilsome and arduous, owing to the numerous portages, and the consequent difficulty of transportation. A still more southerly route was by way of the Niagara River. The voyageur ascended the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and coasted along either the northern or southern shore to the mouth of the Niagara, trafficking along the route wherever the smoke on the neighbouring shore indicated the proximity of Indian wigwams, and the attendant possibility of turning an honest penny by turning his prow shorewards. By the time he had reached the mouth of the Niagara he had generally secured a sufficient supply of peltries to load his batteau to the water's edge. He accordingly sent back his cargo and boat to Montreal or Quebec, and proceeded up the river to beyond the cataract, where he procured another boat and proceeded to Michilimackinac by way of Lake Erie and Lake Huron, and the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers.

But there was still a fourth and intermediate route, which, to readers of these pages, will be the most interesting of all. This was by way of the river now known as the Humber, which was long a not uncommon mode of reaching the Georgian Bay. The voyageur, whose ultimate destination was Michilimackinac, frequently made his way westward along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, calling at the mouth of the stream where the pretty town of Port Hope now stands, and where lie generally found an Indian encampment well supplied with peltries. Thence proceeding westward, he soon passed the curving peninsula which in those remote times ^nearly encircled the beautiful bay upon which the intellectual capital of Canada was destined to rear its front in a far-distant future of which he did not venture to dream. Thence he arrived at the mouth of the Humber, where he was commonly able to complete his cargo, and start his batteau on its return voyage. He himself then proceeded on his way to Michilimackinac. The Humber River afforded him access to the ancient country of the Hurons, in what is now the County of Simcoe. Several well-marked trails existed thence to the Georgian Bay, where a boat was easily obtained for the rest of the journey.

In those days the Humber was one of the two direct routes between the Huron country and Lake Ontario; die other being by way of the Severn, Lakes Couciliching and Balsam, and the chain of lakes and rivers already referred to, having the Trent as its southerly terminus. The Huron country seems to have contained several spots known by the general name of Toronto. The Georgian Bay is set down in some old French maps as "Baie de Toronto." In others the present Lake Simcoe is set down as "Lac de Toronto." The Humber is sometimes set down as "Riviere de Toronto," and other small streams and lakelets are similarly designated. The explanation of this is to be sought for in the meaning of the word Toronto, which is now generally admitted to be a Huron term signifying "a place of meeting." The entire route from the mouth of the Humber to a point near the present site of Penetanguishene was frequently referred to by French writers of two hundred years ago as "the Pass by Toronto." The word "Toronto" is spelled by old writers in a great variety of ways. Thus, we find it variously spelled Toronto, Toronton, Otoronton, Atouronton, Tarontah, Tarento, and so on through numberless variations. The conflict is doubtless due to the attempts of different writers to bring the Indian pronunciation within the principles of European orthography.

As the reader is doubtless aware, the whole of this portion of Canada then formed part of the domain of the King of France. The country south of Lake Ontario, on the other hand, forming the present State of New York, was an English colony. The profits of the fur trade gave additional keenness to the rivalry already existing between the French and English colonists, and there were frequent invasions of each other's rights. The English resolved to participate in the immense profits arising out of the trade at Michilimackinac. Companies of New York adventurers made several expeditions into that distant region, and in each case the profits were sufficient to recompense them for the very serious danger they incurred. The danger was two-fold. The French very naturally regarded them as trespassers, and did not hesitate to treat them as such. The Indians thereabouts were staunch allies of the French, and they had additional grounds of dislike to the English arising out of the alliance of the latter with the much-dreaded Iroquois. Still, they were very much like their white brethren in one important respect—they had ever an eye exceedingly wide open to the main chance. The English colonists offered better prices than the French, and the Indians did not refuse to deal with them. In this way the monopoly claimed by the French as a matter of right was seriously threatened, and they cast about to rind a remedy. For some time the English were restricted to the route by way of the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers. The Ottawa swarmed with French traders and their allies, and the English could not have made their way to Michihinackinac by that route without fighting their way inch by inch. The two intermediate routes presented obstacles equally serious, for they led directly through the Huron country, and the Hurons were firm allies of the French. In the middle of the seventeenth century, however, these two routes were thrown open to the English. It came about in this wise. In 1649 and 1650 the Huron country was subjected to an invasion by the Iroquois from the Province of New York. The invasion forms one of the most tragical chapters to be found even in the history of Indian warfare. The doomed Hurons were dispersed, driven away from their ancient home, and nearly annihilated. Their cultivated fields were turned into a wilderness. There was thus nothing to prevent the English trespassers from availing themselves of this shorter and more expeditious route to the great western fur depot.

The French were quick to appreciate the situation, and to perceive that a remedy must at once be found. They resolved to erect strong forts at the entrance to each route. A fort was accordingly built at Cataraqui, to guard the passage to the mouth of the Trent by way of the Pa)- of Quinté. Near the mouth of the Niagara Fiver another fort was built to guard the passage to Lake Erie. A detachment of men was about the same time despatched westward to the Detroit River to prevent the English from passing through to Lake Huron, but a fort was not actually constructed there until early m the eighteenth century. The "Pass by Toronto" was still left unguarded, as the resources of the French were seriously taxed by the preparations already referred to, and by the necessity of repelling frequent and formidable incursions on the part of the Iroquois, who became bolder and more aggressive year by year. The Humber route thus being the only avenue left free and unguarded, it was largely taken advantage of by the English colonists, who passed thereby to and from the Upper Lake region with comparative impunity. Their numbers and operations increased to such an extent as to occasion very serious disquietude to the French, who, after the lapse of many years, found it necessary to make special exertions to preserve their supremacy. These exertions were rendered all the more necessary' from the fact that the English, in 1722, established a trading-post at Choueguen, or, as it ,s now called, Oswego. The latter thus gained practical control of much of the traffic on Lake Ontario, as they offered better terms than the French, and gained a reputation among the Indians for liberal and straightforward dealing. Many of the barbarians who had been accustomed to resort to the forts at Cataraqui and Niagara to dispose of their wares ikhv began to repair to Choueguen, and the number of those who did so rapidly increased.

Such was the problem which stared the French adventurers in the face. The solution was obvious. The erection of a fort and trading-post at the mouth of the Humber would not only guard the "Pass by Toronto" against the English, but would be the means of arresting the traffic there. This had become the ordinary route of the Indians from the north and north-west to Choueguen. If they found that they could dispose of their peltries to good advantage at the mouth of the Humber, there would be no inducement for them to extend their journey across the lake to the English trading-post.

The French bestirred themselves, and in 1749 a trading-post was built a short distance from the mouth of the Humber, by the eastern side of the bay. Its exact site 's marked at the present day by the cairn in the Exhibition Grounds, near the lake shore, a few yards south of the main Exhibition building. It was fortified by a stockade, and was named Fort Rouille', in honour of the French Colonial Minister of the period, Antoine Louis Rouille, Count de Jouy. The fortifications do not seem to have been very effective, to judge from the account left by M. Pouchot, in his "Memoir upon the War in North America, 1755-60." "This fort, or post," he remarks, "was a square of about thirty toises on a side, externally with flanks of fifteen feet. The curtains formed the buildings of the fort. It was very well built, piece upon piece, but was only useful for trade." He adds: "A league west of the fort is the mouth of the Toronto {i.e., the Humber) River, which is of considerable size. This river communicates with Lake Huron by a portage of fifteen leagues, and is frequented by the Indians who come from the north.'" Remains of the foundation of this fortress were distinctly visible six years ago, when the Ordnance Lands were acquired by the Industrial Exhibition Committee.

Rouille, as has been said, was the official designation conferred upon the fort. But wont and usage refused to be turned aside at the bidding of mere officials. The adjacent stream had, as we have seen, been known as the Toronto River. The very site of the fort itself had fiom time to time been used as a "Toronto," or place of meeting, by the Indians. Wigwam villages had occasionally arisen there, to endure only for a brief space, and until the stock of furs on hand could be bartered away to a passing French trader. The name "Toronto" clung to the site, and that of "Fort Rouille" sank into disuse, except in formal arid official reports of the agents stationed there. At least as early as 1755 the spot became popularly known as Fort Toronto, and by that name it continued to be known as long as it had an existence—and, indeed, for long after. For "the Old French Fort," as it was sometimes called, was not destined to be a permanent institution.

Upon the conquest of Canada by the English, there was no longer any reason for maintaining it as a trading-post. It was burned and deserted by its former occupants, after a brief existence of about ten years. From that time forward history only catches one or two fitful glimpses of the spot, until the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe in the harbour of Toronto in the month of May, 1793. In September, 1760, Major Robert Rogers and his troops called here on their way westward to take possession of Detroit. They found the fort in ruins, and the cleared ground in the neighbourhood fast relapsing into a state of nature. The Major himself, in his published account of the spot, says: "I think Toronto a most convenient place for a factory"—by which he means a trading-post—"and that from thence we may easily settle the north side of Lake Erie.' Other visitors called there from season to season during the next three decades, and a certain amount of traffic with the Indians appears to have been periodically carried on there. But nothing was attempted in the way of permanent settlement. The hour and the man-—Governor Simcoe—had not arrived. In an old manuscript map, the date of which is not definitely ascertainable—but which must have been prepared between 1760 and 1793 —the site of Rouille is designated by a little cluster of wigwams, appended to which are the words: "Toronto, an Indian village now deserted."

Some account of the plan made in 1788 by Captain Gother Mann, and recently discovered in the English archives by Mr. Thomas Hodgins, of Toronto, will be found in the portion of this work specially devoted to an account of the city. From that plan, as well as from various references in colonial despatches and documents of the period, it appears that Toronto was even then regarded as the probable site of a future city. Captain Mann delineates an ideal town of large dimensions, extending from about the present eastern boundary of High Park to a considerable distance east of the Don, and stretching away indefinitely to the north. It is in the highest degree improbable that any survey of such a town-plot was ever made. At any rate, no trace of such a survey has ever been discovered.

In 1791, the statute known as the Constitutional Act of 1791 was passed by the Imperial Parliament, and Canada was divided into the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the Upper Province, upon which he has stamped his name in indelible colours. He reached his capital—then called Newark, and now called Niagara—in 1792, and opened his first Parliament there on the 17th of September in that year. But Newark did not, in his opinion, fulfil the requisites of a Provincial capital. It was situated opposite the guns of the American fort on the other side of the Niagara River, and it was in a remote corner of the Province ; both of which circumstances he justly regarded as serious disqualifications. lie explored his domain from east to west in search of a suitable site for the future operations of his Government. He was much in favour of the present site of London the Less, where he at one time had serious intentions of founding a city to be called Georgina, in honour of His Majesty King George III. Put the founding of the Forest City was to be the work of other hands than his. While exploring the northern shores of Lake Ontario, early in May, 1793, he entered the harbour now known as Toronto I3ay. It was then completely landlocked, except on the western side, for what is now "1 the Island " was then a peninsula, to which the Indians from the mainland were wont to resort for sanitary purposes. The present site of Toronto was then a desolate marsh, from which rose the smoke of two or three wigwams, whose denizens were the only inhabitants of the place. The spot, however, possessed important natural advantages, and the Governor was not long in making up his mind that here should arise the future capital of Upper Canada. The Indian name, Toronto, was not to his taste, and he resolved that the place should be called York, in honour of the King's son Frederick, who, it will be remembered, was Duke of York. In the course of the ensuing summer he took up his abode here, with his suite. He also brought over most of his troops and officials, and thenceforward only repaired to Newark during the sessions of the Provincial Legislature. On the 27th of August, a royal salute was tired by the troops from the shore, and replied to by certain ships ii the harbour. This instituted the formal inauguration of the new capital, which was thenceforward known as York for a period of nearly forty-one years. All of which events will be found described at full length in the history of the city. They merely require enumeration here in so far as they form part of the history of the County of York.

A few words respecting the aboriginal inhabitants of this part of Canada would seem to be in order here. The Hurons already referred to were in their own tongue known as Wyandots—a word variously spelled, according to the nationality of the speller. Sagard, one of the earliest authorities, gives it as "Houandates," of which word he supplies no interpretation. "Huron" was a purely French word, originating in jest among the soldiers and sailors of New France, and afterwards employed seriously, for the sake of convenience, by the French immigrants generally. A fashion of preserving a row or two of upright bristles along the ridge of the cranium, while the sides were closely shaven, produced, as the first European beholders thought, a grotesque resemblance to the head of a wild boar. Hence, according to Gabriel Falemant, arose the name Huron, a word which lent itself readily to the Latin tongue, like Teuton and Saxon. The Hurons were comprised in a Confederation of four cantons, or nations, to which the Tobacco Nation was afterwards united. They were of the blood and speech of the Iroquois, who nevertheless became implacably hostile to them, and finally, as has been seen, destroyed them as a nation, and converted then "place of meeting" into a desolate wilderness.

The Mississagas, a few of whom were found encamped on the site of Toronto in 1793, were of the Algonquin race and speech. They were in fact Chippewas, w ho, after the desolation of the Huron country of the Iroquois, migrated from their homes on the rock-bound north coast of the Georgian Bay, and betook themselves to the more genial shores of Ontario. These Chippewa bands were called Mississaga-Cbippewas, to distinguish them from the Chippewas of Sault Ste. Marie and the Lake Superior region generally. The specific name Mississaga was applied because those of them who were first fallen in with by the French hailed from the neighbourhood of the River Mississaga, an important stream which enters Lake Huron about 150 miles west of French River.

Several localities around Lake Ontario still bear names derived from the Mississaga Indians. On the west side of the entrance to the Niagara River is Point Mississaga, with the dismantled Fort Mississaga still conspicuous upon it. In the Bay of Quinté is another Point Mississaga, as well as an island called Mississaga off the mouth of the Trent. These names doubtless indicate customary camping-places of bands of Mississagas. Major Rogers speaks of the Mississagas whom he found on the site of Fort Roudle in 1760; and Pouchette speaks of Mississaga wigwams on the same spot in 1793. unmixedly were Mississagas found along the north shore of Lake Ontario at the time of the British Conquest of Canada that they were treated by the British authoriiies as the sole owners of the soil thereabouts, whose rights must be extinguished before the Crown could lawfully take possession.

The words Mississaga and Chippewa are variously spelt in early works in which they are referred to. Among modern writers the latter word is re-assuming the forrh of "Otchipwray." From a partial similarly in sound, Mississaga has been imagined by some to be connected with a Chippewa word for eagle; and, without any foundation in fact, it has been concluded that an eagle was the token or cognizance of the Mississagas. The correct interpretation of the word Mississaga is given by Mr. Alexander Henry, in his "Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the Years 1760 and 1776," a work which is becoming exceedingly scarce, and which has begun to command a fancy price among Canadian bibliophiles. "I pursued my journey,'' he writes, "to the mouth of the Missisaki [Mississaga], a river which descends from the north, and of which the name imputes that it has several mouths, or outlets. From this river all the Indians inhabiting the north side of Lake Huron arc called Missisakies [Mississagas]." Michi, or Missi, signifies great or many, while saki or saga conveys the idea of the mouth or outlet of a river. It may further be observed that the Mississaga-Chippcwas were sometimes called Matchedash Indians, from their descending to the shores of Lake Ontario from the direction of Matchedash Bay.