as a set-off to the fort at the mouth of the Niagara river, which
had been built there by the French in spite of remonstrances on
the part of the authorities at New York.

Choueguen at first was simply a so-called "beaver trap" or
trading-post, established by permission, nominally obtained, of the
Iroquois ; but it speedily developed in a strong stone-fort, and
became, in fact, a standing menace to Fort Frontenac, on the
northern shore of the Lake. Choueguen likewise drew to itself a
large share of the valuable peltries of the north shore, which used
before to find their way down the St. Lawrence to Montreal
and Quebec. The goods offered at the English trading-post of
Choueguen were found to be superior to the French goods, and
the price given for furs was greater there than on the French side
of the water. The storekeeper at Niagara told the Abb6 Picquet,
of whom we shall hear again presently, that the Indians compared
the silver-trinkets which were procured at Choueguen with those
which were procured at the French Stores ; and they found that
the Choueguen articles were as heavy as the others, of purer silver
and better workmanship, but did not cost them quite two beavers,
whilst for those offered for sale at the French King's post, ten
beavers were demanded. " Thus we are discredited " the Abb6
complained, "and this silver-ware remains a pure loss in the King's
stores. French brandy indeed," the Abb6 adds, " was preferred
to the English : nevertheless that did not prevent the Indians



6 Toronto of Old.

going to Choueguen. To destroy the trade there," he affirms, " the
King's posts ought to have been supplied with the same goods as
Choueguen and at the same price. The French ought also," he
says, " to have been forbidden to send the domiciliated Indians
thither : but that" he confesses, " would have been very difficult."

Choueguen had thus, in the eyes of the French authorities,
come to be a little Carthage that must be put down, or, at all events
crippled to the greatest possible extent.

Accordingly, as a counterpoise in point of commercial influence,,
Toronto, as we have seen, was to be made a fortified trading post.
" On being informed " says M. de la Galissoniere, in the docu-
ment referred to, bearing date 1749, "that the northern Indians
ordinarily went to Choueguen with their peltries by way of Toronto
on the northwest side cf Lake Ontario, twenty-five leagues from
Niagara, and seventy-five from Fort Frontenac, it was thought
advisable to establish a post at that place and to send thither an
officer, fifteen soldiers, and some workmen, to construct a small
stockade-fort there. Its expense will not be great," M. de la
Galissoniere assures the minister, " the timber is transported there,
and the remainder will be conveyed by the barques belonging to
Fort Frontenac. Too much care cannot be taken," remarks the
Administrator, "to prevent these Indians continuing their trade
with the English, and to furnish them at this post with all their
necessaries, even as cheap as at Choueguen. Messrs. de la
Jonquiere and Bigot will permit some canoes to go there on license
and will apply the funds as a gratuity to the officer in command
there. But it will be necessary to order the commandants at
Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Frontenac, to be careful that the traders
and store-keepers of these posts furnish goods for two or three
years to come, at the same rates as the English. By these means
the Indians will disaccustom themselves from going to Choueguen,
and the English will be obliged to abandon that place."

De la Galissoniere returned to France in 1749. He was a naval
officer and fond of scientific pursuits. It was he who in 1756,
commanded the expedition against Minorca, which led to the
execution of Admiral Byng.

From a despatch written by M. de Longueil in 1752, we gather

that the post of the Toronto portage, in its improved, strengthened

state, is known as Fort Rouilte, so named, doubtless from

I '^ 2, Antoine Louis Rouill£, Count de Jouy, Colonial Minister



Introductory. 7

from 1749 to 1754. M. de Longueil says that "M. de Celeron
had addressed certain despatches to M. de Lavalterie, the com*
mandant at Niagara, who detached a soldier to convey them to
Fort Rouilte, with orders to the store-keeper at that post to trans-
mit them promptly to Montreal. It is not known," he remarks,
" what became otthat soldier." About the same time, a MississaguS
from Toronto arrived at Niagara, who informed M. de Lavalterie
that he had not seen that soldier at the Fort, nor met him on the
way. "It is to be feared that he has been killed by Indians," he
adds, "and the despatches carried to the English.''

An uncomfortable Anglophobia was reigning at Fort RouillS, as
generally along the whole of the north shore of Lake Ontario in
1752. We learn this also from another passage in the same des-
patch. "The store-keeper at Toronto, says," M. de Longueil writes
to M. de Vercheres, commandant at Fort Frontenac, " that some
trustworthy Indians have assured him that the Saulteux (Otchip-
ways,) who killed our Frenchman some years ago, have dispersed
themselves along the head of Lake Ontario j and seeing himself sur-
rounded by them, he doubts not but they have some evil design
on his Fort. There is no doubt," he continues, " but 'tis the
English who are inducing the Indians to destroy the French, and
that they would give a good deal to get the Savages to destroy
Fort Toronto, on account of the essential injury it does their trade
at Choueguen.''

Such observations help us to imagine the anxious life which the
lonely occupants of Fort RouillS must have been leading at the
period referred to. From an abstract of a journal or memoir of the
Abbe" Picquet given in the Documentary History of the State of
New York (i. 283), we obtain a glimpse of the state of things at
the same place, about the same period, from the point of view,
however, of an interested ecclesiastic. The Abb6 Picquet was a
doctor of the Sorbonne, and bore the titles of King's Missionary
and Prefect Apostolic of Canada. He established a mission at Os-
wegatchie (Ogdensburg) which was known as La Presentation, and
which became virtually a military outpost of Fort Frontenac. He
was very useful to the authorities at Quebec in advocating French
interests on the south side of the St. Lawrence. The Marquis du
Quesne used to say that the Abbe" Picquet was worth ten regiments
to New France. His activity was so great, especially among the
Six Nations, that even during his lifetime he was complimented



8 Toronto of Old,

with the title of "Apostle of the Iroquois." When at length the
French power fell he retired to France, where he died in 1781. In
1 75 1 the Abb6 made a tour of exploration round Lake Ontario. He
was conveyed in a King's canoe, and was accompanied by one of bark
containing five trusty natives. He visited Fort Frontenac and the
Bay of QuintS j especially the site there of an ancient mission which
M. Dollieres de Kleus and Abbe d'Urf6, priests of the St.
Sulpice Seminary had established. "The quarter is beautiful/'
the Abbe remarks, "but the land is not good." He then visited
Fort Toronto, the journal goes on to say, seventy leagues from
Fort Frontenac, at the west end of Lake Ontario. He found
good bread and good wine there, it is stated, and everything requi-
site for the trade, whilst they were in want of these things at all
the other posts. He found Mississagu6s there, we are told, who
flocked around him ; they spoke first of the happiness their young
people, the women and children, would feel if the King would be
as good to them as to the Iroquois, for whom he procured mission-
aries. They complained that instead of building a church, they
had constructed only a canteen for them. The Abb6 Picquet, we
are told, did not allow them to finish j and answered them that
they had been treated according to their fancy j that they had
never evinced the least zeal for religion ; that their conduct was
much opposed to it ; that the Iroquois on the contrary had mani-
fested their love for Christianity. But as he had no order, it is
subjoined, to attract them, viz., the Mississagu6s, to his mission at
La Presentation— -he avoided a more lengthened explanation.

The poor fellows were somewhat unfairly lectured by the Abbe,
for, according to his own showing, they expressed a desire for a
church amongst them.

A note on the Mississagu6s in the Documentary History (i. 22)
mentions the neighbourhood of Toronto as one of the quarters
frequented by that tribe : at the same time it sets down their num-
bers as incredibly few. "The Mississagues," the note says, "are
dispersed along this lake (Ontario), some at Kent6, others at the
river Toronto (the Humber), and finally at the head of the Lake,
to the number of 150 in all j and at Matchedash. The principal
tribe is that of the Crane."

The Abb6 Picquet visited Niagara and the Portage above
(Queenston or Lewiston) j and in connection with his observations
on those points he refers again expressly to Toronto. He is op-



Introductory. 9

posed to the maintenance of store-houses for trade at Toronto,
because it tended to diminish the trade at Niagara and Fort
Frontenac, " those two ancient posts," as he styles them. " It was
necessary," he says, " to supply Niagara, especially the Portage,
rather than Toronto. The difference," he says, "between the
two first of these posts and the last is, that three or four hundred
canoes could come loaded with furs to the Portage (Queenston or
Lewiston) ; and that no canoes could go to Toronto except those
which cannot pass before Niagara and to Fort Frontenac — (the
translation appears to be obscure) — such as the Ottawas of the
Head of the Lake and the Mississagues : so that Toronto could not
but diminish the trade of these two ancient posts, which would have
been sufficient to stop all the savages had the stores been furnished
with goods to their liking."

In 1752, a French military expedition from Quebec to the Ohio
region, rested at Fort Toronto. Stephen Coffen, in his narrative
of that expedition, which he accompanied as a volunteer, names
the place, but he spells the word in accordance with his own pro-
nunciation, Taranto. " They on their way stopped," he says " a
couple of days at Cadaraghqui Fort, also at Taranto on the north
side of Lake Ontario ; then at Niagara fifteen days."

In 1756, the hateful Choueguen, which had given occasion to the
establishment of Toronto as a fortified trading-post, was rased to the
ground. Montcalm, who afterwards fell on the Plains of
Abraham, had been entrusted with the task of destroying the • * •
offensive stronghold of the English on Lake Ontario. He went about
the work with some reluctance, deeming the project of the Gover-
nor General, De Vaudreuil, to be rash. Circumstances, however,
unexpectedly favoured him ; and the garrison of Choueguen, in
other words, of Oswego, capitulated. " Never before," said Mont-
calm, in his report of the affair to the Home Minister, " did 3,000
men, with a scanty artillery, besiege 1,800, there being 2,000 ene-
mies within call, as in the late affair j the party attacked having a
superior marine, also, on Lake Ontario. The success gained has
been contrary to all expectation. The conduct I followed in this
affair/' Montcalm continues, " and the dispositions I made, were
so much out of the ordinary way of doing things that the au-
dacity we manifested would be counted for rashness in Europe.
Therefore, Monseigneur," he adds, " I beg of you as a favour to
assure his Majesty that if he should accord to me what I most



io Toronto of Old.

wish for, employment in regular campaigning, I shall be guided
by very different principles." Alas, there was to be no more
"regular campaigning" for Montcalm. His eyes were never again
to gaze upon the battle fields in Bohemia, Italy and Germany,
where, prior to his career in Canada, he had won laurels.

The success before Choueguen in 1756 was followed by a more
than counterbalancing disaster at Fort Frontenac in 1758. In
that year a force of 3,000 men under Col. Bradstreet, detached
from the army of Abercromby, stationed near Lake George, made
a sudden descent on Fort Frontenac, from the New York side of
the water, and captured the place. It was instantly and utterly de-
stroyed, together with a number of vessels which had formed a
part of the spoil brought away from Choueguen. On this occasion
we find that the cry Hannibal ante Portas ! was once more fully
expected to be heard speedily within the stockade at Toronto.
M. de Vaudreuil, the Governor-General, informs the Minister at
Paris, M. de Massiac, " that should the English make their appear-
ance at Toronto, I have given orders to burn it at once, and to
fall back on Niagara."

One more order (the last), issuing from a French source, having
reference to Toronto, is to be read in the records of the following
year, 1759. M. de Vaudreuil, again in his despatch home,
after stating that he had summoned troops from Illinois and
Detroit, to rendezvous at Presqu'isle on Lake Erie, adds, — " As
those forces will proceed to the relief of Niagara, should the enemy
wish to besiege it, I have in like manner sent orders to Toronto,
to collect the Mississagues and other natives, to forward them to
Niagara."

The enemy, it appears, did wish to besiege Niagara ; and on the
25th of July they took it — an incident followed on the 18th of the
next September by the fall of Quebec, and the transfer of all Can-
ada to the British Crown. The year after the conquest a force was
despatched by General Amherst from Montreal to proceed up the
country and take possession of the important post at Detroit. It
was conveyed in fifteen whale-boats and consisted of two hundred
Rangers under the command of Major Robert Rogers. Major
Rogers was accompanied by the following officers : Capt. Brewer,

, Capt. Wait, Lieut. Bhreme, Assistant-Engineer, and Lieut.

Davis of the Royal Train of Artillery. The party set out

from Montreal on the 12th of September, 1760. The journal of



Introductory. 1 1

Major Rogers has been published. It includes an account of this ex-
pedition. We give the complete title of the work, which is one sought
after by book-collectors : " The Journals of Major Robert Rogers,
containing an Account of the several Excursions he made under the
Generals who commanded on the Continent of North America
during the late War. From which may be collected the most ma-
terial Circumstances of every Campaign upon that continent from
the commencement to the conclusion of the War. London :
Printed for the Author, and sold by J. Millan, bookseller, near
Whitehall, MDCCLXV."

We extract the part in which a visit to Toronto is spoken of.
He leaves the ruins of Fort Frontenac on the 25th of September.
On the 28th he enters the mouth of a river which he says is called
by the Indians " The Grace of Man." (The Major probably mis-
took, or was imposed upon, in the matter of etymology.)

Here he found, he says, about fifty Mississaga Indians fishing
for salmon. " At our first appearance," he continues, " they ran
down, both men and boys to the edge of the Lake, and continued
firing their pieces, to express their joy at the sight of the English
colours, until such time as we had landed." About fifteen miles
further on he enters another river, which he says, the Indians call
" The Life of Man."

" On the 30th," the journal proceeds : — " We embarked at the
first dawn of day, and, with the assistance of sails and oars, made
great way on a south-west course ; and in the evening reached the
river Toronto (the Humber), having run seventy miles. Many
points extending far into the water," Major Rogers remarks, "occa-
sioned a frequent alteration of our course. We passed a bank of
twenty miles in length, but the land behind it seemed to be level,
well timbered with large oaks, hickories, maples, and some poplars.
No mountains appeared in sight. Round the place where formerly
the French had a fort, that was called Fort Toronto, there was a
tract of about 300 acres of cleared ground. The soil here is princi-
pally clay. The deer are extremely plenty in this country. Some
Indians," Major Rogers continues, " were hunting at the mouth of
the river, who ran into the woods at our approach, very much
frightened. They came in however in the morning and testified
their joy at the news of our success against the French. They told
us that we could easily accomplish our journey from thence to
Detroit in eight days ; that when the French traded at that place



12 Toronto of Old.

(Toronto), the Indians used to come with their peltry from
Michilimackina down the river Toronto ; that the portage was but
twenty miles from that to a river falling into Lake Huron, which
had some falls, but none very considerable ; they added that there
was a carrying-place of fifteen miles from some westerly part of
Lake Erie to a river running without any falls through several
Indian towns into Lake St. Clair. I think Toronto," Major
Rogers then states, " a most convenient place for a factory, and
that from thence we may very easily settle the north side of Lake
Erie."

"We left Toronto/'the journal then proceeds, "the ist of October,
steering south, right across the west end of Lake Ontario. At
dark, we arrived at the South Shore, five miles west of Fort Niagara,
some of our boats now becoming exceeding leaky and dangerous.
This morning, before we set out, I directed the following order of
march : — The boats in a line. If the wind rose high, the red flag
hoisted, and the boats to crowd nearer, that they might be ready
to give mutual assistance in case of a leak or other accident, by
which means we saved the crew and arms of the boat commanded
by Lieutenant M'Cormack, which sprang a leak and sunk, losing
nothing except the packs. We halted all the next day at Niagara,
and provided ourselves with blankets, coats, shirts, shoes, mocca-
sins, &c. I received from the commanding officer eighty barrels
of provisions, and changed two whale-boats for as many batteaux,
which proved leaky. In the evening, some of my party proceeded
with the provisions to the Falls (the rapid water at Queenston),
and in the morning marched the rest there, and began the portage
of the provisions and boats. Messrs. Brheme and Davis took a
survey of the great cataract of Niagara."

At the time of Major Rogers' visit to Toronto all trading there had
apparently ceased ; but we observe that he says it was most con-

, venient place for a factory. In 1 761, we have Toronto named
in a letter addressed by Captain Campbell, commanding at
Detroit, to Major Walters, commanding at Niagara, informing him of
an intended attack of the Indians. "Detroit, June 17th, 1761, two
o'clock in the morning. Sir, — I had the favour of yours, with
General Amherst's despatches. I have sent you an express with
a very important piece of intelligence I have had the good fortune
to discover. I have been lately alarmed with reports of the bad
designs of the Indian nations against this place, and the English in



Introductory. 1 3

general. I can now inform you for certain it comes from the Six
Nations j and that they have sent belts of wampum and deputies
to all the nations from Nova Scotia to the Illinois, to take up the
hatchet against the English, and have employed the Mississaguas
to send belts of wampum to the northern nations. Their project
is as follows : — The Six Nations, at least the Senecas, are to as-
semble at the head of French Creek, within five-and-twenty leagues-
of Presqu'isle j part of the Six Nations (the Delawares and Shaw-
nees), are to assemble on the Ohio; and at the same time, about
the latter end of the month, to surprise Niagara and Fort Pitt, and
cut off the communication everywhere. I hope this will come
time enough to put you on your guard, and to send to Oswego,
and all the posts in that communication. They expect to be
joined by the nations that are to come from the North by Toronto."
Eight years after the occupation of the country by the English, a
considerable traffic was being carried on at Toronto. We learn this
from a despatch of Sir William Johnson's to the Earl of Shel-
burne, on the subject of Indian affairs, bearing date 1 767. Sir r ' '*
William affirms that persons could be found willing to pay ^1,000
per annum for the monopoly of the trade at Toronto. Some re-
marks of his that precede the reference to Toronto give us some
idea of the commercial tactics of the Indian and Indian trader of
the time. "The Indians have no business to follow when at
peace," Sir William Johnson says, "but hunting. Between each
hunt they have a recess of several months. They are naturally
very covetous," the same authority asserts, " and become daily
better acquainted with the value of our goods and their own peltry ;
they are everywhere at home, and travel without the expense or
inconvenience attending our journey to them. On the other hand,
every step our traders take beyond the posts, is attended at least
with some risk and a very heavy expense, which the Indians must
feel as heavily on the purchase of their commodities ; all which
considered, is it not reasonable to suppose that they would rather
employ their idle time in quest of a cheap market, than sit down
with such slender returns as they must receive in their own vil-
lages ?" He then instances Toronto. " As a proof of which,"
Sir William continues, " I shall give one instance concerning
Toronto, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Notwithstanding
the assertion of Major Rogers," Sir William Johnson says, " that
even a single trader would not think it worth attention to supply



14 Toronto of Old.

a dependent post, yet I have heard traders of long experience and
good circumstances affirm, that for the exclusive trade of that place,
for one season, they would willingly pay ;£i,ooo — so certain were
they of a quiet market — from the cheapness at which they could
afford their goods there."

Although after the Conquest the two sides of Lake Ontario and
of the St. Lawrence generally were no longer under different
crowns, the previous rivalry between the two routes, the St. Law-
rence and Mohawk river routes, to the seaboard continued; and
it was plainly to the interest of those who desired the aggrandise-
ment of Albany and New York to the detriment of Montreal and
Quebec, to discourage serious trading enterprises with Indians on
the northern side of the St. Lawrence waters. We have an ex-
ample of this spirit in a " Journal of Indian Transactions at [Fort]
Niagara, in the year 1767," published in the documentary History
of New York (ii. 868, 8vo. ed.), in which Toronto is named, and a
great chieftain from that region figures — in one respect, somewhat
discreditably, however. We give the passage of the journal to
which we refer. The document appears to have been drawn
up by Norman M'Leod, an Indian agent, visiting Fort Niagara.

"July 17th, [1767.] Arrived Wabacommegat, chief of the
Mississagas. [He came from Toronto, as we shall presently see.]
July 1 8th. Arrived Ashenshan, head-warrior of the Senecas, be-
longing to the Caiadeon village. This day, Wabacommegat came
to speak to me, but was so drunk that no one could understand
him."

Again: "July 19th. Had a small conference with Wabacom-
megat. Present — Norman M'Leod, Esq.; Mr. Neil MacLean,
Commissary of Provisions ; Jean Baptiste de Couagne, interpreter.
Wabacommegat spoke first, and, after the usual compliments, told
that as soon as he hadjieard of my arrival, he and his young men
came to see me. He then asked me if I had any news, and de-
sired I should tell all I had. Then he gave four strings of wam-
pum. I then told them — Children, I am glad to see you. I am
sent here by your father, Sir William Johnson, to take care of your
trade, and to prevent abuses therein. I have no sort of news, for
I suppose you have heard of the drunken Chippewas that killed
an Englishman and wounded his wife very much, above Detroit ;
they are sent down the country by consent and approbation of the
head men of the nation. I am sorry to acquaint you that some



Introductory. 1 5

of your nation that came here with Nan-i-bo-jou, killed a cow and
a mare belonging to Captain Grant, on the other side of the river.
I am persuaded that all here present think it was very wrong, and
a very bad return for the many good offices done by the English
in general towards them, and in particular by Captain Grant, who
had that day fed the men that were guilty of the theft. I hope