106 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



About a month later he transmitted a return from an officer at Oswego, 

 which was still retained as a British post, showing that during the year 

 and a half previous to November 1, 1791, 817 persons had enrolled 

 as settlers, of whom 265 had gone "to the new settlement at Niagara." 

 John Munro of the District of Lunenburg on the upper St. Lawrence 

 had written him that immigrants from the United States were flocking 

 in with all their property.^ 



By action of the Land Board in 1791 the limits of Niagara were 

 enlarged, Mr. D. W. Smith, the deputy surveyor general, laying out 

 the extension of the town plot. At the close of the following February, 

 the magistrates and principal inhabitants of the town sent a con- 

 gratulatory address to the new Governor, which was accompanied 

 by a communication from John Butler and Robert Hamilton informing 

 him of the great abundance of the recent crops and the prevalence 

 of good order among the people, which together with the attention 

 of the magistrates rendered the duties of the Courts of Common 

 Pleas and Quarter Sessions easy to perform.^ 



In the latter part of June Mr. and Mrs. Simcoe, with the Queen's 

 Rangers, set out for Kingston, then a village of "about fifty wooden 

 houses and merchants' store-houses," where they arrived on July 1st. 

 Here, on Sunday, the 18th, the Governor was inducted into his re- 

 sponsible office with all the pomp and ceremony it was possible to com- 

 mand. As Kingston was neither central in its location nor capable 

 of adequate defense, it did not recommend itself to the new executive 

 as a proper place for the seat of government. Hence, on July 21st 

 he embarked with Mrs. Simcoe, his staff, and the Rangers in batteaux 

 for the journey up Lake Ontario, which resulted in the temporary 

 establishment of the capital of Upper Canada at Niagara.^ 



When the official party landed at its destination five days later, 

 the Governor was received in state by the assembled troops, com- 

 prising the regulars from the fort across the river, the resident militia, 

 Butler's Rangers, and their old allies of the Six Nations under Joseph 

 Brant. A salvo was fired by the guns of the fort and loyal addresses 

 were presented, to which Simcoe made appropriate replies that easily 

 stirred his appreciative audience to plaudits and cheers. As the com- 

 mander of the Loyalist Queen's Rangers during the recent war, (a 

 corps now reorganized, to be sure, but with some of the veteran 

 officers still on its rolls,) the Governor held a warm place in the affec- 

 tions of his hearers. Inasmuch as Navy Hall was not yet ready 

 for his occupancy, Mr. Simcoe and his family took up their quarters 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 26, 28. 



2 Carnochan, Hist, of Niagara, 97, 107; Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 26, 27, 28. 

 ' Morang, John Graves Simcoe; Mâcher, Story of Old Kingston, 89-93. 



