[SCOTT] MEETING PLACE OF THE FIRST PARLIAMENT 179 



evidence is stronger even than the evidence for the destruction of the 

 Navy Hall buildings during the war of 1812, although that is very- 

 strong. Lt.-Col. Bruyères wrote to the Governor General from Kings- 

 ton on 13th of February, 1813, after a personal survey of the 

 fortifications at Niagara and elsewhere: — "The public buildings near 

 the river at Navy Hall should be all removed as soon as possible and 

 rebuilt in a place of security at some distance from, and in the rear 

 of the Fort; the Stores they contain and the buildings themselves 

 are so exposed to immediate destruction that no delay should take 

 place in this service."* 



The soldiers had about three months in which to accomplish this 

 work, which is described as so urgent, most probably they carried it 

 out and when the Americans opened fire on the morning of May 25th, 

 there were no buildings on the west shore below Fort George, But 

 if there were and if we are to maintain one of them, our log build- 

 ing, in its dignified position we must believe that it was miraculously 

 preserved. The practiced eye of Bruyères said that they were ex- 

 posed to immediate destruction! Lt.-Col. Harvey was on the spot 

 and on the evening of May 25, 1813, he wrote from Fort George to 

 Bruyères at Kingston "The enemy's fire has been wholly (and most 

 successfully) directed hitherto against the Fort, which has been made 

 a complete example of, every log barracks in it being burnt down.^f 



The belief that any buildings at Navy Hall could have survived 

 this bombardment which made a thorough example of the log barracks 

 in the Fort is quite untenable. 



While this method of proof was quite satisfactory to my mind, 

 and the legend had disappeared so far as I was concerned, it seemed 

 advisable to supplement it by positive proof as to the date of and the 

 reasons for the erection of the building. The very fullness of the 

 military records in the Dominion Archives would encourage search 

 into so small a matter. The first plan upon which the building is 

 shown, so far as I know, is one signed by H. W. Willson, Lieut. R.E. 

 2nd May, 1817. It is also shown on the Admiralty Chart compiled 

 from drawings made (by the Royal Engineers?) in 1817. As all 

 the Navy Hall buildings were removed or destroyed in 1813, there 

 was a period of four years in which the building could have been er- 

 ected. Lt.-Col. Durnford, R.E., used Lieut. Wilson's map in 1823, 

 and accompanied it by detailed sketches of all the buildings at Fort 

 George and vicinity. I have reproduced a small portion of this map, J 



*Dominion Archives, Series C. 387., 1813, p. 16. 

 tDominion Archives. Series C, 678. 

 JSee plan II. 



