24 EARLY GAZETTEER AND MAP LITERATURE 



commenced a career in the new land and laid a foundation on which 

 his heir has built. In such a case as this, many books which in a cer- 

 tain point of view are entirely out of date, at once regain a value as 

 important helps to the mind in a desired resuscitation of a particular 

 period of the past. Furthermore, in the lapse of time — in the lapse 

 of even a few years — in some instances, a certain pleasant flavour of 

 age is acquired by the language employed in local books ; and a 

 volume in itself perhaps of no especial intrinsic merit is, for this 

 reason, sought after and enjoyed. 



The first Gazetteer of Upper Canada, compiled soon after the 

 organization of the Province in 1793, attracted my attention a few 

 years since ; and, as it is a work which has become scarce, and the 

 contents of which seem likely to interest those who concern them- 

 selves about the early history of the country, I thought it would not , 

 be unfitting to reproduce it by instalments in the pages of our 

 Canadian Journal, accompanying each part with such annotations as 

 might throw light, where needed, on the origin of the names. 



The perusal of this Gazetteer has led me to the consideration of 

 other early topographical sketches of Canada, and other Gazetteers, 

 antecedent or subsequent, having reference to Canada. And I have 

 supposed that a short account of such productions, with brief speci- 

 mens, would not be uninteresting or out of place. 



The earliest Gazetteer that I have seen, embracing accounts of 

 Western Canada, is one published in London, soon after the conquest 

 of Canada in 1759, by G. Robinson, Paternoster Row. Its title is 

 " The North American and the West Indian Gazetteer." It contains 

 accounts of all the British Colonies of North America, none of which 

 in 1759 had revolted. A copy of the second edition of this work, 

 published in 1778, is in my possession. I have seen mentioned an 

 " American Gazetteer, containing an account of all the parts of the 

 New World. 3 vols., 12mo. Maps. 1762," but upon this work I 

 have not been able to lay my hands. I think it was printed on tliis 

 continent, and not in England. 



The North American and West Indian Gazetteer has no notice of 

 the locality on which Toronto is situated, and from which it took its 

 name. But Toronto appears very plainly on the folding map prefixed 

 to the book, and the same name is attached to a lake north of Lake 

 Ontario, and also to the chain of lakes and water communication 

 connected with the Trent and the Bay of Quinte. We do not find " 



