Hamilton Association. 



SESSION 1890=91. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BY B. E. CHARLTON, ESQ., (PRESIDENT), 

 ON NOVEMBER 13th, 189O. 



After welcoming the members to the Association's new quarters, 

 he said that he had chosen as the subject of his address, " Notes and 

 Incidents in the Early History of Hamilton and Vicinity " : 



Perhaps the earliest recorded visit of any white man to this part 

 of the Province of Ontario was that of the Jesuit fathers, Brebeuf 

 and Chaumonont, in 1640. In 1634 these two missionaries, with 

 others, attached themselves to a party of Huron Indians, whose home 

 was near Lake Simcoe, then visiting the present location of Three 

 Rivers, in the Province of Quebec, on a trading expedition, and 

 returned with them by the way of the Ottawa and French Rivers and 

 Lake Nipissing. After that long and toilsome voyage in bark 

 canoes, the intrepid fathers found themselves floating on the broad 

 bosom of a mighty inland ocean, which the Indians called Attiguan- 

 tan, but which they named La Mer Douce, or the fresh water sea. 

 This is now known as Georgian Bay. On the southern shore of 

 this bay, and between that and Lake Simcoe, they found populous 

 Indian towns, the homes of the Hurons. There they labored with 

 that zeal and courage for which their Order has always been noted, 

 but apparently with very indifferent success. After residing in this 

 place six years, the two fathers named above were selected to pene- 

 trate the country of the Kahquas or Neuters, a numerous tribe 

 inhabiting the country lying between the Niagara and Detroit Rivers, 

 and between Lakes Erie and Simcoe, lying chiefly around the head 



