TORONTO OF OLD. 363 



Friday, 26th, came donvu to my house, Long Beach ; calm, thaw," &c. Then on Tuesday, the 

 1st of .NIarch, 1876, the entry is : "Came down to 12-mile creek ; lame in my feet ; high winds 

 from N. W., frosty night. Wednesday, 2nd, came down to Newark; some snow, calm, frosty 

 weather. Thursday, 3rd, busy entering some field notes ; some snow, calm weather. Friday, 

 4th, busy protracting Yonge Street ; cold weather, high winds from N.W." Finally on Monday, 

 7th March (1796), we have the entry: "Busy copying of Youge Street; high winds from the 

 north, cold, snow fell last night about six inches." 



Some romance attaclies to the history of Mr. Augustus Jones. We have his marriage mentioned 

 in a Gazette of 1798, in the follo^ving terms : " May 21. Married, at the Grand River, about three 

 weeks since, A. Jones, Esq., Deputy Surveyor, to a young lady of that place, daughter of the 

 noted Mohawk warrior, Terrihogah." The famous Indian Wesleyan missionary, Peter Jones' 

 called in the Indian tongue Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by, Sacred Waving Feathers, was of the issue of 

 this marriage. Peter Jones, in his published Autobiography, tluis speaks : " I was born at the 

 Heights of Burlington Bay, Canada West, on the first day of January, 1802. My father, Augustus 

 Jones," he continues, " was of Welsh extraction. His grandfather emigrated to America previous 

 to the American Revolution, and settled on the Hudson River, State of New York. My father 

 having finished his studies as a land surveyor in the city of New York, came with a recommen- 

 dation from Mr. Golden, son of the Governor of that State, to General Simcoe, Governor of 

 Upper Canada, and was immediately employed by him as the King's Deputy Provincial Surveyor, 

 in laying out town-plots, townships and roads in different parts of the Province. This neces- 

 sarily brought hi m in contact with the Indian tribes, and he learned their language, and employed 

 many of them in his service. He became much interested in the Indian character — so much so 

 that he resolved to take a wife from amongst them. Accordingly, he married my mother, 

 Tuh-ben-ah-nee-quay, daughter of Wahbanosay, a chief of the Missisauga tribe of the Ojibway 

 nation. I had one brother, older than myself, whose name was Tyenteneged (given to him by 

 the famous Captain Josepli Brant), but better known by the name of John Jones. I had also 

 three younger brothers and five sisters. My father being fully engaged in his work, my elder 

 brother and myself were left entirely to the care and management of our mother, who, preferring 

 the customs and habits of her nation, taught us the superstitions of her fathers — how to gain, 

 the approbation of the Munedoos (or gods), and how to become successful hunters. I used to 

 blacken my face with charcoal, and fast, in order to obtain the aid of personal gods or familiar 

 spirits, and likewise attended their pagan feasts and dances. For more than fourteen years I 

 lived and wandered about with the Indians in the woods, during which time I witnessed the 

 woful effects of the firewater which had been introduced amongst us by the white people." 

 There is a discrepancy, it will be observed, between the Gazette and the Autobiography, in regard 

 to the name and tribe of the father of Mr. Jones' Indian bride. The error, no doubt, is on the 

 side of the Gazette. It is pleasant to find, in 1826, the now aged surveyor writing in the foUow- 

 ng strain to his missionary son, in a letter accompanying the gift of a horse, dated Coldsprinfs 

 Grand River: "Please to give our true love to John and Christina," he says, "and all the 

 rest of our friends at the Credit. We expect to meet you and them at the camp meeting. 

 I think a good many of our Indians will come down at that time. I send you Jack, and hope 

 the Lord will preserve both you and your beast. He is quiet and hardy : the only fault I know 

 he stumbles sometimes ; and if you find he does not suit you as a riding horse, you can change 

 him for some other; but always tell your reasons. Maythe-Lord bless you! Pray for your 

 unworthy father, Augustus Jones." 



Augustus Jones was, as has been already seen, concerned in the very earliest survey of York 

 and the township attached. As we have at hand the instructions issued for this survey, we give 

 them. It will be noticed that the Humber is therem spoken of as the Toronto River, and that 

 the early settler or trader St. John is named, from whom the Humber was sometimes called 

 St. John's River. The document likewise throws Ught on the mode of laying out townships by 

 concessions. On general grounds, therefore, it will not be inappropriate in an account of the 

 early settlement of Yonge Street : 



"Surveyor-General's Office, Province of Upper Canada, 26th January, 1793 Description of 



the Township of York (formerly Toronto), to be surveyed by Messrs. Aitken and Jones.— The 

 frontline of the front concession commences adjouiiug the township of Scarborough, (on No.lO), 

 at a point known and marked by Mr. Jones, running S. 74° W. from said front one chain, for a 

 road ; then five lots of twenty chains each, and one chain for a road; then five lots more of 



