TORONTO OF OLD. 577 



This gl'aiicl avenue is almost in a direct line with Tonge Street, after tlie traverse of Lake 

 Bimcoe from the Landing has been acuomplishud. 



Penetanguisliene, indeed, as a port, no longer requires such an approach as this. The naval 

 and military depot which existed there has been abolished : and Collingwood, sinoo it has been 

 made the primary termiuun on Lake Hnron of the aSTorthern Railway of Canada, is the place of 

 resort for the steamers and shipping of the upper lakes. 



Nevertheless, the fine highway referred to yields permanently to the inhabitants of Vespra 

 and Oro, Flos and Medonte, Tiny and Tay, the incalculable advantage of easy communication 

 With each other and markets to the south, — the same advantage that Yonge Street yielded to 

 the settlers of Vaughan and Markham, King and Whitchurch, and the two towiiships of 

 Gwillimbury, in the primitive era of their local history. 



It is, however, not improbable that Penetanguishene itself will again acquire importance 

 ■when hereafter properly connected with our railway system, novV So surely advancing to the 

 nortli shore of Lake Huron ; thence to i^ush on to the North-West. 



Dr. Thomas Rolph, in his Statistical Account of Ilpper Canada, appended t(i his book on the 

 West Indies and United States, spoke in 1S36 of the region which we have now reached, thus ; 

 " The country about Penetanguishene on Lake Huron la remarkably healthy ; the winter roads 

 to it, crossing Lake Simcoe, excellent. In the summer months," he says, "it is delightful to 

 persons who are pleased and entertained by the wild grandeur and simplicity of nature. The 

 pure and transparent waters of the beautiful bay, and the verdant foliage of the vast woods 

 on the east side of the harbour, form a very picturesque scene." 



Capt. Bonnycastle visited Penetanguishene in 1841. He was present at one of the periodical 

 distributions of government presents to the Indians. A great concourse of the native people, 

 from far and near, were assembled on the occasion. Under such circumstances, Penetangui- 

 shene and its surroundings must have presented a peculiarly interesting appearance. 



" I happened to be at Penetanguishene," Capt. Bonnycastle says, "when the rmfortunato 

 Pou-tah-wah-tamies and nearly two thousand other Indians arrived there, the latter to receive 

 their annual gifts, the former to implore protection. [They had been recently removed from 

 their lands in the United States by the U. S. authorities.] I had never seen the wild and 

 heathen Indians before," the Captain observes, " and shall never forget the impression their 

 appearance, on an August evening, with everj-thing beautiful in the scene around, made upon 

 me. To do honour to the commandant of the British port and his guests, these warlike 

 savages selected for the conference a sloping green field in front of his house whose base wag 

 washed by the waters of the Huron, which exhibited the lovely expanse of the basin, with its 

 high and woody background, and the single sparkling islet in the middle. No spot could have 

 been imagined more suitable. Behind it rose tlie high hiU which, cleared of timber, is dotted 

 here and there with the neat dwellings of the military residents." He then describes the 

 dresses of the Indians, their painted faces, their war^dances, &c. 



"The garrison," he says, "is three miles from the village, and is always called the Establish- 

 ment ; and in the forest between the two places is a new church built of wood, very small, 

 but sufScient for the Established Church, as it is sometimes called, of that portion of Canada. 

 A clergyman is constantly stationed here for the army, navy, and ci^'ilians." 



In regard to the provisions supplied to the soldiers and others, Capt. Bonnycastle has the 

 following remarks : "A farmer [Mr. Mairs, as we presume] on the Penetanguishene road has 

 introduced English breeds of cattle and sheep of the best kind. He was, and perhaps still is," 

 he says, " the contractor for the troops, and his stock is well worth seeing. Thus the garrison 

 is constantly supplied with liner meat than any other station in Canada, although more out of 

 the world and in the wilderness, than any other ; and, as fish is plentiful, the soldiers and 

 sailors of Queen Victoria in the Bay of the White Rolling Sand live well." Penetanguishene 

 means "the place of the falling sands :" the reference being to a remarkable sandy cliff which 

 has been crumbhng away from time immemorial, on the western side of the entrance to the 

 harbour. 



We have a notice of Penetangirishene in 1846, in a volume of Travels in Canada, by the Rev. 

 A. W. H. Rose, published in 1849. "Penetanguishene," the writer says, " is situ.ated at the 

 bottom of a bay extremely shallow on one side, and is a small military and naval station, the 

 latter force consisting of two iron war-steamers, of about sixty-horse power each. There is 

 aaid to be a nice little aooiety in this (until lately) out-of-the-way station of Upper Canada. 



