REVIEWS THE HAND-BOOK OF TORONTO. 505 



culties. Lord Dorchester had his Head Quarters at Quebec, the only place then 

 considered capable of defence ; and he would appear to have demanded that 

 Kingston should be selected as the capital of Upper Canada, a settlement having 

 already been made there. But Governor Simcoe had a mind and a will of his own, 

 which neither the greater proximity to Quebec, nor the convenience of obtaining 

 orders and news more rapidly from Europe, which Kingston presented, could 

 influence ; and as Newark lay within range of the American Fort on the opposite 

 bank of the river, and was not, therefore, the most appropriate place, he fixed 

 upon the site on which Toronto now stands, as the scene of his future administra- 

 tive operations, and carried out his determination irrespective of the opposition 

 which he had to encounter. 



" From the arrangements and plans which the Governor formed, the develop- 

 ment of the resources of the country seems to have been the leading idea in his 

 mind, and undoubtedly the magnificent harbour formed by nature at the very point 

 at which he looked for an outlet to the trade of the north, was not the least attrac- 

 tive feature in the rude scene which presented itself to his keen scrutinizing eye, 

 as he made his selection of this spot as his capital. Colonel Bouchette, Surveyor 

 General of Lower Canada, and then engaged in the naval service of the Lakes 

 was selected to make the first survey of the harbour of York, as the place was 

 then named by Governor Simcoe. In looking back upon that time (1*793) he says : 

 ' I still distinctly recollect the untamed aspect which the country exhibited when 

 first I entered the beautiful basin which then became the scene of my early hj'dro- 

 graphical operations. Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the Lake, 

 and reflected their inverted images on its glassy surface. The wandering savage 

 had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage — the 

 group then consisting of two families of Mississaguas — and the Bay and neighbor- 

 ing marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys of wild fowl. 

 In the spring following the Lieutenant-Governor removed to the site of the new 

 capital, attended by the Regiment of Queen's Rangers, and commenced at once 

 the realization of his favorite project.' 



"The building of the Town of York may be said to have commenced in 1*794, 

 under all the disadvantages which an unhealthy locality, described as better fitted 

 'for a frog pond or a beaver meadow than for the residence of human beings, 

 would necessarily present. The spot which the Governor selected for his own 

 residence was on the high ground north of the old Don and Danforth Road, over- 

 looking the 'flats ' or valley of the Don— decidedly the most romantic and pictur- 

 esque spot in the vicinity of Toronto, The log-house in which he established 

 himself, and which was named Castle Frank, — after one of the members of his 

 family, — was destroyed by fire upwards of thirty years ago; but the residence of 

 Mr. Francis Cayley, erected near the site of the old castle, still bears, and verj 

 appropriately, the name of Castle Frank." 



From this initial stage of Toronto, or York, as it was then styled, 

 our author traces its history onward, through various successive 

 stages of prosperity and adversity, to its condition in 1857, when the 

 little Village of York had grown to the City of Toronto, with real pro- 



TOL. HI. HH 



