Читать книгу The Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada and Ontario 1792-1899 онлайн

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"E. B. Littlehales,

"Major of Brigade."

The first meeting of the Executive Council after the removal of the capital from Niagara to York was held at the Garrison in August, 1793.

Governor Simcoe, always watchful of the people's interests, and to encourage the fur traders of the North and West to bring their pelts to York, in October, 1793, accompanied by a party of officers, explored the country between York and Lakes Simcoe and Huron. Having made his exploration, in January, 1794, the Government surveyor, Augustus Jones, was ordered by the Governor from Niagara to York to direct operations in opening a road through the territory explored between York and Lake Simcoe. The work was soon accomplished by the Queen's Rangers, Simcoe's regiment, and the street or road was named Yonge Street after Sir George Yonge, Secretary of War in 1791.

In 1794 Governor Simcoe got into an entanglement with the high officials of the United States, arising out of a matter of great importance both to the United States and Great Britain. This matter was the erection of a fort by Governor Simcoe at the foot of Miami Rapids, about fifty miles from Detroit, and within what was claimed as American territory. Governor Simcoe was quite within his duty in erecting this fort, under the instructions of Lord Dorchester, the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief. The Americans thought or affected to think that the British were erecting this fort in order to give aid and countenance to the western Indians, who were at war, or on the brink of war, with the United States, in a matter of difference as to the boundary between the United States and the Indian territory to the west. The western boundary of the United States was then undefined. The great West had not then been opened up or even explored, and was known as Indian territory, and further as the "Great American Desert." These plains were peopled by roving bands of Indians, many of whom claimed the protection of and professed allegiance to Britain, and this fort was now erected in what was considered by the British Government to be Indian and not United States territory, with a view to protect British fur traders and to maintain watch over the excitable and often treacherous Indians.