[208] Bouchette wrote of York or Toronto in 1815: ‘In the year 1793, the spot on which it stands presented only one solitary Indian wigwam; in the ensuing spring the ground for the future metropolis of Upper Canada was fixed upon, and the buildings commenced under the immediate superintendence of the late General Simcoe, then Lieutenant-Governor.’ _A Topographical description of the Province of Lower Canada, with remarks upon Upper Canada, &c._, by Joseph Bouchette, Surveyor-General of Lower Canada (1st ed.), London, 1815, pp. 607-8. According to this account, therefore, the building did not begin till 1794. [209] The name of the Thames had been previously for a short time given to another Canadian river, the Gananoque. See Shortt and Doughty, p. 651 and note. [210] Writing in February, 1796, Simcoe stated that the Legislature would meet at Niagara (Newark) on May 7, but that he proposed to dissolve the House of Assembly before the fort was evacuated. [211] Similarly Sir George Prevost was very popular in St. Lucia when he was commandant and governor in that island, 1798-1802. [212] This dispatch is printed on pp. 111-21 of _Canadian Constitutional Development_ (Grant and Egerton). [213] Cp. the similar views expressed by Carleton at an earlier date. See pp. 91-4 above. [214] The average annual revenue of Lower Canada for the five years 1795-9 inclusive was calculated at £13,000, p. a., of which only £1,500 was derived from Crown Lands, and the average annual expenditure at £25,000, leaving an annual deficit of £12,000. [215] Brymner’s _Report on Canadian Archives_ for 1892, Calendar and Introduction, p. vi. Cp. Murray’s views as given on p. 67 above, note. CHAPTER VI SIR JAMES CRAIG [Sidenote: Changes in administration.] As has been told in the last chapter, Milnes and Hunter, Lieutenant-Governors of Lower and Upper Canada respectively, took up their appointments in the summer of 1799 when the Governor-General Prescott was recalled to England. General Hunter was not only Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada but also Commander of the Forces in both provinces. These two men held their appointments for six years, until August, 1805. On the 5th of that month Milnes, who was by this time a baronet, Sir Robert Shore Milnes,[216] left for England on leave of absence, and on the 21st of the month General Hunter died at Quebec. For the time being, two civilians acted as Lieutenant-Governors, Thomas Dunn, senior Executive Councillor at Quebec, acting in Lower Canada, and Alexander Grant acting in Upper Canada. Milnes remained on leave of absence in England and drew his salary for over three years. A new Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada was then appointed, who in his turn also remained in England for many years and received pay in respect of an office the duties of which he did not perform.[217] [Sidenote: Evils of absenteeism.]