In the ten years that followed this protest, despite Lymburner's prophecy, trade had much increased on the lakes, and had even found its way west of Lake Erie. Merchandise was brought from Albany by the Mohawk River, Oneida Lake and the Onondaga River to Oswego, and then shipped on schooners for Prescott, York and Niagara. There were ports of entry at Cornwall, Johnstone (Brockville), Amherstburg and Sandwich. York, the infant capital of the province, was, in 1803, much smaller than Newark, or Niagara, the former seat of government. In 1793 there was on its site one solitary Indian wigwam, and although in ten years the solitary wigwam had multiplied into many frame and log dwellings of the rudest description, there were as yet no public buildings of any kind. Lieutenant-Governor Hunter represented to the government in England that the executive had to meet in a room in the clerk of the council's house, and the only place for the meetings of the assembly was a room in a building originally designed as a residence for the governor. The courts of law also held their sittings there. The governor asked for {51} eighty thousand pounds for the purpose of erecting suitable quarters for the legislature, for various public offices and for courts of law. He represented also that contributions from England had been given to erect a Protestant cathedral at Quebec, while the inhabitants of York had subscribed amongst themselves for a church. Lieutenant-Governor Hunter, who was in command when Brock arrived at York, was a Scotsman of whom but little is known except that he had been governor of Barbadoes. There are few records of his administration, and he is but a shadowy figure in the annals of the time. He seems to have lived, as government house was occupied for offices, in the barracks, which were about two miles west of the town. These barracks consisted of a wooden blockhouse, and some cottages of the same material, little better than temporary huts. Another blockhouse was at the eastern end of the town, and between were jutting points of land clothed with spreading oak trees. The harbour was considered the safest on Lake Ontario. The long peninsula that enclosed the beautiful bay was fringed with trees, whose reflection in the placid waters was said to have been the origin of the Indian name Toronto. The wild grape vine threw its tendrils around them, and in their shade were refreshing springs of water. Wild fowl made its sandy beaches and reedy marshes their home, so that it was a very paradise for sportsmen. There were salmon in the lake and in the rivers {52} that flowed into it, and game of all kinds abounded in the neighbourhood. A road that had been cut through the wilderness north of the town by the orders of Governor Simcoe, led to Cook's Bay, Lake Simcoe, which was thirty-seven miles distant, and by that lake there was water communication of seventy miles north to Matchedash Bay on Lake Huron.