In 1791, when the former province of Quebec was divided into the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, Upper Canada contained about ten thousand inhabitants, chiefly Loyalists, who, as noted elsewhere, when the United States threw off allegiance to Great Britain, sought new hope in the wilds of Canada; where, though deprived of many comforts, they had the satisfaction of feeling that they kept inviolate their loyalty to their sovereign and preserved their connection with the beloved mother country. In 1792 General Simcoe was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; and in the summer of that year arrived in the colony. In the first instance the Government was established at Niagara, and there the first Legislature of Upper Canada was convened on the 17th of September, 1792. It was seen, however, that from its position on the frontier, Niagara was not well adapted for being the seat of government, and one of the first subjects which occupied the attention of Governor Simcoe was the selection of another site for a capital. On this point he very soon came into collision with the views of the Governor-General, Lord Dorchester, who was in favour of making Kingston the capital on account of its proximity to Lower Canada which he regarded as a matter of the first importance from a standpoint of trade, and also because of its possibility of defence, as, in the event of an invasion, troops from Lower Canada could be more easily forwarded to Kingston than to a more westerly point. Governor Simcoe, however, had visited Toronto Harbour, and had traversed the route thence to Penetanguishene on the Georgian Bay. He perceived that that was the most advantageous route for the then existing North-west trade,--the vast development of which since his time he may have dimly foreseen--and that so soon as a road was opened up to Lake Simcoe (then _Lacaux Claics_) merchandise from New York for the North-west, would be sent by Oswego to Toronto, and then _via_ Lake Simcoe to Lake Huron, avoiding the circuitous passage of Lake Erie. Finally the Lieutenant-Governor's views prevailed, and the site of a town having been surveyed on the margin of Toronto Bay, his first step thereafter was to commence the construction of a road (Yonge Street) to Lake Simcoe. In recent years the idea which thus originated with the first governor has been completely carried out until to-day Toronto is, with Montreal, the chief railway centre and the second city of the Dominion. How long ere it will outrank its rival? [Illustration: "York Harbor." A drawing on bark by Mrs. Simcoe.] The very next year after his assumption of the government of Upper Canada General Simcoe ordered the survey of Toronto Harbour, and entrusted the task to Colonel Bouchette, the Surveyor-General of Lower Canada, who gives us our first historical glimpse of Toronto a hundred years ago, or so, in the following passage: