It fell to my lot to make the first survey of York Harbour in 1793. Lieutenant-Governor, the late General Simcoe, who then resided at Navy Hall, Niagara, having formed extensive plans for the improvement of the colony, had resolved upon laying the foundation of a Provincial capital. I was at that period in the naval service of the lakes, and the survey of Toronto (York Harbour), was entrusted by His Excellency to my performance. I still distinctly recollect the untamed aspect which the country exhibited when first I entered the beautiful basin which thus became the scene of my early hydrographical operations. Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake, and reflected their inverted images in its glassy surface. The wandering savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage--the group then consisting of two families of Missassagas--and the Bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of the wild fowl; indeed they were so abundant as in some measure to annoy us during the night. 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 realisation of his favourite project. His Excellency inhabited, during the summer and through the winter, a canvas house which he imported expressly for the occasion, but, frail as was its substance, it was rendered exceedingly comfortable, and soon became as distinguished for the social and urbane hospitality of its venerated and gracious host, as for the peculiarity of its structure. Governor Simcoe gave the name of York to the capital he had selected, and the rivers on either side received the names of the Don and Humber. His own residence he built at the brow of the hill overlooking the valley of the Don, at the junction of what was a few generations later Saint James Cemetery with the property of F. Cayley, Esq., calling it "Castle Frank," the name which the property still retains. While the gubernatorial residence was being erected Governor Simcoe returned to Niagara, where he opened the third session of the Upper Canada Parliament on June 20, 1794. In the fall of that year, orders were given for the construction of Parliament buildings at York on a site at the foot of what in 1857 was Parliament Street, adjoining the place where the "gaol stands." In 1795 the Duc de Rochefoucauld was in Upper Canada, and in his published _Travels_ alludes to a visit paid to York by some of his companions: