Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of OntarioScadding, Henry
History
Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario
Scadding, Henry
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel; Toronto (Ont.) -- History
Accordingly, as a counterpoise in point of commercial influence,
Toronto, as we have seen, was to be made a fortified trading post. "On
being informed" says M. de la Galissonière, in the document referred to,
bearing date 1749, "that the northern Indians ordinarily went to
Choueguen with their peltries by way of Toronto on the northwest side of
Lake Ontario, twenty-five leagues from Niagara, and seventy-five from
Fort Frontenac, it was thought advisable to establish a post at that
place and to send thither an officer, fifteen soldiers, and some
workmen, to construct a small stockade-fort there. Its expense will not
be great," M. de la Galissonière assures the minister, "the timber is
transported there, and the remainder will be conveyed by the barques
belonging to Fort Frontenac. Too much care cannot be taken," remarks the
Administrator, "to prevent these Indians continuing their trade with the
English, and to furnish them at this post with all their necessaries,
even as cheap as at Choueguen. Messrs. de la Jonquière and Bigot will
permit some canoes to go there on license and will apply the funds as a
gratuity to the officer in command there. But it will be necessary to
order the commandants at Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Frontenac, to be
careful that the traders and store-keepers of these posts furnish goods
for two or three years to come, at the same rates as the English. By
these means the Indians will disaccustom themselves from going to
Choueguen, and the English will be obliged to abandon that place."
De la Galissonière returned to France in 1749. He was a naval officer
and fond of scientific pursuits. It was he who in 1756, commanded the
expedition against Minorca, which led to the execution of Admiral Byng.
[Sidenote: 1752.]
From a despatch written by M. de Longueil in 1752, we gather that the
post of the Toronto portage, in its improved, strengthened state, is
known as Fort Rouillé, so named, doubtless from Antoine Louis Rouillé,
Count de Jouy, Colonial Minister from 1749 to 1754. M. de Longueil says
that "M. de Celeron had addressed certain despatches to M. de
Lavalterie, the commandant at Niagara, who detached a soldier to convey
them to Fort Rouillé, with orders to the store-keeper at that post to
transmit them promptly to Montreal. It is not known," he remarks, "what
became of that soldier." About the same time, a Mississagué from Toronto
arrived at Niagara, who informed M. de Lavalterie that he had not seen
that soldier at the Fort, nor met him on the way. "It is to be feared
that he has been killed by Indians," he adds, "and the despatches
carried to the English."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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