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
The spot to be occupied by de la Durantaye for the purpose of defending
"the Pass at Toronto" might therefore be either in the Toronto region
itself at the Lake Huron end of the trail leading from Lake Ontario, or
at the Lake Ontario end of the same trail, at the point where English
trespassers coming from the direction of the Iroquois territory would
disembark, when intending to penetrate to Michilimackinac by this route.
At the first-mentioned point, viz, the Lake Huron end of the trail, it
was early recommended that a fort should be established, as we learn
from letter twenty-three of Lahontan, but we do not hear that such a
structure was ever erected there. The remains of solid buildings that
have been found in that quarter are those of Jesuit mission-houses, and
not of a formal fort established by the French government. At the
last-mentioned spot, on the contrary, viz, the Lake Ontario end of the
trail, it is certain that a fortified trading-post was early erected;
the official designation of which, as we shall presently learn, was Fort
Rouillé, but the name by which it came in the course of time to be
popularly known was Fort Toronto, as being the object which marked and
guarded the southern terminus of the trail or portage leading to the
district in the interior commonly called the Toronto region.
It was here then, near the embouchure of the modern Canadian Humber,
that "our Englishmen," as Denonville expressed himself, crossing over on
illicit errands from Governor Dongan's domain to that of the King of
France, were to find "somebody to speak to."
[Sidenote: 1687.]
The order sent to Durantaye was indeed not immediately executed. In 1687
Denonville reports as follows to the authorities at Paris: "I have
altered" he says, "the orders I had originally given last year to M. de
la Durantaye to pass by Toronto and to enter Lake Ontario at
Gandatsi-tiagon to form a junction with M. du Lhu at Niagara. I have
sent him word," he continues, "by Sieur Juchereau, who took back the two
Hurons and Outaouas chiefs this winter, to join Sieur du Lhu at the
Detroit of Lake Erie, so that they may be stronger, and in a condition
to resist the enemy, should he go to meet them at Niagara."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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