Niagara by the provincialists. As the Americans have a garrisoned fort of the latter name on the opposite bank, it creates much confusion and occasions frequent mistakes amongst travellers. Crossing the common, a crown reserve which is used as a race-course, my eyes were once again greeted with the sight of St. George's banner, and the athletic figure of a Highland sentinel, pacing to and fro on the broken ramparts of a fort near the entrance to the town. A few minutes brought us to the best hotel, where, though the landlord used his utmost endeavours by civility and attention to render us comfortable, yet still I could not resist drawing secret and inward comparisons between the American and Canadian hotels-comparisons, indeed, which were far from favourable to the latter; and I began to find my British prejudices in favour of the infallibility of every thing Canadian already wavering.

The town occupies a pretty situation on the margin, and about twenty feet higher than the lake, which has so much encroached upon it by the waves undermining the banks, that batteries which were thrown up but a few years since, as near as possible to the margin of the water, for the laudable purpose of annoying the enemy's fort on the opposite peninsula, have now nearly disappeared. The common above the town is intersected with the breastworks and redoubts of the English and Americans, as each party alternately had possession. The most extensive of them, dignified with the appellation of Fort George, contains some low wooden decayed barracks; and another below the town, in a still more mouldering state, is named Fort Mississagua, from a tribe of Indians, the original possessors of the tract of country between it and Fort Erie, thirty miles distant. These works, which are now rapidly crumbling into dust, and possess but the shadow

of their former greatness, might with some trifling expense be again rendered formidable. At the present time they are only put to shame by the neat, white appearance of the American fort Niagara, which being built exactly opposite the English town, and not 800 yards distant, might annoy it by a very effective bombardment. During the late war it was rendered almost useless, being surprised by Colonel Murray during the night, when the officer in command of the garrison had retired to his private residence two miles distant, and the royal salute fired for the capture first conveyed to him the news of the loss of his post. It was built by the French so far back as 1725, passed into the hands of the British by the conquest of Canada in 1759, was ceded by treaty to the United States in 1794, and restored to them after the peace of 1814. A long spit or bar of sand, running out from it into the lake, compels vessels bound up the river to pass under the guns of Fort Mississagua, which completely commands the

entrance.

The following day being Sunday, I attended service at the Scotch and English churches. As the former had been commenced from the foundation within only a few months, the interior was in a very unfinished state; but the congregation was large, and I was much struck with the fine soldier-like appearance of two companies of the 79th Highlanders, who attended in their full costume.

There having been a death by cholera in the hotel during the night, I was anxious to leave the town immediately; but, no public conveyance travelling on the Sabbath, I was necessarily detained until mid-day on the Monday, when embarking in a steamer I crossed the Lake, and in five hours entered the harbour of York, the capital of Upper Canada.

CHAPTER XIX.

From this place the navigation down the river St. Lawrence was rendered extremely difficult and dangerous, by a great number of violent riffs or rapids, and falls, among which he lost above fourscore men, forty-six batteaux, seventeen whale-boats, one row galley, with some artillery, stores, and ammunition.

SMOLLETT.

THE old Indian name of York was Toronto, and it was so called from the circular bay upon whose margin the town is built; but the same rage and bad taste for modernizing the names of places has spread over the Canadas as in the United States. The first objects which meet the eye upon approaching the bay are the miserable barracks and mud fort upon the left, Gibraltar Point and Light-house on the right, and the large building of the new Parliament House in the town, about a mile distant from the fort, in front. The town, containing between 8000 and 9000 inhabitants, is situated on low ground, which rises gradually as it recedes from the lake, but attains no great elevation. The streets are straggling and ill paved, but the greater proportion of the private houses and shops are of good substantial masonry. The public buildings, with the exception of Government-house, which in point of external appearance is little superior to a cottage, are plain and

excellent, and the English church, when completed, will be a tasteful and ornamental structure. The new Parliament House, a spacious brick building, was in an unfinished state, and had been appropriated for the purposes of an hospital during the prevalence of the cholera, of which cases were daily landing from every vessel that brought emigrants from Montreal. It was truly melancholy to see some of the wretched objects who arrived; they had left England, having expended what little money they possessed in laying in a stock of provisions for the voyage and payment of their passage across the Atlantic, expecting to obtain work immediately they landed in Lower Canada. Being deceived in these prospects, they became a burden upon the inhabitants of Quebec, or the provincial government. Forty-five thousand emigrants of all classes landed in that city during the first three months of the season, and the fate of many of them was miserable in the extreme. Nearly every headland of the St. Lawrence was occupied by an hospital, tenanted by numerous sufferers. Those who had some small funds, and intended settling in the lands belonging to the Canada Company, were forwarded to the Upper Country in the following manner. The emigrant who purchased not less than 200 acres in the scattered Crown Reserves, or 100 acres in the Huron Tract, received a passage to the head of Lake Ontario, upon depositing with the Company's agent at Quebec a sum of money equal to the price of his conveyance to the head of the Lake. After he had fixed upon his land, he showed the receipt for his forwardingmoney to the Company's agent at York, and it was taken in part payment of his second instalment, the Company allowing the purchasers of their lands to pay by six instalments in five years, and giving them a right to occupy the lots after payment of the first instalment.

The situation of York is far from an inviting one, the inhabitants being subject during certain seasons to the fever and ague, caused by the marshy ground which lies close to the town and around the head of the bay. It is almost to be regretted that a better site could not have been chosen for the capital of an increasing country. Though a more central position than Kingston at the foot of the lake, yet in no other respects does it equal it. The bay is too shallow to admit vessels of even moderate burden, and in time of war it is always exposed to the incursions of American gun-boats, and the town subject to be sacked, as in 1813. Some years since it was proposed that the capital of Upper Canada should be on the borders of Lake Simcoe, and a water communication be opened with Montreal by means of the shallow lakes and Rideau Canal; but I believe all thoughts of removing the seat of Government from York are now entirely laid aside. The land in the immediate vicinity is poor and cold, but becomes more fertile as the distance from the lake increases, and good farms are abundant towards Lake Simcoe, and on the sides of the road called Young Street. The place is however only in its infancy as yet, and said to be increasing rapidly, though the comparisons between it and Buffalo, the last American town I had seen, and of a very few years' growth, were much in favour of the latter. There are no places of public amusement, and the chief diversion for the young men appeared to consist in shooting musquito hawks, which hovered plentifully about the streets and upon the margin of the bay in an evening. Upon these occasions the sportsmen made their appearance, equipped in shooting jackets, and attended by their dogs, as if prepared for a 12th of August on the moors of Scotland.