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Title: Surveyor-General Holland
Author: Scadding, Henry (1813-1901)
Date of first publication: 1896
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   Toronto: [unnamed publisher], 1896
   (first edition)
Date first posted: 14 November 2009
Date last updated: 14 November 2009
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #413

This ebook was produced by:
David T. Jones
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

This file was produced from images generously made available
by the Internet Archive




_SURVEYOR-GENERAL HOLLAND._

BY REV. H. SCADDING, D.D.


     _A notice of Samuel Holland, first Surveyor-General of
     Lands for the Northern District of North America, based
     on a hitherto unpublished manuscript letter, addressed
     by him to Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, in the year_
     1792.

Having in my possession a somewhat important hitherto unpublished
manuscript letter, addressed by Samuel Holland, first Surveyor-General
of British North America, to Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, on some
matters relating to the early history of British Canada, and throwing
light on the origin of certain local names still to be seen on our
maps, I feel anxious that the document should in some way be committed
to the safe keeping of print, and so find a place in one of the
volumes of Provincial Archives, which it is confidently hoped the
Government will be induced hereafter to publish.

The letter would seem to have been written at the request of Governor
Simcoe, in order that he might have a written record of Mr. Holland's
familiar acquaintance and intercourse with his father (Captain John
Simcoe, R.N.) when brought into contact with him in the neighbourhood
of the recently-captured French Fortress of Louisbourg, on the Island
of Cape Breton, some forty-eight years previously. Mr. Holland was
officially engaged at the time making surveys of Louisbourg and
vicinity, and Captain Simcoe's ship, the _Pembroke_, happened to be
moored not far off from the shore, the sailing master, being on the
beach, took particular interest in Mr. Holland's employment of a
certain mathematical instrument, which was new to him, here called a
Plane Table, and expressed a desire to become better acquainted with
its use.

An invitation from Captain Simcoe to Mr. Holland to come on board with
his instrument soon followed, in order that he might personally
explain its use to him and his sailing master, and this was done.

The sailing master who had exhibited such a laudable curiosity was no
other than the person who in after years became famous as the great
discoverer, Captain James Cook.

The letter itself will explain the valuable services afterwards
rendered by the Captain of the _Pembroke_, Sailing Master Cook, and
Mr. Holland conjointly, in the survey of the Gulf and River St.
Lawrence generally, services which contributed materially to General
Wolfe's successful operations against Quebec, in 1759.

In this expedition, however, Captain Simcoe did not take part, having
been seized with an illness which eventuated in his death on board the
_Pembroke_.

Captain Cook, we find, used to refer in after years with gratitude to
his intercourse with Captain Simcoe and to the scientific experience
gained on board his ship.

The letter before us is dated "Quebec, January 11th, 1792." It reads
as follows, and will explain itself:--

                                         QUEBEC, 11th January, 1792.
_Lt.-Governor Simcoe, York:_

     SIR,--It is with the most sincere pleasure that I
     recall to memory the many happy and instructive hours I
     have had the honor of enjoying in your late most
     excellent father's company, and with more than ordinary
     satisfaction do I recollect the following circumstances
     which gave birth to our acquaintance: The day after the
     surrender of Louisbourg, being at Kensington Cove
     surveying and making a plan of the place, with its
     attack and encampments, I observed Capt. Cook (then
     master of Capt. Simcoe's ship, the _Pembroke_
     man-of-war) particularly attentive to my operations;
     and as he expressed an ardent desire to be instructed
     in the use of the Plane Table (the instrument I was
     then using) I appointed the next day in order to make
     him acquainted with the whole process; he accordingly
     attended, with a particular message from Capt. Simcoe
     expressive of a wish to have been present at our
     proceedings; and his inability, owing to indisposition,
     of leaving his ship; at the same time requesting me to
     dine with him on board; and begging me to bring the
     Plane Table pieces along. I, with much pleasure,
     accepted that invitation, which gave rise to my
     acquaintance with a truly scientific gentleman, for the
     which I ever hold myself much indebted to Capt. Cook. I
     remained that night on board, in the morning landed to
     continue my survey at White Point, attended by Capt.
     Cook and two young gentlemen whom your father, ever
     attentive to the service, wished should be instructed
     in the business. From that period I had the honor of a
     most intimate and friendly acquaintance with your
     worthy father, and during our stay at Halifax, whenever
     I could get a moment of time from my duty, I was on
     board the _Pembroke_, where the great cabin, dedicated
     to scientific purposes and mostly taken up with a
     drawing table, furnished no room for idlers. Under
     Capt. Simcoe's eye, Mr. Cook and myself compiled
     materials for a chart of the Gulf and River St.
     Lawrence, which plan at his decease was dedicated to
     Sir Charles Saunders; with no other alterations than
     what Mr. Cook and I made coming up the River. Another
     chart of the River, including Chaleur and Gaspe Bays,
     mostly taken from plans in Admiral Durell's possession,
     was compiled and drawn under your father's inspection,
     and sent by him for immediate publication to Mr. Thomas
     Jeffrey, predecessor to Mr. Faden. These charts were of
     much use, as some copies came out prior to our sailing
     from Halifax for Quebec in 1759. By the drawing of
     these plans under so able an instructor, Mr. Cook could
     not fail to improve and thoroughly brought in his hand
     as well in drawing as protracting, etc., and by your
     father's finding the latitudes and longitudes along the
     coast of America, principally Newfoundland and Gulf of
     St. Lawrence, so erroneously hitherto laid down, he was
     convinced of the propriety of making accurate surveys
     of those parts. In consequence, he told Capt. Cook that
     as he had mentioned to several of his friends in power
     the necessity of having surveys of these parts and
     astronomical observations made as soon as peace was
     restored, he would recommend him to make himself
     competent to the business by learning Spherical
     Trigonometry, with the practical part of Astronomy, at
     the same time giving him Leadbitter's works, a great
     authority on astronomy, etc., at that period, of which
     Mr. Cook, assisted by his explanations of difficult
     passages, made infinite use, and fulfilled the
     expectations entertained of him by your father, in his
     survey of Newfoundland: Mr. Cook frequently expressed
     to me the obligation he was under to Capt. Simcoe, and
     on my meeting him in London in the year 1776, after his
     several discoveries, he confessed most candidly that
     the several improvements and instructions he had
     received on board the _Pembroke_ had been the sole
     foundation of the services he had been enabled to
     perform. I must now return to Louisbourg, where, being
     Gen. Wolfe's Engineer during the attack of that place,
     I was present at a conversation on the subject of
     sailing for Quebec that fall. The General and Captain
     Simcoe gave it as their joint opinion it might be
     reduced the same campaign, but this sage advice was
     overruled by the contrary opinions of the Admirals who
     conceived the season too far advanced, so that only a
     few ships went with General Wolfe to Gaspe, etc., to
     make a diversion at the mouth of the River St.
     Lawrence. Again, early in the spring following, had
     Captain Simcoe's proposition to Admiral Durell been put
     into execution, of proceeding, with his own ship, the
     _Pembroke_; the _Sutherland_, Captain Rous, and some
     frigates, _via_ Gut of Canso, for the River St.
     Lawrence, in order to intercept the French supplies,
     there is not the least doubt but that Monsieur Cannon
     with his whole convoy must have been taken, as he only
     made the river six days before Admiral Durell, as we
     learn from a French brig taken off Gaspe. At this
     place, being on board the Princess Amelia, I had the
     mortification of being present whilst the minute guns
     were firing on the melancholy occasion of Captain
     Simcoe's remains being committed to the deep. Had he
     lived to have got to Quebec, great matter of triumph
     would have been afforded him on account of his spirited
     opposition to many captains of the navy, who had given
     it as their opinion that ships of the line could not
     proceed up the river, whereas our whole fleet got up
     perfectly safe. Could I have recourse to my journals,
     which have unfortunately been lost, it would have been
     in my power to have recounted many circumstances with
     more minuteness than I am at present enabled to do.

         I have the honor to remain, Sir,
             With great respect,
                 Your most devoted and most obedient and
                     humble servant,
                                   SAMUEL HOLLAND.

The captain of the _Pembroke_, we see, was a daring and enterprising
officer, and had his advice been taken in preference to that of
Admiral Durell, Wolfe's capture of Quebec might have occurred some
months earlier than it did. There is in the parish church of St.
Andrew, at Cotterstock, in Northamptonshire, a mural tablet sacred to
Captain Simcoe's memory inscribed with the services rendered by him to
his "King and country."

On the back of the MS. letter which has been engaging our attention is
to be seen a sentence in the handwriting of Lt.-Gov. Simcoe himself,
and it was this that in the first instance imparted a special value to
the document, containing as it did a curious record of some words used
by his father just before his sad decease. The memorandum reads as
follows:

     "Major Holland told me that my father was applied to to
     know whether his body should be preserved to be buried
     on shore, he replied, 'Apply your pitch to its proper
     purposes; keep your lead to mend the shot holes and
     commit me to the deep.'"

The initials J. G. S., John Graves Simcoe, are appended.

This document was presented to me by a daughter of Gen. Simcoe, and to
her this autograph memorandum of her father constituted its chief
value.

Gov. Simcoe, we may observe, uses the expression Major Holland. This
probably indicated his rank as an officer of the Royal Engineers. He
was, as must necessarily be the case with officers of that department,
a lover of science.

The following papers of his appear in the proceedings of the London
Philosophical Society. Their titles as given by Mr. Henry J. Morgan in
his Bibliotheca Canadensis, are:

I. Observations made on the Islands of St. John and Cape Breton to
ascertain the longitude and latitude of those places, agreeable to the
order and instructions of the Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners for
Trade and Plantations, 1768.

II. Astronomical Observations, 1769.

III. Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites, observed near Quebec, 1774.

IV. Astronomical Observations, 1774.

Major Holland appears to have been a native of Canada, and he died at
Quebec in the year 1801. He had been, it would seem, a personal friend
of Gen. Wolfe, who had made him a present of a pair of beautiful
pocket pistols, associated with which was a pathetic story of the
death of one of Major Holland's own sons in a duel. At the time of his
death he was a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and
had filled the office or Surveyor-General for nearly fifty years. We
learn from Mr. Le Moine's "Maple Leaf," first series, 1863, chap. 7,
pp. 41-43, that Major Holland's family residence was situated in the
neighborhood of Quebec, not far from the estate known as Spencer Wood,
it came to be popularly known as "Holland House." On the property was
a private family burying ground where Major Holland's remains were
deposited. A conspicuous fir tree in this burying plot, a survivor of
the primitive forest, was long spoken of as the "Holland Tree."

There was, down to a late period, preserved in the Crown Lands
Department at Toronto, a fine manuscript map of the Province of Quebec
as well as of all known Canada, on a large scale, by Major Holland.
This map I believe is now deposited at Ottawa. It has been reproduced,
I understand, by the Government, and may prove an acceptable boon to
students of early Canadian geography and history.

Few people probably realize at the present day that the name "Lake
Simcoe" was intended to recall the memory not of the first
Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, but that of his father, the Capt.
Simcoe of whom we have just heard so much.

This we learn from the note appended to page 138 of Surveyor-General
David William Smith's _Gazetteer_ of Upper Canada, published by
authority in 1797. The note on the item "Lake Simcoe" is this:

"So named by Lt.-Gen. Simcoe in respect to his father, the late Capt.
Simcoe of the Royal Navy, who died in the River St. Lawrence on the
expedition to Quebec in 1775." "In the year 1755," the note continues,
"this able officer had furnished Government with the plan of
operations against Quebec, which then took place." "At the time of his
death," it also added, "Capt. Cook, the celebrated circumnavigator,
was master of his ship the _Pembroke_"--a fact of which we have
already been made aware. The previous older name of Lake Simcoe, it
should here be observed, as stated by D. W. Smith himself in this
_Gazetteer_, p. 109, was "Toronto, or Lake Toronto."


_LAKE SIMCOE LORE._

Whilst as set forth in the article on Surveyor-General Holland, the
primary intention of Governor Simcoe in changing the name of Lake
Toronto was to do honor to the memory of his father, the Captain of
H.M.S. _Pembroke_, he desired at the same time to utilize as it were
separate portions of the Lake with the islands contained therein, and
streams entering it from several quarters as memorials of other
persons likewise:

Francis Island, in the north-west portion of the Lake, preserved the
name of his eldest son Francis.

Darling's Island was so named after General Darling, a friend; Cook's
Bay was intended to commemorate the great navigator, Capt. Cook, who
was so largely spoken of in Surveyor-General Holland's letter;
Kempenfelt Bay was meant to recall Admiral Kempenfelt, who so sadly
went down in the _Royal George_ off Spithead, August 29th, 1782;
Cowper's words will be remembered:

     "His sword was in its sheath,
     His fingers held the pen,
     When Kempenfelt went down
     With twice four hundred men."

Talbot's River entering the Lake from the north-east bore the name of
a young aide-de-camp of the General's, afterwards so well known in
Canada as Col. Talbot, founder of the Talbot settlement. Gray's River
bore the name of another officer on the General's staff. Graves
Island, alluded to Admiral Graves, a relative.[1] The three Townships
of Gwillimbury, on the edge of this lake, embalmed the family name of
the Governor's wife (Gwillim), and last, but not least, there is the
Holland River entering the Lake from the south-west, preserving to
this day the name of Major Holland.[2] Yonge Street itself, leading
northwards from Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe, is another instance of
the Governor's commemorating a friend. Sir George Yonge, from whom the
street or military way derived its name, was a friend and neighbor of
Governor Simcoe in Devonshire. That these names were imposed by
General Simcoe himself is manifest from the fact that they all appear
on the pages of Surveyor-General D. W. Smith's _Gazetteer_ compiled
under the eye of the Governor.

[Footnote 1: It is to be regretted that these names have not in every
case been retained. Francis Island, for example, is now known as Grape
Island and Darling's Island is Strawberry Island. Graves Island is
known as Georgina Island, but is occasionally spoken of under the
former name. Gray's River is now Beaver River. Canise Island, so named
from an Indian Chief of the Simcoe period, is now perhaps better known
as Thorah Island.]

[Footnote 2: It is to be added that "Holland House," Toronto, did not
in any way refer to the Surveyor-General. It was so named by its
builder, the Hon. H. J. Boulton, in allusion to the famous "Holland
House" situated in the Kensington suburb of England.]

Georgina Township, close by, was a reminiscence of the name which the
Governor originally intended to give the capital of his new province
as a compliment to George the Third, when it was proposed that the
spot occupied by the Canadian City of London should be its site.

Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, not very far off, was another reminder of
the old King. Gloucester Bay and Prince William's Island, in the same,
are likewise allusions to certain members of the King's family.

As to the name borne by the whole Lake before it acquired the name of
Lake Simcoe, David William Smith's _Gazetteer_ informs us that it had
once been known as Lake Toronto, and other names of a more recent date
are given, such as Lac aux Caies (Hurdle Lake), corrupted sometimes
into Lac la Clie, and Sheniong (Silver Lake). That Lake Toronto was an
ancient appellation of this lake we have abundant evidence. Thus we
have in "Pierre Margriy's Memoirs and Documents," Vol. II., p. 115,
the following extract from a letter written by the famous La Salle,
dated August 22nd, in the year 1680:

     "To take up again the course of my journey I set off
     last year from Teiaiagon on the 22nd of August, and
     reached the shores of Lake Toronto on the 23rd, where I
     arrested two of my deserters."

From this we see that on August 22nd he was at Teiaiagon--that is to
say the locality known afterwards as Toronto, and the day following he
arrived on the banks of Lake Toronto, as he very distinctly
speaks--that is to say on the banks of Lake Simcoe, as we should
speak, where he arrested two men who had been plundering his goods. We
thus see that "Teiaiagon" and the shores of Lake Toronto are two
different localities, distant a day's journey one from the other.

This same Teiaiagon is again referred to by La Salle in his remarks on
the proceedings of Count Frontenac, forwarded by him to the
authorities in Paris in the year 1684 (_See_ "Documentary History of
the State of New York," Vol. IX., p. 218).

He there speaks of Teiaiagon as a place to which the Indians from the
North, to whom he gives the general name Outaouacs, came down to
traffic with people from the other side of the lake, that is with New
Englanders: and he stated it as an advantage accruing from the
existence of Fort Frontenac, that this trade was thereby stopped and
drawn to Fort Frontenac.

What is here stated (by La Salle) corresponds with the testimony of
Lahontan, a French officer in charge of Fort St. Joseph, on the
western side of the southern entrance to Lake Huron (afterwards Fort
Gratiot) as given in his book and the large map which accompanies it.

Referring to his map on page 12, Vol. II., Lahontan says: "one sees at
the south-east of the river (French River) the Bay of Toronto." (This
is evidently a portion of the Georgian Bay, including Gloucester and
Matchedash Bays, certainly not drawn with the precision of a modern
hydrographic survey.) "A river empties itself there," he continues,
"which proceeds from a little lake of the same name, i.e., Toronto,
forming some impracticable cataracts, both in going up and
descending," this is evidently the Severn. "The man's head," Lahontan
adds, "that you see on the map on the edge of this river designates a
large settlement of Hurons, which the Iroquois have laid waste,"
consistently with all this, Delisle's map, published in Paris in 1703,
places Teiaiagon where Toronto now stands, at the same time giving
Lake Toronto in the Huron region to the north.

[Mr. Barlow Cumberland, Toronto, furnishes me with the curious
information that in the Grand Salon of the Ducal Palace at Venice,
when visited by him in 1872, there is a large terrestrial globe, some
four feet in diameter, constructed in 1690 by Antonio Patrizio of
Venice, on which, where the American lakes are presented, the small
lake situate to the north of Lake Ontario here called Lake Frontenac,
between it and Lake Huron, is styled Lake Taronto, and the track there
called Portage is distinctly marked from the lesser lake to the larger
one on the south, where its terminus is marked by the word Toiouegon.
All this corresponds very well with the record on a number of old maps
in my possession, the spelling in several instances varying a little.
Taronto is, of course, our Toronto with a slight Italian variation of
"a" for "o." (Sometimes it is Tarento, from slight resemblance in
sound to the name of a famous ancient city in the south of Italy. The
oldest French maps, however, give "Toronto" precisely as we have it
now, so La Salle gave it in 1680, and the maps used by Lahontan.) As
to Toiouegon--the name appears with several literal variations in the
old maps, and in D. W. Smith's _Gazetteer_ it designated the spot now
occupied by the City of Toronto. It signified, as I have elsewhere
shown, the Landing place to, _i e._, for parties about to proceed up
the Trail to Lake Toronto. That this Trail should have been so clearly
marked with the word Portage on the globe in the Ducal Palace at
Venice is very interesting.]

The Holland Landing is to this day a well-known locality; it is the
spot where Yonge street reaches one of the branches of the Holland
River, and here canoes and bateaux coming down from the north used to
receive trading and travelling parties coming up from the south, from
a landing place on Lake Ontario, via the trail running along the
valley of the Humber to the Oak Ridges, and thence along the valley of
the Holland River to Lake Toronto, that is Lake Simcoe. A long branch
from the westward enters the Holland River not far from the "Landing,"
and steamboats plying on Lake Simcoe used to navigate these branches;
and former travellers in this region will recall the sinuosities of
the route, as the huge hulk of the vessel made its way amidst reeds,
rushes and shallows, through the marsh which extends back from the
true mouth of the Holland River, many miles into the interior.


Transcriber's Note:

The text has been preserved as in the original. In the second last
paragraph, the text "...the Landing place to, _i e._, for parties
about to proceed up the Trail to Lake Toronto." does not make apparent
sense--an "id est" here does not fit logically, and the abbreviation
is not reproduced correctly.




[End of _Surveyor-General Holland_ by Henry Scadding]
