it attained perfection, might bring to the mother country, he accepted
the government of a mere wilderness, to adopt means adequate for that
purpose. Independent in means, high in rank, possessed of large and
beautiful estates in England, Governor Simcoe, in the opinion of the
Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, could have had no motive of
personal aggrandizement in view when he accepted the government of
Upper Canada. The General, however, loathed the Americans of the United
States. He had been with Burgoyne. He had tasted of that officer's
humiliation. It was impossible for General Simcoe to speak of the
"rebels" calmly. A zealous promoter of the American war, as well as
participator in it, the calamitous issue of that unfortunate and most
deplorable struggle increased the intensity of his bitterness. Although
he did not hope for a renewal of the strife, he trusted that if it were
renewed, he might have the opportunity of laying the country in waste,
and of exterminating the canting, hypocritical, puritanical,
independents. He soon perceived the folly of the Seat of Government
being situated on the very frontier, the more especially as Detroit was
to be surrendered to the very people whom he most detested. York, from
its security, situation and extent, seemed, at first glance, to be the
most desirable place. Determined, however, to do nothing rashly,
General Simcoe weighed the matter well in his mind. It seemed to him
that a town might be founded on the Thames, a river previously called
De La Trenche, which rises in the high lands, between Lakes Ontario,
Huron, and Erie, and flows into Lake St. Clair, which would be most
suitable, and in process of time, most central. He even selected the
site of a town upon the river, which he had named the Thames, and
called the site London. Indeed it is somewhat astonishing that this
excellent Anglo-tory, as the Americans, south of 45 deg., doubtless,
esteemed him, did not call Sandwich, Dover; Detroit, Calais; and the
then Western and Home Districts of the western section of the Province,
which is almost an Island, England. The garden of Upper Canada, almost
surrounded by water, Governor Simcoe did intend, that as England is
mistress of the seas, so her offshoot, Canada, should be Queen of the
Lakes. Whatever might have been, or may yet be the natural advantages
of London, Canada West, for a seat of government, the Governor General
of British North America, Lord Dorchester, not the