om the boundary across to Toronto, and to legalize
marriages by Protestant clergymen other than of the English church. It
is amusing to read how Governor Simcoe regarded the marriage bill as an
opening of the flood gates to {317} republicanism; but for all their
shirt sleeves, the legislators enjoyed themselves and danced till
morning in Navy Hall, the Governor's residence, "Mad Tom Talbot," the
Governor's aid-de-camp, losing his heart to the fine eyes of Brant's
Indian niece, daughter of Sir William Johnson of the old Lake George
battle.

[Illustration: LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR SIMCOE]

Down at Quebec things were managed with more pomp, and no social event
was complete without the presence of the Duke of Kent, military
commandant, now living in Haldimand's old house at Montmorency. Nova
Scotia had held parliaments since 1758, when Halifax elected her first
members.

Besides the United Empire Loyalists, other settlers were coming to
Canada. The Earl of Selkirk, a patriotic young Scotch nobleman, had
arranged for the removal of evicted Highlanders to Prince Edward Island
in 1803 and to Baldoon on Lake St. Clair. Then "Mad Tom Talbot,"
Governor Simcoe's aid, descendant of the Talbots of Castle Malahide and
boon comrade of the young soldier who became the Duke of Wellington,
becomes so enamored of wilderness life that he gives up his career in
Europe, gains grant of lands between London and Port Dover, and lays
foundations of settlements in western Ontario, spite of the fact he
remains a bachelor. The man who had danced at royalty's balls and
drunk deep of pleasure at the beck of princes now lived in a log house
of three rooms, laughed at difficulties, "baked his own bread, milked
his own cows, made his own butter, washed his own clothes, ironed his
own linen," and taught colonists who bought his lands "how to do
without the rotten refuse of Manchester warehouses,"--the term he
applied to the broadcloth of the newcomer.

Under the French regime, Canada had consisted of a string of fur posts
isolated in a wilderness. It will be noticed that it now consisted of
five distinct provinces of nation builders.

{318}

CHAPTER XIV

FROM 1812 TO 1820

Hearne surrenders--Cook on the west coast--Vancouver on
Pacific--Discovery of Mackenzie River--Across to the Pacific--A smash
in bad rapids--Down Fraser River--Cause of war--The Chesapeake
outrage--War declared--Hull surrenders at Detroit--The fight round
Niagara--