“Better for the continent and the world that England won,” said Vincent.

“Perhaps so,” allowed Hugh.  “Though we cannot tell what might have been.  But that does not concern this Ulysses and his crew.  Onward, voyagers and voyageresses.”

“Your simile is an unfortunate one.  Ulysses was wrecked off Circe’s island and at other places.  Rather let us be the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece.”

“Mercenary wretch!” exclaimed Hugh.  “My taste is different.  I am going in search of a dinner.”

Hugh Warren’s ability for discovering anything of that sort was proverbially good, so we, having the same disposition, followed him below to the dining-saloon.

We arrived at Toronto, one hundred and sixty miles from Oswego, a little before dusk.  This city, the capital of the province of Ontario, is situated on an arm of the lake.  Its bay is a beautiful inlet about four miles long and two miles wide, forming a capacious and well-protected harbor.  The site of the town is low, but rises gently from the water’s edge.  The streets are regular and wide, crossing each other generally at right angles.  There is an esplanade fronting the bay which extends for a distance of two miles.  The population of the city has increased from twelve hundred in 1817 to nearly sixty thousand at present.  In the morning we took a hurried survey of its chief buildings, visited Queen’s Park in the centre of the city, and got round in season to take the afternoon steamer for Buffalo.

The district situated between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, as it has been longest settled, so also is it the best-cultivated part of Western Canada.  The vicinity to the two Great Lakes renders the climate more agreeable, by diminishing the severity of the winters and tempering the summers’ heats.  Fruits of various kind arrive at great perfection, cargoes of which are exported to Montreal, Quebec, and other places situated in the less genial parts of the eastern province.  Mrs. Jameson speaks of this district as “superlatively beautiful.”  The only place approaching a town in size and the number of inhabitants, from the Falls along the shores of Lake Erie for a great distance, beyond even Grand River, is Chippewa, situated on the river Welland, or Chippewa, which empties itself into Niagara Strait, just where the rapids commence and navigation terminates.  One or more steamers run between Chippewa and Buffalo.  Chippewa is still but a small village, but, as it lies directly on the great route from the Western States of the Union to the Falls of Niagara and the Eastern States, it will probably rise into importance.  Its greatest celebrity at present arises from the fact of there having been a great battle fought near by between the British and Americans in the war of 1812.