Ontario
Area, 260,862 square miles. Formerly Upper Canada. As a
separate province, its existence dates from 1791. The population at that
time was insignificant. Simcoe became the first governor, and the first
Legislature met at Newark (Niagara) in 1792. The province was reunited
to Lower Canada in 1841; and in 1867 became a member of the new
Confederation, under its present name. The greater part of the province
was explored by Champlain, Etienne Brule, and Brebeuf, Chaumonot, and
other Jesuit missionaries, in the first half of the seventeenth century.