Below is a timeline of events in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Before 1800 According to all records from local historians, this district was inhabited by the Neutral Indians who called it ATTIWANDARONIA. 1616 – Like most of the Americas south of the tree line, the original inhabitants of the Hamilton area were Indigenous peoples. The first European to visit what is now Hamilton was probably Étienne Brûlé in 1616. Lasalle also visited the area, a fact commemorated at a park in nearby Burlington. 1650 – The Iroquois Indians fought the Neutrals in a great battle on the foot of present-day Emerald Street. This area was the end of an old Indian trail that led to the Dundas Valley. The Iroquois landed from canoes and won the battle because they had obtained guns from the Dutch, and the Neutrals refused to trade with the whites. So many Neutrals were slain that the mound where they were buried could still be seen after 250 years (1900). 1780 – About the year that both Robert Land and Richard Beasley arrived. 1784 – About 10,000 United Empire Loyalists are settled in what is now southern Ontario, chiefly in Niagara, around the Bay of Quinte, and along the St. Lawrence River between Lake Ontario and Montreal. They are soon followed by many more Americans, some of them not so much ardent loyalists but attracted nonetheless by the availability of cheap, arable land. At the same time large numbers of Iroquois loyal to Britain arrive from the United States and are settled on reserves west of Lake Ontario. Kingston and Hamilton became important settlements as a result of the influx of Loyalists. 1788 – (1788–1793) The townships at the Head-of-the-Lake were surveyed and named. The area was first known as The Head-of-the-Lake for its location at the western end of Lake Ontario. 1790 – Richard Beasley occupied Burlington Heights (now the site of Dundurn and Harvey Parks) in 1790 & was granted land by the Crown in 1799. A local entrepreneur, Beasley's business ventures included fur trading, land acquisition and establishment of a grist mill in Ancaster. He was a member of the legislative assembly of Upper Canada from 1791 to 1804 and was appointed colonel of the 2nd regiment of the York militia in 1809. Financial difficulties forced Beasley to sell lands at Burlington Heights, but it was purchased in 1832 by Sir Allan Napier MacNab