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32X

PUBL

^¥'-

* -

>♦

SKETCHES

OF A

SUMMER TRIP TO NEW YORK

AND

THE CANADAS.

BY D. W ILKIE.

" So on 1 ramble, now and tlu'n narrating.
Vow ponderiDcr "•*<,«

KvncN.

EDINBURGH:

PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER, LONDON ;

J. ANDERSON, JUN., AND A. HILL, EDINBURGH ;

GEO. TAIT, HADDINGTON; AND lAFFREY

AND REID, BERWICK.

MDCCCXXXVir.

■i'-'H

]

^f1f^f

72.

L>-''^'t/

^— ~v. ..,...,,, ^,^___,^^^.^^^

thi
rel
sty

thr
nee
hav
of]
my
who

MRS HAMILTON NISBET FERGUSON,

DIRLETON AND BELHAVEN.

Madam,
In presenting to your notice the following Sketches,
it is without expectation that they will be found to
contain information practically useful to any one ;
the only interest they can possess will arise from their
relation to that part of the world, so appropriately
styled the " poor man's country."

I hold in respect all who, in exerting their philan-
thropy, smooth the way for the unfortunate whom
necessity compels to search for a second home ; but
having witnessed some of the hardships which many
of my poor expatriated countrymen have to endure,
my heart warms with a double fervency towards those
who maintain a still higher position as benefactors of

DEDICATION.

their humble neighboars, by making use of the powers
and resources which Providence hath granted them, in
rendering to the poor man his own fatherland a happy
and abundant home.

The pleasure and satisfaction I feel in paying a
tribute of respect to one, foremost in such a laudable
pursuit, are greatly enhanced by the knowledge, that
I now bear along with me the hearts of many whose
grateful feelings any language of mine would coldly
express.

I have the honour to be,
With the highest respect,
Madam,
Your most obedient,
And humble servant,

D. WiLKIE.

Tyne House, lOth December, 1836.

h^t.

awers
m, in
mppy

in^ a
idable
, that
whose
coldly

lAHLK OF CONTENTS.

IMff.

( iiM'. I. — Starting — Canal 15oat — S|.rinj;inga Leak — Tontinf
Hotel, Glasgow — SteaniiT to Grei'tmck — Kotlisay, Sec,
CiiAi". 11. — Waiting for a Fair Wind — Acciilents — Slipping our
Cable — Irish Fishermen — Log Hook— Sea Sickness —
Ai'c'iik'nts — Calms — Gales — Hurricanes — Loss of
( ook ami Passenger in a Storm^Tliunder- Storms-
Shipping seas — Mother Carey's Chickens — Last of the
Log, . .

t HAT. Ill Arrival at New York — Our first Breakfast — Theatre

—The Fair Sex — I'layers — City Hall — Fulton Mar-
ket—Museum — Lawrie Tod — Tea Parties — Hroad-

way,

\ I. — Washington Hotel — Breakfast Table, &c. — Bar-
Room and its Accompaniments — Elysian Fields, iSic..^
Anecdote of a Temperance-struck Irishman — Hobert
Burns' House — Our Landlady — Steam Boat— Huds( ■
Uiver— Dinner Table.
C II A 1'. \ . — Albany— Theatre — Temperance- 1 louse — Bai 1 way
— Schenectady — Characteristic Anecdote — Erie Canal
— Ctica— Snow- Storm — Company — Buffalo — Lake
Erie — Detroit, ....

CnAi'. VI, — Detroit Bugs — Niagara Falls — Canadian Story,
I HAi'. \'II — Conclusion of Story,

Cmai-. \ III Last of the Oneidas, an Indian Tale,

CiiAi-. IX General Brock's Monument — Extra — Double-

Mi'dded Hoom — Night-Walking Adventure — Ameri-
can Hotel Breakfast — Toronto — Hamilton Militia-
Corduroy Hoad — Dining with Sipiire — Entry to the
Bush — Back -Wood Life — Canadian Kirk — Sermon
— Canadian Fair Sex — .Stumps — Fire Flies — Ameri-
can Tourists — Mrs Wilson, &c.,
X. — Letter — Steam Travelling — F. S.'s Log Hut —
Chopping Bee — Bush Festival — Guessing Frolic — Bee
at S(|uire D. 'g, &c,, .

CllAl'.

I.T

!»4

117

14H

170

\''

\ . »

( ONTKNTS.

r.«t"

( KA

( H M'

CllAl',

V HA I'.

IIAI-

< MAI'

. XI Observations on Tdiir \\ ritinc: — llobett Burns —

Toronto — Inland— Amc'tican Military - Crime and
I'unitlinieMt— Hotels — Fire — I'ublic MeetiniK — lull
of ScalTolding, ....

, \I1.- N'arii'ts of Spcts -^ (bildrcn of I'l'acf, alinx
l)a\ iilites- - David Wilson - Political I'rocesHJon - ( »x
Koastiiii; - Tlmnder-Storin - I)crt'a>e in the City —
l)i'|i:irtur(' for tbe \\'oods again — .lourncy tliithcr, &c..

XIIl.— The Hush Kinployinint of our I'artv - I'igs —
Natives — Harvest llurri<'am'— Hunting Hear — Life
of Settlers— Visit to an Old Scotchman — Clerical
Anecdote - Solitary (Jrave, &i'. - Observations on the
indulgiiiif in Sentiment and Devotion- -Cleared Land

— Snake-Fences — Cows nml lincloMires-- Frogs,
Crickets, Flies, Snakes— Hen Hiintlnj,',

\n. — Lake Ontario — Oswego — Hurricane on the Lake

— Symptoms of Sickness Land Lubbers — Yankee
Doctor — Arrival at Kingston— Lake of a Thousand
Isles — Prescot— Rapids — Montreal — Appearance of
the Island of Montreal — City— INLinners — Departure
for (Quebec — French Villages — Autumnal hues of the
I'orest, .....

X\ Arrival at (^>uebee— First l'roceedin;;« — Sunrlav

Afternoon — .Sketch of the History of (Quebec— Castli;
(if St Lewis — Monument to Wolte and Montcalm,

\\1 .Slipping our Cable — Accident— l{unning Down

Schooner— Cabin Party— Sea Scenes — Stoiy of an
Irish Girl — Dining at Sea — Sweeny's Wonderfid
Uream — Conclusion,

|K,^

2n\

•-'14

■2:].,

o.,<

liTO

raw

n» —
1* and

- I'ull

alias

— Ox

:ity—

I'igs-
— Life
'lerioal

on the
I Land

Frogs,

|hM

>o\

:I4

II' l.nki'
Yankee
housaml
ante nt
I'parliire
e» of tilt'

-Sunday
_-C:a»tl".;
•aim,
Uov\n

V (it an
(iniierhil

•in.)

'2i'*

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

CHAPTER I.

" I'd weep, but mine is not a weeping muse,
And such light griefs are not a thing to die on.

Voung men should travel, if but to amuse
Themselves.' • » » • *

After all preparations were made and settled
amongst those who proposed travelling in company,
'* Scotia's darling seat" was fixed upon as their ral-
lying place. One-half of our party were intending
wanderers to the west, and the other was composed
of friends, who, good-naturedly enough, volunteered
their services as a convoy to see us fairly on board.

The muster-roll was soon completed on the day
app^'nted, and the materials were more various than
the objects of the party. Some had boen over half
the world before, for reasons, too, the very opposite to
each other ; several had never been a week together
from their birth-places, which were situated amongst
the snuggest homesteads of mother Scotland ; and
others were from the green isle of Erin. Amongst

!•

SKET( HES OF CANADA.

the latter was a new acciuaintance, l)y name Tom
Plielim, as true-horn a Ilihernian as ever ate a potato
or (laiieed a ji^. His immediate occupation was to
follow one of our friends as factotum, and ultimately,
on reaching the western shore, become jaek-of-all-
trades on his master's " location."

Ilavinj^ done wonders in the way of puttin:^^ to
rights a thousand petty preliminaries to our travels,
we at last got within sight of the canal packet at
;V)rt-riopetoun, having resolved rather to submit to
the snail's pace journey by water than lose sight ot
certain packages that were to accompany us across the
Atlantic.

AVe were soon most economically packed I 'Twas
as like a tea-box as a cal)in — twelve feet long, and
nearly two dozen })eople — up one side and down the
other. No joke ! But no repining I — Travellers must
be travellers. So we stuck our arms to our sides and
made two as uniform rows as ever did trussed ducks
on a pantry shelf; or the famed inhabitants of the
grave, who forsook their narrow homes and stood
with candles in their hands to light the dancing
dames with the laconic garments in their midnight
revelry.

" IJiit pleasures are like poppies spread.'*

" Hillo I Tom, my sweet Hibernian, why, in the name
of the good St Pat, do you run along the bank, bob-
bing away like a jolly-boat in the wake of a seventy-
four ? Were you not five minutes ago seated between
the old man and the portly and unporta ^le dame in the

the
Tl,

f ■%

2 Tom

potato

was to

niatcly,

L-of-ail-

tini>- to
travels,
icket at
J)mlt to
sight ot
ivoss the

'Twas
mg, and
own the
ers must
ides and
d ducks
, of the
d stood
dancing
idnight

Ihename

ik, bob-

seventy-

)etween

le in the

SKETCHES OF ( ANADA. O

Steerage ?" — *' Ah, sir," said 'I'om, " she '" (meaning
the boat) " has sprung a leak, and we are all drowned
at the oiIkt end ; and I have got out, or I would have
been in I"

Though tills was in reality no cock or I»uil story,
the picture Tom '"played was (piite irresistible.
There he was, labouring along with his well-pleased,
ill-hewn, broad-grinning Irish nob, bright as the
full moon, and radiant with thoughts unspeakable.
Our vessel immediately stopped, and our poor steer-
age stowage — men, women, children, chairs, stools,
kittens, and rope-bedecked chests, barrels and band-
boxes, were tossed, tail and snout, suns ccremonie^
ashore — sweetly drenched with the insinuating licpiid.

" Heck /" said Mr S., when the watery intelligence
reached our end of the vessel, " I hope we'll not have
to mismove ourselves," which he had no sooner utter-
ed, than the audacious water, oozing through tin
door mid-ships and approaching his wcel hapj/it toes,
silently admonished him and us to retire without
farther parley.

Y'lew us then on the bank of the canal, grouped
together like a posse of hinds' wives at a Whitsunday
flitting, with our piles of goods and chattels buckled
and banded in the most portable form, and huddled
together, heads and tails, waiting the arrival of a
friendly lighter to bear us to our destination.

Again we journeyed onward in the even tenor of our
way, experiencing few casualties to mar our well-
packed equanimity. A sable coal-heaver was at one
part of our way pitched off his cobble of black dia-

. t

" i

, ' \

! ■

♦I

SKLTCHES OF CANADA.

monds by the drag- tackle of our gig ; he breasted and
buffeted the waves with the grace of a porpoise ami
the muscuhuity of a dolphin ; and but a few minutes
elapsed ere ho again stood triumphant on the prow
of his single decker, shining and glistening in the
noonday sun like an American humming-bird, or a
gay butterfly borne lightly down a romantic rivulet
on the bosom of a hollow roscleaf.

Away we shot as briskly as ever, accompanied
with the eternal pattering of spray, howling of wind,
i.ogyering of the cobble, and occasional blinks of the
sun. We now began to look anxiously forward to
the termination of this our first voyage. We felt a
iQW internal murmurings and stomachic cravings,
that increased half-hourly and threatened to become
rather subversive of our good-humour if accident or
otherwise conspired to keep us much longer from
Port-Dundas.

" What is that!" said J. S. (rendered nervous
from recent adventure), as a splash of water dashed
np against the windows. " Tut! it's a lock," said
one. " jNIercy on us," returned J. S., '" there's a
boy in the water ! " as he popp'd his long nose out at
the window to assure himself of it.

It was a boy from the boat, who had been pitched
from the dock as it entered the lock ; he was safely
got out, however, after going under, to the immi-
nent risk of his bodily tabernacle. And here ended
our aquatic adventures for the present.

Spirits of epicureans ! and ghosts of gormandizers !
what to us was the sight of the steaming beefsteaks

asted and
poise ami
V minutes
the prow
ng in the
bird, or a
tic rivulet

jompanied
^ of wind,
nks of the
'orward to
We felt a

cravings,
[to become
ccident or

^er from

nervous
ter dashed
nek," said
there's a
ose out at

?n pitched
vas safely
;he immi-
ere ended

^andizers !
)eefsteaks

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

and other substantialities to which we addressed our-
selves, in the snug parlour of the Tontine, after ten
hours' fast !

Reader ! wert thou ever under the necessity of
packing up thy things to set out on a journey of four
or five thousand miles ? If not, then thou hast never
experienced the many little tit-bits of teazing tor-
ment which haunt the very soul of the traveller
before he gets himself, body, trunks, chests, and hat-
boxes, fairly afloat on the bosom of the broad blue
waters. For after he has fairly accomplished thrift
his cares, at least of one class, are for the time set
aside, and he luxuriates in the idea of having en-
countered and overcome difficulties which required
the stern pith of a hero to accom])lisIi.

After running up and down for two whole days
that city in which worthy Bailie Jarvie and his
faither before him held civic dignities with so much
honour to themselves and credit to the guid toon,
we got on our way, in the direction of the Broomie-
law, bound for Greenock. Pacing along the busy
Trongate with all the importance of people whose
thoughts were on mighty deeds intent, we at last
found ourselves pushing on, within sight of the spot
of embarkation — while the steamer destined to tran-
sport the honoured burden of our persons was push-
ing off, —

" And then and there was hurrying to and fro."

The foremost of our party hailed those next them,
and they, in their turn, gave tongue to those why

i.^'

' A

\ I

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

brought up the rear. But neither will time, tide, nor
steam-boats wait for any one; and some of us at
least, ran imminent risk of being in full time to be
too late, if our feet did not betake themselves to the
top of their speed, and equal almost the fleetness
of our wishes. Being one of the middle portion of
this bustling body of time-tickled travellers, I used
as well as I could those two locomotive engines,
yclept long legs, which Nature — seemingly stretching
a point in my behalf, has graciously set me upon —
and as experience soon proved, their exertions were
of the last importance. At the moment I reached
the edge of the quay the stern quarter of the huge
steamer, now puffing and blowing, was at least five
feet from it ; but, aided by the impetus I received
from my hot haste, I made a desperate spring, and
lighted on the poop, to the imminent risk of a cluster
of the fair sex, who were standing huddled together,
and who at my appearance started away as if I
had been the Ghost in Hamlet, or the man from the
moon. There we were, then, pushing and splashing
along, leaving behind us half the party to follow
" per the first opportunity."

After passing many fair and romantic scenes,
where of old those skirmishes took place between
the patriarchal supporters of the venerable Church
and her heretical enemies, we were landed at the
stirring and thriving port of Greenock. It is beau-
tifully situated on the south of the Clyde, and com-
mands a fine view of Highland scenery. All infor-
mation of this kind, however, may be picked up from

e, tide, nor
e of us at
time to be
3lves to the
le fleetness
portion of
lers, I used
ve engines,
y^ stretching
me upon —
irtions were
t I reached
)f the huge
it least five
i I received
spring, and
of a cluster
d together,
ay as if I
Ian from the
d splashing
to follow

ie scenes,
30 between
)le Church
kled at the

It is beau-

„ and com-

AU infor-

led up from

'" ' '.•

SKETCHES OF CANADA. 7

maps, gazetteers, and guide-books ; but aught
touching the sweet looks and fair forms of a certain
portion of the inhabitants cannot be gleaned from
such sources, and might afford a species of informa-
tion generally interesting, could we venture with im-
punity to enlarge upon it. One of our party exclaim-
ed, after he had taken a walk through the streets,
that many of the fair sex were angels, and the re-
mainder goddesses. This was a sublime and sweep-
ing conclusion, and his intellects seemed to have
caught a gleam of inspiration for the occasion. la
honour and gallantry, of course, we all acquiesced in
his decision.

Here we had to wait day after day Ibr a fair wind,
and were at times in danger of running altogether
through the small and diminishin^^stock of our patience.
We were glad to seize every opportunity of easing our
minds of the carking care and uncertainty which ha-
rassed us in being obliged to linger out our time at
a place which, in our untravelled wisdom, we had
only intended to honour ^ith a passing glance.

An accident occ rred to our party which at first
promised to be more serious than it turned out. . One
forenoon, after we had got our packages stowed away
in our respective berths (on board the Camillus),
which were truly like the three days* habitation of
the prophet of old, narrow and uncomfortable man-
sions, W S , the youngest of our party,

though not by any means the least, thought that it
would be as well to take those linens which he had
soiled during our lingering stay at port, to sea in a

\ <

... •• *

SKETCHES OP CANADA.

purified condition. He collectetl them together, and
stepped up the companion-way to carry them to the
busy dirt-destroying hands of some honest dame of
the tub. He had just placed one foot on the steps
that reach to the top of the vessel's rail to leap ashore,
the distance of a few feet only, when some one asked
whither he was bound? " To the washerwife," he
replied, as he raised his other foot. But ere it had
gained the resting-place, or the words had well reached
the ears of the interrogator, the rotten and false-
hearted timber refused to support longer the super-
incumbent pressure, and the luckless wight, with all
the fluttering array of his uncleansed apparel, \vas
on his travels down the inside of the dock and the
outside of the vessel — the cherry of his bonnet
looking: in the direction of the earth's centre of jjra-
vity, the soles of his feet pointing to the skies, and
his legs stretched out in the exact form of a huge V.
In this unstudied attitude he made a descent at least
six feet below the surface of the gurgling water, to
the evident discomfiture of thousands of tiny fishes
that were sporting in shoals rounxl the sides of the
vessel. Quick as thought a sailor was at the water's
edge with a rope's end, ready to aflford our hasty
friend every needful assistance when he should as-
cend to his native element from the depths. He
lingered but an instant ; and when the impetus of his
fall was expended by the resistance of the water, he
slowly turned round and majestically rose to the sur-
face, and after a few tugs and pulls at the friendly
rope, succeeded in planting his feet firmly on the top

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

;her, and
di to the
dame of
the steps
}) ashore,
>ne asked
wife," he
re it had
11 reached
ind false-
he super-
, with all
are], \vas
and the
s 1)onnet
13 of ip'a-
kies, and
huge V.
t at least
water, to
iny fishes
es of the
le water's
•ur hasty
lould as-
hs. He
us of his
ater, he
the sur-
friendly
the top

of the quay. There he stood in all the polished splen-
dour of an antique bronze, whose drapery is more
adapted, by its rigid tenacity, to show forth the limbs
and joints of the figure, than by its ample folds to
impart to the spectator the idea of grace and beauty.

The cherry^ which had in coxcomb fashion sur-
mounted the person of our saturated friend, had on
account of its inverted journey assumed the form of
a flattened strawberry. His flaxen curls were now
in melancholy guise, pointing with tearful despon-
dency to the earth ; while ever and anon the briny
drops gathered and fell from his cold blue ears
on his humbled shoulders ; and they in their turn
seemed to shrink from the overpowering flood of wo.
In short, nothing seemed prominent in the whole close-
clinging figure save the middle feature of the face,
which now assumed the appearance of a protecting
aqueduct to its subjacent companions, who were pre-
served by its aid from briny ablution ; for the trickling
liquid, oozing from the brow and the bonnet, found a
convenient channel along the ridge, and discharged
itself sheer over the precipice. This seemed to give
evident satisfaction to the mouth, for, in spite of the
damping influence of the unexpected drenching, it
continued, like the sun behind a shower, to assume the
appearance of a beaming smile. And I am happy to
add, that no serious consequences arose to our young
friend from his ungainly faux pas, which was the
occasion of so much amusement to us.

A second accident befel one of our party, which
was of a more serious nature, and imparted to us a

;:• (

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

tew boding twinges for our coming course. Trifles
in reality began to assume in our minds types of the
future. While on our mimic voyage we had sprung
a leak ; when about to commence our second watery
stage one of us had fallen overboard, and narrowly
escaped with life ; and we now witnessed another
accident that wore a still more gloomy complexion. A
fine boy of fourteen, of whom I had taken charge since
leaving home, one night after our arrival at port had
gone down to sleep on board, which he was recom-
mended to do in order to accustom himself with the
berth, and thus be the more likely to feel at home
when fairly afloat and cradled by the winds and the
waves. Unaccustomed to the mechanism and plans
of a ship, he had wandered from the cabin along the
second deck to satisfy curiosity and examine all that
might afford food for his boyish wonder. The cover-
ing of the main hatchway had been removed to admit
the cargo. A false step precipitated him headlong
amongst a confused mass of barrels, boxes, and other
descriptions of unpacked stowage, and he was picked
up in a state of complete insensibility. One of the
seamen was despatched to our hotel to tell us the un-
fortunate circumstance. There we were comfortably
discussing the contents of a bowl of genuine Glasgow
punch ! When we got on board we found the poor
boy stretched on a sofa in the cabin, with his head
and breast bare, one eye closed up, and some spots of
blood on his pale and inanimate face, while at inter-
vals he was moaning heavily and painfully. After
procuring medical aid, and having him bled, we

m
fo

; i

, ai

je. Trifles
jrpes of the
had sprung
lond watery
id narrowly
sed another
iplexion. A
;harge since
at port had
was recom-
df with the
;el at home
ids and the
n and plans
n along the
line all that
The cover-
ed to admit
n headlong
, and other
was picked
ne of the
us the un-
omfortably
e Glasgow
d the poor
his head
e spots of
le at inter-
y. After
bled, we

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

managed, with the assistance of a piece of canvas and
four sturdy seamen, to get him conveyed to more
comfortable quarters in the Tontine. He there passed
through the various stages, from insensibility and in-
coherence to perfect Iiealth ; but recovered unfortu-
nately too late to accompany us in our westward
journey ; and, as I afterwards learned, he shed tears
of bitter regret when he got back his memory, and
found that we had been under the necessity of leaving
him behind.

Having found that the old beldame, Camillus, who
was to transport us across the broad waters, did not
feel convenient to spread her lusty — or, as we after-
wards found, musty canvas to the breeze, — we availed
ourselves once more of the vapoury power, and were
whirled down the fair bosom of the Clyde to the
beautiful bay of Rothsay. Here we ascended the
heights, and gazed, and gazed again towards the tower-
ing crests of the Highland mountains, — some of us
with the thought that these spirit-stirring and majestic
features of our native land might never meet our eyes
again.

Our thoughts were soon called to a less lofty but
more heart-felt cause of sympathetic melancholy.
One of our party had gone to visit Miss B., resid-
ing in this sequestered spot for the benefit of the
climate. On her the mysterious finger of destiny had
impressed the signs of premature decay ; and he found
her fast journeying to that land where all earthly sor-
rows are at rest !

Ill-fated Miss B. ! Beautiful as the dewy lily of

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

the morning, but like it too, while drooping under
the scorching influence of a noonday sun. Per-
chance, ere we arc well out of sight of our native
peaks, she, too, may be away — and to the land from
whence there is no return ! Adieu, fair daughter of
Scotland I many and happier we may sec in our
manifold wanderings ; but there is a bright and un-
fading charm which attaches to thee, sweet fading
flower-bud of the glorious north ! A long adieu ; and
when thy pure soul has winged its way from its fair
but fragile dwelling, may that power, ever watching
around and above us, afford it an everlasting resting-
place in his Heaven of Heavens.

Before we were many miles from the shores of our
native land the rose had faded, the lily had drooped
— the hand was nerveless, the eye was dimmed —
and the spirit of the early sufferer had flown from our
care-covered world to the bourne of the blessed !

iii

nznwmmbne

[ 13 J

CHAPTER II.

" But let me change tliis theme, which grows too bail.
And lay this sheet of sorrows on the shelf."

Friday morning^ Seven o clock, March 1824. —
Enter Tom Phelim — " I say, sir, are you all up? "
*' Well, Tom" (said his master in bed), "what's in the
wind now ? " — " Captain says, sir, it is looking west ;
and we had better look sharp, for he is ready to sail
in half an hour."

This intelligence, although we had been wishing
and wishing again for it, gave our nerves a twinge.
Now it was, as Tom expressed it, that we were to
leave home in rale airnist, and we keenly felt the
necessity of complying with the summons. We gave
ourselves, however, small time to ponder over the
matter ; our nightcaps were dofted — our inex-
pressibles donned, and two minutes more found us
passing along the quay on our way to board the
Camillus. We found her as lazy and inactive-look-
ing as she was when we first arrived ; and we felt
relief from the thought that we would yet have a few-
hours to tread the solid ground. We got the positive
information, however, that she was to push off at two
o'clock. The interval was passed on shore — and
see us tiien, in one of the calmest and mosl placid

If'

SKETCHES or CANADA.

(lays that our isle ever smiles beneath, (lra«(ge(l from
port hy the ponderous power of a steamer that wrest-
ed us at once from where we had lingered with feel-
ing's indescribable till the very last moment. We
were now in all the confusion that could well be,
huddled together in the capacity of a vessel only 290
tons burden. There was hardly a vacant inch on
deck ; ropes, blocks, tar-barrels, pigs, dogs, and a
tolerable crowd of men, women, and children were
juml)led and jostled to and fro as the seamen ran fore-
and-aft adjusting the tackle of the filling sails.

The figure we cut was more resembling the diverse
appearance of a tinker's waggon than a gallant ship
with its passengers and crew preparing to ride over
the proud billows of the Atlantic I

Pieces of beef and baskets of leeks were hung half
mast high, while over the stern a long string of in-
verted cabbages dangled up and down, stretched from
starboard to larboard ; and over the chains at the
bows of the vessel were suspended, by legs and arms,
shirts, jackets, and other unimaginable pieces of cloth-
ing, placed there to dry and take the air by some of
our steerage gentry.

We were now in a fair way of having at least a
four weeks' dose of monotony ; luckily for all parties
there were no ladies in the cabin. They would have
had nothing in the shape of comfort, and it was not
in our power to make up in any way for the deficiency.

After being in tow for about thirty miles we spread
our canvas to the breeze, and bore away slowly within
a short distance of the venerable Ailsa Craig. Her

ofl

di^

noi
oul
th|
rec

SKETCHHS OF CANADA.

m
t-
1-

])al{l crest was hcautituUy tiiij^cd with the hist beams
of the sun, and cast on us as it were a faint and fare-
well smile I LoHLf we lin^-ered on deck to mark the
dim growint^ outline of Scotland's rocky coast ; and
none but those who have been, like us, wanderin<^ from
our fatherland, can conceive or f 'cl such emotions as
then oppressed us when we gazed on the landscape
receding, perhaps for ever, from our view.

It was at such a moment as this that the l)eautifiil
lines on the Isle of lieauty must have been written, —

" Shades ot'cvcninjjr, close not o'or us,

Leave our lonely bark a MJiilo : —
Morn, alas ! will not restore u^

Yonder dim and distant Isle."

And we experienced fully the truth of those lines, for
when we mounted on deck the next morning- nothing
was visible save a few rocky islets that stud the bosom
of the water to the north of Ireland; all else around
us was the blue and boundless deep.

We did not feel at home in the small, ill-lighted,
ill-furnished, but, on the whole, well-filled cabin ; so
we kept as much above board as possible, enjoying
the cooling sea-breeze, and gazing over the swelling-
waters with all the new-fangled curiosity of thorough-
bred land lobsters !

A speck was observed at some distance, and this
immediately furnished to us a fruitful topic of conjec-
ture. It came drifting towards us, and turned out to
be an Irish fishing-boat, manned by a couple of not-
to-be-mistaken sons of the Emerald Isle. The dis-
tinguishing marks were of course, red hair, blue eyes.

!. ./

■I

Vi'

SKETCHES or CANADA.

larpfc mouths, pearl grey buttonless coats, and nonde-
script inoxj)rtssil)les, seeing- that they were neither
long nor short, for though they might originally have
been made to hind the knee, the gaping gussets main-
tained a more humble posture, and stretched them-
selves half round the calf of the leg ; or had they been
meant, like the pantaloons of our ancient beaux, to
clasp and show oH* the ancle, they were of course as
far from accomplishing this end. In short, they might
have been likened to that wise class of politicians
called trimmers, who veer up and down as it suits
their fancy, or, like the garments in question, remain
for a season on the neutral ground.

*' Your honours will be wantin' a few of the fish,"
said Pat at the helm, as we threw out a rope's end
and dragged them alongside. A bargain was soon
struck, and they received a bottle of brandy for their
night's fishing, for the poor fellows had been out since
the previous afternoon. One of our sailors recom-
mended them to exchange the spirits when they got
ashore for something to eat and drink, naturally sup-
posing that they would prefer quantity to quality ;
when one of them, with a true Hibernian smile, an-
swered, that " the shore would have good luck if it
saw a single dhrop of it," putting the spirits to his
lips, and wishing all our healths as well as that of St
Patrick, whose natal day it chanced to be. He then
took the bottle from his mouth, and giving a satisfied
sigh, added, " your honours will give us a few bis-
cuits to ate to the salt beef you'll be throwing us over,
for we have got no breakfast at all, since last night."

I', ij

{ 1 .

SKETCHES or CAN.U)V.

.;t

This we did. On crKj nry we Icar/ird tliat the l»oat-
ineii rt'sick'd on one of tlie little islajids which we had
passed, and that the j)rii'st visited them twice a-yt-ar
for the purpose of jj^ettiiig a contribution from their
»*inall earninjj^s.

" CJod send your honours a fjur wind, and may you
never have more priests than potatoes," they sun<j^ out
hoth at once us they quitted the rope and shot away
astern of us.

On we went at a sort of jog-trot, neither fast nor
Aow, feelinjr no excitement, fairly launched on the
world of waters and weariness, with hardly any thint;
in view that could mark either the lapse of time or
space.

A few extracii from my lotj-hook may be the most
effectual way to cast a gleam across the watery pil-
grimage which we undertook ; so, with leave, 1 will, as
it were, separate for present use the essential oil of
my wave-borne record ; or, as the cunning artist
fixes upon his immortal canvas only the most inter-
esting portions of history, and leaves the rest to fancy,
I will raise the curtain only when the scene behind
may be worth observation.

Monday^ 17 th March. — Heaving and pitching
away to our great and manifest discomfort, but none
of us as yet on the sick list. Begin to think that \\v
have a fair chance of clearing scores with old Mother
Ocean without performing the extra benevolent act of
feeding the sharks. Strong similarity between them
and a certain class of terrestrial priests, lusty and
rapacious, and luxuriating on what their poor devoted

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

I '

.1-1

lay-brethren are made to decant. Such in one sense
is the world — a wide theatre of gluttony, from shark
to man !

Saturday Tld Just able to crawl up on deck for

a few minutes ; stormy for five days past, and the
most of us prostrate for the whole time ; adverse gale
driving us hither and thither ; a very gloomy and
stirring scene ; all usual, no doubt, to sea-seasoned eyes,
not so to us. Obliged to hold on by the mizenmast
lest my poor emaciated body be tossed or washed
ovei board, my pale cheeks pressed to the briny and
bending timber as lank and fleshless as a hemlock in
the corner of a wintry churchyard ; down I must go
again ; a squeamish qualm is sufficient warning.

Sunday, — Here I lie, " pale as a parsnip," in my
contracted dormitory, and a pretty portrait I would
make — of an author, for instance, in his gloomy garret,
penning some of his fondest effusions, which might
never perchance be destined to bring a penny to
his purse or a roll to his stomach. His nightcap
crowning, instead of laurel, his prolific brain — his
room six feet by six — a tin basin in the corner stuck
through a hole in a board (in my opinion one of the
most miserable manifestations of poverty extant),
the door standing ajar, disclosing his not very extend-
ed diningroom, kitchen, &c., personated in this in-
stance by our icee cabin, and there stalking across the
floor, the very spectre of poverty, a tail-less and earless
black cat ; and lastly, which completes the unique
group, a week's beard, which is of a most formidable
length, however I may have fallen off myself; and

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

Tom Phelim tells me my skin has enough to do keep-
ing my bones together I

Thursday morning. — Blowing a gale, a bowsprit
observed floating past us, with parts of the rigging —
looks ill for some poor vessel.

Learned afterwards that it belonged to the brig
" li^abella," which started from port with us.

Friday morniny. — Furious storm all night from
hf.W. Awoke with a start from a noise like the falling
of a chimney-stalk, and then a splashing and pouring
like the bursting of a mill dam. Looking out of my
pigeon-hole, observed my shoes floating past my door,
reached out my arm and saved them from impending
destruction, as they would inevitably have been stove
in against a biscuit cask in the steward's pantry ; for
a huge cheese, broad as a harvest moon and as thick
as a Dutchman's head, came bearing down upon them
full sail, but contented itself with only capsizing a
can of water before another lurch of the vessel sent
it buck to its old moorings below the cabin table.

A sea which had broke on our larboard-quarter,
carrying awry a portion of the bulwark, and breaking
the cabin skylight, was the cause of the untimely
irruption.

" Any spare bonnet, sir?" said the steward, look-
ing into my berth, after the confusion had somewhat
subsided, and where I still lay pondering over the
choice between spending a most unpropitious day in
bed or out of it, and feeling much like the undecided
donkey.

" Bonnet I What is the matter ? "

I ■

." ■ I

I'^l

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

" Why, sir, I was as nearly done for as ever I
was in my life," said John ; " I went up to feed the
fowls, when the sea caught me, and washed me right
(jver. I got hold of a rope's end, but basin, bonnet,
and barley are off to Davie ! "

" Steward," said a voice in the berth above me,
" we seem to have made a narrow escape."

" JVe ! " replied the steward ; " why, sir, it was
/."

" \'ery true, John ; but had you fairly dropped
over, instead of feeding the hens and us, as use and
wont, you would only have provided one meal more,
and that would have been breakfast to the sharks ;
and us and the hens might thereafter whistle for a
fair wind."

Saturday, l^th. — Passed a brig from the west ;
very dismal appearance as she neared us, all round
the north and east horizon was bounded by a dark
hand of clouds, which seemed as it were the termina-
tion wall of creation. She came on, silently and ma-
jestically nodding and pitching before the breeze ; we
felt as if hurrying along, while she stood on the water
yawl X, aid plunging in a death-struggle, unable to
move I m the spot.

" The western wave was all a flame,

The day was welhiigh done,
When a stran^^e ship drove suddenly

Betwixt us and the sun."

She passed us side by side, the wind was right
astern of her, and thus presented to our view only
the Q(\gQ of the canvas ; a forcible representation of

iiJii

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

the skeleton ship ! Logan played a lively air on his
key-bugle, which dispelled all gloomy fancyings, and
the vessel, still silent as the grave, moved along on
her watery way.

Observed at night the beautiful phosphorescent ap-
pearance on the water which forms the theme of so
much conjecture to every learned and unlearned voy-
ager. We shot on at a raking pafce through a pretty
uniform sea ; and as the vessel buffeted the foam,
there ever and anon started from her heaving bows
beautiful stars that died away almost on the instant ;
some shot out to a greater distance than others, but
all vanished as the foreign influence that seemed to
call them into existence ceased to disturb the re-
ceding and divided element, which closed in behind
our onvi'ard course, while the ponderous vessel con-
tinued, as a huge engine, to plough up the deep, and
cast to the surface myriads of those enchanted ocean
gems.

Eleven o'clock, night. — Went on deck to discover
the occasion of a noise loud enough to disturb the
whole vessel. It proceeded from a half-cracked
Aberdeen butcher from the steerage. He was hold-
ing on by the capstan in a very awkward predica-
ment. One of the most cutting cold nights concei-
vable, and nothing between his body and the wind
save the fluttering and imperfect covering of his
shirt. He had been convicted by his fellow-pas-
sengers of pilfering rum, and for this enormity had
been in a most summary way shoved up the hatch to
cool himself by way of penance for his thirsty pro-

"a. «

• i.

- . i

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

pensity. The north wind took most unwarrantable
liberties with his scanty coverina^ ; and when he
quitted for a moment his hold to recal the wandering
garment back to its proper position about his shiver-
ing anatomy, the tossing of the ship laid him pros-
trate on the deck ; while the waters, as if pitying the
spare condition of his drapery, continued from time
to time to envelope him in the frigid folds of a curl-
ing billow. I could stand the cold no longer, so
retraced my steps to the cabin, lest I might be sa-
luted with a like unwelcome prostration. Till day-
light he sustained the reward for the deeds of his
tarry fingers. And if ever the cleansing of the body
with water is emblematical of and the forerunner of
inward purification, this instance may serve as a good
illustration, for the butcher is now determined that
the spirit of evil shall never again move his fingers,
or his fingers move the spirit.

Tuesday. — Employed roasting potatoes at the stove
in the round-house. Little things please children,
and less than this might please grown folks, cooped
as we are like hens in a cavie. A pretty group we
make. Eight feet by eight, and a dozen in it. Some
" poutering amongst the aisles," some devouring po-
tatoes, some lying on the seamen's chests, several
making and several supping brose, and some smoking.
It is a scene alike worthy the pencil of Cruikshank
and the interior of a Canadian log-hut.

IVednesday. — Memorable from having had a rum-
pus vvith our skipper — and an explanation in conse-
quence. To our surprise we were told plainly that

ri;':

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

we were only entitled to the bare necessaries of life —
salt junk, and such like. N. B. Let those who sail
in future with certain folks (if they ever have the mis-
fortune) make an agreement, whereby they have not
to rely in one iota on honour — or they will fiiul, when
in a state of half starvation in the middle of the At-
lantic, that they trusted to a broken reed !

Shoals of bottlenoscs going towards the north,
puffing and heaving their tails and snouts above the
surface ; are said to move in the direction from
whence the wind will blow.

A perfect calm — the first we have experienced to
perfection ; water still as a silver lake. Never saw
a more placid, unvaried scene. Sea and sky blended
together, and we in the middle of the burnished
dome. It is a sight from which a poetical eye might
drink in a pure flood of inspiration — a solitary sea-
bird is hovering over our heads — an emblem of the
very genius of repose.

The sameness begins to hang heavily over us.
What could be supposed more solitary ? darkness
is nothing to it — we have our eyes — but on what
can they fix themselves for even momentary relief?
They shut in despair ; we are under the spell of a
waking and natural nightmare, which all our exer-
tions are unable to throw off.

Saturday, i2th April. — Continued gales all the
week, and consequently a fine battering our venerable
and crazy vessel has sustained. Bulwarks, studding-
sail-booms and hencoops taken French leave, and
away making some voyage of discovery on their own

v-.'^i'-

... I

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

bottom. Worst morning we have had ; wind whist*
ling round us, and hail thickening the tempest. The
sea rising and falling, perfect hills and valleys
stretching as far as the eye can reach, while the sun
casts at times an uncertain gleam over some distant
part of the prospect, in the next instant to be enve-
loped in the thickest shade.

Put on half allowance of water, and provisions
beginning to look spare ; and the devourers thereof
beginning to look blue !

Sunday niyht. — A dose of thunder !

" The sun set, and up rose the 3ellow moon ;
The devil's in the moon for mischief."

It proved so ! Appearances had been inauspicious,
in the eyes of the sailors, all day — a rainbow was
seen in the morning — goats'-hair and mares'-tails in
the sky, and a covey of those ominous little de-
mons. Mother Carey's chickens, had followed in our
wake since sunrise. Lastly, the crescent moon rose
in as clear and starry a night as she ever set her face
to ; hut — ay ! hut — she lay too much on her hack to
betoken to us any signs or promises of lasting friend-
ship.

" "^here's tempest in jon iiorned moon,

There's thunder in yon cloud ;
Hark, hark, the music, mariners,

The wind is piping loud,"

sung D.S. with most prophetic fervour, and about
seven the win^^ came on to blovv, and flarhes of
lightning we observed. In a few minutes the
(jueen of nigl t drew in her horns, and the air became

)i;

111

SKETCHES OF C ANADA.

ut
of
le
le

'barker and darker, till it was one of the blackest
nights I ever felt, for seeing at all was out of the
question. Overhead came booming, and rattling, and
rumbling in fearful rapidity the dismal-toned voice
of the thunder ; and the fire from heaven was reflect-
ed most threateningly from the crests of the rising
billows. We were tossed and tormented amid this ele-
mental bedlam for several hours. But we had got
so accustomed to the various tunes which the rest-
less minstrels — fire, water, and air — pipe away for the
benefit of earth's inhabitants, that we really felt wake-
ful and unable to take our wonted repose when sky
and sea were wholly dumb. Strange, too, that, how-
ever tossed and troubled with dangers in the day
time, all dreams were in the fair calm bosom of home,
and however incongruous they might be, were still of
a pleasing cast —

" I've seen both stormy sea and stormy women,
And pity lovers rather more than seamen."

So said Byron, and so echoed I on shore ; but now
I am inclined to extend at 1 ast an equal share of
commiseration to the ploughmen of the deep.

It is amusing to mark the power the weather has
over the quicksilver of our spirits. We cannot for
the soul of us help giving vent to our feelings, on the
coming of a fair wind, in a song or whistle, whether
we can sing and whistle or not, and sullen weather
has a correspondent eifect. " Ah, ha ! " said Bill, a
fine French sailor boy, to Sandy, a canny Scotch pas-
senger, who was (laundering about deck with his
Kilmarnock cowl slouched over his lugs while it

> i

-l ■!

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

blew a gale — " Ah, ha I you no sing, you no laugh
to-day, Sawney."

Sunday^ 2\st April. — Hurricane to-day, main and
foresail split — most of our canvass in rags.

Saturday^ 21th. — Steward's black, earless, and tail-
less cat shoved overboard last night by some hand
or hands unknown — as well away, not an agreeable
shipmate. Skipper, out of humour thereanent, says
the seamen will think it a forerunner of bad luck.
Seems tinged himself with superstitious old-wiferv.

Sunday, 2Sth. — Fine wind, running on at ten knots,
but died away to a calm towards night. — Ten o'clock,
took a look of the weather before turning in — lying
like a log on the waters — murky and dismal over-
head — a most sepulchral-looking night. The omin-
ous sparkling of the sea seems instinct w ith life. To
every lumbering heave of the vessel it sends forth
a lambent or rather lurid flame — with flashes of
lightning gleaming at intervals across the horizon.

Tuesday, 30th We may well thank our stars for

being still in the land (sea, I should say) of the living,
and able to look back on yesterday ! And such a
yesterday ! Trust most fervently that we never shall
look upon the like again — quite enough in a life-
time for the experience of poor land-lubbers.

Wind continued to increase from Sunday night till
eleven yesterday, when it seemed to exert the full
force of its destructive powers, and blew as if it would
have " blawn its last." Its efi*ects were vastly ter-
rific, and immeasurably sublime, according to my
earthly idea of sublimity. Compared with this hur-

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

ill

11
11

rlcane, all the gales, blasts, and rolling seas we have
hitherto seen were as mere summer breezes and play-
ful ripples. The steerage population under closed
hatches, and only C.S., the skipper, and myself, of
the cabin-stowage, able to appear on deck ; the others
nestled in their berths, some from uncomfortable feel-
ings, and others from uncomfortable stomachs.

We stood at the door of the round-house (an erec-
tion over the companion-way), gazing with wonder
and awe on the deeds of the howling hurricane. The
vessel was hove-to — the helm strongly lashed with
ropes to each side. A single storm stay-sail was open
to the wind ; the jib, mainsail, main-stay, main-
top, and fore -topsails having all successively been
shivered to atoms during the morning. The sailors
had all been ordered below, the strength of the
tempest bidding defiance to the science and skill of
man, and our bark was therefore allowed to take
her chance of riding out the gale in safety. Not a
soul was employed on deck save the cook and the
already mentioned Aberdeen butcher, who were em-
ployed in the cabouse preparing the cabin-dinner.
All the lumber on deck, boats, barrels, and tackle of
every description, were lashed to fixed iron-rings with
the strongest ropes on board.

The mighty masses of water, steadily increasing in
bulk and velocity, came rolling towards our poor old
crazy vessel, whose broadside sustained many a strain-
ing dash from the boiling and angry fluid.

Often as I had heard of the " mountain waves" of
old ocean, even fancy was wholly outdone by the

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

scone then before us. And several hours of calm ex-
perience convinced me that even the soarinjr fancy
and imaginative pen of the poet must, in most cases,
fall far short of reality while endeavouring to de-
scribe the mighty workings and majesty of the deep,
when lashed into rage by such a storm as then roar-
ed around us. We were tossed up and down like a
cork on the surface of a brawling stream ; one mo-
ment down in a mighty gulf at the base of a Mave
whose crest was far above us, as it curled over and
dashed down in angry foam; then quick as thought
we were hurled from our humble place to the very
summit of another liquid and living mountain. —
While thus borne on high we go^ a momentary
glimpse of the terrific scenery, which seemed to re-
joice *' in giant glee" as far as the eye could reach
over the dusky prospect. Hill upon hill, and moun-
tain upon mountain reared for a moment their frothy
heads to the clouds, and sunk again in never ending
succession. The sun at times lent to the tumultuous
scene a passing glory ; and again all was wrapped in
a leaden hue, as the force of the winds lashed thick
volumes of spray over the face of the ocean. Once, in-
deed, a blast came with such impetuous violence,
scourging the water into such dense and impene-
trable vapours that it excluded from our view for some
minutes even the faintest gleam of the meridian sun.

When the wind had gained its highest pitch the
sea assumed the regular rolling form of wave suc-
ceeding wave ; and our vessel received no jarring
dash. The moving masses seemed too huge and

III

111.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

majestic to expend their fury against any floating
material on the surface ; and we were borne aloft
and alow as the light seamew, which offers no re-
sistance and therefore receives no shock.

I observed to my friend that we seemed to be in
no immediate danger, for we did not sustain the dash
of a single wave. ** Very true," he replied, " but
a single one breaking over us — like this which is
now bearing us aloft — would be quite sufficient."
We found it so.

At twelve o'clock the skipper took an observation
of the sun, and we descended to the cabin to our
lunch. We were seated but for a few minutes when
the skylight became darkened, and in a moment
more we were drenched by the watir pouring like
a cataract through the broken glass. " The cook
will catch that I " said one, laughingly, as he peered
from his shelf, his crimson upper works in strong con-
trast with his pale nob ; and he pulled it in again
with the greatest indifference — for frequency had ren-
dered such watery accidents only half unwelcome
breaks in the monotony of our confinement. I went
to my state-room (alas ! the misnomer), and began
tumbling on to the upper berth bags, books, and
other miscellaneous gear that strewed the floor, to
preserve them from the water which covered the
cabin to the depth of a foot, and which was driven
most unmercifully over the whole contents by the
labouring of the vessel.

Three minutes had scarcely elapsed from the first
shock when a whole volley of terror-awakened screams

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SKETCItFS OF CANADA.

coming from the steerage silenced our mirth, and
made us at once prick up our cars and open wide
our weather-eye. The skipper hastened on deck to
know the cause, and in the next instant the l)ulk-
iiead dividing us from the stecraj^e was rapidly
burst open, and the cabin liiled with the most des-
pairing and heart-rending group that it is jjossible
to witness. All the women which the vessel con-
tained flocked towards us, the greater part with chil-
<ben in their arms, and some whose heads had never
left the pillow since coming on board had now ex-
erted supernatural strength and started from their
beds, the scanty clothes of which, hastily puUerl
round them, was the only covering to their emaciated
forms. Others pressed to their breasts, in the con-
vulsions of despair, the little naked beings that setined,
in the overflowings of maternal passion, their only
cause of anxiety. Few had coverings to their heads,
and their unbound hair, with the rest of their per-
sons, were drenched with the deluge which had oc-
casioned their uncontrollable terror.

Neither was this ;i joke to us whose abode had
been so unceremoniously broke in upon, and it re-
quired the full pith of our nerves to sustain the
agonizing shock. For we completely forgot, in the
picture of wo before us, thoughts of the dreadful
cause which must have occasioned such an extraor-
dinary manifestation of female fright.

We hastened up the companion-way, and were in-
terrupted in the middle by one of the passengers
who slept in the round-house. Pale, drenched, and

SKIiTCHES OF CANADA.

nearly speechless, he stammered out for our edifica-
tion tliat the vessel was fi^oin^ to pieces, and that
some of the hands were overboard. Silently we
hastened on to witness for ourselves, feeling uncer-
tainty next of kin to the blackest reality. On get-
tini»; to the door, wliich was crowded with male pas-
sengers clinjrinjr to each other, one of them exclaimed,
in a tone which pierced through our very bones and
sinews, " Good God, the poor cook I " while his
eyes were fixed with concentrated earnestness on the
top of a huge wave right astern of us at tlie distanci*
of several hundred yards. We were in the hollow
at the time, so that we had to raise our eyes as high
above the level of the horizon as if we were gazing
from the bosom of Loch Lomond uj) llie lofty side ot
the Ben. And sure enough wc saw our poor cook,
whom we well knew by his tall, strong-built form,
clothed in a red woollen vest, blue bonnet, and duck
trowsers. With one hand he seemed endeavouring
to stem the waters, while we distinctly saw the other
beckoning an adieu to us. His head was turned for
one brief moment towards the vessel, and before we
could regain our palsied breath he was whirled from
our view over the summit of the curling crest, and
dashed down the face of the opposite declivity.

On going out on deck, where we clung for security
to the overstrained and groaning shrouds, a fine pic-
ture of desolation met oui view. Every thing above
board had been swept over, save the solitary masts,
that, luckily for us, were still firm in their places,
though at times bending like so many angling-rods ;

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

but all the lumber, which had a few minutes before
loaded the deck, we now perceived in tumultuous
confusion dancing over the froth and foam around us.
The boats, that had been lashed together to form a
covering to a couple of miserable sheep, were bound-
ing along, still enclosing their unconscious inhabi-
tants, having been lifted up and carried sheer over
the side of the vessel. The cook-house (with its two
unfortunate occupants, for the butcher too had now
shared the ocean grave of his colleague) was likewise
rent from its lashings, and floated along piecemeal,
accompanied with an array of spars, water-barrels,
beef-tubs, and jury-masts, while our anchors and
cables had descended to add their bulk and weight to
the spoils of old ocean.

One single but tremendous sea that broke right
over us had occasioned our disaster. The wind had
chopped suddenly round, so that instead of coming
in unison with the waves, and causing the vessel to
bow over and oppose her broadside to their force,
she was held down in the opposite direction, pre-
sented her deck, and of course received the whole
volume of water, as it were, in her lap.

On the instant we were struck the seamen came
up from the forecastle where they were dining, and
informed the skipper that her bows were stove in,
for the water was gushing through from the weather-
side. This was ghostly news — in fact, sent all our
hopes to Davie Jones, and we expected soon to fol-
low them. Unmixed resignation now took possession
of my mind, and I observed others under a similar

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

feeling ; but the greater number seemed in despera-
tion. As many as could obtain a hold were clus-
tered round the pumps, and driving away with all the
agonized fury of maniacs. Some had descended to
the hold, and were handing aloft the cargo, compo-
sed of pig-iron ; and we observed our friend Tom
Phelim busily engaged in dragging the ponderous
bars from the mainhatch to the rail of the vessel, and
dropping them into the water. And as he afterwards
remarked (while we were snugly seated ashore, re-
capitulating the perils we had by water), ** They
slipped down into the sue as nate as a penny candle
into a pitcher of milk ! " Many were shedding tears
in utter distraction, and some were giving vent to
their feelings in moans of misery. It was curious to
observe the great strangers that strength of body
and energy of mind were to each other in many in-
stances. I noted several big-boned, bluff whiskered
fellows hurrying about like overgrown children, and
whining like blind puppies that had lost their mother ;
while others of less majestic stature, and less breadth
of shoulder, seemed to have the want made up to
them in nerve and intellect.

. The vessel appeared visibly settling down by the
starboard-bow ; for when the sea again and again
hove her over, she did not recover, but appeared to
be water-logged, and had lost the buoyancy that be-
fore enabled her to bound over the quick-coming
billows. This state of things was such as to make
those, who before might deem themselves incapable
of flinching, call in the whole majesty of intellect

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

to support them through the thrilling gloom of un-
certainty. A thought at this period flashed across
my mind — but it was only for one brief moment —
that it would be better to leap at once overboard ;
for why prolong existence under circumstances that
admitted not even a shadow of hope ? Going down
by inches appeared to display a thousand times more
horror than ending at once the pangs of dissolution
by a single plunge. Thus we are ever prone to obey
the dictates of our own weak and erring senses, and
overlook that assistance on which we can safely rely
from the eye that sleeps not, and the arm that is
never weary.

To our relief the cause of the vessel's labouring
was discovered. It was occasioned by a huge cable-
chain that had gone over with the anchors, but in
descending had caught hold of one of the stanchions
of the broken bulwark, and there it hung over the
upright timber, with its two ends many fathoms in
the water, and about seven tons in weight. It held
down like a drag-tackle, for when the vessel would
have recovered from the stroke of the waves, it ever
and anon, with a reacting force, pulled her down
again ; the wood by which the chain was entangled,
being the continuation of one of the timbers of the
vessel, acted as a lever, and at every strain was rend-
ing open the side at its junction with the deck. Our
first mate applied himself to the arduous task of
hewing away the timber with a rusty hatchet, in
order to allow the chain to drop from its hold. This
was no easy matter, for the storm, with unabated

SKETCHl'S OF CANADA.

strength, continued to toss and tumble us about :
and between every two or three strokes he was obli-
ged to prostrate himself back on deck, in order to
avoid being pitched over, all the protecting-rail being
torn away. In little more than an hour he accom-
plished his purpose. The chain dropped into the
depths, and the vessel regained her level. The wells
were afterwards completely drained, for there was no
water, unless what had got access by the rents round
the deck, and these were soon, with the aid of old
canvas, rendered water-tight. After three or four
hours harrowing anxiety the gale broke, the wind died
down, the placid sun smiled once again over a rip-
pling summer sea.

We descended to the cabin. The poor females
returned to their berths, mightily relieved by their
unexpected deliverance, and we sat down to our re-
past of cheese, brandy, and sea-biscuit, reasonably
thankful for these small mercies ; and we began to
plan how we were to contrive to keep soul and body
together, as our voyage was scarcely half over, and,
along with the cook and assistant, we had lost the
whole of his professional apparatus — furnace and
stove, and, as far as we knew, every pot and pan on
board. Having discussed all these affairs, we turned
in, and I can answer for myself and berth-mate
(whose rich sonorous snoring had soon an infectious
influence on my own nasal organ) that, from the day's
anxiety and fatigue, we enjoyed as sound and refresh-
ing sleep as we ever before or afterwards experienced.

Let it not be supposed, however, that our thoughts

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

I .

of the trying scene died away with the expiring mur-
mur of the rude elements. It made an impression,
which, it is to be trusted, will continue to have a
salutary effect on the whole of those who endured the
awful uncertainty it inspired. We could not fail to
see that by one simple circumstance we were, under
Providence, saved from destruction. The moment
of our disaster chanced to be the time when every
sailor was below at dinner — had it been otherwise, it
is more than probable they would have shared the
fate of the poor cook and his assistant. And from
the weather that we again encountered in our dis-
abled condition, before reaching port, it appeared
almost evident the loss of the men would have been
followed by that of the vessel.

2d April. — Breakfasted on biscuit and cheese, and
helping all the forenoon in the hold to replace the
cargo of iron which had shifted during the storm ;
got hands cut, and clothes torn.

Small stove replaced in the round-house, where,
by sticking slices of ham on the heated iron, we do
our best to supply for ourselves the place of poor
cookie, and, with the aid of never-failing appetites,
manage to find ourselves in a great measure at home
with our altered condition. The steerage gentry,
with the assistance of a half hogshead, built round
inside with perpendicular bars of pig-iron, and filled
with sand, light for themselves a very convenient
cooking fire.

May \st. — Observed a solan goose flying west-
ward — caused a good deal of speculation — some sup-

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

posing it an avant-courier from the profound inhabi-
tants of the Bass, who may have become infected by
the emigrative epidemic at present prevailing in the
Land of Cakes I

Friday, 2d. — Calm day, cabin upside down, and
inside out. All the wet duds hoisted on deck to
clean and dry preparatory to landing.

Monday. — Observed coasting vessels, and Mother
Carey's chickens in flocks ; do not always bring a
storm in their tail it would appear.

Tuesday. — INIother Carey still a prophetess. Gale
last night and thunder-storm. Observed a curious
electrical phenomenon. The masts' heads were tip-
ped with a beautiful pencil of light, which continued
during the time the storm raged. They shone as
faint and uncertain tapers, hovering over us to point
out to the vessel her track through the palpable
gloom. The appearance is occasioned by the atmos-
phere around being impregnated with the electric
fluid ; and the wet masts of the vessels acting as con-
ductors, draw it down. Such appearance may be
observed on holding an imperfect conductor within
the influence of the electric atmosphere thrown out
by an electric cylinder while in operation.

A similar electric phenomenon occurred to the
vessel in which Castor and Pollux sailed in the Ar-
gonautic expedition, only the light appeared on the
caps of the two heroes ; the storm subsided, and they
were received as patrons of sailors. Hence the an-
cient medals represent each with a star or flame of
fire at the apex of his cap. In this way, too, we may

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SKETCHES or CANADA.

account for the story that they often appeared to sai-
lors in distress, and also to Roman armies, leading
them to victory. The latter was nothing more than
the electric fluid on their spears."

Wind chopped round about two o'clock in the morn-
ing — took our canvass aback, which caused us to ship
by the stern cabin windows five tremendous seas that
served us with a larger supply of salt water than we
had hitherto received. Here we were again most
unex})ectedly in the very heart of a confoundedly
uncomfortable taking. New aired beds, once more
well watered, this our poor bodies soon felt. Our
only light was from the sparkling of thousands of
phosphorescent stars, which shone out, ls the water
was lashed and splashed over every tangible substance
in the cabin, and paying no respect to either men or
things. We lay (till the steward kindled his lamp),
enjoying the delightful agony of suspense ; Tom
bawling out now and then from his crib that he was
sure the vessel was inside out, for his berth was swing-
ing, and he saw the stars shining in the sae ! The
light came, and disclosed a rich mess of confusion.
In stalked the steward from his dormitory with his
lamp, the very personification of dire uncertainty.
One hand was pushed before him, bearing the dull,
yellow, greasy-looking light, while he employed the
other in laying hold of this fixture and that as he
crawled along. The water, with the hitching to and
fro of the vessel, ran now and then up his bare shanks,
till it came in contact with the under part of his red
flannel unmentionables, fore and aft, and spurted out

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

all round, ^ivin^- him the appearance of a silvan
deity surrounded hy a fanciful jet cCeau ; or per-
haps like an ingenious fire-wheel with a figure in the
centre, for the fluid, while it started out around
sparkled with the shining matter it contained. When
he reached the middle of the cabin our wondering
and wintry visages glared in the uncertain flicker of
his light. Splendid picture of darkness visihle !
Every head was popped out from the berths on each
side — like those of tortoises from their shells. Some
in handkerchiefs, white caj)S, red caps, and no-
thing ; but all gaping, pondering, and speechless.
Our curious and peering eyes followed the shoals of
goods and chattels that were dancing and rearing,
with most amusing industry, round the cabin — while
the morv> ponderous concerns, such as portmanteaus,
boxes, ^c, continued to thunder away from side to
side, to the evident chagrin of the proprietors, whose
bodies continued, nevertheless, to be closely envelop-
ed in the folds of their night gai nents. We knew
by experience that the disinterested freaks of ocean
would pay no respect to persons, and that it might,
the moment one presented a single shivering limb,
use it in the same unceremonious way it continued
to exercise with our unruly property.

This was our " last scene of all,

And ends our strange and watery history ! "

On the 7 th May, about four in the morning, Sandy-
hook lighthouse was discovered by French Bill, who

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

had been stationed in the bows on the lookout. Land
ahead was roared down to the cabin, and the sound
drew a hearty response from the most sleep-loving
snorer amongst us. We did not rest satisfied one
moment with Bill's intelligence, but proceeded to see
for ourselves. The berths were vacated, our coats
were neglected, and in our inexpressible hurry we
had no time to spare for toilet ; but in the classical
simplicity in which we had reposed we mounted deck,
and climbed the rigging to get a first sight of the
new world. It was a starry morning, and to our
chagrin we were unable to distinguish the faint glim-
mering light from one of the heavenly host ; so there
was nothing for it but to quit our hold and slip to our
holes again, like so many bats disturbed by the hoot-
ing of an owl. When daylight came, we could scarcely
discover land through the fog, which was quite like
a Scotch mist. We looked out anxiously for a pilot,
being under the immediate apprehension of encoun-
tering a gale which we observed brewing in the
north.

A boat soon afterwards observed us, and we flock-
ed to the gangway to have a look of the first speci-
men of an American which we were to see. He
accorded well with our preconceived notions of ont.
Middle size, skin-dried, bilious, dark complexion,
blue coat, drab trowsers, and on the whole an active
and intelligent-looking man — nothing of a sailor in
either look, dress, or actions. The moment he stept
on board, he was bawling out to the seamen, who

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SKET( H*^ OF CANADA. 41

promptly obeyed him ; and in an hour more we were
running up the river for New York at eleven knots
an hour ; saved our distance from a rattling gale,
which came on as we crossed the bar ; and dropped
anchor within a few hundred yards of the wharf, and
in full view of the far-famed capital of the Union.

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[ 42 ]

"'( 4

CHAPTER III.

'° A mighty mass of brick, and smoke, and shipping,

Dirty and dusky, but as wide as eye

Cuuhl reach, with hero and there a sail just skipping

In sight, then lost amidst the forestry

Of masts ; a wilderness of steeples peeping

On tiptoe, through their sea- coal canopy ;

A huge dun cupola."

Bykon.

•i 1 1

The luxuriance of the wooded banks, as we en-
tered the bay, quite enchanted us. We left home
ere the genial influence of spring had succeeded the
nakedness of winter, and we felt the pleasing contrast
in its full force. The lovely-formed, white-washed
cottages, surrounded by lofty foresc trees and orchards,
appeared to our sea-bleared eyes doubly grateful and
refreshing. All dangers were now forgotten, and we
had more anxiety to pass the few yards which divided
us from terra Jinna than we had at times indulged
in while still far from the sight of port.

On shore then we got, and our first thought was
to partake of what fare we could command in the
new entered world ; for our landward anxiety had
prevented us administering to the creature-comforts
during the morning. We threaded our way from the

SKETCMKS OF CANADA.

M liarf, up streets and down streets, till we found our-
selves opposite the entrance of the Washinjrton Hotel
— a true Yankee name ! We entered, and although
past the regular hour, were provided with a hreak-
fast that would not have shamed the table of the
" Waterloo," or offended the palate of a monarch or
a president !

We had every thing we could desire — yea, even
eggs ! — Eggs (beloved reader start not) that were
really and truly the instinctive production of hens,
feathered and fed like the generality of our own barn-
door yo^i'/s /

After ransacking our packages for a suit of our most
fashionable wear, and treating ourselves to the luxuri-
ous ablution of a hot-bath, as we had got literally an
incrustation of salt over our whole bodies, we wander-
ed through the city, and towards evening directed our
steps to one of the theatres that we might at once
enjoy a sight of America ton^ and see Kemble and
his gifted daughter, who then happened to be the
great tragic stars of the western world.

On handing a half-crown, through a small aperture
for the hand at the lobby, to the receiver, for which
I expected to be franked to the pit, 1 was surprised, on
putting back my hand a second time for a ticket, that
in lieu thereof I pressed between my finger and thumb
a good substantial nose. I immediately withdrew my
fingers from the republican feature, and was told in a
tone that made me suppose the effect of my pinching
still remained, *' We don't take that money." Then
1 first recollected I was no longer where sterling

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SKE'IC in.S OF CANADA.

money passes undisputed ; but on rcprosentluL;' that I
had no other description of silver coin, the nose with-
drew, a ticket apj)eared, and in two minutes more a
Iialf-dozen sit^ht-seeking Sawneys were seated to-
j^ether in the pit of a very handsome and wcil-li^hted
theatre, their eyes and countenances full-cock, ;i!ul
conceivin*^ every thing that might occur, ordinary,
extraordinary, or surprising, fair game to satisfy the
appetite of their greedy observation.

The house was soon crowded, from the humblest
situation of the mortals to the loftiest resting-place
of the gods. We have to record no flagrant breach of
manners. The deities acted as became their exalted
sphere ; and the mortals too, some of whom (I say it
in sincerity) might have been angels, deported them-
selves in a manner worthy of the highest name and
lineage. Once, indeed, a faint cry of " a Trollope"
issued from the higher regions, directed at some de-
linquent in a box ; but whether it was really merited
or not we were unable to discover. But reflect-
ing on the incontinent freaks that the gods of
old used to amuse themselves with at the expense
of our venerable forefathers, it is more than pro-
bable that the degenerate lawgivers who now rule
the roast from on high have at times as little rea-
son on their side while they lift their " most sweet
voices," or shower orange skins over the bipeds below
them.

We observed no formidable features staring un-
warrantably over the dress boxes, hats where no hats
should be, or ladies chewing tobacco !

SKETi HKS OF C ANADA.

Its

Tlic fair sex, tis in duty hound, occupied a large por-
tion of our thouf^lits, and our attention to tliem afford-
ed its own reward, though the joints of our necks felt
tlie pressure of our cogitations as wc wheeled our
heads, pivot-fashion, to ohtain a front view of the
fair box-occupants behind us. There was a conjsi-
derable blaze of beauty, from the delicately fair to
the piercingly dark. Head style of decoration
suited my views of beauty amazingly — simply braided
hair, w ith few ornamental trappings. Foreheads were
displayed in all their outline and volume, many of
which presented an intellectual developement that
might not have shrunk from the searching fingers of
a Gall or a Spurzheim.

Kemble and his daughter were themselves ; and
we were amused with a stage representation of the
much famed political character, Major Doivnie^ who
refreshed us with a copious dose of all the Yankeeisms,
guessing, calculating, &c., extant.

Next day we visited various of the lions, amongst
others the City-hall buildings, the finest, I believe,
that the cits have to boast of. It is situated in a
beautiful grass plot, called the Park, near the middle
of the city, and being composed of white marble,
presents a most dazzling appearance when the sun
is unclouded. It was at such a time that we visited
it, and the glowing brightness had so strong an effect
on our bewildered optics that we were glad to seek
shelter under the piazza.

We pol-sd our noses into the Fulton Market, and
passed through a perfect region of substantialities —

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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from the oyster brought to light from the humble
caverns of the sea, to the air-cleaving and luxurious
canvas-back duck ; from the water-cress plucked by
the hand of some fair American on the banks of a
woodland creek, to the luscious cocoa-nut torn from
the loftiest branches of the forest.

All that the bountiful lap of Nature pours out for
the use of the earth's inhabitants are here brought
together and displayed with a due regard to order,
temptation, and effect ; inviting to partake, all who
may be labouring under the cravings of appetite, and
(what is of more importance) have the wherewithal
to *' pay the piper."

The Museum was the next object that underwent
our curious inspection, and there we found food suf-
ficient whereon Jonathan Oldbuck himself might
have luxuriated for many a day, and which might
well have formed the heaven of devotees at the shrine
of " rusty swords and jingling jackets."

Such a scene indeed is a rich world of wonder and
contemplation to those who thirst after knowledge.
It is truly nature and invention displayed. We have
creation in all the striking attitudes which it assumes
in upholding and perfecting its various and inex-
haustible machinery. Before us lie the tiny worm
that silently gnaws its dark passage to the core ot
the oak-tree, nnd the monster that revels over the
rocks and valleys of the ocean. And here too we see,
perched on the same twig, the humming-bird, with
gold glittering wing, who greets the dewy morning
with the low sweet tone of thanksgiving as with

i mi

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

les
iex-
)rm
ot
I the
see,
ath
[ing
nth

eager bill it sips the nectar from the blushing- flower-
cup, and the crested eagle, poetically and truly styled
the bird of heaven. And in this, too, art and inven-
tion display themselves, for in gazing on these fea-
thered inhabitants of the air we almost imagine that
it is the glass before them that is the sole cause of
their confinement and movelessness ; for the artificial
eye is piercing and dark, and the talons seem still
exerting the muscles which nature has so beautifully
moulded.

Here, too, vegetation displays its wonders. That
huge mass was at one time a monarch of the forest.
It is the hollow trunk of a sycamore which once
served a poor inhabitant of the woods as a shelter and
home for himself and his family ; next it formed a
wayside tavern where the weary stranger rested and
refreshed himself; and new here it at last rests, a
pillar of surprise to the ignorant, and a temple of
wisdom to the profound.

There is preserved the stuffed skin of a large Ame-
rican cougar or tiger, with the destruction of which
is connected a melancholy anecdote. " Two hunters,
accompanied with two dogs, went out in quest of game
near the Kaatskill mountains at the foot of a large
hill ; they agreed to go round it in opposite directions,
and when either discharged his rifle, the other was to
hasten towards him to aid in securing the game.
Soon after parting the report of a rifle was heard by
one of them, who, hastening towards the spot, after
some search, found the dog of the other dreadfully

■■'•■1

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r'!

tt{

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

'I
! i

■ii I

iiw

ii'

lacerated and dead. He now became alarmed for the
fate of his companion, and while anxiously looking
round was horrorstruck by the harsh growl of a cougar
that he perceived on a large limb of a tree, crouching
on the body of his friend and apparently meditating
an attack upon himself. Instantly he levelled his rifle
at the beast, and was so fortunate as to wound it
mortally, and it fell to the ground along with the
body of his slaughtered companion. Plis dog then
rushed upon the body of the wounded cougar, which
with one blow of its paw laid the poor animal dead
by its side. The surviving hunter now left the spot
and quickly returned with several other persons, and
they found the lifeless body of the cougar extended
beside the bodies of the hunter and the two faithful
dog 3."

Next we turned to those works that have stamped
on them the inventive fingers of man — the rude battle-
axe and war- club of the dark Indian — the light bark-
canoe, formed to dart with the fleetness of an arrow
down the rapids of his native streams — and the gaudy
mocassins that clothe the feet of the suspicious and
vengeful chief as he steals silently along to spring as
a tiger on his unwary prey.

The bowstring and poisoned dart, too, are hanging
side by side with the warlike attribute of more civi-
lized man, the deadly tube which has served its part
in as sinful and bloody conflicts as the more primitive
weapons beside which it now uselessly reposes.

Numberless ideas and reflections were called up to

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

4!)

p to

our minds by these inanimate but instructive speci-
mens of nature and art around, and we went away not
a little gratified with the banquet of mental nourish-
ment which had been so copiously served up to us.

During our Paul- Pry ish peregrinations we dropped
in on the " identical Laurie Tod," and found him
busy sweeping out the boards of his " store" with a
broom, the handle of which towered far above the
head of the dust-disturbing hero. For, reader, al-
though he is considered by all western travellers as a
lion of the New World, alas ! he is but a tiny repre-
s;:.:*:itive of the dreaded monarch, being formed in
oi:'- ' nature's most contracted moulds, and might
pi - ' -tter as representative of the more humble
quadruped after which he has been so universally
named. On going round the warehouse, we expe-
rienced something like a feeling of disappointment,
and in the language of the proprietor, " said to our-
selves," are we really within that half classic edifice
which has been for years lauded by travellers as a
wonder of the (New) World?

The place was what had been a Methodist meeting-
house, now gutted and converted into a mart of mer-
chandise, over which the "identical Laurie" reigned
the undisputed king.

There was a profusion of all that the little man
daily supplied to his *' friends and the public."
Gaping barrels filled with all the various and useful
descriptions of roots, seeds, &c., and many a prisoned
warbler raised his captive song in the windows above.

But what claimed the greater part of our attention

•■■'■ *i

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

.if.

was the greenhouse, stuck, in the fashion of the
Luckenbooths of old, to the front of the main build-
ing; and here was brought together a rich feast for
the florist and flower-hunter. Many pots were ranged
around, from which sprang geraniums of every shade
and odour — a flower, by the way (did not our Trans-
atlantic friends scout the idea of such frivolities,)
which might form an appropriate eml)lem to deck the
heirlooms of our florist's family ; seeing that it was
by the blooming assistance of one of these lovely
plants, that the House of Thorburn took root and has
since continued to blossom ; and in this fact was well
displayed the mystic workings of fate, for the web of
fortune was already in progress, ere her unwitting
favourite could distinguish the flowering harbinger of
good things to come, from the rotundity of a ca])bage.*

Not having myself dipped into the private coteries,
which are in all countries the true spheres of action
of the fair sex, 1 will give a sketch of a tea-party
from " Knickerbocker's History of New York."

" The company usually assembled at three, and
went away at six, unless it was in the winter time,
when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that
tlie ladies might get home before dark. I do not
find that they ever treated their company to iced
creams, jellies, or syllabubs ; or regaled them with
musty almonds, mouldy raisins, or sour oranges, as
is often done in the present age of refinement. Our
ancestors were fond of more sturdy, substantial fare.

i| :if . '

* See Life of Laurie Tod.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

hat
not
ced
,ith
as
>ur
ire.

The tea-tahle was crowned with a huge earthen dish,
well stored with slices of fat pork, fried brown, cut up
into morsels, and swimming in gravy. The company
being seated round the genial board, and each furnished
with a fork, evinced their dexterity in launching at
the fattest pieces in this mighty dish, in much the
same manner as sailors harpoon porpoises at sea, or
our Indians spear salmon in the lakes. Sometimes
the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or
saucers full of preserved peaches or pears, and it was
always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of
sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called dough-
nuts ; a delicious kind of cake at present scarce known
in the city excepting in genuine Dutch families.

" The tea was served out of a majestic delft tea-pot,
ornamented with paintings of fat little Dutch shep-
herds and shepherdesses tending pigs, with boats sail-
ing in the air, and houses l)uilt in the clouds, and
sundry other ingenious Dutch fantasies ; the beaux
distinguished themselves by their adroitness in replen-
ishing this pot from a huge copper tea-kettle, which
had made the pigmy macaronies of these degenerate
days sweat merely to look at it. To sweeten the
beverage, a lump of sugar m as laid beside each cup,
and the company alternately nibbled and sipt with
great decorum, until an improvement was introduced
by a shrewd and economic old lady, which was to
suspend a large lump directly ov^er the tea-table by a
string from the ceiling, so that it could be swung from
mouth to mouth — an ingenious expedient which is
still kept up by some families in Albany.

)■-'

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SKETCHES OF CANADA,

i.;

it:

" At these primitive tea-parties the utmost proprietj
and dignity of deportment prevailed. No flirting nor
coqueting, no gambling of old ladies, nor hoyden chat-
tering nor romping of young ones — no self-satisfied
strutting of wealthy gentlemen, with their brains in
their pockets, nor amusing conceits and monkey di-
vertisements of smart young gentlemen with no
brains at all. On the contrary, the young ladies
seated themselves demurely in their rush-bottomed
chairs, and knit their own woollen stockings, and never
opened their lipp, unless to say, ' Yes, sir,' or ' Yes,
madam,' to any question that was asked them, be-
liavingin all things like decent, well-educated damsels.
As to the gentlemen, each of them tranquilly smoked
his pipe, and seemed lost in contemplation of the
blue and white tiles with which the fire-places were
decorated.

" The parties broke up without noise and without
confusion ; they were carried home by their own
coi'riages ; that is to say, by the vehicles Nature
had provided them, excepting such of the wealthy as
could afford to keep a waggon. The gentlemen gal-
lantly attended their fair ones to their respective
abodes, and took leave of them with a hearty smack
at the door, which, as it was an established piece of
etiquette, done in perfect simplicity and honesty of
heart, occasioned no scandal at that time, nor should
it at the present — if our great grandfathers approved
of the custom, it would argue a great want of reve-
rence in their descendants to say a word against it."

JSuch is a picture of the primitive, pure, prim,

!l:.i

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

:al-

ve-

L ■

prosy parties which obtiiined amongst the sweet and
simple society existing here, coeval with our own
hooped, starched, decorous, snuff-boxed, distaffed
time, which we may designate the " Great Grand-
mother Kra" — when liigh-heeled shoes raised aloft
a dignified ero'^tic f powder-crested '^''oprlety —
when partner:, t assL jlies were joined .jgether by
lot, like greyhound matches, and lligadouns and Ki-
dottos reigned supreme I

Now, alas, the march of intellect, forsooth I — the
march of modern monotony, 1 would rather say, — has,
swept down the gulf of time all traces of these richly
picturesque periods, when individual character shont-
out in all the glorious relief of sturdy truth and ori-
ginality. These were the days, wiieii the patois
of Scotch life was yet unmarried to Cockney ism,
which has produced in these latter ones such a flood
of mongrel refinement and mauvaise haul ton, equally
disgusting to the true-bred Sawney and his brother
BulL

Feeling these, I have stept back, and given you a
tea-party as it was, instead of as it is. For now,
alas ! it is but the ghost of good things agone — a
mere shadow of social society — the bare bone and
sinews of the devoured drumstick — the gable-ends
and chimneys of a burned building — the anatomy of
a departed herring — the back-bone of a thirty year
old butter-knife — thin and shadowy as the polished
spout of a tin teapot, and unsubstantial and skele-
ton-like as the empty ribs of a wire toast-rack !

Modern mediocrity has mowed down every shoot

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Ill

SKETCHES or CANADA.

Si/

I'l

in society which had the temerity to raise itself over
the heads of its brother weeds ! and the j^rcat steam-
engine of enlightened intellect tliunders away over
our heads, and crushes down all our feelings and pas-
sions, love, ambition, revenge, and their towering
offspring, into a dead level railway of reason I for
society has quadrupled its rate during these forty or
fifty years ; what was before ten, is now forty knots
an hour. And greater change than all ! what before
was the whirlpool of fashion, is now the strahjht lint
of velocity !

" Tramp, tramp, across tlio land we speed,
Splash, splash along the sea ;
Hurrah I the steam can go the pace,
Dost fear to ride with me 1 "

No alternative ! On we must go, with our sinews
straining to their utmost, and ever and anon our legs
stretching out like a pair of school compasses at their
full extension, or we will assuredly be run down, run
over, and run away from, before our compasses are
on end again, and there is an end of us ! Body and
mind (in the language of a steam-surprised Cockney
coachman) must ever be kept boiling up to a gallop,
to prevent us from toppling over on our nose, like the
sagacious drunkard, who, on floundering his way
home, moves forward at an accelerated speed, to avert
the consequences of an ever-threatening prostration.

Towards the busy hour of high twelve, there is a
glorious array of the softer sex to be encountered
abroad in the city ; and during the meridian hour of
fashion, which is somewhat later than the one ac-

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

knowled^ed by the irod of day, every bonnet good
enough to rear its front amid the female flutter, may
be seen gliding along the gay pavement of Broadway,
and they often appeared to our enraptured eyes, the
top-pieces of embodied elegance. Scarfs, light as gos-
samer and tinted with the Inies of the most del; Ue
butterfly, lay over, or rather imperfectly shaded shoul-
ders of the most swan-like mould, surmounting forms
that moved along, supported by as slender and elastic
feet and ancles as ever dashed dew from the covslip.

We met one day, during our city perambul: aons,
a sable-garbed cit, long, lean, yellow, spare, and pro-
found, stalking towards his dwelling, with a pair of
well-fed fowls hanffiniif from tlic hand of liis starboard
arm. Nothing extraordinary perhaps, for such is no
uncommon occurrence in New York ; but still it gave
rise on the moment to a few similes, and thereby a
smile ; Pharaoh's kine, for instance, or Life in the
clutches of Death.

And so the world wags. The city will stand, the
streets be crowded, the bonnets and feathers will flut-
ter, ladies trip about, and gentlemen carry home fat
fowls to their dinner, till the end of the chapter.

, . V

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111

''III

CHAPTER IV.

!(■■

" • • • Tlie world must turn iijion its axis.
And all mankind turn with it, hoads) or tails ;
And live anil die, make love, and pay our taxes—-
And as the veer'ng wind uhifts, shift our sails."

Byhon,

Bking in hourly expectation of a summons to em-
bark for the city of Albany, we found it convenient
to be somewhat nearer the steam-boat quay ; but be-
fore saying farewell to the Washington, I shall give
a sketch of the life we daily saw and enjoyed at this
favourite hotel.

Well, then, if you ever chance, kind reader, as I
did, to find a dormitory, up three pairs of stairs, and
along as many passages, in this Sdif-contained repub-
lic, at half-past seven morning your unpractised ears
would tingle under the eftects of a huge bell, which
sends its clamorous signal through every corner of the
edifice, causing the window-frames to dirl, and the
laziest portion of the inhabitants to spring from their
drowsy beds, the greater part of the inmates having
gone about their various avocations several hours be-
fore. After giving vent to a few preliminary yawns.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

iil

you screw your awakened courage to the stick ing-
point, — take the decisive leap, — and find yourself in
the middle of an ordinary-sized bedroom. Furniture, —
a small tal)le, chair, basin-stand, looking-glass, and bod
of a short-horned species, mere apologies for j)osts,
and minus curtains.

If you are apt to linger a little at your toilet, ano-
ther peal, before you have time to array yourself in
full feather, v;ill salute you from below. You must
now employ well your limbs, and make the best use
of your time, or it is likely you will have to travel
round the whole length of the breakfast table, sustain-
ing, all the time, a heavy broadside from four-score
Yankee eyes, before you can find a seat and vacancy
enough to squeeze yourself into one of the two op-
posing lines of busy mouths, which are all bent over
so many plates of toast, hot rolls, mutton chops, fish
and eggs. Every countenance is as solemn and
silent as if engaged in solving one of Euclid's most
intricate problems, or preparing some mystic potion
of alchymy ; for in silence the knife separates the
nondescript substances placed before it, and in double
silence the spoon describes its revolutions round
the huge cup in which it is placed. When you
come to an anchor in the noiseless array, thy fate
is to do likewise. Scotch though you be, you are
no more able to raise your voice above a whisper, than
you are to shove yourself from under the burden of
a confirmed nightmare ! Similar apparatus is placed
before you. You use the knife like your neighbours,

J .. 1

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SKETCHES or CANADA.

hi?

til;

t:,

and with the tea-spoon create the same mimic whirl-
pool, which a moment before you beheld called into
ephemeral existence in a hundred cups around you.
Now comes the period of your Scotciiified surprise.
Vou are yet hardly half throu^^h your lirst muffin,
which is fast falling away before your continued at-
tacks, — you have just given your chair another hitch
forward, and consider yourself as fairly encaii-iped and
furnished with ammunition, to take by surprise each
vacant and unguarded avenue rou'^d the citadel of
your stomach. The blockade has commenced in
good earnest ; plates of butter, ham, veal, chops, and
cake, of every tribe and tongue, stud the cloth around
you, all ready to pour in their light and heavy shot ;
and nothing is farther from your well-occupied
thoughts, than the idea of beating a retreat. How-
ever, you begin to have a vague notion, that there is
more elbow-room on each side, than when you sat
down. What can be the reason ? You give a hasty
glance each way, and discover to your wonder, that
your supporters right and left have evaporated, or
in some other unaccountable way, vanished. All
that in your bewilderment you can be certain of, is
that they are not there ; that they have breakfasted,
never for one moment enters into your catalogue of
conjectures or probable consequences. For, accord-
ing to your shrewd notions and experiences concern-
ing the Scotch process of mastication, they had no
time to satisfy an ordinary appetite, and you thought-
fully argue, within yourself, that unless the Americans

iMl''

III *

ia|,.| i

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

:)9

IS
3d,

of
rd-
rn-
ino

it-
ins

are gifted with the conjuring faculty of devoining
wholesale, and at one gulp, broiled hens and turkey
cocks, they must have gone empty away. Now |»ei-
haps your eyes, hy mere chance, light upon the dishes
immediately in front of the vacant chairs : they too,
are wholly vacant ! Nothing remains of all the smok-
ing and steaming a!)un(hince hut knives, tea-spoons,
egg-shells stuck into wine-glasses, empl. plates, and
breakfast cuj)s, ditto. 'I'here, then, is the solution ol
the enigma. The good folks have really hrea'.vfast d
and gone on their way, lejiving you, as It werv , in
the lurch, still two-thirds of your Hrst cup, and nearly
as much of your first roll, unconsumed. In short,
you have scarcely planted your cannon, when \\i'l\
them the city is taken, ransacked, and the besiegers
ort' with tlic plunder.

Such is a mere outline of operations ; it is unsafe
to give more, seeing that " men and manners in
America " are the everlasting subjects of dispute
amongst the various gifted tourists to the west ; and
were I to enlarge, or even give my own opinion on
what I saw and experienced, ten to one I would bring
a nest of hornets about my ears in the shape of
" western wanderers " of every de-. )'^)tion, armed
with fine pointed goose-quills, ready to pin down my
eyelids, or, what is worse, gag my tongue.

Were I to tell you, that I enjoyed the luxury du-
ring the warm season of iced water clear as crystal,
and beautifully congealed butter — hey presto ! — and I
am assailed with all the volubility of female rhetoric
attempting to run me down, by vociferating into my

:: I

Vi •

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■V.

■I

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

^4! i;

nilitr

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cowering ears, that their next neighbours, my deluded
eyes, have made a most egregious mistake, for they
had almost led mi to believe that black was white ;
as, what I innocently supposed to be iced water was
in reality nothing but melted mud, and the congealed
butter, rancid oil ! Or were I to assert, on the other
hand, that I occasionally partook of, or was served
with a grease-covered, lukewarm beefsteak, thick as a
penny roll, and hard as a tanned hide — here again,
I would be under the fangs of some doughty cham-
pion of unchewable chops and barbarous beefsteaks,
who would not only positively assert that I was mis-
taken, but would maintain that the very portion
which I made several futile attempts to masticate,
was tender and delicate as early lamb. Of such at-
tacks for the present, then, I will steer clear, and leave
my argumentative forerunners to fight over a point of
etiquette, or a '* canvass-backed duck," while yow and
wCf kind reader, pass on in the even tenor of our
way.

An introduction to the bar-room is also capable of
affording to the good-humoured observer, both amuse-
ment and instruction.

It is a large and rather handsome room, with one
door leading to the street, one to the house, and ano-
ther to the reading-room. On one side stands a long
mahogany counter, denominated the bar, and loaded
with tumblers, jugs, and punch-bowls. Behind this,
is a large glass-case, supporting a variety of boauti-
fully-cut decanters, filled with all sorts of liquors,
named and nameless. The walls arc covered with

■I

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

maps, hills, and advertisements, in frames ; and on the
floor, at certain hours of the day,— generally before
feeding time, — you may observe groups of that intel-
lectual animal called man — short, tall, young, old,
with their accompaniments, such as, umbrellas, canes,
tumblers, sticks, cigars, and newspapers, — some whis-
pering, others listening, reading, sauntering, smoking,
spitting, and sipping, and perchance faintly and grimly
smiling, but none, — no, not one countenance, lighted
up with the radiant glow of laughter. But in this,
by the way, they have our Chesterfield's authority to
keep them in countenance ; for, according to that pro-
found professor of etiquette, laughter is an ugly and
disagreeable distortion of the muscles of the face.

At the end of the bar is placed the clerk's desk, and
on it lies ever open, a large folio, wherein every travel-
ler records his arrival, by inserting his name and from
whence he has come. If you chance to raise your
eyes while thus autographicalltj employed, they may
chance to encounter a score of pairs that are ready,
when you retire, to pounce upon your devoted signa-
ture, and dive into the very depths of the undried
ink, in order to discover, as far as the evidence will
lead, the why, when, wherefore, the how and the
who, concerning your appearance. I, therefore (and
this may serve thee, reader, as a lesson), when so-
journing in dilFerent places, from a sj)irit of complai-
sance or contradiction, presented my curious neigh-
bours as wide a field of conjecture as I possibly could,
by placing on the right flank of my name, the word

■ r'>; ■

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1 1

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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*' Europe " in full, unmistakable, and independent-
looking characters.

On Sunday afternoon, \\c stept into a small steamer,
bound across the river, \vhere lie, in all their natural
and cultivated beauty, the Elysian fields ; meant to
be, 1 suppose, a second edition of those heavens of
the ancients ; but judging from a description of the
one, and a sight of the other, the modern seem nei-
ther greatly improved nor enlarged. There are, how-
ever, hill and dale — winding walks — grass-covered
plains, and shaded seats, in great profusion ; and
altogether they do much credit to the taste of the
proprietors and the public. There appeared to be a
considerable degree of levity amongst those who re-
sorted to this spot of Sunday recreation, which was
but little in accordance with our Scotch notions of
Presbyterian propriety.

The only object worth note, that we saw, was a cir-
cular railway, for the exercise of the youth of both
sexes. It is pleasantly situated under a clump of tall
forest trees, several hundred yards in extent ; there
Mas a couple of small carriages on it, driven with the
hand. Here you might observe a gay young gallant
handing to seat some timid blushing miss, and gently
folding in the stray portions of her airy drapery, while
he plants himself by her side, and away they wheel
round and . >und, till the arm is tired, or the fair one
gently whispers " enough." They now descend, and
retire beneath the surrounding foliage, to whisper (all
very sweet, no doubt) of Isright days to come ! while

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

their envied seat is again wheeling, in rapid revolu-
tions, another fond and fluttering pair !

On returning to the city, our primitive notions were
a little scandalized on noticing, which we had not
done before, many of the shops, " stores" as they
are called, open, with specimens of their contents
flaring away at the door in the faces of the passengers.

One es})ocially struck us, and imparted to our minds
a few gloomy qualms. It was a handsome building.
In large letters over the door we read, " Coffin ware-
house," and at the windows and door-step, stood, in
tempting array, various specimens of these gaunt to-
kens of mutable mortality; from the simple black deal,
to the ornameut^ed mahogany. We gazed for a mi*
nute in awe, and passed on. Our friend, Tom Phelim,
who always trotted behind us in our rambles, seemed
to take a more matter-of-fact view of the circum-
stance, for he slipped up to his master, and whispered
in his ear, " There are shops here for every thing,
Mr David ; it's rale convaynient ! "

Talking of Irishmen, there is always a good supply
of labourers from the Green Isle, at work in the city :
and although they do not appear to be great favour-
ites, they generally get employment, for this reason,
that they do not consider it derogatory to their pride
to perform pieces of service, which their American
neighbours think it quite beneath their own dignity
to engage in.

Pat, in New York, appears to be a plant which loses
nothing of its native energy by transplantation, — it is

't'.

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

invariably discoverable by the same undeviating cha-
racteristics. His fingers, at certain seasons, we are told,
feel a latent inkling to grasp the sprig of shillelah, and
on every ilacent occasion, his heart is softened by whisky
and his head by blows, much in the same manner as
they were wont to be at Donnybrook. In short, we
suspect that he flourishes in all his original faults,
fancies, and foibles, over the whole world. Even the
scorching heat of New York is unable to roast the wit
out of him ; for on several occasions we had oppor-
tunities of observing it burst forth, in all the freshness
of its blundering volubility.

One day during the hot season — and the hot season
at New York in 1834 was no joke — a sturdy Hibernian,
accompanied by his Shela, went to one of the public
wells, with a jug to procure a draught of cold water.
While Pat was applying the vessel to the spout, which
poured forth a most refreshing stream, he observed on
the stone above, two printed notices posted side by
side. " Judy, jewel" (said he to his companion, to
whom he intended to present the fii3t cup), " you that
hiv the book-larnin, and knows the dictionar, tell us
what them 'vertismints be after sayin', and sure we'll
dhrink the healths of the gintlemin, if it is the thruth
that they are spakin, 'cause the marchints in Ameriky
ar'nt the gumocks to tell us what they don't want us
to hear." Judy cast a sly squint at the papers, and
seemed to comprehend theii import, " Och, Pat
darlint ! we'd betther lave it alone, and take the dthrop
wather, for I be as thristy as the biggest fish that

iu.

.-.KETCHES OF CANADA.

swims." — " Not a spark iv it ill kiss the tongue iv
ye, till ye tell us what the papers be after preachin'
concariiin," said Pat, whose curiosity was now as near
running over as the jug that he held in his hand.
" Well, then," said Judy, " you're ever braekin
the own head of ye, and you'll repint that iver ye
axed after them black 'vertismints. This here one
says, that it is the dead and burrymint of the 'tirnal
soul to dthrink a dthrop of the pure crathur, and that
there houlds furth that to take could wathur '11 burn
the body with 'flamation.* Och, och, Pat honey I
we must take none of them at all at all, if we mane
to live all the life of us." — " Thunder and bullets I "
said Pat, after a musing pause — " sure this is a bo-
thermint, Judy mavourneen I By the Saint and there
is no sinse in it. The thafes o' the world ! to be after
puUin' the pig that-away by the hid and the tail at
onst, and then tellin' the poor baste to use the legs iv
it ; how can we live without the dthrop dthrink ? " —
*' But the gintlemin says it," replied Judy. *' Well,
then," said Pat, as a new thought struck him, " we'll
obey the orders of the gintlemin, and dhriidc neither

.;i

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* Those bills were stuck up in the city as a warning during the
warm weather. One was tVom the Temperance Society, and set
forth the enormity of drinking spirits, and the evils attending it.
And the other appeared to be promulgated by no less philan-
thropic individuals ; for it warned people of the danger of swal-
lowing large draughts of cold water at the wells, when they were
heated bv labour or otherwise ; and seemed not to be uncalled
for, death by neglecting such means of preservation being a fre-
quent occurrence.

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SKETCHES OF CANADA,

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the hot sph'Its nor the could wather." Saying this,
he slipped a bottle of mountain-vlow from his pocket,
and dashing half the water from the jug, concocted a
bumper of grog for Judy and another for himself ;
and as he quaffed it, called on St Pat to bless the
*' timprancc gintlemin who lamed him how to manu-
facture the rale stuff! "

On Monday morning, seven o'clock, we were all
in a bustle to start for Albany. Our present quarters
are at the " Robert Burns House," named by the
proprietor with true national pride, he and mine
hostess being both from the country of cakes and
crowdie. A half-length portrait of the poet invites,
with well-pleased look, the passing stranger — or
rather a couple of likenesses, for his well-known face
was displayed on each side of the dangling sign-
board, which swung, at right angles to the house, on
an iron rod over the door- way ; and as the wind waved
it to and fro, he seemed to give a nod of recognition
and welcome to allwhojourneyed either up or down the
paven. jnt. This had the desired effect, for the house
— over which our native bard was constituted patron
saint — was crowded with the hardy sons of Scotland,
whom we easily distinguished from the spare-limbed
natives, not only by the never-failing tones of mother
tongue, but by the thewes and sinews with which na-
ture supplies their sturdy forms. Our host — but we
will say nothing of him — he was neither master nor
mistress of his own house, the mare being in this
instance undoubtedly the better horse. She was —
(and we will use as few words in her description as

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

possible, seeing that we are in somewhat of a hurry
to be olF for the " j^lorious Hudson") — she was a
clumpy, stumpy, busthng, rustling, clavering, haver-
ing, thrifty, shifty, fleeching, preaching, ready,
steady, fozy, rosy, canty Scotch carline.

On taking leave of the city, it is but just*"^ to re-
cord that we were well pleased with the treatment
and good cheer we enjoyed, especially in the Wash-
ington, — and that on the whole, arrangements are
well adapted to the wants of a traveller, A Scots-
man of ordinary sagacity will soon be able to feel
himself comfortable enough, even amid the profound
regularity that prevails; and in spite of all their hurry,
if he sits down with the first peal of the dinner-bell,
and remains till the last lingerer quits his chair, he
will find himself possessed of time sufficient for the
important process of mastication.

After resolving to leave the "mighty mass of brick,''
and getting all our aff'airs in order, doing and undo-
ing, managing and mis-managing, we found ourselves
snugly enough, and in good time, on board the *' Erie"
steamer. And we confess we felt at times somewhat
eert'ey at being borne along at the round rate of fifteen
knots an hour. Some have described these mighty ma-
chines as moving villages, colonies, palaces, &c. ; suf-
fice it, that this one might have been all of those or
none, as the fancy of the traveller or the wit of the poet
might choose to portray it. It presented a very ex-
citing appearance to inexperienced eyes. It was
lightly painted in white, green, and gold, with a
capacious upper-deck, supported by handsome pillars.

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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over which might be placed, when the heat required,
an extensive awning. The last peal of the large bell
now tolled forth, warning all around, that in a few
seconds the steam would be in active operation, and
that those ashore who wished to come on board
should do so instanter, and vice versa. In a few
minutes more, the tinkling tones of the small break-
fast-bell sounded aloft. Experience teaches both fools
and wise men, so we made the best of our way to the
cabin, and well it was that we did so, for many had
taken both time and their breakfast by the forelock,
and had placed themselves round the generous board.
Here was a goodly show ; the cabin was fifty paces
long, and the table, but little shorter, supported a
vast collection of the good things of life. Many
dishes no doubt were there that even trusty Mrs
Margaret Dods, of savoury memory, would have
pondered over, in a vain attempt to pronounce their
name and lineage.

In ten minutes we were on deck again, and got
ourselves planted in a convenient position, to enjoy
the beauties of this queen of rivers.

We felt none of that chagrin so often experien-
ced by travellers viewing, for the first time, some
hackneyed wonder. It surpassed our previous con-
ception, and in our enthusiasm, we considered our-
selves well repaid for all the hardships we had un-
dergone. No part of what we saw in the chang-
ing scene, rose into that stern and naked sublimity
which our own Highlands present in such majestic
and elevated character ; but the rich specimen of

li0

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

jen-
>me
ton-
)ur-
lun-

|ng-

Stic
of

blooming nature displ.'.yed to our view, filled our minds
with delight and astonishment. I feel unable to do
justice to the scenery, by a descri})tion of what we
saw, as we threaded the wanderings of the lovely
river ; suffice it then, that wo i'elt as if moving on
within the bounds of an ever-varying summer lake,
for, by the winding of the stream, we were wholly shut
in on every side, and ever and anon another aspect
of the same scene, was, in the course of a few seconds,
presented to our gaze. We were surrounded at one
time with vast rocks, that shot up five hundred feet
perpendicularly from the water, and again, on turn-
ing our eyes to take a lingering l')ok at the lofty
masses, they were far in the distance, and around us
bloomed smiling orchards and woodland dwellings —
the fruit-trees in all the luxuriance of their summer
blossom. These in their turn were cast behind, to
make way for others still more fairy-like and enchant-
ing. Fanciful castles were nestled on the tops of the
lofty banks in luxuriant clusters of nature's richest
drapery, and cottages were standing on the very edge
of the stream, from the flower-plots of which, we might
almost have snatched, as we swept past, the open-
ing rosebud. A hundred and fifty miles of this
garden of nature did not satiate our busy eyes, and
we required not the stimulus of imagination, to paint
in brighter colours, the high tinted scenery, — our
placid fancy knew nothing purer to wish, and nothing
richer to long for !

At dinner we made a few comparative remarks on
the flock of mortals around us. Each and all, at

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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the tinf^le of the bell, slipped into their places as if
by machinery. We were seated opposite to a few
females, and all our penetration could not discover,
whether, in the European sense of the term, they
were ladies or not. We had occasion to replenish
their plates (there is no chanye of plates) many times
during the short space allowed us to feed, and they
wholly outdid us, both in quantity and expedition.
What astonished us most, was the discordant mass
that found a resting-place on their groaning plates.
When the ladies retired to thiir own exclusive cal)in,
they left a curious conglomeration of unconsumed
viands huddled together, and presenting to the eye
a dismal uniformity, as if they wished to impress on
the unconscious scraps the equality notions of the
country. Fragments of mutilated fowls, scrags of
mutton, parings of cheese, salad leaves, buttered
toast, preserves, mustard, &c., and a knife and fork
reposing at right angles on the top — reminding us
strongly of a venerable tombstone, in the church-
yard of our naive place, which covers the remains
of an old warrior. On it are carved in rude array all
the symbols of war, — shattered cannon, broken flag-
staffs, banners, shields, &c., and over the whole is
placed, crosswise, a representation of the deceased's
sword and spear.

Nothing could exceed the unchecked despatch
with which the male portion of the company per-
formed their part. Their plates were very frequently
replenished during the few minutes we sat at table,
and I admired much the dexterity with which they.

\t:-

SKETCHES OF I \NADA.

time after time, cleared them of the accumulations
that encumbered their movements. The bones and
sinews of fowls which had gone to their account,
the rind of pork, and the fat of departed beef, were
with one fell swoop of the knife, in the direction of a
drill-sergeant's sword performing the s ^th cut, dash-
ed unceremoniously upon the damask table-cloth ;
while the fork, in the other hand, was transporting a
fresh supply from some convenient dish in its imme-
diate vicinity.

Itch

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fey,

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[ -2 ]

CHAPTER V.

'■ Now, gnnd Jack seaniiin, let us foot apain

Tho 8<)liil i;roun(l, for sure a soa-tost brain

Must think unlike the dcnizetis of eartl),

And lose the common tones of Rrief and mirtli :

I'ngentle as the gak's that hreak the rest,

And storms that ruthless, beat the rugged breast! "

5.1

M 'I

We arrived at Albany about half-past live, and
proceeded, as may be very aptly supposed, without the
delay of a moment, to a place of refreshment. Let
Sawney alone for looking after the creature comforts ;
he is not the man to go wandering about, gazing at
lions and other wonderful beasts of prey, when the
demon of hunger is busy preying on his own vitals.
In the present case, both our tempers and appetites
were sharpened by a dispute which we had with the
captain of the steamer — a thorough son of Yankeeism
— for overcharging us for our luggage, but from whom
we got not a cent's worth of satisfaction. Wc had
to pocket our dissatisfaction, however, seeing no alter-
native ; and having left him and his boat, proceeded,
as aforesaid, to stow in a fresh supply of provisions.
Several of our party afterwards adjourned to the

ing i
the c

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

at
the

tals.

tites
the

iism
lom
had
ter-
(led,
ons.
the

theatre, as the easiest and quickest way to have a
peep at all classes of the population, liut although
we were now in the capital of the State, the style
and general high tone of appearance of New York
city was undiscoverahle. We found, in short, that
the inhabitants, as well as the town, were 180 miles
farther north in the world of fashion, and the actors
were, in appearance and talent, still nearer the Pole.
We unexpectedly found, however, that Kemble and
** Miss Fanny " were there ; having left New York
some days before us ; they were but poorly supported.
We do not remember the piece actetl, but this we do
know, that the hero of a most sentimental love-plot
was a big-boned, Herculean fellow, much better fitted,
from his burly appearance and stentorian articulation,
to set forth the merits of Hob Roy or Dandy Din-
mont than the sighing gallant that he essayed to
personate. But it is needless to say that the plea-
sure derived from witnessing the acting of the two stars,
from our own native hemisphere, was of itself reward
sufficient for our journey to the Albany theatre.

Next day we " perambulated" the city, as Dr
Johnson would have expressed it, but found little to
attract a stranger's attention. One large building,
however, caught our eye, not from its architectural
grandeur, but from the immense label which stretch-
ed along the whole front, and seemed to stare us out
of countenance while still far distant. On approach-
ing a little nearer — for we were able to decipher
the characters at a considerable distance — we read,
" Tempeiiance House." Here you might enter

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

and tipple tea and coffee to your stomach's content,
and devour the daily news, but not a single drop of
the pure cratlmr or mountain dew is to be had, for
love or money.

We now bade adieu to half our party, who were
bound for Lower Canada, and who, therefore, struck
straight north, by way of Lake Champlain. We felt
keenly this separation, after undergoing all the perils
of the ocean together, and now in the hesrt of a
foreign land. Our poor friend Tom Phelim sobbed
aloud, and the tears stood in his eyes, while he turn-
ed from us to follow the steps of his master. And who
knows how, when, or where we may meet again, if
over, on the surface of this world of vicissitudes! Our
life may pass smilingly on, and for this we trust in
Providence, but it may be otherwise. Erelong the
fair prospect, to us, may be choked with briers and
thorns, the crystal stream may become impure, and
the mists of misfortune unfold their lowering mantle
and overshadow our happiness for ever ! Such
thoughts arose at parting, but young and specula-
tive minds do not long suffer such brooding moodi-
ness to have full dominion over them, so we " clear-
ed up our looks" again, and betook ourselves to some
concerns of life and enjoyment.

At five o'clock afternoon we stept into one of the
train of carriages that start from the city for the town
of Schenactady — fifteen miles distant — where we pro-
posed joining the Great Western Canal. We were
whirled along by steam, and reached our destination
at six o'clock, after going over one of the most bar-

ich
ila-
)di-

the
kvn
)ro-
[ere
lion

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

ren spots I have seen in the west. Along the whole
line of the railway, we passed over almost nothing
but sand. The soil was partly covered with stunted
pines, and in several places where the way was below
the general level of the surface, brandies from the
neighbouring trees were pinned on the banks to pre-
vent the sand sliding down and choking up the rails.
We unfortunately had but a few moments to view
the ancient city of Schenactady, having to get on
board the canal packet as soon as we swallowed our
evening meal.

The population is only about 5000. So verily,
ritf/ seems but an empty sound, a straining after
effect ! but this is not uncommon with our American
friends — and every thing is, with them, the best in
the world — par excellence ! One of them, with all the
saturnine cast of countenance of this grave nation,
remarked to me one day, that he guessed the bugs in
the Old Country could not bite so tarnation sharp as
those over the Union. With a bow and smile, which
contained the very spirit of polite acquiescence, I in
this instance, ceded to brother Jonathan the palm
of triumph.

This brings to mind an anecdote illustrative of the
same foible. One day, some time since, an Ameri-
can, while seated in a New York stage, commenced
sounding, in the ears of a canny Scotchman, the
praises of the mode in which they divide and count
the current coin of the States. " There can be no
manner of doubt," said he, " that our plan presents

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

a facility and correctness that you can never arrive
at in the old country."

" May be sae ! may be sae ! " ejaculated Sawney,
unwilling either to confess or deny the premises.

" It is so plain," rejoined Jonathan, " that I won-
der you do not at once adopt the use of dollars and
cents."

" Ou ay," said the other, " the dollar looks weel
eneugh ; but still it pits a body in mind o' a scrlmpit
croon ; and the ither, a cent as ye ca't, nae doubt
sounds weel, and looks croose wi' a spread aigle on
ae side an* the coul o' liberty on the ither ; but I
jaelouse for a' that, there's muckle din and little woo,
for the thing itsell is jimp the beuk o' a Brummagem
bawbee."

^iot to be daunted, however, his opponent imme-
diately replied — " But, sir, you can easily see, I ex-
pect, that by the division of our dollar into a hun-
dred cents, and in this manner, seeing so plainly the
relative proportion of any intermediate sum, it ren-
ders our calculations very simple — quite different
from the clumsy way you have of counting by pence,
shillings, and sovereigns."

" Hoot, toot, freen," quoth Sawney, both amused
and irritated by the depreciating observations of his
travelling acquaintance, " ye should let that flee stick
fast to the wa'. And ance for a', I'll just observe,
that whate'er betide, I'll be haudin* by our ain auld
customs at hame, for I hae neither the wush nor the
wuU to change our guid Scotch coins and caupers.

^l A. ]

nik

SKE'ICHES OF CANADA.

Irae the fardin upwards — ilk ane displaying the son-
sie head o' his Majesty, God bless him ! and Britan-
nia hersell sitting at his back, streetehin' oot a sprig
o' peace in the ae hand to her freens, and a three-
tae'd grape in the other, to jab her enemees, or pou-
ter them into the sea. I hae nae wush to change
them for ony o* yer nicknamed ha'pennies and licht-
weicht croons, and dollar bills, that are little better
than libels on guid paper money. And as foryersells,
my freen, wise ye'U be to coont the clink yer ain
way, and keep a fast baud o' what ye've gotten, for
it's ill takin' the breeks afF a Hielandman, but it wad
be mair difficult still, for you to coont yer siller in
sov'rins wha hae nae sov'rins to coont ! " *

To return to the ancient but diminutive city of
Schenaotady, it was, if tradition can be credited, the
headquarters of tie Mohawk tribe of Indians, which
at one period could, muster nearly a thousand war-
riors. The town, consisting of sixty-three houses
and a church, was burned to the ground ^t the dead
of night in 1690, by a band of the Frer.ch and In-
dians from Canada. Many of the i*:hab'r ints v/ere
massacred or taken captive, others fled toviards Al-
bany, of whom many lost limbs, and numfcers perished
from cold.

Many a romantic and heart-rendiiig taie is handed

mid
the

ers,

* It is curious that, since this incident took place, Jonathan has
deemed it profitable in some measure to adopt our sovereign
mode of reckoning ; for, from the enhanced value he has set on
that sterling coin, many in this country have found it expedient
to ship quantities to the States.

t p

78 SKETCHES OF CANADA.

down from that horror-covered night ; many a widow's
tears fell over the ashes of her burned dwelling, where
her husband and children had perished ; and many a
young and innocent female heart shrieked over the
mangled and scalp-bereft body of her warrior lover.
Well it is for the feelings of the present inhabitants
that above a century of years has now, with its hoary
influence, passed over, and smoothed dovvn the re-
membrance of this tumultuous storm in the tide of
human brutality and crime. We looked upon the
city, not as it was, but as it now is in reality presented
to us, a fine thriving busy place, where hundreds of
happy families are daily eating the bread of industry,
and where they repose at night without fear of the
murderous war-whoop ringing in their ears, with no-
thing apparently to disturb them save the incur-
sions of their fellow republicans, th? sharp-biting
bugs !

Bidding adieu to Schenactady, we went on board
the canal packet about to start for the west. The
evening was delightful, and we enjoyed the scenery,
so altogether new to us, with a high relish. The
boat shot along, slowly it is true, but with motion
enough to render the evening air cool ai refreshing.
We were within sight of the stream of the Mohawk,
which in some places crept along under the over-
hanging foUiage like a silvery serpent enjoying the
shade, and at others it was seen dashing over rocks,
in the form of little cascades, which gave a pleasing
variety to the landscape. Abundance of verdant
plains and green haughs spread out on each side of

SKETCHES or CAXADA,

T<)

}ry,
rhe

vS,

ant
of

rhe river, as well as many sandy and unproductive
spots. But the latter we were willing to let slip
from memory, in summing up the catalogue of beau-
ties scattered along our path ; for we felt in a mood
to be pleased with every thing and every body in our
survey of the New World. As the god of day soon
drew in his beams from the face of nature, and the
river blackened into a huge dark chasm, we proceeded
to take a peep inwardly, — not of ourselves, good
reader, — but of our cabin accommodation. There
was a goodly company on board, considering the
size of our vessel — about thirty gentlemen, and half
as many ladies. Four steps broad and twenty-one
feet long was the capacity of the gentlemens' sleep-
ing and dining cabin, and here, a score and a half of
us had to be stowed away.

When we descended from deck between eight and
nine o'clock, being the retiring hour, we found all the
sleeping apparatus displayed in full form. On each
side of the long narrow space were hung three tiers of
canvas-bottomed frames, hardly broad enough to allow
the occupant to stretch himself on his back, and three
lengthwise, in all, affording accommodation for eigh-
teen, and our surplus number had to betake them-
selves to the more humble couch afforded by the floor.
Our berths were allotted to us by precedence as the
names were placed in the way-bill. When each cog-
nomen was sung out by the captain, the individual
doffed boots, coat, and vest, and hoisted himself into
his place ; a process which afforded us a good fund for
amusement, as those who were blessed with any thing

J \

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

*; ;:

like rotundity of person felt considerable difficulty in
getting fairly into the narrow recess, which afforded
but a very threadbare portion of elbow room. I con-
trived with little difficulty to crawl into my lair, and
although enjoying less room, I believe, than if I had
been a mummy in one of the Pyramids, I passed a
very unconscious and refreshing night. By peep of
day I crept from my shelf with all the caution of a
snail from its shell, for with undue haste my nose
might have run foul of some obtrudmg stern quarters,
or my toes saluted the gaping mouths of the prostrate
snorers. I got safely on deck, however, and after
performing the refreshing process of ablution, made
use of my newly opened eyes to the greatest adv'an-
tage in my power.

After passing many pretty and romantic villages
on the banks of the river and canal, most of which
apparently have sprung into existence since the open-
ing of the latter, we were skimming along, about
ten o'clock forenoon, towards the beautiful and pictu-
resque scenery ciround Little Falls.

These are rather rapids than falls (as the guide-
book expresses it) ; on each side the beautiful wooded
mountains rise very high, leaving only a narrow space
for the river, canal, and road to pass through. For
about two ■ 'les die canal is formed by throwing up
a wall in the river, fronr : sventy to thirty feet high,
then excavuling into the mountain and filling up the
bed to the level required. This, it need hardly be said,
must have been no child's play, as the mere expense of
gunpowder alone to blast the rock, would make brother

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

tl.

Jonathan use his calculating powers to some purpose,
and put him besides to most dollar-ous charges. A
beautiful marble aqueduct crosses the river here, lead-
ing into a basin where boats deliver and receive their
loading. The aqueduct is formed by an elliptical arch
of seventy feet span, embracing the whole breadth of
the stream, except in time of freshets, and one on
each side of fifty feet. It is elevated about twenty-
five feet above the surface of the stream, which is
here precipitated over rocks for a considerable distance,
in the form of dashing and foaming rapids.

There are a number of beautiful and fanciful build-
ings and dwellings in the village, which have a sure
and solid foundation, being planted on the various
shelves and elevations of the rock to the north of the
stream ; altogether, the village and scenery around is
one of the most romantic and lovely of all the ten
thousand glens, hamlets, and waterfalls which we
visited during our sojourn in the west. It seemed, in
the passing sunny glimpse which we got of it, the
perfect Eden of a poet's heaven. We were luckily
afforded a good opportunity of enjoying this feast of
fancy, for the packet having to ascend six dift'erent
locks in the canal, we had leisure to wander for miles
through the most imposing sccnciy in all the wild
and luxurious garb of unshorn Nature. Every strik-
ing feature of landscape was brought in a few seconds
within the range of the eye, from the brawling wa- er
roaring over the rocky depths of the dark ravine
below, to the sun- bright foliage whicli crowns tha
mountains above. It is impossible that any one could

i •

f ;i

f'.:^

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

''W

: t.
i >

long remain insensible to the charnn, which seems to
pervade this masterpiece of Nature's unstudied com-
position.

There is a strong analogy between the vicissitudes
of a sea voyage and the mimic one performed on the
canal. In the first, we have all the pleasing and
awful varieties of aspects assumed by sea, air, and sky;
in the last, these are presented to us by the ever-
changing beauties of the landscape. We are at first
drawn along in all the monotony of the sea voyage,
when there is hardly wind to fill the canvas — no excite-
ment — no enjoyment — and no real repose. Then, as a
parallel to the smart breeze of the sea, we get amongst
scenery of an ordinary but pleasing description, and
pass the time in equality of spirits. Then, for the
gloomy and threatening lull before the midnight sea
storm, we have the dark frowning monarchs of the
wood bending their gigantic arms over our heads, and
shading us from the light of day, and anon we hear
the harsh dash of the angry waterfall, which echoes
and re-echoes from hill and dale; lastly, as a substitute
for the dawning of a smiling morn, ere our ears are
well accustomed to the swelling din, we are again
shooting along into the light of a glorious and inspir-
ing assemblage of Nature's most pleasing attributes.
The same mystic influence which makes our hearts
beat quicker and quicker while bounding over the
swellings of the ocean, comes over us, and we find our
enjoyment is often as active, though we are only be-
holding the passive and reposing beauties of nature.

Soon after passing Little Falls, we fell into a state

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

late

of moving mediocrity. We were drawn slowly alony,
while the view was completely bounded on each side
by the forest, and nothing behind or before but the
lazy length of the watery highway, which, from the
long perspective, terminated in a mere point at each
end. Above our heads we had a similar view of the
blue sky, which, in its turn, was reflected below our
feet, giving us at times an idea, as we gazed down,
that we were gliding along a diametrical division of
the globe ; for the heavens below appeared as fair and
bright as the zenith from which they were reflected.
After passing several places with high-sounding
names, we arrived at the city of Utica ; and although
it is well enough as an American city of third, or
perhaps fourth-rate importance, on visiting places
with such names, we seldom failed to entertain an
idea that we had before us a quizzical representation
of the classical, historical, and important cities of the
Old World ; for, alas ! in nine out of ten instances,
they were but sorry substitutes for the venerable ori-
ginals. As an instance of the mistakes which are
made by travellers drawing their impressions of the
character of places from the names they have receiv-
ed : — I parted with one of my travelling friends at
Schenactady, he to follow in another boat. I agreed
to wait for him at London^ unconsciously deeming
that such a town would be a pretty prominent land-
mark, on the banks of a canal at least ; but I found,
on enquiry, that were I resolved to step on shore at
this doughty nameson of our British metropolis, it
was more than likely I would not get a bed ! I

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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therefore resolved to pass on, and enjoy ttie hospita-
lities of the more commodious city of Utica.

I took up my quarters for the night in the coffee-
house, the door of which, luckily for th(^ transporta-
tion of my luggage, was within a few steps of the
canal. Here I would observe, for the edification of
all worthy sons of restlessness, that it is a sore and
crying ovil passing over the surface of the earth in
the company of ponderous trunks and stuffed carpet
bags ; I conceived, at times, that even the burden of
a better Aa//* would have appeared, in comparison, but
a light affliction, had 1 been able to make the ex-
change !

After securing a bed, I set out on a voyage of dis-
covery through the city. The business parts seemed
humming with life and activity ; and there are seve-
ral pnvate streets, possessing small plots in front,
decked with various shrubs and flowers, growing
luxuriantly. There are nine churches and only
10,000 inhabitants ; so there appears to b no want
of the means of grace, however they may be made
use of. But perhaps the less we say about this mat-
ter the better.

While walking along one of the finest streets of the
city, I met rather an unusual character taking the
air on the pavement — a majestic elephant, which the
keeper was leading along, while a young cub was
playfully trotting at its side, like an early lamb, fol-
lowing its mother ; with the slight difterence, that in
this case the pet happened to be about the size of a
couple of well-fed oxen.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

hospita-

e coffee -
,nsporta-
is of the
nation of
sore and
earth in
id carpet
)urden of
rison, but
! the ex-

ge of dis-
ts seemed
are seve-
iii front,
growing
and only
no want
be made
this mat-
lets of the
^king the
rhich the
cub was
[amb, fol-
that in

size

On returning to the coffeehoust, we found an ex-
planation of the appearance of the ponderous stran-
gers, on perusing the contents of a huge bill in the
bar-room, which being too long to stretch its length
between the ceiling and the floor, had been separated
in the middle, and the pieces i ' < ed side by side. It
embodied an excellent specinv •" Yankee putting.
Portraits of every ill-shaped bii.c which the caravan
contained were displayed, with descriptions below
each of the most wonder-working sort. There were
to be seen lions that had swallowed whole bullocks,
and monkeys twice as big as the human form divine ;
royal Bengal tigers, and pelicans of the wilderness,
that were represented feeding their young with their
own heart's blood. In the eyes of many a juvenile
observer, the very bill, which hung in all its palpable
length before them, afforded good proof of the truth
of what was stated, for it was impossible, they thought,
that there were not such animals to be seen, when
their very portraits were grinning in fearful liveliness
from the paper before them ; and even seemed to be
bellowing forth a confirmation of what was written
below. No nation in the world understands the
science of puffing more profoundly than the Ameri-
can, or practises it to more advantage or perfection.
On taking up a newspaper, your eyes may be at-
tracted by such a line as the following : — " It was
once remarked by an eminent astronomer, after he
had watched the transit of Venus across the sun's
disc, that," &c. &c. ; and when you have finished the
paragraph, you discover that you have only read over

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TEST TARGET (MT-3)

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Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

33 WIST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

a hatter's advertisement, so nicely interwoven had
been the scientific remarks, with his " eye to the
main chance."

We one day observed, standing at a door in New
York, a pair of tailors' scissors, with their large un-
speculative eyes, and wide-stretched legs, and withal
half as big again as any ninth fraction of a man.
What else were they, we would ask, but a solid, sub-
stantial, but at the same time bombastical emblem of
puffing. Boots, too, we saw, that would have extin-
guished the august form of King Crispin himself !

What is still more to be admired, perhaps, in notic-
ing the American character, as connected with trade,
is the good-natured, and at the same time uncompro-
mising and unequivocal language in which some good
folks in business give their backward customers to
understand, that payment of their accounts will be
acceptable. It is quite a relief to read a paragraph
like the following, containingso much republican plain-
ness and simplicity, after being accustomed to the sly,
timorous, and round-about method, in which many,
on this side the Atlantic, tell us they are lacking the
needful, and would be obliged by a settlement. " Per-
sons indebted to the Tuscaloosa Book Store are re-
spectfully solicited to pay their last year's accounts
forthwith. It is no use to honey the matter ; pay-
ments must be made at least once a-year, or I shall
run down at the heel. Every body says, how well
that man Woodruff is getting on in the world ; when
the fact is, I have not, positively, spare change enough
to buy myself a shirt or a pair of breeches. My wife

ny,
the
er-
re-
mts
ay-
all
ell
len

.gh

»'ife

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

is now actually engaged in turning an old pair wrong
side out, and in trying to make a new shirt out of two
old ones. She declares that in Virginia, where she
was raised, they never do such things, and that it is,
moreover, a downright vulgar piece of business alto-
gether. Come, come, pay up, pay up, friends. Keep
Meace in the family, and enable me to wear my
clothes right side out. You can hardly imagine how
much it will oblige, dear sirs, the public's most obe-
dient, most obliged, and most humble servant."

It was now the 1 5th May. For some time past
the weather had become so warm that I put on my
lightest summer dress, in order to be quite unencum-
bered while rambling through the woods. The slow
rate of the boat allowed the passengers to make de-
tours into the adjoining forest or villages on the
banks, for the several important purposes, amongst
others, of shooting squirrels, drinking grog, and buy-
ing tobacco ; for it is as rare a sight to see Jonathan
without his tobacco-box as Sawney of the old school
without his mull.

On getting down in the morning from the tliird
story of the coffeehouse, in order to have a stroll over
the town before breakfast, I was truly thankful to
pull in my nose again from the weather without, for
verily there was a sad alteration from the fine wea-
ther of the previous day. A change had come over
the spirit of summer, and it seemed to have expired
on the very bosom of winter. There had been a great
fall of snow during the night, and now the cutting
east wind moaned and whistled through every chink

•■t ' ■ ■■ •

.:wi

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

ti ■

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1 '.;ft

■>¥.

of the hotel, and the ground outside was covered with
a coating of ice, sludge, and snow. From the eves
of the houses all along the streets hung hundreds of
winter's dripping locks in the shape of glittering
icicles, that were ever and anon dropping from their
precarious hold, as the sun continued to melt away
their inverted roots. But the best picture of winter
displayed was to be seen in the bar-room. A large
stove was lighted up in the centre of this temple of
brandy and tobacco, in order to scare away the ap-
proaches of John Frost. Round the glowing iron were
clustered about a dozen of human icicles, buttoned to
the chin and over the chin ; each of them had one foot
raised and in contact with the bars which sent out a
genial warmth. They seemed to a fanciful eye like
so many coifeepots, with the spouts all pointing to a
common centre ; for, on a side view of any one of the
frost-nipped group, all that could be distinctly visible
was a hat at the top, a little down a blue prominence,
supposed to be a nose, then the crest of a cigar, last-
ly, the gaunt sweep of a dust-brown great-coat, that,
interrupted only by the projected limb, terminated at
the floor, the hands met behind and supported an
umbrella, which pointed to the roof at an angle of
45", and might personate a handle in completing
the simile.

While standing apart, enjoying this freezing sight,
for the natives seemed to be more benumbed with
their climate's rude change than I was, to my sur-
prise my friend stepped in. We were now nearly
eighty miles from the spot at which we last parted,

U';j

SKCTCIIES or CANADA.

8!)

ist-

lat,

rht,
ith

5ur-
rly

Ited,

so how he had found me out sug-j^ested my first in-
terrogatory, and his answer made me inwardly thank-
ful in the possession of a flaming waymark, in the
shape of a red head. I had gone out a few minutes
before, and passed over the canal bridge and back
again. One of his fellow passengers in the boat with
which he had arrived, while they were seated at break-
fast, observed to him in the drawling, deliberate Yankee
way, " I saw your friend this morning, mister." —
" My friend! how did you know him ?" he replied.
" Why, I guess I saw a gentleman on the bridge
with hair mighty like the colour of a carrot !"

His information proved correct, and my poll's
peculiar hue served me in this a better turn than it
has ever done before or since. Whether there be any
of a similar die over the Union I do not know, for I
never saw any ; '>ut it appeared plain that this pry-
ing son of freedom had travelled fourscore miles, and
still retained a glowing recollection of the one in
question. I lost no time in shifting myself, &c. on
board my friend's boat, which was bound for the ex-
tremity of the canal at Buffalo, and therefore quite
to our purpose. It was a vessel of the second-rate
class, which moves at the snail-pace of two and a half
miles per hour.

The sky was soon again unclouded, the wind died
away, and summer rested supreme on her luxuriant
throne. During the short usurpation, however, she
was shorn of some of her fairest ornaments. The
appearance of the orchards had undergone a fatal
change. Below the trees, which they the morning

>■■■

: *4 ,

5 •

SKETCHES OF CAWDA.

1.1

M !■/

f .'M

.r.l

III

before so gracefully covered, the leaves and blossoms
now strewed the ground blighted and withered, and
the proprietors had good reason to fear that their
generous cyder-cup would not be, during the coming
season, so bountifully replenished as they had anti-
cipated.

The company in my new cabin consisted of four
New Englanders, one with a wife and four children,
the eldest a good-looking young lady of sixteen — two
or three other females, and an old sea captain from
Boston. The latter, while a boy, had been at Leith,
and spoke with raptures of the pretty girls which he
saw there, and still vividly recollected. He was on his
way westward on a shooting excursion, or had gone
a gunning, as he expressed it. He had along with
him a couple of long single-barrelled, brass-mounted
fowling-pieces, and an old fashioned powderhorn slung
over his shoulders, with ribbons and tassels.

He found good amusement shooting the nimble
squirrels that were gliding between the branches of the
trees, and during our whole canal journey of 400
miles, almost no other game crossed our path, save
now and then a solitary pigeon. One morning after
breakfast our sportsman came down to the cabin,
snatched up a gun and hastened on deck again.
Conceiving something extraordinary,we hastened after,
but in time to be too late, to see the cause of his
haste. He informed us it was a crow, but most un-
fortunately it had got clear away, and did not even
afford him the satisfaction of giving it a fright. I
expressed my surprise that a crow should occasion

i I

SSiETCHES OF CANADA.

his
lun-
Iven
I

liim so much anxiety. "A crow!" he exclaimed ;
** don't you shoot crows in the old country?"

I replied, that I believed manyof our sportsmen pass-
ed their lives without thinking it worth while to level
their pieces for once at a crow, although there were
always plenty over the whole country ; but that with
us it was considered mere boy's sport.

This intelligence seemed to throw open the flood-
gates of his wonder, he actually gaped with both
mouth and eyes for a few seconds, and ended with
remarking that " Scotland must be a mighty good
gunning country, and no mistake ! "

The children in the New England States — we
were told by the mother of our youthful fellow-travel-
lers — never wear caps ; and we had an illustration of
this truth, for her young squaller was as uncover-
ed as a barber's block minus the wig. It is said
that keeping their young heads cool is the best
preventive to colds. This seems to have an ap-
pearance of truth. We suspect, however, that either
extreme is bad, and that the safest course to follow is
by endeavouring to avoid both a superfluous quantity
of covering and an undue degree of exposure. This
question, however, we can safely leave in the hands
of those whose peculiar care it is to watch over the
tender budding years of infancy.

Syracuse was the next place of importance that we
passed. Its flourishing state is principally owing to
the immense quantity of salt produced in the vicinity,
the whole body of the soil being impregnated with it.
The salt is manufactured by solar evaporation — the

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SKKTCHES OF CANADA.

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water being brought in log pipes from the village of
Salina, and emptied into vats, open to the influence
of the sun ; these occupy a superficies of nearly 300
acres.

Salina, Geddes, Montezuma, Ithaca, Clyde, Pal-
myra, Pitsford, &c., passed in review before us, as we
crept along ; and we arrived, on a beautiful Sunday
morning, at the west country metropolis — Rochester.
The site of this flourishing city of 12,000 souls was
in 1812 a field of stumps! Now it is as matter-of-
fact a town as the Union contains, with a full com-
pliment of churches, markets, inns, mills, banks, and
bustling mortals. After passing Lock Port, which
displays a piece of very tough work, viz., five
double canal locks in one chain, cut out of a solid
rock, and a long list of big-named villages, we at
last reached the extremity of the canal, at Buffalo.
This is a beautiful flourishing city, at the outlet of
Lake Erie, possessing the double advantage of a lake
and canal navigation. It is now fast gaining on,
and it is supposed will soon rival, many of the Atlantic
cities. Thirty steamers and one hundred and sixty-
five sailing vessels are at present carrying on trade
between the various ports on the banks of Lake Erie.
After walking up and down the streets of the city,
and seeing little more than we had seen in twenty
others of its brethern, we embarked in the Daniel
Webster steamer for Detroit, situated at the western
extremity of the lake. Dan started at nine o'clock
A.M. Thursday, and arrived at ten p.m. Friday. Our
rate was therefore pretty considerable, the length of

SKETCHLS OF CANADA.

i':i

ity,

Inty

Iniel

tern

lock

)ur

the iiiko being three hundred and fifty miles; and
considering the numerous calls we made at the various
towns on the banks, the length of our tract must have
been a great deal more.

At Detroit, rivalry among the hotels seems to be
carried to the full extent. At the steamer's arrival,
there were people from every one of them upon the
(juay, proflFering their assistance in conveying our-
selves and baggage to the " best and most commo-
dious" house in town. Heforo we had well time to
enjoy a moment's footing on solid earth, we were
hustled along the wharf, and seated high and dry in
a Yankee coach ; a huge rumble-tumble piece of lo-
comotive architecture. It was the first we had been in,
and verily we heeded not should it have proved the last.
However, although we ran some danger of being sea-
sick, or something like it, the machine did its duty,
and we were safely set down under the piazza of the
Mansion-house.

..<•;■

r !>■« 1

niJf

CHAPTER VI.

" Oh ! ye kmbrosial momenti."

■ , t

• '1

l1'

At Detroit, we first experienced the lively horror
of bugs holding their midnight revels over our devot-
ed bodies. My friend, who lay in bed at the opposite
end of the room, underwent the unenviable feeling of
hundreds of bona Jide mouths feeding on his inoffen-
sive skin. From time to time he gave vent to a long
low despairing groan — tried two or three kicks and
tumbles, and again submitted to the fangs of the
busy blood-suckers.

I fared somewhat better, their incisors refused, or
were unable to penetrate my mortal covering. But,
like the majority of their brother natives the Ameri-
cans, they seemed for ever on their travels, for all
night long I felt the infernal feet of the midnight
prowlers, running and scampering over my whole
body and limbs, with no object in view, seemingly,
but just to execute effectually the delightful office of
rendering their victim as uncomfortable as possible ;
and if their actions are to be judged of by human
reason, they certainly did so to their heart's content.
Equally vain it was, to kick, or roar, or tumble, or
be still ; under every attitude or circumstance, my tor-

SKETCUKvS OF CANAHA.

or
lut,

or
tor-

mentors exercised the virtue of industry and perse-
verance. Sleepinj^ or wakinj^ I found no rest — wak-
ing, I had the reality to cope with, and asleep, ima-
gination lent her many-coloured aid to heighten the
effects, or change my bed to a pal[)al)le purgatory.
I fancied at one time, indeed, that I was a grass-co-
vered hill, on which a thousand sheep were feeding,
and a hundred thousand lambs performing their silly
gambols, and from which burden I was wholly unable
to relieve my belaboured breast.

From Detroit we made a detour across the river to
the Canada side, to inquire about our home letters,
and spy out the land ; for there were some Indian
reserves of fine soil reported to be for sale. We got
over in a small steamer, and walked along the banks
to the village of Sandwich. 13y referring to the map,
this p<irt of the province, it will be observed, is a
peninsula ; and what we saw of it gave us the idea
that it was one of the healthiest and finest situations
in Canada. The bank is from 20 to 40 feet above
the river, and as the American side is rather flat and
low, we commanded an extensive view of Detroit and
the surrounding country ; and there are few scenes that
I have looked upon with greater delight. The ground
we passed over was clear for a long way back, and
covered principally with green old pasture and orchard
enclosures. The settlers appear to be generally
French, and the most striking matter of remark that
came in our way was the contrast, in appearance,
pursuits, and almost every thing, between them and
their neighbours on the other side of the Detroit

J*,

SKETCIIFS OF CANADA.

if*!!'.

! '1

.i-'

1 :.

river. Thouj^h it is only a few hundred yards across,
and a constant communication exists, tiiere is as little
assimilation or amalgamation of the manners and cus-
toms of the peojdc, as one nuj^ht expect to find be-
tween the {rood folks of Ballin's Buy and the Isle of
France.

At Detroit — a village which was nearly wholly
burned down in 1806, but now musters several thou-
sand inhabitants — we have Jonathan in all the busy
bustle of his dollar-making activity, striding along
streets stuffed with stores and warerooms that were
hardly in existence the week before, and elbowing
every one out of his way as he darts forward with his
keen-set phiz several inches in advance of his body,
like the cut-water of a New York pilot boat ; while
it is evident his brain has on board, a load of projects,
which might swamp the whole tabernacle of an or-
dinary mortal ! Step into the ferry steamer, and
before you have time to count out the needful cop-
pers, or in less space of time than is sometimes re-
quired to shift the scenery of a theatre, you are landed
amongst a race of men, the very antipodes of those
you have left. Some of their houses put one in mind
of a pair of stockings mended till not a thread of the
original fabric remains. There is nothing of that
wonderful progressing that we observed every where
in Jonathan's country. First the little shanty of the
Irish pigsty-cut which formed the lodgment to the
settler on his first entry to the bush ; then the log-
hut a little in advance of the former, rejoicing in the
possession of both door and chimney ; and, lastly, the

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SKET( IIHS OF ( ANADA.

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re-

hose

If the

that

Inhere

)f the

the

log-
the
the

more aristocratic looking fr;iinc-li()u>^e, that liatli
started up ri;;iit in the teeth of its luimltle and vene-
rable forerunners, and stands oj^llnir tlie sun tliroujijli
its ^reen i)linds and eool pia/za.* The ease is very
(lift'e rent with Monsionr Fro;^ I On the front of every
tenement whieli calls him master, with truth and
verity mii^lit he written " In stafii t/No." 'lUvrc
Rt'cms to he no " <>()in^- a-head" with him — " I'ro-
<irressirnj^" is not a .'m in liis vocabulary, and " llinjit
slick away" would startle him from his e(pjanimity,
or at least sound as Ilii;h Dutch to his unaccustomed

* The following; txtract of' u letter, dated Now York, July
26, 1830, is iunu>iiitj as well as gratify iiic:, li'oin its btisiiiesslike
brevity, and the c()iii|trcheiijiivt' descriptlDii it u'ives of American
prfjf'perity and activity ; — " 1 will not attempt at this time to give
you a description of city <ir county, men or maimers in America,
as business is |)rossini; ; yet, when I have leisure will do so, pro-
vided it would atlord vou auv amusi'mcnt ; sufHce it to s;iv the
pcoplo arc; ha})p\" — plenty of work — good wages — a pushing
people — never idle — drink standing — don'r sit after meals at table
— rise early — groat politicians — not (bnd of tigliting — great in talk
— fond of spoctdation — drawing plans of a city, or village, in a lo-
cation that ajjpears suitable — where perhaps there may not be
above seven houses on the site of said town or village, laying it
out in lots of forty feet front and 200 deep — sell the lots by pul)-
lic auction — ali)eit, it is passing strange how soon a place of that
description gets up. 1 have been here not yet lour years, and
towns and villages not a lew have had a beiiinninij — started int(j
existence — covering the wilds with fairy dwellings — turning tiie
waste places into fruitful orchards, and changing the solitude of
the forest into the bustle and din of a commercial people who
delight in activity, neatness, comfort, and gain ; for as the town
incrcaseth the lots rise incredibly in value."

- , :f.

U^l

SKETCHES OF CANAD.t.

r • ( 1

,.'i;

I. . i :■

ears. We saw several jolly topers dozing away the
forenoon, sitting on a low dyke with their arms warp-
ed together in front. The upper half of their inert
bodies was enveloped in a dreamy halo, diffused
around from dirt-glazed tobacco-pipes that dangled
head downwards from their mouths, which, to emit
the rolling fumes, ever and anon opened and shut
like the last yawn of a dying bull-frog. At times,
too, when i\\e Jire-engines were for a few seconds re-
moved, their lips fell into an attitude that one might
suppose would have been productive of a merry whistle.
This, however, would have required too much exer-
tion, the sound was the mere shadow of a shade, or,
when it chanced to gather strength enough to reach
the listening ear, alas ! it could claim no kin to the
genuine ploughboy music of the lips ; but, being in-
terpreted, would have signified,

*♦ A life from care and business free,
Is, of all lives, the life for me."

And every grade of animal existence that vegetated
around these lumpish lords of the creation, was pitch-
ed on the same careless contented key note ; for the
very dogs, cats, pigs, and poultry, seemed to emulate
the sedate cast of their owners, and passed away the
time in listlessness or repose.

We tried to speculate on these phenomena, but
could come to no satisfactory conclusion. The only
(lata we had to go by was the difference in the eleva-
tion and position of the two villages, and we were led
to suppose that while our drowsy friends were exalted

r<-"

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

in-

ated
tch-

the
ilate

the

but
only
leva-
led
lUed

in boily above their neighbours, they had perhaps got
to a climate which, in an equal measure, condensed or
frost-bit their animal activity !

While here, we had an instance of the nonchalance
and bargain-making propensities that old and young
indulge in. Intending to go to Amherstburg to the
post-office, we enquired ot a little urchin about nine
years old, that we met driving cows along the village
street, if he thought we could obtain a waggon to
convey us ? "I think not, but I have a mare for
sale, and I will trade with you," he answered, with a
mixture of readiness and indifference. Amused with
the little trader, we desired him to bring her out and
we would look at her. *' As to that," he replied,
" I seldom trouble myself about these matters, but if
you will step over the way uncle George will show
you the animal ; " and cracking his whip at the cows
to quicken their pace, he passed on, leaving us to
apply to uncle George should we have thought fit.

After having a pleasant excursion over this fertile
and lovely spot, we returned to the ferry station, to
pass across again on the arrival of the boat; and ha-
ving nothing better to employ ourselves with, ordered
dinner in a small tavern on the water's edge. The
preparations were simple, and it was soon announced.
I am sorry, however, that the circumstance which
keeps this entertainment floating in my memory, is
the '* bad eminence " which it holds over the many
dinners I partook of in the west. The principal dish
was pork, of course ; but sooth to say it was easier
named than devoured, on account of its tenacious

tC. '

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100

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

i- ■» •

texture. For this quality it holds a hii»;h place in
the annals of my pork-eatinj^ experience. It is second
only to an entertainment I attended shortly before
leaving home — having got an invitation from a kind
friend to taste part of a porker weighing; 30 stones.
On trial, however, we found that gvumphy's bacon was
more adapted for show, than for the satisfaction o^'liun-
ger : and unless as a preparative to such of my Ame-
rican dinners as the one alluded to, our attempts at
mastication proved but a profitless exertion of the
chops.

For reasons that may remain untold, seeing that
they were of no consequence to any saving ourselves,
we were under the necessity of shipping again for
Buffido, on our way to the capital of Upper Canada,
'i'oroiito. The " MicIuVan " steamer soon whirled
us along the lake, and on the second day we again
footed tcrrojinna ; but we had that pleasure only for
a few minutes, as the good steam-ship Victory was
about to start down the river Niagara to the Falls, a
distance of eighteen mile^. We forthwith stepped
on board of her, and two hours more found us stand-
ing where many an early dream had centered — on
the far-famed l"al>le rock, overlooking the glorious
and tenfold glorious Falls. And now, good reader, I
verily believe thou art envious of my position. Oh !
for the pen of a poet, that my fingers might trace in
cliaracters of light a suitable description of that which
is so fitly adapted for the satisfaction of imagination
and wonder. But I call in vain, and may firop my
humble goose-quill in hopeless despair I

thi
of
th(
wa

fi.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

101

)ped
k1-
on
nous
lev, I
lOh!
Ice in
rhicli
|at,i(ji\
my

Of all the glowing accounts that have been written,
none approaches the magnificence due to a descrip-
tion of this mighty scene. To do justice, however,
to my travelling brethren, I would observe that it is
not so much the failure of their descriptions as — after
having visited the grand original — the feeling posses-
sing one, that adequate description is impossible.

On gazing over the vast expanse of this falling
sea, all is so mighty, unruffled, unobstructed, simple,
and profound, that we at once feel that there is no-
thing which description, as it were, can take hold of.
No glittering show, no varied hues, no soft murmur-
ing flow. 'Jlie noise of the water is louder than the
loudest thunder, or the roar of the Atlantic in its
fiercest moods ; but, at the same time, so deep and
unbroken that conversation may be carried on un-
checked within a few yards of the rolling mass.

Wherein then, it may be asked, lies its acknow-
ledged sublimity ? Is it in the rocks and precipices over
which an immense sea of foam is dashing from shelf
to shelf till it is lost in some dark ravine ? No !
these are features which :♦; does not in any degree
possess ; there is noth ig to be seen but a vast body of
smooth water pouring over the abrupt edge of a per-
pendicular rock in one unbroken mass ; there is no
by-play here — no straining after elFect — neither is
there any splendid scenery to attract the curious eye
of the wonder-hunter. Trees clothe the banks, but
they sink away in insignificance before the living
waters ; and as the diamond is set in metal of the least
gaudy hue, so, we really believe the true sublimity

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102

SKtTCIlES OF CANADA.

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of the Falls would be heightened were the soil around
shorn of the leafy fringe which decks the verge of the
stream ; for in that case nothing would be left to
attract the slightest part of our attention from the
simple, but sublime spectacle before us. It is quite
enough of itself to fill the mind with all the awe and
admiration which such objects are capable of inspiring.

There is now brought to my recollection, from its
connexion with our subject, a tale which I will en-
deavour to relate as briefly as possible. It is but a
simple and unobtrusive narrative. I can appreciate
fictitious love stories and romantic heart-breakings to
their full extent, and can sigh for a few minutes and
drop a soothing tear in sympathy for this or for that
unfortunate heroine. But I have seen more and
heard more of real life to subdue the stern soul, and
send a gleam of melting sorrow through man's obdu-
rate spirit, than there is in all the accumulated ro-
mance and genius- woven fiction of the last six centu-
ries. Can the passionate ravings of a proud born
dame of which some aspiring novelist may prose, fan
the high feelings of our soul to a flame of more gene-
rous indignation* for her wrongs, or excite the soft
meltings of pity to flow in a purer stream, than is
called forth by the low sigh of the heart-broken
damsel who dreams not of the trappings of wealth, or
the studied attitudes that set off high-bred but me-
chanical passion ?

" No, Clara ! I dare not now be happy," said she,
half musing, and half addressing the slender and
smooth-coated lap-dog that stood on the mossy bank

^^"

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

103

[he,
ind
ink

by her side — her fair hand forming a striking, and
not unpleasing contrast with the two sparkling and
fond eyes of her favourite, on whose brow she gently
laid it. — " No ! " said she a second time, endeavour-
ing to restrain its sportive caressings, and the tear,
which had been for some minutes starting to existence
beneath her languid eye-lash, now gently quivered a
moment, and then dropped on the car of the quadruped ;
and as it lay, round as an orient pearl, and rivalling
in brightness the diamond on the finger near which it
chanced to fall, she wistfully gazed upon the ring,
and her thoughts, as they wandered in the fairy scenes
of parted bliss, gave existence to a gentle sigh I

My fair friends ! one and all ! I crave your kind
indulgence while I descend from the pent-up state, in
which my feelings must necessarily remain, were I
to proceed farther in this Werter-toned style ; and I
might fall through and spoil a simple and affecting
story, from an overstrained endeavour to render it
doubly so — I will, therefore, desist. One cannot
always find himself in the humour to relate love-
stories in the last degree of pathos. Even that short
fragment I have given (if you will allow me credit
for my words), required a considerable effort of the
mind.

Some are apt to suppose that poets and story-tellers
are a species of amphibious creatures. The otter,
when tired of the land, betakes itself to the water, so
tale-tellers, it is thought, can, in the waving of a pen,
leap from *' grave to gay, from lively to severe."

Let me disabuse your minds of such erroneous sup-

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

positions. Knights of the quill are unable to do all
that is thus required of them. Like mariners when
they change their tack — they must also shift their
canvas, haul round the yards, port the helm, and
in short put every thing in a fit trim, to move suc-
cessfully on their new course.

You, my fair readers, whose minds possess that
quick penetration and discernment often denied us of
the coarser sex, may already conceive, from the very
imperfect scene I have given in the pure and simple
life of Alice — that the stream of existence with her,
though untarnished, had nevertheless encountered
shoals and rocks, whereon the fragile bark of life
might ultimately be dashed, and disappear for ever !
Yes, she, ere the silver thread of life was loosed, saw,
as it werp, the finger of stern and inscrutable fate
pointed towards her heart, in an attitude which might
have thrilled and withered it to the core ; and endured,
ere eighteen summers had passed over her, trials that
well might have made older and more robust frames
languish with bodily and mental agony.

Her father, along with several Scottish families,
emigrated to Canada some time after the beginning
of the present century, and settled in a beautiful
valley on the island of Montreal, which is encircled
by the crystal waters of the majestic St Lawrence.
Here they formed a simple and happy society,
bestowing and receiving in amicable neighbour-
hood, assistances from each other, that are always
of importance, but to the Transatlantic sojourner
wholly indispensable. They raised their small flocks,

' i,

,1 ■ I :■ ?

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

105

led

sowed and reaped their corn together ; and when the
rustic and primitive wagj^on made its fortnightly
journey to the metropolis, it contained the dairy pro-
duce and fruits raised by the whole circle of Scottish

emijjrants.

;ks,

In the courseof a few years, by industry and the libe-
ral prices given for fruits, flowers, and garden supplies
of every kind, the exiled families were enabled again to
obtain many of the comforts and even luxuries of the
old country ; for on leaving home they had to descend
several steps from the rank they held, ere the finger
of necessity warned them to flee at once from starva-
tion and their native land.

Alice was her father's only child, and such a one !
Description would fail ; but know, that she was n
genuine blue-eyed daughter of her father-land, grace-
ful, fair, joyous, but delicately sensitive ; and the
refined education she had received, ere crossing the
world of waters, seemed, in her now peaceful home,
to be expanding into precious and substantial fruit.
What though she now, amongst other simple maidens,
daily applied herself to the task of tending her father's
cows, and with her fair fingers prepared her own and
her parent's frugal meal? Her mind was untainted,
her temper unsoured by adversity, and her heart
wholly unsophisticated with the blandishments of the
fashionable world. In short, if happiness ever visits
creatures of mortal mould, Alice was happy I

Besides her father, there was another that we will
not say shared her affection, but who also found a
place in her high beating, heart. Edward was the

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son of her father's friend, who had rejoiced with him
in his prosperity, and afterwards braved the Atlantic,
and now found with him in the west a peaceful
dwelling-place. Edward and Alice had been brought
up together — felt the same puny joys and sorrows of
childhood ; and when her mother had been gathered
to her ancestors, young and happy, she understood
not the loss, for she found a loving mother in the
parent of her little playmate. No wonder then, that,
breathing the same air, sharing gifts and caresses from
the same tender parents and instructors, they grew
up together in friendship and in love. It was not,
however, till they were crossing and braving the bil-
lows of the ocean, that they became fully aware how
dear they were to each other.

I doubt, my fair friends, if you can appreciate fully
from description, the terrors which they had neces-
sarily to pass through, during their watery journey to
the west. Often at night, when the moon silvered the
heaving and crested billows, that came rolling on and
on in endless rage, driven by the fierce breath of the
sea gale, the two young aliens would cling to each
other, while they gazed wistfully on the vast and
stirring scene. They felt no fear nor childish dread, but
a sacred and indefinable awe sprung up in their minds,
and, drowning all petty bodings and misgivings, vivid-
ly impressed on their awakened Jind expanding facul-
ties, that the hand that made them was indeed divine !
It was in such moments as these, that their lips drew
near, and whispered promises of eternal constancy — •
and vows at once holy and pure ; conceiving, in their

(. i fv

SKETCHES OF CANAOA.

107

ll-

le!

leir

innocent enthusiasm, that all created Nature — the stars
above — and the very winds and waves around, were
living witnesses to their passionate breathings I

l^heir parents, in their happy retreat, smiled on
their innocent loves ; and in order to be finally joined
together in the holy bonds of conjugal bliss, they
waited the return of Edward from the far west of
Canada. He had gone in search of a relation, who
had left his home some years before our little colony,
and who, as far as report went, had gone to one of
the western districts, and become unfortunate.

Edward took a tender parting with his friends, and
slipping a beautiful diamond ring, given him by his
mother, on one of Alice's fingers, whose hand qui-
vered with emotion as he pressed it to his lips —
whispered, if aught should detain him after the fall
of the year, he would find some means of relieving
her anxiety. He silently waved an adieu, and started
into the forest, at the nearest point to the circle that
had been formed by the clustering of his affectionate
friends around him.

He wended his way along the stream that meander-
ed through the valley ; and on reaching the banks of
the river, procured a canoe, and went over to the main-
land — and travelled on, till the last tinge of the set-
ting sun was but faintly distinguished on the topmost
twigs of the lofty pines that clothed the soil around.
His anxiety was now to protect himself against the
approach of any of those animals of the wood, which
often, at this period, were apt to prove no trifling
enemies to man. His muscular activity furnished him

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108

SKETC HES or lANADA.

.! ' '

-, f.

with a ready resource, and with little difficulty, he
snugly nestled himself in the interwoven branches of a
su^rar maple.

It would avail nothinj^ to trace all his onward jour-
ney. He soon reached the western part of Upper
Canada, searching and enquiring after his lost rela-
tion. At one time he might have been seen, in a
canoe, darting down one of the small rivers that dis-
charge their tributes into the bosom of the dill^jrent
lakes ; and at another time, sojourning among the
wigwams of the Indian tribes, who exercised hospi-
tality and benevolence that would have done honour
to the name of Christian. He was often fed and
nursed by them, when the influence of the noonday
heat had weakened his frame, enervated by wander-
ings through a forest, that the gentle and refresh-
ing breezes from the blue waters of the ocean never
reach ; and over a soil, on which the genial rays of
the sun, since first he beamed over this vast sea of
foliage, has never once been able to rest.*

During his stay amongst the original possessors of
the American woods, he was the means of repay-
ing, under Providence, the kindness shown to him,
by extricating a young Indian from sure destruction.
A venerable warrior, in whose wigwam he had been
fed, and in the bed of whose only son he had (who was

\'^

* This is strictly true. Ere the snow in the spring-time is
melted away, the trees set out their thick mantle of foliage ; and
in autumn, the fallen leaves form, over the soil, an impenetrable
veil against the rays of the sun.

.^;

SKF.ICHMS or (AN- ADA.

109

al)SL'iit down tlio river on a fishing excursion) reposed,
had allowed liim to take the use of his canoe to float to
the nnouth of the Thames, where it po»irs its waters
into Lake Sinclair ; for he still wandered with the
expectation of finding his lost relation. lie left the
hospitable chief at daybreak, before tlie sun had
chased away the fo<j^ which settles ni<rhtly over the
landscape, in order that he n.ii^ht rest durinj^ the me-
ridian heat. The chief presented him with a club —
recommended him to the care of the (Ireat Spirit —
and pushed olf the light vessel from the bank, wj*hin
a few yards of which stood his primitive hut, shel-
tered by the branches of a spreading oak. Ho watched
its course with the calm and impenetrable gaze of his
race, and when it was lost to view, in the vista of
morning vapour, slowly retraced his stops to tlio soli-
tary cabin, enjoying the fumes of his tobacco-pipe.

Edward resigned himself to the guidance of the
stream, and his thoughts wandered back to the happy
vale wherein his dearest allections were centered.
The sun soon began to assume his influence upon the
landscape, and penetrated the vapoury veil that hung
thickest over the stream. The niirht-birds were al-
ready gone to their repose in the hollow trunks, and
the bull-frog sunk in his slimy bed from the scorch-
ing influence of the god of day.

The canoe had just shot past a curling eddy, form-
ed by an abrupt turn of the stream, when its musing
occupant was awakened to the external world, from
his dreamy mood, by a stifled and heavy sound pro-
ceeding from the forest on his left. He immediately

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dipt his paddle in the water, and stayed for a moment
the movement of tlie canoe ; and while he anxiously
listened, the sound was repeated quiek and short,
betokeninjr to his ear a signal of distress. Hesi-
tating^ no longer, he made for the hank, drew the
bark ashore, grasped the war-club, and bounded be-
neath the overhanging trees. His stops were at-
tracted by the continued sounds, and but a few
minutes elapsed before he had fully discovered the
cause of alarm. A huge black bear, with something
in its grasp, was rolling on the ground at some dis-
tance before him. As he approached, the monster
turned its head, and sent forth a yell that caused the
woods to echo and vibrate for miles around, while its
eyes glared in fury, and its extended jaws displayed
the horrible fangs with which they were fenced. As
it seemed reluctant to quit that which it held in close
embrace, he was able to approach it slowly and cau-
tiously till within a few yards, and then making a
final spring forward, with one stroke of the weapon
laid it prostrate at his feet. With a low moan it
tumbled over, relaxed its grasp, and to his astonish-
ment, a young Indian started from its shaggy bosom,
slaked a portion of clotted blood from his brow and
eyes, and when his sight was freed from the grim
covering, came forward, and pressed the hand of his
deliverer to his forehead.

Then it was, that Edward thanked Providence for
making him the means of snatching from death a
fellow-being, and at the same time repaying his debt
of gratitude to his benefactor. It was the only son of

SKETCH IS OF CANADA.

Ill

the vencrahle chiet vho stood lit'forc hiin witli his
tawny but Imiulsome countenance bcaminirnith thank-
fulness, wliiio the bi^ tears of gratitude were swelling
in the recesses of his dark sparkling eye, which,
stronger than the loftiest words, spoke in eloquent
silence to the heart I

The boy, now completely recovered, passed his
hand again across his brow, sweeping away at once
the oozing blood and the tear-drops that began to
overflow their cells. He then turned towards his
prostrate enemy, and stooping down, wrenched from
its gory shoulder several arrows that had been nearly
buried in its flesh. He held up their dripping
points in trium')h, as if to prove that his arm had not
been idle, and at the same time explain to his de-
liverer why he had been found in such a dangerous
position.

Edward made known to him his intention of pro-
ceeding down to the mouth of the river, and from
thence to pursue his search round the north bank of
Lake Erie, till he reached the river and Falls of Nia-
gara, by which direction he intended to return to his
happy home. He would now have taken leave of
the Indian boy, but when he held out his hand at
parting, the poor fellow seized it, and bursting into
tears, declared that the life he had saved should be
devoted to his service, and that he would follow him
till he had found the friend he had lost.

*' The strong white man," said he in plaintive
tones, " kill great beast, but Indian boy know mark
of deer. The white warrior shoot dark man of the

I'.

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112

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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wood, but the Indian boy hear foot-fall of the foe,
and say, lion in the way ! White man break branch
and make pile to scare fox and wolf, but Indian boy
make spark and blow flame ! "

'I'liese simple and ingenuous remarks contained
truths of which Edward felt the force, for on his west-
ward journey he had often encountered danger and
diflScuhy from the want of that dexterity which the
Indians possess in an eminent degree. He therefore
calmed the poor boy's fears of a separation, and as-
sured him that he gave full liberty to accompany
him as long as he chose to remain away from the
wigwam of his father. The boy said a few hasty
words to several of his tribe who had joined them
from the woods, turned in the direction of the river,
and with his " pale faced" companion stepped into
the caiioe which immediately darted down the spark-
ling waters.

Their toilsome march through the woods after they
had reached the mouth of the river, was such as has
been described a thousand times. In the course of
three weeks they found themselves gazing over the
spirit-stirring Falls of Niagara, where alike the dark
glance of the Indian, and the fair blue eye of the
European, were fixed in wonder and awe on the stern
and glorious picture of sublimity before them. But
how widely difFcrcnt the feelings and thoughts of the
gazers I One quailing beneath the overpowering
voice and everlasting dash of the cataract, as he would
have done from the presence of the " Great Spirit,"
and almost imaffinincj that he stood listening to the

!i .

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

113

:hey
has
)e of
the
lark
tho
ftern
But
the
Iring
lould
Irit,"
the

denunciations of a God. The other, while he looked
at it with no less elevated feeling and wonder-struck
mind, viewed it in all its vast sublimity, but as an
unconscious instrument in the hands of Omniscience
and Omnipotence !

It was now autumn, the sere and yellow leaves
were shaken from the hoary monarchs of the forest,
and when the fitful breath of the breeze wafted them
from the banks, they floated down the stream pale
tokens of expiring Nature. This imparted sad and
fond remembrances to at least one of the gazers, as
he saw them borne lightly along to the verge of the
precipice, and vanish forever in the misty gulf.

After the sun had sunk beneath the level of the
horizon, and hid from their view the grand object to
which their eyes had been for some time riveted, our
two travellers proceeded down the river side, that they
might be out of earshot of the thundering water, and
enjoy unbroken repose, which their exhausted bodies
much required.

Having luckily found a convenient cave, scooped
out of the rocky bank, they kindled a protecting
fire at the entrance, wrapped themselves in their scanty
covering, and addressed themselves to sleep.

The moon arose in a sky clear and placid, and
sent its silver rays across the floor of the cave ; and
the mellowed murmiir of the distant waterfall cast a
soothing languor over their minds, which soon in-
duced a calm oblivion to steal on their senses. While
the moon was still midway in the heavens, and her
beams slowly creeping round the bottom of their

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rocky resting-place, several low-booming sounds
came echoing along in the direction of the stream,
making the crumbling rocks vibrate, and bringing
down a shower of leaves from the trees above. Ed-
ward started to his feet at the unusual noise, and his
companion, true to his nature (for the Indian, like a
hare in her form, sleeps with his ears on the watch),
lay prostrate with his ear pressed to the surface of
the rock, ready to drink in a repetition of the sound.
They had not to wait long till the same unaccount-
able rumbling noise reached them. The young
Indian, as if satisfied, started up, and on Edward
enquiring if he could explain the sounds, he answered,
" The fire mouths of the white warriors, with smok-
ing lips, break down the wigwams of the enemy !"

The noises became so frequent that they were con-
vinced that war on the frontiers was now in full
operation between the soldiers of Canada and the
rebel colonists on the opposite side of the river. Ed-
ward felt himself called to hasten down in the direc-
tion of the alarming sounds, to lend his assistance in
gum ding the possessions of his sovereign, should the
skirmish be one of aggression. Having lifted his
war-club, and the Indian having slung his bow and
quiver over his shoulder, they hastened from the cave.
After travelling about an hour, they came within
view of the Queenston Heights ; and, as they ap-
proached, they cculd discern a low murmur that
seemed to proceed from subdued voices, clanging of
armour, and trampling of horse. On joining a small
body of soldier^, of v.hom they soon came in siv^Iit,

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

115

ap-

tlmt
of

they learned that the cause of alarm had arisen from
a party of Americans who had made a start across
the river, and dislodged the English troops from the
heights before they were able to prepare for the on-
set. This was the condition in which Edward found
them. They were in preparation to regain their po-
sition, by the assistance of a reinforcement from a
distance. He immediately volunteered his services,
to help in recovering the advantage which the enemy
had obtained, and his offer was gladly accepted.

While preparations were making, he bethought
himself of the promise which he had given Alice at
parting — that at the fall of the year he would again
join her, or else she should know the cause of his
delay. He now felt it doubly incumbent on him to
fulfil it, as he knew not whether on the morrow the
earth would sound beneath his manly tread ! The
thought — and it was a happy one — struck him, that
the faithful Indian might help him in his difficulty-
He immediately communicated what he thought and
felt to the boy, who seemed at once to understand
his wishes. " While the pale men," said he, " launch
the deadly shaft at the foes of the great chief, the
Indian boy will seek the fair haired squaw * of his
deliverer. The sun will shine by day and the moon
by night, and guide the canoe over the bosom of the
great lake !"

Edward wrote a letter to Alice, explaining the
bold act in which he was about to engage — cn-

* (Si/HCM— woman or Mif'e.

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

treated her not to be alarmed, for the cause was
just in which he joined — expressed his most san-
guine hope that they would soon meet again — and
finally recommended his messenger as worthy of all
confidence and trust. He rolled the letter in a small
silken handkerchief, which the Indian immediately
bound round his waist.

■M

I. lih

117 ]

CHAPTER VII.

" At every jolt — and they ware many — still

lie turned his eyes upon his little chargs,
As if hs wi.shed that she should fare less ill

Than he, in those sad highways, left at large
To ruts, and flints, and lovely Nature's skill."

Our little story now naturally divides itself into two
branches. One remains with Edward, and the other
stretches forward with our young Indian friend, who
departed on his embassy of love. Of the former it is
unnecessary to speak at present, seeing that he was
engaged in that successful skirmish, wherein the Ca-
nadians repelled the aggressors ; though, alas, the
price of their victory was the life of the gallant Gene-
ral Brock, who headed the attack.

We will at present push forward with the young
native of the woods. He constructed for himself,
with the assistance of his tomahawk and the bark of
a birch-tree, a canoe and paddle. Launching it on the
river, he bore lightly down, and like a small bird
soaring through the calm clear morning sky, he soon
quitted the river and found himself skiming along on
the fair expanse of Lake Ontario. Light and quick,
as the pinions of the wood-pigeon, he dipped and waved

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SIvETC MKS OF CANADA.

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alternately the fragile instrument with which he pro-
pelled his little skiff. And as his untutored mind had,
in blind but blameless instinct, beautifully expressed
his reliance on the *' Great Spirit," — that power did
vouchsafe his countenance, for the sun shone by day,
and the moon by night, and guided in safety the little
l)ar]i to its wished-for destination.

By the description which Edward gave him of the
situation of the little colony, he discovered the island
of ^Montreal ; and having hidden his canoe among the
rushes, at the mouth of a brook, he slung his bow
across his shoulders, placed his tomahawk in the
zone that bound his loins, and ascended the course of
the stream. lii a few hours he came to a small open-
in<.>: in the woods, where he saw several oxen browsin<j
amongst the stumps of trees that had been but recently
cut down.

A little farther on, he discovered several cottages,
surrounded with gardens, filled with luxuriant flowers
and bushes. On turning his steps towards the nearest
of them, a little dog, disturbed by his appearance,
sent forth two or three angry barks, and ran along
the bank, till it reached n jutting corner that hid it
from sight. Though at a considerable distance, he
heard several low sounds, as of one chidinjr the ani-
mal for the noise it had made. He stalked slowly
towards the spot, and discovered a young female re-
clining against the grassy slope ; a rustic bonnet had
been thrown down at her side, and her Wy hand
rested on liw head of the fondlin<>: doof- '* Ah !" he
cxclaimec. •' the squaw of the pale-faced warrior I"

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

I If)

ilong

[lowly
re-
ft had
hand

hor

? "

as he observed the glittering gem on the hand she
displayed ; for Edward had told him of the ring she
wore, as well as of her little dog, that by these means
the boy might know her whom he sought, and at the
same time prove himself to be no impostor. Alice
started to her feet at the unusual sounds, and would
have fled, but his peaceful smile and cahn appearance
partly chased her fears, and she remained irresolute.
Her dog, that at first had shown such unequivocal
marks of terror and irritation, ran towards the in-
truder ; and what surprised Alice beyond expression,
as it continued to gambol round and lick his naked
limbs, she heard him syllable the name, Cla-ra I
Cla-ra ! and while he spoke he loosed the napkin
from his girdle. The little animal no sooner smelled
it than it snatched it from his fingers, and darted off
in ecstasy to the feet of its mistress ! As if some
mysterious knowledge had likewise possessed poor
Alice, she seized the silken handkerchief, and her fin-
gers soon unfolded the letter it contained. The tears
started to her eyes, as she decij)hered the words of the
absent, and lior cheeks beamed as she proceeded ; for
she could well appreciate the Ligh-toned bravery and
daring that led him to encounter all the horrors of
war. The next moment the blood fell lifelessly back
within her throbbing breast ; for she thought of what
might probably be his fate, even at the moment she
was perusing the overflowings of his heart. At the
same time, she saw, or thought she discovered, through
all the bright hopes that he expressed of joining lier
erelong, a prophetic moodinc^^s, that cast a vt il over

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SKKTCIIES OF CANADA.

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the sunshine with which it was mingled. Alice hardly
knew whether she ought to thank the messenger for
the tidings he had brought, or look upon him as the
bearer of most unwelcome intelligence. Iler better
feelings, however, prevailed, and she led him to her
lonely cottage. Her father had been dead a few-
months, and she and her dog were now the only
inmates of his little log-hut.

She placed all that her little stores afforded before
her guest, who thanked her with such deep-toned
words of gratitude, that she discovered, though still
dead to the life-giving influence of Christianity, he
possessed in his heart the very germs of a pure and
upright spirit, and her tears flowed afresh in a min-
gled stream of pity and admiration.

Often did she make him repeat in his musical but
broken language all that he had told her of the weary
wanderings of her betrothed. His grateful lips, too,
delighted to dwell on the generous action that Ed-
ward had performed in snatching him from the horri-
ble embrace of the bear, and he generally ended the
recital by stammering out, " White warrior give life,
Indian boy will die for squaw of white warrior ! "

These expressions of gratitude and devotion soon
led Alice to treat the boy with more affectionate at-
tention and kindness than she felt at first enabled to
do. And on the very day he arrived, before the sun-
beams had ceased to tinge the trees, clothing the
mountain that smiled above them, she formed the
resolution of accompanying him in his canoe to join
her absent lover.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

121

I life,

soon
te at-
led to
sun-
thc
the
ioin

Tlio long- journey of five Imiulrcd miles appeared
to her excited fancy to sink into nothing, when she
thought that duty called upon her to perform it.
And well it was for her resolution that reality did not
intrude itself, and })resent to her mind the dangers
which lay in her way : from the wild animals that
inu'sted the soil, — from the hurricanes that often
spread devastation around, and level to the ground
in thousands the most majestic trees of the forest, —
from the sweeping cataracts that come down from the
heights and change the brooklets to living seas, —
and also from the hordes of Indians that prowled about
the dark places of the woods and streams, and formed
more ruthless enemies than the beasts of prey.

But apart from all these : Half her journey would
lie amongst the most wild and lonely scenery that
the surface of the earth displays ; and to be accompa-
nied and protected only by an Indian boy, whose
years would hardly number eighteen summers, was
of itself a task requiring no ordinary degree of female
heroism to undertake. But all this imparted no sha-
dow of hesitation to her mind. She therefore agreed
with her guide to start by break of day, and avail
themselves of those parts of the river that were un-
obstructed by the foaming rapids.

It was now necessary that she should inform the
parents of Edward of the situation of their beloved
son ; and of her own hastily formed resolution of fly-
ing to him, to render those attentions which fancy
told, it was more than likely he would require ; but
although she imparted the intelligence in the gentlest

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122

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

■ ''1

manner she could assume, the old people were as
much overcome as she herself had been ; and as they
found it impossible to break her resolution of depart-
ing on the morrow, kind advices and fervent prayers
for her welfare, were all that they had to bestow.

Alice now felt that before her departure, there was
another duty to perform, and this to her was the
most sacred and sadly pleasing of all — a last visit to
her father's grave. It was midnight before she quitted
her aged friends. Her heart was softened by their
prayers and blessings, and her feelings were pecu-
liarly alive to the sacrifice she was about to make, in
tearing herself away from a home which had been
to her a second paradise, and from protectors that
had ever poured out to her the purest tokens of affec-
tion — and all her old associations, loo, were now per-
haps to be for ever reft from her fond recollection.
Pondering over her uncertain fate, she wandered along
till she arrived at the bank where she had been first
discovered by the Indian boy — here lay the remains
of her departed father. A single sycamore overshaded
the spot and preserved the grass from the scorching
sun ; and the jutting tuft from which it sprung, shield-
ed the flowers and plants with which she had sur-
rounded the mound, that covered the narrow abode.

A melancholy autumnal hue tinged the foliage of
the lonely tree. The flowers beneath had closed up
their tender leaves from the night air, and seemed
enjoying that diurnal repose which is kindly granted
to all living and animated Nature. The stream, which
at this particular spot had formed itself into an oval

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

123

111

l\ sur-
)ode.
lipje of
id up
?emed
ranted
/hich
oval

pool — still as a summer lake — reflected in unbroken
splendour the pensive form of the unclouded moon ;
save when the water lilies on its banks, dropped
now and then little globules of dew on the surface,
which made the reflection of the silver lamp of
night spread out into a thousand swelling circles :
anon to subside into her wonted serenity. Such was
the holy ground where Alice knelt, and poured out
the l.inguage of her soul to the God of the fatherless,
and her earnest supplications were, that her steps
might be directed aright !

Long she continued to linger here, her memory
falling back on the scenes of the past, and she was
almost unable to drag herself from the sacred spot,
where she ever felt as if the protecting spirit of her
father was hovering o'er her.

When the moon was half obscured by the trees
that bounded the few cultivated acres about the cot-
tages, she turned homewards to enjoy a little repose.
Here she found her guide. A fine deer had fallen
before his well-strung bow, and with the help of a
blazing fire, he was preparing part of it to supply
them on their journey. When she urged him to take
a little rest, as they were so soon to depart, he only
smiled and answered, " Strong heart keep eyes open,"
while his own sparkled with all their usual brightness.

Ere the first beams of morning had chased away
the lingering shadows of night, the Indian stood
ready at the door of the hut loaded with food which
he had prepared for their supply. He had not long
to wait, for his companion, with Clara, joined him,

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SKETCmCS OF CANADA.

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and in silence they traced their way down the strcaiji
Her heart was still too hi^' to allow utterance of hei
thoughts, and the natural taciturnity of her i;uide
^ave her the full exercise of her musini;-. On ar-
riving at the mouth of the stream, the canoe wa*
soon found, and dragged from its moorings. They
embarked, and before thn sun was midway in tlu
heavens, their little vessel was skimming along tin.
glassy surface of Lake St Francis ; and while Alice
sat, listening to the low chanting songs of the In-
dian, the time passed pleasingly away.

When night came, Alice expressed anxiety on per-
ceiving that land was still out of sight ; but her guidi
calmed her fears, by explaining that the air was^
serene, and free from storm, and that otherwise it wa*-
safer to pass the night far from the banks, where
they might encounter some of the hostile trll)es of tlu
woods. She, therefore, complied with his request to
wrap herself up and go to repose in the bottom of the
canoe. He, however, denied himself rest, and when
the sun in the morning awoke Alice with its cheer
ing beams, she found him still plying at his task
They had now to commence a more arduous part of
their journey, having reached the extremity of the
lake ; and the rapids, which at this part of the river
roar and rush in tumultuous fury, prevented them
from continuing longer on the water. He drew the
canoe ashore, and while Alice took charge of the pro-
vision-store, he raised the little vessel on his shoulders,
and they set off on their march through the forest,
keeping as much as possible within sight of the river

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At mid-day they refreshed themselves hy the help of
their fnii^al store, and a sprinj^, lieside which they
encamped; and when nijrht closed over them, tlie
eanoe a;j;aiii formed a coueli of repose for Alice. 1 ler
f^uide sUin^ it from a convenient hrancii, and tiiat
none mi<>ht aj)pruach with impnnity, he cast iiim-
SL'lf below it on the j^round, to partalce of the «)nly
repose that he had aUowed hin.self for three successivt-
iiijfhts.

At morn, they were asfain enabled to pursue their
way, hai)pily unmoh'sted hy any of those dani^ers
that mii^ht well have overtaken tlie footsteps of such
lonely and unprotected wanderers. At the close of
this day, they found themselves at the eastern extre-
mity of the Lake of a Thousand Isles. The boy
proposed that, for security, they should pass the
ni<^ht on one of those beautiful ^ems of vejretatlon
that stud the bosom of the shining^ river. Tlie canoe
was again launched, and in a few minutes they were
lost amid the innumerable isles that are grouped
together, and form a perfect fairy-land, where the
green-draperied spirits of old might have revelled
in never-ending enjoyment. After gliding on for
about an hour, they reached a lovely isle, a few
hundred yards in length, that stood a little more
exalted than the rest ; and seemed, to the fancy,
ilke a woodland queen amid her fantastic courtiers.
The moon had attained hev meridian, and reflected
in the pure water all the silvan tufts in such clear
undisturbed light, that they appeared as if floating
midway in air.

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

The Indian moored the canoe under the face of the
bank, on the northern side of the island, where the
trees cast their deepest shade; and Alice, now somewhat
accustomed to her wave-borne couch, sunk into a
deep repose, — while the l)oy prepared to follow her
example, by laying himself on the grassj across the
rope that held his precious charge.

Before the spirit of sleep had time to bind his eyes
with her leaden spell, the pleasing oblivion she im-
parts was, for this night, snatched away from him.
A noise which he discerned through the placid still-
ness of the night, called his full powers of sight as
well as hearing into activity. It seemed like the rush-
ing and rippling sound occasioned by the action of the
water, when starting away from the prow of a fast
shooting canoe. The noise soon became louder, and
left no doubt on his mind that it really proceeded
from the cause he had conj :ctured. As the cause of
the sounds drew still nearer, his quick ear at once told
him that instead of one, there were at least four little
vessels plying with great rapidity, from the north
bank of the river, and were within a short distance of
the island on which he himself had landed. Before
he had time to form a resolution his suspicions were
confirmed. His eyes were intently fixed in a northerly
direction, between two small islands that lay almost
close to each other, a short way from him. The
moon poured a long pure pencil of light through the
apen'ng, and he saw the glittering water waving out
in circles from the westward, as if some moving body
was disturbing the course of the stream above. In a

SKETCHES Of CANADA.

127

lew seconds more his doubt was ended, for six small
canoes — each bearing four human figures — came
shooting across the rivefj a little above the upper-
most of the two islands ; and seemed bound for the
one that he already occupied.

Doubt was apparent in the features of the Indian
boy, but fear was foreign to his character ; his hand
instinctively fingered the bowstring, and his eyes were
strained as if they would have pierced the darkest
shades that checkered the surface of the river.

Those he watched soon eifect^d a landing, about
fifty yards to the westward of the spot where he
stood, and on the same side of the island. They im-
mediately moored their canoes to the bank, and dis-
appeared beneath the trees in a southern direction ;
and to the ears of the listener, all again was still as
the grave. He was far, however, from deeming that
ail danger was past. Were he to push off, and pur-
sue his way, he might be discovered from almost any
part of the river, or heard, at least, as he himself had
discovered those who had given rise to his present
anxiety.

He waited for some time in moveless silence, lest
he should occasion the slightest noise, for he well
knew the quickness of an Indian ear. While he sat,
with his left ear turned in the direction by which the
figures had disappeared, his eye was attracted by a
faint flickering light, that played on the stem and
branches of a sapling oak to which he had moored the
canoe. He saw at once that this could not proceed

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128

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

from the moon, for the overhanging trees formed an
impenetrable barrier to her rays.

He turned in the direction of the wood, and thought
he discovered through the trees, the uncertain appear-
ance of a distant fire. He lifted his bow, and as-
suming the stealthy pace of a tiger, crept on all-
fours, to assure himself of what he saw. Gliding
along with a silence and a lightness, that to an in-
experienced eye, hardly moved the fallen leaves over
which he passed, he approached the suspicious light,
and found that it was a blazing fire, with a number
of human beings seated around it ; while several were
actively employed attending the roasting of two car-
casses of Canadian deer.

The boy was, of course, accustomed to such sights
as he now gazed upon ; but, to the eye of a Euro-
pean, it would have been one of the most blood-
curdling description. Those that were on their legs
lound the fire, had their naked forms painted after
the most rude and ghastly fashion. At the distance
from whence they were surveyed, their bodies ap-
peared to be striped across with bands of red and
white alternately. A stripe of white descended down
the front of the legs, as far as the ancles, and their
heads were bare, excepting a small tuft on the crown,
with a feather sticking in the centre. They might
easily have been taken for moving skeletons, gliding
through the flames in the gloomy realms of Pluto,
and preparing the food for some unhallowed banquet.
The fire gleamed from their eyes, and their motley

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

129

to,
let.
ley

bodies and limbs ; while the smoke now and then ob-
scured them altogether from the sight, and then rose
in curious festoons over their heads, finding its way
with difficulty amongst the branches above, for not a
breath of air stirred to waft it away. The boy
watched them, till those who acted as cooks lifted the
roasts from the flames, and bore them towards the
groups that were seated on the ground, who soon en-
gaged, savage fashion, in devouring the food set before
them.

He now considered it unsafe, indeed highly dan-
gerous, to remain longer where he was, for he saw
that they had only come over from the mainland to
enjoy the repast in which they were engaged. By
the style of painting which he saw on the bodies of
those described, he discovered they were of a tribe
hostile to his own ; and knew well that were he
caught by them in his present situation, he might
possibly undergo the same fate which had overtaken
the inoffensive game.

He now retired with as much caution as he had
advanced. On regaining theAvater, he slipped along
the banks towards the boats of the feasting horde ;
and having thrown all the paddles overboard, he drew
the tomahawk from his girdle, and cut the cables that
attached them to the side — turned again in the direc-
tion of his own, and before he reached it, had the
satisfaction of seeing the others glide away in the
moonlight far down the rolling river. His next
action was to unloose his own, slip into it, and ply
away with all the alertness he could command. As

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130

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

his course was against the stream his ^peed was far
from the fleetest ; and as the bows of the canoe con-
tinued to stem the waters with accelerated motion,
the gurgling noise they made sounded unusually loud
in the stillness of the night. The boy would willingly
have lessened the noise, by pursuing a slower course,
but he well knew the urgency of the case forbade it,
and he soon felt the truth of this, and the value of the
caution that he had hitherto exercised.

The rustling of decayed leaves, and the crackling
of rotten timber, convinced him that he was disco-
vered by those on the island ; and he perceived, in-
distinctly in the shade, dark figures, moving with ra-
pidity towards the part where the boats had been
moored. When they seemed to discover their barks
were gone, a harrowing yell rung through the vault
of night, and made the little canoe quiver in its
course. All of them then turned in the direction
of the fugitives ; some ran like maniacs along the
banks, and many plunged into the water, and stretch-
ed their eager limbs in pursuit — while those ashore
cheered them on with screams and warwhoops. It
was with difficulty that he avoided the pursuit of
the swimmers. At one time the boat was nearly
surrounded, and many a tawny hand was raised above
the water to grasp the canoe ; but he still eluded
them, by dexterously shifting his course, and gaining
a few strokes, before they had time to turn them-
selves in the water.

He had now nearly reached the western extremity
o{ the island, and out of reach of his pursuers. One

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

131

of them, however, more wary than the rest, had run
to the farthest point of the land, and plunged into the
stream ; and instead of following", was now in full
career to meet the devoted canoe and its youthful
guide, who had already begun to deem himself in
safety. He was within a few yards of this lurking
savage before he discovered the danger. Quick as
lightning, he wheeled round the head of the canoe,
in the act of darting aside ; the movement brought
up the stern, and with a triumphant yell, the exult-
ing swimmer grasped it by the edge, while with the
other hand he snatched at the cloak of the sleeping
girl, to drag her into the water, the more readily to
upset the canoe, and carry his prisoners in triumph
to his baffled companions. Alice awoke from her
dangerous sleep at the yell he gave, and shrunk in
horror from the hideous grasp. With the other hand,
however, still fixed on the boat, he raised his body
half above water, that with his whole weight he
might effectually swamp it. Now was the awful
crisis which might prove the prowess and fortitude
of the gallant boy, and most assuredly they were
not wanting. One moment more and he would
have been as a deer in the fangs of its devour-
ers ! Well he knew the value of that awful mo-
ment, and he allowed it not to pass. Swift as the
bound of the startled roe, he sprung to his feet, and
while his dark eye sent forth all the warlike fire of
his tribe, he snatched the tomahawk from his girdle
— it flashed like a thunderbolt across the air — and
before the eventful moment was numbered with the

Is .

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182

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

past, the fierce Indian sunk groaning beneath the
waters, while his severed hand, in the fast gripe of
death, still clung to the side of the bounding canoe !

And how felt iVlice during this harrowing scene ?
Such feelingj, as she experienced we a' e wholly un-
able to picture ; but how she acted was not as a
simple and timid girl, but with firmness and deter-
mination. Now, however, when the danger and ex-
citement were over, her more feminine feelings again
flowed with a twofold reaction, and completely over-
came her ; and when she looked on the grim hand
of the savage, she swooned away and fell prostrate
in the boat.

The boy — that there might remain no traces of
what had occurred — tore the bloody fingers from
their iron grasp — threw them on the stream — and
then hastened to restore his lifeless companion. This
he soon accomplished ; and when her eyes opened
she stared in bewilderment around as if searching for
some object from which she was ready to shrink with
horror. " I have had a fearful dream," said she,
" and can hardly persuade myself that it was all a
vision; but" she added, "were we not in reality
pursued by hideous and dark figures with eyes that
flashed like wildfire in the air ?" — " Daughter of the
white nation," answered the boy, with delicacy and
feeling, " visions deceive the heart, — tired limbs
make thought wander, — the Great Spirit watches !
— Go again to sleep !"

The canoe swept along the waters of Lake Onta-
rio without farther interruption, and entered the Nia-

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

133

gtira river. They landed at the same spot from
whence the boy had started on his journey down, and
hastened towards the scene of action. It was now
deserted and j^loomy. Nothinj^ was left of the spirit-
stirrin<>' scene that had so recently taken place, save
trees shattered, walls broken down, and an unusual
appearance of desolation, that contrasted sadly with
the smiling appearance which the orchards presented
a few days before. Alice dropped a tear over these
tokens of war's merciless sway, and her eye wandered
round in restless anxiety ; Clara, too, whom we have
nearly forgotten during the recital of more important
matters, ran over the scathed ground with uneasi-
ness of eye, as if feeling a like uncertainty with he.-
sensitive mistress.

As they ascended the heights, they came in sight
of several white tents half hidden by the wood. This
appeared to be a small encampment, and towards it,
therefore, they directed their steps. On coming
to a small clump of trees, which lay in their path,
they were desired to halt by a sentinel who was pa-
cing to and fro beneath the shade. They obeyed,
and as he surveyed them with an air more of interest
than suspicion. Alice approached him, and earnestly
enquired concerning Edward, whom she attempted
to describe.

The official appeared to be one of those jacks-of-all-
trades who consider themselves up to any thing, and
who are for ever kicked or kick themselves about the
world ; at one time idle and lazy — at another all life
and activity ; now, like those plants that have no

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SKETCHES or CANADA.

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permanent resting-place for their roots, and are tossed
about by the ocean-waves, and again like those animals
that are fastened to the rocks and caves. At present
he was in the dress of a soldier, with his left arm
in a sling, but assumed the gait and manner of a
sailor. " Why, mistress, if it is the young 'un you're
looking for who joined the sarvis t'other day, I guess
you'll find the lead pills of the Yankees a'nt always
made and given to cure one. More fins than one on
the sick list," said he, shrugging his lame member.
" But I'll tip you the buUitin in the twinkle of thy
own bonnie blue eye, 'cause I see the salt water rising
in 'em at the thoughts on't ; and God bless ye for it,
my girl, for there's not a braver fellow in the sarvis.
I'll swear that for him before George himself. The
Yankees won't soon forget the weight of his arm,

the rebel rascals, and be d to them ! But I ax

your pardon, mistress. You see then, to make a

long story short, we had jist begin to breathe after
the first scuffle with the thieving, parchmint-nosed
villains, when we were hailed by as smart a chap as
ever twigged off a horn to the health of his Majesty,
God bless him ! and he had along with him one of
them wood-bred red 'uns, mayhap like your mess-
mate there ; but all cats are black in the dark. Well
then, he axed for a w ord of the old Ginerel — and sure
he was as ill-rigged as any tramper ; but he didn't
get a refuse, thof the Ginerel's corruption was up at
being sent down hill by a set of rapscallion Yankees.
Arter this, all I know of the matter is, that he was
put in Serjint Back's place, who had got his ticket

SKETCHFP OF CANADA.

135

for the other world sent to him that morning by a
Yankee rifle ; and, ah, mistress," said he, while his
eyes sparkled at the recollection, "you'd like to have
seen how he fought. Jist like a bull-spider in a drove
of midges I Not a Yankee of them stood a minute.
Some took to boats, some to the woods, some tum-
bled into the river, and devil take the hindmost !
Helter-skelter every man of them left clear decks ; and
not a soul — I'll swear that for them — but had a hole
to sew up in the bulbous part of his nether garments,
for the young un's sword tickled their understandings
before parting company, ha ! ha ! ha ! Howsom-
diver he was winged, and his starboard peeper, too,
is under cloud of a black silk handkerchief of the
Ginerel's. But a short fortnight will make him all
sound again in wind and limb ; and if he chooses to
make his bow at headquarters, I'll stake a month's
allowance against a flash in the pan he may bring
away a captain's commission in his breeches pocket."
During this good-humoured harangue, Alice stood
bewildered and unable to make out any thing intel-
ligible, save a vague feeling that all was better than
her gloomy forebodings had anticipated. The words
with which he concluded were alone perfectly under-
stood. " March on to the right, my girl, — pass the
flag-tent, — and in the first to the left lies your hero,
thof I hope we will soon see him in marching trim
again."

Alice obeyed, followed by the Indian. They pass-
ed the flag-tent, as directed, and were looking round
with hesitation, when Clara, ever alive seemingly, to

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the interests of her mistress, circled and gamboled
before them amongst the tents, and then darted into
one on the extreme left. They immediately heard
a joyous bark and an exclamation of surprise from
within, and before she had time to form a resolution,
Edward — her anxiously sought Edward — started
from the tent and pressed her sinking form to his
heart ! And the young Indian, too, betrayed un-
wonted tokens of delight and ecstasy. lie clasped
his hands together, bounded several times from the
earth, while tears of sympathetic joy started and
trickled from his melting eye.

Edward having recovered from his honourable
wounds, did not feel inclined — however well qualified
he was for the profession — to run the career of a sol-
dier. He, therefore, with his fair bride and dark
friend, returned to their peaceful home, to encounter
all the lights and shades of life together, and rear
" a numerous offspring lovely like themselves."

Those w ho, in making a pilgrimage to the Western
World, happen to light upon a certain little wood-
encircled valley, with a silver stream trickling its
way through amongst the grassy knolls and flowerets
that adorn it, will be struck with the beauty and
blooming appearance of several youths of both sexes,
who inhabit one of the largest and most picturesque
cottages in the little cluster of habitations, that give
life and character to tlu lonely spot. These are the
fair family of our lovely pair, and Providence still
continues to watch over them in their sequestered in-
nocence. Many years have elapsed since the time

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

13:

ot our Story. Our hero and heroine have paid the
debt of nature, and now repose on each side of that
solitary grave below the time-honoured sycamore,
which still— autumn after autumn— drops its withered
leaves, in melancholy decay, to form a sere and yellow
mantle to the unconscious sleepers beneath !

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[ 138 ]

CHAPTER VIII,

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*' Like the dew on the mountain,
f-ike the foam on the river,

Like the buhhle on tlio fountain.
Thou art gone, and for ever I "

Patient reader, even under the most imminent
risk of being set down as a most incorrigible proser,
J will venture to hold you still longer by the button
till I relieve my memory of another story, by doling
it forth to you while my finger is still in the pie.

Nothing is more deadening to the spirits than be-
ing under the necessity of crawling along in the even
course of a journey and journal, setting down — as I
am sometimes obliged to do —in prosy matter-of-fact
language, such observations as may be found in every
guide-book ; and however you may feel, it is a
mighty relief to me to have now and then even a
simple story to tell, as some variety from the hum-
drum monotony. I have, therefore, determined to make
the most of my present position, being uncertain
when so suitable a one may again occur : for I can
oven now imagine that I hear the deep-toned massive

SKETCHES 01 CANADA.

139

lis a
n ii
um-
nakc
tain
can
sive

loar of the Falls, which serves to rouse my sleepy
pen to a double exertion. So whiK' we are still lin-
l(orin^ near this watery wonder, and drinking — in
the spirit of enthusiasm — the astounding spectacle
displayed to our admiring eye and mind, hy this ini-
mitable gem in creation's glorious diadem ; it may
not be inappropriate to relate another instance of
the baneful elVects of war, which is one direct result
of the darker passions of man when excited to action
by the demon of self-interest

It was during that war, which resulted in the de-
claration of American independence, that about eight
o'clock one evening a small party belonging to the
then rebel army was slowly winding down the south
bank of the Niagara river. They traced their way
ill a line with the rapids that foam and whirl in their
headlong course, till they finally divide and dash the
two portions of their troubled waters over the rocks
which form the majestic Falls.

The party consisted of a y^^ung officer, named
Dartward, and eight soldiers. Weary and silent they
paced on, each with his tarnished rifle resting on his
right shoulder ; their accoutrements giving back a
faint gleam to the silver rays of the moon, which
shone with chaste splendour over the forest, and cau-
sing that portion of the river which could be survey-
ed at one glance, to appear as a diamond-sparkling
brooch in the zone, clasping tlie green drapery of
some fair form.

They moved on in a straight line, the more easily
to thread their intricate path — the commander in front.

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Rodgers," said the officer, in a chagrined tone of
voice, " we have now thrown off allegiance to our
monarchical ruler. The sacrifice as yet, methinks,
has been but meanly recompensed. We are branded
by one portion of our fellow-subjects — our fellow-
countrymen I would say — as traitors and renegadoes ;
and what have we gained in return ? Sent out to
the woods, forsooth, to hunt the wild Indian, as I
have often done the fox in my native Highland glen.
But, comrades, the step has now been taken ; the
die with us is now cast, and we must remain con-
tented with the result of our temerity. It is a des-
perate game, and we must meet it with equal desper-
ation. Let us now act by our new masters as ho-
nourable men. The time was when aught breathed
against the name of George the Third would have
been pushed down the calumniator's throat again by
this now tarnished blade." Suiting the action to the
word as he spoke, he drew his sword from its scab-
bard, and drove it back again with a force that caused
the hollow caverns beneath the banks to echo back
the sound.

'* Hush, sir ! " said Rodgers, as he laid hold of the
officer's arm, while the rest of the party, roused in
part from the state of apathy in which they had tra-
velled for several hours, halted, dropped the muzzles
of their pieces to the ground, and stood motionless ;
watching that they might gather the meaning of the
abrupt signal, and be ready, as far as lay in their sunken
strength, to obey the orders or gestures of their leader.

Rodgers, finding that mere direction on his part was

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

141

unable to make the less experienced sight of the
young officer perceive the nature of the object of
his attention, quitted the arm and plucked from Dart-
ward's forraging cap an eagle feather which was
placed in the gold band that bound it. Pulling off
his own less costly chapeau, and sticking the High-
land badge perpendicularly through his matted locks,
he crouched down behind the decayed trunk of a fallen
tree, allowing nothing save the emblematical pinion
to remain visible to his attentive comrades. He again
rose, returned the token to its proprietor, exchanged
a look of intelligence with his officer, and once more
held forth the rifle in the former direction.* After
another breathless survey, the officer turned his head
half round, and gave a satisfied and cautionary nod.
The whole party were now perfectly on the alert, and
awakened to a complete sense of duty, and by their
gestures, which consisted of silently examining the
state of their pieces and girding their sword-belts
somewhat tighter round their loins, they appeared to
feel that erelong they might have to call up all their
strength and activity to their aid.

After another searching gaze in the all-engrossing
direction of the bank, he of the eagle plume again
turned to his party, pointed with one hand towards
the jutting bank, and with the other made a signal

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* During warfare witli the Indians, it was often found a mat-
ter of safety to converse by signs and gestures, on account of tlie
acute sense of hearing that the Indians possess, which enables
them at times, it is said, to detect the situation of a foe though
still far distant.

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for them to advance into the woods. They obeyed,
and stalked on in the direction which they knew
would place the small bank exactly between them
and the river, from which point they would stretch out
on the right and left, and thus prevent — as far as their
limited numbers could accomplish — the possibility of
escape.

The officer — when the men departed into the wood
— advanced slowly towards the rocky bank, conceal-
ing himself, although still in the shadow of the trees,
behind any inequality of the ground. When he had
got within thirty yards of the jutting bank, and within
a few feet of the water's edge, he halted, and gazed
anxiously over it to a tuft of brushwood that fringed
the river, and which formed the other extremity of
the curve that he and his soldiers meant to describe
round the promontory. After wailing for a few mi-
nutes he seemed to observe what he had expected.
Placing his cap firmly on his brow and cocking his
rifle, he started forward, exclaiming, in a voice that
was heard above all the din of the waters — " Advance!"
The form of llodgers immediately rose from the tuft
of underwood, and he rushed forward, while in the
centre, the withered leaves and decaying twigs were
heard to rustle and crack beneath the quick tread of
the soldiers, and in a few seconds more the landward
access to the jutting rock was completely secured.
In the same instant — for less time was required for the
action than is requisite to the relation of it — with the
rapidity of the startled deer, two tall and dusky forms
sprung up from behind a prostrate oak which lay

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

143

tuft
the

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ard

ired.
the
the

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lay

athwart the neck of the obtruding bank — an Indian
and a squaw. With the former it seemed one act to rise,
string his war-bow, and draw an arrow from the well-
loaded quiver whicli hung over his shoulder ; his left
foot, which he planted on the trunk of the oak, shone
and sparkled with the glittering spangles with which
the mocassins of an Indian chief are embroidered.
His bow was held forward, and his hand had already
half-stretched the murderous string, when a dark
boding thought seemed to dart through his mind, and
his form underwent a slight convulsive thrill, as he
gazed for a second over his shoulder at his companion.
Sb stood behind him, but not through dread or
fe , e ear — her soul knew neither ; she was firm and
erv.ct, and held in her right hand several arrows which
had formed part of those in the chief's quiver. She
returned his unspeakable gaze, and smiled away his
bodings for her fate which it seemed to express, and
she held up the feathered darts in defiance, as if she
were resolved to conquer with the chieftain or die in
the attempt !

Once more he essayed to level the murderous
missile, but again doubt seemed to fill his mind as he
looked on the scarlet garb of those surrounding him ;
for his tribe had been the friends and allies of George
the Third, and his high-toned soul shrunk from the
death of those who had exchanged the pipe of friend-
ship with him and his ill-fated countrymen. And as
Dartward and his men seemed only anxious to pre-
vent his escape, and offered no injury, it was possible,
he thought, that they were of those who had remain-

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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ed true to their King, and were still the allies of the
friendly Indians. He therefore allowed the bow
again to relax into its natural form — returned the ar-
row to the quiver, and addressed the commander of
the party, who had marked the change in the demea-
nour of the chief, and had advanced towards the tree,
now the only barrier between them.

Dartward's intention was to discover whether the
chief belonged to the tribes who were willing to take
up arms with those who were now struggling to shake
off the yoke of the mother country ; or of those tribes
who, as allies of the King of Britain, would still lift
the bow and battle-axe to assist him in asserting the
sway which he had hitherto maintained over that
portion of his dominions.

If Dart ward found him inclined to join the cause
of the rebels, it was his intention to extend to him a
treaty of peace, and court his allegiance. But if he
proved to be a determined Royalist, then he would
sacrifice him on the spot, for his commands were ex-
termination to all who would not join, with heart and
hand, the cause of liberty and equality. From his
own feelings too, disappointed and chagrined by being
sent out on the ungrateful task of shooting a few
skulking Indians, who were reported to be prowling
about the south bank of the Niagara, he was willing
to execute, in petty revenge, the utmo?^ severity con-
sistent with his instructions.

The chief turned towards Dartward, and addressed
him in the lofty-toned style which the majestic sa-
vage of the woods is often known to assume, and on

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

145

few

iu;

con-

the present occasion he was obliged to exert his hings
above their usual pitch, that he might be heard,
through the overpowering noise of the rapids.

" Does George, the great chief, still remain the
friend of the tribes ? Does the eagle, " said he,
observing the plume in the cap of the officer, *' still
go to battle for the white nation ? Does he now
hold out the token of peace to the wolf* of the slain
Oneidas?"

His fine dark features displayed neither the signs
of fear nor anxiety. His tall and muscular form was
drawn up to its full height, and together with his smaller,
but no less firm and unshrinking partner, there was pre-
sented to Dartward — with the sparkling and foaming
river for a background — a living picture which forced
him to call up his whole energy to support his part
of the scene, for he felt himself sinking into a second-
rate figure of the group ; although at first he intended
to act as the triumphant victor, able to award life or
death at his slightest nod.

" Wolf of the Oneidas," he answered, *' the Eagle
of the Whites will offer thee the token of peace —
George is no longer their great chief, for he would
burn the homes of his children, and take the bread
from the mouths of the women. Bend thy bow with
those who are now with the rifle in their hands, and
shouting the war-whoop of liberty ! "

lessed
ic sa-
id ou

* It is usual in the Indian tribes to name the different v/ar.
riors from the badges they wear, or from some supposed resem-
blance they may bear, to any of the wild animals with which they
are acquainted.

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** Then thou art not the Eagle of the whites
replied the chief, with scorn — " But the cowardly falcon
that would take part with those enemies of the bird of
Heaven — who entered the country of the Oneidas,
killed our children and squaws, burned our wig-wams,
and drove us to the forest to starve like famished
foxes. Falcon ! thy hand of peace is red with our life-
stream ; the Wolf of the Oneidas may die, but will not
touch it!"

" Then," exclaimed Dartward impatiently, '* thou
wilt not join us, and save thyself from death ? — Sol-
diers ! your rifles ! "

" Falcon !" said the chief, with lofty and unmoved
countenance, " the Wolf will not accept the token
of friendship from the murderers of his tribe. The
spirits of the departed chiefs cry for revenge from the
country of the happy warriors — I obey their call."

On the same instant his hand was in his quiver,

and the arrow on its way to the heart of Dartward,

which it reached with fatal certainty. In the next,

his own was pierced with the leaden messengers from

three rifles — he gave one convulsive leap, and with

the bow still grasped in his hand, tumbled headlong

from the rock, and was swept away by the boiling

current.

*' Treacherous barbarian !" growled Rodgers, —

*' We have not even his head to show ; but I think

the She-wolf will not escape our toils. Seize her,

comrades ! although I doubt not she is untameable.

We will take her alive, and have something to show

for the powder we have spent."

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

147

" Rebel from the white nation," said the Indian
maid, with a tone which made Rodgers shrink back
in superstitious awe, *' thou hast slain the Wolf of
the Oneidas, and sh'^ who would have been the squaw
of the wan'" h*. '^ bow to bend ' \''j revenge.
But come not over lue body of the blasced oak, that
separates her from thy bloody fingers ; her scalp shall
never rest on the war-post of thy cowardly tribe !"

"Gag the She-wolf!" cried Rodgers, who felt
himself quite unable to cope with the cutting and
lofty eloquence of the Indian Maid, who stood as
dauntless and unquailed before him, as when the
haughty chief was at her side.

Two of the soldiers sprung at his command towards
the oak-tree, to seize and bind her ; but poising the
arrows that she held in her hand, she hurled them in
their faces, and moving quietly to the extremity of
the rock, slipped over the ledge completely out of
view. In a second more — to the breathless astonish-
ment of the baffled rebels — a small bark canoe shoot-
ing into the middle of the torrent, bore away the
dusky form of the Indian maid. She stood erect, and
waved in defiance her right hand, while with the other
she pointed down the river, and they could distinguish
the words, " Land of the happy warriors ! Wolf of the
slain Oneidas ! " which came to them as an echo from
the bosom of the waters.

The party stood riveted to the spot, the two that
had first advanced to her capture, still remained with
one foot on the oak- tree. Those behind them had
allowed the rifles to drop from their hands, and stood

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with outstretched necks, and upraised eyelids, watch-
ing the onward course of the daring maid, who had
resolved thus to sacrifice her life, rather than be
carried captive by those who had laid waste the
dwellings of her tribe, murdered their children, and
lastly, destroyed her devoted warrior, the Wolf of the
Oneidas,

Her fragile bark was borne over the curling waves,
as a feather on the wings of the wind ; when raised for
an instant on the angry stream, she seemed above the
white froth like a dark steed bounding over the
surface of sparkling snow wreaths ! On and on
it was seen, darting and springing with the most
appalling velocity, till within a short distance of the
booming and astounding Falls, where the water as-
sumes a more placid appearance, and the little bark
moved more steadily along, as if in unison with the
calm and determined being who formed its burden.
It quivered a moment on the brink of the terrific gulf,
then darted like an arrow into the volume of vapour
that boiled from beneath, and was lost in oblivion for
ever!

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[ 149 ]

CHAPTER IX.

" The lingering gaze we fondly throw
Around the scenes we leave for ever,

The last, the saddest tears that flow,
When friendships are about to sever ;

In memory dwell, and o'er it cast
The fairest visions of the past."

While lingering about the Falls making the most
of the time we had to spend there, we missed the stage,
which passes on to the town Niagara, a distance of
fifteen miles, — so there was nothing for it but to open
our hearts and purses and engage an extra. This
arrangement enabled us to kill two birds with one
stone, by paying at the same time a visit to a friend
on the way ; an honour which we before had meant
to reserve for a subsequent occasion. We found him
and his wife and children all snug enough, as Canadian
notions of snugness go ; but still surrounded with that
unsettled, raw, and uncomfortable appearance, which
nine-tenths of the habitations of Canada must present,
to a Scotsman, for at least a hundred years to come.
The land of this district is richer than its appearance

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betokens, its colour being only a few shades darker
than cream, which gives the idea of a poor clay.

The orchards here are perhaps the best in Canada,
and one could almost wish himself a pig, for a month
or two, every autumn ; it being a perfect paradise to
the grunting gentry and their pretty sprigs. But in
what degree of favour apple-fed pork stands, in the
estimation of the consumers, I neglected to enquire.

We passed within a short distance of General Brock's
monument, but as it was twilight, we did not ascend,
it being impossible to see above a mile or two all
round. We had nevertheless a good view of the battle-
ground, where the last scuffle between the Americans
and the English took place, and long may it be ere
such unnatural quarrelling again set the evil passions
of both nations to work. On we whirled, leaving all
recollection of these disagreeable occurrences behind.
The huge pillar became fainter and fainter, till it
shrunk to a mere needle, and then faded for ever from
our gaze.

There is, I believe, inherent in every breast, a
strange indefinable feeling, which we cannot repress,
when we are leaving some scene or object for the last
time. It is impossible to explain it. It imparts to
the mind a mellowed sadness, a holy regret. It is
totally different from the parting of friends. Then
we are influenced by the motives of separation — by
the nature of our previous union — by the comparative
closeness of confidence, or the temper of our inter-
course. We give audible and palpable expression

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

151

t-0 oar thoughts and feeling — shake hands — bid him
or her perhaps a last adieu — start asunder — dash the
tear from our eye — if haply there obtrude such a
melting witness of our separation, and there is an end
of it. But it is otherwise with us, when we are leaving
behind that to which we have no substantial affinity,
no active friendship — know nothing, perhaps, of the
inanimate object of our farewell, farther than a few
historical recollections, or some vague and hoary
scraps of tradition. In this case, our mind ranges
over a wider and a wilder field of fancy and reflection,
and it brings with double force to our mind the great
law pervading all Nature, that as there was a begin-
ning, so there shall be an end. '* All that's bright
must fade." We do not cast back our lingering
look so much with the idea that we are leaving be-
hind what we shall never see again, as with the
thought that what we now behold may, erelong, be
laid with the dust — be numbered amongst the things
that were ! And then should we return, perhaps, in a
few years, the meeting would be sadder than the part-
ing — all our old and fond associations would be broken
up. Where before we had revelled, during the noon-
day heat, beneath the glorious trees that form what
is erroneously termed the Eternal forest, we might
return to groan over those prostrate pillars of vege-
tation, smouldering in ashes, and nothing left stand-
ing of all their gloomy majesty but a waste of black-
ened stumps ! And the little stream, at whose grassy
side we have stooped down to cool our parched lips,
we might find overgrown with rank weeds, a loath-

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152

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some receptacle of noxious reptiles. Such are often
the partings and meetings that occur in life's journey ;
and in this case, it is just as well that existence is not
wholly made up of such melancholy materials.

Our fanciful ruminations were soon dissipated by
clouds of dust, that now and then saluted us through
the gaping sides of our rude vehicle. We applied
ourselves to the task of barricading the lights as well
as we could, to save ourselves from the unwelcome
powdering, and we arrived in good time for bed at
the Niagara Hotel.

Here we experienced, what some travellers fume
about as a mighty annoyance, viz., sleeping in a
double-bedded room, one of which was occupied.
There was a complete racket in the house, roaring
and rumbling, smoking and tippling ; and certainly,
in comparison with the bar-room conduct on the Ame-
rican side of the river, our colony must fall greatly in
the estimation of every sober-minded person.

After sundry delays, we at last succeeded in get-
ting mine host to show us to our berth ; we got to
it by passing from one room to another, and there
was a third, which entered from the one where we
took up our quarters. Observing this loose thorough-
fare sort of accommodation, my friend and self had
the precaution to transfer the needful we possessed to
the underside of our respective pillows ; as it was pos-
sible, if not probable, some night-walking gentleman
might — through mere mistake, of course — remove the
contents of our breeches* pockets to the interior of
his own. We observed that the other bed in our

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153

room was doubly occupied, and this served to keep
IIS more oft the alert. We slipped to bed as fast as
our tired limbs would allow, and had lain perhaps
half an hour, when we heard a noise in the room. It
was very low, but still it awoke us. It seemed as if
some one was stalking across the room, and some-
times feeling the floor with his hands ; at other timti
searching along the wall, for we hea'd fingers rub
bing on the size-paint with which the room wo i co-
loured. The sounds drew nearer, till we felt a 5 Hght
shock, as of some person inadvertently striking his
hand against one of our bed-posts ; still we remained
motionless, hardly breathing, for we were determined
to discover what was likely to be the upshof, :^ fore
proclaiming our knowledge of the intrude /s pre-
sence. A slight pause followed the last movement of
the enemy, and then we distinctly felt a pair of long
hands, fingering with the utmost caution the bed-
clothes ai our foet, and gradually creeping upwards,
moving over our bodies with the circumspection of a
pawing tiger. Had we been possessed of the nerves
of Hercules, we could not now fail to entertain a most
indescribable feeling of uncertainty and horror. A
thousand vague fancies took posse :<in of my mind.
Little more than half awake, I was hardly yet con-
vinced that what we felt was reality or night-mare.
Imagination lent her aid, and i thought of the long
fellows from Kentucky (some of whom I had seen at
Buffalo), with villainous clasp-knives, whose blades
have done many a ruthless deed. And then the dark
machinations of the Holy Inquisition flashed across

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my half-dormant brain, accompanied with all their
fell insignia, soli^*ry German inns, trap-doors, mov-
able beds, dark-visaged priests, &c.

The fingers continued to crawl along our bodies,
till they arrived at that spot where, with sleepers of an
ordinary description, the nose is obtruded above the
edge of the turned-over sheet, which, like a rock amid
the ocean, serves to indicate to observers the nature
of the materials that are hidden beneath. When the
infernal fingers had reached this prominence, with
which no man or woman will ever allow undue liber^-
ties to be taken with impunity, we could hold out, or
rather hold in, no longer. Four hands started at
once from beneath the disturbed coverlet, in hot haste
against the audacious intruder, while we both sent
forth a shout that made every board of the wooden
fabric echo and re-echo. My bed-fellow's right hand
was lucky enough to fix itself, vice fashion, upon one
of the arms of the mysterious unknown, who imme-
diately emitted a noise, exactly like what one might
fancy a shark would give, when it finds the head of a
harpoon stuck into its flesh. An explanation followed,
with which, there is no reason to doubt, we were agree-
ably disappointed. The poor night-walker proved to
be a more harmless disturber of the peace than we
had with reason suspected, being in that happy inter-
mediate state between soberness and intoxication.
He had got up to open the window, for he had sense
enough to know that it was a hot night. In return-
ing to bed, luckless wight, he lost his reckoning,
missed his way (as many a wiser traveller has done

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

155

in daylight), and becoming completely bamboozled in
the middle of a room about eighteen feet square, felt
as much at a loss concerning the latitude of his bed as
he would have done touching that of the last comet.
To take an observation even of the stars, to help him
in his extremity, was impossible, the room was dark-
ness visible ; so, as the most sensible thing he could
possibly have done under existing circumstances, he
set out on a voyage of discovery (with no compass
save his fingers), for the important purpose of finding
where he was. He got down on his knees, and set-
ting out his arms before him as feelers, moved about
like a blind spider searching for flies. This was fruit-
less, so he got on end again ; and as the event prov-
ed, when he imagined he had got to the termination
of his journey, he found he was fairly lost !

While the hand still continued to squeeze his un-
fortunate limb, he stuttered out a petition that we
would show him the way to his own nest, as he was
perfectly unable to conceive how it was situated, as-
serting that the room had wheeled round since he rose,
and adding, with the greatest simplicity, that he was
hardly able to stand, for the floor was still whirling
round. In order to finish farther parley, my friend
leapt from bed, took him by the shoulders, turned his
face in the direction of his much-sought for coucli,
and bestowing upon him a " pretty considerable "
kick behind, sent him across the floor in double-quick
time. The creaking of the bed, and the impatient
grunt of his sleeping-partner, immediately indicated
that he had at last gained the wished-for haven, and

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in this summary manner, ended the mystical scene,
which had so unwarrantably disturbed the dominion
of old mother midnight.

There is nothing in the world better adapted to
enforce rising betimes, in America, than the punish-
ment that is invariably attached to a half-hour's extra
snoozing, viz., the never-failing certainty of sitting
down to the most freezing and uncomfortable break-
fast imaginable. And this, in fact, is no small evil,
to him who may have been toiling through the forest
all the previous day, parched to death from thirst,
which he slakes — if he does so at all — at some muddy
creek, oozing through masses of decayed vegetation,
and worried to death by musquitoes ; for the blood-
sucking little devils feel the excessive noonday heat
as well as their victims, and fly to the cooling shade,
ready to pounce upon every unlucky wight who falls
in their way.

Notwithstanding all these cogent pleas in favour of
a morning nap, he who has any regard for the well-
being of his tabernacle, and entertains a reasonable
wish to enjoy in perfection the good things placed
before him, must start betimes from the embraces of
Morpheus — slip himself over the dearly-loved couch
at the very first peal of the morning bell, and make
no undue delay in obeying the clamorous signal sent
forth to call the devourers to their feed. An Ameri-
can hotel breakfast is one of the most perishable things
in art or nature. In the first place, those v/ho prey
upon it, exercise no mercy, and what may chance to
be left is soon frozen up, on account of its ultra be-

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157

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be-

greased and be-buttered condition. It would require
a stomach formed after a more rough-shod fashion
than an ordinary Christian's, to receive it with relish
when it has arrived at the frigid stage. The hot
rolls, instead of all the steaming glory that they assume,
upon first being smothered under a load of butter, soon
become dormant, and their clammy sides have far from
an inviting appearance. The beefsteak (one slice covers
a large plate), that we naturally expect to see rejoicing
amid a sea of its own rich juice, and sending out a
savour like the burnt-offerings of old, is alas ! cold
and stiff, entombed under a coating of congealed
grease and butter. The white-fish too, poor uncon-
scious innocents ! are as cold as charity, and as they
lie side by side, have the appearance of encased
mummies, or so many over-grown penny dips !

By such experience, therefore, we learn to take time
by the forelock. I recollect being obliged, while in
New York, to start from bed at six o'clock one morn-
ing, for the purpose of getting a breakfast in season I
But once for this enormity to happen, is quite sufficient
in a life-time, and I trust that none of you, my fair
readers, will ever find yourselves under the dominion
of such a barbarous necessity; one may almost shiver
at the very thoughts of it.

Waiting for the steamer that was to bear us across
the corner of the lake to Toronto, we wandered over
the downs or links at the side of the lake, but saw
little worth noticing, according to our ideas, save a
glorious sprinkling of bones that were strewed over
the grass all round the town, profitless cumberers of

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

the ground. We thought of the turnip fields at home,
and of the luxuriance in which they might rejoice
from the influence of these pale remains of mortality.

It was a delightful forenoon when we embarked \i
the " Canada" steamer to cross to Toronto. We
therefore contented ourselves with a deck passage, as
a few hours at most would accomplish the trip. W^e
stationed ourselves at the prow, near twelve head of
fine cattle, that were, to do them justice, as inoifen-
sive as any other passengers on board. The Cana-
dians being yet unable to raise a sufficiency of stock
for their consumpt, have to receive supplies from the
Americans, which are raised principally on the western
prpiries.

We arrived at the capital about six o'clock, where
we staid two nights, but as I returned and re-
mained for a much longer time, what is to be said
concerning men and things there, I will delay for
the present. Along with a '* settled" friend, who had
been in Canada for some time, we got on board the
Constitution, and slipped along towards the upper
part of the lake, where the beautiful little town of
Hamilton is situated.

We found it in a bustle on account of the militia
having been out drilling, and we had a sight of them
as they marched home from their exercises, and
verily, they presented a most laughter-stirring spec-
tacle. They were, it is true, very uniform ; but it was
the uniformity of variety of shape, size, form, colour,
&c., brought together en masse. One might have
imagined that each man of them kept his own tailor,

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

150

or rather, which might be as near the truth, acted as
his own. As far as we could discern, not one garment
was kin to another, they were as distinct as the coun-
tenances of the wearers, and the chapeaux that de-
fended their craniui7.Ts from the sun were, too, of every
discordant variety. Lastly, the weapons that dangled
from the fists of the doughty heroes would have been
still more difficult to classify. Guns, whips, blud-
geons, hoes, umbrellas, canes, sticks, &c.

After amusing ourselves for a little with this corps
of motley men of war, we proceeded towards our des-
tination, which lay about ten miles from Hamilton,
and pretty well in the bush. We were lucky enough
to get on board a waggon belonging to one of the
country squires, who was an officer in the militia, and
had been on parade in full fig ; for the officers alone
have the felicity of being tucked up in a black stock,
and buttoned within the honourable bounds of a scar-
let uniform-coat. Very conveniently for us, his house
stood at half our journey's length, and he — still more
to our comfort — asked us to take dinner before going
farther. We required no second invitation, being
well appetized from the rumble jumble which we got
in passing over About a half mile of uninterrupted
corduroy.

Talk of fox hunting I it requires more bottom to
get well over one half hour's enjoyment of this rough-
shod purgatorial penance, than a whole day's gallop-
ing at the fox's tail. But be this as it may, our
journey left no bad effects on the appetite, for the

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broiled pigeons, pork and pickles, vanished from the
squire's dishes with most alarming expedition.

Next morning we found ourselves nestled in the
Bushf which is the generally received cognomen of
those " lofty trees, to ancient song unknown," and we
had a fair and deliberate view of the gloomy majesty
of the American forest; and it certainly imparts
strange feelings and sensations to minds newly im-
ported from the varied and rugged soil of Scotland.
There is all the silence and solitude of the sea, with-
out the stirring and invigorating stimulus that one
feels when afloat on the blue and boundless deep.
All have felt the refreshing influence of the sea-
breeze on both lungs and spirits, and every one who
ever trusted himself on the unstable element for a
day and a night together hath known somewhat of
the engrossing anxiety that ever attends the plough-
man of the deep. Few pleasures are greater to me, I
confess, than that which is felt while bounding away
before a whistling wind over the white-crested bil-
lows of the angry Atlantic, when the canvas is bend-
ing forward like the outstretched wings of some
mighty sea bird, and the slender masts are groaning
with the eagerness of flight. There may be solitude
here, but far different is that which we experience in
the Bush. It is the fagging and wearisome solitude
of confinement ; penetrate the wood but a short way
from the stump-covered clearance, and you are hem-
med in from all animated Nature. Nothing can give a
more complete idea of solitude than an hour or a

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

161

clay's walk in the Canadian forest. An unnatural and
painful silence reigns around that often preys upon
the spirits, and from the loads of foliage that bush out
on the tops of the trees beside you, only small specks
of the sky are observable ; and on dropping the weary
eye to the surface of the soil, there is i.othing to
compensate for the narrow bounds within which the
view is confined. So absolute is the exclusion of the
sun's rays from the earth, that not a blade of grass is
called into existence. Huge trunks of trees, in every
stage of decay, and withered leaves alone form a
covering to the unlaboured earth. I have often wan-
dered amid this " boundless contiguity of shade,"
and experienced a strange indescribable feeling that
can never arise under any other combination of cir-
cumstances whatever.

Although ** there is a pleasure in the pathless
woods," if the enjoyment derived from this sort of
solitude were analyzed, it would, perhaps, be found to
contain fully three-fourths of an ungenial moodiness ;
and one part of a very doubtful description of happi-
ness ; forming together a compound fitted only to
tickle the palate of a confirmed misanthrope.

A Backwood life is but a humdrum one in the best
light in which it can be viewed, and the experience I
had of it did not serve to make me in love with this
specimen of woodland banishment. There is something
more than mere satisfaction of bodily wants required
to make mortal life pass pleasantly away, some salu-
tary excitement within reach to give zest to our peace
and security. We never, in any great degree, prize

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our safety, unless in the immediate vicinity of danger,
and it is only as contrasted with in the bustle of a
city that on© relishes an hour of dear-bought retire-
ment, and counts every minute of a triple value, as
they hasten us along to throw us once more on the
noise and nonsense of society. It is little more than
romantic bombast which many fireside travellers in-
dulge in, when discanting on the evenings of rest
and luxurious repose that must be enjoyed in the
peaceful log-hut after the toils of the day are past.
Verily, we would answer, go and taste it ; and expe-
rience will not fail to teach that thy pleasing and
homespun musings are worth a thousand years of
the cold and comfortless reality.

This is taking an extreme view, however, for
when families are together, it in part rubs the edge
from the monotony that broods like a murmuring
demon over the gloomy woods of the west. The
log-hut where we were now nestled, was not in
a state of complete solitude. Within a mile stood
another, and within three or four miles were several
and the township, a square of ten miles, was

called well populated, although from a bird's eye
view one might only be able to discern a bare patch
here and there.

On Sunday, the 8th June, I walked four miles
with my friend to call at the next clearance, and ac-
company some of his neighbours to church, it being
the first time I had had an opportunity of attending
public worship in Canada. The duties were per-
formed by one of the Hamilton ministers, whose cus-

for

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md ac-

being
tending
ire per-
ise cus-

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

163

torn it was to make a weekly pilgrimage to the woods
for the benefit of the good folks in the township.
The weather was very hot, and most of the male part
of the congregation had come without their coats ;
but the females were both neat and cleanly. There
were several rosy -cheeked maidens, whose appearance
plainly indicated that they had not been born in the
country. But a few short summers would elapse,
however, ere the roses would wither, and even the
lilies fade from their countenances beneath the un-
sparing rays of the Canadian sun.

A discourse was delivered, well adapted to the cir-
cumstances of the hearers ; and, on the whole, we
had the satisfaction of enjoying a day that brought
more forcibly to our remembrance a Sabbath in the
country at home, than any other that passed during
my stay. Every thing around was in pleasing uni-
son with the little flock of worshippers. The temple
we occupied stood in a recess cut out of the forest on
the way side, and was used during the week as a
humble schoolhouse. It was a log-hut, constructed
after the most homely fashion ; the seams between
the trees (which were piled horizontally above each
other), forming the four sides, were stuffed with a
mixture of moss and clay ; and the simple benches
we rested on were put together with the utmost eco-
nomy of nails and iron. The farmers as they arrived,
some from many miles distance, threw the bridles of
their horses over a convenient stump or branch at
the door, quaffed a bowl of water from a pailful
placed at the roadside, on the root of a fallen tree.

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and then, Bible in hand, slipped into their places
with all the unobtrusive simplicity of the Covenanters
of old. When the solemn chant of the unsophisti-
cated psalmody rose from the lips of the little flock,
it presented a vivid and pleasant picture of the pri-
mitive Church of Scotland in the olden time.

On our way back, we had tea at the house of one
of the squires, who entertained us with much kindness.
About sunset we started for home again, and had a
most arduous task, having to plod through nearly five
miles of forest road. In many places the rough and
rugged stumps studded the way to such a degree,
that we were often in danger, as the night closed in,
of breaking our noses on these black and unpleasant
stumblingblocks. Several times indeed, being com-
pletely unaccustomed to the process of steering clear
of this species of obstruction, I fairly capsized, and
came floundering down, head foremost, at the heels of
my friend, who led the way, but whose anxiety for
my safety proved completely unable to preserve my
often assailed equilibrium. Strange to say, when
midnight haa fairly enveloped all Nature in her sable
garb, we fared better than we did during the partial
gloom. Thousands of fire-flies continued to dance
and gambol through the air like lovely little planets,
and cast a welcome gleam over our dubious way.
Ever since this friendly turn they did us, these bril-
liant little insects have borne a warm place in my
remembrance.

While sojourning here, and mixing with the few
inhabitants in the clearances adjoining the farm of my

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

1(36

friend, I found myself able, in a certain degree, to see
how the numerous contradictory and discordant ac-
counts arise concerning domestic life and comparative
comfort enjoyed in this part of the earth. Tourists
who leave home with the professed intention of spying
out the land, for the purpose of returning home and
giving to the world the result of C oir travels, in the
shape of advice to intending emigrants, are often
sadly imposed upon, and that in many different ways.
They pass from place to place, and must either rely
upon simple observation, or the report of others.
When the latter meets their own views, the point is
settled satisfactorily to their mind. But when they
differ, they either give up the point, follow their own
opinions, or make a compromise between the two :
and in this manner the substance of the lucubrations
given to the world is little better than plausible
chance work. I was frequently led to this conclu-
sion during my partial domestication amongst the
settlers in the Bush ; and to the conviction that those
classes in our own country, best fitted for Canadian
or American emigration, namely, farm-servants and
artisans, may pore over volume after volume on this
interesting subject, and be little wiser at the end
concerning the principal points of their enquiry.

It has been truly remarked, that life is not passed
in a series of great and splendid actions, but is, for
the most part, made up of a multitude of minor
thoughts and deeds, on the proper regulation and con-
trol of which our worldly happiness depends; and

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these almost invisible links of existence remain be-
yond the immediate sphere of a tourist's labours. I
humbly conceive, therefore, unless one has actually,
by experience, known what it is to be a settler in the
woods, he is not justified in giving more than a gra-
phic sketch of what he sees, and what strikes him
during his Hying visit, as peculiarly characteristic
of the country and population he is visiting. 1
am convinced, too, that a single hour's conversa-
tion with an intelligent inhabitant of the back-woods
(provided he gives a candid recital of his domestic
economy, and there are, I am sorty to say, frequently
inducements strong enough to make him act other-
wise), would, before all book-information, give the
intended emigrant a clear view of the advantages and
drawbacks of American country life. I regret, however,
although I can see so far the deficiency of information,
my imperfect knowledge of country life generally, pre-
vents me presuming to supply the want.

On Monday I set off with my friend, who offered to
accompany me to the side of the Grand River, which
we were to reach by penetrating through the woods for
eight or ten miles. After pushing on for about an hour,
we found it prudent to return home again, having de-
layed our starting till the afternoon ; and just as we
began to lose all trace of a road or tract, the sky be-
came brooding, and a heavy thunder-shower fell, and
most effectually damped both our clothes and spirits.
It therefore agreed better with our ideas of comfort
and security, — when we had fairly resolved upon a

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U)7

lOur,
de-
ls we
be-
I, and
)irit8.
ifort
)on a

retrograde march, — to call at a cottage belonging to
a certain Mr Wilson, and rest awhile, after our fruit-
less travels.

Mr W. was from home; but his wife, who was carry-
ing a fine child in her arms before the door when we
arrived, received us with kindness, and invited us to
partake of her dinner, such as it was. We thanked
her, and soon made a hearty repast upon green tea,
bread and eggs. Hunger formed a capital amalgamat-
ing power for the mixture, and we fared contentedly
enough. " 'Twas all she gave, 'twas all she had to
give." Our hostess was a good-looking young Irish
woman, and had come out with her husband about two
years before. She had been well-educated, and sorely
missed society and its manifold enjoyments. She
besought me — if 1 meant to stay in the country and
valued my happiness — not to come to the back-woods,
but remain in town — adding, while the tear stood in
her e^c, that for her part she thought she would never
know happiness again, till she was once more in her
own beloved country.

No situation could well be conceived more solitary
than the one in which we found her. Her husband
was at Montreal, distant more than four hundred miles ;
and the clearance where he had left her and her child
was far in the forest ; the next neighbour was several
miles oif, and to whose house the only access was by
a rude track, which could hardly be dignified with the
name of road. None could have failed to pity the
loneliness in which we left this young mother and her

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first-born. It is with feelings of anxiety that I now
recal to mind the sadly pleasing hours I spent in the
solitary hut; but I trust that " Providence that sits
up aloft" has continued to watch over, and perhaps
may ultimately satisfy her longings, and bear her back
again to her early home.

I do not envy the hearts of those out and out ad-
vocates of the bush, who allow a cynical smile to
play over their features, when they hear of the poor
alien in the woods casting a longing lingering look
behind to the spot of earth he still fondly delights to
call his country. It is all humbug — say those cold-
blooded reasoners — to express fondness for the land
from which he flees starvation.

This fact, one would rather think, must render the
patriotic devotion of the poor wanderer still more
holy and pure. He cannot, at least, be charged with
casting a wistful gaze back to comforts that he has
left for ever. No ! his regret is for his country — his
birth-place — his home ! — and although his native soil
refuses to yield a potato to nourish her famished son,
still that son will look up, while a tear rolls over his
care-worn cheek, and sue for a blessing on the land
of his fathers. It is to such a man as this one delights
to extend the hand of fellowship, and hail as a country-
It is of such materials alone the moral bulwark

man.

of our rocky isle is composed. Wander where they
will, their hearts will still be here. They will watch
the calm moon as she wades through the deep azure
of night, and love her because she too smiles over their

SKETCHES OF CANADA,

109

island home ! If they inhabit the banks of a foreign
stream, it grows in their love from some real or fancied
resemblance it bears to the crystal stream of their boy-
hood, amid which they have revelled in their early
days. And thus all nature soon becomes subordinate
to the ruling passion- the boast of country and the
love of home !

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[ 1 70

CHAPTER X.

" A man was famous, and was had

In estimation,
According iis he lifted up

His axe thick trees upon.''

A LETTER that 1 wrote home about this time, will
best show how I employed the few succeeding days I
spent in this part of the upper province : — "• Oif/i Jime,
1834. — My dear G. My last, as you will recollect,
was dated on board the good steam-ship ^Michigan,
which was at the time bearing- C. and myself, with
almost the speed of the wind, over the glassy bosom of
Lake Erie, on our way hither. This is the spot of earth
whereon to enjoy travelling, under its most spirit-
stirring form. Fifty miles appear to be but a })layful
leap to the monarchs of the tide. We have no op-
portunity of viewing at home sights equal to those I
enjoy here. It is truly a vision of grandeur to watch
one of those aquatic castles — .>f which there are hun-
(irods — scouring along the placid water, and leaving,
as far as the eye can reach, a frothy and sparkling
furrow in its wake, as if it were in reality expending
its energies in ploughing up the surface of the lovely
lake. 15ut before the eye has got well accustomed
to the inspiring sighv, it dwindles down again to a

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

171

\V1

ovcly
toined
n to a

aiere sunny speck on the hlue-j^irt horizon. The
first sight I had of this sort appeared to my mind
little loss than magical ; and no wonder, when we
conceive for a moment the hundreds of human beings
brought together from all quarters of the eartli, who
are sweeping past us with such astounding rapidity.
And while the pov.er that is tearing and piercing its
way through the foaming liquid is bearing them to
their destination with the speed of a gallant v/ar-
horse, they themseh'es are perhaps calmly reclining
on sofas, puffing cigars, or scribbling to their far-olV
friends, with as much ease as if seated beside one ot
your snug parlour fires in the heart of East Lothian.

*' I am now, you may well suppose, experiencing
the very opposite of the busy and exciting life which
I led, from the moment we stepped ashore at New
York. There every one seems moving at double-
«|uick time towards the goal of fortune ; and having
this ever before the eye, it is hardly prssible for one
to remain wholly free from participati > \ \n the man-
ner, if not the mind of those around,

'' At present I am seated in a log-hut of no lordly
dimensions. It contains three ai;artments- I can
reach my hand to the ceiling a> i sit — three paces
brings me to the middle of my sleeping- chamber, and
three more from the opposite side of tiie room, would
place me in the centre of the Ivitclicn. The view I
have from the window is in unison with the diminu-
tive dwelling. To the south and east, we have a half
mile of elbow room ; to the west, about a lunulred
yards, and on the north, within forty yards of iin-. U

f"'

I'-

172

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

! ■;

the public way, displaying a specimen of genuine
corduroy that might well draw a shriek of horror
from the slipshod spirit of Macadam I

" Life is becoming monotonous here ; but its novelty
is not yet over, and I have seen what I could see, and
done what I could do, in order to enjoy it before the
edge of my curiosity is blunted with the sameness
that must necessarily ensue. I. have managed, for
example, to cover my palms with a thick crop of
l)listers, by assisting F. to hoe up a small plot of po-
tatoes behind the house. Such work is no joke here.
The soil is a light coloured clay, and the sun has
parched it to a cake, at which we were obliged to
grind and smash away with very dull edged imple-
ments, and my fingers have proved the inoffensive
sufferers.

'"' C. left this some mornings ago for Illinois. F. and
1 convoyed him on his way through the woods for
several miles, and wishing him all safety to his desti-
nation, parted, — turned back, and here am I now
with not one of all those in whose company I crossed
the Atlantic — to exchange a thought or a word with.
And during such a time as the present moment, when
F. is away in the woods after his own farming con-
cerns, I feel solitary enough. There is, I believe,
not a soul within a mile or two of me, and what is
there to compensate for the want ? Nothing living
at least. There is even no approach to what one
might style an animated landscape, unless fancy could
endow with a fictitious life all those mangled stumps
that stud the clearance. But to me these rather add

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

173

F. and

)ds for
desti-
novv
rossed
with,
when
con-
elieve,
hat is
livinjjj
at one
J could
stumps
icr add

to, instead of breaking in on the tameness of the
limited prospect.

" On Thursday last, I was engaged in performing
u very tough day's work. An intimation was sent to
F., that a Choppimj iice was to take place on the ground
of Mr Webb, a neighbouring farmer. The poor man
had employed a Canadian to ckar a certain space of
wood, but he unluckily paid him before hand, and
soon had the misfortune to discover, that gratitude
was not one of the chopper's virtues, for he marched
oif — shouldering his hatchet — and leaving ten acres,
the stipulated clearance, groaning under their ori-
ginal burden.

" Having supplied ourselves with the needful chop-
ping axes, we set off after breakfast, which will gene-
rally be found a good ally in the performance of a hard
day's work. We left our coats behind, the glass indi-
cating a good many degrees of heat above the com-
fortable point. We arrived in about an hour at the
field of action, and met fifteen of the backwood gen-
try, and I am sure you could not produce so large a
gvoup from the inhabitants of East Lothian, display-
mg such an overweening quantum of wild reckless-
ness, combined as I thought, with an abundant por-
tion of underhand cunning. This was not, however,
a fair S})eclmen of the rural population, but consisted
mostly of men who employ themselves clearing the
woods, or turning their hands to any thing that pro-
mises a good day's feeding, accompanied with a fair
allowance of grog.

7 I ■

• - !.

174

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

i ^'-r.

'* There Is little doubt, therefore, we found this choice
selection of mortals in their element; and as a novelty
1 did not regret joininj^ the ploy. We soon com-
menced a war of extermination against some of the
loftiest trees the world can produce, and in half an
hour you might have mourned over many a fallen
monarch of the wood.

*' I accomplished out-and-out the severest day's
work I ever set my hands to, and to cheer my sink-
ing strength, I was frequently complimented by my
squatter friends upon my dexterity in using the chop-
ping-axe. I was even daring enough to challenge one
of them to single combat, and by the way, this might
suggest a decisive, and at the same time, bloodless
method of terminating encounters of a more honourable
nature. My opponent and I proceeded thus, — we se-
lected a tree of fair dimensions, having a perpendicular
stem, and standing free of others. We placed ourselves
on each side, hatchet in hand, ready to attack our victim
on a signal being given. The one towards whom the
tree fell was declared the victor, for this plain reason,
that his cut must have been the deepest, and like con-
scientious folks, trees seem generally to lean to the
weaker side. 1 had the good fortune to floor my
opponent, or at least the tree, in this my first trial of
strength ; ' ut t'-^ various professors of the noble art
who were iaoking on, did not yield the full share of
approbati' ;: which in my vanity I conceived my due,
mysupple form, long arms, and long legs, were in their
turn lugged in for a part of the honour, — in this
manner, the worthies managed very successfully to

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

175

fritter away all the laurels that I might have pkr.ned
myself upon — my feathers were therefore up. and
although light was beginning to fail, I signified my
wish to enter the lists anew. ]\Iy knight of the chop-
per immediately started from the side of the grog-can,
where he had been comfortably seated, engaged in
discussing the contents. I likewise took a little be-
fore engaging, and although it tasted well enough
under our parched and worn out circumstances, 1
am convinced I never before or since tasted such a
harsh and even abominable beverage. It was com-
posed of the worst description of Canadian spirits, and
luke warm water brouirht from the muddv creeks in
the wood, — smelling and tasting of the decayed vege-
tation with which it was impregnated ; — no well being
within many miles of us. A tree was again selected,
of more moderate dimensions, however, than our first,
and again we fell to. But in this instance, as luck
would have it, we were both cheated of victory, for
the tree having a perverse inclination of its own, fell
halfway between us — seemingly determined neither
to add to, nor rob me of my former triumph.

" In the course of the day we levelled to the ground
many a tree that would have done honour to the noble
woods of Tyningham or Yester, or to those braes

" Wliert' Salton > uak, and Huinbio's pine,
rringo the rude banks of pebbly Tyne."

The oaks of this district arc the finest I have seen
but this only forms an additional motive for their
destruction. They escape the fire, but undergo the

''♦•i'

176

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

i* I.

■■;♦,:
fe

inglorious fate of being manufactured into barrel-
staves.

" The grog 1 have already mentioned was our only
drink during the day, and uncouth as it was, the ca-
pacious can was many times emptied, replenished, and
emptied again, before we struck work. Thus passed
the play — which lasted till about sunset — and then
came an afterpiece, which most certainly was con-
sidered quite in season by the dramatis penoncB en-
gaged. Instead of shifting the scenes, the actors
shifted their quarters, by adjourning to the log-hut
of Mr Webb, whose provident dame had busied her-
self to some purpose.

" The festal board (composed of every thing the
house afforded in the shape of tables, clubbed toge-
ther) was creaking, if not actually groaning under its
substantial load of eatables and drinkables. No ce-
remony was either thought of, or requisite ; we plant-
ed ourselves round, after the true take-what-you-have
and you-won't-want fashion. The house, to appear-
ance, after we entered, would not have contained a
cat additional, so, in schoolboy phrase, it could not
be said we had " cat's room and dog's room" to do
the honours of the table. Some of the party had for
a time to leave their large straw bonnets on their
heads for lack of room to set them down.

" The soul and body of our feast was pork, tortured
into every description of dish, from the complicated
concealment of a pie, to the unaspiring rotundity of
a humble ham ; and its simple hand-maiden, the po-
tato, was in some of the platters presented to us, so

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

177

il-

buttered, toasted, and shaped, that even the shrewd
wit of an Irishman might have been taken aback, and
rendered unable to discover the presence of his be-
loved root ! To give you some idea of the style of
this bush-feast — a huge cast-metal goblet was handed
round the table, filled with potatoes, for the benefit
of those who preferred them, boiled, and clothed in
the primitive covering of their own jackets.

*' But I have yet to tell how we got accommodated
with seats ; for you can hardly suppose our hostess
possessed chairs sufficient for a company that filled her
house to overflowing. At the head of the board sat our
landlord, on a bag of wool, supported on the right
and left by two of his friends, occupying chairs, which
appeared to be the sum-total in his possession. Down
the right side of the board ran a rough-hewn plank,
supported at each end by a sack half-filled with corn ;
and the opposition bench was a broken ladder, with
similar supports, and forming, you may well imagine,
no very comfortable resting-place. At the foot of
the table, opposite the gentleman on the woolsack,
stood a huge chest, but whether containing napery or
corn I never discovered, perhaps there were both, for
there was not a fellow to it in the house.

" More noise was made during the process of feed-
ing than there would have been heard at fifty table-
d' hates in New York. When we had got this part
of our festival over, the sun had likewise finished his
course above-board, and candles appeared to be high-
ly requisite to assist us in discussing what might be
called the serious business of the evening. By the

'7 •

" 'J. t i

■:.^lf

•'I

•.. . ^

178

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

':',^i

light of the fire, I made a survey of the apartment,
but was unable to discover any thinf»- in the shape of
a candle or candlestick, and this led rtc to suppose
that our future proceedings would be little better than
fighting in the dark. And perhaps thi- might hap-
pen in a too literal sense, for I could see that there
were several hot tempers among us ; .tiid when these
are in the company of liot spirits, the odds are generally
in favour of a blow-up. Part of my conjectures were,
however, soon set at rest, for the dame brought forth
from some mysterious corner a half-dozen good sub-
stantial tallow candles ; and as she lighted tliem —
with happy invention and dexterity — popped their
nether ends into the bottles that had been conve-
niently emptied during dinner. This welconie addi-
tion to our convenience imparted new life and mettle
to the whole company. It seemed, in fact, to put
the key-stone on their resolution to pass a most glo-
rious night. Those who were already smoking
began to puff away with tenfold energy. The f/uid-
man thumped the table with his sturdy fist, desiring
all to look after themselves, for he had no time to be
speaking, and would rather exhort by example than
precept. The yuidwife threw a few more fagots on
the glowing hearth, and immediately the big kettle
sent forth a most sonorous and pleasing signal, that
it was likewise ready to assist the bold determination
of the party. Its singing contents w^ere immediately
transferred to the interior of a large can, and by the
application of some wholesome spiritual aid, there
was formed a sea of inspiration, that might, in the

le lipartinoiit,
I the shape of
ie to suppose
;le better than
ir, mijirht hap-
ee that there
id when these
> are generally
jectures were,
brought forth
(5en good sub-
rhted them —
-popped their
I been eonve-
kvelconio :iddi-
ife and mettle
n fact, to put
ss a most glo-
ady smoking
The (juid-

fist, desiring
no time to be
example than
lore fagots on
he big kettle
g signal, that
determination

immediately
1, and by the
lal aid, there
night, in the

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

179

opinion of many interested, have rivalled the nectar
of the ancient gods. No time was wasted — the mirth
and fun grew fast and furious, and there followed
many a keen encounter of wits. IJut the woolsack
soon became less elastic than it had hitiiorto l)een :
the ancient ladder began to give audible tokens of its
inability to support much longer the deadening
weight. Its occupants were fast approaching to that
happy state when the world ' all its concerns are
fairly kicked overboard, and »ving fancy seizes

the deserted helm. This is exa. uy the moment when
those who have no love for the trip softly withdraw :
so leaving this scene of mirth and jollity behind, F.
and I slipped from the liut, and went on our peace-
able way.

*' What afterwards happened, I am afraid must ever
remain buried in the vale of oblivion, for I never en-
quired. But I trust that neither tlie world, you, nor
uSi will have sustained on that account any thing like
a serious loss.

"When I am thus on the subject of ' Bees,' I will
give you the description of another I attended a few
days before leaving the township. The term * Bee'
is applied indiscriminately to almost every social ga-
thering that takes place amongst the inhabitants of
the woods. Such neighbourly assistance is al)So-
lutely necessary. They possess no money to pay
wages, and the understood compact, to assist one
another when called upon, supplies in a great mea-
sure the deficiency. I felt, therefore, much pleasure
in assisting friend Webb in destroying his Bush, and

IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

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■U 12.2

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IIJI IIIIII^ IIIIII.6

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Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

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180

SKETCHES OF ( ANADA.

affording him an opportunity of having, during the
next season, a few more acres of wheat in addition to
his limited crops.

" This congregating of the natives, is, in the States
yclept a * Frolic ' — and this merry sounding cogno-
men is not only a more comprehensive, but, in many
instances, a more appropriate one ; for the united
efforts of the meeting are not always exclusively
directed to a certain piece of matter-of-fact utility,
but are frequently devoted to sport, in its various
forms. There is one description of frolic, for example,
which is greatly patronized in some parts of the State
of New York. It is somewhat akin to our Scottish
Hansel- Monday jollifications ; but at the same time,
it is American all over, and so much in accordance
with the American character, that there is no wonder
it affords them a rich banquet of enjoyment. And I
may add, it is so innocent of all approach to what
we Sawneys consider as worthy the name of sport ;
that it would be long, indeed, before this child of
American fancy could become naturalized on the soil
of Scotland.

*' It is denominated ' a guessing frolic,' and is
managed thus : — A hotel-keeper, of a certain district,
feeds up a fat pig against some particular day, when
the sportsmen assemble. The affair is then gone into
with all the saturnine gravity and phlegmatic cool-
ness they universally display, and nothing ensues, to
melt down a single drop of their icy solemnity, nor
doth a solitary ray of joy beam over the features of
the demure group, which might indicate to a stranger.

SKETCHES OF CANADA,

181

ng the
tion to

! States
cogno-
\ many
united
usively
utility,
various
tample,
le State
Scottish
le time,
ordance
wonder

And I
what

sport ;

hild of
the soil

and is
district,
, when
)ne into
ic cooU
sues, to
ity, nor
tures of
ranger.

tliat tlicre exists even a fair portion of inward merri-
ment ! The pampered pig — killed and cleaned — is laid
on a table, and submitted to the curious inspection of
the company assembled, who examine it with all the
care and calculating curiosity that they are capable of
concentrating in their anxious minds. Their fingers
are from time to time applied to the different parts of
the carcase, which gives the body of the unconscious
animal the appearance of a large apple-dumpling,
with herculean spiders crawling over its shining sur-
face. When our gentlemen of the fancy have satis-
fied themselves, they stalk towards the clerk, and
depositing a piece of money — the stipulated stake —
have theii* name registered, with a guess as to the
weight of the defunct grunter. So soon as the record
is closed, the pig is placed in the balance, and the
happy individual whose guessing abilities have brought
him nearest the truth, sliouhlers his prize and marches
off. The affair usually ends in a grog-match, but
this makes no alteration in the character of the meet-
ing, for it is just as gloomily gone through, as any
of the foregoing parts of the day's sport.

" To return from this solemn digression. The Bees
that generally take place in Canada are ploughing-
bees, harvest-bees, hay-cutting-bees, house-raising-
bees, and chopping-bees. But the second I attended
I will leave to your own fancy to supply with a name.

'' A young farmer of the neighbourhood called one
morning, with his waggon, to solicit the loan of my
friend's plough, as his own had got some damage.
F. having no occasion for it himself, at the time,

i V

182

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

\ 'b'- 1 j'?t

a-1!

willingly gave it. On driving oflF, he told us that
there was to be a party at Squire D.'s house in the
evening, that there were to be a number of young
ladies there, and he had got a message to invite us
down. Any thing that might dispel for a time the
sameness I lived in came welcome, so we promised
to be at the Squire's house in due time.

" As soon as the afternoon became somewhat tem-
perate we set off ; the distance was about four miles,
and we arrived as twilight set in. But, alas, twilight
here is a mere shadow of that sweet and sombre period
at home, for the sun has hardly disappeared behind
the topmost branches around, when we are enveloped
in the palpable darkness of night.

" We found that all the Squire's party had arrived
before us. It was not numerous, but still there was
a goodly cluster of misses with smooth smiling faces,
beaming beneath a load of ckiiv and glistening tresses,
that seemed to have cost them a deal of extra trouble
for the occasion. As we entered, being the only stran-
ger and a complete one, I had to sustain a curious peep
from the corner of many an inquisitive eye ; and then
a confused murmur of half heard whispers. I passed
through this ordeal, however, apparently unheeding,
and was introduced to the good old Squire himself,
with whom I was soon knoe-deep, in a sea of hum-
drum prosification of, and concerning, the state of the
foreign markets, sour cider, and the price of pork.
We were regaled with refreshments, small cakes,
currant tarts, and similar puffery. This over — I
began conjecturing what was likely to follow, but I

1
if f

.1: t.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

183

could fall on no reasonable supposition, the young ladies
seemed all so bashful and prim — to use an expressive
vulgarism, *' butter would not have melted in their
mouths." His squireship continued to hold me by
the button, enlauging on all the thousand and one
topics, that, of course, vitally interested him, though
they sounded monotonously enough in my ears.

" As the room became more obscure, the masters
and misses drew closer together, till I could now
and then hear some gentle tittering, passing like an
echo round the circle ; as the company began to
assume that comfortable form. The moon (for
luckily there was one) smiled beautifully in upon
them, as they were seated at the window. Now
and then an important glance was cast towards the
t'orncr where the Squire and I were seated, as if
rhey wished Idm away, for they appeared to be under
some sort of restraint. Happily for their plans he
soon rose, and excusing himself, slipped out on some
of his needful concerns. When the door was closed
I was politely invited to join the party — room was
made — and I merged into this round-robin of * honest
men and bonnie lassies ! '

" Being naturally endowed with Scotch caution, I
intended, whatever might chance, to keep a sharp
iook-out after my heart I and I had an additional
reason for this circumspection. On our way down,
after relating many of the characteristics of the new
society in which he has now taken up his cpiarters,
])erhaps for life, my friend F. finished off (as we

IN'

184

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

were in the act of climbing over the Squire's gatej,
by desiring me to stop one moment before entering
the house, and he woukl give me a little seasonable
counsel for my guidance. So we both sat still on the
topmost of the rickety-rails ; and he began — ' You
will soon see lots of blooming Canadian girls, bless
their meek and modest faces, they hav'nt the heart
to kill a mosquito ; but,' he added in a lower tone,
putting on at the same time a most significant look
— ' Give one of them but the fiftieth part of a promise
to marry, which you are in no hurry to fulfil ; and
then, goodness have mercy on your poor unfortunate
body ! Old Squire the father, and lady Squire the
mother, young Squire the brother, and a whole host
of uncles and aunts. Jacks and Jennies — will in a
twinkling be buzzing about your ears, like a nest of
liornets, ready to pick your eyes out or something
worse, if you do not instanter marry and take for
your lawful help-meet the said much wronged Miss
This, That, or T'other thing!*

" This bright but appalling picture of the temptation
and danger I was about to encounter, amused me
much, and I could not help hinting that I thought
sad experience alone could have given him the power
of portraying them in such vivid colouring. Without
vouchsafing an answer, however, he immediately
leapt from the pailing, and hurried along into the
presence of the enemy.

" When I got seated in the mystical ring, I was
called upon to join in the amusement in which they
were engaged. It was a game of forfeits — but you

■ i

si : "J*

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

185

gate),
itering
enable
on the
_' You
s, bless
e heart
r tone,
at look
jromise
il ; and
•rtunate
iiire the
die host
/ill in a
nest of
nething
ake for
3d Miss

iptation
sed me
thought
e power
W^ithout
ediately
nto the

I was
,ch they
but you

might invoke the spirit of romance in vain to whisper
you what formed the immediate subject of our hope«
and fears. Know then that it was simply a largf
bone button ! From hand to hand it glanced like a
flying comet passing round its celestial sphere, till it
is lost for a season to the anxious eye. So the but-
ton — the glorious button — vanished away, and I was
immediately asked plump down to name the fair hand
in which it had the felicity to repose. My answer
was wrong, and the punishment was forthwith award-
ed ; and I will leave you to judge whether it was
in keeping with the enormity of the transgression.
The knowing ones of the party presuming, 1 sun-
pose, upon my comparative novice-state regarding
the mysteries I was led into, condemned me to place
myself between the two young squiresses on the win-
dow-seat. They were quite in the shade, for the
moonbeams merely glanced along the outlines of their
flowing curls and snowy necks. I underwent my
punishment with a very good grace, but had not the
bashfulness to consider it such. The fair one on m\
right hand was now called upon as I had been, but
being likewise unable to solve the mystery, she had
immediately to comply with the sentence which fol-
lowed, by placing herself on one of my knees, to
which I kindly assisted her, in order to render the
penanre as light as possible. The lady on my left
in a few minutes, too, fell also a victim to the fugi-
tive button, and was consigned to the precious sup-
port of my vacant limb. So you have before you a
a very substantial button-ensnared group.

' 'r.M

■■f^

•'•■"•il-

186

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

*' In the course of a few minutes I was thus con-
demned to act the part of a jailor. Prisoners were
given me in the shape of two blooming young ladies,
whom I never saw before, and will never see again ;
and more romantic still, the lock-up house was my
knee, and the chains that bound them were my arms.
Not content with the extent of the penal duties 1
was already made to perform, the master of ceremo-
nies, with more refined wickedness, brought me once
more beneath the lash of the law, and awarded the
additional penance that I do forthwith salute the two
culprits in the condemned cell.

" Time had got so far ahead that we had now to
think of home ; and I was obliged, however reluct-
antly, to resign my romantic post, and dive into the
woods, leaving all the alluring fascinations of the
magical button behind, which, I doubt not, has often
before the occurrence of this busy bee caused many
a heart to ache, and many a head toss over a sleepless
pillow.

" Such is a faithful history of the last active ser-
vice I was engaged in here, unless you take into
account all the plodding journeys I have performed
round the country, which have brought me pretty
well acquainted with the different localities in the
township. I am about to start for Hamilton, and
will call on A. H. before I set oiF for Toronto. He
is in a large store, and over head and ears in busi-
ness, his employers being the most extensive mer-
chants in the district, so he has every prospect of
' getting a-head,' as the Yankees term it.

e ser-

into

ormed

)retty

the

and

busi-

SKETCHES or CANADA.

is;

" Although 1 would not on any account pitch my
tent here, such is the perversity of feeling, that I
experience an active regret on leaving this spot for
ever. During my visit I have derived both amuse-
ment and instruction, and this will ever serve to makt-
me look back with a kindly thought towards tlu-
township and its hospitable inhabitants. Yours.
&c. "

On the I4th June I walked down to Hamilton t(»
ship myself for the capital. It was a sultry day, and
I was obliged to carry my coat over my arm, to re-
lieve my shoulders of some part of the weight, us
well as heat, that I had to endure. In due time 1
got on board the " Queenston," the most venerable
vessel now plying on the lake. It reached the wharf
at Toronto without any thing happening by the way
worthy of remark, saving the mast having gone on
tire at the junction with the supporting shrouds : but
as there was no want of tubs, water, and hands to
use them, it was extinguished before r.jt^^rial damage
occurred.

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[ '88 ]

■I

Ifi

CHAPTER XI.

" So on I rniiible, now and then narrating,
Now pondt'ring"

Many who want experience — that prime rectifier
of crude ideas and outre opinions — suppose, witli great
appearance of reason, that, to the tourist, the task ot
recording the fruits of his peregrinations must l)ecome
easy in the ratio of the abundance of material which
is thrown in his way. This supposition is little better
than popular fallacy. The labours of the traveller
have a strong analogy to the works of the poet and
the painter. Ask the genuine bard of Nature what
in writing is the great difficulties which he feels it
necessary to use all his energies to overcome. It is
not assuredly poverty of thought or vacancy in his
mind. No. It is the overwhelming flood of ideas
that crowd his thoughts, bearing on and on like the
billows of the ocean, till his mind is bewildered with
an abuu'^ancy of imagery. And he alone is the suc-
cessful bard who can pick and choose from his sha-
dowy store, and give to the world a chastened and
appropriate selection. For example, some have in
their wondering wisdom expatiated upon the tran-
scendent genius that prompted the pen of our poet.

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

181/

when he traced his exquisite lines to the " Mountain
Daisy." For, say they, none couUl have supposed
such a simple subject productive of a single elevated
idea. I am inclined to the opinion, however, that
the poet himself" wouhl have told a dift'ercnt story :
namely, that the ideas contained in the sweet lines in
question comprehend not a tithe of those that pre-
sented themselves to his rich imagination. And this
fact leads us more and more to admire that fine dis-
criminating taste which empowered him thus to prune
his fancy, and give as the result, such a finished and
unfading gem.

The tourist, when he finds himself merely sur-
rounded by the simple, steady, and unol)trusive beau-
ties of nature, may often manage to set them fortli
in a form, at all events readable to the generality of
those who love to pore over the thousand volumes
sent forth by the rambling race. But when i^ne
emerges from the meditative solitude, where he has
been doing homage to the wonders of creative power,
amid a temple formed of Nature's most solemn an<l
majestic features, and finds himself again in the noisy
haunts of the world ; he is bewildered by the various
objects that claim his attention, and which tend
to frustrate his attempts to classify the ideas that
arise in his mind. This was exactly the predicament
in which I found myself on arriving at the city of
Toronto. Often when I lifted the note-book, to re-
cord what seemed worthy of remembrance, it had half
faded from recollection, or was jostled into insignifi-

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■J-

caiice, by the never-ceasii)g tide of novelties in whieli
I found myself entangled — again and again I had to
throw down the pencil in absolute despair.

It is usual, indeed considered often as a duty, to
extol all that is new, uncommon, or surprising, and
revel in never-tiring enjoyment amid the multitude
of lions, ^c. to which we are introduced. It will
often be found, however, that the extreme may be
reached here as well as in any other walk of life ; for
the fancy of the tourist will often be worried to death
with a superabundance of sights that he is — by im-
memorial custom — bound to examine and admire.

There is, too, an opinion abroad, that what wo
note down concerning that which we see and pass
through, ought to be all done at the moment, other-
wise we cannot give a faithful account ; for our re-
collections fade away, and leave our history deficient
in the truthful and poetic touches, which alone can
be given on the spot, and while we are alive to the
objects immediately under our notice. This certainly
in a great measure corresponds with what I have felt
by experience ; nevertheless, were I to give all my
own faithful notes, as they were put down at the
moment, the good reader would soon find himself
mystified, amongst a sorry collection of fanciful cru-
dities, which regarded feelings and individual ideas,
that I cannot now bring back to remembrance. To
give a satisfactory relation, therefore, the sketches
abroad must be carefully conned over in the closet :
for, in the language of the fine arts, some part must

n .

SKKT( IIES OF CANADA.

101

which
hud to

utv, to
ijr, aiul
iltitude
It will
nay be
te ; tor
deatii
-by im-
lire.
hat \\v
id pass
, other-
our ri'-
ieficient
one can
e to the
ertainly
ave felt
all my
at the
himself
iful cru-
il ideas,
2e. To
ketches
closet :
iTt must

be brought better out, others receive additional
breadth, while a third class are blotted for «-*ver from
our view.

It must be recollected, too, however pleasing it is
for readers to be allowed, by adequate description, to
enter into the individual feelings of the tourist, as he
leads them 'nto the position which he himself occu-
pied, many instances may, and do often occur during
his wanderings, when his spirit is damped by some
unseen power, which he may l)e for the time wJiolly
unable to subdue ; and it is plain that the expression
of what is experienced, and even endured at such
moments, would be any thing but pleasing to those
who are engaged in tracing his onward way for the
purpose of deriving amusement or instruction. It is
unprofitable in the extreme to analyze the thoughts
that arise during what is culled a fit of the blues — so
we have endeavoured to chase thorn for ever from re-
collection — making a distinction, however, between
mere barren mopishness, and that superior species of
sadness, that might be styled the divine spirit of me-
lancholy, that at times will hover o'er, and tinge
with its mellowed meekness our every thought and
action — such being often the fair harbinger of pu-
rity of feeling and renewed energy of soul. It is
at such blessed moments that we may be visited with
ideas that end in resolutions, involving our greatest,
our deathless happiness.

Toronto is in appearance like hundreds of the minor
cities in the Union. The streets are built parallel,
and at right angles to each other, and they display

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the same appearance of a busy-minded population,
though there is certainly much difference in the man-
ners of the inhabitants. They are in a great measure
divested of that sombre, thoughtful look, which ever
rests on the countenances of the Americans ; and the
cheeks of the fair sex display a fairer portion of the
roseate hue which is so delightful to the eye of an
" old country" man. I thought, however, that there
'vas discoverable a certain coldness, that chills the
progress of friendship, and freezes those companion-
able qualities, which one, not wholly dead to the en-
ticements of society, loves to exercise. I did find
some exceptions, however, and felt increased regard
for those whom I may still denominate friends, and
whose kind offices I shall ever continue to cherish in
my memory.

I was employed, during my stay here, in many
different ways, in a great measure j)erhaps to little
purpose, unless in the way of satisfying curiosity.
Sometimes, with fowling-piece in hand, I went to the
wood ; but like Patience with his angling-rod, who
rejoiced over a glorious nibble, a few flushed feathers
were generally all I had to expatiate upon at my re-
turn. Pigeons were scarce, woodcocks still more
rare, and the black squirrels proved too nimble for an
unaccustomed eye. The news-room, was a principal
point of attraction, where papers and publications
from home gave an insight to all those affairs that
agitated a more interesting part of the world than my
immediate resting-place.

Better descriptions of the city have already been

SKETCHES OF ( ANAD.'

193

written than I have either power or inclination to
give, and it was a more pleasing exercise to make
little journeys to the country round, and note the
gradual change thcic was taking place on the face of
the forest, by the busy chopping-axes of the settlers,
than to study the character and constitution of this
humming nest of mortality.

In one of my excursions, I visited the Island with
two of my Toronto friends. We crossed over in a
horse ferry-boat, and landed at the hotel right oppo-
site the town. Strictly speaking, it is not an island,
but a sandy ridge, stretching from the shore on the
east, and rounding in a westerly direction in front of
the city, forming a beautiful bay, which is thus only
open to the west. We endeavoured to get employ-
ment for our fowling-pieces, but we saw little game,
and shot less. We enjoyed a pleasant walk, how-
ever, over a smooth bed of sand, nearly the sole sub-
stance of the place, which bears almost nothing but
stunted trees, small shrubs, coarse grass, and water-
lilies in abundance. There is a large swamp, con-
taining, I was informed, several hundred acres, situ-
ated in the eastern recess of the bay, and it is almost
wholly covered with this huge aquatic flower. The
existence of this insalubrious spot must for ever
serve to keep the neighbourhood in a comparative
state of unhealthiness, unless some means not yet dis-
covered be employed to drain it. Nature, however,
often silently and invisibly helps us, even while we
are murmuring at her decrees, and she may, in
this instance, do more in the course of years than

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the united efforts of men could accomplish. For at
one part of the swamp, the river Don continues to
deposit a tribute of the wasted soil from the country
behind, and there is no saying but its unassisted and
unremitting agency may in time raise a fertile stra-
tum of rich soil above the reach of tht- water, and
convert this nursery of fever and ague into a rich ex-
tent of corn-fields and orchards. I would be sorry,
should it be supposed from what I have said, that
the town of Toronto is more unhealthy than the
neighbouring districts. I rather think that it will be
found that there exist but small degrees of difference
over most of the upper province settlements ; and that
the amount of clearance must overbalance the bad
effects of the marsh.

The Sunday morning here always presents a gay
scene of military parade ; the Colonial governor, ac-
companied by the military from the garrison in full
dress, with the band playing, march to church, and
a great part of the population, from a feeling of de-
corum, respect, or convenience perhaps, slip from
their houses and walk in company to the place of
worship. And we must confess the sight always af-
forded us a good share of pleasure, sustained in a great
measure by home-spun associations, more especially
after having been some time amongst our democratic
friends on the opposite side of the lake, whose minds
appeared to feel a painful sensitiveness at the mere
mention of discipline, rank, &c.

I recollect of seeing only one specimen of the re-
gular military in the States, and would not even

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

195

; mere

have had that opportunity had not my attention been
particularly called to it. One day, while walking
along one of the streets in the town of Detroit, with
my casual acquaintance the sea-captain from Boston
— *' There," said he, " are a few of our soldiers, and
they are as fine men as any in the world I expect,"
as a party of about twenty-five passed us clothed in
an unbecoming blue-grey undress. They were loung-
ing along with their hands swinging at their sides,
and displayed nothing that could be styled a military
air. Their gestures, in fact, half-careless, half-as-
sumed, might easily have been construed into a dis-
regard of authority. We cannot quarrel with our
neighbours, of course, for possessing the limited army
they see fit to maintain ; but one cannot help think-
ing that unless they train them according to true mili-
tary discipline, it would be better to rely upon the
services of undrilled freemen in time of need.

The town of Toronto is dignified by the residence
of the archdeacon, who presides over the Episcopal
establishment, and the municipal afiairs are controlled
by a mayor i id aldermen. During my limited stay
there were only two acts of authority which came under
my eye that I remember, and these unfortunately
did not serve to leave an impression that refinement
or delicacy had any great share in the dispensation
of law and justice.

One was an official placard, under the hand of
the mayor, if I recollect right, which was posted up
in every corner of the city. 1 forget its exact bur-
den, but part of it related to the checking of certain

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outrages against the good name of the community ;
but it struck me forcibly, as well as hundreds of others
who read it, that from the coarse language made use
of in this mandate of authority, it formed within itself
a more offensive, at least more obtrusive cause of
disgust to the mind of the sober citizens than that
which it endeavoured to drag forward for reprobation.
For, previous to the promulgation of the gross ana-
thema, hundreds of the virtuous inhabitants knew not
of the existence of the dreaded nuisance.

The other outrage against delicacy which came
under notice was a poor and wretched female with
her feet confined in the stocks, set for public gaze on
a piece of vacant ground at the side of the public
thoroughfare, and raised upon a platform, that all
might see her in passing. Such a mode of inflict-
ing punishment ought not, I conceive, to be tolera-
ted in a civilized community, and more especially
towards a female, whatever the crime or amount of
depravity. It is disgusting in the extreme, and,
what is worse, it can never answer the purpose in-
tended. Every one knows, or might know, that the
reasons for inflicting punishment are threefold ; and
it is my belief that the penance alluded to will in all
cases prove unavailing, for any of these three divi-
sions of benefit which every punishment should be
calculated to produce. With regard to the first,
namely, direct punishment for the crime committed,
a very little reflection will serve to make obvious,
that hardened offenders who commit crimes so great
as to biing to a judge's mind that they deserve such

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

197

a degrading punishment as the stocks, are, in fact,
already past the stage when such exposure would
make them ashamed ; and this was so in the case
which led to these remarks. The shameless fem:ile
was surrounded with characters of a similar die,
giving and taking jokes with her of the coarsest de-
scription ; and had she been so little familiarized to
guilt as to have felt abashed at her situation, is it,
one may ask, a punishment befitting such a female ?
Instead of having the effect of leading her back to
virtue — for there is always some chance so long as a
spark of feeling is left — it would rather rob her of all
remaining respect for herself, and throw her at once
an outcast on society, in place of fulfilling the second
end of punishment, which is reformation of the delin-
quent, or the third, which is, that the execution of the
judge's decision should give a direct example and
warning to society. The very beings who were sport-
ing round the criminal while doing penance, were
exactly those to whom such a warning required to be
held out ; but we could discover, from actual obser-
vation, that they were far from considering the spec-
tacle before them as such. It is to be trusted, how-
ever, that I am now expatiating upon one of the last
instances of punishment of this rude, disgusting, and
altogether profitless description.

Here, as in many of the towns in the States, where
there are thousands arriving daily by the steamers,
&c., there is great demand for hotel accommodation,
and the supply is far from spare. There are many
extensive establishments, and dozens of minor houses

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of entertainment, and all are generally fully occupied,
as I had once good cause to recollect. Having been
out at supper one night along with a friend, and be-
ing rather late in returning to the private house
where we staid, we found the door locked, and all
within silent. We, therefore, set off through the
streets to procure some convenient hotel accommoda-
tion ; but after tacking about over nearly the whole
city, calling at every house of entertainment in our
way, not a bed was to be had for love or money ; not
even a room where we might at least get shelter for
the night. My friend's forethought, however, proved
a valuable acquisition in our forlorn dilemma. He
had observed that at the back of many of the largest
houses in town, ladders were placed ready to be used
in the case of fire ; and he shrewdly argued, that as
the house from which we were barred was as high as
most domiciles, being four stories, it might be neigh-
bourlike and possess the needful appendage. We set
off on this new cruise on the faith of these plausible
reasonings, soon scaled the back gate, and found our
conjectures and wishes fully realized. Without more
ado we mounted the hospitable ladder, — crawled
along the ridge of a lower part of the building, — as-
cended a second ladder to the eaves of the main fa-
bric — creeped up the sloping roof in a truly frog-like
attitude, and with equal silence, trembling lest we
should be discovered (seeing that at this part of our
journey we were on the house of one of the august
aldermen of the city), we soon gained the top plat-
form, where a skylight stood invitingly open, and

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

199

through which we dropped, to enjoy a sound repose
after the aspirinjr labours we had performed.

I had not an opportunity during the time I was in
the States, of observing the effects of fire, which is so
frequent as well as violent on account of the slender
materials of which the houses are composed ; but I had
now a signal instance of its ravaging effects. I had been
in the habit of finding my way during the noonday heat,
to the tempting establishment of a confectioner, who
bore the same relation to the city, that Littiejohn at
present bears to Auld Reekie. Ices, cooling drafts,
&c., were in daily requisition by all and sundry, in-
cluding the fair part of the inhabitants. But our
luxuries were short-lived ; — one afternoon, exhausted
with the dust and heat that at times conspired to rob
us of all enjoyment, I hastened down to quaff a frothy
tumbler from Erskine's glorious soda-water fountain ;
but on arriving at the end of the street my luxurious
dreams soon gave way to other thoughts, when my
eyes met the unexpected reality. There was indeed
no fire, but we required not to be told that there had
been one ; instead of the gay windows, decked with
every thing that could tempt the eye and please the
appetite, what met the view ? Nothing ! literally
nothing was visible of the large tenement, not one
brick was left on another. What did remain of the
house was actually several feet below the level of
the street ; for all that we had to gaze on was smoul-
dering ashes, covering the floor of the blackened and
sepulchral looking cellar.

Another disaster happened about this time, well

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calculated to give a striking warning of the uncer-
tainty of existence. The adjournment of a former
public meeting had been called, to take place in the
Market Square, to deliberate on the adjustment of
taxes or other matters interesting to the community.
The people assembled in the afternoon, and the speak-
ers, along with many friends and auditors, ascended to
a narrow wooden balcony round the interior of the
square, and projecting about fifteen feet above the
level of the ground. As the business proceeded, the
pressure on the front rail increased till it proved be-
yond its strength, and it gave way, precipitating a
considerable number of individuals to the pavement
below. The scene was such as no tongue could utter,
and no ear listen to without a thrill of horror. Several
of the sufferers at once breathed their last ; limbs were
broken, streams of blood gushed from the torn wounds,
and some more unfortunate than the rest were im-
paled on butchers' hooks that hung from the wall. A
fine boy, son, if I recollect aright, of one of the offi-
cers in the garrison, named Fitzgibbon, was one of the
sufferers. He, poor youth, did not endure the pangs
of gradual dissolution, for upon being taken down
from the iron hook which had entered near his heart,
he lived only long enough to breathe his last in the
arms of his father.

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[ 201 ]

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CHAPTER XII.

1 , H

" Tis 8ad to hack into the mots of things,
They are so much intertwisted with the earth :

So that the hranch a goodly verdure flingi<,
I reck not if an acorn gave it birth.

To trace all actions to their secret springs

Would make indeed some melancholy mirth."

There is nothing which surprises a tourist in
America more than the variety of religious sects and
persuasions that exist and flourish over this vast con-
tinent. Hundreds of different interpretations are given
of the doctrines of Christianity, and all have, rally-
ing under their banners, a host of zealous followers.
As far as we could learn too, they live in a state of
comparative amity, — never interfering in any galling
or irritating way with the spiritual concerns of each
other. Thus, it is to be trusted, rendering inappli-
cable to their circumstances, the observation of Dr
Doddridge, " that suspicions have often arisen be-
tween the respective defenders of each persuasion,
which have appeared as unreasonable and absurd as
if all the preparations for securing one part of a ship
in a storm, were to be censured as a contrivance to
sink the rest."

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One of the most remarkable of the bodies alluded
to at present is the one in Canada denominated
*' Children of Peace," or popularly *' Davidites."
Their chief teacher, and I believe the founder also,
is an old man named David Wilson. Their leading
doctrine, as far as I could understand, is equality in
every, thing, both temporal and eternal ; but as a
manifesto (if we may call it such) of David — a most
original specimen of composition — is printed in a re-
cent valuable work on America* — it is needless to
enlarge. David has his principal temple at the village
of Hope, near Newmarket ; it is the headquarters of the
*' Children," from which he makes occasional journeys
into other places, to enlighten those ignorant of his
opinions, and strengthen the faith of all who have
already joined his flock, or may be inclined to do so.

Many of those sects into which Christians have split,
are harmless enough with regard to their neighbours,
and no one has a right to complain when bodies of
men congregate themselves together to support the
practice of their faith and religion, in that manner,
and by those means, they conscientiously believe to
be the most eifectual for their welfare ; and for which
peculiar tasks they naturally find their own feelings
and intellectual powers best suited. For, to extend
the metaphorical idea of the divine already quoted —
a crew is portioned out and duties devolve upon each,
according to their capacities with reference to the
management of the vessel ; and it is plain that, equally

* Mr Shirreff's Tour.

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203

wise is the bestowing upon man different feelings and
abilities, for by this means, the great doctrines of
truth are guarded from every position, and advocated
in every point, and are thereby brought home to the
conviction of all, whatever be the train of thought,
mode of argument, or amount of feeling by which
they are most prone to be actuated.

I am sorry, however, that from the opinion I felt
bound to pass upon the doctrines promulgated in a
discourse from David which I had an opportunity of
listening to, I cannot conscientiously rank the Chil-
dren of Peace amongst those who may at least be
designated inoffensive denominations of Christians.
But these remarks, I would have it understood, are
applicable only to their doctrines so far as I know
them, for their lives are represented as being simple,
and their actions charitable. Their stores are ever
open to the needy, so it would appear there is much
more danger in attending to their precepts than their
example.

One Sunday during my stay in Toronto, David
chanced to preach in a small meeting-house appro-
priated to his use when he visits the city. Curiosity
(I can hardly claim a higher motive) prompted me
to attend. The place was nearly filled when I entered,
apparently with servant-girls, working-lads, and ap-
prentice-boys about town. Benches were placed
crosswise, allowing the sitters to face the end of the
apartment, where stood a small erection answering
for a pulpit. On the right hand, next the wall, sat
several young women, and round a table in front of

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them were four or five men with musical instruments.
After the congregation had remained for some time
in silent expectation, David entered and halted on
the floor before the pulpit. He appeared to be about
seventy — middle-sized — dim-eyed — with grey locks,
which were combed back, displaying a forehead of
far from commanding or intellectual proportions.
The general expression of his countenance was dry
solemnity, and his mind appeared to be clouded with
the infirmities of age. His dress was composed of
blue cloth, his coat was surtout shape, with a standing-
up or quaker collar. His posture was erect, and he
remained for several minutes with his right hand
clasping his left arm behind; his eyes fixed on
vacancy, and gome solemn thoughts seemed to be
revolving in his mind. He soon, however, awoke
from his abstraction, and took from a side-pocket a
sheet of manuscript, which, without preamble, he read
aloud. It was a hymn, and we understood, of his
own composing. After a little pause, the attendant
girls rose and chanted over the verses, while David,
in an audible voice, continued to give out the lines.
The tune, however, did not tally with my ideas of
appropriate church music ; it had more the character
of a careless rant. After another pause, meant ap-
parently to give the audience an opportunity of
meditating on what they had listened to, he again
give out the words of the hymn, while the girls and
musicians join2d in full band, and created what was
little better than a varied noise, and well calculated
to dissipate any religious musings that we might have

SKKTCHES Ol- CANADA.

20')

been enj^aged in. This over, another pause ensued,
(luring which Davitl still kept his station on the floor
in his former attitude.

Without recourse to the Bible or other text-book,
he abruptly entered on his discourse with the words,
" The apostle Paul says." I do not recollect the
passage ; but I well remember this much, that the
rambling rhapsody which followed could not have
drawn its perverted spirit from any part of the
apostle's inspired writings. Our preacher soon lost
sight of affairs of a spiritual nature, and expatiated
upon tl ose of a worldly sort, He employed neither
genuine argument nor deduction, nor did he in any
material degree appear to be capable of appealing to
the passions of his hearers. The burden of his dis-
course seemed to be the injustice practised towards the
world by all those who possess an abundant share of
the good things of life. That they are all usurpers and
tyrants ; that there ought neither to be masters nor
servants ; that all mankind are equal ; and that it is
the duty of the poor to pull down the rich. Such, in
short, we found were the doctrines advocated by the
leader of the " Children of Peace." David's mode of
lugging in detached portions of Scripture to suit his
own views, brings to mind a quaint but truthful
observation of Dr Donne, who says that " sentences
in Scripture, like hair in horses* -tails, concur in one
root of beauty and strength ; but being plucked out
one by one serve only for springes and snares."

I believe, however, that there is little cause to fear
that the crude ideas and shortsighted dogmas of the

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" Children*' are of a sort likely to spread widely. The
abilities and rhetorical powers of their advocate can
have little influence in attracting new votaries, of
even the most ignorant and unreflecting description.

There was a good deal of political bustle going on
about this time in the city. One party was chuckling,
and the other indignant on account of a letter from
Mr Joseph Hume to the Mayor of Toronto, a thorough-
bred radical — containing the astounding words "bane-
ful domination of the Old Country," in allusion to our
connexion with the colony.

A body of the Constitutionalists — as they denomi-
nate themselves — came down from the Gore district in
one of the Hamilton steamers, and, preceded by a band,
banners, and all the noisy attributes of a procession,
marched to the Governor's-house, and presented a true
and loyal address, professing their staunch purposes to
support the crown, and expressing, we were informed,
their detestation of the rebellious tendency of the
said letter. The day, it was the 17th July, turned
out a very busy one for all the idle people about
town, and a dollar-making event for the taverns and
bar-rooms.

Down near the wharfs, an ox was roasted bodily —
horns, tail and all — and formed a chief point of attrac-
tion to those who were curious in the wholesale
manufacture of beef- steaks.

As far as we could learn, it was a very satisfactory
day, in, and for, the opinions of all parties. One
side displaying as much noise and loyalty as lay in
their power ; devouring whole bullocks, and quaffing

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bumpers of brandy to the health of his Majesty, God
bless him I And the opposite party — though yet a
little in the background — argued, very plausibly, of
course for their own views, that it was all very well,
but noise was not argument, basted bullocks, bribery,
and brandy sounded very well together, and that right
and radicalism ever went hand in hand !

The 24th July was the fifth and last day of a thunder-
storm — the longest that I ever witnessed. There were
comparatively but short intervals during the whole
time. American lightning surpasses in magnitude
what I had ever been led to conceive. One stream
of fluid often darts across the whole heavens, and the
thunder vibrates through the woods with a most
ominous roar. A small schooner on the lake was
struck by lightning, the mast split down, four men
laid prostrate, and one of them killed.

The hurry and bustle of active life gives rise to
weariness and sameness, to one not personally in-
terested in the never-varying stir. So I soon thought
of shifting quarters, but delayed departure from day
to day, on account of the melancholy fact, that many
of the principal towns, both in Canada and the States,
were visited by the cholera, which was stalking with
rapid and appalling strides over the whole continent.
It was therefore evident there would neither have
been pleasure nor comfort in wandering from one
scene of death to another, considering the nature of
the accommodation to be had in various places.

Toronto had hitherto escaped, but case after case
appeared, till it was at last found that the fatal mal-

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aria had fairly settled over the capital. It now con-
tinued from day to day thinning the houses of the in-
habitants, and tearing old and young indiscriminately
from the bosom of their homes. The dead waggon
paraded the streets, and there were few found hardy
enough to accompany the poor victims to the common
grave into which many were thrown — or to assist in
casting over their earthly remains the cold clay
mantle of the tomb. Morning, noon, and night
brought accounts to us of friend, acquaintance, or
neighbour having been swept away by the destroyer,
whose strokes spared neither sex, age, nor condition.

The air vve breathed felt as if there were deadly
and fatal particles infused in it. This might be fancy,
but that did not matter — the atmosphere was at all
events excessively hot, and often, after the fall of an
accidental shower, the steam that rose from the streets
was almost suffocating — the margin of the bay was
stagnant and green, and lively circulation of every
kind seemed to be at a stand. A veil of sadness
and anxiety was cast over the spirits of the inhabi-
tants, the life-blood almost became inert, and the
very air we breathed and the water we drank seemed
to have lost their elastic and invigorating properties.
I may venture to say that nine-tenths of the citizens
felt the damping influence described, however differ-
ently they -might explain the causes.

Several of mv friends with whom I intended to re-
cross the Atlantic before the commencement of the
winter months, were removing to the backwoods, to
avoid for a time, if possible, the terror-stirring scenes

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209

of death ; and I agreed to accompany them with plea-
sure, and did this the more readily, as there was in the
party a lady and her children from Scotland. Her
husband possessed a farm about twenty miles north
from the lake and city ; and thither we intended to
proceed and rusticate during the approaching harvest.
An old friend whom I met in the city was of the
party — one that, in our expressive mother tongue, we
might, on account of his appearance, have denomi-
nated a gaucy carl. He had come, like many thou-
sands before and since, to spy out the land of promise ;
but during his stay he had contracted no love for
Canadian life.

We two proceeded forthwith in a light waggon, as
avant-couriers, to take possession of the country quar-
ters, and put every thing to rights, as far as our poor
male management would go, and rig out the domicile
for the reception of the female comers. We set out
on a delightful afternoon, just as the excessive heat
was on the wane, and when the animal spirits are in
consequence on the rise. Our vehicle was provided
with supplies for a few days, such as a tea-pot and
requisites for the preparation of a comfortable cup of
tea — a couple of tin jugs (the lady wisely judging that
in our hands they would stand a better chance than
more fashionable ware), a loaf of bread — spoons and
knives. For other needfuls we had to trust to the
stores of a wayside tavern in the same clearance with
our friend's farm.

We passed in our journey through rather a varied
and pleasant part of the country. Our first stage was

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beneath the shade of large pines that cover a sandy
plain many miles in extent — we then got into a better
country with goodly clearances at intervals, and at no
part were we long, with the wood on both sides of the
way.

We crossed the river Humber, a clearer running
stream at this part than any other of the district.
There is here the pretty little village of Tobococke —
most of the houses with independent stations of their
own, such as the fancy of the proprietors had chosen
to stick them on. Some were on the crests of rising
sandy knolls, some buried in little hollows ; and on
the opposite side of the bridge by the wayside, in
more orthodox and old country fashion, some cottages
were placed in a continuous row. A diminutive
piazza in front, covered over and under with wild
vines, and other elegant creeping plants, gave a cast
of domestic elegance to the dwellings ; and more
lovely still, we observed several blooming cheeks and
blue eyes watching us from the half-buried lattices,
as we jogged past in our primitive equipage. We
had our vicissitudes too, analagous to storm and
calm. The one in the shape of patches of corduroy,
over which we were tossed and tumbled in gallant
style ; and the other in the form of long tracts of
sandy road, through which the waggon wheels had
to squeeze their way, like a vessel moving along at
half a knot in the hour. However, as time was in a
great measure in our own keeping, we managed to
" go ahead" as smoothly as possible to the end of our
travels, without encountering any of the necessary, at

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211

least almost invaria'ole appendages to a woodland
cruise — broken shafts, cracked axles, bottomless mud-
pools, &c. &c. that are ever staring us in the face from
the pages of American journals.

The sun had set, and the air became accordingly
chilly when we got to the end of our last stage, and,
as the wisest thing we could do in our circumstances,
we hastened to enquire about our accommodation.
There was neither chair, table, nor almost any other
piece of furniture in the house ; but we found a fire
lighted in the garden, beside which sat a couple of
workmen, who were employed in finishing the house
we were about to inhabit. Three rails from the ad-
joining fence, conveniently tucked together, in the
form of a tripod, stood over the blazing fire, support-
ing a kettle of water. This suited us amazingly, so
we lugged out our ammunition ; but instead of ac-
complishing our hastily-formed resolution to take tea,
we agreed to a wise amendment of our stout friend,
and concocted, with the help of some red-hot water,
a little sugar, and a leetle from a pocket-pistol, which
he slipped from a side-pocket, a pot of genuine
Scotch toddy ; and although in a strange land, and
seated at a strange table, and using a still stranger
punch-bov.l, both the toddy and ourselves felt quite
at home. It tasted like nectar, and did its duty —
our chattering teeth were set at rest, and our chilled
limbs got into a pleasant glow ; and we soon after
our homely potation retired to our berths, snugly
enough, and in comfortable trim. The sleeping equip-

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

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ments were but spare — I got a small mattress, and
my stout friend sunk sweetly to repose in the middle
of a bagful of shavings. They were placed in the
opposite corners of a large room. We slept well on
the whole. I was, however, once awoke, in the
middle of the night, by a half-surprised, half-angry
grunt from my friend, and immediately something
struck the boarded wall near me and dropped down.
It was a poor mouse at the last gasp. *' What d'ye
think of that ! " he exclaimed, as I threw it back
again, ** We'll be eaten up, as sure's a gun ; I got
it in the very croon of my Kilmarnock. Puir, silly
brutes ! " he added, moralizing, " they seem to hac as
little sense as oursells, or they wadna have come out
here to starve among stumps and toom timmer
hooses ! " I soon dozed over again, while listening
to a grumbling and sleepy tirade against America,
Yankees, Canadians, cheats, vermin, stumps, and
starvation.

In the morning the first thing we did was, natu-
rally enough, to look about us, and take notice of the
capabilities and defi jiencies of our new domicile. We
found a sad overbalance in favour of the latter attri-
butes. Half the windows were unglazed — half the
doors unhung — and the house, in short, only half-
finished. It was a frame one, consisting of two stories
and an attic — and altogether the mansion-house, with
reference to the other habitations in th« township.

I'.amers, saws, and sweeping-bi corns were kept
in i al operation, and we soon got the whole in fitting

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

213

trim to receive the lady and her family. With the
usual providence of the fair sex, a waggon, stowed
three times its own height, brought up the rear, on
the day of their arrival ; and before dark, we rigged
out several beds, cooking apparatus, and many other
needfuls and necessaries named and nondescript.

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[ 214 ]

CHAPTER XIII.

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" Unhappy he, who from the first of joys,
Society, cut oif, is left alone."

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We were pleased to find that our party was not
alone in the wilderness. There were several habita-
tions straggled up and down the clearance, like so
many wooden boxes tossed at random over the tops
of the surrounding wood. It was, too, a " handsome
clearance," being about three miles in one direction,
and half that distance in another, but from the great
height of the boundary trees, it did not appear to be
nearly of such extent. A smith's forge stood within
a hundred yards of us, and next it a small tavern, in
which there were sometimes glorious carousals, when
a wet day drove the people from their outdoor la-
bours. This occasioned it receiving, from one of
our party, the appropriate cognomen of " Little
Hellie."

Those composing our party employed themselves
in the ways that best suited their pleasure and con-
venience. Several who had got a knowledge of me-
chanics were soon over head and ears in work. Shel-
ving, benches, tables, &c. were the fruits of our

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215

industry ; and we even managed, with two day's
labour, to provide the lady with the there unheard
of luxury of a sofa. It was rude enough, but such
refinement as it displayed had never, till then, ap-
peared within the woody precincts of the township.
When we quitted the country some time afterwards,
the squire of the district prayed that we would allow
him to retain the envied couch, which was willingly
granted. And there is little doubt, that, at this ver}*^
moment, the youthful offspring of his honour, as they
cluster themselves on our transcendent handiwork,
recollect the strangers, and continue to speculate over
the silent witness of their wonderful skill.

Although we were often without a ready supply
of beef or mutton, there was no lack of the grunting
gentry in the clearance. One old man, from Wales,
named Davis, possessed six fine families, each consist-
ing of a mother and twelve pigs. The house door
was seldom left five minutes ajar ere we received a
free and easy visit from some half dozen of our squeak-
ing neighbours ; but this was quite excusable in them,
poor things, for they only followed the example of
their masters, whose unbidden visits were often more
untimely still. A mere word to the dog was suifi-
cient to rid us of the forward piglings, but it was no
easy task we found to keep clear of the presence of
our two-legged intruders ; a broad hint did not seem
to be a figure of speech made use of, or understood
in their conversational intercourse.

Harvest was now approaching, and we had a slight
share of it. A field of peas behind the house ripen -

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ed, and all the effective weapons in the district were
mustered to cut it down ; they consisted of a scythe,
which the only servant on the farm made use of, and
several hedge bills (at least some would have so named
them at home), which his aidecamps assisted him
with to the best of their abilities. It was truly a
rough job, but in the course of a few days we finish-
ed it by forming the whole crop into a good sized
stack in the middle of the field. The rest of the
cleared part of the farm, containing about ; ixty acre?,
was laid down in grass, and we were thankful ; for
whatever it might be to the skin-dried natives, field
work at this season was a roasting business to us.
The thermometer was generally at 80 by nine o'clock
A.M., and, at a little past noon, as high as 90^ and
96°.

While staying here we had an opportunity of ob-
serving the effects of a sudden hurricane in the woods,
one afternoon while several of us were in the garden,
from which we had, now and then, to run to the
house for a little respite from the rays of the sun.
The thermometer stood about 90** in the shade, and
we felt as if breathing the heated air of a furnace,
for not a single breath of air fanned the wood-bound
clearance. We were in fact, as if standing at the
bottom of a huge tub, the trees around forming the
upright staves.

About two o'clock we were startled by a strange
undefinable noise, which every moment became louder
and louder, and sounded like the sea swelling in the
distance. We were unable to divine the cause, but

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

217

kept our eyes fixed iilonu; the road to the north-west,
from whence the disturhuiice seemed to proceed ; and
we soon observed the white dust rising in vast volumes,
over the tops of the trees, accompanied with several
cracking and booming sounds, which we afterwards
discovered arose from trees that were prostrated by
the violence of the wind. Little more than two
minutes brought the hurricane, in all its violence,
across our clearance, whirling aloft every thing in its
way which was of a light or movable description.
It appeared for a second or two as violent as an ex-
plosion of fire-damp in a coal-mine, and as soon over ;
but it left most unequivocal effects behind. The close
and sultry heat was gone, and in its stead we enjoyed
a most refreshing, though it might have proved a
dangerous coolness. We had been moving languidly
about without either coats or vests and with our necks
exposed to the air ; but in five minutes our teeth and
limbs were shivering and chilled, and we hastened in
to get covering from the cold.

There was little to be had in the way of sport ;
we saw no feathered game, save now and then a hawk
hovering over the trees at a very circumspect and
unshootable distance, and black squirrels were all we
saw of the four-footed sort. One day, indeed, we
got notice that a bear had been heard in an oat-field
adjoining, and we were persuaded to set off in a body,
to take the marauding brute by storm. Our fire-
arms were instantly put in requisition, one got a
double, another a single-barrelled fowling-piece, a
third and fourth pistols each, and a fifth brought up

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the rear witli a hu^e carvin<^-knifc I Wo marched
into the woods — Indian fiU', double-barrel hading
the van — and performed before returning a fruitless
and toilsome journey through brake and brier — over
stump and creek — while our good dog Boatswain
made a point of pushing his eager snout into every
hollow trunk in our way. So our formidable array
turned out a mere empty parade, and we returned to
dinner guiltless of spilling a single drop of blood.
Some of the party did not even venture to discharge
their pieces till they got to the middle of the clearance;
but whether this was out of consideration for them-
selves or the bear it will not do to insinuate.

In this part of the country the settlers pass — as far
as we were able to judge — a busy enough life, con-
sidering the climate, &c., which they must submit to.
They have little in the shape of comfort, and nothing
at all of luxury. Many of the locations around us
appeared to be as old as any in the province, and had
not the raw look of many others we visited. But still
there were few of those indications that speak of a
valued home, and whisper at once to the heart of a
stranger, that he is amongst those who are surrounded
with domestic comfort and. happiness. There is none
of those decorations, in and out of the woodland cots,
that mark the hand of peaceful contentment, and
which resemble the thousand nameless attentions that
show the love one bears to the partner of his choice.
We saw only a scanty portion of fruit-trees, and but
few flowers and plants, the culture of such being
seldom attended to, unless when the body is relaxed

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21!)

from labour, and the mind wholly at oasc. Rut ono
can hardly expect to find such in abundance here ;
for tiie tasks of the settlers are generally more tluui
merely healthful toil ; i)oth mind and body, at the
close of their daily avocations, must feel considerably
exhausted, and this of course must render further
exercise of eitiier, pain instead of pleasure. Their
only relief, therefore, is complete oblivion, or the pro-
curinj^ of fictitious strength by the aid of a stimulus ;
to this they too often have recourse, and for it the
sultry and withering heat, ever unrelieved by refresh-
ing sea-breeze, allows them too good an excuse.

One day we visited a neighbouring farm belong-
ing to a Scotsman from the foot of Ben-Lomond.
He had been in Canada about fifteen years, and had
several sons along with him. They all lived together,
and were apart from othev settlers several miles. It
was the best property we had seen, for the old man
possessed seven hundred acres, the half of which was
completely cleared. One of his sons showed us the
stump of an oak-tree which had been cut down four
years before our visit. At the height of a yard from
the ground where it was cut over, it measured in cir-
cumference twenty-three feet, and at the ground it
was fully one-half more. He had taken a transverse
section of the stem when cut down, and having
counted the rings, or annual growths of the timber,
found that the tree must have been dropped on the
soil, in the form of a a acorn, about the year Sir Wil-
liam Wallace was born. The noise was heard for
miles round when it was felled, which three Irishmen

220

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accomplished In three and a half hours with chopping-
axes — certainly good work.

We found that the old man retained all his origi-
nal aft'ection for his birth-place, and regretted that of
necessity his bones would be laid far from the bonnie
side of the lofty Ben. We could not help partici-
pating in his well-founded regrets, when we contrasted
his present buried habitation with the glorious scenes
of his early home.

Having never had the luck, whether good or bad,
to be present at a camp meeting, an assemblage which
forms the subject of so much contradictory disquisi-
tion to some of my forerunners in the travelling trade,
I asked Peter — one of the sons of the old man — if he
had ever attended any of them ; but I found that he
was nearly as ignorant of their merits as I was myself.
He seemed to have taken a prejudice against them
some years before my visit, when one chanced to take
place in the forest on the borders of his clearance.
One of the clergymen engaged in the meeting, on the
first morning, which was Sunday, had tied the tether
of his nag rather near a fine oat field belonging to
our Scotch friends, and having given the hungry
brute too much latitude, she managed to make her
way into it, and to fill her crop with the forbidden
fruit. Peter's careful eyes detected the depredator,
and he soon brought her headway within more cir-
cumspect and circumscribed limits. In short, he
fastened her to a stump in such a manner as to pre-
vent her from bringing her pillaging muzzle within
a yard of the ground. In this quandary — as Peter

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

221

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himself told me— his reverence found her when he
was about an hour afterwards on his way to ask the
Scotsmen's attendance at the camp.

" We hae business anew," said Peter, with the
sagacious slyness of his countrymen, " tae keep us
hefted tae our ain hame-steedin'."

" Consider, my friend," said the minister, *' you
should have no pressing work to do on the Sabbath-
day."

" Troth," said Peter, " ye hinna leed there ; nae
question, we sud hae nae pressin' wark on this plessed
day, but fat wi' readin the pieple, and there's nae pad
in that?"

" Oh, none in the world," said the minister.

'* An' fat wi' hoondin' the hungry yauds cot o' the
pit patch o' corn, we hinna ae moment a pody can
ca' their ain, frae the screech o' day till the tail o' the
gloamin'."

His reverence felt the satire, and commending the
propriety of the occupations, without farther parley
returned to the camp.

We left the old man in the bosom of his family,
after he had bestowed upon us his kindest wishes,
and envying us the prospect we had of soon again
footing the soil of our native countrv.

No spot, it appeared, could long remain free from
the blighting effects of the pestilence. The back-
woods were soon visited by the deadly scourge. But
although all our party, young and old, suffered under
the influence of a tainted atmosphere, we were gra-
ciously preserved from its most fatal blow, and the

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

inhabitants of the clearance ultimately escaped with
life.

During one of my walks, I came on a solitary cot-
tage by the wayside, and in a small enclosed spot of
grass near it stood a couple of white painted tomb-
stones, marking out to the passer-by two little mounds.
They were the graves of a mother and her child.

There was something sadly pleasing in observing
here these simple memorials of the dead. They were
the only ones I met with during all my wanderings
amongst the habitations of the forest, and they could
not fail to rivet the attention and send back the
thoughts to home with a subdued pleasure.

" Where the grey ruined fane, with its time polished crest,
Reflects o'er the graves the deep beams of the west,
Where the night birds that soar — as the long shadows creep
O'er the homes of the dead — seem to murmur and weep."

Such are ideas that the native of a land like Upper
Canada can never know or feel the force.

In the mind of a Scotchman, however, especially
when wandering far from his rugged but dearly-
loved birthplace, there is a calm and soothing halo
cast over the precincts of the holy place of prayer.
Indeed, foremost amongst the thousand hallowed
spots that memory, aided by imagination, cherishes
with a tenfold fondness, is the silent city of the dead
— the lonely churchyard, with the golden but subdued
rays of the setting sun gilding as with a farewell smile
the mossy memorials of our forefathers, while the
lengthening shadows of the hoary tablets stretch slow-
ly over the grassy mounds, shielding, as it were, from

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

223

the joyous smiles of Nature these sacred spots, where
the spirit of sadness, weeping bitter tears for weak
mortality, ought ever to reign unmolested.

It is impossible to help believing that reminiscences
of home, whether they are enveloped in the gay
garb of mirthfulness, or the more sober veil of me-
lancholy, afford a pleasing exercise to the mind and
heart, and form strong incitements to fervor and devo-
tion. Nay, perhaps they are often the only ones
which the wood-surrounded inhabitants of the Cana-
dian hut can possibly possess. We never failed to
remark a cold and deadened aspect portrayed in the
countenances of the natives of the woods who lived
in thinly populated districts, and in those settlers also,
who had long bid a final adieu to Britain as their
home ; their feelings appeared to claim little sym-
pathy with the rest of the world, and they were
wholly engrossed in supplying their own daily neces-
sities. Their thoughts at no time appeared to range
far beyond the bounds of their wood-encircled home,
and their voices too, conveyed to the ear of a stranger
the sensation of habitual forlorness or melancholy,
long since softened down into a passive feature of the
mind. It is under such circumstances that memory
gives forth her treasures with such bountiful effect.
By her aid the stagnant stream again bursts forth,
and in a deluge of sentiment and enthusiasm, sweeps
away the morbidity, that springs up as a rank weed,
to choke in the heart the fruits of piety and devotion.

It cannot fail when all external stimulant is shut out,
as it is in a great measure from the Backwoodsman,

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that his faculties, feelings, and passions become dead-
ened, and often wholly inert, and his lamp of happi-
ness would burn dimly indeed, were the pleasures of
memory denied him. For it is assuredly " the store-
house of ideas — the roll on which is written the legend
of the past — the cell in which are hoarded the sweet
recollections of early life, of young affection, of sunny
hours, and days without a cloud." * But possessing
this unseen aid, he will ever feel the invigorating
glow which in some degree compensates for the want
of the bright-shining flame of social enjoyment.

We cannot look upon the solitary life of the settler,
but as partly an evil to which he is subjected ; how-
ever great the boon conferred upon man by the
existence of such a vast and fertile outlet to the
growing population of the world, as the woods of
America are, still he is a social being, and not formed
to inhabit permanently the wilds and wastes of crea-
tion alone and friendless, where he is led to mope and
brood over his destiny, and wonder perhaps, why he
was created at all. When he is doomed, therefore,
either by will or necessity, to taste the bread of lone-
liness, the coldest and most selfish being in existence
can hardly profess insensibility to the blessings which
memory and well-regulated sentiment can bestow.
Those feelings are the surest safeguard against man
in such a situation sinking inevitably down into a
mere creature of to-day, whose highest enjoyment
consists in providing and satisfying his immediate

* Miss Grierson.

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225

animal wants. His mind will be preserved ever alive
to the real position which he ought to hold amongst
the various orders of created things. Although we
have faculties that minister to self alone, self gratifi-
cation is far from being our highest principle of ac-
tion ; — social powers we have been provided with that
present us with a purer motive of exertion ; and the
sentiment of veneration is of a still more exalted
order, and which, while we endeavour to penetrate
into the hidden mysteries of creation, invariably leads
us to look from Nature up to Nature's God.

I may observe here, that whatever contradictory
statements have been promulgated regarding the re-
ligious meetings that take place in the woods, I can-
not help believing that the indecencies reported to
happen, are merely evils, that at times attend them ;
and are not part and portion of the transactions sanc-
tioned by those who lead the devotions of the assem-
bly. It would be injustice to lay to the charge of
those who assemble for sacred purposes, all the sins
that are committed by idlers who choose to spend
their time in licentiousness, and seize the opportunity
to do so, while others come together for the exercise
of their faith and religion. Fanatics there no doubt
are, who arrogate to themselves powers and attributes
which they do not possess, and who attract deluded
votaries for the most pernicious purposes. This we
can only lament, and look with double interest to those
pure minded men who ply their religious avocations, in
singleness of heart, amongst the isolated beings who
live in the woods far from the sound of the Sabbath

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bell. No sight can be more touching than a congre-
gation beneath the towering trees of the forest, send-
ing up from amid the simplicity of Nature the sincere
aspir.itions of the heart There is no excitement here
to a vain display — the wood-b./und spot is their temple
and altar-piece — the heaven is their canopy — and one
ear alone listens to the melody which they pour forth
as a willing sacrifice !

All the cleared land is enclosed by a sort of Van-
dyked paling called a snake fence. It has a rude
appearance, and occupies ten times more ground than
a straight rail would do. It is adopted, I believe,
principally on account of the little trouble it requires
in the erection. It was often amusing to see with what
dexterity the cows sent out to browse in the woods at
times cleared the enclosures, when a convenient oat-
field met their envious eyes. Seven rails in height was
sometimes no protection against these nimble-legged
trespassers ; and when they did manage to make good
their entry to any of those patches of corn in which
we had an interest, we found it no easy task to eject
them. They knew well their advantage, and doubled
in gallant style round the stocks and stumps, stopping
now and then to snatch a mouthful of the delicious
corn. When they were hard pushed, and it came to
the worst, they had only to make a clever spring, kick
up their heels with apparent mirth and good-humour,
and scamper into the woods again to wait for a new
opportunity when they might make another descent
on the forbidden ground.

Amongst the minor evils that served to keep our

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227

tempers in a state of fermentation, frogs, crickets, and
house flies held the first rank. It is hardly possible
to conceive the croaking and whistling din which the
frogs keep up the livelong night out of doors, with
their "most sweet voices" pitched to every note and
half-note on the scale, and they are most industri-
ously supported by the crickets, both out and in, with
the variety of chirp which proceeds from old, young,
and middle-aged. In contrast with the dull silent
sameness of the day, this natural music imparted the
feeling that so soon as the sun had dropped to bed,
every stick, stump, and leaf of the forest was teeming
and screaming with newly acquired life. The flies
were our greatest and most persevering tormentors,
however ; there were millions of them ever buzzing
about the room ; and when we lay down, as we had
to do several times a-day to refresh ourselves with a
rest or nap, hundreds of these winged pests would in
one moment settle on our faces, necks, or whatever
part of our languid bodies was left exposed to the air.
Nose, mouth, and eyes were clustered and covered,
while the tickling from their feet and suckers was
altogether unbearable. Sometimes one might manage
by a quick motion of the hand to crush a dozen or two
to death ; but it was far from pleasant, rendering the
face a puny war-field even when successful — and when
not, the only satisfaction was in having bestowed on
our own flesh and blood a good hard thump. We were
unable to bear the covering of a handkerchief over our
faces, the air being too hot to allow the slightest ob-
struction to our breathing ; so we often rather sub-

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mitted to the irritating manwuvrcs of the little hvutes.
We had plenty of snakes too : I captured several in
the garden, and one fine large fellow who had his
retreat under the floor of the house. But we never
ascertained whether they were of a dangerous sort or
not.

Part of our employment, while resident in the back-
woods, consisted of the providing our daily bread and
water ; and our food was sometimes composed of little
more than these two simple necessaries. The juniors
of the party were at times sent off on a fowling excur-
sion, that is, to purchase a few fowls from any one will-
ing to part with them. Sometimes we were success-
ful and at other times not. When a bargain was struck,
we had generally to catch as well as pay for our game,
and this formed the most troublesome part of the
transaction. The devoted birds seemed to have more
than a vague idea of the import of our visits, and
managed to lead us a fine dance through fields and
over fences, and they often tacked in gallant style
while we continued pursuing in hot and blundering
haste, making now and then an awkward somerset
over a rotten-tree or through a miry creek.

There is much between the cup and the lip it is said ;
but there is often much more between the purchasing
of a fowl and the eating of it. Experience taught us
this. At home we had never been under the necessity
of thinking about the procuring of the feathery brood ;
but we were now, nolens volens, forced to it, and they
seldom afforded a merry thought to us. We had to
view the subject in all its bearings, and we got in

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220

consequenco wonderfully acute and knowinjy, touch-
ing the age, attributes, and comparative value of the
whole cackling community, from a new-laid egg up
to a well-fed Jiow-towdy ! And although the good old
Scotch song no doubt says —

" A goose is nae guid meat,

A hen is boss witliin.
In a pie there's nmckle deceit,

A pudding it is a good thing '" —

alas for us I puddings were like angel visits ; pies
were not to be had for love or money ; and right glad
we were when even a few boss fowls fell to our scanty
share !

My note-book is still unexhausted on the subject
of our back-wood life, but it would only be, " throw-
ing water on a drowned mouse," as our stout friend
remarked on a similar occasion — to multiply illustra-
tion on illustration of the time passed here ; and our
pages would run imminent danger of becoming but too
true a transcript of the monotony which we sometimes
were for days together unable to ward oif.

We were disappointed in not having the good
fortune to witness the occurrence of a natural pheno-
non peculiar to America, namely, the Indian summer.
It is described as taking place when the real summer
is nearly lost in autumn. It continues about a fort-
night, and is known by the hazy state of the atmos-
phere, and the subdued rays of the sun, that appear
to smile over the earth from behind a gossamer veil,
and the universal calm which accompanies them. The

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Americans talk with rapture of it, and consider tiiat
they enjoy during its existence the best weather
throughout the whole year. 1834 was not favoured
by a visitation of it.

The chilly nights of autumn began to wax keener
and keener, and so great did the contrast between
heat and cold become to us before leaving the woods,
that while at mid-day we were roasted under a heat
that raised the thermometer above 90°, we were nearly
frozen at midnight under the protection of eight sub-
stantial blankets.

The homely log-hut appears to be the most snug
and comfortable dwelling in use in the back-settle-
ments. Our house, like many of the appendages of
refined life, displayed a sacrifice of comfort at the
shrine of fashion. It was, as has been said, a frame-
one, that is, composed of posts and pillars, covered
outside with thin smooth boards ; thus placing only
about half an inch of wood between the weather with-
out and the interior. This afforded but a very partial
protection from either heat or cold. By eight in the
morning the wood began to absorb the rays, and by
meridian the heat within was almost insufferable. At
night again, the cold got as easy access, and we had
the full benefit of the transition

" From India's fires to Zembla's frost."

At sunrise the vapour often presented a most strik-
ing appearance, for it seemed to ascend in a compact
body from the ground. About an hour after the sun
was visible above the trees, the vapour was about a

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231

yard from the surface. This was easily ascertained
by stooping down and looking' under it, and far along
beneath the superincumbent white mass, we could see
distinctly a small portion of the trunks of the trees
next the ground — and when we looked from the upper
story of the house, we saw the top 'ranches ahove the
cloud. In a little while, however, these were hid from
us, while an equivalent increase of clear air filled the
space below, till at last the whole fog mounted into
the atmosphere, and was dissipated in the morning air.
It was on a beautiful morning about the middle of
September, that 1 mounted a horse belonging to old
friend Davis, proprietor of our pig acquaintances —
and along with others of the party took my way for
the city ; leaving for ever the backwoods of Canada,
and all the toil and pleasure of which they were and are
productive. Although we had experienced some of the
privations attendant on the state of life there, and of
the sickness which ever lingers over these partially
cultivated spots of the earth's surface, augmented at
this time by still more fatal disease, yet having en-
countered them all with free will, I am not now inclined
to look back on my sojourn in the forest with either
distaste or regret. The old man, while he held the
reins as I mounted, dropped a tear of regret at our
departure, and faltered out a wish that Providence
would guide us home again in peace and safety ; and
as we passed the door of the smithy, Vulcan laid down
his noisy hammer on the anvil and hastened out to
take a last farewell. The Squire too, with others of
our rustic friends, shook hands, and as we journeyed

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onward, sent after us many kind ejaculations for pro-
sperity on our future travels.

As we rode alon^, we saw numerous marks of the
hurricane I have already noticed. Immense trees lay
prostrate, and some had fallen ri^lit across the path.
The appearance of the torn up roots indicated a shal-
lowness of soil, for they seemed to have run along
within a few inches of the surface. Many of the trees
had the appearance of a flat-bottomed candlestick
lying on its side, for the cake-like mass of earth-bound
roots, as they stood at right angles to the surface,
would not have measured much above a foot at the
thickest part.

On arriving once more at the city, I had little else
to do than make all those arrangements that consti-
tute the necessary evils of a travelling life ; and to
take leave of those with whom I had formed a friend-
ship during my previous stay, now to be broken up
most probably for ever. I do not know a more awk-
ward or more unsatisfactory movement made by the
social machinery of life than this. It cannot be sup-
posed I would feel acutely the separation I was about
to make ; and yet there is no doubt an indefinable some-
thing that pervades the mind during the act of with-
drawal from such a place of residence as the one in
question, and from the friends one leaves. But the
distinguishing characteristics consist in the principle
of separation, if we may so speak, and we experience
most sensibly the want of conventional terms of the
proper import to convey the precise state of our
thoughts. During the scene of an ordinary parting,

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

233

the soul and body of our converse are displayed in
pouring forth the joy there is in store for us at meet-
ing again ; and the expressions of well-wishes that
we pray may be substantiated during absence. All
these however, like Macbeth's " amen," stick in the
throat when we are leaving for ever those of only a few
months' acquaintance, with whom we may neverthe-
less have exchanged the freemasonry of good fel-
lowship — been received into their domestic circle,
and partaken, in some measure, of their house and
heart. Some might be inclined in such a situation to
enlarge during the parting colloquy upon the kindness
they have received, and pour into their entertainer's
t'ars a catalogue of the hospitalities they have enjoyed,
and add a deluge of thanks to wash the whole dow u
with. This did not agree with the tenor of my feel-
ings, and would not have been in keeping with the
obligations I was under. Noisy returns are alone
consistent with a previous i:oisy and officious anxiety
to overwhelm one with an oppressive show of hospi-
tality. This I had not to endure, having been, on
the contrary, treated with that exact degree of delicate
neglect that allows one to feel completely at home.

The moment, however, did arrive, when I was finally
handed into the steamer by my good friends of To-
ronto, and under cover of the roaring and running of
passengers, carting and uncarting of all sorts of stow-
age, and the angry puffing of the boilers, I contrived
to say my parting say respectably enough. My next
action was to dive down to the cabin to secure a con-
venient sleeping berth ; for, from the display or" address

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in this single matter, a person of very ordinary pene-
tration may form a tolerably correct judgment touch-
ing the experience of his fellow-travellers, from the
old never-to-be-taken-aback veteran, down to the raw
rambler who has hardly in his life crossed a fathom
of salt water.

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CHAPTER XIV.

"" "T'was not without some reason, for the wind

Increased at night until it blew a gale ;
And though 'twas not much to a naval mind,

Some landsmen would have looked a little pale."

It was about ten at night when we boarded the
Great Britain, a very orthodox title, and one which
made us feel somewhat at home ; the word was given,
and off she went, tearing through the waters of the
lovely Ontario ; and as good luck would have it, the
moon was up, with her fair round face reflected from
the depths, and the mimic orb at times broken into a
thousand sparkling gems by the curling ripples that
followed in our wake. We could not fail to recall to
mind that this was the scene where " Marano ami-
able in her sorrow sat alone by a shelving rock."
This little tale would alone rescue Canada from a
Boeotian title ; but there is no country so barren of
historical or romantic interest, as to bar all idea of
conjuring up some pleasing half dimmed imagery to
people its moonlight wilderness.

In our immediate circumstances, the dark tribes o

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the Indians, with their rude-painted visages and thril-
ling war-whoop, seemed lurking in every glen that we
swept past ; and every little isle that studded the
margin of the lake appeared to fancy as the peace-
ful abode of some youthful pair of these children of
nature ; for in the chastened and soothing light every
thing that met the eye was clothed more in the garb
of romance than reality. The scene was to be felt
but not described. We must, therefore, leave it to
those who may hereafter be lucky enough to enjoy a
moonlight voyage along the margin of Lake Ontario
to verify the truth of our words.

On the following afternoon, being Sunday, we ar-
rived at the village of Oswego, beautifully situated at
the mouth of the river of the same name. Like all
the infant cities of America, the houses are as gew-
gaw and gingerbread -looking as one could desire,
stuck together like so many rows of bright-coloured
pasteboard boxes in a toy shop, calculated to trick
little masters and misses out of their spare pence. By
the time we had walked through this little city and
seen all that was worthy a stranger's notice, sufficient
firewood for the engines had been got on board, and
we hied away across for the town of Kingston, on to
the Canadian side.

As the sun set, our prospects of weather for the
night were rather disheartening. The clouds thick-
ened over us, and now and then an angry growl in
the distance seemed to whisper us, that we might not
be surprised by a visitation of thunder and lightning .

While tea was preparing, the signs without became

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237

less and less equivocal, and when the bell rang for
that meal the wind was getting up, and threatened
to become rather a dangerous accompaniment to our
entertainment. Cups began to show a lurking incli-
nation to slip their cables, and take leave of the sau-
cers — incipient symptoms of agitation peeped from the
eyes of the more timid of the landsmen on board ; and
the creaking of the bulkheads, though little louder
than the squeaking of a mouse, sounded with ominous
distinctness in their ears. All these warnings con-
spired to urge the good folks round the board to lose
no time in transferring the steaming beverage to more
safe and capacious vessels. The aifair of eating and
drinking was therefore soon discussed ; but time, that
tries all, proved that even in the recesses of the sto-
mach, hot rolls, tea and toast may not be altogether
safe against the overreaching effects of an angry
squall.

The cabin was soon cleared of loungers, some
fled to the deck to puff their cigars and cogitate on
the coming hurricane, while others — wisely intent on
more comfortable doings — and acting upon the prin-
ciple that a preventive is better than a cure, slipped
to their berths, in order to cheat the demon of sickness
of his prey.

The storm kept pace with the advance of darkness,
and before " that hour o* nicht's black arch the key-
stane," the elements were in full chorus rattling away
over our heads. The lightning flashed — the thunder
pealed — the rain poured — the wind — right in our
teeth — and the angry waves of the lake kept up a

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continual warfare with the sides of our poor floating
box, which creaked and bent at every twist it received
from the tumult of the waters. Sometimes we were
tumbled half out of our berths, and we heard the noise
of the paddle spinning round in the air with increased
Velocity, as if in anger at being torn from its proper
element ; while the one at the other side of the vessel
was immersed over head and ears, and sent forth a
gurgling noise like the expiring breath of a drowning
monster. Although our upper deck stood nearly
twenty feet above the water, the billows at times
enveloped the whole ; and often as we lay listening
to the horrid din, we heard the water from above
rushing down the hatchways with the impetuosity of
a cataract.

The anxiety portrayed below gave token of the
restlessness without. Candles danced up and down
the cabin — half smothered whispers broke from the
lips of the disturbed sleepers — and basins and water
jugs were in full request in the state-rooms of both
ladies and gentlemen. Our situation in truth was
far from being an enviable one ; there were no sails
on board, and the breaking of a paddle shaft* — no
uncommon occurrence — would have assuredly been
followed by the loss of the vessel, for the crews of
these lake boats are mere lubbers with respect to
ship practice.

We got safely through our perils, however, and ar-

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* This happened to the Great Britain on her upward trip the
day after we left her ; but the weather being good, no loss ensued.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

239

rived at Kingston about three o'clock in the morning.
The lake was still as a polished mirror — the sun rose
clear and beautiful, and we were happy to find that
our damage consisted only in the loss of a boat, and
in a slight battering which one of the paddle-boxes
had sustained.

The company which we met on board the Great
Britain was essentially dift'erent from what we had
seen in the American vessels on Lake Erie. It was
more after our own heart. The phlegmatic exterior of
Jonathan was here unknown. We had a large infu-
sion of the spirit of sociality, discoverable in the coun-
tenances that hemmed in the dinner table. There
was no fearful velocity of mastication displayed in the
discussion of our entertainment, — a far more rational
use was made of time and opportunity. In short,
while the company were seated at the social board,
they made their immediate employment {i. e. satis-
fying their own wants and assisting their neighbours)
the pleasing exercise of both thought and action ; and
were far from deeming it necessary that beef, fowl,
and fish should be huddled, heads and tails, down the
throat, with the speed of besiegers pouring shot into
the breach of a tottering fort. And to take a little
breathing-time between each mouthful was not accom-
panied with the fearful thought, that such unwar-
rantable wasting of time might cost us half our meal.
An American at dinner has the appearance of a sick
girl bolting drugs — the sooner over the better. A
spectator is apt to think that the haste displayed in
devouring, proceeds from his anti-social habits ; and

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I am of opinion this is in a great measure the case
He seems to have an aversion to herd with his brother
man, more especially in the affair of pleasure, for he
starts from his elbow whenever possibility allows. If
we follow him from his hurried dinner in the cabin up
to the deck, where he immediately retreats, there we
will find him the very spirit of insipidity, pouring
forth the fumes of a cigar, with his body resting on
one seat and his limbs stretched out on another, and
a large spit-box at his right hand, which every second
or two receives additions to its contents. Who can
help wondering at the insensibility of those, while on
a trip of pleasure over one of the loveliest sheets of
water in the creation, who will start from the innocent
enjoyment of the dinner-table, and the pleasing con-
versation of the fair sex, to muddle their senses in the
deadening fumes of a noxious weed !

It may be urged, that they perhaps mount on deck
to gaze at the bright beauties amid which they are
passing. This did not appear to be the case. I never
saw people so dead to the sublimities that Nature
displays, as many of my travelling acquaintances
often appeared to be. The poetic sentiment was either
wanting in their minds, or left to run waste by the
nature of their daily pursuits. They often, it is true,
enlarged on the grandeur and beauty of the lakes,
mountains, rivers, and water-falls of their country ;
but this was exhortation by precept and not example,
for when some of those natural pictures were passing
in review before us, as we swept along, it appeared
to us that our silent and philosophical-looking friends

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

241

would not have given a puflf of their cigars, in ex-
change for a glimpse of Nature's loftiest creations. It
strikes one too as somewhat anomalous, that consider-
ing the taciturn habits which the Americans almost
universally ' ulge in with apparent satisfaction
when *■■ to ir own free vidl - ilence should be
the most prominent feature in their prison discipline,
and a punishment which they consider as the most
severe which can be inflicted.

We started from Kingston, after a supply of wood
was taken in, and proceeded down the lake for the
village of Prescot, where we were to get on board
one of the river-boats on our way to Montreal.

We now got into a variety of beautiful scenery, as
the lake narrowed to the form of a river. It is here that
there is situated that cluster of lovely little patches of
verdure, styled the Lake of a Thousand Isles. Its ge-
neral features are loneliness and unobtrusive beauty —
nothing to strike with astonishment, but every thing to
please. It extends over a part of the St Lawrence
about fifty miles in length, and altogether gives one
the idea of a fair region of undisturbed tranquillity.
None of the thousand or rather about two thousand
islands extend, I believe, to more than a mile in
length, and many are hardly four yards in circum-
ference ; all, however, display a rich carpet of green,
and are crowned with trees and shrubs of every size
and form. During our trip through amongst them,
we did not discover a trace which might have led one
tx) suppose that a foot had ever profaned a single one

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of these emerald isles. Nature with all her primeval
simplicity, seemed still to reign the unrivalled queen,
over her own unequalled handiwork.

We reached Prescot in time for tea. It is but a
shabby village, and affords nothing to take note of;
and still less that could tempt one to stay a minute
longer than necessity required. So we felt it no sa-
crifice, excepting the loss of our sleep, when mine
host of the tavern where we put up, called us about
two in the morning, and intimated that the steamer
was about to start down the river.

As daylight appeared, we had again a long track
of scenery like that presented by our previous day's
sail ; but as the weather was hazy, and at times
loured so much as to envelope us in something very
similar to a Scotch mist, the same enjoyment could not
be felt as before. The state of the outward man has
more influence over the powers of the mind than we
are often willing to confess. It is uphill work to put
on a satisfied countenance with an empty stomach, and
the wonder-hunting propensities of the eye are often
involuntarily dimmed by the subduing accompaniments
of a wet coat, and a cold blue nose ; and we met at
this time with a disappointment which put us still
more out of sorts than even these grumbling consider-
ations. Before going to Montreal, we meant to have
visited some of our old friends and shipmates, located
in the township of Hinchinbrook on the Chateaugay
river, one of the best situations in the lower province ;
— but circumstances conspired to prevent us get-

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

243

ting ashore at the proper landing-place, and accom-
plishing this meeting, which we had with pleasure
looked forward to.

In the course of the forenoon we arrived at the
commencement of the first rapid ; coaches were in
readiness, and we were whirled down the river side,
and obtained the while a good view of the Long Sault,
without encountering the danger of braving the river
in a crazy boat. The mere view from the bank has
rather a bewildering effect. This rapid is bout nine
miles in length. We were soon again shipped in
another vessel, and steaming it down the smooth river;
and again we were handed over to the coachmaster
with his large clumsy vehicles, thereby evading ano-
ther batch of angry rapids. These passed — we found
the good steamship, Harry Brougham, waiting our
arrival at the landing place — we stepped on board,
and in this " Schoolmaster" afloat, scoured over the
surface of Lake St Francis, and arrived about seven
in the morning at Lachine, from whence we were
driven nine miles over a very clever road to the city of
Montreal, where we intended to rest for a few days
before our final start down the river.

The appearance of that part of the island which we
passed through, is to the eye of a Scotch Lowlander,
more resembling home than any other portion I saw
during my trip. The fields came up to our ideas, and
deserve the name ; and the fence rails that enclose
them, do not bear the appearance of having been
thrown together with a pitchfork. The houses, some
of which are built after a very picturesque order.

<■.„■.

.■ h

244

SKETCHES OF ( ANADA.

1H.'\

'A '■:

- 'A

ft ."

r a

display all the appearance of having descended from
sire to son ; and the snuf^ gardens and orchards bend-
ing under their golden burdens, denote a happy and
domestic people, although perhaps wanting in ambi-
tion and dollar-making enterprise. Hills, dales, cot-
tages, farmhouses, orchards, pigs, poultry, and dry-
stone dykes, were all sprinkled along our path in
beautiful and comfortable variety ; and at intervals
we saw, embedded in snug plantations, venerable
country-seats, with their long sloping roofs, crow-
steps, and milk-white walls, presenting quite an old
country aspect, with which one seldom finds himself
in a humour to quarrel.

As Montreal had a very familiar appearance in our
eyes, I feel a consequent difficulty in making any ob-
servations that would have either the merit of noveltv
or originality. It is quite a matter-of-fact stone and
lime, Dutch cheese and broad-cloth-looking town, the
very antipodes of its flimsy brethren of the States.
One may walk through it without the smallest appre-
hension that a gust of wind might bear any of the edi-
fices aloft, and drop it over him in the character of an
extinguisher. The difference in the manners of the
inhabitants too was quite apparent, during even the
partial intercourse allowed by a limited stay.

While in the city of New York, when under the
necessity of making enquiries, as every stranger will
often find himself obliged to do, we seldom got a satis-
factory answer. Sometimes this proceeded from an
unwillingness to trouble themselves in speaking at
all ; and sometimes from inability, in cases where it

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

245

showed a culpable ignorance. After almost every
enquiry, we felt chagrined at the way in which our
interrogatories were heard and answered. For ex-
ample, once we addressed a gentleman on the pave-
ment, who appeared at the time to have no pressing
business — jind asked if he would be kind enough to
point out the direction to a certain street Before
deigning to answer, he leisurely bestowed on us a
severe scrutiny from head to foot, his keen-set eye
endeavouring seemingly to penetrate to our inmost
thoughts. This over, he drawled out, in the most
approved tone of his national snivel, ** Well now,
sir, I believe 1 can't tell where you'll find that
street." He then passed on in the even tenor of
his way ; conceiving us, no doubt, wonderfully im-
pressed with the philosophical calmness of his bearing
—for his words were shoved forth with such profun-
dity and politic caution, as if the safety of the States
had been involved in his answer. Such occurrences
may appear trifling enough, but they were the cause
of a good deal of annoyance and irritation at times.
He only can feel such grievances in their full force,
who has for a whole day together crawled up and
down New York city, under a burning sun, in search
of information, which he knows as little about at the
end of his travels as when he set out.

The good folks of Montreal are made of other stuff.
They have both more beef on their bones, and more
elastic blood in their veins. A certain species of ac-
tivity they may want ; but with this the public, and
more especially the stranger, has nothing to do. If

'I ■'

246

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

I !

i 'i

1 . 1 ■

|f:^

the dollar is not the sole object of their thoughts by
day and dreams by night, this is no business of ours.
But if they possess an urbanity of manner, and a
mercurial hilarity of spirit, which ever tends to im-
part to every one around a reciprocal elasticity and
fellow-feeling, there is a certain amount of gratitude
due from even the most transient visitor — and such a
pleasurable impression we do now bear on our recol-
lection of our sojourn at Montreal.

We often felt half ashamed at the trouble one would
take in our behalf on making a simple enquiry. It
more than once happened when we were at a loss to
find our way, that the person we applied to would
turn out of his road, for fifty or a hundred yards, to
show us along another street, imparting as he went
his whole geographical knowledge of the district
whence we were journeying, and after wishing us suc-
cess, nodded, and parted.

The contrast was sometimes more complete. In
New York, where the people speak our own language,
their obstinate taciturnity rendered this circumstance
of little value to ys ; and in Montreal, where a great
proportion are French, their ready civility Overcame
the difficulty, and a few words of broken English,
with their intelligent gestures, accomplished their
kind endeavours to assist us with information.

I was prevented from passing as many days at
Montreal as inclination might have prom()ted, the ves-
sel with which I intended to return home, having
dropped down the river to Quebec to ship the residue
of her cargo.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

247

On Saturday evening, tlic 27tli October, wo went
on board the steam-ship \'oyageur, and prcocded
down the river. It turned out a l)oisterou8 night, and
the voyage Iiad to be made with the greatest caution
to prevent sticking on a sand-bank. We arrived safe
at Quebec on the following afternoon. All down the
north bank the view is enlivenc' by little French vil-
lages, with their picturesque spires peepin*^ over the
surrounding trees, and glancing back the r.iys of the
sun from the coating of tinplate with wVich thev are
covered.

The woods had now assumed their autumniJ Lues ;
and the rich beauty of their colourir;; '^vas almost
dazzlingly bright. We had every shade ind l.ialf shade,
from the deep blood red of the maple to the pale yel-
low of the plane ; contrasted with other trees that pre-
sented a silver grey, and the deep dark green of the
yew and the pine. It is difficult, perhaps, to account
for the difference that exists between the American
woods and our own, but I feel assured there is at least
a triple strength of colouring pervading the foliage of
the former in autumn, and this gives the idea of such
lively beauty, that it complpi-^iv banishes for a time the
thought that we are gazing on the fading and expir-
ing tints of nature. And there is perhaps some reason
to doubt, if a native of America can be able to see
either poetic beauty or truth in the expression " sere
and yellow leaf."

»•' l

P-

[ 248 ]

' \t'

■'•>

CHAPTER XV.

The fort above — the silvery stream below—
The woods around — their autumn tints — the glow
Of Indian summer, with its chastened veil,
That hangs awhile, ere wintty blasts prevail,
Enchain the eye, and give the mind repose ;
Like songs of parent to an infant's woes ;
And waft the memory back to ages gone,
And deeds, half buried in oblivion.

i-'

T ! -

i: V

»*-;i

On drawing near such a place as Quebec, so
fraught with historical interest, one naturally gives
way to a pleasing anxiety. This I felt, and conse-
quently became more and more insensible to the beau-
tiful river scenery, through which we were sailing, from
the active exercise of recollection and expectation.
This ancient city was the only spot of real histori-
cal interest that I visited, and after plodding for
months amid the raw rudeness of the wilds and wil-
dernesses, on entering Quebec I felt quite bewildered
by many thick-coming fancies, real, unreal, romantic^
traditionary, and historical.

In the mean time, however, we found it expedient
to look after our personal comforts ; for it is an amaz-
ing help to both reason and fancy, when there is a

SKETCHES OF CANADA,

249

proper understanding cultivated between the powers
and necessities of the body and mind. And not being
so much a citizen of the world, or a despiser of its
good things, as to enjoy the salt pork, maple sugar,
and twanky of the back-woods, with as much relish
as the roast beef, cakes, and ale one can obtain else-
where — it must not be set down to the score of un-
imaginative insensibility to higher gratifications, that
we quietly slipped along one of the Cowgate-looking
streets of the lower town in quest of a hotel, instead of
bounding at once to the summit of Cape Diamond,
and in a musing mood calling up the heroes of the
past to people the walls and bulwarks around. We
soon engaged in the discussion of some of the more
substantial pleasures of life. Amongst the rest we
here resumed acquaintance with a carron-grate and a
good coal fire, sweet bread, butter, and cream. Two
homeward bound friends, who joined us on coming
down the river, were now of our party, and together
we managed to make a pretty clean sweep of the
good things Boniface placed in our way.

Thus made comfortable and contented, we were in
good trim to engage in any sight, sound, survey, or
speculation that might fall in our way. We sallied
forth. The sun was well to the west, the evening
pleasingly mild, and so forth. The fact is, although
it chanced to prove exactly such an evening as one
would have chosen to wander over, and gaze upon the
scenes of the deeds of other times — had it been other-
wise, we would have braved it all with equanimity,

250

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

•v^-^:

n-*

from the undefintible state of satisfaction which we
felt. Every thing reminded us of a Sabbath after-
noon at home. All was quiet ; a subdued spirit of
peacefulness reigned over all ; the birds seemed to
chirp in a chastened key ; and the cattle in the enclo-
sures had ceased their gambols, and browsed in silence,
or lay along the grass, enjoying, in union with all
living nature, a day of repose and tranquillity.

The field of action on the Plains of Abraham is
now covered with fertile gardens, villas, and pasture
fields ; and from its cultivated beauties is attractive
to even those who may feel little interest in a spot,
alone hallowed by being the location of some bygone
conflict.

We visited the rugged cove up which the youthful
Wolfe and his brave followers scrambled to victory ;
and the sacred spot, too, on the Plains, where this
short-lived hero breathed his last, when the shouts of
triumph from the bosom of Cape Diamond, were
heard amidst the cheers of his gallant men as they
struck the death-blow of the French power in Ca-
nada. The workings of Providence are inscrutable,
and we are allowed to peer but a little way into her
mysteries. The all-ruling power, in this instance,
seemed unwilling that either hero should feel more
tha 1 a momentary triumph or defeat. For the one —
while he listened to his victorious men shouting in
ecstasy, " They run ! they run ! " — had received in
his breast the avenging wound that opened a passage
for the entrance of death; and the expiring Montcalm

4- '1:1

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

251

I one-

thanked God that he would not live long enough to
see the banners of England waving over the walls,
where the standard of France had so proudly claimed
the sovereignty.

Like Montreal, Quebec differs little in character
and appearance from our own cities. Substantiality,
a qualification first in importance to a Scotsman's
eye, is not wanting. Stone and lime are, as with us,
the soul and body of every edifice ; and comfort seems
to direct the labours of the architect and the mason.
The upper town appears to be the headquarters of
Canadian aristocracy, and the lower town, which runs
along the base of the rock at the water's edge, is a
fruitful paradise to the trafficking gentry. The former
is clean, orderly, silent — like the different divisions of
an army under view of the commanding officer ; the
latter, though it lacks not regularity of construction,
may be likened to the awkward squad — accurate in
position, but wanting the Je ne sgais quoi of thoroughly
trained soldiers. It is withal a complete puddle,
noisy, and bustling ; filled with people of every shade
and shape, tribe and tongue, from the fair-haired,
blue-eyed northern to the woolly-headed, ebony Afri-
can — the solemn Indian, silent and sententious, to
the gay-hearted French habitant^ whose industrious
tongue is only equalled by the activity of his limbs.
The difference between a palace and a poultry-yard
could hardly be more comj)lete, than that which ex-
ists between the two natural divisions of the city ; a
l)reux cavalier in the lower town, and a French mar-

252

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

'l^^ !

keteer in the upper one, are equally fish out of the
water.

It would be vain to give here a full and satisfactory
view of Quebec, seeing that the history and contents
of this interesting city already form the subject of a
goodly volume of nearly five hundred pages,* and to
it we refer the reader who may be curious concerning
its merits, civil, military, historical, and natural. A
short sketch of its history, and a notice of what seem-
ed mo&t) remarkable during a limited visit, is all we
can venture to give.

" On the 9th July, 1534, Jacques Cartier landed
in Canada, which seems to have been the earliest
discovery of that part of the continent by an Euro-
pean. Having planted a cross, thirty feet high, at
the Baye des Chaleurs, and taking possession of the
country in the name of Francis I. of France, he
returned home, carrying with him, with their own con-
sent, two Indians of those who had witnessed his
landing, and the ceremony Tf taking possession of the
country. Having received a new commission, con-
taining more extensive powers, he again set out with
three vessels for the west, on Wednesday the 19th
May, 1535, the French court having been encouraged
from his accounts to plant a colony in New France.
About the beginning of July, he arrived ac New-
foundland, where he waited for the other vessels that

* '* Hawkins's Picture of Quebec ;" and to it we are indebted
for the historical sketch which follows, and the other notices given
as quotations.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

253

con-

had set out along with him ; and which were appointed
to accompany him in his voyage of discovery.

'* On the 26th July, the ships were reunited, and
having laid in a store of wood and water, proceeded
together into the gulf of St Lawrence — which name
was given by Cartier himself. After traversing the
vast estuary, and making himself acquainted with its
shores, he proceeded up the river, which became as he
ascended it, more and more interesting. He soon
reached an island, which, from its beauty and fertility,
as well as from the number of wild vines that grew
on it, he called the Isle of Bacchus. It is now the
Island of Orleans, and greatly enhances the beauty
of the prospect from the high grounds of Quebec,

" Here, on the 7th September, he opened a friendly
communication with the natives ; and on the follow-
ing day ' the Lord of Canada, whose name was
Donnacona, ' came with twelve canoes full of his
people — eight being in each — to visit the strangers as
they lay at anchor between the island and the north
shore. Commanding the attendant canoes to remain
at a little distance, Donnacona, with two canoes only,
approached close to the smallest of the three vessels.
He then commenced the usual oration, accompanying
it with strange and uncouth action, and after conver-
sing with the interpreters, who informed him of their
wonderful visit to France, and the kindness with
which they had been treated by the white men, pene-
trated apparently with awe and respect, he took the
arm of Cartier, kissed it, and placed it upon his neck,
an expression of feeling, eloquent of amity and con-

,4 '

254

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

fidence. Cartier was not backward in exchanging-
friendly salutations with him. He went into the
chiefs canoe, and presented him and his people with
bread and wine, of which they partook together, and
* whereby the Indians were greatly content and satis-
fied.' He then parted with them on the most satis-
factory terms. At this distance of time, it is impos-
sible not to feel great interest in Cartier's first inter-
view with the chief of a country, di'scovered by his
perseverance and skill, and destined afterwards to be
so celebrated in the annals, both of France and Eng-
land.

" Desirous of finding a safe harbour for his vessels,
then at anchor at the east end of the Isle of Orleans,
he manned his boats and went along the north shore
against the stream, until he came to ' a goodly and
pleasant sound,' and a ' little river and haven' ad-
mirably adapted for his purpose. In this spot, after
some necessary preparations, he safely moored his
vessels on the 16th September; and according to his
devout and grateful custom, he named the place the
Port of St Croix, in honour of the day on which he
entered it ; and here Donnacona, with about 500 of
his people, hastened to pay him another friendly visit
to welcome his arrival in the territory.

*' There can be no doubt that the ' goodly and plea-
sant sound,' was the beautiful basin of Quebec ; and
that the place selected by Cartier for laying up his
vessels, to which he gave the name of Port de St
Croix, and where he afterwards wintered, was in the
little river St Charles, to the north of the city."

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

255

Such appears to have been the first discovery by
Europeans of that part of Canada which formed the
site of the future city of Quebec.

Cartier, after his first landing-, made several voyages
to and from the new discovered ten.tory. He was
followed by fresh adventurers, actuated by various
objects, but jt was not for many years that the colo-
nization of the country was carried into execution.

We pass over the relation of all the intermediate
voyages that were made, and hasten to notice the
important period that witnessed the foundation of the
present city of Quebec.

" On the 13th April, 1608, Pontgravc (a consi-
derable merchant of St Malo) havinjr been already
despatched in a vessel to Tadoussac, Champlain (a
captain in the navy), who had obtained the commis-
sion of lieutenant under De Monts, in New France,
set sail from Honfleur, with the express intention of
establishing a settlement on the St Lawrence, above
Tadoussac, at which post he arrived on the 3d June.
After a short stay, he as;cended the river, carefully
examining the shores ; and on the 3d July, reached
the spot called Stadacona, now Quebec, rendered so
remarkable by the first visit of Jacques Cartier in
1535. Champlain, whose ambition was not limited
to mere commercial speculations — actuated by the
patriotism and pride of a French gentleman, a faith-
ful servant of his King, and warmly attached to the
glory of his country, — thought more of founding a
future empire than of a trading post for peltry. After
examining the position, he selected the elevated pro-

256

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

V ' p'.

h-4-

■t:l'

montory, which commands the narrowest part of the
great river of Canada, the extensive basin between it
and th3 Isle of Orleans, together with the mouth of
the little river St Charles, as a fit and proper seat for
the future metropolii^ of New France, and there laid
the foundation of Quebec, on the 3d July, 1608.
His judgment has never been called in question, or
his taste disputed in this selection. Its command-
ing position, natural strength, and aptitude both for
purposes of offence and defence, are evident on the
first view — while the unequalled beauty, grandeur,
and sublimity of the scene, mark it as worthy of ex-
tended empire.

*' Here, on the point immediately overlooking the
basin, and on the site reaching from the grand battery
to the castle of St Lewis, he commenced his labours
by felling the walnut-trees, and rooting up the wild
vines with which the virgin soil was covered, in order
to make room for the projected settlement. Huts
were erected, some lands were cleared, and a few
gardens made for the purpose of proving the soil,
which was found to be excellent. The first perma-
nent building which the French erected was a store-
house, or magazine for the security of their provisions.

" At the time Champlain first landed, the tide
usually rose nearly to the base of the rock, and the
first buildings were of necessity on the high grounds
— afterwards, and during his time, a space was re-
deemed from the water, and elevated above the inun-
dation of the tide, on which store-houses and also a
battery, level with the <vater, were erected, having a

W':

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

257

passage of steps between it and the port on the site
of the present Mountain Street, which was first used
in 1623.

" The summer was passed in finishing the neces-
sary buildings, when clearances were made round
them, and the ground prepared for sowing wheat and
rye, which was accomplished by the 15th October.
Hoar frosts commenced about the 3d October, and
on the 15th the trees shed their leafy honours. The
first snow fell on the 18th November, but disappeared
after two days. Champlain describes the snow as
lying on the ground from December till near the end
of April. From several facts it might be shown that
the wintry climate was not more inhospitable in the
early days of Jacques Cartier and Champlain than in
the present. The winter of 1611 and 1612 was ex-
tremely mild, and the river was not frozen before
Quebec."

The farther proceedings of Champlain belong to
the history of Canada generally, rather than to that
of Quebec.

Such was the origin of the present city. Well we
may say with Pindar, —

" Oft great cfFects do spring from little things."
It is now in its full and lusty manhood with all the
appurtenances needful for the offensive, defensive, and
domestic wants of its inhabitants.

As the military history of Quebec is intimately
interwoven with the archives of the mother country,
we will leave it as there recorded.

Whetlier it springs from association, caprice, prc-

.f<

258

SKETCHES OF CANADA^

judice, or instinct, cannot perhaps be well defined,
but there is generally more interest felt and displayed
by one in the examination of some relic of the time-
buried past than in the contemplation of the most
superb specimens of natural beauty. An ancient
tomb-stone, a solitary arch, the skeleton fragments
of an oriel window, rivet the mind and call up the
sleeping sympathies oi men, who yet may be deaf to
the rolling thunder, blind to the forked fire from
heaven, or unawed by the sublime spectacle of a fla-
ming mountain !

It is not to be wondered then, if visitors to Quebec
look with more interest upon the smoked ruins of the
castle of St Lewis, than they do perhaps upon many
of the natural wonders to be seen over the face of the
continent. It was accidentally consumed by fire in
January, 1834, and bare and blackened walls were all
I saw of this venerable pile.

" The castle St Lewis was for above two centuries
the seat of government, and during the infancy of the
colony, the hall itself of the old fort was often the
theatre of terror-awakened scenes, on account of the
inroads of the hostile Indians, who at times overthrew
the French outposts and assailed the castle itself.
At a later era, when, under the protection of the
French kings, the province had acquired the rudi-
ments of military strength and power, the castle of St
Lewis was remarkable as having been the site whence
the French governor exercised an immense sovereign-
ty, extending from the gulf of St Lawrence along
the shores of that noble river, its magnificent lakes.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

259

along
lakes.

and down the course of the Mississippi to its outlet
below New Orleans. The banner which first streamed
from the battlements of Quebec was displayed from
a chain of forts, which pro 'cted the settlements
throughout this vast extent of country ; keeping the
English colonies in constant alarm, and securing the
fidelity of the Indian nations. During this period
the council-chamber of the castle was the scene of
many a midnight vigil — many a long deliberation and
deep-laid project to free the continent from the intru-
sion of the ancient rival of France, and assert through-
out the supremacy of the Gallic lily.

" The castle of St Lewis was in early times rather
a stronghold of defence, than an embellished orna-
ment of royalty. Seated over a tremendous precij)ice,

" On a rock whose Imnglit}' l)row
Frowned o'er St Lawrence's foaming tide,"

and looking defiance to the utmost boldness of the
assailant, Nature lent her aid to the security of the
position. The cliff (ii which it stood rises nearly
two hundred feet in perpendicular height above the
river. The castle thus commanded on every ^id*^ a
most extensive view, and, until the occupation of the
higher ground to the south-west, afterwards called
Cape Diamond, must have been the principal object
among the buildings of the city."

Charlevoix, who arrived in Quebec in 1 720, furnishes
an account of the castle. He says, " The fort or
citadel is a fine building, with two pavilions by way
of wings ; you enter it through a spacious and r<^y;ular

260

SKETCHES or CANADA.

court, but it has no garden bclonfrinjr to it, the fort
being built on the brink of the rock. This defect is
supplied in some measure by a l)enutiful gallery, with
a balcony, which reaches the whole length of the
building ; it commands the basin, to the middle of
which one may be easily heard by means of a speak-
ing-trumpet ; and hence too you see the whole lower
town under your feet. On leaving the fort and turning
to the left, you enter a pretty large esplanade, and by
a gentle declivity you reach the summit of Cape
Diamond, which makes a very fine platform."

Such was the state of the castle of St Lewis, with
occasional reparations and additions, until near the
close of the last century, when from its tendency to
decay, it was deemed necessary to erect a new build-
ing for the residence of the governor, on the opposite
side of the square. " In 1809, however, during the
administration of General Sir .lames Henry Craig,
the old edifice was put into complete repair, and again
became the residence of the governor-in-chief of Lower
Canada."

" We have now to record the destruction of this
edifice, over whose historical glories we have dwelt
with so much pleasure. About noon on Thursday
the 23d January, 1834, an alarm of fire was given —
the tocsin sounded — and to the eager and anxious
enquiries of the citizens, running to and fro, the
appalling answer was given — ' To the castle — the
castle!' On hurrying to the scene, volumes of
black smoke rolling from the roof told the fearful
truth. The fire was first discovered in a room on the

SKETCH KS OF CANADA.

•261

with

riven —

xDxious

ro, the

e — the

mes of

fearful

on the

upper story, and having spread through its whole
extent, and tal\en hoUl of the rafters that supported
the massive roof, it burned downwards witli irrepres-
sible fury, until it triumphed over the entire building.
As no flame was apparent from the outside for a con-
siderable space of time, it was scarcely believed by
the anxious spectators that the whole pile was
endangered. \'ain hopes were even entertained that
the lower ranges of apartments might be saved. At
last the devouring element burst its way through the
strong ti'uied roof with tremendous force, and the
flames thus finding a vent, spread with dreadful rapidity
through every part of the building. Every exertion
was made by the fire companies to stop the conflagra-
tion. The soldiers of the garrison and the citizens
too lent their aid, but all without effect ; gentlemen
of every profession were seen busily engaged in re-
moving the valuable furniture and elVects ; and others
assisted in conveying to a place of safety some of the
ornaments of the dinner-table which was laid, and at
which by invitation, they were to have been partakers
that very day of the governor's hos])itality. On a
pedestal, which stood at the head of the principal
staircase, close to the entrance of the first drawing-
room, was placed a bust of the immortal Wolfe, bear-
ing the following elegant insciiption : —

" Lt't no vain tear upon this tomb be shed,
A common tribute to the common dead.
But let the good, the generous, and the brave,
With godlike envy sigh for such a grave."

This invaluable bust was saved by a gentleman who

262

SKETCHES OP CANADA.

(!■■•■■
. ■< •"

made it his first care to rescue and convey it to a place
of safety.

" The intense frost of the day greatly impeded the
exertions made to subdue the flames, the engines
were choked with ice, and it soon became apparent
that all efforts to save even a portion were wholly vain ;
and the morning disclosed to the view of the inhabi-
tants a muss of smoking ruins.

*' The extent of the structure, the numerous win-
dows and openings, its great elevation and peculiar
position to the Lower Town, actually over-hanging its
streets, so that the burning flakes fell on the roofs of the
houses below, combined to make this mastery of the
flames almost an object to be admired. I'he scene from
the Lower Town was truly picturesque, and at a dis-
tance the view of the fire and its reflection on the ice
and snow have been described as singularly beautiful.

*' It is now a heap of blackened ruins. Relics
like these, however, at once engage the attention by
recalling images of past grandeur, of names once
illustrious, and of deeds that still adorn the historic
page. Nor is there any mental association, produc-
tive of so much melancholy pleasure, as that which
unites the idea of those who tenanted an ancient
edifice in its prosperous day, with the contemplation
of the solitude and ruin to which the pile has since
been doomed.

" On the extreme left of the city, or farther up the
river is Cape Diamond, rising 350 feet above the level
of the St Lawrence, and terminating towards the east

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

263

in a round tower, whence is displayed the national
standard of England."

Unversed in the description of such master-pieces
of defensive ingenuity, suffice it to say th^ it presents
a formidable combination of powerful works; and
while there is no fort to be compared to it on the
western continent, it is second to few of the most
vaunted ones in Europe, and has been well styled the
Gibraltar of America.

The only other erection we shall notice before
taking leave of the city, from whence a favouring
breeze soon wafted us home — is the pillar raised to
the memory of the rival heroes, Wolfe and IVlont-
calm.

It seems unaccountable, how such a term of years
should have been allowed to elapse between the period
of the memorable battle of the Plains, and the erec-
tion of a memorial to at least one of the two engaged
in a conflict of such an imposing nature. Seventy
years, however, did not serve to wash away all recol-
lection of those master-spirits of the past, the tardy
honour has at last been paid them, in the erection of
an obelisk, that we trust will tell to each succeeding
generation the story of their fame ; and continue
through future ages to stand like an emblematical
linger of time, pointing upwards to the resting-place
of the parted great.

" Thanks to the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor-in-
Chief of the Provinces, the propriety of erecting some
fit monument, sacred to the memory of the contend-

264

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

i •

';m

ing" generals, was brought before the public. Under
his honourable patronage, a subscription-list was cir-
culated in Quebec, and the call was quickly responded
to by all classes of the inhabitants.

" A meeting of the subscribers was held at the cas-
tle of St Lewis on the 1st November, 1827, at which
his Excellency presided. He addressed the meeting
on the subject with, eloquence and feeling ; explain-
ing his own views, and suggesting the mode in which
he thought their mutual wishes could be carried into
execution. " My only object," he observed, *' is
to remove a subject of general regret, that in Quebec
nothing is found to honour the memory of Wolfe,
nothing more than if his great achievements had been
effected in other countries distant or unknown to
us."

" His Excellency concluded by proposing a com-
mittee of management ; and matters were gone into
so successfully, that on the 1 5th of the same month,
in presence of crowds of the inhabitants, the imposing
masonic ceremony of laying the first stone of the
monument was accomplished.

" The masonic procession, with Claud Denechaw,
Esq. Right Worshipful Grand Master, at their head,
the officers composing the Grand Lodge in full ma-
sonic costume, the merchants and Freres da Canada^
the Sussex and St Andrew's lodges, reached the
castle of St Lewis, preceded by the band of the G6th
regiment, and entering the lower garden through the
castle-yard, lined each side of the principal walk,
through which the Countess of Dalhousie and a

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

265

party of ladies reached the spot where the ceremony
was to be performed. In the mean time his Excel-
lency the Earl of Dalhousie, attended by the Chief
Justice, the Lord Bishop, his staff and the commit-
tee, passed through the avenue of troops from the
castle, receiving the usual honours. His Excellen-
cy having first conducted the Countess and the other
ladies to a station most convenient for witnessing the
ceremony, placed himself in front of the stone, and
spoke as follows : —

" Gentlemen of the Committee — We are assem-
bled upon an occasion most interesting to thi< coun-
try — if possible, more so to this city. We are met
to lay the foundation of a column in honour of two
illustrious men, whose deeds and whose fall have im-
mortalizjd their own names, and placed Quebec in
the rank of cities famous in the history of the world.

" Before, however, W3 touch the first stone, let
us implore the blessing of Almighty God upon our
intended work."

The Rev. Dr Mills, clinplair'. .o the forces, then
offered up an appropriate and • n-phatic prayer, and
when it was concluded his Lordship addressed the
Masonic brethren.

" Right Worshipful Grand Master and Worship-
ful Brethren of the Grand Lodge^ I crave your
assistance in performing masonic ceremonies and
honours on this occasion."

The R. W. Grand Master, supported by the R. W.
Deputy Grand Master Mr Olivia, on his right, and

^*-'
'^f.

i'i

266

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

l)e))uty Grand Master Mr Thompson on liis left, with
two Grand Deacons, took his station on the east side of
the foundation. The R. W. the Grand Masters and
the R. W. the Grand Chaplain placed themselves on
the opposite side, wlien the corner-stone was lowered
and laid with the usual masonic ceremony. The Grand
Master, supported as above described, then advanced
towards his Lordship to give the three mystic strokes
on the stone. During this part of the ceremony the
Cirrand Master repeated the foUowinj^ short prayer : —
" May this undertaking prosper with the ble;>sing of
Almighty God."

The presence of Mr James Thompson, then in his
95th year, added to the deep interest felt in the scone.
The venerable companion in arms of ^\ olfe was a
connecting link between the age that witnessed his
giory and that about to erect a monument to his
fame. While one remained who conquered with him,
the age of his glory was not quite extinct : — the
present took charge of the deposit, and pledged itself
to its sacred keeping by the ceremony we are now
describing.

His Excellency, turning to Mr Thompson, re-
({uested him to assist in the ceremony in these
words : —

'' Mr Thompson — We honour you here as the
companion in arms, and a venerable living witnc^ss of
the fall of Wolfe, do us also the favour to bear wit-
ness on this occasion by the mallet in your hand.''

Mr Thompson then, with a firm hand, gave the
tliree mystic strokes with the mallet on the stone.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

267

An appropriate prayer was then offered up by the
Rev. Dr Harkness, the provincial Grand Chaplain.

Gold and silver coins were deposited in a cavity
prepared in the foundation stone, over which a plate
with a commemorative Latin inscription by the Rev.
Dr Mills was firmly riveted.

The plan and elevation of the intended monument
was then presented to the Countess of Dalhousie,
who accepted of it with marked satisfaction.

The day's work was ended with a. feu de joie from
the garrison, after which the regiments presented
arms, the bands playing" the national air. Three
British cheers then rent the air, given by the troops
and spectators to the memory of British valour and
French gallantry.

The troops, on their return to their barracks, passed
the Governor-in-chief in review order, which termi-
nated the ceremonies.

The memorial in honour of the two military chiefs
who fell at the head of the opposing armies in that
decisive battle which made the province of Canada a
portion of the British empire, is now completed, and
is a conspicuous, as it is the only classical, ornament
of the city. It was originally designed by Captain,
now Major Young, of the 79th or Cameron High-
landers (then on the personal staff of his Excellency
the Earl of Dalhousie), an officer whose taste had
been greatly cultivated by foreign travel. It is a
combination of various beautiful proportions to l)e
found in some of the celebrated models of antiquity.
It stands on the west side of Des Carrieres Street,

2(38

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

■I:

leading from the Place d' Amies to the glacis of Cape
Diamond, within an area taken from the upper gar-
den belonging to Government. In front is a broad
walk, which has become a public promenade, over-
looking the castle garden, and commanding a fine
view of the harbour and the beautiful scenery be-
yond it.

The monument presents the following inscription
on the sarcophagus or cenotaph of the heroes, on the
front in large letters : —

Mortem, Vertos, Commvnem,

Famam, Historia,

Monvmentvm. l^osteritas

Dedit.

On the rear is the following, altered from that

which was inscribed upon the plate deposited with

the foundation stone : —

Hujusce

Monumenti in Virorum illustrium Memoriam,

WOLFE ET MONTCALM,

FUNDAMENTUM, P. C.

Georgius Comes de Dalhousie,

in Septentrionalis Americse Partibus

Ad Britannos Pertinentibus

Summam Rerum Administrans ;

Opui per Multos Annos Prretermissum,

Quid Duci Fgregio Convenientius ?

Auctoritate Promo vens, Exemplo Stimulans

Munificentia Fovens.

A.S. MDCCCXXVII.

Georgio IV. Britanniarum Rege.

.V ., *

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

'269

On the north side of the sarcophagus, looking to
the country, is simply the word " Mcntcalm," in
large characters ; and on the opposite, that towards
the river, by which he reached the sceno of his victory
and death, is inscribed the name of '' Wolfe."

Owing to some inadvertent delays hi forwarding
the inscriptions from England, it was not till Sep-
tember 1834, the time of my visit, that tliey were
affixed to the monument ; and as that also chanced to
be the anniversary of the Battle of the Plains, the
circumstance was rendered more notable and interest-
ing. I had the satisfaction of seeing the last chisel
stroke given in the completion of this well-merited
token of national affection and respect.

[ 270 ]

I" ^t f/

CHAPTER XVI.

" Here he embarked, and with a flowing sail,
Went bounding for the island of the free ;

Towards which the impatient wind blew half a gale :
High dashed the sj)ray, the bows dipped in the sea.

On Friday forenoon, 3d October, while we were
on the cvo of departure, an awkward occurrence took
place, which caused a delay of two whole days, and a
good deal of grumbling on our part, fearing that we
might find ourselves erelong in a mess of bad wea-
ther, the season being well advanced. We lay at
anchor in the middle of the stream, a short way down
the river from the wharfs, and there was little more to
do than trip up the anchor, and set sail. As luck
would have it, however, the ship Science, lying a
little above us in the same condition, slipped her cable
for home ; but in doing so, performed, to our appre-
hension, a very unscientific movement, by coming
lumbering down with the tide broadside on, and
running foul of our starboard bow, and, from the ac-
tion of the w^ater, continued to grind away on our
quarter like an ox scratching itself against a wall. It

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

271

was altogether a very ugly aftair. The captain and
pilot of the Science gaped in consternation at the
fruits of their stupidity or neglect, or whatever it
might be, and appeared quite unable to give suitable
orders. Our own captain — the only person who
seemed to know what he was about — was unable
from a cold to raise his voice above a whisper, and
our pilot — somewhat of a ninny — seemed to know
as much about his business as the ship herself. The
upper works of the offending vessel were gradually giv-
ing way, from pressure against the more obdurate parts
of ours ; but she paid us back the compliment by en-
tangling our jib-boom under her mainstay, which
made our bowsprit nod and bend like an angling rod,
as the vessels were slewed round from each other by
the contrary actions of wind and tide. After nume-
rous orders were given, countermanded, and half
drowned by volleys of oaths, both loud and deep, as
a last resource, our cable chain was allowed to drop
into the stream, and being thus loosed from our moor-
ings, our vessel dropped down the river with the tide,
and when fairly clear of our intrusive neighbour,
hoisted a sail, and ran in alongside the wharf to repair
the damage received.

On Sunday morning we were again in fit trim to
walk the waters ; but it seemed that the spirit of bad
luck was determined that we should not leave port
without a parting compliment ; but in this second
instance, we gave one, instead of receiving it. A de-
lightful breeze was rippling the surface of the stream
in the proper direction, and our fastenings were soon

'iVl

SKETCHES OF CAN.U) A

disengaged from the wharf; but before we were hov»
round, the wind took us sharply, and ran the vessel
on board a small schooner lying near. She was forced
half under water before our men wore aware of the
accident. When she was discovered, one of our crew
leapt upon her deck, and ran down to the cabin to
apprise all on board of their danger. There was only
a single man below, who, at the time, was asleep in
his berth ; and as circumstances could not wait the
delay of a single preliminary yawn, he was actually
on dock before both eyes were opon, or his senses
called back from the land of forgetfulness ; nnd he
presented us with a ilelightful specimen of a startled
dreamer. The sight was irresistible ; it was the very
flesh and blood embodiment of a compound caricature,
setting forth the various passions and feelings of un-
certainty, fear, consternation, anger, stupidity, and a
dire expectancy of he knew not what. But like one
who inhales a quart of laughing gas, the novel sen-
sations were no sooner excited than they faded away ;
Jack soon came to himself, and jumped on board of
us, and we continued on our course ; but before we
were many hundred yards down the stream, he had
the melancholy satisfaction of witnessing the fate of
his little vessel — it drifted across the stream, and
tumbled broadside over on a sand-bank.

As we proceeded, the river from hour to hour be-
came more extended — several of the islands presented
a considerable breadth of surface — the heights were
more wild and uninhabitable, and some of them — snow-
crested — appeared, from their rugged grandeur, worthy

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

'273

to rank with those of Scotland. Every thing betok-
ened that we were approaching a less genial climate,
and less fertile soil.

Several miles below the city we had a fair view of
the Fall of the Montmorency river at its ccnliuence
with the St Lawrence. 'he rock is nearly liOO feet
in height, but the quan >f water is very limited,

and perhaps at thedistai.. . we were — about two miles
— we saw the full elVect without being near enough to
discover the unsubstantiality of the falling volume of
fluid, which, after viewing Niagara, could hardly fail
to impart the idea of littleness or insignificance.

A fine breeze down the river, and a sufficiency of
canvas soon brought us up with eight or nine sail
that had started before us ; and ere we were out of sight
of land, we were fast leaving them all behind ; and
we can hardly give a fox-hunter credit for more keen
excitement than we felt when thus bounding along,
under a cloud of snowy canvas, and distancing a
whole fleet of three-masters, that were at the same
time giving to the breeze every inch of canvas they
were able to hoist.

We enjoyed steady weather till Thursday the 9th,
when the atmosphere began to scowl, and at night we
were restless enough under the ceaseless efforts of a
short and angry sea, which continued till Friday
morning. During the night we shipped, more water
than was either convenient or pleasant — the cabin got
well drenched through the sky-light — and more than
half its inhabitants were on the sick list. A sea nearly

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274

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

■.*;■

carried the cookhouse overboard. This caused the cu-
linary deities keep their weather eyes open, and make
use of more secure fastenings. We passed St Paul's
isle during the night — a most villanous place for old
vessels — so we were wonderfully relieved in the morn-
ing, when told that we were sheering clear of this
dangerous rock, and riding safe and sound in the
Gulf of St Lawrence, with every prospect of a plea-
sant voyage across.

The St Lawrence is certainly one of the noblest
rivers on the globe. It is stamped with grandeur
from its fountain-head. Its highest source, in-
stead of being perhaps wrapped in uncertainty, or
rising from some inconsiderable spring, is the vast
bosom of the largest fresh water lake in the world ;
and in its glorious course it rolls through a mighty
chain of inland seas, each of which are ever receiving
tributary streams, that would hold a high rank
amongst the rivers of Europe. Islands displaying
every aspect of natural beauty, give variety to its
way ; and at those parts where the narrowness of the
course confines its waters, it plunges headlong down
in the form of foaming rapids ; and in its transit be-
tween two of the fairest of its most expansive resting-
places — Erie and Ontario — it seems bent upon giving
to the world a token of its might ; for at one fell leap
it clears the rocky barrier that obstructs it, and
plunges down into an unfathomable abyss. Some idea
of this falling ocean may be formed from the fact that
80,000,000 tons of water are poured from Erie into

|M t.

SXETCHES OF CANADA.

275

Ontario every hour ; but such a fact is perhaps rather
more apt to confuse our ideas on the subject than to
render them clearer.

At the part of the river where we now were, it ex-
pands into an estuary of a hundred miles broad — thus
forming a striking contrast to its mighty sister, the
Mississippi, in her confluence with the Gulf of Mexico
— for she seems to creep into it by a number of
comparatively insignificant outlets that have little
grandeur, and still less beauty.

Into whatever company one may chance to find him-
self thrown, even under the most commonplace circum-
stances — it seldom happens that there exists a perfect
barrenness, and absence of all peculiarity of character
and history connected with every one of the individuals
that compose the group around. Having little time
and less inclination, in the bustle of preparation and
embarkation, to make observations or inquiries con-
cerning my shipmates, I took little notice of those
who formed the steerage population till we were fairly
on the *' vasty deep," and at full leisure, wind and
weather permitting, to make a general survey, or as
humour might dictate, an individual inspection of the
motley group that nestled under the main hatchway.
My inquiries were productive of several tales of inte-
rest, and none more so than the simple melancholy
history of a young female, who attracted attention
several days after we had left port. Hers, it is true,
was an often told tale — but no less interesting on that
account.

She was from Green Erin ; and in the countenance

^j!^A

276

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

.k-

of the mortal wreck that now paced our deck in list-
less inanity, we could trace the faded lines of feminine
beauty, and the soft blue eye that now rolled and
gazed in vacancy of soul over the rippling waters,
had once been the fond outlet to the refined passions
of the heart. She had, in truth, been a fair-haired,
bright-eyed daughter of the Emerald Isle, ardent, con-
fiding, and sincere.

Her heart and hand had been pledged to a young
countryman of her own, two years before I saw her
thus in a state of mental prostration. Fondly had
she loved. They parted — he to seek the smiles of
fortune in America, and she to wait the while, in
solitary expectation of bright days to come ; and it
was agreed between them, that she should follow
him so soon as she got intelligence that his wishes
were realized.

Many months passed away without her hearing from
him, and her heart in vain endeavoured to suppress
the forebodings which rose like fearful visions to damp
her spirits and whisper of danger and distress. A
vessel at last arrived, bearing home several of her
countrymen, and them she besought to tell her if
they knew aught of her betrothed. To her joy she
was told that one of them had seen him shortly be-
fore embarking for home, and that he was living
in a hut by the side of the St Lawrence, and em-
ployed in cutting wood for the steamers that daily
swept past his door. This was enough for her ; few
days elapsed ere she found herself borne on the bound-
ing bosom of the Atlantic, hastening westward to join

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

277

in liat-
minine
ed and
waters,
assions
haired,
it, con-
young
iaw her
lly had
niles of
hile, in
and it
follow
wishes

igfrom
uppress
odamp
ss. A
of her
her if
oy she
tly be-
living
nd em-
t daily
tr ; few
bound-
to join

him in his woodland cottage. Her dreams were far
from the unstable couch on which she rested. Often,
in her sleep, she would picture to herself the lovely
rustic dwelling, overhanging the stream, while her
husband was at a little distance, on the verge of the
wood, wielding the ponderous axe, and felling the
monarchs of the forest to supply food for the monarch
of the tide. The noise of the watchful mariners
blended with, and formed part of her too fond imagin-
ings. Often, when their cries rose above the night
storms, as they hurried aloft to trim the canvas to
the gale, she fancied she heard the men from the
steamers calling for a supply of fuel, and in raising
^her voice to bring her husband from the wood, her
energy would dissipate the mimic scene, and awake
her to drop a tear amid the colder reality around.

She arri/ed at Montreal in the course of a few
weeks, and without the delay of a moment, proceeded
along the banks of the river towards the spot which
formed the resting-place of her thoughts by day, and
dreams by night. It was towards twilight, about the
middle of autumn, the sun had become in a great
measure subdued, and the falling leaves lent a pleas-
ing sadness to the dark woodland scenery through
which she had to trace her way. Not a breath of air
stirred, and the only sounds she heard were the low
chick ! chick ! of the ground squirrel — the retreating
rustle of the garter snake as it started from her path —
or the almost silent fall of the sered and sapless foliage
to the ground as she accidentally ruffled the branches
at her side. She was naturally sensitive, and now

278

SKETCHES or CANADA.

^r'

t---^.

rendered nervous by prolonged anxiety, she felt over-
come by the sad sublimity of expiring nature, and
more than once sat dovi^n on some fallen trunk, and
relieved her beating heart in a shower of tears.

It was some time after sunset when she discovered,
through the stems of the trees, a reddened light that
seemed to proceed from a small window, and occa-
sioned by a fire blazing within. Her heart leapt with
joy at the sight — here at last, she thought, I will
rest from my wanderings. She ran on with eager-
ness, deeming — poor girl ! — that the rustic hut before
her contained a treasure which queens might envy.
The light still guided her uncertain footsteps amongst
the burned stumps that studded the open ground."
When she reached the house, her first impulse was to
open the door and rush in, but she found that there
was no opening on the side at which she had arrived,
and she hastened to the window to assure herself that
the hut was indeed the one she sought.

Why did not some good angel snatch her from
witnessing the withering reality ! Beside the blazing
embers sat, with his profile towards hers, the object
of her anxious search. Her heart rose to her lips, and
she was about to utter a cry of delighted recognition,
when the gurgling smoke, which was rolling towards
the roof in dusky festoons, cleared for a moment
away, and disclosed to her a lovely young female
with a child resting in her lap ; and as she caressed
the smiling innocent, her sparkling black eyes were
everand anon directed over the hearth to catch aglance
of reciprocal fondness in those of the smiling ^^Ac/* /

t over-
e, and
ik, and

•

overed,
ht that
d occa-
,pt with
, I will
eager-
t before
t envy,
imongst
ground.''
e was to
at there
arrived,
ielf that

ler from
blazing
e object

ps, and

rnition,
towards
moment
female

caressed
yes were

aglance
father !

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

270

This was enough — ay, more than can be deemed
enough — the shock was fatal ! — One long shriek of
despair, and the forlorn wanderer fell a blighted wreck
amongst the withered leaves of tlie Canadian forest.
And well it had been had she remained as lifeless
and unconscious as they, and her torch of existence
extinguished on earth for ever I — Life returned to a
shattered yet lovely frame, but its fairest occupant
had left it — Reason was shaken from his throne; and
as pure a soul as ever strove for the crown of immor-
tality, was robbed in a moment of tranquillity, and
condemned still to linger on earth without a ray of
hope to cheer, or the power to feel it, were one in
mercy granted.

The guilty and foresworn man conveyed her on the
morrow to the Nunnery of Montreal, concealing in
his own hardened bosom the solution of the piteous
tale ; — and he returned to his woodland hut with a
mind which might not be envied even by the bereft
victim of his villany.

Cholera had at this time fanned the devoted land
with ?ts poisonous breath — and, when he reached his
hut, instead of clasping to his breast the wife and
child of his love, he beheld the blood-tinged flame
of the expiring fire lighting up the stony features
of the mother and her lifeless babe. This added new
fuel to his burning passions. His rifle stood near —
and in a moment more he was numbered with the
dead !

The only time when the poor girl's eye beamed
forth with what I deemed to be its wonted fire was
when we swept past the green hills of Ireland. Then

280

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

1 ■

- 'i.

..:•/ •

her pale countenance cast for a few moments aside
the lethargy that had usurped or chained down the
faculties of her soul, and she seemed to live over
anew the glorious days of hajpy childhood. But,
alas ! it was only momentary — a more recent but
darker chapter swept away all the glowing remem-
brances of youth, and she shrunk back into a more
abject state of mental prostration than before.

To return from this sad digression. We soon got
over the Newfoundland Banks, not, however, with-
out encountering a reasonable share of rough weather,
which had the effect of driving several, more sensi-
tive than their fellows, to take refuge in their sleep-
ing berths.

Like the less elevated and gloomy personae of a
tragedy, there is generally, during a gale, something
pleasingly calculated to relieve the mind from brood-
ing over the howling mon itony of wind and wave —
such as watching the wet jackets caught by dream-
ing lubbers in an inadvertent moment, and all the
list of awkward mistakes that incessantly happen in
the futile attempts to preserve equilibrium amid the
lurching and pitching of the vessel ; and also the
reckless turmoil that sometimes fills the cabin at the
interesting hour of dinner. We enjoyed several ani-
mated scenes of this sort ; and it was amusing and
instructive that, even under this eccentric effect of
the waring elements, there lurks a lesson. The pe-
culiar bent of character is sometimes beautifully illus-
trated by the parts that are unpremeditatingly taken
on the spur of the moment.

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

281

its aside
)wn the
ive over
1. But,
cent but
remem-
► a more

_ •

ioon got
er, with-
weather,
:e sensi-
31 r sleep-

)nae of a
Dmething
m brood-
l wave —
y dream-
i all the
appen in
amid the

also the
in at the
veral ani-
ising and

effect of

The pe-
ully illus-

ly taken

I am not inclined to present many individual illus-
trations from what was observed, lest we should hurt
the feelings of some, and the delicacy of others. On-
ly one I will venture to mention, principally because
it is a strong one, and partly because delicacy, feel-
ing, and my quondam shipmate, were but slightly
acquainted, and little risk will be run of breaking the
laws of good manners.

While at dinner, in those days when wind and wavf
conspired to render our unstable home more restless
than usual, we could not help remarking the decided
and unvarying part which our said shipmate took. His
seat was half way down the board, and right opposite
the headquarters of the wine decanters. No sooner
did he feel the overturning motion of a heaving sea,
than his hands were on the alert, one grasped a bottle
of port, and the other his own plate ; his countenance
and attitude displaying a vivid picture of selfish secu-
rity and contentment. The rest of the main-borne
world and all their concerns might d ce to death for
any thing that he cared, so long as tn ^ neck of the
bottle remained true to the body, and the curried
fowls, ham, and pickles reposed in the platter, which
like a hero he had snatched from amid the general
wreck of matter. As he unfortunately, however, did
not possess much physical intrepidity, his firm deport-
ment, though at first it seemed to have reached the
sticking point, in part gave way as he watched the
dire confusion that prevailed. Though no one paid
addresses to the good things at dinner with half the
gloating fondness of our hero, he felt it rather too

2 A

282

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

ij-

1 V ''

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i

much of a good thing, when one clay he observed a
huge turkey bear away from its honourable quarters at
the head of the table, and come scudding along under
bare poles, with the determination of making a point-
blank charge against the outer walls of his stomach.
A twitch of horror made his whole frame quiver, and
both arms started out horizontally before him, while
his head was thrown as far back as his apology for a
neck would allow it to go. The bottom of his hard-
grasped bottle was sometimes lucky enough to arrest
the career of the featherless assailant ; but this only
effected for him an exchange of evils, for the same
jerk that sent the bird across the table again, ejected
the blood of the grape with an angry splutter upon
the whole outworks of the overwhelmed hero.

As the feelings of delicacy or honour did not claim
kin with this gentleman, so his fate it was to act the
indispensable part of butt to the wit and satire of
the whole cabin, and these weapons were generally
levelled at the foibles which he hourly displayed, viz.,
large speaking, large eating, and large drinking.

We had on the whole so much rough weather, that
it was next to impossible to bring the mind to a placid
or composed state, and to mix in those affairs which
engaged the majority was often a matter of self-de-
fence,, on the part of those who might otherwise have
preferred silence or retirement.

Our party was composed of various materials.
We had representatives of the three black graces — a
sprinkling of literature ; and skill in the person of our
captain, who did his duty both on deck and at table

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

2b:i

ierved a
larters at
ig under

a point-
stomach.
iver, and
m, while
igy for a
his hard-

to arrest
this only
:he same
1, ejected
Iter upon

not claim
;o act the
satire of
generally
lyed, viz.,
king,
ither, that
:o a placid
lirs which
)f self-de-
'wise have

materials,
graces — a
son of our
1 at table

much to our security and enjoyment, during the time
we were imprisoned under his keeping. It is with
much pleasure that this tribute of respect and friend-
ship is paid, when numberless teasing matters arc
brought back to recollection, that might well havo
called forth symptoms of irritation from his well-tried
temper, but which always retained its gentlemanly
tone towards us. We have good reasons to suspect
that whether for good or for evil, Captain "Neill of
the good ship Robertson will not soon forget the
cabin cargo he brought over the Di(/ Dub in the au-
tumn of 1834.

While the weath-r permitted, to sit on the top of
the main-hatch, or on one of the water casks on deck,
and enjoy a sage commune with any of the ladies or
gents, from the steerage, formed an agreeable inter-
lude to our more active life in the cabin. Before
laying down my perhaps too profuse quill, I will give
the fruits of a converse held with a shipmate, whom
the reader will be content to know under the name of
Sweeny, a native of the green isle.

When we had got within four hundred miles of
Ireland we were visited with a dead calm, which
lasted several days. One quiet moonlight night, as
we thus lay, Sweeny was brought to our notice by
his ejaculations of impatience at being obliged to
come to a dead halt, " and be dhrove aground afore
we hiv a spark iv land to cheer the eyes iv us." I
had hardly begun my conversation with him Mhen a
freshening breeze rose and fanned the canvas with
its cheering breath. The spirits of all on board na-

284

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}

1 •

•>

K it

*.'.* 'i

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turally rose along with it. Sweeny became com-
municative, and I listened to several of the most ex-
travagant traditions that ever entered into the nod-
<lle of an Irishman to conceive. Then came a reci-
tal about the ghost of an old dame, which he related
on the faith of a fellow-countryman, and which wor-
thy lady, he himself had often run after when scarce-
ly big enough to cock his nose over the door of a
pigstye. When he finished this also, he continued,
" Shure now, your honour's glory, you'd think me
frightened when Mike tould me iv his grandmother's
ghost ? Whew ! botheration, sis I, what 'spose
your grandmother's bleshed speerit kem back to
vees and laid the bones of the thremblin hand iv her
on the swate little cliilder, by rasin iv her forgettin
in the hurry that tuck the darlin ould woman from
the land iv the livin, whin she would have axed down
blessins on the hairs iv the bids of them, and so she
would ! Mike, sis I, I never seen a ghost, but I
draemed a draem ; and behould I was taken out of
the warm bed iv me, and carried over the big hill of
Howth, Saint Patrick knows how far, till I found
mysilf landed in the hould of a grate ship. By rasin
of the instinct that was in me, I knowd that the
crathur was in the handsim hogshids that lay all so
nate with the round doors of them lookin up, and the
inds of them all agin the side of the grate ship. Mike,
sis I, I jist thought— (no, I didn't think at all, by
rasin that in draemin we know without thinkin) — well
and now I'm off to Ameriky, and done for for ever,
amin ; and the praties and the pigs and the childer

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

285

3 com-
ost ex-
e nod-
a reci-
related
;h wor-
scarce-
or of a
itinued,
ink me
lother's

'spose
lack to
d iv her
Di'gettin
m from
d down

so she
, but 1

out of
; hill of
I found
3y rasin
hat the
y all so

and the
. Mike,

all, by
i) — well
or ever,

childer

and the mother iv them left a dissolute widdy, sis I
to mysilf, for none were wid me to spake to, and me
mysilf, sis I, on the top of the oceant in the bottom
of a grate ship, and nothin})^ tween 'ternity and the
shoul of my mist'artinate body thin the rottin tim-
mers, and no ither fij^ur of mortal to spake wid but
the crathur in the hoi^hids. Here I im all alone by
mysilf line a bird in the wilderness, for I was always
sentimental, Mike, sis I. And I repeated my words,
and I begin to rasin. — VVhat'll kem of the widdy of
my deserted bosom when the childer of my love wake
in the mornin and find that I am here and not there.
Oh, blessed St Pat, sis I, for I tuck to religeon
by rasin of the thremblin that kem over my limbs,
and I prayed that he would go to the widdy in her
'reavment, and the pigs and the childer of my 'fec-
tion till 1 went home. I mane no disrespcck, St
Pat, sis I, but who'll dig the taties for the darlins,
och, they'l lose the life of them ! and the round big
tares kem from the eyes of me, and 1 lifted up my
vice and wipt ; and then I was relaved, and 1 tuck
to my legs, and I wint, quite natral, to the casks wid
the crathur for a drop to cool my tongue. Oh for a
screw, sis I (for 1 had grate sinse, tho' it wor all a
vision) ; but none kem, and how should it ? So 1 lays
mysilf down, and put ray nose to the cask for a seint
of the speerit, and oh, Mike, sis I, it was like wather
to the thursty land ; and I tuck my tongue and licked
the dhrops that straemed over the sides of the hogs-
hids ; but botheration, it was only the wather of the
sae ! The thafe catch ye, sis I, whoever ye are, little
is the crathur confined that ye hiv, and not a dhrop

286

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

^1?H

can get its way to the handsim mouth of me. Oh
for the beard iv yees, and the ould black gintleman
at the end iv it ! And may be, Mike, sis 1, you'd
like to hear how I roared whin 1 thought there was
nothing in the whole world of water but the sae and
mysilf, and the grate ship. But it's not all gold
that glitters, Mike, sis I. In the blink of a blind
pig the lid of the hould opined, and the face iv him
stud over, but it was not the ould Hornie — (a hot
hole to him any how, Mike, sis I.) It was a man
wid a big hid, as round as the ind of a large sow, and
a beard like the tail of an ould mare, and wid eys like
the stars of hivin, and as big as two murphies. Hillo !
sis he, and it's a grate noise you're makin down
there, sis he, wid a vice like a handsaw agin the back
of a poker. Oh, sis I (for I was relaved when I saw
that it was flesh and blood and not the devil) ; oh,
sis I, and its may be you've kim to lift a poor crathur
from the sheddy of death, and diserted by the childer
and the mother of them, St Pat bless ye for that same,
for I am in grate affliction and hiv a troubled speerit.
Sind us down the fingers of yees, and the blessin of
the widdy folly the sheddy iv ye, sis I ; and he put
down his hand and I grupped it, and afore I cud
say save yer presince, I was on the deck of the grate
ship, and my body standin on the legs of me hand-
sim ! By yer lave, sis I, 1 'spose you be the cap-
tin iv the grate ship, and I bint my hid and then
tuck it up again. Bauh ! sis he, wid a tongue^ like
the thunder and the lightenin, ax no questions;
you be Sweeny of the Hill, sis he. Threw for

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

287

you, sis I, for no ither body would claim the soul
iv me any how ; and it's you, you wagabone, that
hiv riv me from my widdy, and the praties, and the
childer, and the pigs, and Ould Irelint too, sis I ;
and shure if your heart wont relint, you're a limb of
Satin, sis I, quite bould, and you are a counter-
band villin too, sis I, and ye chate man and baste,
for ye've riv me from my widdy and sould me to
the devil, and nothin to be had but a dhrop of
salt wather by rasin iv the bungs, bad cess to them,
sis I, and I looked as fierce as a shark when hungry
it is. Ho I ho ! sis he, and you're preachin a
sarmint. Sweeny darlint ; lave it to the praist, jewel,
sis he, jeerin, and belay the jaw iv ye, and he rax-
ed up mighty 'portent. Blow fresh, sis he agin,
or the sae 'ill swallie ye up, by the 'ollie St Pat !
Hould yer dhurty tongue, and reverince his name,
sis I ; wid that the eyes iv him burned blew jist
like a dhrop of crathur in an ould dish, and they
grew as big, ay, as big as any thing, and then
he roared like a lion ; and a regimint of counter-
bands, I knowd by the face of them, kem like
the pigs wid the evil sperits, and they tuck me up
by the hid and the tail — not the tail, for that is
like the brute bastes — but the thereabouts, Mike,
sis I (for I like delicat language, your honour's glory).
As I was sayin, they tuck me up. Sweeny, sis
the ould fellow wid the eyes and the beard, you
must walk the plank. Sweeny, sis he ; and he shoved
a big stick over the side of the grate ship. Sin and
misery to the whole iv ye, thinks I, but I didn't say

288

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

■It:.

it. Oh, the blessings of the widdy on ye, sis I,
mighty civil, shure ye wont deprive me of the life,
by rasin of the childer and a great dale more I min-
tioned to ye ? Over wid him, sis he, and the heart
of me died within my bosom ; and then it was I
found my soul creepin to my mouth, ard it choked
me entirely, and I cudn't spake. St Pat, keep my
widdy and childer, for the sae '11 swallie me up ! and
I was a prophet for that same thought, for they
dhruve me on to the stick, till 1 had nothing else
twin the sae and the shouls of my feet, and then it
was that they giv it a kick, and down I wint wid my
face to the hivins, and my back to the sae. You're
a did man. Sweeny, sis I, and your wife is a wid-
dy, and the pigs are fatherless, and the pitaties will
never get another pair iv throusers, ohon, sis I,
for my sinses left me, and I didn't know what I
was sayin. No sooner was the words out of my
mouth than the salt wather kem in, and I thought I
wor dhiOwned, but I wasint ; for I ris up on the
wather, find I turned on my face, for in my youth,
Mike, sis I, you knowd I cud swim iligant. Oh,
sis I agin, it is worse this than being in the grate
ship, and I looked for her that I might intrate the
ould chap wid the beard to take me on board, and I
keep ai civil tongue in my hid foriver, amin. Oh,
cried I, and I lept clane out iv the sae (but I kem
down aoin !) yonder she goes from me as if .the
devil wor at her ind wid a rid poker, and I mysilf
landed in the middle iv the mitey Athlantic, wid not
a tatie to comfort my stomach, nor a shillin in my

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

289

, sis I,
he life,
I min-
e heart
; was I
choked
teep my
ip ! and
for they
ing else
L then it
; wid my
You're
s a wid-
aties will
1, sis I,
what I
it of my
lought I
3 on the
jy youth,
nt. Oh,
the grate
trate the
■d, and 1
in. Oh,
>ut I kem
as if the
I mysilf
:, wid not
in in my

britches pocket, that my poor widdy often tould me
wouldn't hould the hid iv a pin, by reasin iv a hole
at the wrong ind ! Oh, says I agin, and not a
dhrop of the crathur to drink at my burl, nor any
ould women to howl at the wake iv me, and I was
sore vexed anint it ; but there was no help, and I
cudn't be waked like a Christian — the curse of the
widdy on the ould smuggler !

" The thought is in yer hid — Mike ! sis I, that
the sae 'ud swallie me, but it didn't ! and the waves
kim and bure me on the tops of them, and my soul
wint down agin to my bosom, and I was as strong as
an aegel, and as light as a cork. And when I was
ris up by rasin of the wather, I saw the grate ship,
and when I kim down agin, I didn't ! And then it
was that the wind began to blow mighty hard, and
the sae begin to rowl mighty fierce, and the hert in
me thrembled, and I seed the thunder and the lightenin,
and bad luck to my silly hid, I thought it 'ud set fire
to the broad Athlantic. Then agin there kim a
wave as big as Jie Hill of Howth, and as black as
a church-y ard, and I thought it 'ud sind me to
Abrahaam's bosom, in a hurry — Sweeny, honey, sis I,
yer wife is a widdy — but I was mistook, for it bure
me up and at the fut I saw the grate ship far down
in a vally. As far, Mike, sis I, as the Pope's mouth
from the fasting of Lent, and I seed the lightenin
l)izzin round the masts of im. Oh, ho I sis I, the
ould one has catched ye now, sis I, wid the rid poker
and all the wather in the sae can't pat it out neather,
sift I. Then airin the wave wint from under mc,

2 ij

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SKETCHES OF CANADA.

L I

Oh, mercy, I am goin to shake hands vvid Davie
Jones in less than no time ! And I tuck a thought
of the widdy of my bosom, and iv the prophet Jona,
quite sincible as if it wor rale airnist and no draemin.
Then I begin to hear a rush, rushin, as if the sae
wor rinnin through a grate hole, and a blow, blowin,
like the wind of a furnace ; and I tuck a look round
when the wather bore me up. Mercy, sis 1, there
is the fish that swallo'd the holie Profit; and too
threw for my misfortunate self a grate whale looked at
me from the bottom of the vally, wid the eyes iv it !
Then I wint down into the vally and the grate whale
wint up ; and it stared down at me as if I wor a
herrin or an ould prophet. Your glory, sis I, it is
the prophet may be that yer lookin for, and it is only
me, and my wife is a widdy, savin yer presince, sis I,
mighty saivil. But shure he didn't heer me, for I
cud'nt see the ears iv him ; but he opened his blow-
wathers, and set up a grate catirack. Misery, for
you, sis I, and yer sick by rasin of the rolin iv the
sae ; oh, for a can of the crathur to heat the stomach
iv ye ! and he looked as if he heard the tongue of me,
and shook his hid and tail and kim down, as if he'd
thank me for the thought iv my hid, and 'ud be
peacable by rasin iv the widdy and childer ; and I
was bould. Sure now ! sis I, and you 'ont swallie me
entirely, on the faith of St Pat, sis I, it is me and not
Jona, and I'll sing you a song, sis I, in the language
of ould Erin — for the prophet was a Haybrew — then
I twiged him the ' Sprig of Shelala,' and he looked
quare, but it convinced him that it was me, and

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

21» I

Davie
iiought
t Jona»
raemin.
the sae
blowin,
c round
1, there
md too
(oked at
js iv it !
;e whale
I wor a

I, it is
; is only
e, sis I,
je, for I
is blow-

iery.

for

n iv the
stomach
e of me,
s if he'd
'ud be
; and I
allie me
and not
mguage
— then
looked
ne, and

not Jona, that had the widdy, by rasin iv his learnin,
for he knowd that it warrint Haybrew ! But the
cretur deceved the hert iv me, for he ups wid his
tail, and he downs wid his nose, and gave a grate
wheel round like a top and wint down into the oceant,
and the wather turned round iligant like a whirlwind ;
and it dhrew me in, and I wint round, and round, and
round, and round, bloody murther, will I niver stop
at all, at all, sis I ; and the force iv it set me on my
ind, and I wint round on my own feet, and round the
whirlwind of wather, till I got deeper and deeper,
first over the knees, then over the throusers, then
the body of me, then the neck of me ; and when it
kem to my mouth I blowed it all out again. The
curse iv the widdy, sis I, on the ould whale ; and I
raiched out my hand, and hit the wather like a ragin
lion ; then I heard a voice (but it warrint the whale),
and it cried, Sweeny ! Sweeny I get up for the soul
iv ycj ye dhrunkin baste, for its brackin the tub ye
are in yer slape, and dhirtyin all the wather that I iv
brought to clane the bodies iv the childer, darlints.
Thin it was Mike, sis I, that I knowd it wor all a
vision. I opened the eyes iv me, and I was lyin like
a salted pig in the washin tub of the widdy of me,
and she wid a stick, and she hit me on the sate of
honir and all that, to bring me to my sinces. Oh,
lave alone the misfortinate body of me, sis I, and I'll
niver more dhrink a dhrop of the crathir, nor draem
any more of the grate ship."

" Well," said I, " Sweeny, I do not wonder that
during such a spirit-stirring dream you imagined

292

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

yourself in rale arnist ; and it appears that though
you were not Jona, your dream seems to have had
something prophetic in it, for you have just been in
America, and I presume a ship must have brought
you west, or you could not be in your present situa-
tion."

*' Threw for your honour," answered Sweeny ;
" and it's as sure as the moon is now lookin down on
us with the silver face of her, that same that je is
sayin. For it was but a few nights afther the
draemin had tuck possession iv me, that my ould
girl, while we sat round the dish of pitaties that com-
forts the heart iv us afther the day's work has left
us. Sweeny, jewl, sis she — for she was as civil as a
moonseer — I've bin thinkin iv the draem and the ter-
pertation thereof, as the Testimint says, and I am
not the gummock to forget what we are tould. Ae !
sis I, and what is't, sis I, that you've been after think-
in ? — for I saw there wor an oceant of thought in the
hid iv her — Sweeny, sis she, in the ear iv me (for all
the childer stud wid the mouths of them open, and
the pitaties held up in their hands, ready to hear
what the mother iv them was after saying). Sweeny,
sis she, you must lift yourself off to Ameriky, for
they say it is the rale Land of Promise, and if there be
milk and honey, wid grate roasted pigs swimin about
like pitaties in the pot, it is more nor ive hiv in
Ould Ireland — blessings on her ! Mercy, sis I, wid
a howl, for I thought iv the grate fish. Oh the hard
hert iv ye, and would ye send me from ye, and the
childer, off to Ameriky in an ould smuggler, the

SKETCHES OF CANADA.

293

curse iv the crose on the likes iv it. Tut, tut,
Sweeny, darlint, sis she — for she had a winning way
wid her — don't be after seein ghosts where there be
none, sis she ; and I said nought, for the grey mare,
as the neighbours told me, was the better horse.
And yer honour" (added Sweeny), "it just kern to this
— we wrought night and day till we got the money
that bure me off ; and blessins on the hand that helps
the widdy and her childer, and tuck me to the rale
Land iv Promise, flowin wid milk and honey; for I've
a cow in the field, and a hive in the garden ; and the
pigs (good luck to them) swim about the woods on
their own legs eligant ; and if hivin spares me to
bring away the childer and the mother of them too,
they'll bliss the day I slipped into the tub, and
draemed a draem iv the grate ship."

After our dose of calm, we were again visited by
unpropitious weather; the sun refused to shine for
days together, and we had a reasonable chance of
running bump upon the west coast of Ireland. But,
kind reader, we will now part company, and bear
away on our different courses ; for I am unwilling to
bring forward fresh and disagreeable pictures to dis-
place the pleasing feelings which the contemplation
of friend Sweeny's conduct cannot fail to inspire;
and in this mood I take a kindly farewell of all who
have exercised patience enough to accompany me
thus far.

THE END.

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. »D1NBVRGH: PBINTED BV BALI-ANXyNK and CO., PAUL'S WORK.

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PAUL'S WORK.