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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film^s en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film6s d des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 6 6 L- THE bilOE AND CANOE. LONDON : Piintfd !j;,- G. Bmkclaj, Castle St. Loiccstci S... ? :M'i \ THF V ? sr- ■ \V''! V ' ^ i ■ fi !•' "^ n ' I \ \ ^ i . ;iL r\^ MM ' I r, i ! ■ '^. : • It i 1.; i'! ' i. i ■;; ,i' ' A\'h X.,.n) ■ ;;'.-•:. i^ ■ M ' ■* Hi i^"* Ij'v m . t 1- '. ■ . '. . Ml. .Kiv «. 1 1 I ■ r I V' J) I i ^ m \ > V. ^iiLi*- n •."i. « *-T #*^ 4. , t -.tftv- »lk-,'' ■4' I '1- i ^■9. i T-y i^»'''*^. -^: '-4^^:^^ ^,-^f THE SHOE AND CANOE OR PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN THE CAN ADAS. ii.i.rsTK.vnvi:: of THK II! SCl-.M, i:V ANT) OF COLONIAL LIFK ; WITIf FACTS ANI> OPINION'S OX MMIORATIOX. STATE POLICY, AND OTliKU POINTS OF PUJiLIC INTEKKST. MM) Numerous plates anU itlaps. Bv JOHN J. BIGSBY, M.D. IIDN. Mi;M. AMilllCAN (;rn[,(i(:l(Ar. snc, I.ATK SKfUKTAKV Tl) IlIK IliifNDAP.V COMMISSION INM;1: AKT, \ I. ami VII. TUKATY ()K(.lli:NT. JN TWO VOLU^IES. Vol. T. L O N DON: PUBLISHED BY CHAPMAN AND HALL. MDCCCI.. r r* Y *•. I v.- '.r \ ot './ I 9-Sj -■•-i ■*'"*«J / O Wl " Make my grave on the banks of the St. Lawrence."- Lord Sydenham, late Governor-Gen. of British North America. PREFACE. Having in comparative leisure, for a period of six happy years, wandered, pencil and pen in hand, over the greater portion of the Canadas, I purpose, in the following pages, to present to the reader a group of popular pictures of their scenery and social condition. Through the medium of a series of excur- sions, it is intended to pourtray the objects which fill the traveller's eye, the life he leads, and the company he meets with, in this romantic and fertile part of North America. A ready opportunity will thus be afforded VI PREFACE. I of noticing many important topics : such as emigration, colonial policy, Christian mis- sions, the late Boundary Commission, the Hudson's Bay Company, and of placing on record some new topographical details. My humble but earnest wish is (and most disinterestedly) to show my fellow-country- men that Western Canada in particular is d pleasant land ; that it presents a variety of enjoyments — sport to the sportsman, in- spiration to the poet, excitement to the brave, and health to the delicate j while, at the same time, it offers unfailing abundance to the destitute, and a haven to the home- less. Many who go thither for a year choose to stay all their lives ; and not a few, having left it, are sad and ill at ease until they once more stand upon the breezy shores of Lake Ontario. Like all who possess personal information on the subject, from the late Lord Metcalf , ^v^ PREFACE. Vll of downwards, I beg to recommend and urge a large planned emigration, under the auspices, though not altogether at the expense, of Government. With the most complete and gratifying- success of previous efforts at colonisation, with the full consciousness of wide-prevailing distress at home, and well aware of the mil- lions of rich acres in our American depend- encies ready for occupation, the continued apathy of the British people and their rulers seems to call for the expression of no com- mon indignation. Let us then leave for a brief space the miseries we do not solace, the tears and crimes of our towns and villages, for the great lakes of Canada, reservoirs of crystal waters and wholesome airs, for the broad forest streams which pour into them, whose banks are peopbd and peopling with our own energetic race. Let us contemplate the diligent stirs and ! VIU PREFACE. exhaustless plenty of the new world. We shall find much to interest us in the august and singular features of the country, in its natural history, and in its TDopulation ; among whom, besides the solemn Indian, the stereo- typed French Canadian, and the enterprising New Englander, we shall meet with many originals from Europe ; some hiding in woody nooks, others standing openly in the sight of a community too busy to bestow iTpon them more than a passing glance. As my pages are meant to chronicle with fidelity actual incidents, feelings, and facts, they will tell of few extraordinary adven- tures, and of neither miracles nor monsters. I deal not with the perishing things of the hour — with statistics, which (good in their place) are, in Canada, a kind of ** dis- solving view," so fugitive, — that truth to-day is falsehood almost on the morrow. Who can cope with the statistics of a great country like Canada West, whose popula- I n PREFACE. IX We .» i tion and capital sometimes double in eight years ? * My object Is, I repeat, to delineate, not the evanescent, but some of the fixed aspects of this noble colony — in its waters and forests, in its red and white inhabitants, their man- ners and prospects; and this from notes carefully made on the spot, with frequent corrections up to the present day. Both my duty and my pleasure took me out of the common track, — into Lakes Simcoe Huron, Superior, &c.; into a portion of South Hudson's Bay, and up the River Ottawa, into Lake Ni pissing, as well as to the rarely- visited Highlands of the St. Lawrence below Quebec. Mine is a personal narrative. The reader's indulgence is, therefore, requested for the egotism which is unavoidable. The imper- sonal is unreadable : it is the current incident of the day which gives transpa- ♦ As in 1822-28, accordiug to Sir F, Head and others. : i I X PREFACE. rency and life. Some may say, that I gossip a littl3. This possibly may be so. It has happened to the wisest of men when beguiled by an agreeable theme. The cheer- ful gct-a!ong style which I desire to adopt is now acknowledged to be the true descrip- tive ; and the stately and sonorous circum- locution of our forefathers is happily out of fashion. But I must not abuse the great modern privilege of paper and ink in abundance, with the best of pens. A preface should be a title-page developed — a short letter of in- troduction, prophetic of the coming story, and no more. Cicero, too, it is well to remember, some- where lays it down that an auctioneer is to be allowed one puffer ; but he does not say the same of an author. P.S. — The public may be congratulated on the possession, at a moderate cost, of the PREFACE. XI two charming volumes of ** Canadian Scenery," by Mr. Bartlett. His views are equally beautiful and true : mine represent places which that gentleman did not visit, and were selected less for the extremelv nic- turesque than for the characteristic. London, May 1850. I i I !M r I CONTENTS or THE FIRST VOLUME. The Preface . PAGE V The Voyage to Quebec . . . . .1 A CHAPTER ON CltJEBEC. W«lk round Quebec — Winter — The Irish Poor— Society— Its materials — Anecdotes — Charivari — Public I nstitutions — The Vicinity ...... Page 9 EXCURSION THE FIRST. TO HAWKSBURY ON THE RIVER OTTAWA. Typhus Fever at Hawksbury Settlement— The Seigniory of St. Anne de la Perade— Steam Voyage to Montreal — The Com- pany on Board — Montreal — Baggage Lost — Irish Emigrants at Point Fortune — Local Politics— Hamilton Mills — Settlers in Comfort — Colonial Department — Emigration— Walk to Mom- real — Insane Lady . . . . .46 XIV CONTENTS. EXCURSION THE SECOND. MONTRKAI., THE qjTAWA, ETC. Montreal — Island, City, and Society — North-west Stories — Peter Pond — Boat Song — Dancing Pheasants, &c. — North-west Fur Traders — Lake St. Louis — Ottawa River — Light Canoe — M. de Rocheblave — Munitions de Bouche — Voyageurs — Indian Vil- lage — Flooded River — Gaelic Maid — American Farm — Hull — Philemon Wright - Lakes Chaudicre and Chat — Fails of La Montague and Grand Calumet — Riviere Creuse — Tesouac - Tiie Western Branch — Miss Ermatinger — Lake Nipissing — French River Page 10.J EXCURSION THE THIRD. THE ST. LAWRENCK BEI.OW ftUKlJEC. 1 ! Calash Journey by Montmorenci and Chateau Riche to St. Anne Ferry-house — Cottage Lite — Falls of St. Anne — Indian Family in the Woods — St. Feriole : double Sunset — Cap Tournient — Walk round its Base to La Petite Riviere — Grnnd Scenery — Dangerous Precipices — Slij)pery Rocks — Mud up to the Knees — Dir.iier at a Cascade — An almost imj)assable Buttress — Mosquit<)es — Disconsolate Arrival at La Petite Riviere — Boat Voyage to St. Pauls — Kindness of M. Rousseau and Family — The Peasantry — Earthquakes — A Tea-Party — Discussion with an M.P.P. — Cross the St. Lawrence to L'Islet — Sleep in a Hay Chamber — Walk along South Shore to Quebec. . . . . . .172 I Cm EXCURSION THE FOURTH. KAMOURASKA AND MAI.RAY Steam Voyage to Kamouraska — Company on board — Anecdotes — Migration of Spiders — Kamouraska — Cross in a Boat to Mal- bay — Mad. Brassard and her Mother — Malbay — Curious CONTENTS. XV Mounds — Valley of St. Etienne a deserted Lake — Singular Fog — Earthquakes — the Musician — Anecdotes — The Peasantry — Aimee's Toilet — Salmon River — Lake St. John — Honiesvard on foot by North Shore to Eboulements — H<)S|)itality Page 217 EXCURSION THE FIFTH. Part I. LAK" KRIE AND THK RIVKR DKTROIT. The Boundary Commission, its officers, objects, and labours, Sec. — Lake Erie — Mr. Beaumont — Rev. Mr. Morse — Aniherstburgh --Ca))tain Stewart and his Negroes — Chevalier and Madame de Br(/sse — Rattlesivake hunt — Indian Cure — The Prophet and Kickajjoo Indians— Dttroit — My Inn and its Guests — The Pro- fessor, the Judge, and the Barber — Moy — The Mennonites 242 EXCURSION THE FIFTH. Part II. THK WATKRS OF THK ST. CLAIR, KTC. H.M. Schooner Confiance — Lake St. Clair — Sickness — Sailor shot — River St. Clair — Belle Riviere Island — The Sick Traveller — The Banished Lord— The Black River— Fort St. Clair— Thun- derstorms — Missionaries- — Missions- Lake Erie — Boat Voyage — The Settlement — The Governor-General — Methodist Mis- sionary — His Sermon and Conversation — Religious Statistics and Observations — Schools — The Lake Storm — The Roman Catholic ...... . 295 I I I I ■; '!ti i I i 1 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. MAPS. Map of the Vicinity of Quebec . . To face p. 9 The General Map illustrating these Excursions . . 352 PLATES. The Village of St. Paul . . . Frontispiece. The Eboulement Mountains, from the Foot of Cap Tourment 1 85 The Bay of St. Paul, from the St. Lawrence . .187 . 213 . 226 . 228 . 228 . 239 A View in the Parish of L' Islet on the St. Lawrence Malbay and the Breach of St. Etienne The Valley of St. Etienne : its terraces Plan of ditto . • • • I Capes Maillard and Tourment, frou. the Eboulements ■ ■'fi -.a THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. piece. 185 . 187 . 213 . 226 . 228 . 228 . 239 Voyages across the Atlantic are such every- day events that I shall say but little of mine. They seldom have ])leasant reminiscences; and the exploits of youn^r gentlemen in shootino- aruUs and petrels, or in catching to their cost the stinging medusce, have ceased to interest. Steamboats have now converted such passages into mere courses of good eating in good com- pany for prescribed periods, except for ambassa- dors, governors of colonies, and such-like, Avho must still submit to the honours and head-winds of the Queen's frigates. I embarked as the medical officer to a large detachment of u German Ritic Regiment in the English service, amounting, together with a few emigrant families, to the number of three hun- dred and forty souls. I think it wa^ inconsiderate in our wortliy VOL. I. B I ' ! I ! m; . < I 1 2 Tilt: VOYAGE TO QUEIJEC. soa-{'!i])tiiin to diroct liis couisc so nciir llio ])k';i- sant coasts of llainpshiiv*, Doiscf, ami Devon, tliat, as wo left our native isle, wo coulil S(?o the slow wain and tlio li'av cliciriot iourncvlnix on tlic hin'li-roads — the eountr^ • cats and i'arni^tead.^ biiri'onnded by liixnriant ecoj^s, in lar^c eli('(|tiei'S of yellow, urt'cn, and white. Lovely did they look, ;ind hard lo leave. A wistful, r('L!,'ret(ul expression, was btrong in evei'y i'aee on hoard ; and ^\hen the niglit closed in, tlark, raw, and showery, a yonnj^ cniigrunt leaped into the sea, and was lost. It may seem culinary and mean ; luit so it was; — nnieh of our comfort came from the cook- ing talents of a worthy INlajor, who regulated our mess. He is now a IMajor-general, and knighted for his services. I shall nevei* forgcu the felicity with which he daily added to our soup two powders, pinch by pinch ; the one a liright orange, and the other of a chocolate colour. Their nature I know not ; but their eU'ects on the SOU]) were very gratifying.* Except a few frights among the ladies, which ended in nothing serious, we had no mishaps * A very elegant poet and accoiiiplished man, who had sjient a day for the first time at Newstead Abbey, Nvas asked, when he returned to the house where lie was staying, what ho had enjoyed most, llis answer was, " I thinlv, my dinner." This, of course, was half a joke ; but only haU. THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. lie plc'ii- Dcvon, , svv. ihc ylii!j; oil 'lll>t(>iV(U ;li('([U(jr.s iid tlicy 'CgTOtClll l)OJii'- l)nt one. It forms what may he called " tlic doctor's story." W'l; had had lour or live days' dirty weather, contrary wiiuls aiul hiiz;li, with rain, — the seas sw(;ej)iii!j; over tiie deck, so freely and often that the tnalu-halehway was nsually closed, to the L^H'eat d(;trimcnt of the air hetween decks. The sky heiuiij still dark and K(|ually, I ))ro- cceded to l'unii;^'ate ihis j)lac(;, the fi'tid ahode of at leiist two hundred persons, with sulj>huric acid and the nitrate of potass, 'flie sentinel slood, as nsual, over tin; hatch- wav, with drawn cutlass, to transmit messajxes below and to nmintain order. lie was a fair- liaircd young' Gernuin, with the mild, simple look so frecpient among his countrymen. 1 gave liini niv hoi tie of stronji* acid to hold while 1 descended })y the unsteady ladder, so that he had both hands lull. At that moment a heavv sea struck the ship, threw the poor German u])on the deck, and scattered over him nearly the whole two ounces of burning li(jnid. Down came his cutlass npon me. lie fell bellowin<^ and rolliuf];; on the slushv deck like a mad- man. 1 thought he would have pushed through the loose Hap of the bulwark into the sea. His shrieks and contortions were dreadful. I II' I il: !i! nil I 4 THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. I took off the upper parts of his dress, and san- that the vitriol had burnt off large strips of skin and flesh from the face, all down the back and breast. I dashed magnesia water over him, and, laying myself down by the poor fellow (as tlie only means of making him drink), I contrived to pour down his throat, in spite of his convulsive throes, an hundred drops of laudanum. This produced a lull. I repeated the dose twice at small intervals, until he was preity well stupified. As the hot, stifling berth in the hold would do harm, I allowed him to lie in the rain on the wet deck for three or four hours, and only padded his sores with fine cotton — giving from time to time a little more laudanum. As he was then becoming cold, we placed him in a berth below ; and he was very grateful for some warm tea. On stripping him further, we found his legs, too, were peeled. For three days he was in great torment ; and a month elapsed before he was convalescent. I remember but few cases where my feelings were so painfully drawn upon as in this of the amiable and patient German. The rolling, greasy deck, the sheets of drenching spray, the falling rain, and the crowding of affrighted spectators — fS THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. 5 together witli the agony of the young soldier (caused by myself), made out a scene of gloom and misery which quite overwhelmed me. During his medical treatment, the doctor and patient becp.nie great f:'iends. Many were the tit-bits begged from the officers' mess ; and books were supplied, to give pleasure and profit to the weary hour. As we lay becalmed on the banks of New- foundland, fishing for cod was a great treat to all ranks on board ; both in the catching with hook and line, and in the eating. Tlie fog was so penetrating as to soak with moisture the blankets in our state-cabins : and yet no one caught cold ; and so dense was it, that sometimes we could not see the length of our small vessel. Not being certain of our position, a boat, into which I jumped, was sent out to sound. Tlie sailors soon learnt where they were from the nature of the bottom. During our absence, kettles, bells, and bugles, were kept sounding terrifically on board the good ship, or we never should have found it again ; for at twenty yards' distance we lost sight of her. I shall never forget the vast magnifying effect of the mist on the ship, her spread sails, shrouds, and cordage. She loomed into sight an im- ■at Ill I i I ! 1 ! ( ! i < Mi 6 THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. inense white mass, filling' linlf rlie heavens. Young travellers should, on principle, bo always placing themselves within reach of new im- pressions. Our German soldiers were rcmarknhly docile and good-humoured. Every tolerable evening, a party of them sat in the forecastle, n])on the oeam which carries the ship's bell, and sang in parts the beautiful .lirs of their fatherland. We sailed close past the Isle of St. Pail in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and thence onwards, very favourably. One fine morning, looking through the porthole of my little cabin, with joy and surprise I saw a pretty shore about half a mile off — a crescent beach of brio-ht vellow sand, with low rocks and woods behind. It was a bight on the coast of Labrador, where we had anchored durino; the niirht in a fo<2:. We soon set sail again, and in due time anchored off Apple Island, sixty or seventy njiles below Quebec. While waiting for a favouralile tide we went on shore, and found the island loaded with ripe bilberries {Vaccinium Cavadcnse), and in its centre a spring of pure fresh water, bubbling up from beneath a smooth brown rock. The sugar- loaf mountains of New Brunswick were on the south-east in the remote distance, and a low, I heavens. ?. always lew im- y docile cniiig-, a lie ueam in 2^arts Pail in )nwarcls, look in 2: with joy t lialf a iw sand, ^yas a wc had 16 time V Hiiles e went ith ripe in its ling- lip sugar- on the a low, I THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. 7 riiixsed wilderness on our north, -with a few fishermen's huts on the margin of the water. Only those who have been pent up among tlie evil scents and dissonant noises of a ship can estimate the i)leasiire of a wash, a fragrant stroll, and a banquet upon the juicy fruit of America for the first time. Awaking early next morning, we found the anchor raised and our ship driving rapidly up a magnificent but slow^ly narrowing gulf, twenty to thirty miles broad. On our north were moun- tainous forests, dimpled and cut through by populous valleys (Ebouleujents. St. Paul); while on the south shore we saw gentle uplands, for the most part cultivated, with the white dwell- ings of the peasantry picturesquely beading the edge of the river St. Lawrence. By this time we had a first-rate river-hurricane. Two sails were blown to rags. Tide assisting, we drove on under bare poles, at the rate of seven- teen to eighteen miles an hour. The winds tore off tlie sharp white crests of the waves, and dashed tlieni in our faces. Two or three of those sportive fish called " thrashers," a kind of whale, of a shining white colour, were not far off, rush- ing about in uproarious pastime, and occasionally flinging themselves out of the sea bodily. It was a most animatinir scene. 8 THE VOYAGE TO QUEBEC. li' We soon came abreast of the large island of Orleans, and pursued a narrow channel between it and the south shore for ten or twelve miles, when a most splendid panorama burst upon our sight, as we began to cross a basin in front of Quebec, more than a league broad. *to the left we had the pine-clad rocks, scat- tered white houses, and trim churches of Point L^-vi ; to the right, the lengthy village of Beau- port, and the graceful cascade of Montmorenci, screened by purple mountains. Before us, in front, was the fine city of Quebec, crowning a lofty promontory, and alternately in gloom and gleam with tie scud of the tempest ; while the battlements of Cape Diamond, overlooking the city, were seen to extend out of sight up the now contracted river. Some vessels of war, with crowds of merchant-ships and steamers, fringed the shore.* Imagination had no difficulty in placing this noble and varied picture in its ap- propriate frame, " the amplitudes of savage and solitary nature" all around, and reaching to the Arctic circle. * Among other vessels was one which left Portsmouth on the same day that we did, and arrived three hours before us, without our having once seen each other on the voyage. i ■\ I island of I between ve miles, upon our . front of :ks, scat- of Point of Beau- morenci, e us, in )vvning a 3om and vh'ile the king the ; up the ^ar, with , fringed culty in 1 its ap- age and 2; to the ith on the IS, without M ! .'i 11' urn I n I I '■5 i ,;,' :fi --H / ',^ i,a : '•'(/ ".' 'iy 1 '3 3 • X D. V, 7 1 > \ t i 1 QUEBEC AND ITS jiNVIRONS. SCENERY AND SOCIETY. Walk round Quebec — "Winter — The Irisli Poor — Society, its Materids — Anecdotes — Charivari — Public Institutions — The Vicinity, &c. Vn E soon cast anclior. I landed on one of tke quays of the lower town, and found myself amid a jumble of dingy, heavy-built houses and ware- houses, overhung by very high, perpendicular rocks in smooth sheets, and bearinjr on their brow, so far as I could see from hence, princi- pally, the broad fagade of the Cliateau St. Louis, the residence of the Governor-general. A little way from the water's edge, Mountain Street begins to wind up a cleft in the precipice laboriously steep. One-third of the way up I looked down Break- neck Stairs,* a long flight of steps leading down to the narrow and picturesque Chaniplain Street. * So called from an officer having ridden down them without breaking his neck. I , 1'^ I I I i 11! 1 10 QUEBEC AND ITS EWIKONS. ContiiHiiiiij; my upward coiirso, I at leniilli thankfully found level bia. Soutli-westwards (ii]) tbo river) we bave, rising in woody steeps, about J3()() feet above tbe St. Law- rence, tlie battle-plain of A])rabani, now a stony pasture and race-course, but for ever ineniora])le as tbe spot wbero died Wolfe and IMontcalin, — men of views, ;ind aims, and cpialities I'ar in advance of tbei." age. Tbe plain is sbut in by pine-woods, Avbicb bide several pretty villas and all tbe country beyond. Bebind nie, as i now stand, and far below, tbe ti(l(! runs rongbly and sv/iftly up tbe river.* Im- mediately at our feet lies tbe dusky and dense city of Quebec, witb its bouses, cburcbes, con- vents, barracks, and otber public edifices, all gloomy and beavy roofed, stretciiing away into tbe gradually vanisbing suburbs of St. Jobn and St. Koque. * The river channel was not worn down and formed by itself, but left alter some great convulsion, which raised the ])roaiontory of Quebec to its present lu'iglit. Its rocks have been uplieaved and torn violently from the adjacent and continuous horizontal strata of limestone. The black limestone of Quebec is perpen- dicular, or at a very high angle, while its kindred rock all over Canada and the state of New York is horizontal, lying now as it was deposited. ; 1 ' 1 ' 1 I ; 1 I ; ! I Ml ill 1 12 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. We observe that the city is completely girt •w'ith military defences, with occasionally a mas- sive gate, and empty spaces within the walls, either for promenades or markets. We hear a regimental band playing on tlie esplanade, near the St. Louis gate, before a crowd of soldiers and spectators. Passing the eye northwards over the city, it crosses seven miles or more of a rough, partially- cultivated country, dotted with houses, to rest upon a range of steep wooded mountains, which strike the St. Lawrence at Capo Tourment; a black headland, remote, but still high and im- posing. LooUini>; now easterlv, we have below us the ample basin of Quebec, alive with ships; and the placid island of Oi-leans on the far side, tv/enty miles long, and almost filling up the river. The immediate south shore, we perceive, is rugged and high, occupied with dwellings, and farms near at hand, while the more distant re- gion, the valley of the Chaudicre chiefly, is a sea of undulating forests, extending within sight, I verily believe, of the frontiers of the United States.* * In •winter this whole scene is most splendid, hut in a different way. With the exception of the high-pitched roofs of the houses in the town beneath, whose smooth metallic coverings will not allow the snow to rest, the hues of summer are gone. The whole region — the city, suburbs, environs, the plains and slopes, with QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIHONS. 13 Let us now descend into the town. It i3 a strange place to the mere English. In its archi- tecture it is French, or perhaps it resoniblcs yet more the semi-palatial niassiveness of Augsburg. Standing aloft in the air, swept in winter by Siberian blasts, thick walls and double windows are indispensable at Quebec. the t'aim fences — lie asleep, as it wore, under a vast envelope of snow, crystalline and dazzling wliite, while the steeper parts ol' tlie sugiir-louf mountains are of a glowini^ purple. The St. Lawrence looks dull and leaden, full of ice-fifld?, with here and there an up-torn tree, the sport of the incessant tides, forming a singular contrast by its drear aspect with the glittering snow and snppliire sky. Every morning during winter, while at breakfast, I had before mc the animating sight of hundreds of the peasantry cms.-ing with laden canoes the Ijoisterous strait between Point Levi and Qucl'ec, at one time pushing their canoes across the floes, and at another paddling through clear water. About every third winter these wandering sheets of ice become fixed, jammed up by a strong wind, and cemented together by two or three sharp niglits. Tliis is an event of public interest, and very useful. A couple of hundred soldiers are sent to mark out the road, by planting young pines at short distances, and winding among high mounds of upheaved sheets and blocks of iec. A very picturesque scene it is. We are in a deep trougli or chasm: on the 0!ie side are the Lauzon Precipices (Point Li'vL continued), fringed with pines ; and on the other the city, with its roofs and spires sparkling under a cloudless sun. Indeed the skies are here perfectly Italian, e.\cei)t during the snow-storms, which, by the way, for violence must be seen to he apjjreciated. I have repeatedly obs',.'rved, in severe frosts, the singular fact, — that when the snow has been hard packed it rings on being struck, or chnks, like basalt or greenstone. .'■W il. i II I! ii II 14 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIKONS. Tills olcvjition, liowGvcr, lias its advantaj^os ali^o, ])articularly in tlio heats of summer; and there is scarcely a turn or opcniiii;- iu any of the streets which does not present to the surprised and charmed siLj;ht an cx(juisitc picture of hri^-ht waters and mountains, I'ramed in the time-stained rampai't or niouhh'rin^- convent wall. My friend, Mr. Adams, (J. J*^., made a heaulifid series of coloured sketclies of lhe>e ])ee[)s, whicli I u'rejitly coveted. As I am not writing topop:raj)hy, I sliall frinii)ly say that we soon found ourselve? in a grotestjue old market-place, admirahly delineated hy Dart- lett, with a hiackened Jesuits' college, now a har- rack, on one side, and a hirgo unsightly Roman Catholic church opposite ; the two other sides being filled up with antique dwellings, their roofs pierced with windows. From the market-place there diverge a nunihcr of streets with stifl', heetle-browcd houses, and some sleepy retail shojis, leading cither into the country by some sentinelled gateway, or down to the Lower Town. East of the niarket-placo is St. Louis Street, long, broad, and handsome, the residence of many officials. It has the esplanade, already alluded to, at its south-west end ; the English church, the Place d'Armes, and, until latelv, the Chateau I ■.V t QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 15 St. Louis, at its iiortli-east eiul. Tlie clii'itoiiii ivas burnt down not long- ago, and its site con- verted into a ))roinenad(i of extreme beauty. There is at the head ol' Mountain Street a convenient House ofAssend)!}', overlooking tiio St. F^awrence ^)a^in, and an extensive j)ile of binidin^s used as a Catlioiic sendnary. J laving" mentioned tlie respectable Court of Justice and the Albion liotid, now converted into ])ul)lic oiKces, 1 do not leave unnolieed any very p; juunent structure. The subnr])s of St. Louis, St. John, and St. Roquo, idthouuli larno, are mere r(,'Ctangular streets, of woo(k'n houses, for tin? most part un- T)aved, and only with an cdii'inii," on the side- walks, of squared logs, to keep the pedestrian out of the d(!('[) ([ungmire whicii six months out of the twelve reigns trium})hant in the carriage- way. Near St. Uoque is a sj)acious and hand- some hospital, built under the French nujime. It is in full employ. ?sear St. Roque, also, the River St. Charles passes from the mountains to join the St. Law- rence. Around its slimy end)ouchure are various breweries and ship-building establishments, which with the timber trade form the staple occupations of Quebec. We were never allowed to foru'et that wc were i il '!|l ii'i m \ ' II! I Ml ; 16 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. ill a military stronghold, especially when we ap- proached the outskirts, bristling and defiant with its covered ways, walls, and bastions, its cannon and pyramids of iron balls guarded by jealous sentries innumerable. We meet not only the French shopkeeper, tlie active and somewhut as- suming English merchant, the sea-captain and his ruddy, whiskered sailors, but everywhere and con- tinually, military of all arms, palpably forming an important portion of the general population. Tlie French physiognomy and manners every- where prevail. The young have usually slight figures, short faces, and dark, quick eyes ; the old are very wrinkled, but the step is firm, the fire of the bright eye un(|uenched, and many a mouth is made happy by a short pipe. I was surprised to find pigtails lingering amon<>' the old men, amonii' other relics of the days of Louis XV., and therefore did not wonder in 1837 on being told that a grenadier of Auster- litz and Fricdland finds himself at home as beadle of the larae church of St. Mark on the banks of the lliche'ieu. All the native Canadians of the working- class are dressed in a coarse jrrev cloth of their own manufacture, with the warm hooded capote in winter, of the same colour, bound close to the body by a worsted sash of many gay hues. QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 17 The women of the lower orders, dressed in purple and red, as in Normandy, are noisy and brisk. They have the easy, elastic vva.k, and the amiable look, of their sisters in Frcince, the same neatly-clad feet, the same ready ability and self- confidence. You may see some few charming faces and figures among the very young ; but the climate, the stoves, the hard work, and especially the early loss of teeth, destroy all this before the attainment of their thirtieth year. We do not go far into the streets without meet- ing an Indian or two, squalid and abject, not revellina; in vermillion and feathered finerv, like their brethren of the far interior. In the course of the ensuing winter I soon found out, that if we hear the multitudinous barkin"' of curs in the street, it is caused by their besetting and snapping at Indians, who have come from the woods, or from their village of Lorette, to beg, or to sell game and baskets. The extreme antipathy of town-bred dogs to Indians partly arises from their peculiar odour, which is perceptible at some distance, but to me is not disagreeable.* The Indians take little more * A short time ago the Indians of the Red River settlement memorialised the Church Missionary Society to send them a missionary — not a new one, hut the Rev. Rlr. Cockran, who, said they, " was accustomed to their stink." VOL. I. C I^III M . \\ 18 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. notice of this annoyance than an occasional lunge with a stick at any clog who comes too forward. The troops of large wolfish dogs which rush upon the traveller, riding or on foot, as he enters any Canadian village, is a great nuisance. They accompany him, as he traverses the place, with open mouth and loud cries, beyond the very last house. It is high time to put an end to this our first and very gratifying walk round Quebec. On our return to the hotel, our affable landh dy surprised us at supper with some prime beaver-tail, \vhich gave rise to niucli talk and many opinions as to its nieiits ; and the next day, dining at a regi- mental mess, JL partook of a sparerib of bear, and found it excellent. In common with several of my ship companions I wintered in this city, and collected the desultory observations which now follow. I scarcely know of anything more interesting to a mini of an active and inquiring spirit than a winter residence at Quebec. If it be pleasant to dwell among an intelligent and ])roverbially social community ; if, taking higher ground, it be pleasant to be a sympathising observer amid a people educating for great desti- nies, busily working out their material prosperity '^i ..:^ QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 19 al lungG forward, isli upon ters any . They ce, witli i^ery last our first On oar urpriscd 1, which ns as to a regi- aar, and pan ions esultory stnig to than a elligent takins: ithising t desti- )sperity by means of their great river, and its mediter- raneans of fresh water (gifts incstiinahle), planting and fostering tlie institutions of science, cliarity, and rehii'ion ; then Quehec is an eminently desir- abk; abode and watch-tower. At Quebec we have ail the singularities and novelties of Tobolsk, without a Russian governor, his fiery beard, and fetters. Tlie town stands so high that all the atnios])heric chaniics of a Siberian climate, so u'loomy and so brilliant bv turns, are in full disiihiv. Tdaiu' of the houses look directly U])on the wilderness, its mountains and floods, so that IVorn your double- windowed druwinii'-rooni vou can witness in tlieir birth and explosion either the black-grey, blinding, chokinu" snow-storm of the cold season, or the almost unerpudled electric tempests of the warn]. To gaze upon the aurora boreulis of this region is worth a lonij voyaii'e. In the streets we walk, with spikes in our shoes, u])on ice three and six feet thick, in heavy fur caps and wrappers. We meet with milk for sale, carried about in cabbage-nets ; frozen fish, which come to life again ; we see stout little horses piimed, or all but })inned, to the ground by icicles hangingfrom their noses, sonietimes three feet long. 'twice within five minutes I have informed persons that their nose or ear was frost-bitten. 4 ! l!" i : i II •IM i!' I ^ ii:i !; I II 20 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. Sunshine and the heavens are usually as bright as in Italy. It is then that you daily hear in the streets a concert of musical horsehells, giving notice that one or other of the numerous cavalcac' :.-) of elejrant sledges are in motion, filled with beauty and fashion, lying warm in a profusion of furs. They are on their way, in long lines, to some well-known place of resort, as Lake Charles or Montmorenci, or are merely parading the town, as the wont is ; and it is a charming sight. The sportsman has free scope for his skill and endurance in the neighbourhood of Quebec. Elks, bear?, and deer, may be found in their native woods at no great distance, but fifty or sixty miles off they are always to be encountered, with the assistance of the Lorette Indians. Snipe, wild duck, &c. Sec. are abundant much nearer.* It is true that Quebec, in north latitude 47°, has the w'inter of St. Petersburgh in north lati- * To see a sportsman, as you may here occasionally do, drifting slowly down a wintry river in c. white boat, disguised by an ice- like pile of white calico, towards, and finally into, a flock of wild ducks peacefully feeding, is a painfully interesting sight. The discharge takes place. Up rise the affrighted birds ; ten or twenty arc struggling, wounded, in the water; and the exulting fowler collects his prey. On this subject I know no book so life-like and entertaining as Tolfrey's " Sportsman in Canada." To this inexpensive work I refer the reader altogether for information on this head. QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. ♦21 as bright streets a 3tice that of elegant auty and •s. They lU-knowii imorenci, wont is; skill and ;c. Elks, ir native xty miles with the pe, wild # • ude 47°, rth lati- taining as ive work I tude 60°, and, at the same lime, a summer more oppressively hot than Paris. Its mean annual temperature is 37° 5' Fahr., that of London being 49°. There is perhaps no part of the world where the annual range of the thermometer is greater than at Quebec ; it is here 128°. In the course of a day I have seen a descent of from 37° Fahr. to 28° below zero. Three principal reasons have been adduced by Dr. Rolph of Toronto to explain the fact of Nortli America being much colder than Europe in the higher corresponding latitudes. They are, first, the greater proximity of the vast body of ice and snow stretching southwards from the Arctic regions ; secondly, the nmltitudes of frozen lakes in Hudson's Bay ; and thirdly, the absence of a mountain barrier to screen the Canadas from the cold winds of tVii north-west and west. These, I may add, are the prevailing winds, and bring to the Atlantic coasts not only the Arctic temperature, but the extreme cold of the Rocky Mountains, and the bare and lofty plains on their east. Lower Canada is, in fact, placed in the zone of transition between the polar and temperate cli- mates, and would have been probably far colder than it is, were it not for the admirable provision IP 1 1 (i ! I 1 .ji IS 22 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. of nature, that water, in freezing, liberates a laro-e amount of heat which had been latent, and so raises the general temperature. It is remarkable that the longer the European remains in Lower Canada the more susceptible he becomes of cold. For the first two or three winters he scarcely feels it; but afterwards his wrappings gradually increase, till at last he is buried in furs and woollens. So it is with the heats of India. Dr. Kelly, in an excellent paper published in the third volume of the " Literary and Historical Society of Quebec," mentions that the average mortality of Canadian towns is nearly double that of the country. He accounts for this by stating, that at Quebec, &c. (I know it too well) there is no regular system of cle;jning the streets ; that the public sewers are in such a state that some of the houses in one of the principal streets are scarcely habitable at times from stench. lie adds, tliat the sewers open into the lower town most offensively. The suburbs, with few excep- tions, have neither paving nor sewers. After the melting of the snow, in April and May, the streets of the flat suburb of St. Hoche become ponds or sloughs of ice, melting and mixing ■with the accumulated putridities of the -whole winter. QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 23 berates a tent, and European ptible he or three lards his nst he is with the lislied in listorical averaofe ible that stating-, there is ts ; that some of ets are ^. lie 3r town ■ excep- f'ter the ay, the become mixing whole I hope there are few towns in Christendom where such an amount of disease and desti- tution exists as in Quebec. There are still fewer, I am sure, where it is met by a charity so untiring by the various Christian denomina- tions. I shall not record the names of those who were most conspicuous in this holy labour ; they have no wish to be known beyond the sphere they adorn and bless. This misery does not touch the native poor, but the fever-stricken, naked, and friendless Irish — a people truly " scattered and peeled" — who year after year are thrown in shoals upon the wharfs of (Quebec from ships which ought to be called "itinerant pest-houses." These unwelcome outcasts are crowded, without proper provision, into vessels fitted up almost slave-ship fashion, by the agents of impoverished and unprincipled landlords, who rely on the pub- lic and private commiseration of the western world ; and it has been taxed beyond endurance. Much of the guiit, certainly, lies upon the Irish Government, who do little or notliing to prevent so frightful a state of things. Thus matters con- tinue to the present hour, I believe ; worse rather than better. These poor creatures, on landing, creep into any hovel they can, with all their foul things 1' .11 !l ill ''Mini li ii 1 I I I'iiii "\-'" Ml' 1|i! !':i 24 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. about them. When they are so numerous as to figure in the streets, they are put, I believe by the Colonial Government, into dilapidated houses, with something like rations, of which latter the worthier portion of the emigrants are apt to see but little : they are clutched by the clamorous. The filthy and crowded state of the houses, the disgusting scenes going on in them, can only be guessed by a very bold imagination. I have trod the floor of one of such houses, almost over shoes in churned and sodden garbage, animal and V€|^'etable. It required dissecting-room nerves to bear it. After starving about Quebec for months, the helpless Irishman and his family begin to creep up the country on charity or government aid, and thus strew the colony with beggary and disease. A Quebec winter does not allow of 'izzaronism. Some perish, some are absorbed into the general population, and many more go into the United States. For six winter months I was medical officer to the emigrants at Quebec, whether in hospital or in forlorn lodgings ; until, in fact, I nearly lost my life by typhus and dysentery. While so em- ployed, I have often been deeply interested in the history of individual families, in their misfortunes from villany, inexperience, sickness, and the like. QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 25 US as to ieve by houses, iter the t to see •roiis. ses, the onlv be ve trod r shoes nl and rves to IS, the ) creep it aid, y and !ow of sorbed )re go cer to tal or >st niy em- In the tunes like. The resignation manifested by young and old has been marvellous ; and more than once have I had the pleasure of seeing my poor friends led on, in the course of time, even to prosperity. IMany of the beds in the low lodging-houses of Quebec are in recesses made in the walls. Not unfrequently, when I have entered on duty a dark and crowded apartment, containing several of these impure holes, I have seen a large black mass of clothes half thrust into one of them. It was the present excellent Bishop of IVIontreal (Dr. ^Mountain), in his bulky winter dress, admi- nistering religious instruction to tlie sick, utterly regardless of the poison he was breathing, and anxious only to console and succour. His lordship reads the service of Common Prayer in a very singular manner, no doubt uncon- sciously. On my first hearing him, and not being- acquainted with his apostolic character, I could not help smiling; but when 1 found out whose ftiilhful disciple and servant he was, I smiled no more. The remedies for the miseries I have been briefly describing lie in a well-paid and well- organised system at home for the licensing and inspection of emigrant ships ; and another in the colonies for the reception and distribution of the 26 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. I : II rniii' :1 il VI Jl new comers, especially during the present tran- sition state of Ireland. Society at Quebec, in the usual accepted mean- ing of the word, as formed of people of talent, acquirements, good income, and good temper, is of a very superior and varied kind ; not, however, in summer, because then every one is cither absent or extremely busy. The materials for this good society are furnished by the vice-regal court, the ministers of religion, the numerous members of the Colonial Legis- latures, the courts of law, the French gentry coming in from their seigniories, the professions, the large garrison. I am sorry to place (acci- dentally) last in this list the truly respectable and hospitable class of resident merchants and their families, who, although overworked in summer, are permitted in winter to indulge in a well-earned repose. During this season the Ca- nadian capital exhibits a perpetual flow of dinners, balls, concerts, governor's receptions, pic-nic parties, kc. &c., for men of good income. For the poor soldier, and the labouring class gene- / rally, the only recreation is, or was, that of the dram-shop and canteen. I served under two governors-general, the late Duke of Richmond and the late Earl of / QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 27 nt tran- i mean- ' talent, "per, is ovvever, cither rnished iligion, Legis- geiitry ssions, (acci- jctable ts and ed in e in a 18 Ca- tiners, ic-nic For ^ene- if the , the rl of D.'illiousic, — two men, thouij;h botli Scotchmen I think, as dissimilar as could well be found. Tlie Duke was Irish all over, frank, benevo- lent, sanguine, expensive, a lover of sporting men, and of an occasional gentlemanly carouse. In the exercise of his public functions he was most probably bound hand and foot to the narrow policy of the Castlereagh ministry. The Duke of irichmond died of hydrophobia very distressingly in the backwoods of the liiver Ottawa. A Plantagenet dying thus in a hovel in a Canadian wild might be made a very searching text. He was popular and much lamented. Lord Dalhousie was a very favourable specimen of the Scottish mind. He was a quiet, studious, domestic man, faithful to his \vord, and kind, but rather dry. He spoke and acted by measure, as if he were in an enemy's land ; and so, in truth, he was, because, in the face of the most powerful and determined opposition, he was honestly carrying out, as well as he could, the instructions of ill-informed men residing three thousand miles away. Both these noblemen exercised a generous hos])itality. Lady Dalhousie was a pattern of every virtue to the whole colony, an accomplished and highly educated person. She received her company IPiiJ:' I 1 11 11 I ; I i I till ) III •ii ;i V\\ 28 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. with a quiet, self-possessed grace, wliic , while it encoiirat^cd the timid, repelled the undue fami- liarity of her promiscuous visitors. She had tlie precious art of making the right people talk, and to some agreeable or useful purpose. She herself excelled in miniature-painting and botany. I have little to say resjiecting the Quebec clergy. Tiiey were personally amiable. They worked the outward machinerv of the Church of lingland witli professional accuracy, but I fear they did little more than visit and relieve the sick when called upon. The archdeacon, Dr. INIountain, however, of whom mention has already been made, was a priest after another and a better order. IIow beautiful it is to watch the effects upon a congregation of an earnest ministry — to sec how the little, secret lamps of love and service light up, one after another — how they brighten, enlarge, and multiply under the teaching, until suddenly they burst into one great and beneficent illumination, which cannot be hid, and which manifests itself in painstaking labours for the souls and bodies of men. A congregation thus becomes one compact spi- ritual host, prepared to work for their Master's glory in a thousand ways, — as a refuge for the sinful and miserable, a training-school for the ■ QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 29 while it le fanii- had the ilk, and 2 herself Quebec They Cliurch t I fear 3ve the 11, Dr. already I better upon to see service hten, until eficent which 3r the ct spi- aster's 3r the )r the 1 1 1 - a vounp:, a support to the feeble and aged, and a buckler to tl»e oppressed. But ^vhat is a congregation now, too fre- quently ? Its members know nothing of each other; and often sit as coldly and unconcernedly in a church as in a railway waiting-room. Quebec always had a well-conducted garrison, men and officers in a high state of efficiency and discipline. I recollect well that we head the dashing and dressy ensign, the more prudent lieutenant, the sententious field-officer, and tlie thouii'htful and reserved general in command, with his high-bred aides-du-cam[), — the latter, frivolous as they may occasionally seem yt his excellency's table, when the i)incli comes usually shew that they are gal- lant and capable men. There were here in the army a few fast men — some of them full of misapplied talent — fountrins of fun and laughter which never failed. I think it hardly possible to excel the mime and panto- mime of two gentlemen in particular; whom to describe more nearly would not be fair, as they are yet among the living, and not noted for gravity. I shall never forget the life-like description, pronounced and acted by one of these merry mwj ! I'i !.' I '■'I ! ! 1 "!'!' Hi I I li !il 30 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. sprites, of an old original Dugald Dalg'etty (a Ger- man colonel), being canted out of a sledge into a snow-wreath — the torrent of ul)n«c in bad English the flight of passions across 's explanations, and the final — tl his face, the le cTimacnigs, room settlinn; of the storm into the Q'ood colonel's usual stiff and silent complacency. Of course the fast men were ofren in difficulties. There was in the garrison a very handsome lieu- tenant (now dead). lie was an universal favourite for his . arions social qualities ; but he had little or no private fortune, and good society requires a full })urse. lie tlicreforc got into arrears with his tailor and others. At this time there resided at Quebec a man of immense wealth and nmch geiierositv. The lieu- tenant one morninLr boldlv laid his case before this Croesus, as many other rcsj^ei'taldc persons had done theirs, and successfully. He instantly received a cheque for the required amount. Six months afterwards the young officer returned with a similar tale. The rich man looked very blue upon him, and saying, " Sir, I am sorry to perceive that your indebtedness is not an accident, but a habit," he retired into his bedroom. After waiting for his return in vain for a quarter of an hour, Lieutenant \\ . retired. QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 31 y (a Ger- l^e into a Eng-linli IS across tlie final I's usual ficulties. ne lieu- avourite Eld little re([uires irs with man of iG lieu- be fore persons stantly t. Six turned d \ery orrv to ddent, After of an Mr. N. was a plain, quiet man, of about fifty years of age, and occupied a parlour and bedroom at a hair-dresser's in Mountain Street. His cliarities were very large, and at the same time judicious. He had been very poor at Quebec a year or two previous to succeeding to a fortune of from 15,000/. to 20,000/. per annum, about the year 1822, and was then glad to accept an occasional dinner from a little schoohnaster in the Lower Town. Upon him Mr. N. settled an annuity of 200/. The wliole liistorv of tliis gentleman is a ro- mance — his agreement with the schoolfellow who left him liis fortune that the survivor sliould take all ; their separation for life ; the sliipwreck and other misfortunes of Mr. N. ; his cultivating a little barren })atcli in Labi'ador when advertised for as the owner of a pi'incely property ; his sub- sequently living on one of the lonely but jjeauti- ful Hero Islands in Lake Cham])lain, made cele- brated in Cooper's " Last of the Mohicans;" and his final removal to one of the less fre([ueuted cantons of Switzerland, where he became natu- ralised, and not long after died. Among the great variety of capacities and dis- positions afforded by the other porhons of general society there was ample room for selection, from grave to gay, from the scientific to the elegant m]\y\ ii iii V ) Ij » i II ( Ij I Hi til I I t t j i i 'i \ 'i! :• 32 and QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. iplished. In the days I speak of, acconij man fond of discussion, full of wit, anecdote, and startling notions — not always the soundest — the highly- gifted son of the most popular of our law- writers (Judge Blackstone), was always happy to descant over a moderate wine-cup with a kindred spirit until sunrise. Another son of the law, a district judge, was quite as remarkahle a personage. He was a large pale-faced man, odd, absent, unecpial, ingenious far beyond ordinary men, learned and eloquent, abounding in all knowledge save that which might profit himself. He was as artless as a child, ever in perplexity, but ever I'eady to serve others (Judge Fletcher). He fancied he had been bitten by a mad dog, and sat all day long (for a time) on his door-steps in colonial simplieit}'^, calling out to the passer-by that the poison was ripening, and that he should explode soon in hydrophobic rage. He was mistaken, and lived several years after to lose his office by some blunder or other. He died in the Eastern townships. He possessed a very large and excellent library. Any one fond of politics might interest himself, but not mingle, in the fierce and unceasing struggle going on between the Governor-general with his officials and the House of Assembly ; QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 33 ik of, a ote, and est — the Dur law- lappy to kindred Ige, was 5 a larjje i2;enious loquent, li uiig-lit Id, ever ! others n bitten a time) calling lening, phobic il years other. issessed limself, ceasing general jmbly ; botli parties ardent and able, the foremost on each side trained by an European and legal edu- cation, as well as tlioroughly well informed in everything relating to the personages and trans- actions of the mother-country. In Lower Canada there is a very considerable number of ancient French families, worthily bear- ins: tlie high-sounding names of Okl France, such us Du Plessis, De Salaberry, and Montizambert. Son^e possess a good deal of landed property ; others hold secondary official situations. From one reason or another — the late dinner-hour or tlie stiff' manners of the Endish — thev seldom appear out of their own national coteries, save from time to time at the Chateau St. Louis. This is to l)e lamented. Tlie Fi'ench families are very sociable among themselves, and together with tlie French figure and general appearance display in their gestures and tones the same vivacitv and ea^er interest in trifles we see in them at Paris. They are attentive to their religious duties, and keep up many old ob- servances which elsewhere are dvin<>- awav. The Continental custom of visiting all acrpuiintances on iSew-Year's day, so useful and laudable, is practised at Quebec with great spirit, and not 3 Fi'ench sentry, b »ly hy by jgli of all classes. I believe that many a rising TOL. 1. I aM W r < '1 i J JU h: I I I ■ I I' il I'.l i| I I ! f J I A ii 34 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. enmity has been dissipated by the kind words and small presents which on this day are ex- changed. The French children ire very interesting little creatures. When arrived at their teens they have an exceedingly pretty dance, called " La Ronde," which, from great ignorance of the saltatory art perhaps, I never saw before. It is accompanied by an air and words of its own, both lively and musical. The French Canadian has brouglit from his dear France one remarkable custom, — the chari- vari, and has improved upon it. It is intended to reach delinquents not amenable to the common process of law — offenders against propriety and the public sense of honour. Ill-assorted mar- riages are its especial objects. I need not say that a charivari is an unpleasant incident in an honeymoon — itself perhaps none of the sweetest. It is a procession on a large scale by torchlight in the evening. In many cases the attack is met courteously, with lighted halls and a cold collation to the principal actors, when the din and hubbub cease, and the thing ends. But it is not always so ; — not in the charivari I witnessed. I fear that these celebrations are sometimes unjust. It perhaps was unfairly applied in the instance which I am about to sketch. QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 35 id words ^ are ex- ting little they have Tlonde," atory art )mpanied ively and from his he chari- intended common riety and :ed mar- not say nt in an sweetest. orchlio;ht .'k is met collation hubbub )t always metimes d in the Here a stout, high-spirited young adjutant of a marching regiment, thought well to marry the widow — still handsome and but little past her prime — of an opulent brewer. She was of a good French family, and resembled the famous widow of Kent in having a most agreeable annual income. For aught I know she may have thrown off her Aveeds too soon, or was thought to have made a mesalliance. Be these things as they may, there was a charivari. I was at home, in one of the principal streets, when my ears were assailed with loud, dissonant, and altogether incomprehensible noises, gradu- ally drawing nearer and nearer. A broad red li^•ht soon began to glare upon the houses and fill the street. The throng slowly arrived and slowly passed my door. I will try to describe some parts of the show. First came a strange figure, masked, with a cocked hat and sword — he was very like the grotesque beadle we see in French churches ; then came strutting a little hump-backed crea- ture in brown, red, and yellow, with beak and tail, to represent the Gallic cock. Fifteen or sixteen people followed in the garb of Indians, some wearing cows'-horns on their heads. Then came two men in white slieets, bearing a paper coffin of great size, lighted from within, and 3G QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. ' I 111 having skulls, cross-bones, and initials painted in black on its sides. This was surrounded by men blowing horns, beating pot-lids, poker and tongs, whirling watchmen's rattles, whistling, and so on. To these succeeded a number of Chinese lanterns, borne aloft on high poles and mixed with blazing torches — small flags, black and white — more rough music. Close after came more torches, clatter, and fantastic disguises — the whole sur- rounded and accompanied by a large rabble rout, who kept up an irregular fire of yells, which now and then massed and swelled into a body of sound audible over all the neighbourhood. The whole city was perambulated before pro- ceeding to the fated mansion of the widow-bride ; but at last they arrived at her door and drew up before it. The large, handsome house, was silent and dark — the window-shutters were closed ; there was evidently to be no friendly feast — per- haps some music, but no harmony. The charivari was puzzled, but shewed pluck. It brayed, and blew, and roared, and shook torch and lantern, and might have done so all the bitter night through, as it appeared to me, stand- ing at a cowardly distance, when on a sudden the large front door opened, and out rushed the manly figure of the adjutant, with ten or twelve assistants in plain clothes, (brother officers, I QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 37 linted in by men d tongs, d so on. anterns, blazing — more torches, ole sur- )le rout, ich now )f sound pre pro- r-bride ; Irew up IS silent closed ; — per- pluck. k torch all the stand- sudden led the twelve leers, I fear), and armed with cudgels. To work they went upon the defenceless crowd, and especially among the masquers, where the torches gave useful light. The whole attack and flight was an aifair of a few moments — the fun-loving crowd, actors and spectators, fled amain — and gone in an incredibly short space of time were torches, lantprns, coftin, kettles, buffaloes' heads, &:c. One unhappy little hunch-back, in the disguise of a Gallic cock, the bridegroom seized and began to belabour, but he most i)iteously confessed him- self to be the well-known editor of a local paper, and was dismissed with a shake, and told that in future cripples crowing in charivaris would always be treated as able-bodied men. I cannot but think, with the insulted lady, that the mum- mers were well served. ' The philanthropic institutions, supported by pri- vate or public funds, are very numerous. Among the principal may be mentioned several hospitals, a lunatic asylum, dispensary, emigrants' friend society, savings' bank. The same Bible and Missionary associations which are to be found throughout the British dominions also flourish here, and are the fairest ornaments of our times and nation. There is an exceedingly good library, for the use principally of the military ; another as good 38 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. M 1:^! i '■'. 4 I'lllll'i i ■\\l, a..ii Hill bolon«!:ing- to tlic- House of Asseuibly ; and several private collections of j^reat value. Booksellers* slio})s in my day were f(!\v and poorly provided. Monsieur Rousseau, a denier in French books, shewed me many copies of a " History of Ca- nada," in 2 vols, octavo, written witli great talent and research by tlie Hon. R. Smith, late Chief Justice of Canada", tlie author of a "^His- tory of the late Province of New York." This work, as far as I am aware, has never been [)ut into circulation, on account of some strictures it contains on the conduct of a late Governor- general. (It has been published since.) The " History of Canada" I do not intermeddle with ; but 1 know of no war-storj'^ so interesting, so full of vicissitudes, gallantly, and heroism in suffering, although it extends over but a brief space of time. This has arisen out of the remark- able qualities of the three races, the English, the French, and the Indian, who have contended for the mastery in a country abounding in hazards from climate, from woods and waters. I cite the spirited history of the " Conquest of Canada," by Captain Warburton, R.A., in proof of this assertion. There are few cities in any quarter of the globe so rich as Quebec in attractive spots for summer excursions ; its whole environs are very lovely — QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIIIONS. 39 i several ksellers' rovided. I books, of Ca- 1 great th, late " This •cen put rictures •vernor- ) The e with ; pg, so ism in a brief emark- h, the detl for lazards I cite iiada," of this s globe immer vely — there is nothing i)lain or ordinary aljout them ; 1 eacli has its own new charm — from the sweet ant diiJfle of Sillery to the Natural Steps and Cascade of Montmorency. They iiave been so often described tliat I shall pass ra})idly over tliem. The jirincipal are Lakes St. Charles ii::i Bcauport, and tlie Falls of the Chaudlere, Etchemin, and Montmorency, the woods and cliffs of Carouu;c, and tlie Brid; with rows of lariie icicles ; but the cove below is the most remarkable winter feature. *' When the St. Lawrence is frozen below the falls the level ice becomes a support, on which the freezing spray descends as a sleet ; it there remains, and gradually enlarges its base and its height, assuming an irregular conical form : its dimensions, thus continually increasing, become, towards the close of winter, stupendous. Its height varies each season ; it has not been QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 41 observed liigher than one hundred and twenty-six feet (1829): the whole of the preceding; season liad been unusually humid. The face of the cone next the falls presents a stalactitic structure not seen elsewhere ; sometimes it is tinged with a shglit earthy hue." — (Mr. Green, Quebec llis- turical Society Transactions^ vol. ii. 218.) The so-called " Natural Steps" are rather more tlian lialf a-mile above tlie Falls of Montmorenci. I do not think Dr. Beattie has succeeded in his delineation so well as usual — the wildness is well given, but not so the artificial look of the rock. Their ascent, in many parts, from the water is by regular ledges, or steps of horizontal rock. It is a singular spot. The river has been wandering over gently undulating meadows for a few miles, when on a sudden it enters and rushes through a trough, twenty to thirty feet broad and eight hundred to one thousand yards long, cut through a barrier of rock, and thus makes its way to the St. Lawrence. The Fall of La Puce is also very graceful, and should be seen, — it is seven miles beyond the Fall of Montmorenci. I should be ungrateful did 1 not add, that there is a clean and comfort- able inn near the latter fall, where the guest will meet also with that cheerful civility and the .,iii!;i I'i 1 i< ! f li^ M III 42 QUEBKC AND ITS ENVllIONS. lodc Ch €ir|[^cs \vc so Oil experience at the moderate inns of French Canada. The falls of the rivers Etcliemin and Chaudiere, respectively, about seven and nine miles from Quebec, must not be forf^otfen. Tlicy, too, with a little diligence, may be seen on the same day, being' southern affluents of the St. Lawrence. Both are very effective combinations of pine- woods, falling waters, and rocky heights ; that of the Chaudicre especially, which has no need to retire in shamefacedness before any of the cata- racts of Canada — a very icw excepted. They have been so often described, that I shall pass on to relate a few circumstances which oc- curred at one of my visits to these rivers, as illus- trative of a Canadian holiday. I had two officers for my companions, equipped. in the stiff, hot military dress, cocked hat and feathers, enjoined in almost every climate by general orders. Our nags were brought out into a parade-ground full of soldiery. Being of vary- ing qualities, external and internal, we cast lots for choice. A very sorry beast fell to my share ; but I mounted, and was suffered there to remain. My friend of the Royal Engineers, while in the act of alighting in the saddle, was pitciied by a sudden elevation from behind some I'eet over, and (iUEBEC A>D ITS ENVIRONS. 43 before the horse's nose, on the soft sand — hat and al5 broth )tlict >ome orotiier-otticers came up, ana "•avc them to him with a sort of (iiiizzical so- leninity. Off we set at b'ngth, rode through the town witli i^reat decorum, and crossed the river by the horseferry to I^oiut Levi. Scarcely, however, had we set foot on the south shore of the St. Law- rence, when the horse of my second companion rushed up the steep road close by at a j;ailop. We followed pretty fast ; but, on gainiiij^ the summit, we saw o«ir commissariat friend, an old Spanish campaigner, far away on the road, Hying at full speed. Every now and then wc caught a glimpse of him, pushing on in the saujc involuntary haste. He rode well ; so that we were only amused, not alarmed, and quietly jogged after him. We came upon him suddenly, after a ride of four miles, sitting upon a low fence, in front of a decent house, with a stable in the rear. Jlis features were dis- composed, and not very clean. He looked shaken, too, and one side of his dress was plastered with the mud of an adjacent ditch. In fact, he told us that the horse, in spite of all he could do, con- tinued at high-pressure speed until he came to this place, where dwelt an old master of his, and where, turning suddenly and unexpectedly to the left, he landed our friend in the ditch, and him- ! • ■ I 1 ! i' I ill h I III' III I iil 111' :tl ;l I I ! if ■ ' I iiiil!: M 44 QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. self at the stable-door — and not for the first time, as his former owner told us. Beinji* an indifferent horseman, I was glad my animal was of a mild disposition. We were pleased with both the Etchemin and the Chaudiere ; and towards even- ing we all, three abreast, slowly returned to Quebec and our duties.* The scenery alciig the road is worth all the journey. It passes by a line of fjirms on the high grounds skirting- the St. Lawrence. Tiie dwell- ings of the peasantry, in some parts, formed quite a street ; in others, we rode through fields and copses. At the mouth of the Etchemin, where the road descends to the tide-level, we found my- riads of logs from the Ottawa, stranded at low ■water ; and many rafts lying out in the St. Law- rence, waiting to be received into harbour at New Liverpool, as some houses and a timber establish- ment here are called. VV'e all agreed that the most solemn and capti- vating view of Quebec anywhere to be met with is obtained from the high grounds we were then riding over, near the Etchemin Kiver. The spec- tator here stands on a lofty cliff, and is master of a large hc^'zon ; in the centre of which, with * Gold in dust and grains has been found on the River Famine, a tributary to the Chaudiere. Sir James Alexander, in his pleasant " L'Acadie," says he baa seen some. I- :i QUEBEC AND ITS ENVIRONS. 45 many a domestic bower unseen, in those thick woods on the west, stands the great escarped rock on whicli is enthroned the first-class fortress of Cape Diamond, its vast buttresses, bastions, and batteries encircling, in prolonged curves, the nearly hidden city, with its steeples and spires; overhanging, too, the restless St. Lawrence, and tlie battle-plain of Abraham, while from this point of vantage we take in fully the glorious framework of grey mountains and dark green woods in which it is set. The evening had toned down all discordant tints. None of the disenchanting details of or- dinary life met the eye. We irresistibly felt our- selves in the presence of the Ehrenbrcitstein of the West, or rather of a great war palace of Odin, guarding the Scandinavia of America. It is to be regretted that Mr. Bartlett did not transmit this view to Europe. I lis other views of this neighbourhood are admirably selected. II h i: i' l':;^:! i.i '! EXCURSION THE FIRST. I'' 1!' ■ I J I TO IIAWKSBURY, ON THE RIVER OTTAWA. Typhus Fever at the Hawksbury Settlement — The Seij^iiory of St. Anne tie la Perade — Steam Voyage to ^lontical — The company on Board — Montreal — Baggage Lost — Irish Emigrants at Point Fortune — Local Politics — Hamilton Mills — Settlers in comfort — Colonial I'epartment — Emigration — Walk to ^Montreal — In- sane lady. In the month of August, after a hot summer, typhus fever appeared, both extensively and fa- tally, in a ])ortion of the township of Hawksbury, on the River Ottawa, '2()0 miles from Quebec, and recently settled by a large party of Irish. As it continued with undiminished severity throughout September, Government determined to send a military medical officer to take charge of the sick, and to report on the causes and nature of the pestilence. I EXCURSION TO IIAWKSBtJRY. 47 I was selected for this errand of mercy, and now present to the reader a non-professional sketch of the excursion. Although I did not embark at Quebec, it will be well to premise that the Kiver St. Lawrence, for thirty or forty miles above that city, is emi- nently picturesque, being for the most part bounded on both sides by woody steeps, or dusky red clifis, of which the most prominent arc Ca- rouge. Point des Trembles, and Cape Sante. It is then ascended for 140 miles through a level country, with little change of feature, save at Lake St. Peter. Above Cape Sante the visible population be- gins to thicken ; and from this point, the north shore especially, seldom exceeding ten or twenty feet in height, is embellished with a pleasing line of white houses and churches, extending, with few interruptions, for 800 miles westward. The high- road runs close to the river. The traveller, on horseback or in a calash, is within view of us for miles, not seldom beset bv a train of clamorous dogs. The strong rapids of the Richelieu occur forty- five miles above Quebec, and are caused by a contraction of the river's breadth to half a mile, and its obstruction by reefs and rolled blocks. Having a couple of days to spare, on account I : i 1 ill I ! '■ > I 1 I! Ill ' il!f!)l ii' 1 I ll 4 III i :' 48 EXCURSION TO IIAWKSBURY. of certain official credentials not yet ready, and tlie fitting up of a medicine chest, I made my way by calash to the Seigniory of St. Anne de la Perade, sixty miles above Quebec, and six miles below the large Uivcr Batiscan, a northern affluent of the St. Lawrence, and once famous for its bog ore and ironfoundry. The excellent Seignior, the Honourable Co- lonel Hale,* had invited me to pay him a visit at St. Anne. I gladly embraced the opportunity thus afforded of observing the position of a pro- prietor in Lower Canada, which, with a little tact, firmness, and moderation, is fur from being an uncomfortable one. Kindness goes far with the Canadian habitans, as the rural population are called. My friend had a roomy, lightsome house, built mansion-like, one hundred yards from a trout- stream, the St. Anne de la Perade, on the upper edge of a large park-like meadow, which runs down to the St. Lawrence. From the house we saw the river, a woody islet or two, close in shore, and had between them a momentary glimpse of the passing steamers. The Seignior had at this time 300 acres in his ■ The modest but sufficient prosperity which has attended me through hfe began in the disinterested kindness of this eminent person. I am glad of this opportunity of acknowledging it. EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. 49 own hands, partly for profit, and partly as a model farm for his tenants. The remainder of the cleared portion was held under peculiar French tenures, and divided into about 500 hold- ings. But still the greater part of the seigniory was in a state of nature, and was altogether about 70,000 acres. For the most part, the tenants had clustered round the church in the form of a very rural- looking village, with a comfortable little inn. As the proprietor spoke French excellently, was atfable and obliging, and was extending and im- proving the roads in the back settlements, a walk through the village with him was a very agree- able tiling. It was a promenade of unconstrained greetings and pleasant looks. Red worsted caps and uncouth hats were dofted at every turn. The revenues of a Canadian seigniory are de- rived from several sources. There is a rent of a dollar u-year fiom every tenement having a fire- place ; a considerable fine upon every transl'or of the nuniorous small tenancies, or rather pro- perties; and the profits of the seigniorial flour- niill — tlie law compelling all the Jiahlfnus to grind their corn there. Tliere are other dues of less importance. A satij-factory interest is derived from the usual amount of pui-chase-?iioney hi id out upon an estate of this kind. VOL. I. E I ii; !l I : f! ! m P I 50 EXCURSION TO IIAWKSBURY. Wc cmbai'kftd at St. Anne's for Fiatiscan in a canoe, and, after a pleasant row of six miles, mounted the deek of one of tlie great steamers going to iMontreal, which makes Batiscan a stop- ping-place. Glancing at the scene in the steamer, we were a uood deal disiniavetl. The whole of the fore deck was crowded by horses, cows, pigs, car- riages, and furniture, as well as by dirty and des- titute Irish emigrants, one of whom was firjhtins: drunk. Having been, and continuing to be, ex- tremely troublesome, he was forcibly set on shore, ignorant both of the people and the language. As we paddled off, I saw him, shillelah in hand, — for it had been thrown to him, — vapouring away alone on the beach, by the side of his little bundle. We counted thirty- two cabin passengers of various qualities ; some of them were of great eminence, and would have become so in any country. A chance gathering like this is quite different from the company on board of an Euro- pean pleasure-steamer. There were no coronetted families and their liveried domestics — not a single English snob, or bearded French Jianeur, in his white-jane boots. IMost of the j)assengers were on business. ^^'e did not make acquaintances at first. The EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. 51 heat was exf-'-eme ; so tlhit most of us remained oil deck to catch tlie .lender but refreshing breeze. For myself, 1 went below to finish a letter. Sitting down, I espy the eyes of a little fat steward lazily twinkling on me from a square compartment full of spirit-bottles, called the bar. Close to me on my right sits, reading with a con- sequential air, a young American, dressed in the Baiirershaft stvle — his broad shirt-collar descend- ins,- over his coat-collar, and tied bv a black riband ; while his luxuriant hair falls over his shor.lders iu long tresses. Before me are j)ar- ties playing at picquct, and refreshing them- selves with London porter. Several are dozing as comfortably as Prince Aldebaronti himself. After a time 1 mount the conjpanion-ladder, and find that we are in the middle of the majestic St. Lawrence, making good way, with the two iiand- , exactly chiselled ; smooth, round, full forehead, and a kindlino; dark eve. After the usual cons-ratulations and mutual in- quiries, there was silence fur a few moments, when she broke out in the true rhythmical tones of a high-class Genevese rtinnov, with a full, ringing, musical voice, and all the gentle fear- lessness of ])ractice in good society — enforcing her words with such pretty cadences, and such an eloquent, but scarcely perceptible, jday of fea- ture, eye, and neck, as I never expected to see in western Christendom. EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURV. 65 She did not speak of regret at leavinjj; Switzer- land, — tlie social circles of Geneva (hard to re- linquish), for the inferior civilissation of a colony ; but she said : " I have been in Canada again for a week, and am anew delighted with my adopted coun- try. I have infinitely enjoyed its natural grau- ■| deurs — its splendid suns, wide waters — amid the fraijrance of its fine forests I have wandered already. I find an exceeding beauty iiere — not Swiss, not French, nor Scottish, but Canadian, perfectly distinct, and unspeakably charming." " Yes," says my friend Col. II , " you may well be happy here ; because, as soon as the steamer draws alongside the quay of Montreal, you will see leaning over the long balcony of a many-windowed mansion overhanging the St. Lawrence, a delighted, expecting group of bright young fact's, waving their little kei'chiefs, with their bonnes and their aunts, while the father is on the pier awaiting you." " Yes," she replied, *' a large measure of good has been bestowed on me. May 1 be sufficiently thankful ! *' I have been rambling over my old Swiss moun- tains. I had not quite my usual interest in them. I was surprised to see how rapturously )■ ^^i I ' ; ■!'! I 'Hi i:h > mm ¥ m 66 EXCURSION TO IIAWKSBURY. those alpine pictures were enjoyed by my com- panion, old Professor Pietet, for the hundredth time. And I do feci that there is no compari- son between the scientific apprehension of the works of creation and that which is withiii the reach of the common observer like myself. In the same wav, I can conceive somewhat of the prophetic triumph with which the enlightened statesman can look upon the broad and fertile lands among which we are now moving, and re- joice in their splendid and populous, and I trust, happy future." Madame de M bad been playing, Sta'el- like, with a little well-worn magazine, such as are seen everywhere in America, and said, — " By the bye, I have met in my cabin with a little monthly miscellany, which contains some beautiful ideas. How greatly indebted, under Providence, is the new world to the old ! Not only has Europe formed and arranged her daily- comforts, filled her libraries with undying wis- dom, paid in blood and anguish the price of her present political blessings — having driven the ploughshare of truth through the clods of des- potic ignorance — but she goes on to fill the Ame- rican mind with just and lofty thoughts. '* These little magazines exist chiefly upon the EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. 57 genius of En«»;lan(l. Permit me to read the pass- aire wliich lias jjivcn rise to these remarks. It is from ('oleridge: — '* * In the middle ages, there was in Europe a continued succession of individual intellects — the n;olden chain was never wholJv broken. A dark cloud, like another sky, covered the entire cope of heaven ; but in this place it thinned away, and white stains of light shewed a half-eclipsed star behind it : in that place it was rent asunder, and a star jjcisscd across the opening in all its briyhi- ncsSy and then vanished. Such stars exhibited themselves only ; surrounding objects did not partake of their light. There were deep wells of knowledge, but no fertilising rills.' " Is not this an astronomical metaphor of ex- treme magnificence ? How else brins: into the light of day the vast darkness of the middle ages? From this, modern North America has been spared. In its dispersion, my own townsmen of Geneva have performed a noble part, both now, and at the time when Erasmus read by moonlight, be- cause he could not afford a torch, and begged a penny, not for the love of charity, but for the love of learning." And thus she went on, with many a friendly questioning from her circle of admirers, giving utterance to her full heart as freely and melo- iu* i !■'' M! I 'I lit ( 1, iii; > 1 l| : ■fi! hi i I III II 58 EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. diously as ever musician scattered sweet sounds from flute or harp. She was about to tell us of tlie delight with which she had witnessed in London the operations of an infant-scliool, then unknown in Canada,* and not many years ago comuienecd by Wilder- spin, a singular person, who niiglit almost be said never to have attained to actual manhood, but was arrested in a state of perpetual babyhood — an aged and wise baby ; and the v."ry individual for his important mission. She was about to sav tliat she must have an in{)int-school near her ])lace, wlien a young phy- sician came and told me that a poor female emigrant had been friglitoned into [)remature labour bv the storm, and had y-iven birth to a girl, but that she had nothing prepared, and no money. We immediately collected, among the cabin passengers, nearly four pounds, to the no small surprise and gratitude of the sufferer when it was given her in a little bag. The eloouent Gencjvese contributed liberally, and greatly encouraged the subscription. How valuable are such persons in a colony, with their love of order and cleanliness, their finished education and enlarged views! After leaving the steamboat I never heard * There are now several in Montreal. I*) EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. 59 i more of this accomplished lady. I suppose she is the light ol'her (piiet home, not far from Mount Belaiil, and a winter resident at Montreal. We passed Tliree IJivers, the third or fourth town in the lowei' province during the storm. Iloro the influence of the tides of the ocean ceases. I shall say little ahout this jjlace, as I was only five minr.'es in it once ; but it is little better than a large village. It is near the three mouths of the St. Maurice, an iin])ortaut river, with the iron works of the Messrs. Bell on it, and aboundinji- in fine sccnerv and fi-ood land. A very large tract of fertile country ranges from the middle and upper parts of the St. Maurice nortli-castwards towards (^ucbnc, and t'ml)raccs the valleys of the St. Maurice, Batiscan, St. Anne, and Jac'fpiesCartior, more than sixty miles across. But who will face its Siberian climate? From this time to our arrival at ?»Iontreal, most of the })asseugers were on deck enjoying the tempered breezes, and that homogeneity of at- mosphere which brings distant objects so wonder- fully near, and gives to the whole landscape a delicious purity, softness, and ])recision of outline. I was leaning over the l)ulwark of the steamer, examining a fragment of loek, witli an oblong note-book peeping out of a side-})Ocket, when M. Papineau, the Speaker (at the time) of the House Llll !R : ?' ■: .; '1 ■ ' I I : :1 I It. i,! 60 EXCURSION TO IIAWKSBURY. of Assembly, came Llantlly up and entered into conversation with me. Jle was then the most distinguished and po- pular person in Canada ; and he has since be- come still more noted for his share in the late insurrection. M. Papineau was a well-dressed, handsome man, standing erect, and a little above tlie middle size, with the Idack hair and eyes of France, his fea- tures regular, rather long, fine, but not ingenuous. He apj)eared to me subtle, persuasive, confident, and eager for information. lie questioned me on the subject of my rock specimen, and on geology. I told him I was only a learner. " Trne : that may be," said he, " but un borgne is king among the blind." In a short time I had ijiven him the titles and merits of all the best books on the subject, and the way to procure from London labelled cabi- nets of mineralogical and rock specimens. Tic left me \\vA\ and drv. I had nothins: more to tell. I wished to talk political economy with him, and perhaps a little politics ; but no, there was to be noth'uii: y-iven in exchange. I was left OCT O courteously, but before I had received my reward, which was unpleasant. Some are surprised that M. Papineau did not fight in the insurrection, but without reason. I EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. 61 am sure that he values life and limb at no higher rate than otlier people ; but it is not fair to ex- pect the same man to be tlie slashing hussar and the astute parliamentary tactician.* lie has taken advantage of the amnesty so wisely proclaimed by the 13ritish Government, and is a^^-ain a leader in the House of Asscniblv. Tiie rebellion which IVl. Papineau at all events stinmlated, was sanctioned in heart by the great majority of the Lower Canadians; but it was mainly defeated by the Homan Catholic clergy, who are salaried by the British Government, and have little faitii in the mercies of the cabinet of Washington. If it had been successful, i\I. Papi- neau would probably have been the first president of a new people, and an historical character. As far as Lake St. Peter, a few miles above Three Kivers, we were passing up bi-oad waters, with distant shores, and here and there a tribu- tary stream, tiie banks of the St. Lawrence occa- sionally running out into points, marked by ;i church, a windmill, or a line of tall po])lars. Once; or twice, soon after the storm, all tlit'so object.-, * Since writing the above I linvc li.'ul reason to believe that M, Papineau wasnot furtryiiit; it out in arms, and took no share in the late insurrection. As ion;^ as he eonrtucd iiiniselt' to constitutional measures, ]M. Papineau Avas a freeman ciinteniliiiLc airains'L iles- potisni. Nearly all that was sovight has siueo been conceded. \m\. I |i m II i'. V G2 EXCURSION TO IIAWKSBl'RY. while distant, were raised picturcsqiioly hii^li above the river by a thin haze, and later in the evening steeped in the ruby glow of the setting sun. We found Lake St. Peter to be a shallow ex- pansion of the St. Lawrence, nine or ton miles broad and twenty-five miles loniv, with many islands at its upper end, used as pasturage by the farmers on the densely-peopled mainhmd. Being a zealous geologist, I longed to jump ashore on one of these islands to examine their stony beaches, which we were successively graz- ing, — a ])ropensity which had nigh cost me dear at Sorel, a vilhvge-town on the south sliore, forty-five miles below Montreal, at the mouth of the large river Richelieu, the outhit of Lake Ciiam})lain, and retnarkable for being much smaller at its mouth than at its head. The steamboat having stopped here to take in wood, I stepped on shore (contrary to rule) to gather a specimen of a rock I saw in the river bank. While thus employed the steamer started. Seeing this, I jumped into a canoe with a little boy in it, and paddled after, urging and screaming to the top of my powers, when the owner and captain, worthy Mr. Molson, kindly backed ship and took me in. AVhen I had cooled after my exertions sufti- EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. 63 ciently to cast a ulance iiround, I observed a group deeply interested in the explanations of an athletic American in the garb of a master- meehanic. He was exhibiting the model of a bridge invented by himself, of wood, cheap, strong, and durable. It was formed by a simple but very ingenious interlacement of bars of wood, the longitudinal being about eight feet long, and the cross-bars about five. Besides having the qua- lities just stated, it had the important one of an equally diti'used strain under burthens. It was particularly adapted to rai)id rivers and such as are liable to Hoods. He had built one in Canada and several in the United States. The bars hav- ing been jtut together, one end of the framework thus formed was fixed to the side of a river, then dij'ccted across, and the other end pressed down to the opposite bank by heavy weights, and there retained. While standing upon the raised end of a bridge which he was placing in the United States, the weight slipped off, and he was hurled to an immense distance and taken up dead, while the bridge Hoated away in fragments. From hence to iMontreal is a continuation of the same scenery as below St. Peter's — a wide stream with occasional islets, low cleared shores with an endless street of houses, their very roofs whitewashed. Here and there is the mouth of a ii^ii i \i •j; "I'll ' 3'.' .tl i' i'il : ■ ;' « t mi «• I I I i! i'll' I- I i, i^ 64 EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. river hid in reeds and trees. One of tlicse I tliink I am correct in naming the Recollet, a river coming from the Ottawa, and witli anotlier branch forming the northern boundaries of tlie islands of Jesus and Montreal. Few pass by the mouth of this stream as it Hows into the St. Lawrence with- out admiring its antique church, two or three old- fashioned high-roofed houses, the cleanly little inn, and its elm -trees. To reach Montreal, the steamer has to breast for the last mile the })owerful Rapid of St. Mary, such as only a strong wind can enubhi a sailing vessel to surmount. It is occasioned by shallows and the small island of St. Helen's, a locality of much military importance, ami occupied by forti- fications and store-houses, at prescut half hid in ■woods.* In due season the steamer discharged her varied burthen, and we sej)aratcd, each on his own business. It was mv duty to pass throuiih .Montreal as ra})idly as possible, but as I bad to receive from the military de()()t sonic additional medicines, I went thither, leaving my portmanteau within the doorway of Pomcroy's Hotel. 1 had scarcely left the house, when a btage-coach for Albany in the ^•' A whale was kilU'd iu;a- Aloiitmil in S^jit. 1H2;',, 220 miles ahove i^alt water. Seals are nut wry vnicoiniuon there. EXCURSION TO HAWKSBUUY. 65 State of rsew York, 300 miles off, drove up to the door. Seeing my portmanteau close by, directed '• Albany Barracks," an old Eni>lisli direction unerased, the driver placed it upon the coacli and drove off, leaving me with such clothes as I stood in, and nearly moneyless, in a stninge place. I received my property again some weeks afterwards ; meanwhile I borrowed a verv scantv outfit from a brother-officer.* One of the calashes of the country soon trans- ported me to La Chine, a village nine miles from Montreal, at the foot of Lake St. Louis; u splendid body of still water, with fine islands here and there, and elevated lands in the north. It is, of course, a part of the St. T>awrence. I tlien eml)arked in a larj:e heavy l)ont manned bv three Canadians, and successivelv ])asse(l vil- lage after village to the i)relty ruins of the; French fort, Cliuteau-brillant, in the midst of cliarming lake and hill scenerv. We had left Lake St. Louis l)ehind ns. In our front was the broad and tumultuous meeting- * This pentleman I liud scon 1 iliourintr undi'i- x-vcrc spittiii!? of blond in thi.' I.-k; of Wight. I'nr lliis lie \v;is oidfiv,! tii the West Indie.-!; hut in the Ciiul'u.-i m of a (hirk nijjjiit nnd of a crowd of tiauspovts he j;ot on board of a sliij) f' r Caiiisda by mistake, and tlius, I am cdiivinced, saved liis life, liis is not the only ease of htt'uuipty.si;- in vuich I have laiuvvn thj dry Canadian climate i)eneficial. I ; f(<''> til it VOL. I. P Im I.lrl ii 66 EXCURSION TO HAWK6BURY. of the two giant streams, the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa — waters of equal UJagnitutle, but not mixing for many miles downwards, as we see from the chocolate colour of the latter. In our rear were the fine wooded heights of *' The Two Mountains," with a pilgrim's oratory at mid- height.* We now sped up the succeeding tranquil por- tion of the Ottawa, and arrived late at Point Fortune. We only landed once, a couple of miles below the Point, to rest, and look at a party of two hundred Irish emigrants, staying for the niglit in a wood, under a few loose boards and bushes, pushed carelessly together. They consisted of the very aged, those in middle life, and the babe at the breast. Their faces wore an anxious but resiixncd look. The country was strange to them. Good-natured friends had painted freely the privations of the coming winter in their allotment, seventy-eight miles above Point Fortune. Some oatmeal and potatoes, with a limited stock of clothes (like my own), was all they possessed. 1 did not despise, but encouraged them, as I sat by the women washino; their clouts in the stream. I reniombcred that a little man's all is great in the sight of God. • All given with great truth and spirit by Mr. Bartlett. EXtlRSION TO HAWKSBUKY. (17 Although extremely poor, and, to their honour, laden with their grandsircs, I afterwards heard that they prospered, and are now com forf able. Point Fortune is a cluster of houses, inns, and stores, on the west bank of the Ottawa, at the foot of the Long Sault Raj)id, which is nine miles long, very violent, full of narrow passes, rocky bars, and tall fir-elad islets, deli ^ HAMILTON MILLS. C9 a the accumulation of foreign loose rocks is so enormous and so various tliat almost every known rock formation has its representative. Many of the blocks of irranite are from twenty to thirty feet lon^. They have been left here by an ancient still- water at the ]K)int of obstruction, created by a sudden narrowinj^ of the river, when at a higher level. I felt not a little awkward in presenting myself to Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton of the mills, at whose house, as the principal ])erson in the settlement, it was arranged that 1 should reside — not oidy from the extreme slenderness of my personal effects, but for want of my introductory letter and public credentials, then somewhere on the banks of the river Hudson. I explained my situation in a few words, shewed my stock of galenicals, and observed that few evil and designing ])ersons would travel as I had done, sixty miles into a wilderness to catch the typhus fever gratuitously. They had been surprised, but were easily satisfied. I passed a pleasant and busy month at their hospitable dwelling, and hoj)e never to forget their united kindness. A very few years after this visit, their four children requiring education, Mr. and Mrs. ; :':;i|; ^ .Vi>^. ^"^^ \^\% IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) k /..V V ^"^6^ •-^,^^. '^^ /^ J W^;^ W^ <(2 IX) LL 1.25 ■2^8 1 2.5 1^ 12.2 2.0 M. 111116 ^ /^ '/ Photographic ^Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ■^ lV \\ V ^~^ ^^J^^ J ^ O^ > 'ii,^ T u ' ! , I !• ! ': I lliil 70 IIAWKSBURY. Hamilton embarked in a stout boat for Montreal, as is (lone ever}' day. While descendin<^ the Lonu; Sault Rapids, which are close to the mills, the boat upset, and every soul perished, boatmen included, except the father and one child. He lived only a year or two after, a broken man. The llawksbury settlement, now called Hawks- bury West, is an ojlong block of heavily-timbered land, of variable fertility. Its exact dimensions I do not know. There are many swamps and sand-hills ; but in places I noticed many excellent crops of wheat growing among the tree-stumps. It now contains about two thousand inhabitants, and on the whole is healthy. INIr. Hamilton furnished me with a horse, and was so good as to accompany me to my scattered patients on the first day : otherwise most cer- tainly I should not have found my way, along primitive bye-paths, over crazy bridges, through morasses and woods, whose pines were of a size and height I never saw equalled else- where. As very often happens, the fever had nearly spent itself before the greatly-needed aid arrived. During my stay the sick became rapidly conva- lescent, and no new cases occurred ; but it was HAWKSBURY. 71 thought best to detain me a week or two longer than absolutely necessary. My duties lay among a young colony of Irish planted apart in the woods, and were pleasant, because the people were truly grateful. I was much pleased by the universal cheerfulness (except in the houses of the sick), the friendly feeling, the great readiness to assist each other which prevailed. Several times did I meet hearty, smiling young Irishwomen on horseback, laden with dainties for distant sick acquaintances. I had a young single man under my care, exceedingly reduced, living alone in a one- roomed hut. He had a fine crop of wheat on a patch of ground close to bis house ; but he wos totally unable to reap it. This his neighbours did for him ; doubtless expecting that on some emergency ^.e would do the like for them. I have the merry scene, only lasting a few hours, before my eyes now. Such a, working party is called a " Bee," and extends to every in-door or out-dcor operation requiring numbers. Hawksbury is not in the far-oti' wilds : there are settlements all around ; too mucli severed by bad roads, except where the Ottawa offers easy transport, and especially to the good market at Montreal. These emigrants, therefore, were not beyond human help, like the solitary squatting 1 1 •' V M 'I -i 1 I ii m i ^li vr! 72 HAWKSBURY. 'i I 16 il' families. These people bad placed their rude but M'arm loiT-buts either in the form of a strajTixlinu; street, or else each on his own land, OS according to temper or circumstances. The advantages of public worsiiip and of schools were within their reach. The com saw fort and secu- rity which they either had, or saw that with the blessing- of Providence they should attain, had a striking efiect on the expression of their coun- tenances, wliich was happy, friendly, open, and intelligent. I was much pleased with an Irishman's place who had been three or four years on the spot, -with a large family of sons and daughters — he himself still in the full force of manhood. He lived in the social street, his farm of twenty or thirty acres cleared, being in the bush. He had built a log-house, thirty-five feet long by twenty, in the clear. The ground-floor still remained a single apartment, save that a thick green curiain screened the female sleeping-place, while the young men found their lair in the roof by a ladder. The walls were lined with bags of flour, Indian corn, pumpkins, onions, mutton or pork hams, Hitches of bacon, and agricultural tools. The sick daughter on whom I attended sat often in the fresh air before the door, much inter- ested in the visit of the Government doctor sent H \ EMIGRATION. 73 1^* r \ from Quebec " to her and her likes." I have little fear but that by tliis time the green baize curtain is replaced by a strong partition of boards — or rather, 1 feel pretty sure that the house is a stable, and the family are occuj)ying a now one, with sash windows and green shutters. The good looks of every member of this Irish family, their activity, the interest they took in their little world, bespoke satisfaction and rough plenty. Two or three days before my first visit, one of the lads, about thirteen years of age, was chopping fire-wood in the bush, with a much younger boy, ■when J, hu'ije bear came out of the wood and put a fierce foot on the very log he was working at. The boy faced the animal with uplifted axe, and drove him away. I have very strong convictions on the subject of emiy-ration from Great Britain and Ireland, and shall here place nearly all I have to say upon ihe subject. Deriving all I know from personal investigation on the spot, I desire to be literally " vox clamantis e (hjcrto." I declare in all sincerity that one of the most distressing thoughts of my whole life has been called forth by seeing millions and millions of acres of fertile land, in a healthy climate, lying ■waste, while my countrymen, in multitudes at u ]m 1:11 m 1 4 ) :i 74 EMIGRATION. homo, are left in profound misery, and under the strongest temptations to crime. There is a field in Canada alone open to capital and to labour which it will take a busy century to occupy, opening new lands and giving addi- tional value to those already in use; while the systematic developeincnt of the resources of British North America, so far from being a drain on the mother-country, will be of immediate and signal advanta";e to her. Not to press forwards emigration is to partake of the guilt and sin brought on by the crowded state and the social inequalities of Great Britain.* * The followirii^ ainfully instructive statement leatis us to be- lieve that misery has been tlie lot of the bulk of our fellow-coun- trymen from early times. The condition of the poor has sensibly improved, but not so much as that of the easier classes : — " By a survey of Sheffield, made Jan. 2, 1615, by twenty-four of its most Bufficieut inhabitants, it appeareth that there are in the town of Sheffield 2207 people, of which there are, 725 who are not able to live without the charity of their neigh- bours. These are all begging poor. 100 householders who relieve others. These (though the best sort) are but poor artificers : amongst them there is not one who can keep a team on his own land, and not above ten who have grounds of their own that will keep a cow. IGO householders not able to relieve others. These are such (though they beg not) as are not able to abide tl: 2 storm of fourteen days' sickness, but would be drawn thereby to beggary. 1222 children and Bervants of the said householders, the greater part of which are such as live of small wages, and are con- strained to work sore to provide themselves necessaries." 220; Hunter's Hallamshire, p. 118. COIONIAL DEPARTMENT. 75 But it must ever be remembered that eniiirra- tion is only one of many remedies. The mere removal of surplus population does but little, happy as the change may be for the individuals. The gap is filled up L,lmost immediately. The British people must do their own work, stirringly and earnestly. I have little hope in any ministry in the pre- sent inefficient state of the Colonial Office. Until a costly and bloody revolt takes place, carrying desolation to the hearths of hundreds, or thou- sands perhaps (as in Ceylon, Canada, Ireland, South Wales), Government will allow almost any grievance to pursue its melancholy course. The wretchedness, which the official eye seeth not, goes for nothing ; and this, not from any inhumanity inherent in the man, but from the immense amount and distracting variety of his labours. Emigration is too expensive, it is said ; but let there be a whisper only of war, and millions are at once squandered on every imaginable engine of devastation. The arsenals of the Tower, of Woolwich, and Portsmouth, shake with the pre- parations. All our ministries are alike. The air of office is soporific. I really think that the higher officers of the Colonial department may be fairly likened to certain curious shell-iish in the British seas. 1 'I Wi' "it r f ■ 'Am i ii iii< 'III 76 COLONIAL DEPARTMENT. During the first half of their existence (out of office) they swim freely about, and have eyes, ears, and feelers, which they use as freely ; hut as soon as their great instinctive want is supplied — that of finding a herth, a mooring-place, on a rock or on a fish, these important organs, one by one, successively drop off, and they perform but one act — that of feeding. They descend into a lower i'ank of animal life, and become what are called barnacles. So it seems to be in the Colo- nial Oflice. It appears to be comparatively deaf and sightless. I am immeasurably astonished that men of undoubted conscientiousness and talent, of high birth and ample fortune, like Earl Grey, will undertake impossible duties, and thus consent to injure their fellow-subjects, through unavoidable oversights, misinformation, and crude views. And yet, seeing all this, they are the last to call out for a remedy, when in the sight of all thinking per- sons they are themselves equally sufferers. The fact is, that through the lapse of time the Colonial Office requires to be reconstituted. The whole responsibility of governing forty-three most dissimilar colonies should not be thrown, as it truly is, upon one man, whose tenure of office is but, upon an average, two years. As Mr. Scott stated in Parliament, in the spring COLONIAL DEPARTMENT. 77 of 1849, "the duties of the Colonial Secretary are of the most varied and emharrassinix nature. They are legal, judicial, political, naval, and mi- litary. They are connected with the ordnance, the church, the state, with convicts, with old and new colonies, to preserve ancient possessions, and establish fresh settlements." Earl Grey, then Lord Hovvick, in 1845, stated himself that it was not possible for any man, be his powers what they niay, adequately to administer the complicated affairs of the British colonies. The work ot the Colonial Office ought to be immediatelv distrii)uted into tliree or more de- partments, separate, or conjoint in the form of a Board. Let one principal Secretary, with an adequate staff, preside over (and be responsible in Parliament for) our North American colonies ; another for those in the West Indies, Africa, and South America ; and a third for our Australian and other dependencies in the South Seas. Our possessions in the Mediterranean may be other- wise attended to. If we confide to this board, or to these three secretaries, the superintendence of emigration, in addition to the ordinary business of the colonies, there will be plenty to do. When Sir George Murray was Secretary of the Colonies, vvith Mr. Wihnot Horton as one of the 1 -I !»,' i! M^i^ ! Ill 78 EMIGRATION. Under-Secretaries, it was j)roposed to form a Colonial board ; but the project unfortunately fell throuf^li, like many other «^ood things in which neither party nor personal interests were con- cerned. Diligent and enlightened men to undertake these important departments abound ; their sala- ries would be repaid to the country a thousand- fold. The work of emigration is eminently govern- ment work, says Mill, the political economist. It is called upon to remove, or rather re-distribute supi^rnumeraries (not as a cure, but as a relief), by its being the great colonial landowner, by its capital and credit, by its possession of various public depots (buildings, &c.) both at home and abroad, and likewise of experienced agents. It might feel itself urged to assist emigration by a decent sense of the duty it owes to its dis- tressed constituents, by the facility and certain success of the task (would there were a working will!), and by the sure gratitude of a delivered people. There is no occasion at this time of day to argue about the advantages of emigration, both to the mother-country and to the new colonist. These have long been known to be great, but espe- cially to the latter. Mill and Malthus, common EMIGUATION. 79 sense and ample experience, all speak the same language upon this subject. As long as a man can obtain a fair day's wages for a fair dav's work there is no occasion for him to leave his birtli-place on the score of subsist- ence ; but when he cannot, and has no reasonable prospect of doing so, like the labourers of Wilts and Dorset at all times, and like the artisans of Yorkshire, &c. but too often, it is high time to emi- grate to some more generous laud. The labour- market at home is permanently overstocked. For myself, if I belonged to either of these classes — if I found my country profitless and hard — if I had here to linger a portionless man — if I were daily growing more wan under privation — with no other prospect than that of a work- house at last — then I certainly should look around for a soil less ungrateful — for a future more cheer- inj; — and towards some corner of the earth where my spade and axe would yield me a manna less scanty. There are hundreds of thousands in Bri- tain thus circumstanced, and they know it bitterly. The true remedy for this state of things lies deep in the moral nature of man, and will be mainly found there; all others are only secondary. We need the ditfusion among our people of such an industrial and religious training as shall direct aright their abundant energies, enable them to i', 51 .■ K'lb : Mi 80 EMKiHATION. iirii iri i I'i maintiUM themselves without excessive anxiety, create a desire for, and a hope of, the comforts of life, teach them to appreciate tlie pleasures of the mind, to postpone present gratifications for a greater future good, and finally to hring them under th'^ easy yoke of Christianity. Then, and not till then, shall we make much impression on the accumul:.ted dissatisfaction and sorrow which prey upon one-half of our fellow-countrymen. But this is a slow process, and must have the aid of emigration and other agencies of like tendency. I shall now, once for all, put together a few practical ohservations, as derived from my wan- derings among the settlers ; but it must be re- membered that I am not writing* an emigrant's guide. Emigration by single individuals or solitary families is often unwise, always full of anxiety, and not seldom disastrous;* but the case is altered if the party go out to friends, or to an already selected spot, or be skilled in some much needed handicraft. Emigration should be prosecuted systemati- cally — such should be the rule. People should * It may he said that the jioor emigrant may aiii)ly to the agent at Liverpool, London, Quebec, or elsewhere ; but havinc: no pleasing recollections of ofricials, he is shy of approaching them abroad. U EMIGRATION. 81 leave these shores in such organised hodies, so selected and so led, from tlie first step to the last, that as little as possible should be left to chance. This is the great desideratum. Having pro- vided a district of countrv — with due rcsrard to health, markets, fertility, and a few other points — thither direct should be taken, in the month of INlay, one, two, or three ship-loads* '^^ emigrants, assorted according to age and sex, as well as to trades and occupations, adapted to supply the wants of the whole emigrating com- munity. How excellent is the German plan of emigration — that of the whole village (or its greater parf) going, and taking with them their clergyman. One or more superintendents (me- dical men,* if possible), with assistants accus- tomed to the colony, should remain on the settlement for some time to keep the people toge- ther, encourage them, direct their exertions, per- suade them to assist each other in hut-buildina: and other heavy operations, and even for a period to work for the common good. Associated labour in the commencement is of especial im- :'' *i j * A class of medical men, experienced in the superintendence of large emigrant parties, and constantly enii)li)ycd, should be created and encouraged by fair rcmunerati(m. The profession con- tains a large number of men of administrative ability, medical skill, and philantln'()i)ic views, v>\iQ would gladly embrace this mode of life for twenty years or so. VOL. I. G r ill i: I Mil M li! ill 82 EMIGRATION. portance, and is almost sure to lead to permanent prosperity. This is tlio true system. It may be accom- plished in many ^vays. The working classes may do it for themselves, but they seldom can procure trustworthy and prudent agents. The agent of the operative class is apt to find the handling of large sums of money too much for his honesty ; and the whole body is extremely gullible, or they would not think of settlino: with the Potters' Association in Wisconsin, in a Siberian climate, more than a thousand miles into the interior, when Canada West is nearer, and unfL^ every aspect infinitely preferable. Associated parishes might in this manner send out to some prepared locality their I'edundant hands, under the guidance of a discreet bailiff*. In this case the prospect is not so good, from the in- ferior capacities of the emigrants ; but eventually, in one wny or another, good would be done. Capitalists who can wait for returns would find this kind of planned emigration a safe and suffi- ciently lucrative investment. I believe the two great companies now at work in this manner in the Canadas are satisfied with their i)rosj)ects. There are few communities so prosperous as those of (jnelj)h. Gait, and some other townships cre- ated under the auspices of the Canada Company. EMIGRATION. 83 y- The British Government can do all this with greatly increased facilities ; but the precise man- ner, although sufficiently obvious, it does not enter into my plan to develope. I have said that tliey are bound to make a speedy com- mencement. Allow me to make a comparl.^on. If I give the form of an axe-hcad to a suitable piece of iron, sharpen the proper edge, and attach to it a stout handle, I am sure that with my new tool I can fell a tall oak, and perhaps a thousand. ^o\v I am just as assured that if a skilled ngont take twenty, or two hundred families, healthy, industrious, with some workers in wood and iron among them, and plant them in some select spot in fertile Canada West, they will in u few years be a prosperous community, not only ahove want for ever, but able to repay the expenses of migration. riie comparative cheapness of sending families to Canada must give it a permanent preference over Australia and the Cape. The English man and woman leave tlioir native village, hedge-rows, and old familial' faces, with reluctance. In the midland counties there is not so strong a temptation to go as in Wiltshire ;ind Dorsetshire, where the labourers iire in extreme poverty. An iutlucntial and active clergyman in wi *r n n *'lll^li. i'il!> a : ii ill' I !■ !! 84 EMIGRATION. AViltsliire confessed to me, that how his poor got on at all on their wretched wages was to him the problem of problems, and far more difficult of solu- tion than anything he had r^et with at Cambridge. The well-informed and ambitious Scotchman i& quite ready to embark for a colony. Half Ireland would go at a word ; and they are right. I once saw four thousand Irish at Lockport, in the state of New York, making a canal. They were delvers only, under American inspectors. Such specimens of bone and muscle ; such activity and fun ; good eating and hard drinking, alas ! I never beheld. Some of the money thus earned would buy a share of the neighbouring forest. Ten or fifteen years from thai time would find some of these people i.idependent and rich ; the others still poor, because wasteful. For their own benefit, and that of others, dis- tressed labouring men should emigrate with their fiimilies, if healthy, hopeful, and willing. Cha- racter must be touched on tenderly. If possible, they should go out young : it is then that they possess the ductility required in a new world. Farmers, tradesmen, and artisans with some capital, may reasonably expect to do well. Wages are high, considering the price of necessaries. It is in the upper or western country that these men are needed, not in the sea-board towns. SETTLERS. 85 Thirty different artisans, v7ho arrived at Guelpli, ^'n Canada West, in 1833, 1834, and 1835, were without money, furniture, and nearly without clotliing. Six years* afterwards, they would not take from 200/. to 500/. each for their property ! Some who had a few pounds would not take double these suras for their gains, while there are a few tradesmen wio, to judge by their buildings and farms, must have acquired large capitals. The prices of British manufactures are moderate in the Canadas, from the low rate of custom-house duties, competition, and improved roads ; but the poorer settler should, as much as possible, make his articles of consumption at home — spin, weave, ui!i ''% xm '^ if'' ill % 11! !i il lis 88 THE EMIGRANTS. purchased there, at least), — such as agricultural implements, furniture, crockery, &c. They can be had cheap and good on the spot. The best month to arrive in Canada is May ; a pivductive summer is before the stranger. All the principal towns have energetic public institutions, for the benefit of the sick and des- titute ; and public works are almost always going on, which afford regular and good pay. Any money taken out will turn to most profit in good bills. Hitherto, I have been speaking to the working man ; now a few words to the capitalist. There is not a more advantageous position on the face of the globe in point of climate, comforts, society, security, and general prospects, than a farm near one of the numerous centres of business in Canada West, for the family (once, perhaps, sorely pinched in England) of a half-pay officer, small annuitant, or somewhat reduced gentleman. Very few of the privileges of the old country are here sacrificed ; for good society clusters round these places — such as Hamilton, Toronto, the Ottawa River, &c. All the members of the family meet, with their appropriate occupations and plea- sures, out-door and in-door. Good markets are nigh at hand. London news is only a fortnight old, and local intelligence spreads rapidly ; while THE EMIGRANTS. 89 the farm, with or without half- pay, slioukl sup- port all in light-hearted ahundance. The half-pay is chiefly useful in maintaining gentility. Canada ought to be the paradise of this large and worthy class ; and is so, comparatively, to thousands. Such farms, with their necessary buildings, are still to be had, at very moderate prices. A raw country and their population will seldom suit the great capitalist. The delicate habits in which he has been educated will be subject to an endless succession of shocks and jars — intolerable, unless neutralised by the natural or morbid stimu- lus of a darling project. Here is one great defect in Wakefield's beautiful scheme of colonising with capital and labour combined. As a rule, capital refuses to go where the owner must accompany it — the scheme halts, and is, in fact, defeated. It is very unsafe to send out capital to take care of itself. *'I will not go ; for I can find in England tolerable employment for my capital, and can, at the same time, enjoy the thousand nameless agremens and conveniencies of an old country." As a specimen of the daily small annoyances that are here met with. A large capitalist invested in iron mines and forges in Canada West. He built and furnished a house in the English st -le. He had occasion to advertise for tenders to clear ■I i i i Mil llIP' If' iiiiij, 90 THE EMIGRANTS. some land. A master woodcutter, an off-lianded Yankee, thinkin«^ of notliin*:: but timber and dol- lars, came vvith his offer. He was introduced into the parlour, briulit with its newly-papered walls, and figured carj)ct. Tiie American, as he strug- gled for liis price, balancing his cluiir against tlie wall, rubbed his wet greasy hair against the papci", when JNIr. Cluirles liayes begged him to keep his head off the wall, which he instantly did ; but soon afterwards, very unconsciously, rolled liis cpiid, and spat on the new cai-pet. Mr. C. remonstrated, wlien the woodman waxed warm, and said, " Neighbour, I see we are not likely to do business. You are a hard man, and make bothers. You know I'll do cheap ; and yet we don't progress."' " Yes," said the Englisliman, *' we sha'l progress, if you will step out with me into the garden ; " where, in fact, terms were agreed upon in a few minutes. Some persons blindly rush beyond the limits of civilisation, and are surprised to find themselves neither happy nor useful. JMany a town-bred lady has found herself thus. For the sake of the female part of his family, no man should venture into the Canadian woods unless he can very materially better his condition. The ladies must milk their own cows, cook their own mutton, scald and cut up their pork, SOCIETY. 01 and so fortl:. But there are liundredi? of cleared farms in the upper province, to be liad on easy terms, wlierc none of these things need be done. No purely professional man, exceptinji", per- liaps, the minister of religion, can expect an income in Cannda. Law nnd phvsic are over- stocked. The importing* merchant treads on slip- pery ii \v 92 THE EMIGRANTS. iTioinent's notice, sell llie farm on m hicli he was born, and move westward a thousand miles. His neighbours justify him.* I think life is shorter there. Perhaps the uni- versal fcvci' of accumulation tends to premature decay. As Mr. Sidney says, in one of his able little books, ** The defects of the climate of the United States are notorious. The thin, sallow, wrinkled appearance of the men, and still more of the women, proves the fact at one glance." *• In the Western States," a re!«pectable Ame- rican merchant observed to us the other day, *' we lake calomel and quinine by the pound, and ex- pect fever and ague, as your lords do the gout, annually." A good set of teeth is a rarity in America past thirty years of age. A rough animal happiness is diffused all over North America ; and I rejoice to know it. But grumblers are cverywliere — you cannot escape them ; — some on speculation, others because they are injudicious, idle, intemperate, or sick. * The philosopher justifies him thus : — " The American uses things without allowing himself to be taken captive by them. We behold everywhere the freewill of man overmastering nature, which has lost the power of stamp\..g him with a local character, of sepa- rating the nation into distinct peoples. Local country, which had great Bway in the Old World, no longer exists. The great social country wins all interest, and all affection : it over-matches entirely geographical country." — Arxolu Guyot, Earth and Man. Lec- tures y p. 301. ns is 10 THE EMIGRANTS. 93 There is not much of the picturesque near the usual home of the workin*; emigrant. A clear- ance ill the woods* is very oHensive to tlie eye, be- ing a dismal scene of uncouth log-huts, blackened stumps, leafless scorched trees and awkward zijj:-zii2: fences. It is in Canada as in every other part of the globe. A producing country lies low, and is un- attractive : fine scenery is usually sterile. The Indians, lingering among the whites, are not picturesque. Cotton Matlier, the old Puritan of Massachussets, quaintly and truly culls them *' doleful creatures, the ruins of man." The place where they become so is seldom an advisable re- sidence for the emigrant. I was sorry to observe, in the more retired parts of Canada, that when the diflSculties are sur- mounted, and all is secure and comfortable, the settler is apt to fall into a dull and moping state. There is now little to interest ; the farm and the boys work well by themselves ; neighbours are distant. Tlicre is no stimulus at hand preservative of the domestic proprieties. All are necessarily careless of dress in summer ; while in winter a whole wardrobe of old clothes is called for at once. In summer, while on travel in an open boat, I have not seen my coat for a month tOij:ether. The females, I am bound to say, bear a wood- Iri^f: it:^;. it ui: 94 A CLEAUANCE. land life fur better than the men ; arc cheerful, active, and tidy in ilieir persons. 1 have been often very pleased \vith their healthy, satisfied, and smart appoiirance while mountini^ their Dear- born spring wa2;gon on Sundays to go to churcii, driven by a brother. 1 have re])eatedly witnessed the whole progress of a new settlement from birth to maturity — from the first blow of the axe to the erection of churches, liotels, and mansions of cut stone. While encamped on a woody island for three weeks in the liiver St. Clair (Michii^an), I one evening* saw a boat bring to, on the east or British shore, not far from me, and then a forest. I ])addk'd over in my canoe to see what the arrival was. It was a large boat laden almost to sinking with a hearty family of five persons (the parents and three children), with all sorts of lumbering chests and rude furnisliings, a long gun, tools, axes, hoes, spades> a dog or two, a few poultry, and a barrel or two of Hour and pork. This was the true pioneer family. While I loitered about them, not unwelcome, for a couple of hours, they landed and arranged their goods, and went to sleep on matting, snug under the fragrant shelter of pine branches. Two days afterwards I found my friends com- fo. wi mi th sit ui Ih 1 ■}< A CLEARANCE. 95 fortaMy housed in an oblon«; lo|^-luit well caulked with clay. For such expeditious buildiiij^ they must have had help from others. I shall not ask you to accompany this settler throui^-ii his cheerful winter work of fellinjjr and girdling trees, of burning and clearing away the underwood of his intended farm, and now and then bringing home a deer or wild turkey. Many such scenes I have witnessed. I have returned to the spot two or three years afterwards, and found the family, if strong-handed, or if they have had a little capital, in possession of a com- fortable log-house, out-buildings, oxen, a cow, and pigs and ])Ouliry innumerable. Imoui five to thirty acres have been cleared and planted, while per- haps a hundred more remain, and as yet only yield i)asture and fuel. In from six to ten years, additional comforts spring up with an enlarged clearance. The original hut may be a stable, and a two-storied frame-house may have been built, shining all over with white paint and bright green doors and window-shutters. By this time neighbours have approached, roads have been struck into the more recent settlements, and the Englishman, at least, is pleased to find the human tide fiowInini*; consumers for his produce and enhanced value to his land. I /: '. 'd ■; r i;j ■M: ' 96 THE NEW TOWN. m !; m These people are plainly, but warmly clad ; on Sunday with great propriety, even if thirty miles from a church ; which seldom need be the case. All this has been repeatedly accomplished by an Irish desperado, whose life at home was divided between the drunken party-fights and hopeless starvation. I once spent four days in a town in the state of New York, with three fine churches, many inns, a public library, museum, and eight thousand in- habitants, standing upon ground which, five years before, was a beech forest, unconscious of stir or sound, save of the adjacent cascades. Some stub- born tree-stumps were still in the back streets (Rochester). To use the graphic language of Birkbeck, " If you look at such a place as this after the lapse of thirty years, or less (Sandusky, Cleaveland, &c.), what a mighty change has been effected ! The village is a city, and contains its congregated tens of thousands, its cireets, squares, halls, fanes, hospitals, and all the civic machinery of an Ilanse town. There maybe in the neighbourhood a black stump ; but the raw desolation is gone : the rich corn-field waves in t!ie breeze, and fruits and flowers surround the dwellings. The wild stream is tamed, and la- bours like a servant in the factory ; the woods SETTLEMENT. 97 retreat, leaving a few trees for friendly shade ; and the wolf and bear steal away from a place which is no longer for them." By way of conclusion to these little jottings on a most important subject, I will repeat, tliat in Canada the labourer and artisan have two jrreat advantages, — far better wages and better invest- ments than in England. To the capitalist I may make the encouraging remark, that the more you invest prudently the greater your gains. Your first year or two, however, should be spent in observation, in learning rather than in acting. With good sense and industry the ordinary emi- grant may, after a few years, rest assured, with the blessing of God, of ease and competence. In- stead of want and hopelessness, he will see a yearly increase in the value of his possessions, partly from his own exertions, and partly from the generally increased value of land. His child- ren's ])rospects are still higher. They may look forward to opulence. Many of the sons of poor settlers, Irish or British, are members of the co- lonial legislatures. I advise for settlement, at the present time, the vicinity of the Kiver Ottawa, the north and west shores of Lake Ontario, the shores of Lake t^imcoe, the vast peninsula between the three Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron, and, finally, VOL. I. H la '. Ml Ea 99 CLI3IATE. '.'«! the eastern townships of Lower Canada which border on the states of Vermont and Maine. I greatly prefer the Canadas, as an emigration- field, to the United States, and am deeply con- cerned to see so many ot my fellow-countrymen hurying themselves in the unhealthy and other- wise undesirable regions of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. I wish they would remember, that even in the wilder parts of Canada life and pro- perty are safe, laws arc respected, and religiou held in its due reverence, which is not always the case in the above-mentioned parts of the United States. In Canada the climate is healthy, in Upper Canada particularly so, except in the extreme south-west. The air is remarkable for its clear- ness, dryness, and exhilarating effects. It is quite common for an invalid from England to lose his complaints, gather great strength, and live to a good old age. The average number of rainy days at Toronto, for the nine years ending 1845, was only 87. It was 178 in London. The temperature of Upper Canada is much milder than is generally supposed. The vast bodies of "water occupying the valley of the St. Lawrence must mitiu'atc both the heat and the cold. The markets are good and near, the population friendly and comfortable, ready to teach new comers the best methods of labour. "WALK TO MONTREAL. 99 Land of the first quality is plentiful on mode- rate terms, either wild or cleared. European goods are much cheaper than in the United States. Taxation is almost unknown. Internal communication is easy and rapid, by canals, lakes, rivers, and highways. All Christian de- nominations receive public support. There are more ministers of religion, in proportion, tlian in England. The acts of Government are usually, and their intentions always, truly paternal. The United Province, dc facto, governs itself. News- papers abound, filled with British intelligence. I could be well content to pass the remainder of my days within the sound of the Falls of the Chat, on the Ottawa River. The fever at the Ilawksbury settlement having been apparently extinct for ten days, I bade an unwilling adieu to my kind but unfortunate hosts at Hamilton INIills, on my return to Quebec. I determined to walk the whole v/av to ]Mont- real, sixty miles, and left, not over})resscd witli baggage, early in a dewy morning, "• ju^t as the sound of a going was heard in the sycamore trees. The dense, dripping woods through which my path for the nine first miles lay, with now and 'I J^.'l 100 THE INN. i!::i I then a bog-hole, soon soaked my smart boots through and through. My wet stockings so chafed my feet that 1 was fain to walk in boots only. In much pain I made twenty-five miles that day, through alternate clearances and forest; but towards night, when the stars broke forth above the tree-tops. I wished for a resting-place. Walking on, however, through the woods until it was quite dark, and every bush was a bear, I thought good to get a thick stick instead of the slender one with which I slung my bundle over my shoulder. Scarcely had I done so when I heard the barking of dogs, and a turn in the dusky path shewed me the glimmer of a cottage window. The dogs were soon upon me; but my stick kept them at bay until I got within shouting- distance, when, at my cries, the large door of the house opened, and poured out such a rejoicing flood of light as only an American wood-fire can produce. It was a humble house of entertainment (Schneider's), to me most welcome. Excellent bread, milk, honey, and a little bacon, was all it could offer, and all I required ; but the genuine kindness, the foot-bath, the snowy bed-sheets of that night, are still most pleasantly remembered. The next morning I went on my way. While INSANE LADY. 101 creeping round the great bay at the mouth of the Ottawa (west shore), a miller, out of spontaneous compassion at my foot-sore state, took me into his cart for two miles. The same evenina: I arrived at La Chine, within nine miles of Mont- real. The next morning, lame and weary, I set forth as a humble pedestrian for Montreal. I had been heavily dragging foot after foot for ab >ut five miles, but not without being pleased with the activity of the motley population of French, Irish, and Scotch on the road, and with the richly- verdured heights on the north, in all the gaudy tints of autumn, when, while skirting the ancient sea-banks of St. Henry, I saw a girlish figure creep from under the dry arch of a bridge which crossed the road, and begin to dance. She was soon surrounded by a group of child- ren from three or four cottages close by ; but she kept up her dancing, and threw off, first, her bonnet, then her shawl, and then her un- der-neckerchief, singing and jumping wildly about, with her long hair all loose about her shoulders. Not being very lively at the moment, I was paying little attention to this scene, although now very near, when on a sudden the poor woman ii'i' tf?:i 102 INSANE LADY. iM rushed on me, and fling*ing* her arms wildly round my neck, and so violently that I could hardly stand, exclaimed, — "Doctor, I am Polly White! Polly! that came in the same ship with vou ! Save me. Doc- tor : I am dancing to keep these people from murdering me, as they did my William. I have given them all my clothes, and they are not satis- fied," Sec. (fcc. in an endless flow of piercing tones and sobhings, never heard but from maniacal lips. Looking narrowly, and not a little frightened, at the flushed, demented face, I saw truly that it was Mrs. White, a fellow cabin-passenger from England, the young mother of three children, and going out to Canada with them to join her husband, who held some small government em- ploy at Montreal. Her gentle manners, obliging disposition, and well-behaved children, had made her quite a favourite among us. How or why she was here, and in this poor plight, and what a weary stranger like me, acci- dentally all but penniless, was to do with her, was past my coiiiprehension. 1 knew of no provision for such a calamity as this in Mont- real or in Canada, for I had only been two hours in the former and two months in the latter. H di INSANE LADY. 103 However, I tried to soothe her, and gradually drew her into the nearest hut. After listening for some time to her shrill torrent of incoherence, as she sat and stood by turns, I tried to put a few questions to her ; but getting no answer, I sat ruminating what to do. The door being open, and looking aslant up the road from JMontreal, I saw a stout, elderly gentleman slowly approaching on a bay mare. Several neighbours had come in — poor peojde, but women, and much distressed for this poor waif of their own sex ; so, making a sign to them to take care of Mrs. White, 1 advanced to the gentleman, and told him what must be called our case. He proved to be a magistrate, and kindly dis- mounted. After having looked at the poor lady, he requested the tenant of the cottage (to whom he was well known) to take care of her for an hour or two, by which time he would send a district officer to take her to Montreal. I afterwards heard, that on her arrival at Montreal from England she found her husband dead, and herself and children all but friendless. This sudden and heavy blow bereft her of reason. When I met her, she had escaped from some place of confinement. As I mournfully left this poor thing, like a ^it- H 1 .; lit i >. ,,j ; H.'i fv " 1 1 104 EXCURSION TO HAWKSBURY. crushed flower, I remembered, with Archbishop Sumner, that this worhl is initiatory, not fii'.al — that our peace here is not to flow as a river, and that " every sorrow cuts a string and teaches us to rise." In a couple of days I left Montreal for Quebec per steamer. EXCURSION THE SECOND. MONTREAL, THE OTTAWA, &:C. Montreal ; Island, City, and Society — North-west Stores — Peter Pond — Boat Song — Dancing Plieasants, 6ic. — North-west Fur Traders — Lake St. Louis — Ottawa River — Light Canoe — M. de Rocheblave — M anitions de Bouche — Voyageurs — Indian Village — Flooded River — Gaelic Maid — American Farm — Hull — Phile- mon Wright — Lakes Chaudicre, Chat — Falls of La Montagne and Grand Calumet — Riviere Creuse ; Western Branch, Tesonac — Miss Ermatiuger — Lake Nipissing — French River. In the spring of tlie year following my mission to the sick settlers at Hawksbury, the Colonial Government was pleased to send me through Upper Canada to make a general report upon its geology, of which at that time nothing was known. Since then the province has appointed an official geologist. I was very glad of the task, altliough the pecu- niary aid with which I was to prosecute this journey of nearly 2000 miles was absurdly small,* * Twenty-six pounds. I mention this in perfect good humour ; but travelling in barbarous or semi-barbarous countries is very ' i r ■'M. ]';'y. 106 MONTREAL. sometliinji" like Sir Francis Head's outfit for liis vice-royalty. Had it not been for the kindness of the Nortli- west Company of Fur-traders, and my own limited resources, the objects in view would have been very imperfectly fuliilled. This Company very handsomely granted mo a free passage in a light canoe to the Falls of St. Mary, at the outlet of Lake Superior, by which means a large and interesting region, rarely visited by scientific persons, was laid open to cursory inspection. As I shall, in the sequel, have better opportu- nities of sketching Lake Huron and the other parts of Upper Canada, I shall limit this excursion to the Rivers Ottawa and Des Francois, with Lake Nipissing, premising some remarks on IMontreal and the fur-traders. I arrived at Montreal early in May to join the light canoe ; but as it did not set out for a few- days, I wandered about the environs, and partook ff the hospitalities of the town. The picturesque expensive. On the north-east shore of Lake Eric I paid 3/. 10*. for being taken in a cart sixteen miles in five or six hours. In 1845 a bill was passed by the Canadian House of Assembly to appropriate 2000/. annually for live years, to make an accurate and complete geological survey of the Canadas. An experienced and energetic geologist, ^Ir. Logan, was appointed for this duty, with assistants. His services have already proved very valuable. MO.^TREAL. 107 and fertile island of Montreal, upon the south side of which the metropolis of l^ritish North America is situated, is thirty-two miles lonj^ by ten in its g-rcatest breadth, and with a somewhat triangular shape. With the exception of Montreal Hill and its dependent alluvial ridge, the island is tolerably level, and it is watered by several rivulets. Montreal Hill is almost wholly of basalt. This rock has risen obtrusively above the surrounding^ layers of limestone, without disturbing their hori- zontality, and has solidified in its present form. jN'ot only so, but, as is very curious, it sends forth arms, rays, or dykes, from one to fourteen feet thick, which run at right angles with the mountain a mile or more into the plains around. Masses of shell limestone, and single shells, are seen im- bedded, and unchanged, in the basalt, which is both of the hornblende and augite species.* I am not aware of anything similar elsewhere. Montreal Hill almost immediately overlooks the city. It is three miles long, and comparatively narrow ; its height is 650 feet, as measured by Lieutenant -colonel Robe, lately Governor of South Australia. It dips, on the east and south- * Vide "Transactions of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York." k; u :1 108 MONTREAL. east, precipitously from a rounded summit of scantily wooded rock, and is elsewhere in hum- mocks, or steep declivities, clothed with beech, maple, and fir. 'J'he sides and base are occu- pied by orchards, farms, and gentlemen's seats. The view from the top is extensive and varied. To the south it is much the same as from Mr. M'Gillvray's drawing-room window ; to the north it exhibits an undulating country, well cultivated but woody, with glimpses of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa ; the whole bounded by high lands trending north-east. This ** Mountain," as it is here called, is a striking object from its massive solitariness. Montreal is a stirring and opulent town, with a population exceeding 50,000, and therefore larger than Quebec. Its inhabitants have always, as the Americans say, been on the commercial "stam- pado." * They are enterprising and active, pushing their merchandise into the most remote wildernesses where there is the chance of a market. Montreal does not wear the heavy, sleepy air of Quebec. The social, easy-going Canadian, is suffering from a great invasion of Americans and * A phrase taken from the stampado of the bison in the plains. Vast herds meet on certain occasions, and shake the earth for miles round by their incessant and fierce stamping. MONTREAL. 109 British, who, it is to be confessed, have possessed themselves of tlie hulk of the upper-country trade; but the French labouring class is still very numerous. Its situation and its environs are very beautiful. Few places luive so advanced in all the luxuries and comforts of hiu;h civilisation as Montreal, or is so well supplied with religious, i)hilanthropic, and scientific institutions in full activity, including both a hospital and a college for Protestants, besides the rich educational establishment of St. Sulpice for the Roman Catholics. This town, since I was first there, has been renovated — nay, newly-built and greatly extended. Some of the show-shops rival those of London in their plate-glass windows, and its inns are as remarkable for their palatial exterior as they are for their excellent accommodation within. Its magnificent quays of wrought stone which line the St. Lawrence are the admiration of strangers. The main cause of this prosperity is the rapid peopling of the country westward and southward for GOO miles and more. In 184"2-43 the population of Upper Canada, the trading-ground of Montreal, was 401,000 souls; in 1848 it was nearly 700,000. To this we must add a large public expenditure, and, doubtless, a i itJ 'i. 'JM 110 MONTREAL. y m i ' i:! m / very extensive illicit trade with the United States along the frontiers. It does not enter into my plan to describe tlie splendid Roman Catholic cathedral of this city, the more modest and yet large Episcopal church, the Nelson monument, and other public buildings. They have been well represented by Mr. Bartlett in his " Canadian Scenery." I humbly confess my error. T found, but did not expect to find, at Montreal a pleasing tran- script of the best form of London life — even in the circle beneath the verv first class of official families. But I may be pardoned ; for I had seen in the capital of another great colony con- siderable primitiveness of manners, not to mention the economical and satisfactory device of the lump of sugar candy tied to a string and swung from mouth to mouth at a tea-party in Cape Town, not very long fallen into disuse (1817). At an evening party at Mr. 11 's the ap- pointments and service were admirable ; the dress, manners, and conversation of the guests, in excel- lent taste. IMost of the persons there, though country-born, had been eihicatcd in England, and cvervthino; savoured of Kensinq-ton. There was much good music. I remember to this day the touching effect of a slow air on four notes, snng A DINNER. HI by a sweet voice, and supposed to be a bymn sung before a wayside oratory in Tuscany. I had the pleasure of dining; wilh the then great Ampliytrion of Montrci;! at his seat, on a high terrace under the mountain, looking south- wards, and laid out in pleasure-grounds in the English style. The view from the drawing-room windows of this large and beautiful mansion is extremely fine, too rich and fair, I foolishly thought, to be out of my native England. Close beneath you are scattered elegant country retreats embowered in plantations, succeeded by a crowd of orchards of delicious apples, spreading far to the riirlit and left, and hcdijinu: in the glittering churches, hotels, and house-roofs of Montreal, whose principal streets run alongside the St. Lawrence. To the left of the town nothing particular pre- sents itself; but to the right, or south-west, you have the pretty village of St. Henry close under the steep ridge of St. Pierre, and then the railroad and canal leading to La Chine, passing through copses and farms, and from time to time betrayed bv a s'lanciu"' locomotive or the broad sail of a barg2. The wide, tumultuous river, and the island of ¥ 15^ I >At B, 112 A DINNER. St. Helen, come next into view beyond Montreal, with the opposite shore studded with white dwell- ings, among which the large village of La Prairie is conspicuous, with its shining church. Directing the eye still farther south, it ranges over a level and populous district of great breadth, till arrested in one direction by the fine hill of Beloeil, and in another by the still more remote and lofty moun- tains of Vermont and New York. Mr. M'Gillvray was accustomed to entertain the successive governors in their progresses, and was well entitled to such honour, not only from his princely fortune, but from his popularity, honesty of purpose, and intimate acquaintance with the true interests of the colony. I hope to betray no family secrets in the follow- ing little sketch of the doings at the dinner-parly. My host was then a widower, with two agreeable and well-educated daughters. The company was various, and consisted of a judge or two, some members of the legislative council, and three or four retired partners of the North-wcst Company of Fur-traders. Our dinner and wines were perfect. The conversation was fluent and sensi- ble, far above my sphere at first, about large estates, twenty to thirty miles long, and how to improve them by draining, damming, road- ANECDOTES. 113 making, anil so forth — operations only in the power of great capitalists who can wait for returns. For myself, a young man, I listened meekly as *' de profundis;" but at length the talk turned to a subject more attractive — the Indian fur countries, on whose frontiers I was about to wander. I was well placed at table, between one of the jMiss M 's and a singular-looking person of about fifty. He was plainly dressed, quiet, and observant. His figure was short and compact, and his black hair was worn long all round, and cut square, as if by one stroke of the shears, just above the eyebrows. His complexion was of the gardener's ruddy brown, while the expression of his deeply-furrowed features was friendly and intelligent, but his cut-short nose gave him an odd look. His speech betrayed the Welshman, although he left his native hills when very young. I might have been spared this description of Mr. David Thompson by saying he greatly resem- bled Curran the Irish orator. He was astronomer, first, to tlie Hudson's ]3ay Company, and then to the Boundary Commission. I afterwards travelled much with liiui, and have now only to speak of him with great respect, or, I ought to say, with admiration. No living person possesses a tithe of his inforni- VOL. I. I |;|ranted to enable the successful to enjoy themselves. The celebrated Beaver Club of Montreal was established as a point of recreation and of union, and where, I have been told, on certain great occasions the last plate put on the table before each member held a cheque for a sum of money. I noticed that the members of the North-west Company were often relatives. This arose, I doubt not, from the enticing descriptions which were sent into the Scottish Highlands, from time to time, of the adventurous life of the wilderness, of hunting and war, of alternate indolence and desperate toil, and lastly and particularly, of the acquisition of splendid fortunes. INDIAN TRADER. 126 A first-rate Indian trader is no ordinary man. He is a soldier-merchant, and unites the gal- lantry of the one with the shrewdness of the other. Montreal was then the best place for seeing this class of persons, as St. Louis at the mouth of the Missouri is at present. What sailors are at seaports they are at these places. They spend fast, play all the freaks, pranks, and street- fooleries, and originate all the current whimsi- calities : but this is their brief holiday : when they turn their faces westward, up stream, their manners change. The Indian trader is a bold, sqnare-chested, gaunt man, sun-burnt, with extraordinary long hair as a defence against mosquitoes. He is equally at home on horseback or in the canoe — indefatii2:able wlien needful, careless of heat and cold, and brave as steel, as though he bore a charmed life, in countries where the Queen's writ scarcely runs, whei'e the law only of per- sonal authority takes eft'oct. Often he has not Oiily to contend with the Indians, and to right himself on the spot with otlicr traders, but he has to fiiiht his own men hand to hand. Kind- iiess, vigour, and sagnclty, usually render but one such affair necessary. It had become evident in 1816, and before, i 3 M ^4: ■•i i' [i.l ' 1 I ■ 1: III 126 DEPARTURE. that the competition of the two companies was injurious to all concerned, that their strife was devastating the fur countries, and tliat their mutual attacks (on one occasion sixteen ►scotch- men and Englishmen were massacred) would be tolerated no longer. They cannot have desired the continuation of such a state of thino-s. An amalgamation therefore took place in 1821 ; and all has been peace since that period, greatly to the benefit of all parties, and most so to the Indians; — although it is true that these last are only the hunting-slaves of a company of whites in Leadenhall Street. At length the day of departure, the 20th of May, arrived. Together with a pleasant young clerk of the North-west Coujpany I left Montreal in a lonii-eared calash,* drawn bv two stout black horses, for the mouth of the river Ottawa, at the upper end of the island of Montreal — there to embark in the light canoe. The main business of the canoe in which I was granted a seat was to convey Mr. Ilocheblave, a * It is like an English gig, l)ut much stouter, the horse farther from the body of the carriago ; and tliis aUows of room for the driver, whose seat vests (m the footboard. Instead of door;;, like our iiluu'ton, it has high .side?, for warmth and other reasons. The driver's seat and tlie board which supjiorts it fall by means of hinges when the passengers get in, and the board and M'ut are then hooked up again to their place when the driver mounts. CALASH JOURNEY. 127 partner in the North-west Company, and his clerk, to Fort William, in Lake Superior; and M. Tabeau, a Roman Catholic priest, and my- self, to the Straits of St. Mary, the outlet of the above lake, and my furthest point on this occasion. We were soon at La Chine, and were trotting along the good road which skirts the shores of Lake St. Louis, when, to my great gratification, we had not gone far before we found the shore lined with fiat-bottomed boats filled with six companies of the 68th Light Infantry, on their Avay to Kingston in Canada West. ]Most of the ofllicers were walking leisurely on the road, some of the juniors, however, standing erect on the stern-thwarts, pole in hand, making respectable proof of their river-craft. The ofiricers' wives were in boats with awning's — sitting cool and happy, while the soldiers, their baggage and womankind, crowded the other barges. Inexperience in a strong opposing current is as bad as in taking a cross-country ride. So our friends found it, — Cispecially in rounding a point, when too often, in spite of clamorous warnings innumerable, the boat's head would be caught by the stream ; and away blie would dart (^ueljec- i:^ ^1 ■\ \ fi H ■ 1 - -i j ; i 1 ■ ! • ^ 1, ii ' mm 1 128 ROMAN CATHOLIC PROCESSION. wards, to the great amusement of all but the principals concerned. Passins: alon i jjf ' r ]32 THE VOYAGEURS. iis'ial complement is nineteen — that is, fifteen paddlcnien and four gentlemen passengers ; the latter sitting each on his rolled-up bed in the middle compartment. The North-west Company provided mnnitions de houchc on the most liberal scale — port, ma- deira, shrub, brandy, rum, sausages, eggs, a huge pie of veal and pheasants, cold roast beef, salt beef, hams, tongues, loaves, tea, sugar, and, to crown all, some exquisite beaver tail. The men were provided well in a plainer way, and had their glass of rum in cold and rainy weather. I was disappointed and not a little surprised at the appearance of the voyageurs. On Sun- days, as they stand round the door of the village churches, they are proud dressy fellows in their parti-coloured sashes and ostrich-feathers ; but here they were a motley set to the eye : but the truth was that all of them were picked men, with extra waives as serving: in a liszht canoe. Some were well made, but all looked weak in the legs, and were of light weight. A Falstaff would have put his foot through the canoe to the " vellow sands" beneath. The collection of faces amonir them chanced to be extraordinarv, as they sqmittcd, puddle in hand, in two rows, each on his slender bag of necessaries. By the bye, .all their finery (and they love it) was left at home. THE VOYAGEURS. 13; J One man's face, with a large Jewish nose, seemed to have hccn squeezed in a vice, or to liave passed throuq-h a flattcnin;j; niacliine. It was hke a cheese-cutter — all edi::e. Another had one nostril bitten off. He proved the hulioon of the party. He had t le extraordinary faculty of untying the strings of his face, as it were, at ])lea3ure, when his features fell into confusion — into a crazed chaos almost frightful ; his eye, too, lost its usual significance : hut no man's countenance (barring the bite) was fuller of fun and fancies than his, when he liked. A third man had his features wrenched to the right — exceedingly little, it is true ; but the effect was renuirkable. He had been slaj)ped on the face by a grisly bear. Another was a short, paunchy old num, with vast features, but no forehead — the last man I bliould have selected ; but he was a hard-working crea- ture, usually called " Passe-partout," because he had been everywhere, and was famous for the weight of fish he could devour at a meal. He knew the flavour of the fish of each great lake, just as the man who had been ordered by Boer- haave to live on broth made of grass came to know the field from whence it was taken. Except the younger men, their faces were short, thin, quick in their expression, and mapped out in furrows, like those of the suuday-less Parisians. II lii I 1 ;* -). ii u- 1^- ■I ■; im f I i)t 'VI :)) > I;/ I 'II i liilir M 134 INVOCATION. Nothing could exceed their respectful and oblig- ing hehaviour. Tiie same must he said of all of this class with whom I had anvthinfj to do. Their occupation is now gone — gone for them the hot chase of the buffalo, tlie fl-^hing-spear, and eclioing cliffs of Lake Huron. I look upon them with tlic same mysterious awe and regret as I should do on the last Dodo or Diuornis, the ultimate vestigrs of a lost race. Our worthy priest, M. Tabeau, while on shore, shook every voijagcur by the hand kindly, and had a pleasant word for each. We then embarked at thirty minutes past three p. m. As soon as we were well settled down in our l)laces, and the canoe began to feel the paddles, Mr. Tabeau, by way of asking a blessing on the voyage, pulled off his hat, and sounded forth a Latin invocation to the Deity, and to a long train of male and female saints, in a loud and full voice, while all the men, at the end of each versicle, made response, " Qit^il me hetiisse" This done, he called for a song ; and many were gleefully carolled — each verse in solo, and then repeated in chorus, north-west fashion. Of such use is singing, in enabling the men to work eighteen and nineteen hours a-day (at a pinch), through forests and across great bays, that a good singer has additional pay. The songs are sung NIPISSING VILLAGE. 135 with might and main, at tlie top of the voice, timed to the paddle, which makes aljout fifty strokes in a minute. While nearing habitations, crossing sheets of water, and during rain, the song is loud and long. The airs I suppose to be an- cient French. They are often very beautiful. Now and then the words are evidently Cana- dian, like the one which commemorates the death of a voycujcur at the Falls of La Montague (where we shall soon be), or that in which the lover entreats the lady to fly with him and hide among the wild and verdant isles of the Ottawa. The current, as we ascended the Ottawa (open, or spotted with islets, by turns), from Forbes' Ta- vern, was strong against us; but in an hour and a half we arrived at the pretty Indian village of the Lake of the Two Mountains, which straggles over and about a sort of green, with mounts of sand behind, overhung with woody hills. The Nipis- sing, or Witch Indians, inhabit the left half of the village, in neat, painted houses (so they looked at a distance); but the other half, belonging to the Iroquois, seemed desolate and neglected. I suppose they were still at their winter hunting- grounds. As we skirted close past the church, whicli is near the water-side and in the centre of the village, we saw silting on a gravestone, under •-vm m i ■' 1 ' 1 .1 1 ! 1 '! 1 :i:i' If i '1 I'- ISO MPISSING VILLAGE. a lofty (;]iu, tlic old priest llmiibcrt,* ^vitll Lis ljir;^(3 sorious icaturcs, in cassock and soniLroro. Singular to say, I\Tr. Bartlott, in his " (.'anadian Scenery," lias given us tlie self-same picture, taken son»e years afti.T my visit. At tlie furtlicr end of the villai;'e ■vvc delivered a l)a|i: of silver money to a trader of iho ];]ace. Tliere ^atheri'd near us a <;'roup of dark, hand- some, ;::i])^\y-lik(! men, wrapped in hiankets with scarlet borders ; iilthy, n;i;ly women; and i'rolic- some children, all ])eaceable, and j)leased to gaze upon ns. The strant^e, uncouth spot, the bandit faces and dresses, made me think I was at the world's end. Half a mile above this villaii'o, wo encamped for the night in a wood of tall beeches and elms. The gentlemen occupied one small square tent of thin canvass, pitched by their own hands, as the custom is. We soon had a roaring* fire, took tea, and hiy down to sleep, " Lulii'd l)y the sound of far-off torrents, Chanuing tl'.e still night." My bed, a blanket folded four times, was near the entrance of the tejit. As I lay, 1 could see the gleam of the rippling waters hard by ; and * His brotlier, General Humbert, commanded the French in their invasion of Ireluud, in 1798. { i *..1J LAKL or Tin: TWO MOUNTAINS. 1C7 the stars ol'ji lovclv siumiicr's iiiulit woro ainoiiir •■no tlio trce-to|)s. The roijdjjr.i'rswani asl(H,'}) in thcii' hhiuUcts around tlio fire ; one alone was up and about, on walclj, and cooking tiicir next day's soup. IjUL'^auo lay strewn in all direction!*. ^\'c heard at a little alter two in the morning, while yet dark, the loud and startlinj^ shout of *'Alerte!" and in a lew minutes we were aHoat on the hioad bosom of the liver, here called the Lake of the Two Alountains, twenty miles lon<^, and reachiui; to Point Fortune, at the foot of the Loujj: Sault llapids, of which we spoke in our last Excursion. V»'e breakfasted some distance higher tlian Point Fortune. While thus comfortably engaged, some men in great haste came and intjuired if we had seen some timber rafts driving down the stream. Truly had v,e — in the boiling rapids, both above and below us, dashing along at a pro- digiojis j-ate, and sine to be broken to pieces on the rocks. They had escaped from their fasten- ings, while the men were at a tavern three miles higher up. Our canoe now crossed to the east side of the river and landed her gentleujcn, in oider the better "to force" the rapids, which are long and strong, and particularly violent at a bend where six Iroquois had been drowned a few days before, ';i llr ■ i '■■: i ' ■ i„ y- - i i 138 HIGHLAND GIRL. by the breaking of their tow-rope. The river being this season eight fc t above its usual level, the rapids were unusually vehement, and, in places, the woods around were flooded. We walked the nine miles to the head of the Long Sault Rapids, through swamps and woods. To avoid wading, Mr. Robinson and myself struck deep into the forest, lost ourselves, and wandered about uneasily, until we came upon a decent log- house in a small clearance (township of Grenville). After some rapping, the door was opened by a very handsome tall young woman, with auburn hair, tidily dressed. I inquired our way. She shook her head without a smile. In great sur- prise — for she looked British all over — I addressed her iu French ; but I only got another shake of the head, when her brother appeared, and told us that they were Highlanders, and that his sister could only speak Gaelic. He put us in the right way for the head of the rapids. These people were dissatisfied, and longed for the hills of Blair Atliol — almost the only instance I ever met with. We regained the river Ottawa opposite the Hamilton Mills, and found our friends at Major M'M51^an's, a considerable landowner, waiting for the canoe.* One of the Major's children had * A summer or two after this I spent a fortnight at a ciiarming encampment, a few hundred yards below Major M'Millan's, of two S\ r ei a THE STAFF CORPS. 139 swallowed a halfpenny : I sent down after it some rhubarb and dry bread, but I could noi wait the effect. We soon afterwards embarked, and made a quick and merry dinner on the grass, half a mile above the Major's, and paddled up the splen- did sheet of water, sixty miles long, which loads to the falls of the Rideau and Chaudiere, to the village of Hull, and now to the far more impor- tant place, Bytown. Since I made this canoe voyage, the country has been much settled, aud one or two steamboats I companies of the Staff Corps, then constructing the Grenville Canal, to avoid the Long Sault Rajiids. I passed the day in geologising, and the evening in listening to the guitars of two accomplished sis- ters, Sicilians, who had married officers of this corps. I was the happy guest of Col. Robe, then a studious and zealous lieutenant in this useful regiment. I wish I had time to describe the primitive kraal-like huts of the officers, and other droll make* shifts of the wilderness. Col. Robe was so enthusiastic a geologist, that in mid-winter he went from Montreal to Lanark un the Ottawa (100 to 120 miles), on my information, to secure some bones found there in !i limestone cave in the woods. But tliey proved to lielong to an unfortunate deer who had shpped in by accident ; and we lost a Canadian gay- lenreuth. Tlie Staff Corps was here, 1 think, two summers. One day ISIajor Roehfort Scott (author of " Travels in Candia and Spain"), then a gallant young sub, made a dash into tiie melanelioly woods, which began at the back of liis tent and extended to the Arctic circle. Taking with him a soldier, he went almost due north for eighty miles, across rivers, morasses, woods, rocks, and bills, and skirting the lakes. He was many days out, and returned when his provisions failed. He found a large deposit of plumbago. 'SI. ■- /I|U:fii 11 '1 140 LA PETITE NATION. 9ll I 1 ',' t navigate this lake, as wo may call it, daily ; but at the time I am speaking of, it was chiefly in a state of nature. The gentle acclivities on all sides were covered with furests of hard wood — tlms indicating a fei'tile soil ; hut the signs " man were rare. They were, a little pirogue, with a man and a girl in it, creeping close in shore ; or the hut of a family arrived last autumn. A j>unt stands before the door, a plank is ])usl!ed a little way into the liver, and there fastened, to draw water from ; and perhai)S you may see a thin, scantily-clad female, dipping a vessel into the stream. Pig, ox, or cow, they have not yet ac- quired. They subsist on the potatoes, pumpkins, and maize, which have been planted among the stumps, with a little salt ])oi'k. iVbout twenty- live miles from Hamilton IMills, at nine p. m., wc arrived at La Petite Nation, a seigniory of eight hundred and twentv-six settlers in 1842, belong- ing to Mr. Speaker Paj)ineau, the celebrated agitator. Vv'e found his brother there, in a goodly house, on an island surrounded by a wide-spread inundation. Here we ]>itcheJ our tent for the night, and invited ISIr. C I'apinoau to sup with us. He was a dark rpiick-cyed man, with a small hooked nose. As he was not iirnorant of the good purveying of a light canoe, our society, perhaps, was not his only inducement to join us. I AMERICAN SETTLER. 141 but The next day we were off l)y three a.m. (iMay 22), tind in the course of the day passed over thirty miles of broad waters buried in dense fo- rests. Just before we hmded to dine, near the house of an American farmer, we overtook five loaded canoes of the Nortli-west Company, witli sixty men. As soon as they were in sight we beijian to sin;::, and when abreast there was a hvely exchanLce of travellers' wit between the parties. While we were at dinner our friends passed us, and sang most sweetly, with a lull chorus of all the crews — distiuice softenini; down any occasional harsli note from a novice. The American had been at this large clearance some years. He had cows and horses, and no small substance. I saw five or six stout fellows about the premises, and S(nne hearty giris — " Madges of the milking -pail." Tiie mother chattered fast to us during our meal, and wished to buy our broken victuals, although they seemed in good case. INIr. llochcblave gave them some. 1 ^^as sorry to see an idiot boy, fifteen years old, going about witii lit<'rally nothing on him but a very dirty calico shirt. The land around had been slowly rising from our dining-place ; and at six or eight miles from thence we came to a bend of the river to tiie right ■A m!' it] ! ! 142 RIDEAU FALL. (east). This, of course, we followed, and soon beheld an uncommon landscape. We were at the lower end of a reach two miles lon<^. At the western angle of its upper end the Rideau Fall leaps into the Ottawa in two massy sheets of water, from a height of sixty feet, and about a hundred yards apart. They are of un- equal size : the larger perhaps three hundred feet broad, the smaller one hundred feet — the larger also being guarded by a high precipice ci'owned with pines. An island divides them. The en- yirons in almost every direction are covered with great pines, stripped, blackened with fire, and pointing, needle-like, far into the sky. The ex- treme distance behind the Falls, and to the north, visible to us on the river, rose into uplands and hills, also covered witli lired pines. Such was this scene in 1821, when man had only begun his changes. Bytown has been built since near these falls ; gisrantic locks and a verv large canal are close to it. A great part of the traffic between Montreal and the upper country was expected to pass through these works ; but this route has been neglected since the St. Law- rence Canal has been finished ; the latter being the shorter and more eco!iomical line of trans- port. The Rideau Canal will be of little use, KETTLE FALL. 143 ilos the ussy except (luring war. This interesting landscape now wears another kind of beauty, which has been exquisitely well transferred to paper by ]Mr. Bartlett. Continuing our course up the reach, delighted with the high and often rocky scenery, a strong back-water eddy drove us up a narrow pass among cliffs, bare but for young firs in the clefts. Three openings now presented themselves ; the most distant one, to our left, displayed a broad half- rapid, half-cascade, sweeping down among islets of j)incs. The middle passage seemed very narrow, mural, and conveyed away in a state of creamy foam the waters of the Kettle Fall (the Chau- diere proper), while the mar or right passage, in which our canoe was dancing, led by a winding route to a rocky cove, where we landed for the portage, usually two hundred yards long. While on these turbulent waters, we were sur- prised to find ourselves amid a comjdete armada of large canoes (twenty-two), belonging to the North-west Comj)any ; and ten or twelve la- bouring in the billows belonging to the Iro(|uois of the Village of the Two Mountains, on their return from the winter hunt, with their families, furs, dogs, kc. Being very fond of finery, most of them were gaudily dressed in scarlet coats, broad silver hatbands, and fringeu leggings. The 144 HULL. greater niim1)er were tipsy, o.-peciariy one, wlio rolled ratlier tlian walked down a steep ibotpatl), very drunk, loaded with furs, and nearly threw me into the river. The clainour, jarf^oning^:, and confusion, rising up on all sides in this mixed and inij)etuons multitude, cannot bo described. When we had mounted the landing-place, we stood on a platform of naked rock. On our right, on slightly rising ground, and backed by woods, ■was the villao;e of Hull — Indf-a-dozon ^'Oud houses and stores, a handsome Ejiiscopal church,* and many inferior buildings. l^efore us was the river, nearly a mile broad, and sweeping through the forests in strong rapids towards the Falls. Oi;o hundred yards on our left was the Kettle Fall, with the disa'ppointing look of a mill-daui, and a fall of thirty feet. A lo'ig and severe tluinder- * From tlie churcli-towcr I looked over the whole region .irouml ; then to tlie west and north west, a waste of waters and woods. Northwards and eastwards Mr. "\Vri:,'ht's farms are close abor.t r.s, and then the forests. Mr. Willis (Hartlett's " Canadian Scenery") says the hills behind Hull are 900 feet high. I doubt this. In the direction of Bytown there i\rc extensive elraraiuvs, from thu great imjiulation assembled there for eoinmeroia! purposes. Lievit.-eol. Robe made a charming sketch from tiiis tower dnrin:; a visit 1 afterwards made with him to the deposit ot iron ore in this neighbourhood. The sketch I gave to tlie present cxixllint British Consul of New York. This iron deposit is five miles noilii of Hull. It was brought into view by t!ic failing down of a p.irt of the mound on which it occur! in the woods. V.'e were guid;.d to it bv abiazu I A PORTAGE. 145 storm prevented me from examining it properly. I saw the forked lightning strilie a pine-stump fifty yards off. So greatly increased was the flood on the river since the day before, that we were delayed here three or four hours, and had to make two portages. One description of the voyageurs method of passing a portage will suffice. The whole cargo is distributed into loads of 951bs. weight each. No single article is allowed to weigh more. Of these each voyugeur takes one, two, or three at once to the further end of the portage, if it be not too long, and at a slow trot, with the knees much bent, stopping for a few minutes every half hour, this rest being technically called a pipe. The load is made to rest upon tite head and shoulders by means of a broad strap, which passes over the forehead. The canoe is carried most tenderly on the naked shoulders of six men, and is pushed, cushioned on beds, up ledges and precipices. The gentlemen carry their own small articles, and any others which may come to hand, such as poles, paddles, or kettle, &c. One of us lost the lid of our kettle, whereby we suffered more incon- venience than can be readily conceived. The road is usually as bad as possible, over fallen trees, slippery rocks and rivulets, through marshes and dense woods. VOL. I. 'V 14G MR. PHILEMON WRIGHT. At seven p. m. we made our final start from Hull,* and were towed up some temporary rapids for a couple of liours, so close to the bank as to be brushed by the foliage, when we encamped for the night in a little glade. Here we found waiting for the morn seven * Mr. Pliilcmon Wright came here in 180G. He is a Loyalist from tlie United States, and brouglit with him capital, t;ilent, and many hard-working settlers. He is (or was) a plain little man, iu constant motion, teaching and being taught — a true pioneer, an en- thusiast in reclaiming and cultivating wild land. He has personally brought over from England the finest rams, bulls, oxen, cows, and horses money could procure. He has three or four extensive farms in his own hands in the rear on the river Gatineau, and has a rather numerous and I believe thriving tenantry. He has built the greater part of Hull. He was so good as to shew me the tree under which lie slept on the night of his arrival. I felt that the tree was memo- rable, in a manner pacred, and that I was in the presence of a con- siderable mind ; not perhaps able to figure in a ball-room, but able to gather and nourish a hajipy population. The schoolmaster of the place was his factotum, a quiet shrewd person, of like eager agricultural impulses with Mr. Wright. They passed one winter at Quebec in a small lodging, probably to obtain some facility or other from Government. Both master and man lived in a world of their own — not in the present, but in a great future. Many a time at midnight have I passed their little window (without a blind) and saw them with one poor candle, compass and pencil at hand, poring abstractedly over a jNIS. map, elbows on table, and their lieai'is firmly clasjjcd in their palms ; the fire extinct in the stove, most pr(>bal)ly, in that intensely cold climate. Mr. \N' right has an excellent house at Hull, where he and his large household live plainly and plentifully. There I drank tea with him. We had also beefsteaks and cold boiled peas : but I .'lavo ])artaken of things as incongruous in one of the best Quaker families of i'hiUuU'lpliia. THE VOYAOEUR TOILET. 147 loaded canoes and eighty voyageurs belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. Our leader warned his men against quarrelling with their neighbours. It was an uncouth scene. There was a semi- circle of canoes turned over on the grass to sleep imder, with blazing fires near them, surrounded by sinister-looking, long-haired men, in blanket coats, and ostrich feathers in their hats, smoking and cooking, and feeding the fires. I parti- cularly noticed one large square man, squat on the wet ground, with a bit of looking-glass in his hand, intently watching his wife, as she carefully combed out his long jetty hair, undisturbed by a sharp rain, which the powerful fire did not permit to penetrate. May 23d. The weather has changed : it is very cold, and will snow. We set off in the dark at three a.m. I had the agreeable addition, to the usual comforts of these expeditions, of stepping nearly knee-deep into the water (iced in the north), a stone from which I was stepping into the canoe having unkindly rolled over. JMy hat was also soon afterwards knocked overboard by a paddle, and restored to mo full of water. Daylight found us on the Cljiiudltrc Luke, thirty miles long, and varying in breadth from one to two miles, turning westwards at its upper 148 CIIAUOIKRE LAKE. '■51 ^K.il end, and filling with population. The banks, richly wooded, were often high, and faced with little beaches of yellow sand. A mile from the north shore a range of hills presented them- selves. At nine a.m. we breakfasted among the rank grass of a deserted clearance. It being Sunday, Mr. Tabeau had the tent set up ; and he dressed an altar within it with crucifix and candles, little pictures, and clean linen cloth. With his singing- boy and bell he performed a religious service, all the voyayeurs kneeling round the tent door with great seriousness. I was glad to see this. Roman Catliolic light is infinitely better than unbelieving darkness. One thing struck me at the time ; that while the common run of Protestants seem ashamed of the simple but sublime and comfort- able truths found in the Bible only, the various superstitions are openly and proudly confessed, beginning witli Mariology, and ending with African Fetishism. Leaving this, and paddling along on the south side of the lake, we not long afterwards arrived within two miles of the splendid Falls of the Chat. Saving: ahvavs the Falls of Niagara, we had be- fore us, in the exaggerated state of the river, the finest burst of waters J have seen in America. We were at the apex of a triangular sheet of CIIAUDIERE FALLS. 149 water. Before us, a couple of miles off, was a base-line half a league long, and for the most part occupied by a massy, voluminous cataract, forty and sixty feet high in portions, rushing down into a lower country through the intervals of piny islets ; the remainder of this base-line on the east being a barrier of rocks and trees, with two small impetuous falls at the very end, forcing a devious passage through thick foliage. Mr. Bartlett has not done justice to the main cataract; but I doubt not the spring-lioods added greatly at this time to the magnificonce of the spectacle. The IJiver Ottawa, like all streams from the north, is liable to freshets from the rapid melting of snow. The billowy tumult of the widened stream con- tinues for some distance below the principal cataract ; but our skilful steersman conducted us (dangerous as it appeared) delightfully across it, his men answering his signals of hand and eye as prompt as thought. We soon landed at the por- tage, at the foot of the smaller falls, so well deli- neated by Bartlett. Here, screened by huge masses of rock and by coppice, we found an Indian hut filled with men, squaws, and children, all astonishingly dirty, — and with such long, filthy finger-nails ! It was a scene of noise and confusion seldom equalled ; cascades . "^ ^'^^ '/ Hiotographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 i!(.f 164 THE VAZ PORTAGES. scenery, oval in shape, three or four miles long each, and sprinkled with islets. Bluffs and cliffs form their lofty and irregular shores, moderately clothed with that min\ Ik u i:f« 16G LAKE NIPISSING. heap of slabs of rock, with edges as sharp, and surfaces as clean, as if they had been quarried for gravestones, and then flung down here yesterday as a breakwater. I do not understand this heap of rocks. There is no island near them. The size and shape of Lake Nipissing, as ex- pressed on maps, is only a rough guess. It seems to have two deep bays on its north side. The officers of the Magnetic Survey found it to be 695 feet above the sea. When Mr. Sheriff ("Quebec Historical Society's Transactions," vol. ii. 286), says that the south shore of this lake is a level tract, with a rich, heavy soil, and extending many miles southwards, with little rise, he cannot mean the country within sight from the water. Good land in Canada is frequently at some distance from large rivers. He goes on to state that about the sources of the Madawaska, near lat. 45° 15', the interior of the country forms a great table-land, growing hard wood, and gradually sloping towards Lake ]\ipissing. Along the sc ith-west route of the rivers Neswarbic and Muskoka this kind of country extends from within thirty miles of the Ottawa to the immediate vicinity of Lake Huron, 140 miles. On the whole, Mr. Sheriff says (vol. ii. p. 239), " from personal inspection, that in this unnoticed THE CHAUDIKRE PORTAGE. 167 part of Canada a fine habitable country will be found, millions of acres in extent. I hope it will, erelong, be rendered accessible to population." In the face of the prolonged and severe winter here prevailing, I fear that until the rich soils of Lakes Ontario, Erie, and St. Clair, are taken in posses- sion, there is little chance for these wildernesses. They may be worked for marble, iron, or copper. We leave Lake Nipissing by the Portage Chau- diere des Frangois. It is near the falls of the same name, and leads over low ridges of naked gneis, and here and there a cliff, to a backwater of the in^^eresting River des Franqois, by which this lake discharges into Lake Huron. The falls are principally to be noticed for se- veral smooth, funnel-shaped holes in the solid rock, near the lake, but twenty feet above its present level. One is from three to four feet deep, and as many across at the top, but only eighteen inches at the bottom. Tiiey are supposed to be caused by the friction of stones whirled round by an eddy, as they have actually been seen where eddies have been known to exist. The other holes (or kettles) are smaller, as far as I recollect. These appearances are common in Canada. I have even seen one on the Long Sault Rapid of the Ottawa on a large loose stone. In the granite '':! I i Mil I h'j f ■• ij I 21,1 i m: ' il; i ti^i': 168 FRENCH RIVER. of Cape Toiirinent, forty miles below Quebec, there is the commencement, the riidimentif as it were, of a kettle — concentric excavated rings, each an inch in diameter, and the whole about nine inclies across. I shall not dwell Ions: on the River des Fran- ^ois, which we descended fust and gaily, lest I become tedious, although it is a very peculiar river. It less resembles a single stream than a bundle of watercourses fiowing, with frequent inosculations, among lengthened ridges of rocks. The utterly barren and naked shores seldom present continuous lines bounding a compact body of water, but are commonly excavated into deepened narrow bays, obscured by high walls of rock and stunted pines. It is seventy-five miles long. Its breadth is exceec'ingly various, some- times swelling into a broad lake for miles, and crowded with islands. Few prospects exceed, in the grand and sin- gular, those which are often here created by the groups of long and lofty islets, extending frotn a circle, in giant :a} s, far into some dark gulf-like bav ; their ruices — Slippery Rocks — Mud up to the Knees — Dinner at a Cascade — Almost impassable Buttress — Mosquitoes — La Petite Riviere : Arrived disconsolate — Boat Voyage to St. Paul's Bay — Kindness of M. Rousseau and Family — The Peasantry — Earthquakes — A Tea-Party — Discussion with an M.P.P. — Cross the St. Lawrence to L'Islet — Sleep in a Hay Chamber — Walk along south Shore to Quebec. The few of my acquaintances wlio had visited the St. Lawrence for any distance below Quebec were loud in their praises of its scenery and in- habitants. I was therefore determined to em- brace the first opportunity of judging for myself. Early in the month of September, on my return from the geological tour round Upper Canada, the head of the medical department for QUEIJEC. 173 Canada, Dr. Wri<;ht, invited me to accompany him and a young friend* to the Bay of St. Paul by land, a distance of sixty miles. If our excel- lent old friend had been better informed, I think he would not have made tlie attempt ; tlie main and most novel part of the affair beinj^ to walk round the foot of the Tourment mountain, where it is for many miles baihed by the St. Lawrence. We hired over night two of tlie high, creaking, shaking calashes of Lower Canada, invented in the sixteenth centurv, to take us — not forfjettinu: a good store of provisions — to St. Anne the Great, a parish and river, twenty-eight miles below Quebec, and close to the great bluff" just mentioned, called Cape Tourment. In the mists of early morning we issued from the sombre Temple gate of the city into a dirty suburb, among river craft, tindjer-yards, docks, and the narrow Norman carts of the " marche- doncs," as their drivers are nicknamed, from their perpetual use of that "cry" to their cattle. We were soon at the stout wooden bridge over the St. Charles, and on the highroad to (and through) Beauport, with its handsome church and long line of houses. We successively trotted past the comfortable * A promising young medical officer, wlio soon afterwards was sent to Cape-Coast Castle. Of course he died there. ''♦ .' .' \i * 174 THE ST. LAWRENCE. inn ftt Montniorenci (nine miles), tlie pretty terraces, clinrch, and presbytery of Ange Gardien (eleven or twelve miles), and then dipped at once into the marshes, famous for snipe, which border the St. Lawrence. Althonnih the herbs and foliage were no lonirer g'ushing and throbbing, and swelling- with the hasty impulses of the early Canadian spring, still all was iresh and verdant. An almost tro- pical sun was glowing in the clear sky, and the cicada* was ringing its trilling note, loud, metallic, and ceaseless, from every bush. We reascendcd those terraces at Chateau Riche (sixteen miles), at certain seasons a favourite resort for sportsmen. The old castle is there yet — four bare walls — scarcely worth a visit. /•' After having refreshed ourselves here, and taken a glimpse of the Falls of La Puce, not far from hence, we rode along a similar river-side for twelve more miles, when we gladly rested at h>t. Anne's, and took up our abode at a peasant's cottage, near a ferry, on the picturesque river St. Anne, not many hundred yards from the St. Lawrence. Our harbour for the niaht was a Canadian * A curious iliiinpy insect (the cicindela), rather less than one's thumb-end, and like it in shape, common in warm climates. Tlio noise is made by nibbing the thighs ;i2:ainst its sides. PKASANT FAMILY. 175 house of the ordinary sort, accustomed to take in occasional guests like ourselves. It contained one large, low, common room or kitchen, with two ample windows in it, a cast-iron stove in the middle, anil a large fire-j)]ace at one side. Then came, also on the ground-floor, a bed-chamber for the family, and another for visitors, with a cock-loft above all, entered by a ladder, for the grown-up boys to sleep in, among all sorts of provender and farming-tools. The walls of all the rooms were adorned with rude religious pictures, and in each was an earthenware crucifix, with a receptacle for holy water attached. I need scarcely say that the house was full of hardy boys and girls — the father more stupid- looking than usual; a kind of good-humoured bear. The mother was the ruling spirit, short, black-eyed, bustling, and flushed. She received us gaily, and bade us go play at clucks and drakes with the flat pebbles* in the river, until she had prepared a good supper of fowl, potatoes, and soup. She kept her word ; and we husbanded our own providings for worse times. After supper, 12 If J.l. §ili * We (lid not play long with tlic pebbles, for we found the river loaded with erratic blocks, among which vrc met with coccolite, satin-spar, garnet, graphic granite, &c. &c. '!' !' II i : 176 PEASANT FAMILY. some excellent nim-todily disposed us for bed ; and thither we went. During the evening we had an opportunity of observing the domestic life of the Canadian pea- sant. Neither parents nor children made the slightest account of our presence. Gentle cuffs and •' orders perempt" went on as usual. The whole family took supper together out of one large bowl of thin bouilli, into Avliich were thrown large pieces of brown bread, cabbage,* and some herbs unknown to me, with a few small masses of fat. Each took care of himself in an orderly manner, with a short- handled broad wooden spoon. Soon after supper, the whole family knelt round the largest of the windows lor several minutes, the bri^'ht stars of evenini>- shininu; in upon them, uttering in low tones their well- meant prayers. The French Canadians are a devout people. Four out of five houses have domestic prayer regularly. Tlieir worship, sucli as it is, carries with it an observable blessing in family unity and affection. Would it were better applied, and that their King and Redeemer had his full rights! * Hence another Canadian by-name, "onup-choux," or clmp- cabbage, applied to the peasantry. THE FALLS OF ST. ANNE. 177 This scene made me draw comparisons, and gave me a disagreeable twinge. Family prayer, morning and evening, does not exist in one Protestant house in ten, I fear, in Britain and elsewhere. The next day we resolved to go up the river St. Anne a few miles, as far as the nearest falls. If we had taken with us one of the brave boys of the cottage, we should have fared better ; but having a thread-like track of trodden leaves in the woods pointed out to us as the unmis- takeable path, forwards .we set alone; but in about a mile (and it seemed two), near a sudden rise of land, our single trace separated into several. Taking the likeliest, the river being out of sight and hearing, we trudged on for a mile or so, and were stopped by impenetrable underwood. Retracing our steps, we tried a second and a third foot-way with like result. But during the third attempt, as we were think- ina: of returning; home wearied and disconsolate, we alighted upon an Indian family at a bark wigwam, weaving dyed baskets for sale in the neighbourhood. They were a well-favoured group, in decent attire, only Indian in i)art, — just such as a half-crazy person in an English village, fond of finery, and at the same time poor, VOL. I. N -I ml I I ! 178 ST. FERIOLE. ! i'P"l 11^ :. miglit put on. I thouglit their life not so bad for summer-time. Our new friends soon put us in the way to the falls. They spoke French, and were Roman Catholics. The falls are well worth a visit. I reeret not to have a sketch of them ; but there are very many as line in Canada, which, like Sweden, is pai' excellence the land of cataracts. The waters, embowered in fine trees, leap spiritedly into a deep chasm of primitive rocks, down wliose sides a treacherous path takes us to the bottom of the falls, if we arc very venturous and determined. We were glad to find ourselves once more at the ferrv-house of St. Anne. The next day we set oit in a calash for the romantic parish of St. Feriole, among the moun- tains, fi-om five to ten miles back from the St. Lawrence. At first we ascended a sandv terrace (whilome the river shore), across a stripe of cultivation among low clumsy houses without gardens ; and then soon afterwards another — a broad one — also ranging parallel to the St. Lawrence for many miles up-stream. The soil of this upper flat being sandy, we drove through fragrant groves of pine over a road as good as in an Eng- 8UNSET AT ST. FERIOLE. 179 lisli park, until \vg neared the rutle and strag- gling village, when the occurrence of granite rocks made the ascent rough and sharp. After having quietly surveyed the stern and singular scenery about the village, we struck a few hundred yards northwards upon the " Hose," a mountain torrent, ten yards across, always a violent rapid, and sor.ietimes dropping suddenly into wooded abysses. Near one of tliese cascades a tall pine-tree had ftdlen across the stream. Nothing could prevent our younger comrade from tottering across it. Twenty fatal possi- bilities might have happened to him, but he went and returned in safety, and greatly self-exalted, I suppose. The mountain village of St. Feriole is chiefly remarkable for a leaning sugar-loaf hill to the west, which gives rise to a phenomenon often spoken of in Canada — a double sunset. The sun sets to the Inhabitants of the village as it passes behind this hill, reappears for a short time, and sets again behind the succeeding height. At certain seasons the effect is striking. Tlie late Colonel Forrest, an a(lniiral)le artist, took several views in this vicinity, induced by me to visit it. The prevailing tint in the hill-forests of Canada, rifle green, is well seen here. We now drove merrilv back to our ideasant 180 THE TOURMENT MOUNTAINS. !,«) nr ferry-house, and prepared for the greater feat of the following day — the walk round the base of Cape Tournient. There are few objects in Lower Canada better known, and perhaps more carefully avoided, than the great headland of Cape Tourment, nine- teen hundred feet high. It is the advanced portion of a great group of mountains, occupying a lofty inner country, untravelled, save by a few Indians. Near to, and behind it, is a massy summit somewhat higher than itself. Government has cut a narrow road over this hill country, side by side with the St. Lawrence, to connect Quebec with St. Paul's Bay by land, and in the boggy parts has laid down a little corduroy. When I passed over it (not in this excursion) there was not a habitation throughout the twenty- seven miles of woods : now, there is a log-hut and a little clearance every league. The road is usually in steep ascents and de- scents, with swift brooks flowing in the bottoms, among large fragments of rock. Seven miles from St. Anne is the River Nombrette, or La Grande Riviere, which traverses a rich but neg- lected country in three branches, all crossed by the road near a wood of remarkably tall pines. The traveller is so buried in trees, that rarely THE TOURMENT MOUNTAINS. 181 along* this dreary route is the fati<^iie of an ascent repaid to him by a prospect ; but, now and then scenes of grandeur and savage beauty never to be forgotten reveal themselves. The eye ranges over undulating surfaces, where only the tree- tojis are seen, blending in patches all imagi- nable hues of green, from the fairest to the darkest. Sometimes we see a forest-valley encircling a lake or morass, and swelling on all sides into hills ; at others the landscape rises higher, be- comes more abruj)t, and presents a number of black, broad, steep, ahnost alpine mountain flanks, intersecting each other, as we see in the Swiss canton of Uri, v/itli rapid streams winding through their narrow and I'ocky intervals. From the near or west end of this gloomy and high track, just before descending into the low grounds of St. Anne, looking over the tops of the lower trees, we suddenly behold the wide St. Lawrence, the corn-fields and dwellings of St. Joachim and St. Anne in the bright vale below, 'v^ith the Isle of Orleans farther off, and a dim vision of Quebec shining aloft. The view from the other end of this woodland road, peeping down into St. Paul's Bay, is equally but differently beautiful. 1' I it ^ { 1 i •i 'ii t 1, f 1 f i m ji lllililll :il «i 182 CAPE TOURMENT. Such is the immediate vicinity of Cape Tour- ment. The day after the trip to St. Feriole, haviii*;- brer ^'fasted, we started with a ;^uide secured at 110 ordinary wage, lie carried our provisions and a coil of rope. We purposed walking to tlie hamlet of La Petite Kivicre, eighteen miles distant, without a habitation in the interval, and almost wholly an iron-bound coast, at the foot of Cape Tour- ment, and two-thirds washed directly by tlic waves of the St. Lawrence, save occasional beaches of mud or shinij-le. Crossing the shallow and noisy St. Anne, and some fields heyond, we came to the foot of the huge blutf — Cape Tcurnient — up above, a pile of toppling crags — down belo"w, a cliff with little ledges. Up this cliti' the waves swept, ever and anon, dashing sheets of water many feet higher than the usual common sea-level. I was dismayed. My companions behaved better than I did. As we faced a precipice thirty or forty feet high, to be clambered up by us, •' This cannot be the way," shouted I ; *' do you take us for Barbary apes?" The good guide spake not, but shewed us one CAPE TOURMENT. 183 I Vii'i or two footings, and then a broader ledge on wliicli to take breath and fresh courage. Gettnig up himself first, he gave a hand to eacli in turn ; and at length, with trembling knees and anxious eyes, Tve were planted on the summit, no little pleased with our success. After walking safely enough over higli masses of fractured rocks, we now followed our guide's example, and pulled off our shoes and stockings to pass over a series of sli])pery granite-mounds sloping into deep water, as smooth and shining as if they had been coated with Fi-encli polisli. We meet with precisely the same; on tlio llasli side of the Grimsel Pass. I was surprised how securely the naked foot cluncr to the ii 14 'j t ffl m ill' w< iiir I I !i it' i 186 SEKiMORY OF IT/riTl-: lllVIKIJE. slieets of iiJikod rock, there in heapetl-up cyclo- pcun ruins, overspread in parts uitli delicate folliiije. Lofty lie.'uUiUids aloni^ shore shewed us hibour to come ; and a brisk wind which had sprun*;' up, while it cooled the hot air, was whiten- ing- the waves with little breakers over the broad surface of the St. Lawrence. Toward the latter third of our day's work the coast lowered. We fell in, fortunately, with a level beach of yellow sand for live weary miles towards La Petite liiviorc. The finely-shaped hills of the Kboulements and Malbav seityniories now came into view. The last six miles I led my poor friend ii., for he was stone blind. Of him it mii;ht be said, " He saw no man, but they led him by the hand." Our chief was also disabled. The insects and the nmd-wading had greatly swollen his legs, and made them look like raw beef. Kight glad Avore we to find ourselves, at about nine in the evening, in the first poor hut we met with — that of an aged couple, who kindly gave us shelter. The little collection if dwellings near the St. Lawrence offered nothing better. We supped upon our own provisions ; after which, a blanket or two being spread on the floor, we were all speedily at rest. Next morning my friends were not much better, and all were tired and suffering ; but myself the 1 1 ' 1 THE HAY or ST. PAIL. 187 least. WalkiiiLi: any further was out of the question. I shoukl here mention that tlie seigniory of La Petite lliviLTC is a group of small farms in a break iii tlic mountains, tlirougii which runs a gentle stream. The scene, overhung by Cape jMaillartl, '2200 feet higli, is rural and more than pi'etty. The level ground consisted principally of hay-fichls, and the people were busy gathering in their crop. White houses are dotted about ; and far up the valley I espied a chureh-steej)le. An Englishman is as seldom seen at this place almost as in Tinibuctoo (in my time). In the afternoon we liired a stout fishing-boat, and started v/ith four civil Canadians for the Ihiy of St. Paul, twelve miles lower down the St. Law- rence, and 0)1 the same (the north) side. Vv'e coasted the flats of La Riviere, animated by an active population ; then by the side of a dark mountain curving round a deep bay, and bathed by the tide. V/c soon turned Cape de la iiaic, the west angle of St. Paul's Bav, ami came in si^dit of the seisiniorv and church of that name, placed at the base of a deep sendcircle oi' undu- lating mountains, most of the houses hidden by a line of firs crossing part of the valley. As we were aj)proaching the mouth of the Goufl're, the river which drains the valley, we ■li i-i If 1 1 4 ! I l i •"' III 1 ' ml*' Jl ' i'''i u 188 M. ROUSSEAU. inquired of our boatiiien for accommodation during our short stay. As in all the more remote seig- niories, there is no inn, for the same reason that there is no doctor •= — the trade will not pay, our friend.* recommended us to try M. Rousseau, a very respectable farmer residing close by. The wind drove us up the GoufFre rapidly for about a mile, when we brought to opposite a low, roomy, clap-boarded house a few yards from the river, with true signs of the comfortable about it — a good garden, outhouses, and several chimneys. An old soldier in a campaign always billets him- self, if possible, upon a house with two chimneys at the least — never where there is onlv one ; and for very obvious reasons. We announced ourselves. M. Rousseau was at home, and, although perfect strangers, without introductions, received us with the greatest kind- ness — a kindness manifested with equal earnest- ness by his wife and famil3^ A room was given to us containing two snow-white beds, and re- freshments were soon on table. Nature had been at best but niijo-ardlv to us in personal attractions ; and wo were then even less so than usual, being purblind, lame, and ** used up," as well as roughly clad for a rough service. Poor Ritchie's face was as marred and speckled as if he had had the smallpox. Nevertheless, VALLEY OF ST. PAUL. 189 during our three clays' stay, the attentions of this good family were unremitting. The invalids were carefully and successfully nursed. We fared well ; the port was good, though but little drunk, and the beds were soft. When we left, in spite of our sincere endeavours, we were not allowed to make any remuneration for the trouble we had given. After refreshment, leaving my fiiends in-doors, I stepped forth to examine our whereabouts. I stood in the middle of a semi-oval valley, four miles deep by two broad, screened all around by a high country of mountains and their peaks, r>ave towards the St. Lawrence. These mountains again, are flanked in the valley at irregular dis- tances by alluvial terraces, in descending series towards the River Gouffre, two or three in number, and not always perfect.* These terraces and knolls are studded with dwellings by twos and threes, and by clumps of beeches. Through this sweet scenery the River Goutfre pursues a winding and often destructive course from the interior, and has one or more noble belts of firs near its marshy embouchure. The whole has a very Swiss look — a sea of mountains in the rear — the hamlets sprinkled * On the east side of tlic outer viiUey of wliich I am now speak- ing is a great talus of large and small boulders and earth massed high up the lull-sides. :'• IV I i i if ii If-r .' i ' II 190 ITS INHABITANTS. on the steeps — the corn in little patches among precipices — tiny cascades, the pretty church, and the roomy old houses half hidden hy pine-groves. As well as this outer valley, there is another Avithin, which seemed little more than an um- brageous dell continued into the interior for se- veral miles among primitive mountains ahound- ino; in i''on ore, and jjiviii' nassae-e to the Gouffre. I shall not sketch in further detail this colony of Normans, as two illustrations of it are given. We had several pleasant rambles. The people were as comfortable and contented as well as may be in a world of triil. We seldom or never see in Lower Canada any of those slow, thick-skinned, imimprcssionable rustics — barn-door savages, as I have heard them unfeelingly called — that fill our villages in England. In St. Paul's Bay they are rather a good-looking race — spare, active, with a quick eye, both men and women. The French Canadian has lively atfcctions, great excitability ; his feelings play freely, and are almost ex])losive. He is fond of money, shrewd in its acquirement, and retentive when he has it. Although it is true that Lower Canada is a hard country — hard in its sky, hard in the earth and in wrinkle-begetting labour — yet, on the whole, the condition of its agricultural ])opulation is far preferable to that of the English labourer. The ITS INHABITANTS. 191 chief drawback is the great expense of keeping cattle through the long winter, and the forced idleness of so extended a period of time. The Lower Canadian acquires land easily ; and there is plenty of room for his children after him. The frugal and industrious man, who lives within ten or fifteen miles of a town, is rich in coin also, as a rule. His market is remunerative. He has numerous religious holidays, which usually lead to gossip and merry-making. His spiritual di- rector is commonlv his adviser-general, and is taken from his own rank of life. St. Paul's Bay is so healthy as not to re((uire a medical man. There is nothing for him to do, althoac;!! there are more than 3000 inhabitants in the vicinity. Several have been starved out. Something cither political or connected with the climate has of late disturbed the serenity of the Lower Canadians. Although they have an extreme distaste for the manners and habits of the Americans, they have been emigrating in con- siderable numbers to the State of Hlinois within the lust two years ; a thousand in 1848 to Chicago. Out-door work in so severe a climate injures the appearance and gait of females. We saw at a little dance, however, in a barn belonging to our hosts, some pleasing faces. I have observed that the bardshi])s undergone by European as well ■ n ■'M ^ m 192 EARTHQUAKES, ETC. as American mothers do not deprive their infants and young people of the round, blooming, hopeful features, the grace and general loveliness, we expect at their time of life. The almost super- natural ugliness and atiocious aspect of a full- blood Indian grandmother is beyond conception ; the revolting idea has yet to be transmitted to Europe. From time to time earthquakes and other sin- gular apj)earances take place in this and the neighbouring seigniories. As far as I am avt^are, the hist well-authenticated instance at St. Paul's took place in 1792. This has been described by Mr. Gagnon, in a letter to Capt. Baddeley, R.E., and by him quoted in "Transactions of the His- torical Society of Quebec," vol. i. p. 145. As it is worth readi?ig, I have made some extracts from it in a note.* I believe that Lieut. Hall's sketch of this part of Lower Canada, made in 1814, is the last public notice of it. * "At 7'' 15"', Oct. G, 1792, commenced at St. Paul's, a series of eartluiuakes for six weeks, f.*om two to five daily, but much more frequent during the first night, though small. One shock had an eastern direction. Weather thick. " On the evening of the 2Gth instant (Therm. Fahr. 57*^), and on the 27th, (G'' 30'", Therm. 79°), in the interval between two mountains, which afforded a long range to the ej'e, I saw a con- tinual eruption of thick smoke, mixed with flame, sometimes shoot- ing liigh in the air, and at others ascending in large round volumes, I '1 INVITATION. 193 Strangers being rarely seen here, our little rambles had not been unnoticed.* On our third morning, therefore, the member for the Bay and its vicinity in the Provincial Parliament, a little quick-witted, elderly person, ca^'cd upon us, and with great politeness invited us to tea for the same evening. Our being without visiting costume was not held to be an obstacle ; so we willingly sur- rendered, partly to shew a friendly feeling, and partly from a fancy to see the menage of the leading individual (the priest excepted) of the locality. Of the outside of Mr. Pothier's house I shall not say a word, because it is faithfully delineated from behind, in Irish fashion, in the accompany- «!' twisting and whirling about. During the whole night the spec- tacle was admirable. The sky was all on fire and agitated. There was a feeling of heat on the face, but no wlad." No one has seen the spot. In 182M, when Capt. Baddeley re- ceived Mr. Gagnon's letter, he thought it useless to try to find it, as every trace of the eruption would be obliterated by a luxuriant vegetation. Besides, Capt. Baddeley had not the necessary time at his command. * My companions having been disabled by the walk round Cape Tourment, our geological and botanical excursions were very li- mited. We found some curious inter-stratifications of gneis and marble, with a small vein of sulphuret of lead and fluor spar, at a cascade on the west side of the valley ; and I made a hasty rush into the picturesque upper valley for two or three miles, but I saw nothing worth noting, for want of time. I am persuaded that this vicinity would well reward the visit of a geologist. VOL. I. O ..jii m fi ''m M 194 MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT. ing drawing. This drawing gives us a pleasing idea of the secluded valley, its pretty church, ve- nerable presbytery, fuU-foliaged trees, and warm dwellings scattered along the river-side. In the corner of the picture is a high pole ; this marks the residence of a militia officer, where his men rendezvous when required. We found that our new friend, besides being a proprietor and occupier of land, kept a store, to the great convenience of the public, at which might be purchased every nameable article suited to the place — rice and ribbons, tape and tobacco, bon- nets and butter, &c. &c. I was somewhat displeased that he did not ask our host and his amiable family — a neglect, I suppose, arising from some local mystery. We found nothing new or shocking in our en- tertainment: it was English, — only bettor, in the opinion of those who are fond of liqueurs f.nd confectionary. Unfortunately for my wish to meet a pure native, both Madame and her only daughter had more than once accompanied the M.P.P. to Quebec, where they would of necessity see much good society, and assist at the Governor- General's annual ball. For party reasons, as well as for better, the members of the Provincial Parliament were much courted at that time. The ladies were quiet and simple in their man- if^, EVENING VISIT. 195 ners, neat in their dress — some three years, per- haps, behind Bond Street ; but that was no great matter. Our chief suggested to me, by a little by-play, that I ought to be attentive to the young lady, as she was evidently an heiress ; but I at once bogged off, although she was both pleasing and intelligent. Taking my friend to a window, I explained to him that I was of too tender years to take upon me as yet the responsibilities of " w« homme fait.''* Neither was I inclined to spend the rest of my days in the hollow of a tree, and as such should I have felt even the sweet vale of St. Paul. None are so home-sick as the damsels of the free and easy Canadas ; very few of them bear transplanting, as hundreds of English officers know right well. Our kind entertainer had designed that evening to fructify; for the tea-things having been re- moved, and the ladies settled to their tambours, he proceeded to play the member of assembly — that is, to indoctrinate our elder companion at nmch length into the griefs, as he called them, of his country. The French Canadians of the better class, who have been more or less educated, are often thoughtful, and fond of political discussion. Although they have few books, and those of a very old school, they have nimble minds, and lit ■m .,ii\ 19G CANADIAN POLITICS. spend much of the winter together — the young in frolic, and the older in grave debate. It was only natural that we conversed on public topics. Mr. Pothier spoke on what deeply in- terested himself, ana upon what he thought he understood. He really made quite a speech at one eftort, and several smaller ones. I shall write down this conversation fully, and, in its substance, with tolerable accuracy, as repre- senting faithfully the state of French feelings at the time, and as shewing how deeply and uni- versally the Canadians had at heart the great privilege of self-government.* Most, if not all the great public grievances then existing, have since been removed. They have self-government enough. "Gentlemen," said he, the play of his features shewing a marked wish not to offend his guests, and yet a settled determination to open his mind to a party of officials, however humble and power- less in reality, — "I hope I do not presume too " lar upon your forbearance, in laying before you " a few of my provincial notions this evening; " and 43efore I say another word" (whereupon our good chief, who had been looking at his still swollen legs, pricked up his ears a little alarmed), * It has been transcribed a year ; and therefore before the pre- sent agitation. ! CANADIAN POLITICS. 197 permit me to declare to you that the inhabit- ants of my country arc not insensible to the many blessings they enjoy under tlie mild sway of Britain. *' I am about to set things in a light new to you — perhaps unpleasantly new, but still in the true light. Public opinion in England is strongly against our wishes ; but this is simply for want of consideration. On some subjects, light reaches us all at one time, only through a crevice, as it were, and is little better than darkness ; but after a while the crevice becomes a window, and the window a bright oriel. May it be so now ! I hope to obtain our demands by amicable means — a bloody struggle would be too costly, as well as uncertain. It may come to this ; but I will not share in it. *' We ask not to intermeddle in the imperial questions of peace and war, or of treaty-making; but for an executive government, responsible for all their acts to the people of the Canadas, as represented in their Senate and House of Assembly. We ask for the precious faculty of self-management — for the power of transacting all our business purely local and Canadian, without reference to Downing Street. We w ish for the control of all monies levied in the colony; the appointment and dismissal of all i ij.; 1'," f? ,iS .^i^^ ::i 198 CANADIAN POLITICS. |i|||t^i '* executive and judicial officials, who must be, ** as far as possible, Canadian-born. In granting '* this, it does appear to ine that humanity would *' receive a magnanimous lesson, and that all *' parties would be great gainers. " I am free to confess to you that my country- " men hourly sigh for their political rights" (I am translating from the French). " We feel it " to bo quite as indispensable to communities to " mana'. Iff ' f ^'f 208 CANADIAN POLITICS. N After a little time he returned to his seat with recovered features, and said, " I think we have •' talked enough to-night. Although no revolu- " tion is meant, still it is weU to remark, tliat " great political changes are too often fruitless ca- " lamities, devouring their own children. Might *' we persuade Mademoiselle to favour us with a " little music? — I see a new piano." The rest of the evening passed off well. We had some old French airs, sung not amiss ; some delicate preserved fruits and cream, with Martin- ique liqueurs; and parted. In the passage near the door, while M. Pothier was finding Dr. Wright's hat and stout stick, he could not help quoting the old Frenchman who said, that " He who lives in the mist of the valley " is too apt to laugh at the cries of the sentinel *' on the clear hill-top." ' Exc ase me, my good sir," replied the Doctor, " if I say, very seriously, that Papineau and his ** fellows are using your honesty and your in- *' fluence to prepare for the Canadas * the day of " slaughter when the towers fall.' " This conversation actually took place many years ago, but not so methodically as reported. M. de Rouville Pothier is one of the moderate opposition. While walking home, Dr. Wright, a mettlesome I i REFLECTIONS. 209 i old man, shewed many signs of disturbance. He declared he was not prepared for such an attack from a man never heard of in the House of Assembly. *' It shews that there is not only discontent, but power, out of sight. The worst of it is, that there is much truth in what he says. Do you think they will ever try an open insurrection ?" " Yes, sir," I said ; *' the men who are planning ** it are known even now. Politicians and sol- •* diers spring up in a new country before philo- ** sophers and poets. They have seventy thousand ** tainted militiamen, and a hardy peasantry. *' There will be no want of generals. Permi ; me, " dear sir, to say that you manifested grert tact " and prowess in this very unexpected skirmish." If I am to be allowed to express my own humble opinion, I should say that at the present hour the Canadians have obtained in responsible government all that a sensible people can require for their real good ; but that as soon as they are able to stand comfortably alone, and can shew that three-fourths of the population desire it, we should amicably set them free, with certain pay- ments for forti^cations, and not without a treaty of alliance. This should be done because it is right, in defiance of an apparent expediency. Nations are VOL. I. p il i «Vr /., 210 THE DUTIES OF ENGLAND. as much bound to act on the Christian principle of doing to others as they would be done by, as individuals. Plausible reasons against such a policy are not wanting, such as that it would be a national dishonour, that Canada is an outlet for our surplus people and our manufactures, a nursery for our sailors, &c.; but, of necessity, so it would remain. We should be no losers. What have we lost by the eu.ancipation of the United States ? They are our outlet, market, and naval nursery twenty- fold. Two shillings a-month of additional pay would fill our navy with the finest seamen in the world ; and the Canadians are far too shrewd not to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest. As to the dishonour, I see none, having for some time a strong feeling upon the sin of dominating over more tribes and wider regions than can be superintended beneficially. For this, I fear, more empires than one will on a certain day be awfully rebuked. I am much inclined to agree with Sir Henry Parnell when he says, that *' the possession of colonies aflTords no advantages which could not be obtained by commercial intercourse with inde- pendent states." Mr. William Gladstone, speaking in the House of Commons (April 1849) of a wise system of THE DUTIES OF ENGLAND. 211 py ry of be Ue- colonisation, says, " Then the connexion between " the dependency and the mother country will " subsist as long as it is good for either ; and " when it ceases, I hope the time will come when " the separation shall take place, not violently, " but by the natural operation and vigour of its *' energies, to suit it for a state of self-government ** and of independence ; and then there may still " subsist that similarity of laws, feelings, and " institutions, which are infinitely more valuable " than any political connexion whatever. (Hear, «'hear!)" Foreigners (Castelnau, *' Vues et Souvenirs de rAnicrique du Nord ") already perceive that the separation we are speaking of is certain, and a mere matter of time. If a general and well-planned attempt to shake off the allegiance to Great Britain were to occur, I have great fear for the issue. The population of the Canadas is numerous, rich, intelligent, and warlike. Then, again, nothing could prevent the idle young men of the United States (full of meat and of pothouse glory, shabby and false, acquired among the Indian levies and distractions of Mexico) from helping, and eventually dragging the great Confederacy itself into the contest, to the sincere grief of all considerate persons. I regret to say that the !! 212 CROS8 THE ST. LAWRENCE. \ i peaceful and liigli-minded blacksmith, Eliliii Burritt, is but a sorry representative of the American public (1849). Early in the evening of the next day we left this sweet valley, of which the best drawings give a very inadequate notion. Wc again and again thanked our kind hosts, the Uousseaus, who, I repeat, would hear of no remuneration. The only return ever made to them was in the form of a champagne dinner to the eldest son during one of his rare visits to Quebec. An excellent boat, with civil boatmen, con- Teyed us swiftly across the St. Lawrence to its opposite or southern shore, a traverse (12-16 miles) of rough waters, as they proved to us, studded with pilot and fishing-boats, with now and then a large European vessel, under whose bows we shot, while their passengers leaned curiously over the bulwarks, and up among the rigging, to examine us. After having got a-ground, near the shore, in the mud, and there remained in the dark for an hour and a half, we landed in the parish of St. Anne, and found shelter in a cottage hard by. It afforded us only one small, sweltering bed-room; we (the two young folk), therefore, after a supper of black bread, bacon, and a lihll the left ;ive ists, ' no to ner s to ion- its -16 us, low lose ned tlie , in ' an I of ard •ing Dre u I ITr^TW, ' ^'3; WALK TO ST. THOMAS. 213 decoction of burnt beans (called coffee), retired to a barn full of fragrant hay, where we slept very comfortably in our clothes. But the next morning we were much grieved to find that our chief had suffered a small martyrdom under the combined assaults of insects, heavy bed-clothes, and bad diet. So disconcerted was he that, iiaving procured with some difficulty a calash, he started forthwith for Quebec, taking with him my friend Ritchie. He did well. It is only for the young to go on tramp in a country without inns. Water from a dirty lake is neither wholesome nor palateable after iced champagne every day. I was now alone, with a few necessaries in a little bag, trudging on foot towards the small town of St. Thomas, distant twenty-one miles. I found this part of the south shore of the St. Lawrence broken up into low, rocky ridges (of in- clined clay-slate and conglomerate), witli smiling corn-fields in the intervals, the crops of wheat astonishingly fine. Here and there along the road, and near the houses, the dropping wyche- elms were large, and almost artistically planted. — Plate represents a scene in the parish of L'Islet. After three hours' brisk walking I was cheered by being told I was within six miles of St. Thomas, lii I'K v. I <\ i! 1 1 J n.dt (i1 ■^ / T ■^-. 214 TO BEAUMONT. and as much mortified when, after an hour's further march, I found I had yet eight miles to go. In due season I arrived, and at the entrance of the town crossed two bridges over the River du Sud, evidently a large body of water in winter from the breadth of its bed. I had scarcely heard of this little place. It has a thousand inhabitants, among whom I saw many cheerful faces in its four or five short streets. The houses were in the roomy, heavy French style, in good repair, and white-washed. The environs are woody. It is the market-town for a considerable interior, and has mills. The next day I plodded on to Beaumont. It was a Roman Catholic fete-day. I must have met the entire population of the neighbourhood on their way to church, some on foot, some in calashes, all looking happy and well-attired. I wish that we Protestants would mix a more social spirit with the practical part of our religion. We might, on the anniversaries of missionary and benevolent institutions, for instance. The whole country, from St. Thomas to Beau- mont, perhaps eighteen miles, is very pleasing, and is spread out in grass and corn-fields, with young woods of pine and birch on terraces, just high enough to shelter the cultivated land. The BEAUMONT. 215 road usually skirts the St. Lawrence, and is a series of long ascents and descents. The seigniory of St. Michael is soon attained, and looks beautifully as we approach from the east. Stretching far into the interior we see a broad valley, alive with an industrious popula- tion, through which, during summer, a scanty river wanders, but which, in spring, is an abound- ing torrent. On the west side of the village of St. Michael the road rises, and we see in front of us the strongholds of Quebec, faint and blue in the dis- tance. Southerly (to the left) we have the dark pine-ridges of Lauzon, skirted by fine meadows. On the north-west is the large isle of Orleans, and the broad St. Lawrence, with a solitary ship, perhaps, labouring on its bosom. I happily arrived at Beaumont just as a very severe and protracted thunder-storm broke over our heads. Near this village, on a woody cliff, over- hanging the St. Lawrence, is an incomparable little inn, something like the best on the lakes of Cumberland, redolent of roses and honeysuckles, picturesque, wholesome — neatness itself — larder excellent. I recommend it, and its pleasant walks, to those who wish to spend a convalescence, or a still more pleasing period, in the country. It i 216 QUEBEC. is (or was) kept by a worthy Scotch family of the name of Fraser. I took a carriage from Beaumont to Quebec, fourteen miles, the last half-dozen of which are varied, rocky, and high, or running into dells. Habitations, farms, and gardens, covered the country, which was full of the agreeable cries of pigs and poultry, and cattle of all sorts, growing up for the market of Quebec nigh at hand. I have passed Point Levi, with its pretty Ro- man Catholic church in a nook, have left the uplands, and am at the Quebec Ferry, at the foot of a crumbling precipice, crowned with pines and a Protestant church with a handsome tower. The river is crossed and Quebec is entered. I need not say that, travel-stained and rather weary, the city, with its tumultuous summer commerce, was very welcome, and so was the easy chair in mine inn ; and no less so the cordial greetings of the presiding lady, Mrs. Wilson, whose good deeds in my behalf may I never forget ! EXCURSION THE FOURTH. II: KAMOURASKA AND MALBAY. Steam Voyage to Kamouraska — Company on board— Anecdotes — Migrating Spiders — Kamouraska — Cross to Malbay in an open Boat — The Brassard Family — Malbay — Curious Mounds — Valley of St. Etienne, a deserted Lake — Singular Fog — Earth- quakes — the Musician — Anecdotes — Peasantry — Airaee's Toilet — Salmon River — Lake St. John — Homeward on foot by North Shore of St. Lawrence — Eboulements — Hospitality. After due refreshment, a fortnight after the last excursion, I started in a steamer for Kamouraska and Malbay, situated on the St. Lawrence, oppo- site to each other, thirty miles below St. Paul's Bay, and therefore ninety miles below Quebec, Kamouraska being a little sea-bathing place, while Malbay is a secluded seigniory of great interest, occupying a valley among the hills of the north shore. My intention was to go first to the bathing- place, then cross over to the opposite shore, and work my way on foot to Quebec among the moun- tains and partially-cultivated districts bordering the river. i 218 THE STEAM-BOAT. European steam-boats are unclean tubs in comparison with those we meet with in America. It was early in October that I stepped on board a splendid vessel, bound to Kamouraska on a pleasure excursion, with a gentlemanly captain and an obli2:in2; steward. The morning mist promised a warm day : the air was fresh and elastic, such as can only be felt in a region where man cannot infect — where he is to surrounding nature as the bee to the wide heath. A steam-boat is everywhere a Noah*s ark, to which the neighbourhood sends representatives of each of its classes, with a few stragglers from afar. So we had a few officers of the garrison of Quebec, with their wives; Mrs. Thomas Scott, of the 70th regiment, and her fine family ; she was sister-in-law to Sir Walter Scott, the poet and novelist. There were some merchant families with well-stored baskets, the English from Mont- real, the French from Quebec. We had likewise some stray American tourists, who, I am glad to say, every summer flock in great numbers to the Canadas. The American, while young, stands out here in strong relief. He is instantly recognised by his abrupt address, wiry, nasal tones, his long, pale THE COMPANY. 219 face, straight hair, loose gait, and unbruslied hat.* The French Canadians of the middle or upper classes have short lively faces, with dark complexions, and they arc apt to be rather negli- gent of their attire. The Britisli officers on board, in their belted blue surtouts and foraging caps, were, as all the world over, gentlemen ; a thought too reserved perhaps, being usually too * This crusty exterior very often conceals a well-trained intellect, a gallant and susceptible heart. Many such have I met with, especially at Philadelphia. Some parts of the United States have a bad character. I went one spring to Yale College, Newhaven, to read there for a few weeks. In searching for lodgings, I found a quiet street behind the College. Entering by an open door one of the houses, which had " Lodg- ings to let," in the windows, I was immediately met by an active, middle-aged woman. " Have the goodness, madam," I said, " to shew me the rooms which are to be let." " I won't," she replied, with a face on fire : ** I know who you are!" ** I think you do not," was my answer, and was about to explain further, when she rushed in upon me with, — *' I do know you. You are an impudent Virginian, with your tobacco, your brandy, and dirty nigger servants. If I were to let you my rooms, you and your fellows would give us Satan's delights every hour of the twenty-four." I had opened my mouth to tell her I was an Englishman, &c., but she shouted, " Get out of this !" so vehemently that I was glad to run away. This good woman must have had very bad luck in her inmates, for which all Virginia is not to be blamed. When far from home, with a well-lined purse, bachelors' revelries are apt to be inex- cusably "funny and free." m Mil ^1 ill il! 'Ml ^' n. ?L' 220 AN INCIDENT. sublime to begin a conversation with a stranger. We except the happy and thoughtless subs. Among our American comp;inions were two charming sisters from Boston, United States, who shone out like stars from among tlie general company. " So shews a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows." They were truly lady-like and beautiful, each in her own way : the elder was calm and queenly, wliile the younger, scarcely seventeen, of a more slender form, was all movement and grace. Their father accompanied them. I had the pleasure of their previous acquaintance in descending the rapids of the St. Lawrence with them. We stopped at the lower end of the island of Orleans to allow us to wander among the pretty thickets of nut-trees and beech, for which the place is noted. In an hour the signal-gun called in the wanderers, and all came but one couple — the younger American fair and a handsome young officer — and they made their appearance in a few minutes, flushed with running. The flush was not a little heightened when the excellent band on board struck up a then popular air, " Will you come to the Bower I've shaded for you?" in allusion to the gentleman's name. We were soon off'. With a tide of six miles an A PORTRAIT. 221 hour in our favour we swiftly passed the succes- sive islets below that of Orleans, amid the mixed scenery of rock, water, and shipping, which had so much delighted me on my first entrance into Canada. So numeroi s a company must be expected to contain some very volatile young men. One of these pointed out to me a female figure in the deepest widow's weeds, sitting with her back to us near the stern. *' Take an opportunity," said he, "of looking into that lady's face. You will be repaid." I did so ; but instead of a bowed lily, all beauty and resignation, I was shocked to see under the pretty mourning-gear a square sallow face, pock-marked, with a slight hare- lip, and a red, sullen eye, like that of a baffled tiger-cat. " A widow, you see," said the lieu- tenant. *' What could the poor man do but die? It was the only move." I turned away from him, thinking his wit vastly out of place. But it was a fearful physiognomy. When half-way on our voyage we were much surprised by seeing, high in the air, streaming across the St. Lawrence, a number of grey, fleecy, island-like masses, each an acre or more in ex- tent, in oblong sheets, torn as it were, and too thin and filmy for clouds. As portions now and then dropped on our deck, we found that it was i -i , i I I II 222 THE TRAVELLING SPIDERS. a migrating party of small black spiders, every one upon his own long grey string or web. In a quarter of an hour they passed out of sight. I had seen the same before, but not in such numbers.* Where was this army going ? Was it pursued or pursuing? By what imperious instinct were its members impelled to start on a given day ? Who are their leaders? Are they elders who have made the journey before ? They seemed bound to the great lake of St. John in the north, perhaps to make war upon the little black fly, whose sting is red-hot torture, and which loves the warm sands of a lake shore ; or were they only going to burrow and breed there in peace ? He that prepared a path for this mighty river, and gave wings to His angels, had prepared theirs. The land crab of Jamaica has a curious provi- sion for his journey to and from the sea to his mountains. His branchiae (which serve as lungs) are of use only in water. They therefore float in water-bags provided for that occasion only, and so operate the necessary change upon the blood. To within a minute of the appointed time we * Probably Aranea Obtextriv of Beckstein and Strack, referred to in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, sixth edi- tion, vol. ii. p. 277. KAMOURABKA BOARDING-HOUSE. 223 came to anchor at Kamouraska, before a row of fifty neat-looking houses on a bank a mile long. This little port is formed by a shallow bay, de- fended from witliout by several rocky islets. Our party rapidly dispersed, some to cross to the opposite shore, some merely to run about until the steamer returned, and others, with my- self among the number, to obtain shelter in some boarding-house. I was fortunate in my selection. I found some agreeable French society with whom to pass the evenings. The first thing I caught sight of in the ** Salon" was a good guitar, which was often and agreeably played by a lady from Montreal, or it might have been from the Faubourg St. Ilonorc, so well did she preserve the traditionary manner and costume of France. I have little to say of Kamouraska. It answers its purpose to the Canadian gentry. The waters of the St. Lawrence are salt ; but dipping, as the bank does at each end, in extensive cranberry marshes, with here and there groups of bare, low rocks, I should fear malaria. In the back country are ranges of high, naked hills. The view from our windows was very cheerful. The St. Lawrence, eighteen miles broad, is always, in summer, alive with shipping and pilot-boats. The opposite shore is very steep and high, and 224 CROSS TO MALBAY. casts a deep shadow far into the waters. It is a sort of cloud-land, and seldom wears the same face for a couple of hours together. I left Kamouraska, with its grand Indian name, on the third day for Malhay. Some peasant fish- ermen engaged to take me there in an open boat. We left at noon, with a gentle and favouring breeze, which in an hour veered round in our teeth. We now made long tacks for several hours, and at the wrong end of a long stretch we lost the little wind we had. All that autumn night we toiled at the oar, not perhaps with the vigour of a post-captain's boat's crew, but we toiled, and fetched bay and river at three next morning. I was left in the dark of a raw foggy morning, with my small baggage, on the muddy beacli, cramped, cold, and hungry. I was told truly, that save at Kamouraska there was no inn within sixty miles ; but that about six o'clock I would be kindly received at Antoine Brassard's, a peasant, whose one-chimneyed house, on the bank above me, was just discernible as a dim black mass. While waiting, like a forgotten ghost, shivering on that bleak shore, I cannot say that I took much delight in the concert around me of low- ings, and bleatings, and barkings, by which ani- mals express their wish for the sun, and which poets say are so delicious in early morn. A DOMESTIC SCENE. 225 While sitting on my bag, chin on breast, I had one or two ugly frights from the swoop of a sea bird, who at that indistinct hour fancied I miffht he eatable. But day-light and six o'clock came punctually, and I was readily and politely received by Monsieur and Madame Brassard. They were obliging people : great was the stir they made for me. I was allowed to warm myself for a few minutes, and then requested to go to bed while breakfast was preparing. Following my stout hostess and one or two stumpy laughing daughters, I ascended into the cock-loft, where was my bed for that nonce. " Get out of that. Granny," cried my con- ductress. "What's to get out?" said I; " and from where?" "From Granny's bed, sir, and she's in it." I intreated that she should not be disturbed, and the more vehemently as the dim liirht showed that the chocolate-coloured sheets bad never been washed since the days of Mont- calm ; and that Granny, on rising promptly to the call, was a most mummified creature, whose parchment skin reminded me of Ziska's when it headed a drum. Yet I afterwards found that this extremely aged and decrepit woman, weary of life perhaps, had no small share of feeling and intelligence; and as is usual, vastly to the credit of all semi-civilized or barbarous people, was VOL. I. Q iin m f i!! 226 MALDAY. kindly and respectfully treated. So I descended to breakfast, and then walked out. I found Malbay, or Murray-bay, as the Seignior likes to have it called, a round indentr.re in the north shore of the St. Lawrence, about two miles in outer diameter, overhung by steep, pine-clad hills, at whose feet (in the bay) are grassy diluvial terraces, on which stand some houses and a neat church. Near a principal house on the west side of the bay is a remarkable assemblage of detached bar- row-like mounds, from ten to twenty feet high, covered with shrubbery. They are on a level with tide-water, and seem to have been deposited at the neutral points of conflicting currents iu another state of things.* A considerable breach about the centre of the rampart of hills permits the noisy River Malbay to join the St. Lawrence, and discloses in the rear a low country called the Valley of St. Etienne, sheltered on all sides by mountains. This valley is not only picturesque, but highly interesting to the geologist. It has, in fact, been the bed of a lake which has undergone more than * It is worth noticing, that a little beyond the east corner of the bay tliere is a primitive rock so full of garnet crystals, of tlie unusual size of an infant's heatl, that the original rock is alnv;^' obliterated. Fine specimens could only be obtained by blasting. I *'0. 'l» Vl*V'l W^'i THE TERRACES OF ST. ETIENNE. '227 one depression in level, possibly by successive lowerint2:s in its side or rim at the present outlet. The vestiges of this are yet very evident. Having given a sketch of this valley, I hardly need be more particular than to say that it runs north and south for six miles, with a ])readtli exceeding a mile (at a guess), and is a straight, nneven, strip of land, with the sliifting bed of the Malbav in the centre, and certain horizontal tor- races on the flanks around. These terraces may be described thus. On the eastern uplands, about 500 feet above tlie river, a fiat and uniform enjbanknient, like a reiruhirlv- made cainui»"e-road, a few vards broad, runs alonii- the whole length of the valley, cut through at intervals by winter torrents. At a given and uni- form distance below this comes another terrace and bank correspondingly breached, and descend- ing swiftly down to the broken ground and tumuli of gravel and clay near the river. These ancient shores pass all round the valley, but ])erhaps not. quite so perfect and striking on its west side.* • These beaches must have been deposited slowly, tminiudly. under water, and when the distriet was at a ditl'erent level i'wm tlu; present ; tor water at the level of this day would drown four-tifth- of Anurica. The lofty beaehes of St. i^^tienne I could not examine with eare, but the materials eomposini^ those of the river Notawasaija in I. alii- Huron are laid down horizontally, and often in thin strata, tlie ,ir »i ■;'&, 'I. ft 2-28 ST. ETIENNE VALLEY. At the upper and north-east end of tlie valley there is a very large breach in these terraces (with perpendicular sides), which is lost sight of in the woods of the interior. It is evidently the bed of a great stream (the ancient river, probably) feeding the lost lake. (T'/V/c Plan in Append, vol. ii.) I cannot but think that its powerful current has scooped out a noticeable feature in the valley yet to be mentioned. It is the great bowl-shaped hollow, evidently a deserted bay, which we find at the north-west corner of the valley, opposite the bed of the ancient river just referred to. It is half a league in diameter, with very steep sides, terraced like the rest of the valley. I never read of (except the Coquimbo and Glenroy IJoatls), or saw, any spot exhibiting so beautiful and compact a record of those times when not only this little valley, but all North America, was comparatively a drowned land, tenanted chiefly by aquatic and amphibious animals. Whether this sliclls being identical with those now existing in the lake in perfect j)rescrvation, tiic bivalves being either empty or filled with smaller slidls and &and. The large terraces of the north shore of Lake Superior are com- posed of small fragments of the rockt of the vicinity, in the state of rough grit (or bowlders) sometimes confused, at others in hori- zontal sheets. The number of terraces varies in the space of a mile, sometimes from one to six : why, I could not discover. I suppose that slow elevation and the desiccation consequent on the loss of feeders have produced the present levels of the great lakes, &c. i M t: t: \i I a; n ill CHOCOLATE-COLOURED FOG. OOO continent has been drained by breaching, or by a general change of level, we must not here discuss. I cannot help thinking how delighted the amiable and gifted Dean Buckland would be to look over this clear page of nature, followed by his galloping squadron of eager pupils. The river of the present day enters the valley by a waterfall at its upper end, at some distance from the ancient river bed, and at the head of a woody ravine, whither I followed up the river at the expense of many a fall and many a rent. About a couple of miles beyond Etienne, and separated from it by high grounds partly culti- vated, is a small lake, one of many hereabouts, full of delicate trout. This lake is bounded on one side by precipices, and elsewhere by woods and clearances, backed by sugar-loaf mountains. The materials for these sketches and descrip- tions I obtained in the course of five days, and chiefly on foot. I was prevented from doing any thing on the second day by an extraordinary fog of a deep coffee colour, lasting the whole day, and requiring in-doors strong artificial light. On ■walking out I could not see objects three yards off. I descended to the beach and saw nothing. I only heard the ripple and lazy plash of the wave. I have not seen any London fog at all equal to this in density. It left no deposit, and had no smell. I K. if t^. •J30 DARK DAYS. The celebrated dark days of Canada, in 1785 and 1814, were almost certainly caused by the eruptions of distant volcanoes, coinciding in time ■with local thunderstorms.* ■•'• " Oil tlie Dark Days of Canada." IJy the Hon. Chief- Justice Sewell, President Literary Historical Society of Quebec, vol. ii. r 2:ji. " On tlie Ifitli of October, ITH.') (.Suuday),after a fosfgy morning, but which had dispersed by ten a.m., black clouds rapidly advanced on Quebec from the north-east, antl by 10' 30' it was so dark that ordinary print could not be read. This lasted for uy)wards of ten minutes, and was Micceeded by a violent gust of wind, with rain, thunder, and lii^htning ; after which the weather became brighter, until twelve o'clock, when a second period of so much obscurity took place that lights were used in all the churches. Other pe- riods of obscurity came on at two, three, and half-past hmr i'.m., during whicli times the darkness was perfect — that of midnight. " During all the^e hours vast jna.xscs of clouds, of a yellow colour, drove from north-east to south-west, with m'"h thunder, lightning, and rain. The periods of total darkness were ten mi- nutes, the intervals affording but little light. — ( Barometer 29^ 5', thermometer 52"* 50'. — Dr. vSi'arkk. ) " The rain-water was very black, and upon its surface a yellow powder, sulj)hur, was found. " These ai)pearanies occurred also at Montreal, but did not begin till two i'.m. They extended from Fredericton, North Bri- tain, to Montreal. *' The dark day of July 3, 1814, was much the same as that of 178."}. There was darkness, continuous, with fall of sand and ashes. Chief- Justice Sewell was eye-witness to this otT the banks of New- foundland. " Charlevoi.v says that it rained cinders for six hours, in 1GG3, at Tadoussac, on the River Saguenay, thirty miles below Malbay. *' Upon the 23d of November, 1819, a very remarkable black rain fell at Montreal, accompanied by appalling thunder. It was preceded by dark and gloomy weather, experienced all over the Il DARK DAYS. 231 ^Nlalbay is often overcast in this manner ; why I cannot say. It is also remarkable for fre- quent earthquakes according to numerous testi- monies, of which that of Captain Baddeley, U.E. (at second-hand), is the most rocent. While at Malbay, on a tour made by order of Government, he was informed by Mr. and Mrs. United States. At times the aspect of the sky was grand and terrific. " In Montreal the darkness was very great, partiouliirly on a Sunday morning. The wliole atmosphere appeared as if covered witli a thick ha/e of a dingy orange colour, during whicli rahi fell of a thick and dark inky appearance, and apparently iiupregnateil with some hlack substance resembling soot. " At this period many conjectures were aHoat, among which that of a volcano having broken out in some distant fpiarter. The weather after this became i-leasant until the Tuesday following, when, at twelve o'clock, a heavy damp vajjour enveloped the whole city ; it then became necessary to .light candles in all tiie houses and butchers' stalls. ** The ajipearance was awful and grand in the extreme. A little before three o'clock a slight shock of an earthcpiakc was felt, ac- companied by a noise resembling the distant discharge of artillery. It was now that the increasing gloom engrossed universal atten- tion. *' At 3^ 20', when the darkness seemed to have reached its greatest depth, the whole city was instantaneously illuminated by the most vivid flash of lightning ever witnessed in Montreal, immediately followed by a peal of thunder so loud and near as to shake the stronger buildings to tlieir foundations, which was fol- lowed by other peals, and accompanied by a heavy >hosvcr of raia of the colour above described. " After four i'.m. the heavens began to assume a brighter ap- jiearance, and fear gradually subsided." — ^Tho.vipson's Metoor- oloyij. \% I. M 232 THE MUSICIAN. M*Nicol, wlio reside tliere, tlmt shocks arc most frequent in January and February, and occur nine or ten times a-yctir, most generally in the night, being accompanied by changeable weather. Their direction seems north-west, the shock last- ing one minute. Notice is generally given by a noise like that of a chimney on tire, followed by two distinct blows.* During the day of coffee-coloured fog, of wliich I have been speaking, and which was local, I was reading in a little bed-clr it, more like a bulge in a crazy-wall than a room, when 1 suddenly heard, within the house, two or three short, delicious strokes of u fiddle-bow, succeeded immediately by a masterly execution, on one of Amati's best violins, of " Nel Silenzio," that mysterious and mournful air in " 11 Crociato," which again instantly ran off into one of the gay galloping melodies of Rossini. Such music in a hut! — such wild capriccios, and passionate complainings, in the murky air of an American wilderness, astounded me. Rushing to see whence it came, I found in the living- room (kitchen, &c.) of the house, playing to the family and some gossips, a slender, pale young * Transactions of Historical anJ Literary Society of Quebec, vol. i. p. 142. THE MUSICIAN. 233 man, in corduroy and fnslian. I need not say that tlie violin did nut cease ; but tliat the musi- cian received a reward, humble indeed, but in proportion to the means ol' his Mecajiias. lie ivas a thoughtless, and possibly a dissipated, London artist, named Nokes, on a free ramble through the Western world, and subsisting on his violin. He had been to Kamonraska, which, having proved neither Brighton nor Kamsgate, he was working back to Quebec, not knowing whether the next stage would bring him to a city or a desert. I afterwards formed a part of a delighted audience at Quebec, at a concert given by him and a M. Barraud, who, on a similar occasion, soon afterwards, at New York, acted as money- taker at the door, and left the city abruptly with all the proceeds.* * Most musical people seem bit with tlie gad-fly. They embark for distant lands at an liour's notice. Huerta, the s])lendid guitarist, of St. Sebastian, met at Havre some Americans who were to embark the very same day for New York. They asked him to accompany them. He agreed, bouglit a few shirts, and the next day found him sea-sick in a j)acket-ship, his guitar hanging on a j)pg. I was present at the crowded concert he gave on his arrival at New York. He made the large hall ring and echo with his Iliego'a March and Spanish Boleros. In the fifth row from the front there sat a very young Italian • i; I 234 THE HABITANS. I go on to say that the soil of Malbay is indif- ferent, frequently all sand or all clay, and seldom level. All kinds of grain ripen late. Indian corn is hardly worth solving, and tobacco often small and stunted. The inhabitants are wholly without school- education. There is no medical man, lawyer, or tavern-keeper, biit two or three shoemakers, and five shopkeepers (18'23). The priest has the love and respjct of his flock, although he does not permit dancing. The peasantry live hard, but are active, cheer- ful, and obliging. Marriages are early and ])ro- lific. There wore but two childless couples out of 450, at my visit, and they were wondered at. It is not uncouimon for aged people to give up their little property to their children, reserving a rent. I saw an example of this near the village- bridge. The house was the neatest in the place, small, but conspicuous in red, black, and white paint, with a garden of roses and balsams on one girl, the dauglitcrof a miniature painter, joyous, fair, and musical. She was delighted with IIucrt=?. and his guitar. Three days after- wards she was a married dame, and the guitar had to carry double — all very imi)rud(>nt and naughty ; but I sometimes J.iink that tipsy sailors and young couples have a kind Providence of their own. We frequently meet with great musical talent in the most unlikely places. THE IIABITAKS. 235 side, and a considerable patch of ground planted witli onions and cabbages on tlie other. My guide did not approve of this custom. I saw a good deal of itch in the place ; and now and then the sivvens, a very disgusting- disease, makes its appearance. They are a dirty race. jlilk, black or brown bread, and soups, form the staple diet of the people all the year round ; but in the months of Augist and September they live much upon bilberries, raspberries, and thin milk — and so did I while among them — a very cooliii": diet; and not likelv to j>;ive anv one "the burning palm, the head which beats at night upon its pillow with dreams adventurous," as VVoi'dsworth speaks. ^Vith the exception of a few near the church, the houses in the valley of .St. Eticnne were tlie best ; but to my ILnglish eye many appeared small and neglected, with little or no garden. I visited a small farmer's establishment, five miles up the valley, relations of my host, and was pleased with its tidiness and family harmony. They had collected from the rocky wilds around immense pans full of bilberries for food. The young peoj)le, men and women, showed no shyness, although their threshold cannot be crossed by a stranger once in twenty years ; and '■• 236 RIVIERE DES TROIS SAUMONS. tliey entered into conversation with me agreeably and sensibly. Upon the whole, and saving the dirt, I liked the Malbay peasantry. Nothing could be more obliging than the Brassard family from first to last. Of the two or three upper-class families I saw nothing, my business lying with hills and valleys more than with my fellow-men. The charges of Madame Brassard for lodging and board — poor, simple woman! — were very moderate. I might have staid longer, but at six o'clock in the morning of my sixth day, I saw Mademoiselle Aimec at her ablutions before the house-door. She might have half-a-pint of water in a little bowl. With this she washed her hands, filled her mouth witli tbe same, and, spirt- ing it into her hands, most economically washed also her face. I shuddered as I thought of her milk and cookery, and resolved on instant flight to a land where water was less precious. 1 ought here to say, that on my fourth day in these districts I went in a boat nine miles further down the St. Lawrence, to the River " des Trois Saumons," al »ng an iron-bound coast. This is a savage river, abounding in salmon, and escapes from the rugged interior through a deep ravine. Tiie scene wns quite melo-dramatic. On a naked rock in the troubled waters was a LAKE OF ST. JOHN. 237 hut, hung round with dusky nets. At the door stood an unshaven, bronzed fisherman. Clo^e upon us were white marbk; rocks, higli and inter- leaved with more common primitive strata, with a screen of woods over all. I spent a long hot night here for the benefit of hosts of mosquitoes, and began to feel geology a rude trade, saying, with St. Bernard, " Je me vols un petit oiseau, sans plumes, presque toujours hors de son nid, expose aux orages." I am sorry I have no sketch of this wild spot ; and at the time greatly desired, in spite of mosquitoes and rude waters, to have gone some thirty miles further down, to the magnificent River Saguenay, but it was impossible. West and south-west from the Lake of St. John, sixty leagues up the Saguenay from the St. Law- rence, there are several millions of acres of valuable land, fit for immediate settlement, with a remarkably healthy climate, resembling that of Montreal, according to Government-surveyors. At the old Jesuit establishment on this lake, three hundred acres have formerly been in culti- vation ; but at present it is running wild. (Captain Baddeley, II. E.) In attempting a mission in a scarcely-inhabited country, dreary, distant, and Siberian in climate (whatever may be said to the contrary), the inexorable fathers must have 1 I t 238 THE EBOULEMENTS. had strongly on their minds the axiom of their founder, " lie wlio desires to do great tijiinxsi for God must not be too prudent" (nor self- sparing). So 1 departtnl from Malbay, and nut ^vithout reii'ret. I took my way on foot up the north shore <>1" the St. Lawrence towards (Quebec, and after many a painful step for eighteen miles I reached toward-^ evening the little village of the Eboulements, so called from the prevalence there of earthquake!-. The road from INlalbav, such as it is, leads chieHv over mountain slopes and into deep gullies ; bur sometimes likewise along the river beach. Five miles from Malbay there is a sawmill in a pic- turesque gully, whose stream is choked with hii'ge erratic blocks. Tl:e slopes are more or less under cultivation. The white dwellings seemed numer- ous, being 250 at the time of my visit, but iiot going far back into the interior. These heights afford magnificent and ever-chnnging landscapes. On mv riuht the inland country rose into mountain peaks, naked or scantily covered, except on their flanks and in the ravines, where the trees arc fine and plentiful. On my left the St. Lawrence rolled at my feet. On its surface a ship was a speck. Its near or noi-th shore is always bluH'oi' precipitous, while the south shore is lovv am! populous, swelling slowly inl > faintly-discerned ^ ^^X i n i ■~-!ili^ THE EBOULIiMENTS. 239 i k si hills. If the spectator bo near the vilK^go of the Ebouleraents, the eye is couductod ior forty miles up the river alonjj^ tlio successive pronion- tories of Cape Corbeau.de hi Baie, Petite Riviere, and Taurment, whicli last dips at ouce from a height of ]})U0 feit into the water, to where the rich island of Orleans and its attendant islets terminate the view. (.See Plate.) The highland districts, in which I now am, are remarkabhi for one feature which must not be left unnoticed. fhey are everywhere nu)re or less buried in fragments of the undcrlvinir rock, with very few travelled rocks aujonu; tliem. Tliere is good reason to believe that it Is tht; freezing- of the crevice-water which has thus deeply split up this rather slaty (piartzosc rock. In many places this debris covers not only rock, but soil several feet deoj). ^Vith imniense labour, therefore, the peasant collects the stones into mounds of almost incredible number and si/e before he can have a blade of corn or of urass. I saw on my road two narrow i;*ullies, 300 leet deep, entirely faced with them, and the rivulets buried out of sight. These splinters of roei-L are not so numerous in other jjarts of Canada, but arc conspicuous in the narrows of Pellotau in Lake Huron. The eifect of extreme cold in shivering rocks is I 11 I, I '► f ri 240 THE EBOULEMENTS. very well seen in Hudson's Bay, where the act is frequently accompanied by considerable noise. A conflagration in the woods alwavs comminutes the rocks to a considerable extent. The grass fields of the Hawksbury Settle- ment on the Ottawa arc often strewn with loose rocks, not rarely from ten to twenty feet long by five to ten feet broad. They are broken up into large flakes like palm-leaves by keeping a M'ood fire in full play upon them for twenty- four hours, and then suddenly drenching them •with water. I soon obtained most comfortable quarters at a private house, among kind people, who thought themselves well paid by the latest French Cana- dian news from Quebec ; a mode of remuneration very onerous to a weaiy man. On leaving this hospitable house I confess having put a dollar under a candlestick. The village of the Eboulemcnts is on the flank of a cultivated mountain, which slopes swiftly on the left into the St. Lawrence, and in front into a broad marshy meadow, through M'hicli wanders a little stream hid in alders. From this meadow, perhaps seven miles from the valley of St. Paul, the road winds about the rough hilly region called La Misere, from the poverty and wetness of the land, to the summit of M. ROUSSEAU. 241 tlie lofty barrier overlooking St. Paul's, into which we descend almost perpendicularly. Like many mountainous countries, such as the Sardinian Alps, the Scottish Highlands, &c., the seigniory of Les Eboulements and its vicinity is liable to frequent but slight earthquakes. There is no reason to believe that there is anv It volcano north of 46° nortii latitude in America. Mr. Thompson, of whom I have already spoken, one of our greatest travellers among the Rocky Mountains and the Indian territories bordering the Arctic Seas, never saw or heard of one. Having gratefully visitc'^ the excellent Rousseau family of St. Paul's, I left direct for (Quebec on foot over the summits of Cape Tourment and its neighbouring heights; but as I have nothing par- ticular to tell 1 shall now close this excursion. \"^\ of VOL. I. R m. EXCURSION THE FIFTH. PAIJT I. LAKE ERIE AND THE RIVER Dl'.TROIT. Tlic rioundary Commission, its ofticers, objects, lal)ours, &c. — Lake Erio — Mr. Beaumont — Rev. Mr. Morse — Ainberstburgli — Captain Stewart and his negroes — Chi'valicr and Madame de Brosse — Rattle-snake hunt — Indian cure — The Prophet — The Kickapoo Indians — Detroit — My Inn and its guests — The Pro- fci-sur, the Judge, and the Barber — Moy — The Mcnnonites. 1 BELIEVE that the report of my geological tour (the iiortliern part of which uj) the Ottawa River, kc.j forms the second Excursion), gave satisfac- tion. True it is that my masters did not know much ahout the matter, scarcely *' quartz from pint!5," as a witty Irish lady once said of herself, but they had the wisdom to see how little could be expected from a solitary individual flung help- less into a tangled forest, or on the rugged shore of an oceaniike lake. ^ly tour of nearly two thousand miles showed, GEOLOGY. 243 )re la, as far as could be discerned from ^liores, and banks, and broken hill-sides open to examination, that some of the rock formations had not found a place in geological chissiHcation,* and that all were too old to contain bituminous coal. Canada West was found to be abundant in iron ore, lime- stone, tine marble, serpentine, gneis, and granite. T sailed within a mile of the copper mines of Lake Huron, but saw no traces of that ore, because I did not land. In the discovery of new fossils I was fortunate. During the following winter I received the appointment of British secretary and medical officer to the Boundary Commission, under the sixth and seventh articles of the Treaty of Ghent. This Commission consisted of two portions, British and American ; each with a commissioner, an agentji' secretary, :j: astronomer, two or more surveyors, steward, and a ntimber of voydgcurs ami boatmen, varying according to circumstances from ten to fifteen. * I had neither the jiractioal ex|)prience, tlic scienee, nor tliti ability of Sir lloderic Munhisoii. He saw the same order of rocks ill other parts of the world, and had the honour of workinjj out and proelaimiiig a grand discovery, the Silurian system. t The agent was au assessor and adviser to the Commissioner. He corresponded directly with his own (Jovernmeiit, addressed state papers to the Commission, and managed tlie accounts. X I suceeedeil Mr. Stephen Sewell, brother to the Chief-Justice of Lower Canada, who resigned, and soon after died. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) «-<: ./ ^J^ \s :/, 1.0 lii^ 1^ = 1^ = m 1^ 12.2 I.I Hi U& 111112.0 ME 125 11'-^ L |l.6 V] -^ 'V > ^j^ V /A Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ •sj '^ ^V 6^ %" .A '* 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MSSO (716) 872-4503 «,' „<* ^ ^ 6^ ^ W>' 1,! il 244 THE COMMISSION. During two summers the Commission had the assistance of two scliconers, the Confiance and the Red Jacket, on Lakes Erie and Huron; one beloni:;ino; to each Government. Of the Red Jacket I know nothing, having never seen her. The Confiance had a crew of twelve seamen, and was commanded by Lieutenant John Grant, R.N., an excellent officer and truly amiable man. The Commission had been in existence three or four years when I joined it. and had worked from the starting-point up to the head of Lake Erie, 550 miles, through districts in parts exceedingly intricate. It was the duty of the Commission to examine, designate, and trace upon correct charts of their own construction, a boundary line between Upper or Western Canada and the United States, along the middle of certain water commnnications, com- mencing at the Indian village of St. Regis on Lake St. Francis, where the 45tli degi*ee of north lati- tude strikes the St. Lawrence, and passing up this river, through the middle of Lake Ontario, of the river Niagara, of Lake Erie, of the river Detroit, tJio Lake and river St. Chiir, of Lake Huron, the Straits of St. Mary, and of Lake Superior, as far as the Grand Portage. They were to decide to which of the two con- 1 i ITS OBJECT. '245 id the e and ; one laving rew of tenant [ truly iree or d from } Erie, idingly amine, f their Upper , along 5, com- n Lake til lati- up this of the )etroit, on, the •, as far vo con- tracting parties the several islands, i.iorc or less struck or approached by the boundary lino, re- spectively belong, ill conformity with the Treaty of 1783. From the Grand Portage on Lake Superior the Treaty of Ghent directed the boundary to pass up Piireon River and ulons: the Nvater-communica- tions, a chain of lakes, rivers, and swamps, which lead to the north-west corner of the Lake of the Woods; from which point or corner a line was to be struck due south to north latitude 49°, and from thence along that parallel across the Ameri- can continent to the Rocky Mountains. The country to be examined and apportioned was, for convenience sake, designated iu two articles, the sixth and seventh, of the Treaty of Ghent ; the former ending at the Straits of St. Mary, and the latier continuing the line to the Lake of the Woods. An accurately- described co-terminous line be- tween countries so extensively and closely contigu- ous as tlie Caiiadas (witli Prince Rupert's Land) and the United States is of the first in)i)ortance, botli in a civil and military respect ; chiefly, how- ever, in the former. Positions of military offence and defence on the Canadian frontier are innumerable on both sides, so that the national interests are on that i^ •;l 246 DETAILS. point but little affected as far as tlie 6tli and 7tli articles vif the Treaty of Ghent are concerned. But a clear and acknowledged boundary is in- dispensable in questions of allegiance, of fiscal and legal jurisdiction, of general and local taxa- tion, and among other particulars, in the pursuit of criminals, debtors, and deserters from military service. It also apportions territory, often of great value, and is advantageous in other ways which need not now be enumerated. The details of the work evolved from time to time many difficulties, arising from a variety of circumstances, of which I can here mention only a few. The want of any established precedents in inter- national law was a good deal felt. They would have greatly facilitated discussion. The words used by the treaty-makers, whose topographical knowledge was limited, were sometimes vague. For example, it was uncertain whether the term " water communication," employed in the treaty, had a commercial or geograph'cal signification. The Commissioners decided on the latter, as being the most useful. The " north-west corner " of a lake was another debateable expression, which occasioned great difficulties. Commercial routes were sometimes double. METHOD OF PROHEEDING. 247 great They might he used or disused (who was to say?). Portions lav hetween main and island, hoth oceu- pied by the same nation, and so necessarily full- ing to that nation, to the great discontent of the neighbouring inhabitants, who forgot that their right of passage and other uses would be secured afterwards by treaty. The distribution of the very numerous and often fertile islands caused great labour in sound- ings, measurements, and valuations. The islands which were unequally divided by the boundary- line were usually given to that party which be- came entitled o the largest share, compensation being made in some other part of the frontier, as contiguous as possible. The inconvenience of two nationalities on one small island was not to be endured. Good-feeling, caution, ingenuity, knowledge of various kinds, were required from time to time in both .^arts of the Commission, to avoid appa- rently insurmountable obstructions — dead-locks, as they are called — and to decide wisely in doubtful cases. The Commissioners acted very much upon a set of principles tacitly or openly laid down from the first as o-eneral rules. I feel assured that the work was faithfully and well performed, both from my own near observa- w Tcny*-. ^■^■■■■■w mmtm ill 'I i -I ir; Wl n 248 LAND DISTRIBUTED. tion,* and from the telling fact that the award was neither a take-in nor a triumph to either nation. The quantity of fertile and commodious land which was set at liberty for public sale and safe enjoyment on both sides of the boundary was very large, being equal on the British side to a country ninety-five miles long by four broad ; for until this designation had taken place no titles could be given. By far the greater portion of the land is of excellent quality, with u tolerably dense population either surrounding it or creeping fast towards it, and worth all the expense incurrsd twenty-fold and more. The British came into secure possession of Wc^fe, or Grand Island (31,283 acres), close to Kingston on Lake On- tario, of Wells, Howe, and other valuable islands in this vicinity. The island of St. Mary, in Lake St. Cla'r, and the rich and beautiful St. Joseph, in Lake Huron, seventeen miles by twelve, also fell to the share of Upper Canada. Although I speak without having the accounts before me, I believe that the whole expense of the Commission during nine years, the term of its existence, was under £110,000. It was paid in equal shares by the two Governments con- cerned. As an elaborate topographic and diplo- * I was five years in the Commission, and left it on account of my health. SEVERE SERVICE. 249 matic labour, undertaken by two groat nations, and carried on for a series of years, the expense incurred cannot be considered great. The space under survey and decision was about 1700 miles long by a variable breadth, lor the most part wilderness, very distant, often most intricate, and only accessible in the summer.* All this stretch of country had to be mapped accurately, as a standing official document in evidence — a work which includes minute sur- veys by astronomical observation, and by tri- angulatioii, various measurements, Sec, and the construction of numerous maps on a large scale in quadruplicate,— a copy for each Government and each Commissioner. I need not say that the field service of this Commission was rendered arduous by the heats, severe labour, by the provisions being salt, by an- noying insects, heavy rains, and by the unhealthi- ness of some of the districts under examination. Several of the surveyors, although in hio-h spirits at first with their good salaries and new mode of life, soon loft us, subdued by toil and exposure. I have in my eye now one gentleman of con- ■:■ \ ,1 '.(if * The topographical survey of Great Britain has already cost 1,500,000/., althougli its officers and men are mostly taken from tlie military service, and therefore work very cheaply. np rrv'T-^'; ■— »WI I i II lip, I 2o0 SICKNESS AND DEATH. siderable energy, sitting by the half houi' on a bare rock in tlie sun, wiping his perspiring face, and in angry contention witli a cloud of mosquitoes. He soon went away. Another resigned because work was begun at four o'clock in the morning, or, as he called it, in the middle of the night. It was, however, at the upper end of Lake Erie that sickness effectually disabled the united Commission. Scarcely a man escaped either ague or bilious remittent fever under severe forms. The whole American party, General Porter (the Commissioner), included, caught one or other of these diseases among the marshes of the Miami River, or at Point Pele in Lake Erie. Not one of them died ; but many had narrow escapes, and few recovered until the succeeding spring. Mr. Ogilvy, the British Commissioner, was taken ill on the 12tli of September, 1819, on Boisblanc Island, in the river Detroit, and ten days after died in the contiguous village of Amherstburgh. He did not complain much, and suti'ered chiefly from utter prostration. For seve- ral days he lay in a lethargic state; — in fact, until a few hours before death. Mr. Cgdvy died at the age of fifty, much re- gretted. He was on the whole fitted for his task, being familiar with the country with which he had to deal, both in Canada and in the Indian SICKNESS. 251 'o» territories, and lio understood tlio views and interests of the respective nations. Tiicre was about him, I am informed, an unusual amount of public spirit and talent ; but he was variable, apt to be obstinate in trifles, and immediately after- wards too pliant in matters of more importance. He was in good circumstances, and during- tiie last American war lent Government tliree or four thousand pounds ; for which seasonable aid he was offered (but declined) a lucrative public appointment. During the last live or six years of his life he spent seven or eight thousand pounds in improv- ing his estate of Airlie, near Montreal, and in land speculations which his unexpected death prevented from ripening. Mr. David Thompson, the British astronomer (already introduced to the reader), fell sick early in the same September, at first with extreme weakness, and then with high fever and delirium. He w^as ill twenty-one days, and as soon as he was able, left for his own home on the St. Law- rence, near the Glenjiarrv settlement. There he remained, feeble and out of health, all the winter. Two of the British boatmen died of remittent fever; one at Amherstburgh, and the other at Montreal. The whole country about Lake Erie (always i. 252 COMMISSIONER BARCLAY. ^If i''i" ',! I unhealthy in the wann niontlis) was visited tliat year (1819) with unusual sickness. I was then on my geological tour; and in due course arrived in Sandusky Bay, at the south-west end of Lake Erie, usually a gay and interesting scene, but then most pestilential, and therefore deserted. The greater part of the inhabitants of San- dusky city had fled, while the adjacent small town of Venice was left by all its population (1500), excepting one man aged seventy years. It was most melancholy to walk among the un- trodden streets, the empty houses, wharfs, and warehouses. A^enice stands in a swamp, the water of which is more than milk-warm in summer. As the Commission had again to work in Lake Erie, and in the sickly regions on the "way to Lake Huron, it was resolved to place a medical man in the office of secretary, then vacant by the resignation of iMr. Stephen Sewell ; and I was appointed. Lord Castlereagh, then holding the foreign portfolio, conferred the vacant commissionership on Anthony Barclay, Esq., of the London bar, brother to Col. Delancey Barclay, of the Guards, uid-de-camp to the late Duke of York, and son of the late Col. Barclay, who for many years held various important employments in the United States, on behalf of the British Government. THE COMMISSION' CONTINUED. 253 I\Ir. liarclay was selected vvitli peculiar felicity, if fitness for office be ileterinined by personal cliaracter, by great diligence, ability, and firm- ness of purpose, and by a large acquaintance uitli its duties, acquired as secretary to a similar Commission under tlio 4th and 5tli Articles of the Treaty of Ghent ; uhile he of all men was enabled, by previous education and quiet amenity of nuiuner, to cope with the eager and exacting temper of American dijdomatists, and to make C'ood the rii>;ht thing. I am at the same time far from saving or hint- ing a single word to the moral prejudice of the United States' portion of our Commission. They were men of strict honour, and frank and friendly to all — to myself personally most kind. But it is well known that American civil servants are Tinder strong pressure, and ever anxious to estab- lish new claims upon the gratitude of the repub- lic. The length of their state-papers, notes, replies, rejoinders, Sec. &c., was wonderful to me, unacquainted as I was with the style and method of official correspondence. It had been arranged in the winter of 1820-21 that the United Boundary Commission should meet at Amherstburgh, as early in the ensuing spring as it was possible for the surveys to be prosecuted. On the 7th of Mav, 1821, therefore, the ,. ■';) 1 . d: 'Kfn-n ll !l 'I m I I 111 254 LAKE ERIE. British Commission, including my linmble self, arrived at Waterloo, a sleepy little cluster of houses at the head of the river Niagara, and on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. It was impossible to proceed further. Lake Erie •was blocked up by a fixed mass of rough ice, forty miles long. From a neighbouring height, we were glad to think wo saw a larrow lead-coloured line, the open lake, beyond the great white expanse. We were told that, by the help of a strong south-west wind, all that immense body of ice would crack and rend, and come tumbling down the river Niagara in ragged fragments. And so it fell out; but we waited in a wretched pot- house for six days. The passage of the ice down the Black-Rock rapids was an interesting sight. We often watched the jammed masses, blocks and sheets of all shapes and sizes, hurrying down the river, at peace, however, among themselves, except near the banks, where there was an abundance of cpiarrel and mutual damage. But with a cautious start from either bank, crossing seemed quite safe. The boat and the ice wore quite passive as regards each other, because driven by the same current. We crossed several times. Of course it is a tedious atfair, as the boat is taken the best part Erie COMMISSIONER PORTEr's HOUSE SACKED. 255 of a luilo too far dt)wn. On one occasion we went to a pleasant dinner at Black -Rock, at the large and coainiodions house of the American Commissioner (General Porter), the very house which was sacked a few years before by tlie 41st British Infantry. Tlie soldiers fell principally on the larder and cellar, and were not disaj>pointed, as an eye-witness informed me. Althou«;h a grievous act of barbarity, the atttucnt American general could speak on the subject with the greatest good-humour. The whole frontier was ravaged by the British by way of reprisal. On the 13th instant the ice had almost all disappeared;* and we embarked in the Buffalo steamer for Amherstburgh, a distance of 224 miles, where we arrived on the IGth instant. There are now (1848) the surprising number of one hundred steamers on this lake alone. We rarely saw the Canadian shore, as v/e kept close to the American the whole way, calling at Dunkirk, Erie, Cleveland, and other places, to land and receive passengers and cargo. This shore is a remarkably straight and mono- * Does not this show that forty miles of water left the lake ia less than six days, — /. e. from the moment the ice broke, — each mass descending with the water it floated in ? ]Mr. Allen has calculated that 701,250 tons of water flow out of Lake Erie at Black-Rock every minute. — " American Journal of Science," vol. xliv. p. 71. Li! ;:l lf:i< '•"tm m 111 lii i !ii r! i i M 256 MR. BEAUMONT. tonous line of rich sloping woods, with a clear- ance here «intl there. There are no materials for description of scenery. We were favoured by no incidents, except that the servant of the British ajrent was robbed of a shoe, taken from off his foot while asleep on the deck at night. His great lamentation was the uselessness of the parted shoes to any- body. If, during our three days' voyage, we escaped dulness, the merit lies with the passengers. I was much pleased with the agreeable manners and extensive information of Mr. Beaumont, a surgeon in the American army, on his way to » Michilimackinac. He there had soon afterwards the good fortune to meet with JVIartin the Ca- nadian, whose process of digestion could be seen through an aperture in the abdomen ; and the worhl had the good fortune to have so important a phenomenon fall in the way of an observer as able as Mr. Beaumont. It will be recollected that Mr. Beaumont wit- nessed in this man's stomach (laid partly open by a gun-shot wound) all the successive steps in di- gestion — the accumulation of blood in the sto- mach, the effusion of the pale gastric juice, the curious muscular movements of the organ, and finally, the disappearance of the changed food. MR. HUNTER. 257 it wit- Den by in di- e sto- e, the , and food. He made also very curious observations on the comparative digestibility of most of our ordinary articles of diet. I was very much attracted towards a young cabin-passenger, named Hunter, from Maryland, a most prepossessing fellow, full of ability and spirit. He said he was a descendant of Poco- hontas, the Virginian princess, who saved the life of Captain Smith, and afterwards married him. He had still very evidently the clear bronze of the Indian, and his never-to-be-forgotten eye. He was on one of those exploratory tours so fre- quently made by American youth, and bound for Lake Michigan ; from thence to make his way by Greenbay and the Fox River to the Mississippi, and so round home. I longed to be his com- panion. The ivory haft of a dagger occasionally peeped from within his waistcoat. I asked him tlie use of it. He answered, tliat he hoped it would be of no use, but that it was best to be prepared for the lawless borderers of the west. The young men of the Atlantic shores of the United States may often feel competition at home too strong for them, or may wish to know per- sonally the capabilities of other regions, in fer- tility, water power, or commercial openings. Again, we had an American clergyman on board, the Rev. Mr. Morse, very distinguished VOL. 1. s I f ,! 1 . n one. to the ore did nee, we enty or t work, d their rattle- in d we )ng the timber. several 1 force. Amherstburgh is famous for rattlesnakes. Dr. N. iold me that a few months before, one of the chiklren (aged six years) of an officer was bitten. The usual symptoms set in with severity. He used all the known remedies assiduously, external and internal, but the child only grew worse. As its life was now despaired of, the parents sent for an old Indian woman with the medical man's full concurrence. After having looked upon the child she hastened into the woods, and returned with some rattlesnake root {Goodyara puhescens). Of part of the leaves she made an infusion, of which she caused the child to swallow doses at certain intervals, and of part she made a poultice, which she applied to the wound. The child soon began to improve ; one by one the symptoms disap- peared, and in forty-eight hours the little sufferer was out of danger. This is a well-authenticated case, and very remarkable. The only other circumstance worthy of note, which occurred during my stay, was the gathering of the Indians of Wisconsin, Iowa, and other parts of the United States, for the purpose of receiving their annual presents from the British Govern- ment. Some of tlieni were brawny, well-fed, but sullen men, of middle-age, with little covering but a blanket, blue middle-cloth, and necklace of large bear's claws. Among them I smv the most VOL. I. T ^! >:i: i. ; ;f -u\>-^ l!fi l!^ i':^il: fir ■ ! Iltij' I; 'I ■ i:,' jiiii! I I III ',;i' Ml lljli 274 THE PROPHET. interesting Indian of these regions, as much on account of his own great capacity and influence as because he was the brother of the renowned Chief Tecumseh*' killed in the last American war i am speaking of the Prophet, most faithfully delineated in Catlin's series of Indian Portraits. I could not help shaking hands with him, and addressing to him a few friendly words by an interpreter. He was evidently a conservative of the true water — a sombre, reflective savage of the old times, large, gaunt, square-featured — the able coadjutor of his brother in his scheme of leafjuino: together all the Indians of North America, to sweep the white men out of the land altogether. In the war of 1813 he assisted the British very effectively, but it is supposed only with the view of weakening his future foes. The Prophet was some time afterwards killed in a fray with those Ishmaelites the backwoodsmen. It seems unfortunate that the Indians of the * Tocumseli, the Indian hero, will never be forgotten en the Great Lakes. In 1811, at a council held with the Americans at Vincennes, Tecumseh, having finished his address, showed some displeasure that no seat was kept for him. General Harrison hastened to order one to be brought. " Warrior," said a bystander to him, " your father, the General, presents to you an arm-chair." " He, my father !" cried the chief, fiercely. " The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother. She nourishes me. I sleep upon her bosom." And then the haughty savage sat on the ground, cross-legged. •VVwp THE MOUNTED INDIANS. 275 iiicli on ifluence nowned an war • lithfully ortraits. m, and \ by an ative of ;e of the the able eaiiuins: rica, to ogether. sh very he view het was h those i of the en en the lericans at )wecl some I Harrison . bystander •m-chair." sun is my ». I sleep lie ground, centra! parts of North America come in contact generally with outlaws and desperate men, who are not to be called Christians, even for a mo- ment, in courtesy. Another large body of Indians then present was quite distinct from these. They came from the western prairies on horses, and were slender young men, dressed from head to foot in purple calico; the seams of their little coatees, its cape, and their leggings, edged prettily with a short white fringe. Close to Amherstburgh there is a grassy com- mon a hundred acres in extent. On this, these young braves were perpetually galloping, and wheeling, and checking in full career their slight horses, in a most absurd and reckless manner, as it seemed to me. One evening the Buffalo-dance was performed by thirty or forty stamping sa- vages, disguised with the horns and portions of the skin of this animal. We were favoured with innumerable frantic bellowings, grimacings, and shuflSings here and there. Three or four days before the expected arrival of our schooner, the Confiance, I went to Detroit, sixteen miles up the river, the capital of the then territory of Michigan. I wished to see for myself the physiognomy and manners of a small frontier town. I embarked in the periodical steamer. The m.:. H M ir:'; 1, iiii 276 DETROIT. river scenery lias been noticed before. The streani is a mile or more broad, and flows, all alive with sloops, canvass, and scows, through a settled country, placid and productive, save on the British side for a few miles above Amherstburgh, where the Huron reserve remains a wilderness. Detroit now contains (1847) more than 10,000 inhabitants. The territory has become an im- portant state (repudiating). In 1821 it had 1400 inhabitants, scattered over a long straggling street parallel to the river, with a few lanes behind. In the middle of the town was a very singular staring Roman Catholic church, of crreat size. In the rear was a large common, on which troops of hor^-es were gi'azing and frolicking. About nine o'c'ock on a Saturday morning I landed opposite to a decent inn with two signs — " General Washington," with white tie and black coat with stand-up collar, fronting the river — and an angry eagle, of gilt wood, behind, to face the street. Although this double-facedness did not suit my English notions, I carried my light port- manteau up the bank of twenty to thirty feet, and into the door-way of the inn, where I met with the crummy landlady. On asking her if I could have a bed, — " Oh! yes to be sure." — "And bed-room to myself?" — " Oh! no; but you can have a room with only three beds in it." My eye DETROIT. 277 ! stream 11 alive 1 settled i British 1, where 1 10,000 an im- lad 1400 ng street ind. In r staring In the roops of orning 1 signs — nd black li^er — and face the did not ^•ht port- rty feet, re I niet her if 1 —"And you can My eye catchin"- at the moment tlie sipfn-board of another large wooden inn, I declined tlie lady's invitation to walk in, and passed over to the rival house of entertainment under the patronage of '• General Winfield Scott," even now a famous and very tall American general, judging from a blue painting of him on the wall. Presenting myself here meekly, for I had not breakfasted, I was informed that five beds in a room was the smallest allowance tliey could offer. So humbled was I, and so disinclined lo face the ^' Golden Eagle," that I took my traps up-stairs, and came down to an excellent breakfast. I shall not carry the reader with me all adown the sweltering, dusty streets of Detroit, empty of every living thing but pigs and poultry. So I left the string of shabby wooden houses, rubbishy stores, full of coarse dry goods, and the loaded gutters, loudly calling for the feathered scaven- gers of Georgia and Florida. I betook myself home and read the " Detroit Gazette," an out-and- outer, writing boldly and well up to the times. One o'clock brought dinner, a rough, sub- stantial meal, with at least twenty commensals, in every variety of costume. They were clerks, shop- keepers, lawyers, land-agents, and doctors. Most of these lived in the house ; others roosted among their goods. The dinner was soon despatched, Il'l .!;!;! ,^m M m.\ ill' 'li!; li:'''h a; >' '\K\ 278 THE PROFESSOR : and tlie clatter of plates among the things of the past. The bulk of the diners dispersed, leaving a meditative batch of three or four. Among these was the editor of the " Gazette/' Mr. Sinkler (Sinclair, St. Clair), and Mr. Crittle. the land-agent, shrewd in his own business, but iriendly and mild, and very curious about Eng- land. To tlicse 1 must add a very strange per- sonage, who turned out to be a professor of He- brew, wrai)ped up in a sort of ample dressing- gown of purphi serge or flannel, with trousers of the same. In these places you may dress as you like, provided you are dressed at all. The land- agent wore corduroy cossacks and jacket, as being suitable for his sylvan rambles. The editor and land-agent became great gossips of mine at once. But I must iirst speak of the professor, as being the greatest original of the three. As I walked up to the door of the " Winfield Scott," my attention was arrested by the flowing purple of the piofessor, as he was lounging on the broad bench which ran along the houseside. He was ?, powerfully made dwarf, high-backed, legs short, and very stout. His head was great and protuberant, and he had large red features, eyes blue, quick, and expressive ; his red hair hung over his shoulders in clubs twisted like cables. HIS HISTORY. 279 >-s of the , leavin jrazette,"' . Crittle, ness, but )ut Eng- nge per- r of He- drcssing- users of 5S as you 'he land- , as being- [litor and I at once, as being Winfield le flowing nging* on louseside. ii-backed, vas great features, red liair isted like This singular being was really a professor of Hebrew, wandering in search of pupils wherever he was least likely to find them. Many such persons there are in the byways of the West. He was swinging his squat person about, and ha- ranguing a small knot of loiterers. For lack of other listeners, he would have lectured to the black cook, as she was splitting a fowl. The ])rofessor was more odd within than with- out. He was a Scotchman of respectable origin, and a truly learned man ; but every word and look of his was so spiced with the extravagant and ludicrous, that there was no listeuing to his sono- rous sounds witliout a riot of laughter, to tlie poor man's great loss, grief, and astonishment. The professors of the university at which he was educated, respecting his attainments, procured for him a private class ; but it had only one sitting. After listening to his odd and egotistical discourse for ten minutes, first one foolish student filliped a paper pellet at him, and tlien another, until the shower was universal ; and there was a great row, in which some of the pupils were in danger of being thrown out of the window by the enraged doctor, who although short was extraordinarily strong in the arms. I sat next to him at breakfast one morning, when he obliged me by some magnifical dis- i| 'HIT m f !!il 280 HIS DISCOURSE. course, of which the following is a faded spe- cimen : — "So, sir! yon are from the good old country, like myself. ^V'hy did you leave it? Answer me that ! But three-fourths of us professors here arc either British, or of the British. Look at Ren- wick, of Columbia College, Highland Mary's grandson ; at Dunglisson ; ut Pattinson of Glas- glow ; at myself, a near kinsman of the Gentle Shepherd. One good native teacher I know and honour, Sam Mitchell, of New York. I listened with deliglit the other day for two good hours while he gave us (quite new to me) the natural history and uses of that admirable esculent the turnip, directing our attention to his diagrams with an African assagai (a dart). Sir, this is an inquiring and an acquiring countr}'. They will know and will have. I shall soon have plenty of pupils. I shall soon be off to the new self-govern- ing and self-supporting college in Ohio, where a man of my calibre is grievously wanted. I have letters to those people, and have sent them my little treatise on the Canaanitish Mysteries. Do you know Professor Parker, of Northland Col- lege ? Although he is a pupil of mine, I am bound to declare that he has no more brains than a sol- dier carries in his knapsack. A planet-load of such fellows is not worth a rush. To be sure he HIS DISCOURSE. •281 Jed spe- coiintry, swer me here are at Ren- Mary's of Glas- i Gentle now and listened »d hours natural lent the liagrams his is an ley will )lenty of 'govern- where a I have hem my es. Do nd Col- li bound ti a sol- load of sure he would not walk into a well ; but as to Hebrew ! — Pshaw ! 1 first called on him in the month Chisleu. Certainly he was not sacrificing to IS'is- roch, his eagle-faced god ; but he was with many other fools in his drawing-room, so bewitched with a silly singing-woman, that he told a professor of the Hebrew tongue to call again. But that pro- fessor of Andovcv, with the long name, is of an- other sort. Yes! with the long name — Long- fellow! — 'long, long ago,' as somebody used to sing. He is a man of very fair American abilities. When I was at his college, giving a course of Egyptian antiquities, I might have been the noble Asnapper himself, such was his courtesy to the man who is now addressing you. He is good, too, in verse. But, speaking of these ])oets of the west, I know them all, from Florio of Poughkeepsie, through Percival, ' all purple and gold,' up to Bryant, who chaunts the wild ducks-; " &c. &.c. till midnight, had I not respectfully called the professor's attention to the cold tea and now solid buttered toast. I afterwards saw this individual at Quebec, try- ing to lecture. His money, however, had run out, and he kept his bed three days in despair. Kind words and a subscription revived him. He ■was grateful. His *' subsequents," as the Ame- ricans would say, I do not know. r> 282 MY COMPANIONS. I i ^'! m The land-agent, Mr. S. Crittle, and myself, with five others, inhahited at night the same hed- chamber. Mr. Crittle and two friends of his used to keep me awake until twelve at night, by sitting on my bed and asking questions about George the Fourth and George Robins the auctioneer — equally great men in their opinion, as filling up much space in "The Times" newspaper — and about London, Windsor, and Liverpool, &c. In return, I received no little information on the difficult subject of land-sales, private, public, or on military-service tickets. Crittle owned that a smart man might do a good stroke of business at Detroit ; that there was a demand for his article ; the land, climate, and market, all good ; and that the townships were filling up not amiss. He shewed me about the town, saying he could look after trade quite as well in the street as in his little office. I was shewn the Museum, which was very creditable as far as it went; and the library of 1400 well-selected volumes, being one for each inhabitant. Novels I observed were about one-third of the whole collection.* My little editor was a lively, sharp New Eng- lander, chatty and well-informed. During the extreme heats of the day 1 twice spent an hour in * Few towns have made such progress as Detroit since 1821. Its population has increased seven-fold. Among its public build- THE EDITOR. 283 were Eng. his dirt-encnistetl pnntinu;-otticc. \Ve tnlkcd as he worked off the paper. His leadiiig articles, short and strong, were put into type at once without copy. The paper was of small size, the main part of its contents taken from the latest English arrivals ; but the stay and support of the concern were the advertisements, which being duty free were cheap and numerous, and conde- scended to the smallest imaginable transaction. He did the whole work of the paper, excepting its delivery to the subscribers. In fact, I saw that the Detroiters fared well and worked hard ; they were therefore making profit. i\Iany grumbled, but few left. *' Sir," said I to the (>ditor one day, " you told me you were a bookseller. I see some reams of brown and white paper, and a few pieces of paper- hangings. Where is your literature?" " Oh !" he replied, *' I blocked up my windows with books for two years, but they were noticed only by the flies. I did not sell three copies. People have not read through the town library yet. A box in the garret without a lid contains i(t 111 ■ 'J «* : i ings are a state-house, city-hall, state-p'^nitentiary, gaol, eight churches, three markets, a theatre, library, and museum. Country seats stud the environs. Two railroads into the interior are being made. The central railroad is finished to Marshall, one hundred miles ; and so is the Erie and the Kalamazoo, thirty-three miles. J- •11 ntt I 284 THE IMrRlSONED INDIAN. :•> -■! ! : il-ii my stock of books." So going up-stairs and overhauling the box, I found several American reprints much to my taste. Men must speak as they find. I have resided for months in various parts of the United States, and have always met with obliging people. On the Sunday of my stay here I went to the Episcopal church, and was glad to see an attentive and well-dressed congregation. General Macomb, the governor, and his family, were in a neat pew, not differing from those of other people, the ge- neral in plain clothes ; but his tAvo aide-de-camps in uniform, escorting his lady-like daughters dressed in white. The sermon was good, and the church comfortable. The following day I visited the prison. K con- tained a single prisoner, a young Indian, accused of murder. I entered his small round cell. He was squatted on the nnid floor, unwashed, un- kempt, with an old blanket over his shoulders, and half off. He gdve us no glance, but seemed fixed — in an iron drram. Here, indeed, was a soul shut up ! I could say nothing. Tliis was one of the most painful sights I had seen in America. I will change the subject for the following homely but characteristic incident : — Although I seldom submit to professional shav- ing, it was indispensable so to do soon after seeing THE BLACK BARBER. 285 thf) captive Indian. Tlie operator was a black man, very dressy, self-sufficient, and tr.lkative. During the process I was foolish enongli lo stiffen my upper lip, to give the razor a firmer surface to work on. He had alreadv cut me twice. ** Now, please, si?*," he exclaimed, " do not so — be natural ; it will be best for us both. I love nature ; with her I know where I am." Soon afterwards he again drew blood. I held my face then rather low ; but he chucked me gently under the chin, crying, " Up, man ! up wiih it." I tell these little things to shew the droll impertinence of free coloured men in the United States. This artist sat down to dinner, I doubt not, without the most distant idea tiiat he had done anything out of the way. In different parts of the world i have come across puppies in dress, but never one, either in Paris or Baden- Baden, at all to be compared to the black man- servant of the celebrated orator liundolph. It was a great treat to see this personage peacocking {paonisant) in his flame-coloured waistcoat, frills, &C-, before our hotel door at Washington. I was one evening sitting at tea alone, near the window in the eating-room overlooking the river, after a hard uav's work mineral-huntins: in some quarries four niiles below Detroit. My being- served with tea out of the usual course was a great i'-. % 286 THE AMERICAN JUDGE. favour. The kindness of the landlady had added the luxuries of preserves, honey, and buck-wheat cakes to the refreshino; meal. All the boarders were gone to a rifle-match. I had taken one cup, and was deep in a new-bought book, when I was suddenly awoke by a singular command uttered close to my ear. *' Put down that book, sir ! You and I are to pass the evening in this room ; and it is not to be spent in reading!" i looked up at the stranger, and my vexation was at once quieted. I beheld a remarkably good- looking, white-haired old gentleman, smiling kindly upon me out of o,. n, candid eyes, from under a broad-brimmed hat. He was dressed much like a Quaker ; and yet he did not belong to that sect of prim faces and noble hearts. He had on a brown single-breasted coat, and panta- loons to match, white neckcloth and white stock- ings, and — rare to see hereabouts — his shoes were well blacked. As somehow I did not speak, after standing some moments, he said — " Pray, sir, who are you ?" " Oh! sir," I replied, beginning to be not well pleased at the interruption, " I am a poor, unfor- tunate, stray Englishman." I was about to say more, when he broke in upon me, exclaiming, " I am surprised to hear you speak THE AMERICAN JUDGE. 287 ling so lightly and untruly. The poverty is not great where there is butter and honey (glancing at the table) ; and let me tell you that it is an estate to be an Englishman. Never jest with your lofty birthright. You are the countryman of Alfred, Shakspeare, Newton, and Wilberforce. To Eng- land and her lineage is committed by the God above us the schooling: of the nations. I shall take tea with you." With that he called for a cup and saucer, and a fresh infusion of hyson. Having sat down, he at once asked me from what part of England I came. Having told him from Nottinghamshire : "What!" he cried out, "from the county of Byron and Kirk White, of Cranmer and Hart- ley, of the Savilles, the Willoughbys, and the Parkyns?" Here I interrupted him in my turn : " Under the circumstances, I am entitled, sir, to ask respectfully to whom I have the honour of ad- dressing myself." " I am," he answered, " Judge Perkins, by descent a Parkyns of Nottinghamshire, one of the blood of blunt Sir Thomas the wrestler ; my grandfather being the first to leave English soil. To-morrow I hold a district court at this place for the despatch of legal business. I reside at Greenfields, about eight miles down the river, : i '■..¥} 288 THE AMERICAN JUDGE. liiill ir' '-s ■J ! where I shall be happy to see you, and shew you my numerous family and pretty place." I thanked him cordially, but expressed a fear that the shortness of my stay would deprive me of the great pleasure of accepting his frien''.y invitation. I had previously heard of Judge Perkins as being popular and much respected in this neigh- bourhood, and that it was quite impossible for him to intrude at Detroit. I think he occupied full two hours in questions about his dear old county, its present condition in agriculture and manufactures, its nobles and gentry. Merry Sherwood, Thoresby, and the square old tower of Bunny Hall, the seat of the Parkyns. He even knew the quaint motto over the door of the old-world village school-house, — " Dlscc vel dtscede." Eni>land was still to him the home of ancient days, and in her fortunes he took a deep interest, like most other involuntary exiles. He then spoke long and well of Europe and America, of their blots and beauties— said that he was satisfied with his adopted country,* but not insensible to its imperfections. He thought that in America both virtue and vice were gigan- * Neither the Mexican war nor the repudiation of just debts by many of the states had then occurred. THE UNITED STATES. 289 tic — that here, bad men were exceedingly bad, and the good exceedingly good. He remarked upon the flattering welcome with which Americans are received by all Euro- pean nations, excepting, perhaps, the British, between whom and the Americans there is a sort of family soreness — the prosperous yoimg nation being too noisy and presuming, and the elder branch too austere. " But," said he, "it is hardly fair to pass any judgment upon us as yet ; we are immature, unripe, formed from a multitude of different races, and hardly coherent — necessarily too busy with the coarser wants of life to attend to the elegancies and refinements of a higher civilization. It is true that the moral sense is low among us — lower than in England. Even there, are ou all you ought to be? What says your finest poet? — ' Earth is sick, And Heaven is weary of the hollow words Which states and kingdoms utter when they talk Of truth and justice. Turn to private life And social neighbourhood ; Icok we to ourselves ! A light of duty shines upon every day For all ; and yet how few are warned or cheered ! ' " Excurs. p. 20-1. Being joined at meals by strangers is common at inns in the country parts of the United States. Besides, in a person of Judge Perkins's age VOL. I. u m '1; I 'lit 290 ANECDOTES. mv I and station, it was an act of condescension to join my tea-talde. Far greater liberties are taken in the middle and back districts. I remember, when the Boundary Commission sat at Utica, in the state of New York, a party of our surveyors were quartered at the second inn of the place (10,000 inhabitants). One of our gentlemen — for such he was by education and by conduct, although a half-caste Indian — was awoke in the middle of the night by the glare of a candle, and the noise of the landlord showing a newly-arrived stranger into bed to him. The stranger had far better have ventured into the lair of a wild cat and her young. My friend lay quiet, and with closed eyes, until the man began to get into bed, when he put his foot to his body with such force and good-will, as to drive him headlong against the door, right across the apartment. Thankful was he to be allowed to pick up his clothes and disappear. On the evening of my last day at Detroit I crossed the river to a little hedge-inn on the British side, close to Moy, at that time the resi- dence of Mr. jMackintosh, a wealthy and re- spected merchant. IMoy is close to Windsor, a flourishing little village famous for its fine pear- trees. I had not been long sat, when in stepped a THE PEDLAR. 291 cension ies are mission party of 1 inn of of our on and [1 — was glare of Dvvinf]^ a 1. The nto the end lay 1 be2;an lis body ive him OSS the )wed to L'troit I on the he resi- [irid re- nd sor, a e pear- jpped a bold i)cdlar, with pack and box. He was a broad-cliGsted, short man, with a profusion of sandy whisker. *' Well, mistress," said he, " I've had a long- tramp this blazing day. I am both dry and hungry. Let us have something com- fortable. But of course you know we nmst trade!" "No, indeed," the landlady replied, *'I cannot; I do not want anything- in your line." " But, mistress, it is the universal rule of the road." '' Except here," says she; - my friend Sugarbutt deals with mo, and I with him; and he knows to a day when my tliread, soap, and tea are out." " Well, then, mistress," rejoined the pedlar, ''at your greatest need may you have a cloudy new moon, your thread break, and your needle want an eye ! We don't trade." lie shouldered his bundle and departed. In the meanwhile I was sitting at a little window of one pane, looking up the road. Soon after the pedlar had gone, I descried approaching at an easy pace two strange bearded figures, on large, rough horses, with saddle-bags behind them, and stout over-coats before. They alighted at the door, in beards to be coveted,— in broad, slouching hats,— long, free- flowing coats, waistcoats, and trowsers of snuff- colour, with strings everywhere instead of but- tons. ::l| :' ,.,M::: ifl 3>> ' iiiiii! I ! 1 : I 1' 292 THE MENNONITES. They were middle-aged men, bulky, erect, deliberate, with large, mild, satisfied faces — elders of the Mennonite persuasion on a tour of inspection among their people, scattered over the upper or western province. Taking their place among us in the kitchen, they talked unreservedly with every one as they made their simple meal. I joined them ; and after some general con- versation, I asked them why they dressed so differently from Christian people in general. The person to whom I addressed myself smiled, and said that dress was not a principal matter, and merely concerned the feelings, &c. For them- selves, they bore a love to the Saviour so per- sonal, that they wished to imitate him in outward things as in inward. As He wore a beard and loose j. 'rments, so did they. And further, they found this external badge or testimony a great safeguard against the seductions of the world, and any slowly progressive conformity with prevailing- practices which might otherwise creep in among- them. ** Moreover," he added, *' I am not sure that bearded Christians are so greatly in the minority throughout the earth as you have taken for granted." I questioned them as to the great doctrines of revelation, and received correct and sober an- THE MENNONITES. 293 , erect, faces — tour of ►ver the Litchen, as they al con- ssed so al. The ed, and :er, and them- so per- Dutward ird and er, they a great rid, and evailing- I among" not sure in the e taken trines of >ber an- swers. They certainly differ fr«m us widely in church government, hut in little else of import- ance. As they lead the quiet, godly lives of believers, I could not but indulge them in their harmless peculiarities ; and I felt in my heart to love them. Their people, the elder went on to inform me, at my request, were to be found in many of the •western districts, but are most numerous in Gore and Niagara. Many of them are Germans, or of German extraction. German families of Men- nonite sentiments are now continually settling- in Canada West from Pennsylvania, prefei'ring the stillness and security of the British colony 1o the racket, worldliness, and most probably the petty persecutions (local), of the United States, I once met in the woods a migratory family of this kind, reposing on their journey. They had with them two waggon-loads of substantial fur- niture, drawn by sleek, stout horses. The people themselves were pictures of health and common sense. During the last war with the United States, when the Canadas were invaded, the British Go- vernment wisely permitted the Meimonites to remain at home peaceably, on commuting by money for military service. This was no hard- ship, because the war had produced high prices. ii li,': ' ■ . i, , 'I I i. r, n .AM Ml III 294 THE MENNONITES. of which tlie ortlinary militia could not avail themselves, as their farms were necessarily neg- lected. I afterwards passed through a district of jNIen- nonites, between Fort Erie and Grand River, a swampy country, but with fertile and elevated spots here and there. Though not a healthy neighbourhood, the Mennonitcs did not complain. I went into one or two of their houses, which were low, plain, but comfortable. Extreme neatness prevailed every- where. Their brass vessels were as bright as gold, and their pewter looked like silver. Large pails of milk and cream stood pure and cool in their little dairies ; the fatted calf and the home- reared lamb wei'C playing about the homestead and orchard. The owners were a large, fair, calm race, evidently cheerful with Christian hope. I felt glad that there was upon earth such un- ruffled peace, enduring from childhood to old age — so complete a separation from the tempta- tions and corrosions of ordinary life. EXCURSION THE FIFTH. PART II. THE ST. CLAIR AND LAKE ERIE. 1; Large H, M. schooner Confiance — Lake St. Clair — Sickness — Sailor shot — River St. Clair — Belle Riviiro Island — The sick Traveller — The banished Lord —The Black River— Fort St. Clair — Tlumderstorms — Missionaries - Lake Erie — Boat Voyage — The Settlement — The Governor-General — The Me- thodist Missionary — Religious Statistics and Observations — Schools — The Storm — The Roman Catholic. On returning to Detroit from my visit to Moy, as just related in the first part of this excursion, I found that H. M. schooner the Confiance had arrived at Amlierstburgh from Penetangui- shene, and would next day again mount stream for Lake St. Clair. I therefore early next morn- ing, after a hurried leave-taking, hired a little skiff" and two rowers for Amherstburgh, where I had several trifling matters to settle. I had, however, to take another opportunity ; for about i,: •29G M. rOMAINVILLE. lialf-way down we met the Confiance painful'^ winning lier way against the current. The first thing I saw on deck was the round bald pate of Monsieur Pomainville, our purveyor, and his fine French features, as he was emerging from the hold, where he had been in search of a ham for dinner. He was full of chat about good looks and a pleasant summer to come, but said no more. Four or five days afterwards, awaking from a siesta on the hot deck, he cried out, " Ah ! M. le Docteur, I tell you while I remember, there are two letters from England for you in my cassette." "Then," said I, "had you better fetch them?" which he still seemed slow to do. They were letters from my family, of whom I had not heard for eleven months, through the post-office irregulari- ties of that day. None but such as have been in my place can fully sympathise in my vexation at this tardy delivery of letters. We were made as comfortable as possible in the gallant little Confiance. Many a happy day did I spend in her. She was commanded by Lieutenant Grant, R.N., the son of a banker of that name at Portsmouth. Our first surveying operations lay among the many mouths of the River St. Clair. They form a number of large, marshy islands, of course LAKE ST. CLAin. 297 :er of partly in Lake St. Clair. Neither of these, nor of the lake, shall I say much topographically, as they present no striking features. We were three or four days in working our way from Amhersthurgh to a convenient herth in Anchor Bay, near the north-west shore of Lake St. Clair. When we arrived we found the scenery here very pretty, the borders of the lake, for miles inland, being a s?\vannali of long, bright green grass, with woods in the rear disposed in capes, islands, and devious avenues. I was delighted, and landed for a run ; but to my surprise, I stepped into water ankle-deep, and fortliwith returned. But a more serious evil was the bad quality of the water, as we were to be here for several days, and the weather sultrv and close. It was tainted and discoloured by the dead bodies of a minute pink insect, and was only drinkable after straining and boiling. Our people spent most of the daylight in the insular channels, and Lieutenant Grant in sound- ing the lake. The natural result of all this was sickness ; but while in the lake the only person seriously ill was my friend the lieutenant. He was attacked by the dangerous fever of the coun- try, with great general excitement, delirium, &c. &c., but bleeding and other appropriate remedies %\ m 298 THE SAILOR SHOT. i- V ,>: tt 'X l^: II. i 'i I: ■\\ ('"if 'J' '1 w brought him round, first, by conversion of tho continued fever into the remittent, and then into common ague, which was driven off by quinine. Other members of the working party v/erc attacked more slightly a few days afterwards in the liiver St. Clair, but in such numbers that the survey was discontinued for a fortnight. From this pestilential spot we lemoved, in the prosecution of our work, to one of the channels in the island of St. JNlary rear Baldoon, amid aguisli meadows of coarse grass, now (1845) cul- tivated after a fashion by various remnants of Indian tribes. As the jilace looked very likely for game, and the sailors had little to do, permission was given to four or five of them to beat up with fowling- pieces an open marsh of many hundred acres close to us, with clumps of wood on the higher ground. Towards evening one of the sporting sailors came running to the schooner, to say tkat a com- rade had shot himself; but he was so breathless and frightened, that he could only point in the direction of the body about a mile off. Three or four of us ran off, and, after a little search, we found the unfortunate man quite dead, lying across his discharged gun, on his face, which was in a pool of blood. The cast-off skin of a LAKE ST. CLAIR. 299 Oil of the then into quinine, irty v/ere 'wards in i that the id, in the channels )n, amid 845) cul- nants of ime, and 'as given fowling, ed acres 3 higher ^ sailors t a com- •eathless t in the rhree or rch, we I, lying , which Lin of a snake, beautifully perfect, lay near him. As there was nothing to point to foul play, we sup- posed that he had struck at the seeming snake with the butt-end of his gun, and that the gun had gone off and lodged its contents in the neck, where we found a small round hole close to the jugular vessels. The seamen — all of us, indeed — were very much affected by this deplorable accident, far more so than I could have anticipated. His companions carefully prepared for his grave a strong wooden slab, on which they en- graved an epitaph of their own composition. The burial-service was read over the remains, and listened to with unaffected grief, which did not wholly disappear from our countenances until wc moved to Belle liivicre Island in the River St. Clair. There is little to describe in Lake St. Clair. It is a round pond exaggerated into a circum- ference of ninety miles, extremely shallow, and surrounded by marshes and low woods, with occasionally an unhappy clearance. The ship- channel to Lake Huron is very narrow, and so changeable, that it requires fresh buoying every spring. Its shallowest part has only a depth of 61 feet. Its principal rivers are the Thames, the Huron, ■ ¥ 300 BELLE RIVIERE ISLAND. n '!> and the Bear Creeks. I shall only speak a few words on the first, one of the most important and picturesque of the second-class streams in Canada West. It is navigable for sloops and steamers to Louisville, thirty miles from its mouth, with an average depth of \G feet, and a breadth of 200- 300 feet. This river passes through some of the finest parts of Canada Wesf,, among farming- land of the first quality. Many of the farms here have been under cultivation for fifty years, and have fine orchards. The flourishing town of London (eighty-five miles from Hamilton in Lake Ontario), with 4000 inhabitants, is situated upon it, as well as Chatham, with a population of nearly 2000, sixty~six miles below London. We now made our way into the River St. Clair, and cast anchor at the head of Belle Riviere Island, five or six miles from the lake. This river runs a tolerably straight course of thirty miles long, and from three-quarters to a mile and a half broad. Its banks of earth and clay are high along the upper and middle portions, but lower down they gradually sink into marshes. As before mentioned, the banks of this river are, upon the whole, well settled. Belle Riviere Island is so called from the con- RIVER ST. CLAIR. 301 a few portant ams in lers to vhh an of 200- 1 of the rming- is here s, and ty-five li 4000 ell as 2000, Clair, Jivicre This thirty . mile 1 clay •tions, rslies. river con- siderable creek of that name which enters oppo- site to it on the south. This island may measure about a hundred acres. It is many feet above the river, and is, for the most part, covered with fine wood. We soon cleared sufficient space for three or four tents on tlie bluff at the upper end, com- manding a fine reacli, with a line of farms on the American side, and on the other a wilderness : the whole settlement on the British shore having, in 1813-14, been clean swept away, burnt, and devastated, in the winter, by the American sol- diery, destroying, in its brutality, the means of existence of non-combatants. A weaker growth of trees, or small, grassy openings, with the gables of ruined houses, still mark the spots. A beginning was made, in 1821, to re-people this fertile district. Now (1847) the whole north front of the river is occupied ; and there are the two cheerful villages of Sutherland and Talfourd, each with its neat Episcopal church smiling upon the wilderness. We were a week at Belle Riviere. Several little characteristic incidents occurred while we were there. Not always having a boat at my command, I remained for the most part on the island. On ,■•1 ■• 302 THE FUGITIVES HUT. lil'll the third day of our stay, scramblhig along the tangled margin of the island with the intention of going round it, I saw, some hundred yards from, our camp, that the long grass and coppice were beat down and broken into a barely discernible pathway. I mounted by it into the thicket, and fifty yards from the water, hid from all the world, I fell in Avith a squatter's bark hut, in a clearing of a hundred square feet, on which were planted some potatoes and a few hillocks of Indian corn. The door was open, and on the threshold a couple of neatly-dressed white women were sit- ting at needle-work, mother and daughter, the younger being the wife of a shoemaker. Their little place was clean and tidy. They showed no alarm : neither did their stout dog attack me. They said that the husband was mending shoes in the vicinity. I have no doubt but they were in hiding for some unpleasant reason. We had been three days within 400 yards of them without their stirring or approaching us ; but now we gave the man a good deal of enqdoyment, and the women washed for us. It was from our present encampment that I watched the first labours of a settler in the woods, as related in the excurgion to the Ottawa Uiver. THE SICK AMERICAN, 303 One very hot day, the sun in mid-heavens, v/ithoiit a friendly cloud to screen us from his fierceness, I observed a canoe, with two men in it, leave the American shore and make for our tents. Their errand was to ask me to visit a young man at their house hard by, ill of the country fever. Of course I went with them. He was a respectable young American from Oswego, on the south shore of Lake Ontario, on a tour of commercial inquiry, and detained here by this sudden attack. I found him lying on a hard, uncurtained bed, in a large, low room, with the open window looking into an orchard of apple and peach-trees, then teeming with young fruit. My patient was passing from the morbid strength of the hot period of a severe remittent i'ever into the languor of the perspiring stage, and presented a spectacle which few but medical men and clergymen ever see. To use the beau- tiful expression of an old French writer, he looked like " Ic rot dcchu des existences do ce nionde " (the discrowned king of nature). As yet, the pink and white features glowed witli most expressive briglitness ; the liquid eye, ver- milion-tinted, was full of painful meaning.* * In the latter stages of consumption, and in o'licr disturbances of the circulation, when the connexion of soul and body is looscu- I ■k 304 THE SICK AMERICAN. m I ^ ;i His voice was a whisper, but earnest, and almost spasmodic. The face and heaving chest were beaded by a thousand drops of moisture; and although his feeble arm, when let go, dropped like lead, he was restless, and fought feebly with the flies and mosquitoes which always infest the sick. I spoke to him encouragingly, told him he should be well attended to. said that I had been at Oswego, and should soon pass through it again. He eagerly interrupted me to beg I would call on his mother and sister, and threw his eyes on his portmanteau, which was near on a chair ; but I begged him not to think of busi- ness for a day or two ; and for some moments he was quiet. 1 1 ' : 1 d ing, an extraordinary and singularly delicate impiess of the new and angelic life is occasionally stamped on the features at certain periods of the day : so, in the hot stage of a severe remittent, the general contour becomes full, and the complexion fervidly bril- liant, the most ordinary face is rendered beautiful by some new arrangement of its parts. Arterial blood is evidently accumulated on the surface, and is also stimulating the bram to vivid sensation and thought; so that every part of the frame — every expression, tone, and movement — becomes instinct with unwonted eloquence and force. I have seen this among the humbler classes repeatedly, in persons and places least expected, and in the young of both sexes especially. But when the individual has mixed with pious persons of superior education, the change is still more striking and more lofty. There is then a heavenward tendency, an exalted purity and serene joy, most affecting to contemplate. THE SCENERY AND PEOPLE. 305 1 almost jst were •e ; and dropped bly with ifest the him he ad been ough it » beg I d threw near on of busi- lents he the new at certaia ittent, the fidly bril- 3ome new umulated sensation pression, eloquence peatedly, of both ith pious striking a exalted He was with kind but ignorant people. The case was similar to that from which our com- inandor was recovering, but the prostration was greater. I had some trouble with him, but he eventually recovered. As we float over the smooth waters of the St. Clair, having perhaps just escaped from the turbulence of Lake Huron, it is delightful to gaze upon the succession of dwellings, low and roomy, which its western bank presents, em- bowered in orchards, the children playing under the far-spreading elms, and the cattle grazing in rich meadows ; but if you land, the effect is greatly damaged. You are shocked at the meagre, sickly appearance of the inhabitants. They have tlie thin white face, the feeble, stoop- ins: walk of the over-wrought, in-door artizan of an European city. Their minds, you find, are almost as unready and infirm as their bodies. Neither- at the time of my several visits, were they blest with the consolations of religion, except at distant and irregular periods. The vast tracts of marsh lands around are the cause of all this, bringing upon the settlers the constantly-recurring plague of ague and remit- tent fever, to be remedied by drainage sooner or later. VOL. I. X )■ 'k. 306 UNHEALTHINESS OF THE UNITED STATES. It is common for the borders of American rivers to be dry for a mile or so back, and then the land sinks into swampy and rolling country. The American climate is., at best, changeable, first exciting and afterwards exhausting. Its heat and cold are in extremes, very often most agreeable, exhilarating, from its remarkable dry- ness, both in winter and summer. Great portions of the unsettled lands in the United States are extremely unhealthy; such as the south sides of Lakes Ontario and Erie, the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Mississippi ; while Canada, except in the extreme south-west, is all but perfectly healthy. I would not wish to live in a more salubrious climate than that of the Bay of Quinte, the l^iver Ottawa, the eastern shores of Lake Huron, and many other places ; and I am immeasurably astonished at parties from England preferring unwholesome, distant, and often lawless parts of the United States, to regions of plenty and health in this colony, under laws and customs with which they are familiar. I have reason to believe that the excessive quantity of animal food, which the Americans hurry down, injures them seriously ; perhaps bringing on in early life what our Irish recruits call the meat fever, and giving rise to a weak- INSECT ANNOYANCES. 3o: ened aiul too excitable state of the aliinentarv canal for the rest of their existence. Tiien conic the fk'leterious agencies of tobacco, ardent spirits, and ill-regulated labour. Compare the meagre, ill-set frame of the Ame- rican farmer, and 1 is haggard, uneasy features, with the robust, compact figure of the Englisli yeoinan, his open, ruddy, smooth face ; and say which of the two is the stronger and happier animal. In the extensive and fertile districts about Lake Erie, and to the south of Lakes Huron and Mich- igan, both man and beasts suffer grievously from insects. During the months of June, July, and August, mosquitoes torture thick-skinned animals even more than man. Fires of wet leaves and grass, which give out great volumes of smoke, are made for them to run into ; and so anxiously do they thus take shelter there, that many of them are severely burnt. Animals are much troubled here with a fly which I do not see else- where. It is of the same shape as the large fly of the butchers' shops, but is black, an inch long and more, and is armed with a long sheathed lance, which enters deep, and brings out the blood in streams. They often attack men, as I have per- sonally exj)erienced. Their incision is not poison- ous, like that of the sand or black fly and mos- II'* ^i < ^t If M if liiii 308 THE BANISHED LORD. w< ily ki til ]i qiiitoe. we only know tiiat we Jiave been bitten by an effusion of blood, as if a small vein had been opened. Along the Rivers Detroit and St. Clair you may see in a meadow a number of cattle trying to feed, with their tails in constant motion, when all at once perpendicular up goes the tail, and the whole troop is cantering round the field, in the vain hope of getting rid of the fl'es. After a time, if pos- sible, they rush into the water, and there remain with nothing but the nostrils and eyes visible. Many a time have I observed the patient eyes of the poor beast watching the progress of my canoe, and the momentaiy bobbing into the water of their heads to shake off some impudent mosquitoe, I was sitting about mid-day in the shade near my tent on Belle Isle, the sky on fire, as is usual at that hour, and the gossamer air trembling over the shiny river. Having been immersed in one of Coleridge's rhymed dreams, I happened to raise my eyes, and saw coming down the stream in a canoe a strange-looking person standing upright, with a double-barrelled fowling-piece in his hand, while a boy in the stern was paddling direct for our camp. They landed close to me, and climbed the little bluff on which I was posted. A more singular Robinson Crusoe-like figure I never be- held than the elder stransrer. THE BANISHED LORD. 309 I I bitten id been ou may to feed, I all at D whole in hope if pos- remain visible, eyes of r canoe, 'ater of squitoe. le near s usual [ig over I one of to raise m in a ipright, s hand, -ect for jlimbed A more ver be- In the sequel every thinL^ -was oxi)lained. Al- though seldom seen on the St. Clair, this gentle- man was not unknown, and was called by the squatters *' the Banished Lord." Tiiey knew no other name. His speech and bearing at once re- vealed tiiat he was an Englishman of distinction. How he came there was another thing. Periiaps he had been mal-adrolt at Boodle's ; or crossed in some darling wish ; or else was simply eccentric — who knows? I did not tiicn. He was a middle-sized, well-made man, slender and sinewy, as erect as at twenty-Hve, although evidently nmch on the wrong side of fifty. He had a small, oval, wrinkled liice, with the ruddy bloom of out-door life still lingering on it. There had been a time when he was handsome and very fair. His eyes were grey, bold, and uneasy ; the nose rather high and well-formed, as well as his lips ; and he could not stand steady, on account of a little nervous twitch which was always at work somewhere. He had on a rusty, napless, but well-shaped hat, with some turns of cord round it. His coat was green, single-breasted, built in the year one, and patched with drabs and greens of all hues and shapes, evidently with his own hands, with white thread, most unskilfully. Two or three coils of leather thongs hung in his coat button-holes, as if to carry home game i m ll)l II (>; ;■ ■ r; ■ i 1 i! ' ■!■•! [: f!.v 1^*' ;ilO THE BANISHED LORD. witli. TIio first time I siiw him lie Imd no waistcoat ; but a coarse clean shirt covered his chest, crossed with a silver watch-guard ; but in cooler weather he wore a deer-skin vest up to his throat. His pantaloons were of faded blue calico, fittini^ loosely, and tii^htened below the knee with leather straps. His foot-wear was the strong mocassin, the best of all for woods and rocks. His young scamp of a boy was in corduroy and cap, and was soon lying on the grass looking at the sun through his fingers. " Sir," said my visitor, when he had made good his footing beside me, " it is very seldom that an Englishman is met with in these waters ; we see him pass — that is all. I heard, at my })lace on the Bear Creek, of your surveyors planting their little red and white flags up and down the St. Clair, so 1 thought I would take a peep at you, and knock over a turkey on the way ; but I have had no sport as yet. Seeing that you are at ease and idle on this bright working-day, w^^.at office do you hold in the camp?" " I have the honour to be, sir," I said, in reply, ** medico to the Boundary Commission, and British secretary. I may surely say that we are honoured by your visit. 1 am sorry my friends are out on duty, and that the Commissioners themselves are THE BANISHED LOKD, 311 Imd no 'cd liis but ill t up to ad blue low the 3ar was woods roy and kins: at :le good that an we see lace on ig their the St. at you, I have at ease it office 1 reply, British noured out on ves are not with us." He then asked a variety of parti- culars about our proceedings. The secluded life of tlie banished lord seemed to have blunted no faculty. He was not a hollow- eyed misanthrope ; but, with a dash of the eccen- tric, was full of right thoughts ; and titling expres- sions for them were found at will. As I was on the wing, and not likely to intrude into his den on the Bear Creek, he was pleased to talk freely with me. He took a gloomy view of the domestic state of Great Britain, and expressed Lis satisfaction at having escaped from an im- pending storm, from the great conflict he saw about to arise between the popular will and George the Fourth's camarilla. " There are," said he, " vast qi"^stions, reli- gious, political, and commercial, to be settled, by many destructive oscillations between ex- tremes, and hundreds of thousands will pay in purse or person. Then, sir, I see a very bad sign in great force. Property of all kinds is centring in vast masses, while the millions are in the deep- est poverty. In England, destitution will not sit tamely down by the side of repletion. The king cares not to see this ; and the great party now at the helm of state will not. The people are si- lently educating for the struggle ; and it will take place in my day. Therefore I fled, as have jj' li' 312 THE BANISHED LORD. I • I I ■( ' ; n < ^1 ilone many others ; but most of them into the T'liited States.* As I liave had in my day a jrood fiii ( f London life, and am passionately fond of field sj).!'"ts, I riislied into the most solitary wild ! could find. I was led bv mere chance to Bear Creek, in Sonibra. It abounds in game of all kinds — the deer, moose, wolf, bear, water-fowl, turkey, and so forth. My patch of land lies high, in a dry section, and we live in health and plenty. It is true, and I confess it, I hiive been too im- petuous. The change was too violent and sudden for my poor wife, who, although she had to sulfur much from my relatives, and gladly escaped from them, yet she drooped and wearied in our lone place, and was every day missing some little comfort or other. I could have had all I enjoy here, within fifty miles of Montreal, with easy access to gossip and female fal-lals. She died about four years ago. And now a new and pressing concern has grown up — what to do with two boys and a girl ; and, truth to tell, I get stiifer in the joints ; so that 1 am now pondering on a return to civil- ized life for the education of my children." The exile had all the talk to himself. He par- * At this period two or three gentlemen gave me these reasoas in nearly the same words for withdrawing themselves and their pro- perty from England. They were nervous persons, and liable ti.> act on sudden impulses. THE BANISHED LORD. 113 took of some rofresliment, and took a courteous leave. His home was six or seven miles into tlie woods, a]on<4- a blaze, a little distance lower down the river. 1 saw him again at Fort St. Chiir, our next station on this stream, at the mouth of the Black River, a large affluent from the south. I had in the meantime obtained some informa- tion about him ; but his name I did not learn. His reserve and lofty manner, together with some command of money, had procured for him his bye-name.* He had been a good husband. His stnall farm was in tolerable order. His sinoular dress must have been a whim. He made no companions, save one or two good shots, who lived ten miles from him ; and now and then ho had a hurricane tobacco-smoke with a renowned Indian hunter. At Fort St. Clair he brought me his daughter, ten years old — a handsome, freckled, sunburnt lass, and somewhat delicate in appearance ; but full of spirits, as she did not know the object of her visit ; which was to have a surplus tooth ex- tracted : this, of course, was done — but re- • While tiot very young he had made a mesalliance with a beau- tiful and gentle girl, who joyfully vowed in an English drawing- room to follow the man of her heart anywhere — across the ocean, and into the wildorness ; but she sank under the rudeness, the gloom, and strangeness of her new abode. M. I'll!! 314 THE OLD CLERGYMAN. ■Si' I ' i;l luctantly. I do not like pulling at ladies' teeth. Tliey never forgive you ; but you are to them an executioner for all time. I suggested to the father the propriety of send- ing this forest-maid to England, or at least to a good school at Toronto or Kingston ; and he took my words in good part. In the Canadas remarkable persons are con- tinually turning up. The Chevalier and Madame de Brosse are not the only members of the old court of France in the western country. I have repeatedly passed the house (then shut up, and going to ruin) of the Count and Countess of K., persons of high consideration in France before 1790, now long since dead. They had no child- ren, and literally shut themselves up in a Swiss cottage, which they built on the Niagara frontier. It had a heavy roof, and two wooden galleries running round it. I was extremely pleased (as well as surprised) one Sunday in the woods by a sermon preached by a meek old clergyman, passionless quite, ex- ternally, in a little church hid in a wood, and hardly holding thirty persons. I asked an old farmer how it came that such piety and such elo- quence were so buried in that out-of-the-world nook ? " Mr. Addison," replied he, " is beloved far and wide ; but he won't quit his first haven FORT ST. CLAIR. 315 of rest. Thirty years ago he came here from England a broken-hearted widower, with two little daughters. They are married and gone ; but he will not go till soul and body part." I could easily increase this list, if necessary. The survey having been completed from lake St. Clair up to and beyond Belle Isle, the camp was moved to the mouth of the Black River, ten miles higher up, the British bank being then a forest, and the American occupied by good farms, the brisk and sparkling river running between. We took possession of a deserted orchard, thirty feet above the St. Clair, and close to the site of an old French fort, on the left bank of the Black River. The astronomer and all his party left me here for the head of the St. Clair, intending to survey homewards. The bulk of the stores remained with me. I only saw my friends once in the three weeks of my stay there : company I had none but my servant. Theic was a large house about three hundred yards off; but it only contained two wo- men and some small shy children. My sight was now and then gladdened by a schooner dropping lazily down the stream, or by the quicker Hight of a canoe. Tho weather (June 10) was for a week truly M 316 STORMS. U'i ;: ' ' dreadful. For a moment I thouglit of de- serting my charge. Every evening brouglit it3 severe thunderstorm and torrents of rain. The liglitning every ten minutes during the tempest plunged into tlie surrounding woods in compara- tively thick columns. Trees and cattle were struck ; and a woman was so excited by the proximity of one Hash, that I bled her with be- nefit. One dark and stormy night, although my tent was sheltered bv trees, the wind blew it down while I was asleep. I thougiit the wet canvas would have suffocated me ; and I was only re- leased after much exertion. The clouds never left our sky ; the mornings were gloomy; but it was in the evening that the tempests occurred. The Black Kiver rose, and brought down an abundance of mud and trees. One night, a little before dusk, as I stood by its margin, watching the large tree-roots and the entangled masses of turf and stones as they swept down the boiling stream, three men on horseback, with large-caped great-coats, came to the oppo- site bank, travellers evidently. They shouted for the ferryman ; but there was no such official ; and my servant had been taken for the survey in place of a boatman laid up with fever. There lay close to me a large pirogue (a hollowed tree- trunk), with a good deal of water in it. But who THE MISSIONARIES. 317 was to navigate such a ticklisli water-machine ? — none but myself, utterly inexperienced in that sort of navigation. I did not like either tlie vessel or the troubled stream ; but, after a little more shouting, I caught the word '* Mission!" wlien the thought struck me — partly jocosely, I fear — that if I was to be drowned it could not be in a better cause. So I fetched a bowl, and baled the rain-water out of the pirogue ; and, seizing a broad, heavy paddle, loosed my bark, with no little trepidation, and drove her to the opposite shore. At three trips we then took the men and horses across. By this time it was beconiinir dusk. I ran over to the large house, and asked shelter for the dripping horses, and for a little butter; for the party consisted of my friend, Captain Stewart, and two American clergymen, on their way to establish a mission among the Saguina Indians, on the fertile banks of a river of that name in Lake Huron. I was delighted with my guests, and forthwith covered the two short plunks which formed my table with biscuit, chocolate, and some savoury salt pork. Then baving placed the large kettle full of water on the fire, I had done my best. " Captain Stewart," said I, *' all the articles that are on the table belong to the King of Eng- 318 THE RELIGIOUS SERVICE. I I; land. Do you tliink it rij^ht to refresh your re- publican friends with them ?" *' Yes," he answered, " for they are the servants of the King of kings. But," he went on to say, " we have not travelled far to-dav ; could not iMr. Hudson address a little congregation after sup- per? The few settlers here are far from church or chapel ; it would be a pity to let such an oppor- tunity slip." As the night was creeping on, I ran again to the house (whicli I had never approached till that day), and prevailed upon the females to give us the use of their largest room, and to light it up with four home-made candles firmly stuck into the plas- tered walls. Not only that, but they started off a girl, bareheaded, into the bog for some Irish fami- lies, while 1 ran half-a-mile up the river-side, to tell the people of four huts there that a prayer- meeting would be held at Mrs. Palmer's in twenty minutes. At half-past nine o'clock we entered the lighted- up room, and were agreeably surprised to find thirty persons assembled — straight-haired, long- laccd Yankees, with their wives and children ; some shock-headed Irish, all shining with haste, and taking the affair partly as a show, and partly for instruction. The service was conducted in the Presln'terian MISSIONS. 319 method, almost wholly by the Rev. jMr. Hudson ; his brother raisiionary and Captain Stewart only adding a few sentences ; the latter in his usual brief, direct, and soldier-like style. An easy tune to well-known words enabled most of the assembly to join in the hymn. The sermon was very suitable. The attention was great, and much thankfulness afterwards expressed. The Irish were such freckled, red-headed, tho- rough Celts, with the characteristic massy jaws, that I have no doubt but they were Roman Ca- tholics ; if so, their presence in that assembly was creditable to them. Our three friends slept on the floor of the room which they had consecrated, and early next morn- ing they were on their journey. This seems not an unfitting place for a few de- sultory remarks on missions to the Indians, sug- gested by the visit which has been just described. Are we to be contented with the puny effort'^ at present in operation towards making this finely- organised and impressible race of red men ac- quainted with the blessings of tlie Cliristian reli- gion ? Is it enough to be idly repeating '* the wordless mourning of the dove ? " Should we not be doing ? In 1848 there were 14,000 Indians in the Ca- nadas, and very many more in the Hudson's Bay ii-i i, 'I e -v". 320 MISSIONS. H ,' territories, wliile the missionaries were extremely few. I am persuaded that there is not an inhahited place on the earth's surface where a Cliristian, with God's blessing, may not convert souls, and raise a church and churches. Nothing can with- stand the excellence and loveliness of Gospel prin- ciples arrayed in the brightness of a Gospel life. Success is not doubtful. It is simjdy an affair of time, patience, and prayer. The following Indian stations should be occu- pied immediately : — The Kice Lake, on Lake Ontario; the Sheriff Valley, on the Ottawa; the River St. Clair ; Penetanguisliene ; the Falls of St. jNIary ; the Rainy Lake and River ; the Sas- katchawine, and its many branches ; the Peace River ; and many points on the sides of the Rocky INIountains. These may suffice for the present ; for faith is ■weak, and love is cold. Englishmen have pitched so high the standard of personal comforts and family display, that there is but a small surplus left with which to scatter blessings. Evangelisa- tion is expensive, and requires support from with- out. The rich will not ixo ; at least none that I know of, since good Dean Berkley went to Ber- muda a hundred years ago. It is even difficult to find a suitable paid missionary. It is sad to think MISSIONARY SCUEME. 321 that the maintenance of the missionary interest at home and the collection of the necessary funds are only accomplished by the super-human ex- ertions of a few, who leave no decent means un- tried, no argument unpressed, and no corner of England unvisited, in behalf of this best of causes- I desire chiefly and emphatically to insist upon this great point — that, if possible, missionaries should go out in numbers together, and act upon fixed principles, under the guidance of a respon- sible local head, to whom you may give any name you please. Missions should not be, as hitherto, established piecemeal and fortuitously, but accord- ing to some well-digested plan, taking in the pre- sent and future wants of a considerable region. Hitherto, in our schemes, we have not looked into the bright future, but have been confined to the limited prospects of to-day. It has too frequently been forgotten that con- version from heathenism includes civilization ; that therefore conversion brings new wants, new sensations, and new decencies ; for all which there should be provision. In the Indian countries of North America, the missionary should be enabled to show in a striking manner that the practice of Christianity is great gain in this life. He should therefore be accom- panied from our shores by a considerable staff of VOL. I. Y 3')0 MODEL VILLAGE. assistants, ready to operate upon the heathen mind in a variety of ways simultaneously — as through the schoolmaster, the medical man, the cultivator, and the various artisans, as well as by his own ministrations, which should fertilize and sanctify the whole. The permission of the authorities (such as they are) of the district to be operated upon having been obtained, a model village should be esta- blished as a palpable object, showing forth all the privileges, comforts, and security of the Christian economy. The Indian should be invited to reside in the village ; the young men and women should be taken into the missionary-house as helj)ers, and as near witnesses to the amenities and graces of a Christian household. They will be the first converts. Scliools, the chief means of conversion for the first twenty years, should be gradually established. The necessity for continuous labour must be cau- tiously insinuated, because the savage is extremely averse from it. The many simpler arts of agri- culture or manufacture should be taught ; and, above most things, the weak, aged, and sick should be fed, cured, and cared for. If these points be kept in view in any tolerable manner, and the Gospel at the same time plainly and affectionately preached, by the blessing of MISSIONARY CENTRE. 323 God, in due reason, the result wished for — conver- sions not only numerous but permanent, will fol- low ; chiefly, however, among the young and very young, rarely among the middle-aged and old, who will have to die oft', as a rule, with occasioiud gra- tifying exceptions. Their minds are so bricked up with heathen habits and prejudices, that the good news can scarce enter. Meeting with no response in their hearts, it is an unknown sound, and has no signiflcance. Thus, the grand system of converting the In- dians is to provide as many large regions as pos- sible with some such centre of Christian civiliza- tion as that just adverted to, with ramifications here and there, as circumstances point out, the branches superintended if possible by natives. This plan economises labour, and greatly hastens the appearing and ripening of fruit. If, is espe- cially adapted to the rude populations of North America, Africa, and the South Seas. The relief thus brought to the clerical mission- ary by the division of labour and by the sustain- ing proximity of friends is enormous ; it quad- ruples his forces. I speak the more earnestly, inasmuch as I have looked upon the dejected face of the solitary labourer among the heathen, bowed to the earth by weakness and anxiety within ; and without, by m. :l 324 ST. BERNARD. the perversity and fickleness of his converts, and the active rage of his enemies. These missionary communities were one great means of propagating the Cluistianity of tlie mid- dle ages. St. Bernard planted hisClairvaux amon^Tf marshes and woods, faraway from ordinary society. These deserts he and his companions drained and cultivated ; hy their kindness and wisdom attract- ing, in the course of time, a large and prosperous population, untouched hy the desolating wars of those dreadful times. There were then many such social and religious asylums in Europe, or man must have hecn extirpated ; and uacli had its ofF-sets, sanctuaries of knowledge and help, to which ihe regions around gratefully resorted. Something like this has heen practised by Brit- ish missionary societies in modern times, but not fully and systematically. I plead for this as the best and most effectual method. The Christians of the United States, in their missions to the Osage, Sioux, and other Indians, have long made use of associate groups of labour- ers, and their success has been proportionate. One of the most comely spectacles in the world is exhibited in the United States, when one of these missionary bodies is travelling from some city on the shores of the Atlantic westward to the Indian countries. They journey all together. ACQUISITION OF LAND. 325 The tiii.e of tlieir arrival bein!:» previously known at the towns and principal vilhigcs on the route, they are met at convenient distances, and, after a short interval of cordial grectinj^s and prayer, are escorted with singing into the town, where tiiey are entertained by tlie ciiief inhabitants. Tiic evangelists depart in the same way, and are often laden with such gifts as are likely to be of use in the wilderness. This apostolic tribute of respect and sympathy frequently occurs. I wish it were constant. I have reason to believe that the American JJoard of Missions will not suffer their agents to accept of or purchase land from the natives under any pretence. This is a point upon which all barbarous people are peculiarly sensitive and jealous. Missionaries are not to pay themselves in this way. Their motives must be beyond sus- picion. No policy can be more injurious to the cause of missions than that of grasping or even accepting land. A great English missionary society, otherwise admirably conducted, has made the unhappy mistake of permitting its missionaries to acquire land from the natives ; with great reluctance, doubtless.* An associa- tion of Quakers at Philadelphia, some years ago, sent a mixed body of preachers and artisans * Vide Report for 1849. 326 PAWNEE MISSION. Ii|^ li; '-i if to the Pawnees (or Osages). The Indians granted tliem permission to occupy from three hundred to four hundred acres of land. They became greatly attached to the wise and patient strangers, fond of their society, and received from them daily benefits in the shape of clothing, medicine, repa- ration of tools, education, counsel, and especially, what was fast beginning to appear of the most importance, the message of heavenly peace. All was prospering, when enemies to the (jrospel from a distance interposed their opinions. *' This is the way of the pale faces," said they; " they are enslaving you. Your land they have, and strong houses upon it. They will soon have your hunt- ing-grounds and yourselves. Go into the white country. Have they charmed their own people to be such fools as you are?" The Indians de- serted the mission. The Friends immediately perceived the change and the cause of it. They were ordered by their employers at Philadelphia to break up and come home directly. The Paw- nees did noL hinder them ; but in a little time they discovered the loss they had sustained. Some few, from the first, were inconsolable from honest aftection ; more regretted the lost helprj and comforts ; the birds ate up their ill-sown and neglected corn ; the guns, hoes, and spade wen; nseless. They had begun to deliglit in the Bible, THE HEATHEN YOUTH. 327 but there was no interpreter. They were at their wits' end, until they resolved to send a deputation a thousand miles to Philadelphia to bring back their benefactors at any price. The Quakers returned. ( Wcyland on Population.) If* there seem so much ^•:round to be occupied, and the means so scanty as not to permit the planting of large missionary societies, a mar- ried missionary, with or without a schoolmaster, is the next best method of conducting this excel- lent work. Their strength should be ])rincipally spent among the young, and in the formation oi schools for both sexes. From hence comes the main harvest. Itinerancy, for the purpose of preaching and the distribution of tracts, need not be neglected, but it should bo quite a secondary object at a new station. While little impression is thus made upon the older people, a great injury is done to the health of the missionary by tlie un- avoidable exposure to the sun. A room or chapel must be set apart at or near the missionary pre- mises for tiie regular cele))ration of Divine service, to which the natives should be kindly and urgently invited. If missionary societies vere to establish a system of periodic inspection by persons of piety, influence, and practical wisdom, the benefit would be great. Mr. Backhouse and his friend were 328 MISSIONARY EDUCATION. of very considerable service in visiting at their own charges tlie numerous missionary stations in South Africa, the Mauritius, and elsewhere. The publication of the report of such tours would pay the greater part of the expense ; and, now that steam pervades all lands, the labour and loss of time would not be great. Such publica- tion would stimulate and comfort the distant mis- sionary, and vindicate him when unjustly accused, for evil tales are not wanting in the South Seas, &c. It would rectify mistakes, and stop rising abuses. It is my conviction that our missionaries in the mass are doing their work well, and are thoroughly worthy of our esteem and support. Missionaries should be adapted to their spheres of action. Send the scholar and the controver- sialist to the Mahometans, the Chinese, and Hin- doos, men of disciplined minds and literary tastes, Send the plain man of God, of a simple character and ^patient, familiar with the common arts of domestic life, to the uncivilised tribes of North America, &c. Too much tim(^, I fear, has hitherto been allotted to Latin and Greek in our missionary institutions; — not that they are to be altogether thrown aside, but I am clear that they have greatly usurped the place of more practical things, such as some acquaintance with medicine and EMINENT MISSIONARIES. 329 surgery (the great recommendation in heathen lands), tlie management of schools, the use of tools, the reclaiming of wild land. Every mis- sionary should spend a little time at an agricul- tural college. A great part of the value of a mis- sionary, it should never he forgotten, lies in his being a good administrator, the skilful director of a group of minds not so gifted as his own. These things will teach the servant of God, among other things, how to provide occupation (so indispensable to the best of us) for his convert, and how to enable that convert to earn his own independent bread, — a power so elevating to the individual, and so carefully insisted on in the Scriptures. The change- from the heathen to the Christian often involves a total change in the mode of subsistence, and is one of the greatest obstacles met with in hunting and pastoral countries. Who have been the most successful missionaries? Ts ot the men of high collegiate attainments. They are invaluable as translators ; but the great pion- eers, the most eminent cross-bearers, those who have sweetly drawn multitudes into thcCiospel net, are ]3rainerd,Swartz, Moffat, Freeman, Cocliran,* * A schoolmaster in 1825 in a secluded village in Nottingham- shire, and afterwards eminently successful as an ordained minister of the Church of England at the Red River Settlement, Hudson's Bay. 330 EMINENT MISSIONARIES. John Williams, who fell at Raroton^a, and the two brothers Williams of New Zealand.* These are u few among many, all full of IJible principles. * Thp two Williams' are from the same county as Cochran. Their usc't'ulness has been so groat, and their preparation for tlu; work so appropriate, as to be iinniistakeably j)rovi(lentiul. Tiieir mother was a pious and talented lady. She devoted her- self exelusively to the edueation of her numerous family ; first anil foremost, doubtless, imbuini^ them with her own personal interest in the Saviour and his j^rand designs. In seeular matters her method was that of I'estalozzi, before his day. She familiarized her ehildren with the origin, nature, and uses of every object that met their eye. In a large work- room given up to them, tliey were taught to delight in the use of tools and how to construct boxes, tables, ships, globes, philosophical instruments, 6ic, &c. Every child too had his own garden. Reverses in fortune soon afterwards followed, in which she and hers were blameless victims. Henry, the elder brother, eitered tlie navy, obtained a lieu- tenancy, and long bore the bufl'^tings of the sea. Being placed on half-pay, he married wisely, and in no long time sailed as a missionary in the service of the Church Missionary Society, in 1822, to New Zealand, then in the undisturbed j)ossession of the cannibals. His younger brother William was (and is) of a remarkably mild disposition. He for some years studied medicine at Southwell, &c., but in the end was received into ho'y orders, and followed hi> brother Henry. These brothers were from the first unconsciously fitting for hardships and perils under the eye of a Christian mother, who, it is pleasant to record, saw the fruit long waited for. Hence in New Zealand they were prepared to face the savages, to build houses, a missionary ship, make furniture, and thus, as- sisted by their Weslej'an missionary brethren, they became tlu- honoured instruments of causing the desolations of heathenism to disappear before the felicities of the Christian religion. EMINENT MISSIONARIES. -331 of great practical skill in governing and educating barbarians. These men have been mostly taken from a rank of life somewhat below that from whic.li the Epis- copal clergy arc taken. They have not been too delicately brought uj), and are ready to meet cheerfully great personal privations. Tiie class of men especially fitted for this work are farmers' sons of piety, good constitution, and skilled in country labours. A large acquaintance with the Bible, and some knowledge of languages, are also necessary. Such have hitherto been the best VVeslevau missionaries. ml I think I see a long line of efficient and pious labourers in this field, about to spring from the new order of schoolmnsters and mistresses prepar- ing, by the help of government grants, from among city missionaries, and from the colonies themselves. The colonies now contain a Isirge and stirring, population. I have seen in the Canadas several young men well adapted to American missionary work, but there is great reason to expect difficulties and opposition to any great and liberal effort from the known ultra high-church principles of some of our colonial bisliops. Lest I write a pamphlet, I must now return to the St. Clair and Lake Erie. X 332 RETURN TO ST. CLAIR. d III m \u Having finished our survey of tlieso water?, wc left Fort St. Clair on the 1st or 2(1 o" July ; very gladly on my part, for although pretty confident in the powers of my constitution, i did not like the kind of country. Clearances having greatly extended since 1821, it may be more healthy now. We sailed in tl e Confianee to Amherstburgh, where for a fortni'jlit or so we took leave of that pleasant vessel. After a day spent in refitting and revictualling, we left in our own roomy barge for a spot on the shore of Lake Erie, near " The Settlement," in the township of Colchester. We embarked after an early dinner on a still and sultry day. Gliding gently past the pic- turesque and not uncnvied cottages which stud the Detroit river-side, the last being that of my friends the Chevalier and Madame de Brosse,we entered the broad expanse of Lake Erie ; — no land in sight, southerly, except a few specks, called the Sister Isles, and the low mainland, no- where visible for any distance. We hugged the north or British shore for twelve miles, with just enough water to lioat in. For much of the way it was not easy to point out the actual margin of the lake. There was a curious intermingling of forest, grassy savannahs, and clear water. On narrow ridji'es of land were LAKE ERIE. 333 growing most august plane-trees in prolonged rows, with a magnificent profusion of leafage. Other trees in drier situations, such as the oak, chestnut, black walnut, were remarkably fine, such as the Huron and other northerly districts cannot boast of. Upon the long and tortuous roots of trees which jut into the lake, terrapins (fresh-water turtles) were in hundreds, with their little twinkling eyes, sitting as quiet as mice, but plunging by dozens into the water as we approached. They are from six to ten inches long, and prettily marked. Entangled among these tree-roots, rocked by the waves, we saw a poor dead deer, which, from the freshness of its da})ple skin, must have been alive that day. After a few miles of this low umbrageous country, " a world of leaves, and dews, and sum- mer airs," rises a line of earthy cliffs, from thirty to one hundred and fifty feet high, which con- tinues for many leagues, nay, throughout the principal part of the north shore of Lake Erie. We pitched our tents about five miles from the north end of these clifi's, on their flat summit, one hundred and fifty feet above the lake, and com- manding a very striking range of view. Standing with my back to the lake, and looking northward from my tent-door, the eye swept over .' / 334 SCENERY. a vast surface — many miles — of low lands and marsh, beginning almost at our feet ; an undulat- ing and all but impassable jungle, full of ponds, reeds, alders, vines, willows, and such-like in the hollows, and of the harder woods in the little land that is dry, all of unusual luxuriance, and teeming with animal life, from the panther, the bear, the eagle, and the rattlesnake, down to the smallest insect that plies the wing. This pestifer- ous morass discharges its surplus waters by the Canard Creek into the River Detroit. Close to us runs the rarely-trodden Talbot Uoad, skirting the whole of this side of Lake Erie, more or less practicable, and here overgrown with young trees, among which the graceful foliage of the sumach preponderates, — a sure indication of mosquitoes innumerable. Turning round and looking south from our tents, we had before us the wide expanse of Lake Erie (for we had cut away the intervening shrubbery to let in the breeze). There was the opposite coast of Ohio, grey in the distance, and the intermediate waters, ornamented with groups of woody isles, from the leafy depths of some of which (the British) the smoke of a free negro hut arose, — an incense grateful to the Almighty Father of all, who hateth oppression. The whole day after our arrival it had rained f If ILLUSTRIOUS TRAVELLERS. 335 in torrents, but in the evening the weather cleared lip, and I ventured out for a walk eastward down the lake. I had scarcely gone a mile when I met an illustrious group of travellers in most undignified pickle, just where the road was a mere track overgrown with coppice. It was no less than the Governor-General of British North America and suite, part on horseback and part in a country cart, all looking as jaded, and downcast, and saturated with moisture, as if they had been dragged through and through a mill-pond for their misdeeds. I did not fail to show due reveijnce, and to otter the poor comforts of my tent; but, after receiving directions as to his route, the Earl of of Dalliousie wisely determined to continue Iiis journey through the bush, sixteen miles more, to Amherslburgh, while there was light ; for little had been done to tlie road further than to fell the trees and border it with a ditch. I do not forget that I was served with more tlian one ejectment into the raspberry bushes in travelling slowly and doubtingly along this same highway. 1 also found my way one day westwards for a couple of mile*. Tliere 1 met with what is called " The f^ettlemcnt," twelve or fourteen de- cent cottages, standing apart in a line, each with 336 PREACUINfi AT *' THE SETTLEMENT.' its cleared land behind. There may he many more, but I did not sec them. The inhabitants were evidently decent, industrious people. Close to the lake, in front of the Settlement, was an Episcopal church, with a tower of white limestone, nearly finished. There is now a Baptist chapel also. When I was there the religious wants of the people were differently supplied, and in the man- ner shown in the following little narrative : — Towards dusk, on Saturday evening, I was sitting before my tent, thankful for the cool air from the waters, and examining some bright red sand I had found at the foot of the cliff, which proved to be small garnets, when a boy, while he tapped my shoulder, suddenly whispered into my ear, " There will be preaching at Widow Little's of the Settlement, at nine to-morrow morning." Before I could thank him the boy was gone ; and I ought to have mentioned, that a couple of hours before I had been roused by the heavy, measured fall of a horse's foot, an unusual sound ; and soon there passed by me, on a well-fed bay mare, a man of about thirty-two years of age, of staid and intelligent features, rather good-looking, dressed in a good coat and waistcoat of dark-grey jane, with drab pantaloons, clean and tidy. He saluted me and rode on. This was the preacher. THE MISSIONARY SERVICE. 337 At nine o'clock the next niorniii*; I was at Witlow Little's. She was a rospectahle cottager> and, hesides the willing heart, she had a room rather larger than her neighhours. 1 found the place full of people, in their Sun- day-clothes, sitting on a iew high-hacked chairs, and upon very low forms only intended for children. All was earnest and solemn : every face showed a wish to learn. The missionary stood witli his back close to the fire-place, and clearly and un- affectedly he read out entirely the beautiful hymn, which begins " Yes, wc tl•u^t the day is brouking I Joyful times are near at hand I God, till- mighty God, is spi-alviiig, By his word, in every land !" And then, clasping with hotli hands the back of a chair, he led the spirited psalmody, in which the little company of about thirty, chiefly women and children, joined loudly and well. A prayer followed, which 1 thought too long, but otherwise good ; then another hynni, and after that a sermon from tlie text, " Arise, shine, for thy light is come," (Isa. Ix. 1) ; on the neces- sity of salvation to all ; that it is our first concern VOL. I. z ^v^ ^i'^>. o^. \^^^^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. :/ i/j 4 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 o^ Vj O^ >^ 338 THE SERMON. to seek for it ourselves, and then to endeavour to communicate it to others.* The sermon was vpry striking, but not violent : indeed, except now and then, his tones were low and his manner unusually subdued. He made many good remarks, and one or two which were called for by the occurrences of the day. •* I was sad and sorry," he said, " to find bro- *' ther Simmons lying on a bed of sickness, and " some of his children were weakly. *' John has a heart for the work. When well, " blessed be God, he could and did work both *' for his Redeemer and his neighbour. " I pray that he may be soon restored to us ; *' but now he can do nothing for anybody. He *• has lost that strength and harmony of feelings *• which v/e call health, and which is absolutely ** necessary either for thinking or doing. * Although camp-meetings occasionally take place in Canad;). "West, yet for six years I never was within reach of one. They caimot, therefore, be common. The crazy and wicked scenes said to occur at them I take to be exceptional or exaggerated ; though, doubtless, there is often a good deal of religious extravagance and absurdity. This is to be accounted for by the secluded lives of those who attend, the rareness to them of religious addresses, and the effect of sombre woods on the imagination. Simply being in a crowd is sulficient to intoxicate the inhabitant of a back-settlement. HE SERMON. oo9 endeavour ot violent : s were low one or two ices of the o find bro- ;kness, and Vhen well, work both red to us ; body. He of feelings absolutely ace in Canada of one. They ;m I take to be lere is often a This is to be ho attend, the ffect of sombre (vd is sufficient " His fellow-creatures, nay, his dearest friend:^, may be on the brink of destruction, but they can have no help from John Simmons. ** For the present, disease has made him utterly powerless. He is not to be reckoned upon — scarcely for a prayer. " This is very bad, if properly considered; but let me tell you that there is a far deeper and blacker pit than this. I mean where a man's soul is diseased. A man with a diseased soul — an unconverted man, if I am to speak out — seeks the chief good, the spiritual good of none. It is possible that he may desire the carnal benefit of a few in the things which perish in the using. Such a soul is dead and insensible to the mercies of God in heaven and earth. He is so blinded and infatuated as not to feel his own n^isery by nature, and there- fore seeks for no deliverance. How can such a man deliver others? He has neither the wish nor the power. He is the slave of Satan, and Satan is as strong and cruel as ever ; none of his weapons of war have perished If there be any answering this description before me now, let us pray for him or her, until he become one of the saved ; until he call out in triumph, * I wa> ' dead, and now am alive.' 340 RELIGION IN CANADA WEST. *' And it rejoices me to tell you that the sol- '* diers of the cross are every day becoming " bolder and more numerous. The baptism of *' love is spreading, the kingdom of Christ is fast " enlare:in2:, while that of the devil is dirai- *' nishing. Yes, my friends ! the kingdom of " Satan is already rim-cracked and centre- " shaken" (in allusion to their household vessels of wood), " and shall be swept away as an un- " clean thing." After a pause he added, " If I " had as many lives as there are stars in the " heavens, I would spend th^.m in the service of '' mv scracious Kedeemer." After the service I thanked the preacher for his excellent discourse- We spoke of the state of religion in the parts of Canada West, with which he was ac- quainted. He said he was a travelling missionary preacher of the Canadian Wesleyans, and was constantly perambulating a large circuit, embracing a num- ber of half-peopled localities destitute of religious instruction. A horse was found him, and he received an annual money-payment of 21/. lie always found a welcome at the various'stations in the houses of friends. The number of this class of ministers varies; in 1847 it was seventeen. The CHURCHES. 341 lat the sol- becoming: japtism of irist is fast 1 is dimi- ngdom of d centre- )ld vessels as an nn- led, " If I irs in the service of 2acher for tlie parts was ac- y preacher constantly ig* a num- f religious I, and he '21/. He Nations in lis class of een. The t Church of England has (1847) six itineratino- missionaries in Canada West.* He said, that the number of ministers and places of worship was very insufficient ; but at the present day (1847) it is ten times greater than in London. He found that while many were indifferent, the bulk of the people heard him gladly, and came from great distances. The new neighbourhoods soon felt the want of a place of worship, and sooner than might have been expected supplied that want. Of whatever denomination the majority happened to be, the minority worshr^ped with them until they could provide a minister of their own, when all used the same edifice, until each could afford to have its own, which was felt to be a great advan- tage. The following is the number of the churches and chapels in Canada West in the year 1847, as far as can be compiled from Smith's '' Gazetteer," * The Rev. Thomas Green, Episcopal travelling missionary in Canada West, in a letter to the present excellent Bishop of Mont- real, describes his duties as very severe. He writes, that since his arrival in his district he lias preached nearly a sermon a-day, and has ridden fifteen miles a-day, nearly equal to thirty in England , in every variety of temperature, undergoing constant privations, and frequently resting at night in log-houses, whose unstopped chinks admit the cold air and damps of midnight. 342 MINISTERS OF RELIGION. but some, planted i n obsc lure and til in neighbour hoods, must have been omitted : — .5 ♦r t/. u o "3 ": • C rt ' Q 2 £ i •fi • , 1 w rt o *-< 1 13 V Si *-* sl 1 ce to olcur crsoi •5 > 2 c 1 J2 1" 1 PM 94 5 (-) •-] o u^ <-, U) /-* h^ 107 22 u< 7 1 1 2 1 1 421 114 'JO 5 ^8 , 3 9 8 4 1 The exact amount of the population of Canada West is not known, although a near estimate may be made. It is supposed to be 650,000. In this total is included an undoubted increase since the very imperfect census was taken in 1842. The officers superiiitending the operation so fri":htened and confused the enumerators bv dividing the information requked into 120 heads, that from many of the districts no returns what- ever were made. If, in like manner, we add one-fifth to the number of churches, we shall have one for everv 1287 of the population ; a result which would be very favourable if the churches were always ac- cessible, which they are not. No account is taken of the Mennonites, but they £re a considerable body. * Names given to themselves by separatists. EPISCOPAL CLERGY. 343 neighbour c 2 2 • X 1 i "S 1 421 of Canada 1* estimate >,000. In ease since L in 1842. ration so rators bv 20 heads, rns what- th to the for every would be Iways ac- lites, but The number of ministers serving these churches is shown in the subjoined table, also compiled from Smith's " Gazetteer" for 1847. The Roman Catholic clergy being omitted, the proportion of ministers to population cannot ue given : — t« ^ o =1 -: - s c , 73 o S5 a 8 Churcl otland. = .2