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PPH^PWH 
 
 MEMOEANDA 
 
 OF A 
 
 'vi ..■ 
 
 SBTTiERi:N LOWER CANADA; 
 
 tv ■ 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE EHieRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 BEING A COMPENDIUM OF USEFUL PRACTICAL 
 
 -^"mMm T€i' MMi.mAM'^-^. 
 
 Selected from attwnpabligbed Nurrative of the adventares ciTa tttrge Iktnily from the STottb of 
 
 Englaad*' which e^rated to America in 1818, and settled in various parte of 
 - .< V, - the Canaa«s, and the .Western States, as farmezs, &c. 
 
 ,; TOGETHER WITH All ' 
 
 ACCOUMT OF EVERY DAY'S DOiNXSS UPON A FARM 
 
 FOR A YEAR. 
 
 BY AN IMMIGRANT FARMER, - 
 
 Of tieenty year? experience. 
 
 t 
 
 ^ The wilderness shall be glad for IheiOi afid the desert shall 
 nilotee and b)o99om as.the robe."— 2«aiaft. 
 
 vfti^NTXD rom Tjers Ax;THOI^ by lavsll and atMon. 
 
 1842. 
 
 M 
 
 **■ 
 
 '4^ ••.I- * S*" ' 
 
 u^^^'^ 
 
 
 . > ^--fferl^irii. 
 
MEMORANDA 
 
 OF A 
 
 SETTLER IN LOWER CANADA; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE EMIGRANT TO NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 BEING A COMPENDIUM OF USEFUL PRACTICAL 
 
 IK 
 
 MIFTS TO EMI(&BAMTSc 
 
 Selected from an unpublighed Narrative of the adventures of a large family from the North of 
 
 England, which emigrated to America in 1818, and settled in varioas parts of 
 
 the Canadas, and the Western States, as farmer*;, &c> 
 
 TOGETHER WITH AN 
 
 ACCOUtylT OF EVERY DAY'S DOINGS UPON A FARM 
 
 FOR A YEAR. 
 
 BY AN IMMIGRANT FARMER, 
 
 Of twenty years experience. 
 
 ♦■^ 
 
 *^ The wilderness shall be glad for them, and the desert shall 
 rejoice and blossom as the rose." — Isaiah. 
 
 J^ontreal: 
 
 VRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BT LOVELL AND GIBSON. 
 
 184.2. 
 
 * .1 
 
:A^: i 
 
FAVOURABLE NOTICES. 
 
 The following are among the favourable notices of ihc coiitcnts of 
 this pamphlet which, I ought to premise^have appe.redin not fewer 
 than eleven Newspapers of the highest respectability in the Province. 
 
 From the Quebec Mercury of January 18, 184'.2. 
 
 " The Memoranda by A Settler in Lower Canada," will fiirnisli 
 to the intending emigrant, a quantity of practical information, which, 
 we trust, may prove essentially serviceable to many who may comti 
 out next season. We intend to publish a portion of these remorks 
 in each succeeding number until complete, and recommend to such 
 of our readers as have friends at home who purpose coming to ihi" 
 country, to send them the papers as a valuable present. 
 
 From a subsequent number of the same paper. 
 
 On his passage through this city we were favoured with a letter 
 from Dr. Rolph, which we publish below, in justice to the gentle- 
 man to whom we are indebted for the " Memoranda," which have 
 attracted the flattering attention of this zealous but judicious prcmo- 
 ter of Emigration : — 
 ' : ,v ' -. Montreal, Feb. 20, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sir, — 1 have been so delighted with the " Memoranda of a 
 Settler in Lower Canada," lately published in the Quebec Mercury, 
 that I have an idea of publishing them in pamphlet form in England, 
 with notes and remarks of my own. You would therefore much 
 oblige me by sending me the whole of the numbers containing it. I 
 am obliged to you also for your frequent and kind mention of 
 
 Yours gratefully and truly, 
 
 Thos. Rolph. 
 Wm. Kemble, Esq. Quebec. 
 
 r- 
 
 From the Bytown Gazette^ Feb. 3. 
 
 The " Memoranda of a Settler in Lower Canada," is the next 
 subjcLi to which w« would wish to draw the notice of our readers* 
 
 ■ 
 
if. 
 
 As far as regards the matter of which these Memoranda treat, ne 
 need offer no comment— it is of that vital importance to a large and 
 raluable class of our fellow subjects, that the information it conveys 
 cannot be too widely disseminated at all times, and more particu- 
 larly at the present, v/hen a great influx of those standing in need of 
 such information, is expected to our country. — The writer seems 
 perfectly master of his subject— has had sufficient length of time to 
 acquire his knowledge from experience, as appears from his Queen* 
 aton letter of 1817, and has conreyed his information in such a 
 plain and simple style as render3 it comprehensible to the meanest 
 capacity. In brief, we consider the " Memoranda by a Settler in 
 Lower Canada," as far more raluable to the Emigrant than all the 
 " Histories, Recollections, Tratels, Gonrersations, Emigrant's 
 Guides, Letters,'* &c.. &c., which he could obtain. Our readers 
 will remark how quaintlj but explicitly this writer exposes one gross^ 
 omission of that arch-deceiver, Mr. Birkbeck, who, in describing the 
 beauties and attractions of his celebrated Ohio, with a view of de- 
 coying settlers there, has carefully omitted to mention that there was 
 no good water in that fine District of Country^ 
 
 From the Commercial Messenger of^pril, 1842. 
 
 We have had occasion to allude to a series of excellent papers, 
 which, under the title of " Memoranda of a Settler in Lower Ca- 
 nada," are in course of publication in the Quebec Mercury. They 
 now draw near their termination ; but we are gratified to learn, that 
 it is intended by the Author to republish them in pamphlet form, and 
 that, with that view, the work will immediately be put to press. It 
 must command an extensive circulation, and should find its way into 
 the hands of all new comers with the intent to settle. To them it 
 is invaluable. It is capable Of being extreinely useful also to those 
 who are already located in the country, from the sound practical 
 view taken by the Author, of " matters and things in general." 
 
 at 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 The incompleteness and want of linisli, not to advert to the other 
 imperfections which this little work exhibits, require an explanation, 
 at least, if not an apology, from the Author, not for the sake of de- 
 precating tho denunciations of the critic, ivhich he cares nothing 
 about, but to prove to an indulgent public, that ho is not insensi- 
 ble to the very flattering reception he has already met with at their 
 hands. 
 
 To begin at the beginning. It owes its origin to the great 
 and palpable want of plain and practical information, as to the 
 general face and appearance of the country, its climate, soil, and 
 agricultural capabililies and resources ', its internal communica- 
 tions, especially its winter roads with their ancient cahots, now 
 called reminUcenceSj (at one time a great mystery to the Author,) 
 but above all, as to the mode of reducing the mighty forest, into 
 such a slate of subserviency to the labours of the husbandman, as 
 to make it " bloom and blossom as the rose," when on eveiy acre, 
 stands a weight of solid timber, amounting to three or four hundred 
 tons,* which, tj the total overthrow of ail preconceived opinions 
 about the value of timber, must be burnt. In short, as to every 
 thing connected tvilh a settler's life, in the woods of Canada. 
 
 To remedy the evils arising from this want of information, wa& 
 the Author's primary object, and he entered upon the task^ with the 
 most sanguine and enthusiastic anticipations of success ; but obsta- 
 cles and rebuflfs, of which he never dreamt, although only such as are 
 naturally incidental to similar undertakings, damped his ardour and 
 prevented the completion of his design, when his labours were thrown 
 aside among his useless papers, during a period of more than seven 
 years, where they would still have remained, to share the fate of 
 (heir companion;', had not Mr. Kemble, of the Qtiebec Mercury, to 
 
 \ I 
 
 ) } 
 
 M 
 
 I ' 
 
 n 
 
 *What a glorious thing the Lumber Trade must be for clearing 
 land in Canada ! So thought the Author, and so thought the collec' 
 tive wisdom of the nation when they asked an interested evidence,, 
 how many acres were annually cleared by it ! ! 
 
 See oa thii subject— in add note A. 
 
 ■ 
 
! 
 
 ii 
 
 whose consideration they were accidentolly submitted, rescued them- 
 from their incipient state of oblivion, by giving them to the public, 
 through the medium o( his well conducted puper, — from whence they 
 were copied into not less than ten or a dozen other journals ; and two 
 copies simultaneously sent home for publication in England, — when 
 the author was earnestly requested to publish them also in this 
 country, for the use and benefit of the great influx oi Emigrants, 
 expected out during the ensuing season ; and while he was hesitat- 
 ing about their Qnftnished state, the expense of printing, &,c., he 
 received still more flattering and substantial proofs of public favour, 
 in the shape of orders for more than a thousand copies cf his 
 pamphlet, provided it could be got out by the opening of the navi- 
 gation, which, by this time, was io near at hand, that he must either 
 publish noWf as it is, or take another year to revise and improve it, 
 and he has decided upon both alternatives.* 
 
 To those who have taken an interest in these *' Memoranda," as 
 they appeared in the public prints, it is but right to observe, what, 
 they themselves may perhaps have suspected, that they were conti- 
 nued without the Author'^ participation, to rather an undue length, 
 by a zealous and indefatigable promoter of Emigration. 
 
 From this continuation, he has drawn but sparingly, and then 
 only with due acknowledgment ; not, however, he must do its au- 
 thor the justice to say, in consequence of its wont of merit, but from 
 his own want of time to revise and digest it, so as to suit his present 
 plan of publishing : the more especially, as it contains some few 
 calculations and opinions, in which, as far as his experience extends,, 
 he cannot exactly concur, not but the former may be correct enough, 
 in the places from whence the information^ upon which they are 
 founded, has been obtained.. ^ . , 
 
 , Grcnville, L. C, April 20, 1842. ' , , ^ 
 
 
 * See advertisement on the cover. 
 
 I • . . ;■■' 
 
 ;.( . 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Tn the following narrative, the Author has no other object in view, 
 than to convey to the mind of the emigrant, before he leaves his na- 
 tive country, some idea of the nature and importance of the «tep he 
 is about to take, with such hints and information as he will find use- 
 ful for his guidance afterwards : to this end, an attempt is made to 
 disabuse his mind of certain general impressions, as prejudical to his 
 own well-being as they are to Ihe interests of the Province* of 
 Lower Canada, by bringing under his observation the hitherto nc> 
 glected claims to his notice which it so decidedly possesses. Claims, 
 which the writer trusts, he has succeeded in proving to be superior 
 to those of any other portion of this mighty continent, as far, at least, 
 as concerns two of the most important classes of those who seek an 
 asylum in its bosom — the capitalist, whether large or small, and the 
 labourer or mechanic, unencumbered with a family. To the one 
 is held out, a bright and an immediate prospect of independence, if 
 not of wealth; while the other, if he be careful and steady, may 
 look forward, if not with equal r)\pidity, at least with equal cer> 
 tainty, to a state of comfort and competency. 
 
 To other classes of Emigrants, the prospect that can any where 
 be held out, is but a sad and a gloomy one. These, however, if 
 Boher and industrious, (and no European knows the full importance 
 of the former virtue, till he comes here,) by remaining in this Pro- 
 vince, or the eastern parts of Upper Canada,, would escape all that 
 suffering and misery^ which so long a journey into the interior, 
 necessarily entails upon them, without bettering their condition. 
 
 * As these sheets were written before the Union of the Prorinces of 
 Upper and Lower CJEinada,.and as these terms are still not only ne- 
 cessary, but absolutely indispensable, to designate several places of 
 the same name in each, I shall not make any alteration in the text. 
 BtJtland is as much Scotland now, as before the union, and so is 
 Lower Canada, Lower Canada still. Foolish attempts are fre"- 
 quently made to do away with these ancient land marks ; a clrcum'*- 
 Btante which led me to think this note necessary. 
 
 u 
 
 I 1 
 
Tiii. 
 
 But, if to the westward they will go, they ought at least to be 
 informed, that there are as fertile lands, in as mild a climate, on the 
 bank9 of the Otttawa, 300 rauvs above Quebec, and in the Eastern 
 Townships, which may be obtained at a cheaper rate, and nearer a 
 navigable communication with Montreal, the ultimate market for 
 the tvhole country above, than in any other portion of Upper Canada, 
 beyond the commencement of the great lakes, or in the Western 
 States. 
 
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MEMORANDA 
 
 OF A 
 
 SETTLER IN LOWER CANADA 
 
 ! 
 
 The first thing a prudent family generally does, when they 
 think of emigrating to America, is, of course, to make 
 enquiries about the country, — to search in some geo- 
 graphical grammar or gazetteer for a description of every 
 province and town in this mighty continent, when a dis- 
 cussion is naturally entered into, and carried on for a 
 length of time, upon their comparative merits, till per- 
 haps each member of the family, as was the case in 
 ours, decides upon a different part, not in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of one another, but some thousands of 
 miles apart. But before we came to this decision, we 
 ransacked all the booksellers' shops for every thing new 
 and old, that had been published about America, in the 
 shape of Histories, Recollections, Travels, Conversations, 
 Emigrants' Guides, Letters to Friends, &c. &c. Indeed, 
 we left no effort untried to obtain such information, as we 
 thought might be depended upon. We even got a young 
 man from the State of Ohio to stay a whole month in 
 the house with us, in order to ensure a perfect practical 
 knowledge of the country, which was intended to become 
 the theatre of our future ♦■estiny. Yet, after all our la- 
 bour and pains, when we landed upon its shores, we found 
 it as different, as totally different, from what we had been 
 
 l!| 
 
 If ; 
 
led, from the fine descriptions of it, to expect, as wei 
 could have done, had we never heard of it before. In- 
 deed, this is a feeling that predominates over every other 
 in the mind of the Emigrant, when he first obtains a dis- 
 tinct though distant view of the wild and interminable 
 forest, which cloihes in so forbidding an aspect that land 
 of promise, which he had pictured to his imagination, as 
 the very garden of Eden ; and he awakes once more, 
 from his long and fondly cherished fantasies, to all the 
 sad realities of life ; and, extending his wondering gaze 
 iover the whole face of the countr}'-, he sees that the ori- 
 ginal curse of his nature has reached it, and he reads, in 
 characters which can neither be mi^staken nor unfelt, 
 "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 
 
 After having determined upon leaving our native vil- 
 lage, and the land of our forefathers forever, we soM our 
 small patrimonial inheritance, consisting of a dwelling 
 house and a few acres of land, together with our move- 
 ables, and divided the proceeds, according to the will of 
 our father, equally between us, making a portion for each 
 of about jG300 sterling. 
 
 The oldest brother, who was considered a sort of head, 
 and was looked up to accordingly, determined, with the 
 consent and approbation of the whole, to sail for Nova 
 Scotia, as a pioneer for the rest, and if he should not like 
 that countiy, to proceed to Canada ; and, of course, like 
 all emigrants, he did not like that country, because 
 it turned out to correspond, in no single featur*^, with that 
 paradise he had been led, from the whole course of his 
 enquiries, to expect, and which he was now so anxiously 
 in search of. Therefore the first, and almost the only 
 thing, he did in that fine country — for it is a fine country 
 
8 
 
 was to look out for a conveyance to Quebec, to the ca-» 
 pital of the Canadas ; at which place he arrived, in a 
 fishing sloop, in about ten days. But here he was also 
 disappointed, and consequently proceeded on to Upper 
 Canada, with no better success. His prospects here, 
 hovirever, seemed to begin to brighten, and he imagined 
 himself in the direct road to the " pronr.ised land ;" but it 
 was still " very far off," and this constituteu, perhaps, its 
 only attraction. 
 
 From these provinces, as he travelled through them, 
 he sent us the following letter, which afterwards appeared 
 in the weekly journal of the county town, a great pro- 
 moter of emigration, upon political principles, the digni- 
 fied designation, it was pleased to bestow? upon the dis- 
 content and murmuring, it laboured so hard, to excite in 
 the public mind, against the then existing administration. 
 Not that such lucubrations had any effect upon ouf 
 minds, for we were no politicians ; besides, if we had 
 been, we seldom saw it, till at second hand, when it wad 
 so bedimmed and fretted, that we could hardly read it. 
 The letter was as follows : — 
 
 QuEENSTON, Upper Canada, Sept. 1, 1817. 
 
 I have just arrived at this place, where, as I must wait 
 two days for a vessel to take me across the great lake, I 
 shall have sufficient leisure, which I have never had be- 
 fore, to give you some account of my adventures and 
 prospects. 
 
 I reached Halifax in twenty-three days, and imme- 
 diately sailed for the Canadas, through a great portion of 
 which I have travelled. I hear such terrible accounts of 
 their winters as to convince me, that these cold and in- 
 hospitable regions are not the country for us. Besides, 
 the woods are so thick, as not to afford even the slightest 
 
 U 
 
 > i 
 
 .; "(1 
 
 *4 
 
 ■I' 
 
 I'i 
 
4 
 
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 degree of pasturage. The length of the winter too, in- 
 dependent of its severity, must be very disadvantageous 
 to farming occupations. The land, however, is good, and 
 the crops, if I may judge from the little that is yet out, 
 appear to be tolerable. 
 
 I am determined not to stop till I reach the Ohio 
 country, so fine a description of which is given in Birk- 
 beck's letters. From thence, if I should not lika it, I 
 will proceed to the Missouri territory. I feel in much 
 better spirits as I advance into the interior. The severity 
 of the climate moderates even in the same latitude, and 
 the whole tide of emigration seems to be flowing in this 
 direction. We may possibly be all wrong, and it may ebb 
 again. But the land is better — the forests easier to clear 
 away — the communication to New Orleans, always open ; 
 whereas the rivers of this country are frozen up nearly 
 half the year. And although New Orleans is a very 
 distant market, yet, from its geographical position, it has 
 such easy access to the whole of South America, the ul- 
 timate market for almost all the surplus produce of this 
 part of the continent, that its distance makes but little 
 difference in the prices the farmers obtain. But I am 
 anticipating my progress. I shall of course, give you 
 every information when I reach that fruitful land. 
 
 You will naturally expect, in a letter from this place, 
 some account of the far-famed Falls of Niagara, whose 
 roar booms through the welkin, to an immense distance, 
 like the voice of the receding earthquake. I can only 
 say, that as all the very fine, and very graphic descrip- 
 tions which I had seen, have failed, completely failed, 
 to convey to my mind any adequate idea of them, it is 
 not for me to presume to draw a portraiture of a scene, 
 so magnificently grand ; Walter Scott ought to take a trip 
 to this country on purpose to see them." • * • 
 
 The next letter we received from him, stated, that there 
 was one circumstance, which Mr. Birkbeck had neglected 
 to mention, and that was, that there was no good water 
 
in- 
 ;ou6 
 and 
 out, 
 
 in that fine district of country, he had described as so 
 well suited, in every point of view, to the English emi- 
 grant. 
 
 My brother, however, so far from despauring, thought 
 the prize he was in search of, so nearly within his reach, 
 that we might venture to sail in the following spring, and 
 he wpuld meet us at Philadelphia- But his promised 
 land appeared to be still so doubtful and distant, that it 
 threw disunion, if not discord, into our councils. Some 
 slight mention was made, too, in some of his letters, of 
 intermittent fevers; cheapness of farming productions, 
 and one or two other trifling circumstances, which led, at 
 least the oldest that remained, to break the compact they 
 had entered into, and, with his youngest brother, whom he 
 considered as more especially under his guardian care, to 
 seek in the Canadas, that fulfilment, of those high 
 hopes we had, perhaps foolishly, formed ; and which 
 had hitherto been sought for but in vain, on the banks 
 of the mighty tributaries of the far-famed Mississippi. 
 
 Thus we parted, not in anger — far from it — but in the 
 most devoted affection, with the warmest wishes for each 
 other's welfare ; not unmingled, however, with comrais- 
 seration for the hardships to be endured in those hyper- 
 borean regions, on the one part, — and on the other, for 
 their wilful and needless exposure, to agues and inter*- 
 mittents, with their never-failing (rain of diseases, super^ 
 induced by the miasmas of that unhealthy climate^ 
 
 Young as we were, we argued the point like philoso- 
 phers. On the one side, it was urged, that with bad 
 health and a broken constitution ; nay, without such po- 
 sitive evils, what was life ilself, if exposed to such hourly 
 danger, but "dying a thousand deaths in fearing one.*' 
 
 vf 
 
 IM 
 
While, on the other hand^ it was as strenuously argued, 
 that sickness, and sorrow, and death, were the natural in- 
 heritance of humanity, and, consequently, inevitable, 
 wherever we went ; and that the annoyances of such a 
 climate as this, would more than counterbalance those 
 objections, which, on this contiuent, are incidental to a 
 milder climate. 
 
 But arguing and deciding are two very different things, 
 seldom having any connection with each other. So at 
 least it proved in this instance, as one party sailed for 
 Philadelphia, in the spring of 1818, and the other for 
 Quebec. 
 
 The writer of these sheets, with his brother,(3) formed 
 the party to the latter place, and having no instructions, 
 as to what would be suitable for the Canada market, we 
 brought out our money in gold, and bills of exchange. 
 While the others, being better informed, took out quite a 
 venture in different articles of merchandise with which 
 they made out but indifferently ; escaping, however, with 
 less loss than could have been anticipated, from their ig- 
 norance of mercantile affairs and matters of business. 
 
 The voyages of both parties were prosperous, nothing 
 having occurred but what is common to all such adven- 
 ture<3, and we reached our several destinations in safety. 
 
 Our smAll patrimony was not sufficient to enable us to 
 live together at home*; the education we had rfeceived, 
 through the industry and good management of our wor- 
 thy parents, although better than befitted our rank in life, 
 was not such as could be turned to a profitable accoiint, 
 but only tended to render that kind of employment we 
 
 sure 
 
 • This endearing term is alvrays applied by the Emigrant to his 
 native country. ;;i -I'li,-, ■ tmfmmf^ t- "■n\->lj 
 
 Ki'l 
 
 ^ni'K' 
 
must occasionally have been subjected to, in some mea- 
 sure degrading, and conse4aently, more irksome than 
 laborious : whereas, by coming to America, we could unite 
 our little funds, purchase a good farm, and cultivate it 
 together. How soon, in the cold realities of after life, are 
 the Utopian schemes of youthful visionaries thwarted and 
 forgotten. Two of our number, after losing their little i\\, 
 in some speculation in the lead mines, in the far West, 
 fell victims to those fatal diseases, so common in that 
 climate. Of the others, one pitched his tent on the Mis- 
 sissippi, another in the Ohio country, a third in Upper 
 Canada, and myself in Lower Canada ; not nearer than 
 from four to seven hundred miles to each other. I am 
 thus particular about our dispersion, not for the sake of 
 troubling the reader with circumstances, in which he can 
 feel but li'tle interest, but for the purpose of conveying 
 to him, in a short history of each, some idea of the com- 
 parative claims these different countries ought to have 
 upon his notice, as the point of destination, to which he 
 may direct his course, when any of the thousand and one 
 stimulants to emigration, shall have induced him to leave 
 his native land, in search of that comfort and inde- 
 pendence which at home are beyond hl3 reach. 
 
 I shall begin with my own history, in which that of my 
 brothers will be interspersed, as it came to my know- 
 ledge, by letters or otherwise. 
 
 As I write chiefly from memory and am no book 
 maker, my desultory style and manner, I trust, will be 
 overlooked, by the ingenuous searcher after that infor- 
 mation he stands so much in need of, and which pub- 
 lications of this kind, frequently, if not generally, fail to 
 
 .i 
 
 hf 
 
 m 
 
 ti 
 
8 
 
 convey, owing to theif being so deficient in detailing the 
 minutise, the every day circumstances, occurring in the 
 life and occupations of a settler in this new country, 
 without which, no adequate idea can be formed of the 
 ditBcuUies to be encountered, of the varieties to be met 
 with, nor even of the advantages to be expected: the 
 first are generally overlooked ; the second, too little re- 
 garded J while the last, are always magnified beyond 
 measure. 
 
 When I reached Montreal^. which is one hundred and 
 eighty miles above Quebec, (to this port, emigrants should 
 always take their passage, if they possibly can, at the 
 same rate as to Quebec, and more is seldom asked,) I 
 put my money, which had suffered but a trifling diminu- 
 tion, into the Bank at five per cent interest, and immedi- 
 ately went out into that part ot' the country inhabited by 
 English settlers ; when I say English, it, is in contradis- 
 tinction to French Canadians, and comprises also, Irish, 
 Scotch and Americans, all in short, who speak the En- 
 glish language. After travelling about forty miles, through 
 the intricate mazes of Canadian roads, made about as 
 crooked as they can be, without turning directly back 
 again, I reached the settlement 1 was in search of, 
 thanks to the carter who took out my things, and acted as 
 nrxy pilot. As it was too late in the season^ to commence 
 upon land of my own, and as my little capital would 
 have suffered no small diminution, had I gone about the 
 country hunting for a farm, — a practice as common as it 
 is ruinous — after making some enquiries into the charac- 
 ter of the inhabitants among whom my lot had thus 
 a^ccidentally been cast, I attached myself to the family of 
 
d 
 
 one of them, a substantial farmer, a native of the country, 
 being the son of a United Empire loyalist, as those who 
 remained true to their king and country, during the war 
 with the North American Colonies,now the United States, 
 were designated. I did not actudly hire myself as a 
 labourer, but by making myself as useful as I could, 1 
 was to pay nothing for my board; this was certainly a 
 foolish bargain ; but as I happened to fall into good hands, 
 I sufiered no loss by my imprudence ; for he gave me, in 
 stock and seed-grain, as much as I could have expected, 
 had I stipulated for regular wages. , 
 
 I thought, like all English farmers, I could teach iue 
 people every thing, and had myself nothing to learn ; 
 but I must now confess, that I cannot help attributing all 
 my subsequent success, to the knowledge and experience 
 I obtained, during this my year of probation. There were 
 many things, it is true, I could have taught them, had they 
 been as' willing to learn as I was ; but they had no confi- 
 dence in their teacher ; indeed, how should they, when he 
 did not even know how to cut a tree down, or to hoe a 
 hill of Indiaii corn, the very first thing a farmer's boy, in 
 this country, learns. 
 
 In the following spring, I purchased in that neighbour- 
 hood, a farm of three hundred acres, about fifty of which 
 was cleared, with a log hut, as a dwelling-house, and a 
 good frame barn upon it; the price was ^6300, jClOO of 
 which was paid at the time, and the remainder, I was to 
 pay in annual instalments of £50 with interest after the 
 first year, which was free, at six per cent., being the rate 
 allowed by law, tidl the whole was paid. This mode of 
 paying (or land is very comnvon throughout every part of 
 Korth America^ and not unfrequently in the end, turnr 
 
 ': 
 
 fi 
 
 BZ 
 
10 
 
 out to 1)6 more advantageous to the seller than to the 
 buyer, as farms so sold, after a year's labour or more in 
 improving them, sometimes revert back to the original 
 proprietor from the purchaser's inability to complete his 
 payments ; when he loses, besides, all he may have 
 paid, sMoh being a general cofidition of the bargain. 
 
 I now bought a yoke of oxen, J6 15 or 60 doHars f three 
 cows for JE15; ten sheep for JG5, and a horse for j£17, 
 several implements of husbandry, some litile furniture, a 
 few kitchen and dairy utensils, pigs, poultry, &c. 
 
 The first summer was spent in getting in a little crop, 
 putting up fences, and in clearing up three and a half acrea 
 of wood4and, which I sowed with wheat in September, 
 after my earliest-crops were saved ; the rest of the autumn 
 (here invariably called the fall)- was occupied with my 
 late oats, potatoes and Indian corn. Ithen hired another 
 man, and commenced clearing away the underbrush, and 
 as soon as the snow came, I cut the trees down, and into 
 lengths of from twelve to fifteen feet, for piling in heaps 
 to burn : this work, by the 10th April, was completed 
 upon about thirty acres, besides several hundreds of rails 
 cut, split and hauled out of the bush, as the woods ai^e 
 called, as well as my winter and summer fire- wood j but 
 as I intend to insert a whole year's diary, for I hav« 
 always kept one, and I would advise every farmer in any- 
 country to do the saracy I need not here enter into further 
 particulars, ' " : ■'••■ ''■'>• •'--'* '■'■'- ^^U^<i ^^..■' , .if:?-,- 
 
 The produce of my farm this year did not amount to 
 more than was sufficient to pay its own expences, and 
 keep me and my family, until the following harvest, nor 
 hardly as much, as I had some provisions to buy. 
 
 In the spring I began to feel rather uneasy about mj 
 
n 
 
 prospcctB, my money wasting away very fast \* I had 
 only about JG50 left, and still owed more than three limoa 
 that sum for my farm j and the thirty acres, my chief de- 
 pendence for a crop, looked like any thing rather than 
 producing one, covered as it was so thickly with felled 
 timber and heap's of brushwood, as to preclude the pos- 
 sibility of passing through it ; and to add to my. apprehen- 
 sions, the rain fell in torrents for nearly a fortnight, soak- 
 ing it so completely that I thought it would never dry 
 again, not at least, in time to be burnt over for a crop, 
 and to perplex me still more my horse died, and two of 
 my sheep were killed by the bears or wolves, or perhaps 
 by my neighbours' dogs;, but what annoyed me more 
 than all these, — perhaps because it was the last misfor- 
 tune that befel me, or probably because we are more ajit 
 to be distressed at trifles, by not preparing. our minds to 
 bear up under them, whereas in greater evils, wc rouse up 
 our Energies, place our back against a rock and resolve to 
 overcome or die, — was a circumstance, however, of a na- 
 
 ♦ U is necessary to observe, that money is alivays reckoned here, 
 in Halifax currency, in which a pound is not quite eighteen shillings 
 sterling:. My £-300 sterling according:ly amounted to something 
 ttrer £333, this money besides some £16- premium on my bills of 
 exchange, in all about £350,, out of which I paid for my farm when 
 
 I bought it £100 
 
 For my horse, oxen, cows, &c. . » ... 95 . 
 For provisions, seed grain, hay, &c. ... 15 
 Besides what I bought in Montreal, as men- 
 tioned in my diary of April 10, amounting 
 
 to ..... 2100 
 
 Wages , 25 0' ' 
 
 Siicond instalment on mj farm, . . . t . • 50 ' 
 
 i -* ♦^M^^'* '•■ ^ '^.^ , '.. . ' £3Qg 
 
 Leaving a balance of £44,' together with 6 or £7 of interest over 
 and above what made up the amount of my passage out and travetl- 
 mg ezpenseji. 
 
 
 111 
 
 * 
 
 ff 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
12 
 
 lure harJIy scrloud enough to excuse the grave reflectionii 
 of this (iigre^Hsion, unless I couple what I felt with what 
 it led to ; it wa.s nothing (iiore nor lees, than a ravenous 
 old sow that I had, getting into the place where my gos- 
 lings were kept, and crushing them all up, as if they had 
 been so many raw potatoes ; the old thief! I immediately 
 went to my old friend the farmer f have mentioned, and 
 laid before him all my misfortunes; the whole family felt 
 due commisseration for my distresses, but when I men- 
 tioned my last, the old man said 1 was rightly served, as I 
 could not expect better luck without a wife to look after 
 such things : he might, possibly, I thought afterwards, 
 have been iu earnest, for he had a daughter, that he would 
 naturally like to see married in the neighbourhood, and I 
 knew I stood high in the estimation of the parties con- 
 cerned ; be that as it may, in less than three months, I 
 had someone to take better care of my next brood of gos- 
 lings ; but before this important event took place, the 
 weather cleared up, and my prospects brightened with the 
 brightening sun, as it shed its scorching rays upon my 
 Slash, — as the timber I had cut down, is here, signifi- 
 cantly called, — fur it was soon dry, when I set fire to it, 
 and had an excellent burn ; all the brushwood and branches, 
 as well as the scurf, formed by the accumulation of leaves, 
 small roots and weeds, were completely consumed, and 
 nothing left but the heavy timber: I then planted Indian 
 corn among thet»e logs on aljout twenty acres of it ; this 
 is done by striking the hoe into the earth, raising it up 
 loaded with soil, then dropping about five grains into the 
 hole and covering it up again, with the soil taken out 
 (the holes three or four feet apart as the logs will permit,) 
 when nothing more is necessary but to gather it in harvest r 
 
13 
 
 half of the remaining ten acres, for it will be reme»nbf'»'ed 
 there were thirty in all, I cleared for oats and wpring wlieaf, 
 the latter of which was sown before planting the Inuian 
 corn, and the other half I left to be cleared for fall wheat. 
 
 Other crops upon the old cleared land, though of little 
 consequence compared with those in the new, were all 
 well got in, and vvhile they were growing I commenced 
 clearing up the live acres for wheat, in which work I 
 spent the remains of my last JGSO, depending upon the 
 sale of my produce, together with some pot ash I had 
 made, and intended to make, to meet my next instalment, 
 which would become due in the following spring ; and in 
 order to subject myself to as little risk as possible, and my 
 mind to the less anxiety, I turned my oxen into good feed, 
 (afier my wheat was sown in the beginning of Septem- 
 ber,) to fatten them for the Montreal market, by the latter 
 end of winter y but my crops were good, my pot ash 
 brought a good price ; in short I succeeded so well in 
 every thing, that I was able to purchase another yoke of 
 oxen, in time to get out my fire wood, and fencing timiiery 
 before the expiration of the winter. 
 
 In the midst of all my difficulties and distresses I re- 
 ceived the following letter from my brother, which tended, 
 as may well be supposed, not a little to increase them : — 
 
 Carlisle, Illinois State, Febmary \ 1820, 
 My Dear Brother, — Your letter of last Ma. .,h only 
 reached' me about three months ago ; I am extremely 
 sorry to learn from it, that you have purchased a farm, 
 but sell it again immediately, at almost any sacrifice, and 
 come here, where you can get as much land as you like, 
 and of the very best quality, for a mere nothing, and 
 what ig better still, perfectly free from wood. We can 
 raise upon it, without any other expense than fencing and 
 
u 
 
 ploughing, upwards of jne hundred bushels of Indian corn 
 to the acre; the climate is rather too warm for wheat, 
 though we do raise it in small quantities ; but grazing is 
 our chief depended. 3. I have already upwards of one 
 hundrtd head of cattle, which did not cost me mui;h 
 more than half as many pounds. The climate is not so 
 unhealthy as your fears have made it. Europeans, gen- 
 erally, however, are subject, on their arrival, to slight 
 attacks of ague and intermittent fevers. And m order 
 that -'ou may not be disappointed, if you should come, I 
 will give you a faithful account of the few disadvantages 
 we labour under, which you can balance against those of 
 the country you now live in. The price of farming pro- 
 duce is certainly rather low, while clothing, and what 
 you have to buy is very dear ; but then an econr aical 
 farmer will make his own clothes, and live within him- 
 self as much as possible. Labour is also very high ; — 
 indeed, such are the facilities for a man to set up the 
 farming business himself, it is hardly to be had at any 
 price. We have also some few taxes, but where is the 
 country without them ? 
 
 You have certainly one great advantage over us, in 
 having a church in your neighbourhood, as we are, in 
 this respect, totally destitute, and the demoralized state of 
 society, T confess, is dreadful : but recollect, we have 
 none of the severities of your hyperborean climate to con- 
 tend with ; and if our produce fetch but a small price it 
 costs but little to raise it, and the market is at our doors, 
 for ws find a ready sale for every thing, in the vessels as 
 they descend the river to New OHeans j therefore, sell 
 every thing and come. 
 
 I have written for Henry, in Ohio, and James, in Up- 
 per Canada, and have little doubt but they will also come, 
 as they both seem a little dissatisfied with the part of the 
 country they have settled in. I rejoice in the prospect 
 of our being again united, and living comfortably iogether, 
 in this fruitful ^.nd happy country ; in the full anticipa- 
 tion of so desirable an object, I am, &c. 
 
 George W • 
 
19 
 
 " Fruitful and happy country !" ** none of the severitiea 
 of your hyperborean winter !" these two remarks struck 
 my fancy very forcibly, and I could think of nothing else, 
 overlooking all the drawbacks of agues, fevers, and the 
 demoralized state of society, &c. What a paradise, I 
 said to myself, and what a fool I^was to be so stubbornly 
 bent upon coming to this miserable country ; and had 1 
 met with a purchaser, at almost any sacrifice, I should 
 certainly have taken my bi-other's advice, had there not 
 been circumstances, with which the reader is acquainted 
 that prevented me from exerting myself to accomplish an 
 object, otherwise apparently so desirable : I might, it is 
 true, have gathered from his letter quite enough to have 
 deterred me from going there, but my mind was harrassed 
 and perplexed with difficulties I was just then labouring 
 under, so that, at the moment, any change appeared 
 likely to afford relief, but it was well for me I did not take 
 his advice. 
 
 Shortly after this eventful period in my little history, I 
 was informed that two of my brothers, Robert and 
 Edward, who were also in the far West, had died of 
 thoise diseases, which George mentioned in his letter, 
 and that I may not subject myself to the imputa- 
 tion of putting a construction upon it, twisted into accor- 
 dance with the change in my opinions, I must give his 
 own practical illustration,which I received from him five 
 years atlerwards in the following letter : 
 
 Carlisle, Illinois, Sept, 5, 1825. 
 My Dear Brother, — I have not written to you now 
 for a long time — sorrow and sirkness, and misery and 
 disappointment,must plead my excuse ; and as they must 
 have formed the ortly subject of my letters you may the 
 ^ess regret my silence. Indeed I could not find in my 
 
 I 
 
 i; 
 
 U\ 
 
 ii 
 
 I \ 
 
16 
 
 heart to mar, with a de(ail of my own sufferings, so much 
 comfort and happiness as seem to have fallen to your 
 envied lot : my continued silence should still have saved 
 you from the painful commiseration I know you will 
 feel for me, had not the thought struck me that you might 
 possibly be able to find some one in your neighbourhood 
 who would exchange farms, &c., with me here, if the 
 rage for coming to this tine countiy has rejvched you, of 
 which I make little doubt, as it seems t >^*e reached 
 everywhere. 
 
 If I cannot dispose of my property in some such way, 
 (selling it is out of the question) I am doomed. I was 
 going to say, to live in this country, but rather to die : I 
 have had more thaii a hint of this during the summ^" : I 
 have suffered dreadfully — you would hardly know me — I 
 am literally and really an old man ; but ttiia is not all, my 
 farm has been totally neglected, as I could do nothing, 
 and hiring being impracticable ; I have consequently no 
 crops, no hay saved for my cattle, of which I hav? more 
 than 150 head ; and I cannot sell them — not even at IGs. 
 a piece : bread corn I can get, for my own consumption, 
 as much as I want for nothing, as every body who has 
 not been sick all summer like myself, has more than they 
 can sell, even at 7Jd a bushel ; I mean, of course, in the 
 ear.* Last year when it was a little niore saleable, I had to 
 give fifteen bushels for common cotton cloth enough to 
 make a shirt. We have'no money in the country, and 
 our Bank notes but ill supply its place ; some of them are 
 at seventy five per cent, discount, while others will not 
 even pay a hopeless debt. I offered three bushels of 
 Indian corn to the post master in payment of the postage 
 of your last letter, which he refused to take, and T had to 
 pay -him Is 3d in hard cash. I was atfirsi entirely car- 
 ried away with the fruitful ness of the country — the fine- 
 ness of its soil — the cheapness of land, cattle, &c., as ali 
 
 * Indian Corn is here meant, which constitutes the staple bread 
 stuff of that part of the country. A buhsel in the ear is only half gf 
 «BUch when thrashed, or shelled^ as it i$ termed. ^ ' ' - 
 
17 
 
 Europeans are, without duly considering that they must 
 also sell at such low prices ; but the difficulty of selling at 
 all is the principal obstacle. 
 
 I have lately heard from Henry, in the Ohio country, 
 who had just returned from a visit to James in Upper 
 Canada, — ^they both complain of the unhealthiness of the 
 climate, the want of markets, and the high price of labour. 
 I have often wished to hear from you a detailed account 
 of all the circumstances that led you to make choice of so 
 happy a country, maugre all the prejudices prevailing 
 against it. 
 
 I am, &c. 
 
 O.W. 
 
 I will take up neither my readers' time nor my o^;vn 
 about this part of the country, longer than to make an 
 observation or two upon the letters he has just read, trust- 
 ing that he will already feel convinced that this is not the 
 region of comfort and competency he is in search of. 
 ' I am fully aware that there is a very different opinion 
 BO generally prevailing as to become (as my brother terms 
 it) a rage, and people with such a bias, previously enter- 
 tained, may fancy, on a cursory view of the last letter, 
 which I consider conclusive, that it is only the ebullition 
 of a mind struggling under disappx...:ment, and sinking 
 under bodily disease ; but let them compare this letter 
 with the former one, and they will 6nd the principal facts 
 mentioned in each, exactly to correspond, — viz. the high 
 price of labour and the low price of farming produce ; 
 besides, even the first letter appears to me, and I do not 
 think I judge too unfavorably, to give a clear and compre- 
 hensive, although a succinct account of the country, as 
 adapted to farming purposes, evidently framed under a 
 predisposition to view every thing in the most favourable 
 light. Still he does look at every thing, but miscalculates 
 
 c 
 
 'I 
 
 -'■! 
 
IB 
 
 the chances against the fulfilment of his almost unbounded 
 hopes, and the accomplishment of his exaggerated expec- 
 tations. In his second letter, admitting that he was equally 
 predisposed to look at every thing in the most unfavour- 
 able point of view; still again he does look at every 
 thing. The same data are given in both from which very 
 different deductions are drawn — as different as practical 
 ones are from theoretical in a variety of other cases ; and 
 in none is this difference more manifest, or more fre- 
 quent than v^hen applied to farming, or settling in 
 America. 
 
 If I thought this was not sufficient to turn away any 
 emigrant from that grave of Europeans, I could enlist 
 under my banner a whole host of other evidence ; but 
 this having come so immediately under my own notice, 
 naturally forming part of these memoirs, I mention it as 
 such : I would not sully these sheets with garbled stories, 
 about this or that country, framed perhaps at first,by spe- 
 culators and land jobbers, to suit some interested purpose, 
 and propagated afterwards by the ignorant and book mak- 
 ing traveller : let not this be construed into an assumption 
 of superior wisdom to which I prefer no claim. 
 
 At the time I received my brother's last letter, I could 
 not help comparing my circumstances with his ; not only 
 as they then were, but as they would have been, had all 
 the fine expectations in his former one, been realized. 
 
 We had a church and a Church of England clergyman, 
 in the settlement — not that every settlement has one, 
 though few are destitute of the labou.v of a minister of 
 some persuasion or other, and I would strenuously advise 
 all well disposed emigrants not to overlooV this cir- 
 cumstance in deciding upon their location : few there are, 
 
Id 
 
 t( any, who come to this country, havii/g never been so 
 situated as to be unable to attend the public worship of 
 God, however negligent they may have been in availing 
 ihemaelves of the privilege that would not feel most poig- 
 nantly if they were deprived of the opportunity ; nor 
 would they see without some annoyance, so little respect 
 paid to that day, set apart for relaxation and rest from the 
 cares and labours of life, even admit* g they forgot the 
 nobler purpose for which it was intended, and to which it 
 ought to be devoted, because it would at least be a con- 
 stant witness to him, on its weekly return, that he wasj 
 if not a houseless exile, a stranger in a strange land. In- 
 deed, I have myself seen men, whom I knew to have sel- 
 dom entered the precincts of the sanctuary, travel, what 
 in England would be considered an incredible distance, 
 upwards of 20 miles, to attend divine service, or perhaps 
 to get his children baptized, or the clergyman to visit the 
 sick of his family, or to " bury his dead out of his sight," 
 consoling himself in his affliction, with the idea, that there 
 was one so near. It is in circumstances such as these, 
 that the heart of the exile yearns after his native land ; he 
 therefore ought to secure to himself in the home of his 
 adoption, as many of those favourable features in the home 
 he has left, as can possibly be found, and they will be to 
 him as household gods ; they bring with them associa- 
 tions that beguile into the tale of other years ; and if 
 they do not revive in our memory those scenes of pure 
 and unmingled happiness in the bright a id buoyant season 
 of youth, they occasionally throw a transient halo of de- 
 light over our existence by leading us to forget that we are 
 away from them. Every emigrant may feel assured, that 
 however anxious he may be to leave his native country, 
 
 I 
 
 
 li 
 
 » 11 
 
20 
 
 and however much it may be to hia advantage to do so, he 
 will retain a painful recollection of it, to the latest hour of 
 hid existence ; no one brought up in a country like Eng- 
 land,where such order and regularity prevail, can form any 
 idea of the demoralized state of society in many portions 
 of the United States, whereas the part of the country 
 where I had located myself, might challenge the whole 
 world, for its superior in orderliness ana morality. 
 . My brother mentions, as a disadvantage, some few 
 taxes ; I never heard from him a detailed account of the^e 
 taxes, but I can give one from my other brother, in the 
 State of Ohio, where they are lower, than in almost any 
 other portion of the Union : — there is first a tax for the 
 aupport of the United or General Government ; then a 
 State tax ; and a town tax, exclusive of the Road duty, 
 which must be a tax every where ; besides which he can* 
 not well avoid paying something towards the salaries of 
 the Minister and School Master, amounting, without the 
 last, to about one per cent upon his whole property, or two 
 shillings in the pound upon his annual income, supposing 
 his property brings him ten per cent upon his outlay. — I 
 leave it to the Emigrant himself to compare this with the 
 taxes he pays at home. In Upper Canada, the taxes, 
 to which I shall have occasion to advert hereafter, are 
 much lighter, but in Lower Canada, the case is very dif* 
 ferent: at this moment (1337) 1 have increased my pro* 
 perty by care and industry, under the blessing of an over* 
 ruling Provideuce, about nine fold, as I consider it worth 
 little less than £3,000, and I might have made it much 
 more, if I had not remitted in my exertions to increase it, 
 and indulged in more of the comforts and luxuries of life 
 than were absolutely necessary ; yet in all the course of 
 
SWM 
 
 dl 
 
 my progress to wealth and independence, I never paid one 
 farthing neither of direct taxes, nor to Ministers' or 
 School Masters' salaries,which are provided for from other 
 sources, and all the indirect taxes would hardly amount 
 to a moiety of what is thus paid by the inhabitants of any 
 other civilized country upon earth. 
 •''As to markets, a very material and important considera- 
 tion, I may assert at once, without the fear of contradiction, 
 that Montreal is the best on the whole continent of North 
 America, sufficient proof of this, is exhibited in the well 
 known fact, that great numbers, from hundreds of miles 
 within the limits of the United States, resort to it. Our pro* 
 duce fetches a fair remunerating price, the necessaries we 
 have to purchase are cheaper than any where else on this 
 side the Atlantic. The facilities of conveyance to this mar- 
 ket are very great,by roads tolerably good in summer,superb 
 in winter ; by navigable rivers, canals and one Rail Road j 
 and if we cannot produce so much upon an acre of land 
 here, nor so easily, as in warmer latitudes, we can culti- 
 vate it at so much less expence, in consequence of the 
 price of labor being so much more reasonable, so that if a 
 farmer in this Province were to pay for the tillage ef an 
 acpB out of its own produce, he would have as much left, 
 or nearly so, as a farmer in the Western States after doing 
 the same thing, whieh would sell for three or four times 
 as much as it wouW in the West j this also applies to the 
 more distant parts of Upper Canada though not to the 
 -same extent. ■ >'-■•■ ■•■<■,.; i.-i.-; .; * .; ; .i ).•:,.'__.,..•-, 
 
 j'The length afid severity of our winters, of which so 
 much is said, form generally the chief, if not the only ar- 
 gument ever attempted to be used against this part of the 
 eountry ; and to look only at the state of the thermometeti 
 
 c2 
 
 II 
 
 1. 1 
 
 -i 
 
22 
 
 and the depth of snow, it would appear rather a formida- 
 ble one, but the thermometer and our feelings do not un- 
 frequently measure heat and cold, especially the lattefi 
 very differently. — I have actually suffered more from 
 cold in England, while closely shut up in a mail coach, 
 during a night in July, Nirhen the thermometer could 
 not be so low as the freezing point, than ever I suf- 
 fered in this conntry when it has been near zero : and 
 this is easily accounted for by the fact, that, in the 
 one case, the atmosphere was saturated with mois- 
 ture ; while in the other it was dry. From which .. 
 it would appear that our feelings, as far as the cold is 
 concerned, would correspond more nearly with the range 
 of the hydrometer than with that of the thermometer. It 
 must however be admitted that the thermometer is 
 so low for a day or two every winter, as to indicate 
 such an intense degree of cold, as to require care to avoid 
 suffering from its effects. ,. - ,, . . . , 
 
 As to the snow ; its depth and long continuance on th$ 
 ground, are such a convenience and benefit to the farmer, 
 that he is anxious for its coming, and sorry when it leaves 
 him ; it also acts as manure and pulverizes the land, su- 
 perceding in a great measure the necessity (^fallowing* 
 
 Half at least of what is said about this climate, hofl no 
 other foundation than what is to be found in the imagina- 
 tion and credulity of travellers ; according to these» to be 
 frost bitten is of so frequent occurrence as to become the 
 subject of a necessary and almost daily salutation^ ''Sir, 
 your nose is frozen !" I have been a farmer in this very 
 severe climate, now nearly 20 years, and have never seen 
 or heard of, a single instance of material suffering from the 
 cold : people may have lost their way in a stormy night 
 
23 
 
 and perished, but I do not consider these exceptions 
 peculiar to this country, as such cases have happened in 
 Great Britain, and even in Spain, as a sentinel on duty at 
 Madrid, was frozen to death in his sentry box. The 
 length of our winter too, has been much exaggerated: 
 while now writing, this 29th November 1827, my cattle 
 are out grazing night and day, not yet having had any 
 snow, nor scarcely any frost ; I have sometimes not been 
 obliged to take them in or to feed them till a few days 
 before Christmas, though this is rarely the case : and by 
 the middle of April we commence sowing our grain, so 
 that our winter is on an average not of more than four or 
 fivQ months duration, instead of six or seven, as people 
 have been led to suppose. 
 
 Hitherto it will be observed I have been comparing 
 Lower Canada with the United States in general, and 
 with the Western part of them in particular ; we will now 
 examine the claims, the other Provinces of this mighty 
 continent, belonging to Great Britain, have to the consi- 
 deration of the emigrant. Such as lie on the shores of the 
 great Gulph of the St. Lawrence, will easily be disposed 
 of, as the climate is so uncongenial . farming purposes, 
 and otherwise so disagreeable from the prevalence of fogs, 
 and consequently so much colder, as to render them lUtle 
 worthy the notice of the emigrant, if farming be his object* 
 The lumber trade and the fisheries may hold out encour- 
 agement to the merchant and trader, superior for anything 
 I know, to what may be found in any other country ; but 
 as it is only for the information of the farmer and labourer 
 I am writing, I shall confine my observations chiefly 
 to Upper Canada, as the only Province which can at all 
 bompete with this. > . ;; r. : : * ,'?><;: 
 
 .: 
 
 In 
 
24, 
 
 Upper Canada has certainly some advantnges, which 
 at first sight may appear to outweigh any corresponding 
 Oiicz here ; at first sight 1 say, and it is this that lias led 
 the numerous manufacturers of emigrants' guides, if they 
 have not been influenced by other motives, to hold out un- 
 qualified encouragement to emigrants to go there. The 
 soil is considered generally to be better, but this is very 
 problematical, — the climate is less severe, though in a very 
 trifling di^gree — the price of labour is much higher, and 
 the price of produce much lower, owing to the greater dis- 
 tance from market. Then again the necessaries, the set- 
 tler has to purchase, are proporlionably dearer, making a 
 very unfavourable difference to the farmer, and no advan- 
 tage to the labourer — and if the climate be less severe, it 
 is less healthy, fevr sections of it being free from the perio- 
 dical visits of agues and intermittent or Lake fevers. 
 Some one has observed that a tolerably correct idea of any 
 country may be gathered from the advertisements in its 
 newspapers ; if this be true the following for private pupils 
 from a newspaper of each Province, will give some weight 
 to the observation :— ... . ^ ,- . . ,; ,,:,>- 
 
 < " A married Clergyman residing in a healthy part of the 
 country, &c." — Cobourg paper. Upper Canada^ ;o ' -h: 
 ■ "A married Clergyman residing in the country, &c." 
 iMontreal paper, Lower Canada, ? H' ;<• u ton t.Ai vniun^- 
 "Now if the former had left out the word healthy he 
 would have got no pupils, whereas if the latter had put it 
 ID, he would have made himself rediculo^F, as every 
 part of his country is heallhy. (See appendix note D.) 
 
 The expence, trouble and fatigue in travelling so great 
 a distance, by so many changes in the mode of convey- 
 ance,. ibrm. altogether no small objection to the Western 
 
 If 
 
 -A 
 
 i 
 
 '1. 
 
25 
 
 portion of the Upper Province, which is consiilered so 
 much the finest :the long exposure in open boatH, to which 
 the poor emigrants are of necessity subjected, not unfre- 
 quently leads to disastrous consequences, and if they do 
 all reach their destination in safety, and in health, their 
 means are so much reduced, as to prevent them from pur« 
 chasing a farm, while many of them spend their last shil* 
 ling,travelling on and on, in search of the paradise promised 
 in some emigrants' guide. The difficulties, dangers, priva- 
 tions, and sufferings, in a voyage from Liverpool to Mon-* 
 treat, where the emigrant supposes his journey at an end, 
 are nothing, compared to those he has yet to endure and 
 8urmount,in his journey from thence to the new settlements 
 In Upper Canada, though not a quarter of the distance* 
 There are some parts of Upper Canada to which these 
 observations do not apply, those for instance, that are 
 contiguous to Montreal, on the Ottawa River ; those on 
 the River St. Lawrence being old settlements, inhabited 
 by a class of people who hardly ever sell their farms. 
 
 Immigrants, notwithstanding, they may be so well ac* 
 commodated in many parts, within a distance of two hun- 
 dred miles from Quebec and Montreal, equally eligible 
 for settlement as Upper Canada, will still flock to the most 
 remote parts of that province ; and this is owing, in some 
 measure, to the misrepresentations I have mentioned, but 
 more, to that portion of Lower Canada, which falls under 
 their immediate observation, as they pass through it, on 
 their route to Montreal, being inhabited by a people whose 
 language they do not understand ; whereas, this only ap-* 
 plies to a narrow stripe of country on each side of the 
 great St. Lawrence, and forty or fifty miles, and some* 
 times even less, from each bank, will lead to the very 
 
 ■ ■■ 
 
2t) 
 
 heart of English setllements, in the finest pailB of the 
 country, much better adapted to grazing and the general 
 purposes of farming. It is to tlicse disiricts I would most 
 strenuously advise the Emigrant to direct iiis bteps, and I 
 trust I have said enough to convince him of the high and 
 unequalled claims they have upon his consideration, and 
 let it be remembered, that these remarks arc the result of 
 the long experience, and the personal observation of an 
 immigrant, and a farmer like himself, except what has 
 been gathered from letters, and from persons whose vera- 
 city I can most fully rely on, and which I consider equal 
 to my own experience. What I have said, concerning 
 the Western States and Upper Canada, has been from the 
 former, although I have not thought it necessary to give 
 the letters from Upper Canada in the same formal manner, 
 as they would have lengthened out these remarks, lo 
 such an extent, as to have rendered me liable to the same 
 accusation, which I have prefci leu against some of my 
 fellow-labourers in the same field ; although I cannot have 
 the same motives, as I have no lands for sale in those por- 
 tions of the country I am recommending. 
 
 I am not prepared to give atjvice so well as the author 
 oCone emigrants' guide, who states, that he has read every 
 thing that has been published on the subject, during the 
 last ten years ; whereas, I have read scarcely anything of 
 the kind, during a much longer period ; yet do I hesitate 
 not, to claim from the emigrant, for these observations of 
 mine, an equal, if not a greater share of his confidence 
 and attention ; not because they are faultless, far from it, 
 the writer is by no means blind to their blemishes j but be- 
 cause of their plain practical truth ; being the ungarnished 
 history of many years experience, with conclusions, result- 
 
27 
 
 ing from mature consiJcration. With such means and 
 opporluniliea, another could unquestionably have pro- 
 duced somcihing of the kind equally useful, and perhaps 
 better calculated to answer the purpose for which this is 
 designed ; but how diflicult would it be to find a person, 
 with the same opportunities of information, that I have 
 had the good or bad fortune to have had thrown in my 
 way. 
 
 One person makes a hasty journey through the Cana- 
 das, to the Western State.), and back again, and publishes 
 an account of it, as a guide to the poor emigrant with a 
 large family to those distant regions ; another, who was 
 perhaps never out of his counting-house, or from behind 
 his counter, farther away from some large town in which 
 he had resided from his boyhood, than a Sunday morn- 
 ing's ride into the country would take him ; and he for- 
 sooth, must needs point out to the weary pilgrim, the very 
 spot, in this wild wilderness of woods, where his foot 
 might rest : there are other-: still more likely to mislead emi- 
 grants, than either of tiie scribblers I have mentioned, 
 who, not satisfied with writing alone, have agents at every 
 port to direct and cajole as many as possible, into certain 
 districts where they have large tracts of land for sale at a 
 very cheap rate. The best and only remedy for all such evils 
 would be found in the establishment of a board of emigra- 
 tion,an object no less desirable from other and more impor- 
 tant considerations. See note E in Appendix. 
 
 There is, I trust, another advantage, which this little 
 pamphlet will possess, at least over some of a more impos- 
 ing appearance, and it will consist in afibrding the emigrant, 
 before he leaves his native country, what he has hitherto 
 anxiously sought for but in vain,namely an idea of the every 
 
 .:{ 
 
 m 
 
28 
 
 day transactions and occurrences ofa settler's life ; the com- 
 mon trifles, that have "^ver yet been thought worth men- 
 tioning b^ more learned writers, but which, notwithstand- 
 ing, constitute the gi«ater portion of our employment, and 
 occupy most of our time. Indeed what is it that renders 
 the works of the most popular writers so interesting to 
 men like me, but the happy talent they display of des- 
 cribing, so familiarly, the common fireside nothings of real 
 life ; but as I n?'.aer possess, nor pretend to any such 
 excellence, I mu'jt make up fcr the deficiency as far as 
 such a thing may make up for it, by giving an account of 
 .ny daily occupations, during the first and most anxious 
 year of my life, in the woods of Canada, as noted down 
 by me at the time. Sometimes it will be observed, that a 
 few days are omitted, this is generally owing to their being 
 no variation in the work, or else that they were forgotten. 
 
 April 10th. • — Returned, with my hired man Richard, 
 and a load, with a horse and ox cart, from Montreal, 4>0 
 miles, 2 days on the road, which is very bad, the frost no^ 
 quite out of the ground — my loading all safe, consisting of 
 the following items; a plough $17, 2 axes Ss.each — har- 
 row teeth — 8s. for a bush harrow, in shape of the let- 
 ter A. — 2 logging chains 10s. each — 2 scythes and 
 stones 9s. 8d. — 1 spade 3s. — 1 sh ;el 4s. — 1 dung fork 
 5s. 6d. — 2 steel forks 8s. 6d. each — 3 augers 1, IJ, and 
 2 inches, 15s. — 1 bbl pork $20 — 1 bbl. N. shore herrings 
 $5 — 2 bbls. flour 27s. 6d. each — 20 apple trees, and 6 
 plumb trees, at 2a. each — 16 gooseberry bushes and grape 
 vines, at Is. 3d. each, amounting to 3G213 2s, 2d. 
 
 Put my apple trees, &c., into a hole in the garden — • 
 
 *The 1st of this month may be ccnsidered g«>nerally as the com 
 mencement of the agricultural year. 
 
29 
 
 Ui 
 
 got a good cup of tea, saw my horse and oxen well taken 
 care of, and went to bed — thus ended the first day of my 
 new mode of life. 
 
 April IJth. — My man Richard fed and watered the 
 eattl'j — got b.ei?kfasl with some difficulty, owing to the 
 want of many things we ought to have got in Montreal ; 
 we had no frying pan for instance — herrings superb — 
 being Sunday, went to church morning and afternoon. 
 
 April 12th. — Up at daylight — reprimanded Richard 
 for being out too late the night before, planted my apple, 
 plumb trees, &c., in what liad been an apology for a gar- 
 den — mended the fence round it — broke open our pork 
 barrel, found it good — had some for dinner—knocked the 
 spout off the new tea kettle, of course cracked before- 
 worse off than ever for cooking utensils — borrowed a fiy- 
 ing pan, and boiled potatoes for dinner in a forty gallon 
 pot— 2 cows calved and a ewe yeaned 2 lambs. 
 
 April 13th. — Got a supply of cooking apparatus at a 
 shop in the neighbouring village — commenced plough- ' 
 ing for wheat, making garden, &c. Hired another 
 man for tho summer at $10 a month, same as I gave 
 Richard, another cow calved. This was considered a 
 very early spring, but I have since sown wheat, on this 
 day, t\ '"O years consecutively, and might have done so 
 oftener, had it been otherwise convenient. 
 
 April 14. — Hired a house-keeper at $4 a month — 
 sowed onions, beets, sallad, &c., — new man Charges, 
 mending fences — drawing rails with the horse and cart — 
 Richard still ploughing with the oxen — myself at the gar- 
 den — bought 4 cows at $18 each — 2 of them calved a 
 month before — made a harrow. ... 
 
 April 15th .^ — Sowed wheat after washing it with brine 
 
 ■(! 
 
 \ v; 
 
 ': il 
 
 i 
 
 I : 
 
 'v'i| 
 
ao 
 
 and drying it with lime — Charles harrowed it in with the 
 horse— 4 bushels (our measure which is a gallon more 
 than Imperial) upon 3| acres, according to (he custom of 
 the country — planted early peas and sowed garden seeds 
 — Richard still ploughing — 2 ewes yeaned. 
 
 April 16th. — Charles and myself making fence— H)ne of 
 the new cows calved — ploughing for potatoes and com, 
 first time. v , ; , 
 
 April 17th. — Same as yesterday, and same to the end 
 of the month, except that we sowed about four acres of 
 oats and peas, mixed. - I ; v > . j < 
 
 May 1st — All at work on the roads — finished our 
 highwayduty. 
 
 May 2nd. — Sunday. — All to church» 
 
 May 3rd. — One of the men churned before breakfaot, 
 with a swing-churn,* lately invented — cut up a little fire- 
 wood — too warm to plough with oxen in the middle of the 
 day — all making fence. 
 
 May 4th and 5th. — ^Wet days — made four rakee ^nd 
 handled and ground the new axes, one having been parti- 
 ally ground and a temporary handle in it before — cleared 
 out and repaired the barn. ^/,f; v: ;^ •%>• <xm r .wiiiii'ii 
 
 May 6ih. — Fine again — land too wet to plough — mak- 
 ing fences — Richard went to the mill with a few bushels 
 of oats to be made into meal -^ got the horse shod. ' 
 
 May 7th. — Very warm and sultry — ploughing for In- 
 dian corn by day-ligkt, left off at 10 and commenced 
 
 *The intelligent reader might discover from this mention ofth^ 
 swing churn so lately invented, as well as from a reference to mills 
 fQ.r ma|uo$ oat meal so recently established that this diary wa|i 
 not written at the period referred to. To which I can only rep! / 
 that in correcting it for the press, such important discrepancies wc* . 
 introducfsd for the better information of the EnMgrant^ b^iny o^oro 
 In accordance with the present time. 
 
 m 
 
^•<^ 
 
 * 
 
 > V 
 
 31 
 
 again at 4>, P. M., continued till dark — carting stones off 
 the corn-Land — finisliing my garden — got liome the grist, 
 sent away yesterday. 
 
 May 8th. — One of the principal farmers of the settle- 
 ment killed by a tree falling upon him. Work same as 
 yesterday until noon, when we all went to assist in rais- 
 ing a wooden building for a barn 40 feet by 30 for one of 
 oui* neighbours. 
 
 May 9th. — Sunday. — All went to Church — I need not 
 again mention this, as we never allov/ed anything to in- 
 terfere with this duty. A tremendous thunder-storm. 
 
 May lOth and eleventh. — Drawing manure for Indian 
 corn, ploughing it in, &c* 
 
 May 12th and 13th. — Same work as two preceding 
 days — and planting Indian corn and pumpkins — attended 
 funeral of the neighbour killed on the 8th. 
 
 May I4th and 15th<— ^Sowed more oats and finished 
 planting Indian corn — killed a fat calf — sold one quarter 
 for 5s« ahd the skin for the same. : 
 
 May 16th.— Sunday, > 
 
 May 17th* — To end of month clearing up an old 
 " Slash," which term has previously been defined } draw- 
 ing the logg together with the oxen ; then piling and 
 burning them. One wet day, sheared the sheep, vi^hich 
 were got in beford the rain came on. Coihmenced plant- 
 ing corn on the new clearing. 
 
 June 1st and 2ndi — Sowing IJ acres of oats on the 
 clearing ; Richard ploughing the potatoe land second 
 time ; Charles drawing out manure and spreading it be- 
 fore him ; myself planting potatoes with a hoe after him : 
 it may be here remarked, thit before the stumps are all 
 out, or nearly so, it is not possible to drill up land for this 
 crop. 
 
 
 w 
 
 ■:.ii 
 
 
32 
 
 June 3(1 to 15th. — Finished the potatoes and reckoned 
 up my crop — stands as follows; wheat 8 J, poas 3, oats 
 5, Indian corn 6, potatoes 5J — in all, 23 acres — meadow 
 20, pasture 13, partially cleared 20, added to the 23, 
 makes 76 acres. It may be remembered here, that I 
 said my farm contained about 50 acres of cleared land, 
 whereas 1 make out 76 acres, but I did not then take into 
 the account neither the 20 acres partially cleared, nor the 
 6 or 7 I cleared myself. . ., . . 
 
 June 16th to end. — Hoeing corn and potatoes — ex- 
 cessively hot, thermometer, one day, 86 in the shade ; 
 sowed re of turnips on new clearing. <. ) ; /* v ; 
 
 July Isi^ 2d, and 3d. — Finished hoeing and making 
 fences. ' ' ' -'f- •.,>^.....,^L ■'!,:/. ■■ .'..'■. 
 
 • July 5th. — Wet day — ground scythes and hung them. 
 
 July 6th. — Commenced mowing — continued and fin- 
 ished haying in ten days, without a drop of rain — very 
 hot. 
 
 July 16th. — A fearful thunder-storm — burned a log- 
 barn in the neighbourhood, or, as some suppose, the acci- 
 dent happened from a man going into it with a lighted 
 pipe, to prevent which has been a great source of trouble 
 to me whenever I have employed Canadian labourers — 
 killed another fat calf^ • ; ^ . v^i^ l-y^: - a-t* ^''^ '• ^'-!' ' 
 . July 17th. — Finished oflf my hay-stacks. ' • <■ • 
 
 July l8ih — Sunday. — To church — clergyman absent 
 at a distant settlement — prayers and a sermon read by the 
 school-master — weather quite cool, as is usual after a 
 violent thunder-storm. 
 
 July 19th. — Commenced hoeing corn the second time 
 — sold 200 lbs. butter at 8d. per lb. — cut first cucumber. 
 
 July 20th to end of monrh. — Finishing hoeing corn 
 
33 
 
 and potatoes — commenced clearing new land, by cutting 
 down the under brush, and piling it in heaps ready for 
 burning — this I did upon 30 acres of wood-land, during 
 the rest of the summer, when I found I could spare a 
 day for that purpose, and in the winter cut down the 
 large trees, and then into lengths for piling in heaps to 
 burn. The summer is the best season for commencing 
 to clear land, because the brush is in full leaf, which, 
 when dry, helps to burn it, all which a person soon learns 
 when he comes to the country, but he would doubtless 
 like to know something about it before he does come. 
 
 August 2d. — Attending a meeting of the principal in- 
 habitants, about repairing the roof of the church-steeple ; 
 gave a dollar towards the expense — bought a pew, J66 — 
 the two men underbrushing — first new^ potatoes — bought 
 a sickle and a cradle scythe — made the cradle, having 
 had the fingers blocked out before — a very difficult thing 
 to make. ' : . ., 
 
 August 4th to 7th. — Clearing part of the underbrushed 
 land, for winter wheat — same until 10th, when I began 
 reaping and cradling — continued till 21st — finished har- 
 vesting, except 1^ acre of late oats and the Indian corn 
 — cut first melon, but I am very late. 
 
 August 31st — Resumed clearing land — ^killed a lamb. 
 
 September 1st to 10th. — Same work, and sowed three 
 acres of winter wheat — commenced making potash from 
 the ashes I had saved when clearing the land. 
 
 September 11th to 22d. — At the underbrushing — con- 
 tinued at the potash till I made two barrels, which I sold 
 for something over J£15 — my neighbour's cattle broke into 
 my Indian corn, but did little damage. r i '>'■ -^ .m : > 
 
 September 23d, — ^Wet day-^threshing and dressing up 
 
 d2 
 
 §1 i 
 
 u 
 
 !H 
 
 
 
^T "TT^T yim , ii TT'w;;^*' 
 
 34f 
 
 I J bushel of wheat and 8 of oats — seat them to mill at 
 night — oats weighed 48 lbs. 
 
 September 24th. — Got home grist — oats produced 
 2 cwt. qr. 14 lbs.— got a certificate from the miller and 
 a farmer of the weight of the oats — 40 lbs. being the 
 general average weight of good oats — made a wooden 
 box as a steamer for my boiler — box containing 12 
 bushels. 
 
 September 25th. — Commenced ploughing — had a cow 
 dried up and bled, and turned into the best feed to make 
 beef. 
 
 An ox, belonging to my neighbour being one of the 
 cattle which broke into my corn, died of a surfeit, as was 
 supposed) of such rich succulent food as the green corn. 
 This made him mend his portion of the line fence be- 
 tween my farm and his, which I never could get him to 
 do before. 
 
 27th. — Commenced steaming pumpkins for my hogs* 
 shut them up, threshed 5 bushels of peas and oats, had 
 them ground to mix with the pumpkins-^fed the hogs 
 with raw food for some weeks belbre — made a hog- 
 trough, by hollowing out a pine log. Went to a squirrel 
 hunt which I must give some accout of. ; > ; n n . 
 . Some years, when the nuts in the woods are plentiful, 
 the squirrels are so numerous as to do great damage to 
 the Indian corn, when a conspiracy like the following, is 
 entered into, for the destruction of them, as well as of all 
 enemies that may be noet with, whose depredations are 
 chiefly confined to this valuable crop: all the men, 
 young and old, for miles round, form themselves into two 
 bands, each under a Captain, whichever gets the least 
 q^ntity of gaini», has to pay for n ball and supper, at the 
 
 
35 
 
 • 
 
 village tavern, for the whole— each kind of animal being 
 reckoned according to its importance, thus the right paw 
 of a bear counts for 400 — of a raccoon 100 — squirrel 
 1 — right claw of a crow, woodpecker, or blue jay, 1 &c«— 
 by daylight of the morning of muster, the woods were all 
 alive with the eager hunters, and in the afterpart of the 
 day, the fields were swarming with groups of women and 
 children, with provisions and ammunition for the several 
 partizans, and to disburthen them of their spoils — it was 
 truly a season of merry and joyous holiday, in which all 
 business and work was suspended ; many a small party 
 spent sleepless nights watching for bears and raccoons, 
 for it is only then they come out — this lasted for 3 days^ 
 when we ail met ct the tavern to count up our spoils, in 
 trembling anxiety for the award of two judges appointed to 
 decide upon the claim for victory — the party I belonged 
 to had 2 bears, counting 800 — it raccoons, 4>00 — 4«73 
 squirrels— 27 orows— 105 blue jays and woodpeckers — 
 counting altogether 1,835, and yet we lost, as the other 
 party had nearly the same, and one more bear. 
 
 September 29th and 30th, — Richard ploughing — 
 Charles and I gathering Indian com ; at night had a 
 ^ bee," a term used for a mustering together of the 
 neighbours, to assist in any work, which would puzzle an 
 individual to do alone, when all the young men and boys 
 in the settlement came to help me to husk it. Got the 
 first premium for it from the Agricultural Society. 
 
 October Ist and 2d. — Same w^rk-->-evening to husk- 
 ing bee at a neighbours. t 
 
 October 4th to 7th. — Ploughing— finished getting in 
 the Indian corn— cutting the c^n stalks — husking 
 ourselves at night what little we had gathered during the 
 day : collected and brought home pumpkins^ 
 
 :m 
 
■ B>« ■•/' MiV'flt"'*.'-^ •" 
 
 36 
 
 October 8th and 9th. — Binding corn stalks, and stack- 
 ing them up to dry, — collected and got in pumpkins. 
 
 October 11th. — Got in remainder of pumpkins and the 
 onions. 
 
 Oclober 12ih. — Stacked corn stalks, and fenced them 
 round together with the hay stack. 
 
 October 13lh. — Commenced digging potatoes. ' ; 
 
 October 14th to 20th. — Finished taking up potatoes — 
 800 bushels — ploughed over the land to the end of the 
 month — ploughing — clearing land, &c. — hired Charles 
 for the winter, for $7 a month. -? f ' 
 
 November 1st. — Same work, and getting in turnips 
 and cabbages, and all other garden stuffs — took in the 
 cows at night. 350 bushels turnips. * ' - ^ 
 
 November 2d. — First hard frost — could not plough till 
 noon — clearing, &c. 
 
 November 3d to 30th. — Under brushing — cutting fire 
 wood — rattle out all day and only the cows in at night — 
 hard frost, no more ploughing I suppose. ., - .,> 
 
 November 21st. — First snow, — took in all the cattle. 
 
 November 22. — A thaw and wet day — threshing more 
 grain (or the hogs — sent it to the mill, ^i i • i m ^i^'iv i:> 
 
 November 23 to 30th. — Ploughing again one day — 
 clearing — killed a sheep — hard frost again, but fine 
 weather called the Indian Summer, with a slight smoky 
 haziness in the atmosphere, through which the sun is 
 seen with a deadened lustre — something like a full moon. 
 
 December Ist to 4th. — Indian Summer continues— 
 clearing and chopping. ;,,.,.;. . .., . ;,,, 
 
 December 5th.— -Killed my hogs. jtf^v icjiioh:*} 
 
 December 6th.-^Fall of snow — threshing — cutting up 
 and salting pork. -^-. inm *^fj '■'':>&Mi i>Mlvy 's?'Sfvi'?4j-;^^)^i*y*iy<> 
 
 December 7th. — ^Drawing wood home for fueli in the 
 
37 
 
 log, with the horses and oxen, not being snow enough to 
 draw it on the sled. 
 
 December 8th and 9th. — Made an ox sled — cutting fire 
 wood. 
 
 December 10th and 11th. — Drawing fire wood as on 
 the 7th. 
 
 December J 3th. — Snow storm— threshing. 
 
 December 14th. — Drawing in stack of corn stalks to 
 give to the cattle instead of hay, which I cannot yet get 
 at in my barns, it being covered with grain, and not wish- 
 ing to cut into my hay stack till I should have room 
 enough to take it all in at once. ' ' 
 
 15th Dec. — commenced cutting down the trees on the 
 land I had underbushed, and chopping them into lengths 
 for piling — cutting firewood and drawing it — cutting, split- 
 ing and drawing out rails for fences, and timber for a new 
 burn — threshing and 'tending the cattle — getting out hem- 
 lock logs for the saw mill, for boards for the new barn — 
 drawing them home, and making shingles occupied our 
 tim« all winter with the exception of my journey to Mon- 
 treal with butter and a few bushels of grain which I sold 
 and, with the proceeds, bought some groceries and other 
 necessaries, preparatory to my anticipated change of cir- 
 cumstances. '''''''^ '•- ' • '»•• ^^'^ ■•■'-•■■•■■ . ■■■ - ■' "' ' • '■■'■' 
 
 In the following spring it was the 20th of April before 
 the snow was all off the ground when vegitation com- 
 menced and progressed with a rapidity unknown to the 
 British Isles, it is indeed a disadvantage for the snow to 
 go away earlier. . . , . 
 
 Had this diary been kept in some other locations, on 
 the Ottawa for instance, the winter would have been 
 much more advantageously employed, by getting out wood 
 
 ■ I' 
 
 ■' I 
 
 ; i 
 
 ii, , 
 
 i,; 
 
 i.t» 
 
38 
 
 for the steamboats, as with a yoke of oxen or a pair of 
 horses could easily clear £20 or jC30 besides doing the 
 work already mentioned, by being constantly employed 
 and well fed. In that section of the country there is also 
 a ready market in every village, perhaps the best in Am- 
 erica for all kinds of agricultural produce. 
 
 For directions on leaving home see note F. 
 
 And now having brought my diary to an end these being 
 the last friendly hints I had to give the Emigrant, I must 
 for the present take my leave of him, not however without 
 the hope of shortly meeting him again, in a more finished 
 and interesting dress. Till then, 1 would say to him 
 from my heart, in the broadest acceptation of the term, — 
 farewell!* 
 
 •We have now concluded " the Memoranda by a Set- 
 tler in Lower Canada'" and we sincerely hope it may be 
 the means of arresting the progress and attention of 8om6 
 deserving Immigrants, that they may not unnecessarily 
 incur a waste of time and money by undertaking a long 
 tedious journey in search of that, which may be found 
 almost at the threshold of the country: — it may still more 
 safely be recommended to the serious consideration of 
 those who have the means to regard but little the exjicn- 
 diture, when compared with their desire to suit them- 
 selves as nearly as possible with their preconceived na- 
 tions of the country — and by examining the Kastern 
 Townships and the country on the Ottawa, if they do not 
 there discover that which comes quite up to the mark of 
 their hopes and expectations of perhaps more disappoint- 
 ed after a travel of hundreds of miles further to the West- 
 ward,they will he ve the satisfaction of knowing what they 
 have left behind them, and can return to it, if they please, 
 as has been the case with some, who continue to rejoice 
 in their having determined on the retrograde movement. — 
 ^ebec Mercury^ .rrvr.n^.i^r f^tumi'^-^^^n'^^n ■*^»-5o .v^^h:: 
 
39 
 
 P.S. When an emigrant first attempts to cut down a 
 tree, to make use of a homely but characteristic simile, 
 he seldom succeeds, even to his own satisfaction, and I 
 feel that the same may be said of a first attempt at book- 
 making, if it should not apply to first attempts at every 
 thing else ; and this is my principal reason for promising 
 to revise and improve this little work against the ensuing 
 spring, from an earnest desire to render it more deserving 
 the reception it has already met with from an indulgent 
 public, and, in accordance with this wish, I must not 
 allow the present opportunity to escape me of correcting 
 an erroneous impression, which these memoirs, without 
 such explanation, might produce. I allude to their appa- 
 rent exclusive recommendation of Lower Canada to the 
 notice of the emigrant. I say apparent, because I do 
 equally recommend to his notice, not only both banks of 
 the Ottawa, the left of which is in Upper Canada 
 throughout nearly the whole course of that stupendous 
 river, which now forms the betst and most commodious 
 communication with the interior, and will doubtless be- 
 come, at no very distant period, what it has been not 
 inaptly termed, the very back bone of this mighty Pro- 
 vince ; but I also speak as favourably of the whole of 
 Upper Canada, below and away from the Great Lakes, 
 whose fhores, in some places, are unhealthy. 
 
 I have said more, it is true, about Lower Canada, 
 where I myself, and others that I know, have succeeded 
 so well : at the same time I wish it to be distinctly 
 understood that the objects I had in view, were first, to 
 shew that certain portions of Lower Canada had as good 
 a claim to the notice of the Emigrant, as any portion of 
 Upper Canada, and secondly, to prove that either had a 
 
 ^ 
 
 ill 
 
 H 
 
T 
 
 40 
 
 much better than any portion of the United States could 
 pretend to, or why do such numbers of their citizens flock 
 to this country while so few ore found to migrate from 
 hence to theirs, and that few I beheve generally return, 
 or would do so if they could. • .: . ..• 
 
 This is strikingly illustrated by the following reflections, 
 from the Byiown Gnzeile^ upon an observation of my 
 own, bearing upon this point, supported and strengthened 
 by explanatory facts : — 
 
 "We could mention many other instances in which the 
 oldest settler even, as well as the strange emigrant, have 
 been deceived by either over-rolouring the advantages of 
 remote sections of the country, or concealing important 
 objections to which they were liable for settlement. 
 Within the last month we were favoured with the perusal 
 of a letter from a family who were a few years ago al- 
 lured by these deceptive misrepresentations to from 
 this neighbourhood to the State of Michigan. ^ fa- 
 
 ther, pretty well advanced In life, has been for some 
 years comfortably settled on a lot of land (100 acres) on 
 the bank of the Ottawa, had what is termed a good clear- 
 ing, well stocked with comfortable buildings, within eight 
 miles of this town, the best market for the farmer in 
 British North Am(^rica, and to which he had acce3a by a 
 good road. The old gentleman paid a good share of at- 
 tention to the cultivation of a small spot of a garden, and 
 being generally the earliest in the market, commanded 
 the highest price for his garden stuffs, so much so inat he 
 informed us in one season he realised J660 currency, from 
 the produce of his garden alone, besides what his farm 
 yielded him. All this would not do; he had some sons 
 grown up, and fearing that the extent of his farm would 
 not be suflGcient for his family, and flattered by the ac- 
 counts of the cheap rate at which lands could be pro- 
 cured in Michigan, and the great returns it yielded, he 
 abandoned all his present flattering prospects and deter- 
 
 a 
 
41 
 
 mined to transport himself anil family to that country. 
 As might be expected, his- property here, by a forced 
 sale, brought a price under value. Ihe whole was how- 
 ever converted into cash, and the unfortunates, as they 
 may be truly called, set out fi)r (he land of promise in the 
 Slate of Michigan. It was from this family, being their 
 joint production, that the letter was sent to one of their 
 old neighbours, and with which we were favoured with 
 a pcusal. It was filled with nuinnurings and re- 
 gi'ets a their having lefi CanaJa. True, they obtained 
 land at what they considered a fair rale ; higher how- 
 ever, than it would have cost them in Canada, but tl r. 
 were promised larger returns of crops from it. Whc.k 
 they came to purchase the other requisites, it was then 
 they sulTe-ed from the exorbitant charges. The soil was 
 of that deep allu^'ial clay description, that no less than 
 four or frequently six oxen w re required for a plough. 
 The usual price of each yoke was from JG4-0 to J650, and 
 every other description of farming stock high in a like 
 proportion. To procure these, drained them of all their 
 pecuniary resources ; and if, as not unfrequenlly happens 
 with new comers, they had been obliged lO purchase a 
 part of their stock upon credit, many years of hard and 
 almost helpless toil had to be endured before they could 
 be freed from their debt, the low price they obtained for 
 the produce of their land far overbalancing the larger re- 
 turns in these crops when compared with the state of 
 these matters in Canada. To similar ills many others, 
 equally deceived, have become the unfortunate victims. 
 
 John S. Evans, a native of the State of Vermont, came 
 into this province, and settled in a seigniory bordering on 
 the Eastern Townships : as he had no money, he took a 
 wild lot of land, upon which he made, in a few years, 
 rather a valuable improvement, and acquired some little 
 stock, sold out, and returned to the States, under the im- 
 pression that although this country was better than his 
 own without a capital, (no mean praise,) yet, with a 
 
 E 
 
 M 
 
 
 
-^-i^^jf y,ffiP»^!*^^fpi!f «* ' 
 
 42 
 
 capital small even as his own, he would do better there, 
 found out his mistake, and in two years it;turned. no 
 better than he went, to the vicinity of his old location, 
 and is flow doing weU. 
 
 The following is a case I feel pleasure in recordihg: — 
 
 Elon Lee settled in the Eastern Townships, got dissa- 
 tisfied, sold out, and returned to his native country, one 
 of the States — I believe Massachusetts — failed in his at- 
 t^tttpts to establieh himself there, got over head aiid ears 
 in debt, made a nioon-Iight titling again into Canada, 
 came to the banks of the Ottawa at that time little known, 
 (for this occurred long ago,) where he was not likely 
 to be found, took a wild lot of land, which by his own 
 exertions with persevering industry, he cleared, built a 
 hou^e, barn, &.c., upon it, and then sold it for a consi* 
 derable sum of money, with which he paid off all his old 
 debts in the States, and had enough lel'i lo set him up 
 anew. He is now an old man, well provided for during 
 the remnant of his days, which are wearing away, undet 
 the consoling reflection that he has, under ^reai and vo- 
 luntary sacrifices, acted ihe part of an upright and honest 
 man, 
 
 David Giliunder^fCamd to Quebec in July, 1831, went 
 out to Broughton, bought a lot of Itnd, got dissatisfied 
 sold out, and went to the State of New York — disap- 
 pointed — returned and bought another lot, in Broughton, 
 and is now doing well. 
 
 John Reinhart left Broughton also and went into the 
 State of New York — found hy comparison, that all things 
 ednsidered, he had changed for the worse-stayed away 
 only a few months- — returned to Broughton, bought a lot 
 
 * This and ^he following cases are from the continuation. 
 
48 
 
 pp- 
 
 the 
 
 of land, and is now one of the most thriving farmers in 
 the neighbourhood — is of opinion, that better places may 
 be found than Broughton, but thinks a aian must be verj 
 hard to please, who could not be as well satisfied with 
 it as he is. 
 
 Nicholas Reinhart, brother to the above, also left 
 Broughton and went to the State of New York, where be 
 remained three years — thought he had tried it long 
 enough, so he returned, and is now doing weil. 
 
 Robert Ro8s also fancied he could suit himself bettP** in 
 the States — tried it, and found it was a mistake, and after 
 remaining there three years^ returned to Broughton, and 
 is now content to remain, and is in a thriving conoilion. 
 
 John Koy te went to the States, worked hard for three or 
 four years, found he could not " go ahead," returned to 
 Broughton very poor, is now on land of his own, and 
 doing well. 
 
 I would here direct the reader^s particular attention to 
 the. following caution against re-emigrating from the 
 British Colonies into the adjoining States, as more to the 
 purpose than any thing I could say. 
 
 Extract of a Despatch dated 30th September, 1841, 
 from the Consul at New York to the Lieutenant- 
 Governor of New Bruswick. 
 
 " I beg to say that my office is du'ly beset by numbers 
 who have laiuled at C^uebec, St. Johns, and other ports 
 from the United Kingdom, who merely remain as long in 
 Her Majesty's possessions as they can either earn by 
 their labour, or as they can obtain without labour, as 
 much m^ney as will pay their passage to the States. I 
 may state that in nine cases out of ten the poor people 
 deplore how they have been duped, while, from their 
 
 I. 
 
 ( ! 
 
 'I 
 
 :r! 
 
 u 
 
having left Her Majesty's possessions, I do not feel it my 
 duty to render them any pecuniary aid. 
 
 " Several Emigrant Associations have been formed in 
 this city, but they have been short-lived from being so 
 borne down with applicants, and one established last year 
 will, I presume, expire with the year. . ,i *2i fe^ •;, 
 
 " It may appear extraordinary to your Excellency that 
 more persons receive charitable aid in this city than in 
 Dublin, or any city in Ker Majesty's dominions of the 
 same extent of population. The numerous charitable 
 institutions have entailed this evil upon the city. 
 
 "There is continually arriving in this city a cla^s of 
 British emigrants, whose condition here is truly distress- 
 ing, viz., persons above the rank of the labouring class, 
 the sons and daughters above the scale which furnish ser- 
 vants, some of them who have been well educated ; some 
 are well qualified to act as teachers in various branches, 
 but all such are miserably disappointed ; not a few are 
 provided for by death, in the unhealthy climate of the 
 Southern States, to which they have to resort, while 
 many enter the service of the United Slates army. 
 
 » * * * «« m « ' 
 
 " For above 25 years I have witnessed the misery and 
 disappointment of thousands who have arrived here, 
 while the most deplorable sufferers are females, and those 
 men who will not labour. I know not how it is in New 
 Brunswick, but in Upper Canada females are sure of 
 employment, and if prudent and well conducted, certain 
 of getting comfortably married, while their distress drives 
 hundreds to the most degrading haunts of prostitution. If 
 females are good looking, and out of employment, they 
 are picked up at the office for servants, and carried to the 
 South for prostitution, without their being aware of tt, 
 until entangled in a net from whence they cannot extri- 
 cate themselves, and houses of ill fame are generally sup- 
 plied by girls from these offices. 
 
 " A labouring man may work hanl all his life in the 
 United Kmgdom, or Ireland, and never will acquire 50 
 acres of land, while five years of such labour, if he avoids 
 
4^ 
 
 spirituous liquon^, will enable a labouring man in Canada, 
 and I presume also in New Brunswick, to acquire 50 
 acres, if not more, with a dwelling ; I speak from actual 
 observation. Labouring with the axe and hoe is so dif- 
 ferent, I may say so gentlemanly a description of labour, 
 that our respectable young men do not view it as working 
 with a spade and reaping-hook in Ireland is considered, 
 while in a short time an active young man may obtain £3 
 per month,* steady wages, wiih board, and be regarded as 
 oii3 of the farmer's family." 
 
 *The Consul must, I think, refer only to the harvest months. 
 
 
 J :.,, 
 
 
 ■••'■> 
 
 » 
 
 J ^., ? 
 
 
 . I ,^>. ( 
 
 .r 'r'\:'"' 
 
 '' 'VI' 
 
 •,',;in'„!r 
 
 '■-..■.Ih i^/:'^:"! Vi^;^') '..h ^1 
 
 i }' 
 
 e3 
 
 ::k.-; ' 
 
 
 ii' 
 
 4ii| : 
 
■mmnw^wmim jiun ( 
 
 46 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ; I ' / ; T 
 
 
 The following are frdm a wide and undigested mass of 
 materials, which, if time had allowed, should have been 
 interwoven with the text. They will however serve in 
 ftome measure to illustrate the portions to which they 
 refer. ■ ^' ' ''*"' •'' •■ "•■'■•■■ • >. ' ■ i^.":: . 
 
 NOTE A. 
 THE LUMBER TRADE. 
 
 Every individual unconnected with the Lumber Trade 
 that I have heard speak of it, as well as not a few who 
 are engaged in It, consider it as highly detrimental to the 
 best interests of the country. 
 
 The Agriculture of Canada must ultimately be its sole 
 dependence ; and there cannot be, there never has been 
 two opinions upon the propriety of fostering and cherish- 
 ing it. Why then paralyze all its energies by such an 
 undue and partial encouragement of ^^ branch of trade 
 so pernicious and demoralizing in its effects, so prejudical 
 to the future prosperity of the country, while even a 
 doubt can be entertained of its contributing to its present 
 welfare. 
 
 If all this be true, a stranger would naturally exclaim, 
 why is it so supported? Simply because when any 
 attempt is made to take off the duty upon timber from the 
 Baltic, an agitation is immediately got up in England, by 
 a number of influential merchants in this country who have 
 extensive connexions at home, these are the only class who 
 can, so to speak, be privately repiesented in the imperial 
 
^T"! 
 
 47 
 
 Legislature, and the trade from its contingent and fluc- 
 tuating character having a natural tendency to fall into 
 the hands of the capitalist, there only will it be found to 
 exist, at least, to any material extent. 
 
 We farmers, however, should look upon this trade in a 
 less unfavourable point of view, if any portion of om inter- 
 minable forests were cleared by it, according to an 
 opinion which appears at one time to have obtained in a 
 high quarter, as will be seen by the following extract 
 from the minutes of evidence in a report of the Commit- 
 tee of the House of Commons on this subject, I think in 
 1823. 
 
 Question, Are you extensively engaged in this trade ? 
 (in Canada 1) 
 
 Answer, Yes rathe ^extensively 
 
 • Q» How many acres are annually cleared by iti 
 A. I could no* say. 
 
 • Q. 500,0001 - ' 
 
 A, No, I should think nothing like that quantity. 
 - Q. 400,000; i ' "' 
 
 ' A, No, not so much as that; but I am unable to 
 speak with any degree of precision, 
 
 Q. Say 200,000] ^ ': - 
 
 A, Oh yes ! that at least ! 
 
 I write from memory, but vouch for its being in sub- 
 stance and very nearly in words a true copy. 
 
 • What weight they attached to this important discovery 
 I do nat know, but the duty on Balticlimber was not 
 taken otn .i' '-J^i-^^ :■'<?'' '^^iiv,' .!-::■;:.•': "{.•.•.>i:j (^i.'-v// 
 
 ♦ ' To an inhabitant of the country this could require no 
 comment, but to the emigrant, for whose informatioa it 
 is chiefly intended, it may. ■ "> ;- :- ' '--'^ ' ' ^ ^ ''• ' ' 
 
 
 ■ K • 
 
4S 
 
 To the former then, if the same query had been put, 
 he would unhesitatingly have answered, " Not one." 
 But if he had been further asked, how many acres the 
 lumber trade annually prevented from being cleared, he 
 would as readily have answered, *' At least 200,000." 
 And what an immense quantity of agricultural produce 
 would such land, now lying in a state of utter unproduc- 
 tiveness, have enabled us to have exported, far surpassing, 
 surely, any thing we can ever expect from the lumber 
 trade. For, as we now produce enough for our own 
 consumption, and a little over, the fruits of our labour, 
 upon nearly four millions of acres, would, in case the 
 Baltic duty had then been taken off, h?.ve been ready to 
 be added to our exports during the approaching season. 
 
 This, however, is taking a more comprehensive view 
 of the subject than any individual settler may think he 
 has any thing to do with ; but when he finds that this 
 unfair protection, which the lumberer receives from the 
 Government, enables him to give higher wages than the 
 farmer can afford to pay, and that the land he has pur- 
 chased must therefore remain comparatively unproductive, 
 he will view it in a very different light, and agree with 
 me that it is the heaviest and worst evil ever inflicted by 
 an enlightened Government upon so great a majority of 
 its quiet and industrious subjects. 
 
 I could, and will, on some future occasion, (D.V.) 
 say much more on this interesting subject. At present 
 I am no advocate for sudden and violent changes ; I 
 would merely suggest, what much wiser men have al- 
 ready recommended, that the duty on Baltic timber, after 
 due notice, should be gradually taken off, and that in the 
 mean time the duty upon our agricultural produce be im* 
 
49 
 
 by 
 of 
 
 I 
 
 al- 
 ter 
 ■he 
 
 mediately repealed, — a booa which, although we have a 
 right to expect from the Imperial Government, we have 
 for years prayed for, but in vain. 
 
 See the very able letter to his Excellency Sir Charles 
 Bagot, upon this subject by John Gamble, Esq, . 
 
 ■ ■■f 
 
 '•• 1 I 
 
 NOTE B. . . i - 
 
 In the hope that the reader will feel an interest in the 
 fate of every individual member of our little family, I 
 would observe that my youngest brother is not otherwise 
 alluded to, than by this casual and solitary notice in con- 
 sequence of his having turned his attention to trade and 
 commercial pursuits, with which as a farmer I have no 
 concerr\, not but that his history might be considered of 
 more importance to some Immigrants with a little capital, 
 than my own, and I intend, therefore, in my next edition 
 to give it from hiir self. • 
 
 ,..>':, ;,:..:.-... .'.i> NOTE C. ' ■ '■ . .' ■■' ■ ■■■■ ■'■■'' 
 i So much for settling in Lower Canada with a small 
 capital. But as I have recommended the country to such 
 as have none, for the satisfaction and encouragement of 
 emigrants of this class, I submit to his consideration the 
 following instances of the success of sober, steady, in- 
 dustrious men, and, I ought to add, whose conduct and 
 deportment was decent, orderlj^, and moral, not to say re- 
 ligious ; qualities, which I conceive essential to worldly 
 prosperity, as I never yet knew an instance, (and I am 
 no fanatic,) of a man succeeding in the world to an extent 
 at all commensurate with his means, who paid little or 
 no regard to the Lord's day, and who did not constantly 
 attend his church. • *;,;;•' '' - 
 
 ;'] 
 
 _;i;',- ;i 
 
 
 I 
 
50 
 
 : . NOTE D. 
 
 The following casefl, having an important bearing upon 
 my whole narrative, will also particularly illustrate this 
 fact: — • •■■ '• ■:!'' ': • -, i -^ •.:,.■■.■.,,;.., 
 
 Case 1. — Mr. OIJ, an Englishman, a mill-vvrigbt, in 
 constant employ at 6s. 8J. a day, in the neighbourhood 
 Oi the Ottawa. He sold a lot of land for about half 
 what it was worth, and having saved a little money be- 
 sides, set out for the West, in 1836. Went first to Nia- 
 gara — then up the Grand River towards Brantford — then 
 travelled to Seneca,, in which neighbourhood he found 
 employment at a nominally higher rate ot wages than 
 be had received near the Ottawa. When he received big 
 pay, it was one half in Upper Canada notes, at 2 per cent, 
 discount — the other half in Welland Canal paper, at 80 
 per cent, discount. He remained there a year and eight 
 months, before he could save as much as would bring 
 him back, although he had constant employment. At 
 one time he was, for five weeks, the only one out of four 
 strong men, (v^ho had come to the place in good health,) 
 who was able to do a day^s work. He had long seen 
 enough of the Western country to determine him to re- 
 turn as soon as he could scrape sufficient together to bring 
 him back to his old neighbourhood. He returned with 
 one child more than he had taken away, but minus his 
 money, it having cost him JC30, besides all he had 
 earned, in travelling out and home. This was not 
 quite all he paid for his experience, as there was much 
 sickness in the family immediately after his return, all 
 decided cases of fever and ague, evidently the effects of 
 the malaria of the country they had lefl, as no such dis- 
 ease is known anywhere for many miles in the vicinity 
 
51 
 
 "^r^ 
 
 »ur 
 
 
 
 ing 
 rvlh 
 
 lad 
 
 ich 
 
 of the Ottawa. The Eastern Townahips are also equally 
 free from it. 
 
 With care and economy, and constant persevering in- 
 dustry, he has overcome all his difficulties, and saved suf- 
 ficient to enable him to furnish a house, and establish a 
 comforlab e small inn, known as the Union Hotel, at 
 Hawkesbury, on the south side of the river Ottawa, op- 
 posite to Grenvil e, where the barges in which the emi- 
 grants travel frequently sluy a day or so, waiting for 
 steamboats to tow them. Mr. Old has a brother, who 
 went to Seneca with him, and would have returned at 
 the same time, but he had a farm on his hands, and some 
 crop in. Mr. Old has since received sad accounts from 
 his brother, that himself and wife had been sick for eight 
 weeks, and were not then recovered ; he only waits till 
 he has the means, of returning to the Ottawa. Mr. Old 
 is " at home," at the Union Inn, Hawkesbury, and will 
 be glad to see any emigrant on his way up the Ottawa to 
 whom he will freely communicate all the knowledge he 
 has so dearly purchased. 
 
 C.I.SE2. — John Gibson left the Ottawa with his wife, 
 and went to Detroit in 1837 ; afterwards he went 40 
 miles further west; did not find what he went in search of, 
 and thought it more likely to be obtained by returning to 
 the place from whence he had taken his departure. He 
 is now residing in the vicinity of Mr. Old, His adven- 
 tures are similar to those of Mr. Old, and need not be 
 recapitulated. We will only add the satisfactory irforma- 
 tion that he is doing well, and ready to answer /jr him- 
 
 rslf. 
 
 Case 3. — ^My man Richard is the son of a settler who hitd 
 been peculiarly unfortunate and consequently very poor,but 
 
 i I 
 
 k 
 
 1^' 
 
 -1 
 
 
 f! 
 
5lJ 
 
 as his misfortunes and poverty had nothing to do with emi- 
 gration or farming, it is unneces^iary further to advert to 
 either ; suffice it that such was the fact, which had some- 
 thing to do witli Richard's history, for he was a good 
 young man and a dutiful son : — he devoted the whole of 
 his wages, during the first two, of the three years he was 
 with me, after clothing himself in the cheapest possible 
 way to be at all decent, to the support of his father and 
 his family, and I have no doubt would have continued to 
 do so much longer had they required such assistance, but 
 they did not, and Richard found himself enabled to pur- 
 chase a small farm at Abbottsford, on the borders of the 
 Eastern Townships, for which he was to pay £4^0, JEIO 
 down, ready money, and jGIO a year with interest, till the 
 whole was paid. The fu'st instalment he paid out of the 
 savings of his third year's wages, and got my oxen and 
 plough for a few days to break up some five or six acres, 
 (which was all that had been cleared upon it,) for which 
 he paid me in his own work. This he planted with In- 
 dian Corn, and cleared an acre or two for potatoes, plant- 
 ed them, hoed them and his Indian corn in due season : 
 harvested his corn, took up his potatoes, making cribs for 
 the former and pits for the latter. During the spring and 
 aummer of that year he was thus occupied, he worked for 
 me all the rest of his time, at $8 a month, which, with 
 the proceeds from the sale of part of his potatoes and 
 corn, enabled him to meet his second instalment, add 
 something to his stock of clothes, and pay the carpei ter 
 for building a barn ; the timber for which he prepared 
 during the winter, squaring what was required for the 
 frame, and drawing to the mill sufficient for the necessary 
 quantity of boards. Just about this period, the second 
 
In- 
 
 ane 
 
 and 
 
 lared 
 
 53 
 
 spring of Richard's being on hid own farm, I Wdb desi- 
 rous t)f increasing my stock of cattle ; and having heard 
 of a farmer in the neighbourhood, who was giving up 
 business and selling off, I went to purchase, and look 
 Richard with me, considering him a better judge than 
 m]rcBlf;'he bought for himself a pair of young oxen for 
 £1 lOd, on a credit of six months, upon my security. 
 This he punctually paid, as well as the other instalment 
 for his farm. In the course of two or three years 
 he built a small dwelling house, and married Xke daughter 
 of the person who was killed by the fall of -a tree, men- 
 tioned in a former chapter. The young woman had a 
 little fortune in farming stock, of «ome £90 or JSIOO va- 
 lue. After this he bought alfiolher email lot, of 60 acres, 
 adjoining his farm ; which together, he sold for JC260. and 
 bought a much larger and more valuable property for4ialf 
 that amount ; it having been sold -at Fyherift's sale, and he 
 having ready money to pay for it. Bargains f»f this kind 
 ace by no means uncommon. This property he has 
 greatly improved — his stock has f really increased-^his 
 wife is an excellent and economical housekeeper ; and 
 notwithstanding they have a number of children, he 
 ?s quite independent, and never works himself, een- 
 tenting himselfwith superintending; and I consider him 
 worth at least J6 1,000 j — so much for poor Richard's 
 history. 
 
 4th Case. — John Bone came to thlB 'country, T be- 
 lieve without a shilling. I rented him a small farm for 
 two years, upon which he made but very -well, and he 
 managed to save £50 or £60, with which he went into 
 the French country-^as we call that portion o( the Low- 
 er Province, whieh is inhabited nearly exclusively by 
 
 i ■ 
 
 vi' 
 
 i ■ 
 
94 
 
 French Canadians — and bought a small farm ; and there 
 — in short — he enacted Richard's history over again 9 
 with nearly the same success, and with nearly the 
 same result ; but of course not in so short a space of time, 
 as he had no fortuitous assistance ; in fact nothing but his 
 own unaided exertions and good management. He now 
 lives at a place called Gharzil on the Chateauguay Biver. 
 
 It will be observed, ihaithese are very striking instan* 
 cea of success, by persons who began without one far* 
 thing of capital ; and are quite enough, (although I could 
 mention many others of a similar kind,) to stamp the char- 
 acter of the country, as to its eligibility for the location of 
 an immigrant, who is sober, steady and industrious ; not 
 that I would have it to be inferred that capital is not ne- 
 cessary ; on the contrary, a comfortable independence^ or 
 at least a competency, is doubtless m:ich sooner acquired 
 vxith a little capital than without it, as I trust I have 
 fully shewn, in the account of my own adventures. • ■ 
 
 The following are extracted from the " continuation" 
 referred to in the preface :-^— 
 
 Mr. John Malvina arrived in Canada from Ireland 
 about 18 or 19 years ago^-I hope he will not be offended 
 at my stating, that when he first came out he w^as very 
 poor, though he is now rich, — ^soon after he came to the 
 country he went on a farm near Sherbrooke, whether on 
 shares or at a rent, I do not now recollect : he was assist- 
 ed with the necessary means to work the farm by Mr. 
 Goodhue, (and when was Mr. Goodhue not ready to help 
 a poor man ?) By industry, perseverance and good con- 
 duct, Mr. Malvina found himself in the course of no very 
 long time in a condition to become a proprietor instead of 
 a tenant, and made arrangement for the purchase of a lot 
 
55 
 
 in Shipton, where Mr. Malvina may now be found, worth 
 not less than jS3,000, betides his own worth as a res- 
 pectable man* , 
 
 Case 3.~Mr. Hugh M'CafTerty, from Ireland, 7 or S 
 years since, was very poor— *he found his way out to 
 Eaton and settled upon a lot with a very small clearings 
 in the East of the town, ilien quite in the bush, although 
 he has now a good forty foot road pasing his door to 
 the new settlements in Bury: on his first settlement here 
 he went out to labour, returning occwdonally with a load 
 of potatoes (the only food for his family) on his back, 
 which he had to carry several miles, And afler preparing 
 firewood and doing other < chores' about the house, start- 
 ed again to his labour, far from his family, again to return 
 to them with their provision (potatoes) on his back. M<- 
 Cafferty is a sober, civil, well behaved, industrious man — 
 he has now a span of horses, a waggon, a yoke of oxen^ 
 plenty of pigs— he has five or six children who are al- 
 ways decently and tidily clothed, and do great credit to 
 their industrious mother. — M^Cafferty has lately bought a 
 lot in the rear, is doing well and is the neatest farmer in 
 the neighbourhood. 
 
 In the fall of 183)i several Scotch families arrived at 
 Quebb^ and were sent forward to the Township of Bury ; 
 it was towards the close of October when they reached 
 the spot intended for their location. The weather was 
 particularly disagreeable, wet and cold ; and, combined 
 with other circumstances, I think it is scarcely possible,.. 
 that any settlers have at any time heretofore, or ever will 
 hereafter, commence thei;' first labors in an American^ 
 wilderness under greater or more numerous disadvan- 
 tages. A gentleman who had formerly been resident in 
 
 I. I 
 
 ii' 
 
 i 
 
 iti 
 
 m^ 
 
I 71^1.3 ■1PI^._»,IPI^-W 
 
 56 
 
 m 
 
 
 the neighbourhood from whence thesft people had laitely 
 come, accompanied them to the place of their destination ; 
 he had been sufficiently long in this country to have a 
 practical knowledge of the necessary operations in 
 effecting a first settlement — he assisted and instructed them 
 in cutting, notching, and laying up the logs for the wails 
 of their hut:*, splitting and dressing shingles, covering in 
 the huts, and many other useful points in woodcraft;^ 
 They were totally destitute of money and provisions, — *■ 
 The Commissioner of the British American Land Com- 
 pany cauaed them to be supplied with tools, and a quan- 
 tity of oatmeal for their subsistence ; and I can undertake 
 to say, that, except when any of them were away from 
 the settlement, norte of them for many months tasted 
 food of any kind, except oatmeal and ptfiatoes, and ^a 
 little mtlk sent from the nearest neighbours, occasionally. 
 By the liberality of some Scotch gentlemen in Montreal, 
 th«y were supplied with sugar kettles, with which they 
 made a small quantity of sugar in the spring of 1839^ 
 and aft6rv«rjds used them to make black salts, which 
 may be termed the currency of the back country, and 
 with which they obtained some few necessaries. To 
 sum up int brief the result of the labours! of these people, 
 in the course of a couple of years, having gathered in 
 two harvests :—»rT ' passed through the settlement in the 
 autumn last year ; I found the poorest among them had 
 at least five acres clear,^.a'nd one cow, — most of them had 
 two, some of them three cows ; and two of them a yoke 
 of oxen each. I saw some sheep, and numerous pigs< 
 Some of the grown up young men, who had married 
 since they went to the bush, and others who were look- 
 ing forward to that happy state, had taken fresh lotSy and 
 
5T 
 
 were vigorously making further inroads on the dense 
 forest, leaving the first clearing to the old folks, and their 
 younger people. These people, at the end of a couple 
 of year 8 J had decidedly ceased to be properly classed 
 u^der the denomination of poor men. The debt in- 
 curred for oatmeal in 1838 was in great part liquidated in 
 1839 and I84>0i Their improvements and stock, con^ 
 sidered as capitaly are worth very considerably more than 
 the remainder of their debt, including the amount charged 
 for their land. They are now decidedly in a thriving 
 way, and may be visited by any person desirous of as- 
 certaining the correctness of this statement, and of having 
 the satisfaction of witnessing the results of successful 
 industry. 
 
 ; U 
 
 NOTE E. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS F /R THE ESTABLISHMENT 
 OF A BOARD ^i. i^tilGRATION, &c. 
 
 A great deal has been said, and I think very foolishly, . 
 concerning some grand system of Emigration to be car- 
 ried into effect by the Grovernment at home. I ^y 
 foolishly, because Emigration, to be beneficial, on a scale ■ 
 at least at all commensurate with the important end in 
 view, must be general ; and, to be either, must be volun- 
 tary. Whereas, whatever the Government attempted to 
 do towards the promotion of this object, would, in the 
 eyes of that class from which we receive the most nu- 
 merous and valuable portion, have the semblance of 
 compulsion, and thus its purpose would be defeated, 
 as the people will not submit to be, what they consider, . 
 driven out of the country ; but to be led, they have, by^ 
 no means, the same objections. 
 
 f2. 
 
 ;< 
 
 ;. I 
 
 
58 
 
 i«'- 
 
 IS' 
 
 Whatever, therefore, can be done to promote this de- 
 sirable object, must be done in this country; and if^ 
 would appear, from one of the first public acts of our 
 present Governor, that he entertains the same opinion 5 
 I refer to the appointment of Dr. Rolph, from whose 
 talents and exertions importaijl results are anticipated. 
 But something more is surely necessary, — some efficient 
 plan on a large and liberal scale, for the immediate pro- 
 vision and location of the crowds expected during the 
 approachtng season ; and this, I conceive, c.Tn only be 
 efFectually accomplished by a Board of Emigration, com- 
 posed of plain practical men, well acquainted with the 
 feelings and' prejudrces of the Emigrant, and fully em- 
 powered to settle him at once, in such a manner as 
 would evidently be for his advantage. 
 
 To this end a sufficient fund should be placed by the 
 Provincial Government under proper and necessary pre- 
 cautions, at the dijsposal of such Board for the purpose of 
 intersecting new Townships with good roads, not to the 
 extent of 150 miles according to the present mode of laying 
 out a township 9 miies by. 12^ but- 4$ comprising 4 roads 
 from fientJo rear, upon which all the lots^exoepitjie front 
 would abiit, which wau'd not only bring SjU^h-Jand* to . 
 immediate sale, but would induce a higher and more res- 
 pectable class to purchase thefn, by which meems the 
 greatest and most important obstacle in the way of c.arry- 
 ing such a plan into successful operation would be« 
 effected, viz, the refun<ling of the naoney. Another bene- . 
 ficial effect would accrue from my seheme. The making 
 of such roads, which.in all cases ought to be of plank, 
 v.Wid afford employment for^the poor labouring emigrant, 
 and enable him also to pay at least one Instalment upon 
 his landj as in no case lie ought to get it free. 
 
59 
 
 Many facts havecome umler my observation, which> 
 would illustrate my meaning and give weight to my sug- 
 geistions. I will therefore submit one of them to the con- 
 s^deration of the intelligent reader. 
 
 A ha'f p^y officer boughta block* of land of 5000 acres 
 in the 10th and 11th concessions of a Townshipin my' 
 neighbourhood for Is 3d an acre, while the lands in the 
 9th, 8ih, &c., brought an irxcrease of price at the Govern- 
 ment sales in the ratio of their approach to the front, 
 while those in the 2d concession were sold (or 10s, and 
 in the 1st, which a good road intersected for from 5 to 6 
 dollars an acre, according to their quality. 
 
 NOTE F. 
 
 In case any Emigrants- should- agree with the very 
 flattering opinion expressed by the Quebec Mercury, that 
 these memoirs would be a valuable present to their friends 
 ai home, who may be desirous of coming to this country, 
 r here subjoin, for their information a few practical 
 remarksj as directions, which they would do well to at- 
 tend to> orv taking their departure. 
 
 Let them take their pasSv^ge to Quebec or Montreal, it 
 matters not wiii§h, provided there be a difference in the 
 charge, of five percent, as that would take them from the 
 former to the latter town. 
 
 If they find their own provisions for the vo3''age ; (say 
 for one) let him take a couple of loaves of bread, 60 
 Ibsi of well cured bacon or hamS) as many of biscuit, 
 10 lbs. of cheese, 1 lb. of tea, 8 lbs. of sugar^ 30 or 40 lbs. 
 of oatmeal, 20 lb^^ of salt butler, a bushel ami a half of 
 potatoes, two or three dozen eggs, and a leg of fresh mut^v 
 ton, or a sniaM portion of other fresh meat, which he may» 
 
 I : I 
 
 I ■ 
 
 J'; 
 
 
 ■ki 
 
60 
 
 consume while good, and above all a good deal chest, . 
 and take care to keep it locked. A few bottles of ale or. 
 porter^ he would also find a great luxury. 
 
 This is for a single man* With a w4fe and family, be 
 may reckon upon about half the quantity more for each 
 of the rest, even although they may all be nearly grown 
 up, as a wife, in such cases, would manage things better 
 and make the provisions go farther. 
 
 He ought also 'to provide himself with a good cod line 
 or two, with hooks, with which he can in general, add? 
 materially to his stock of provisions on the Banks, where 
 vessels generally lay to, for a short time, for the purpose 0^ 
 fishing. When I came out, we lay to but 17 minutes, in 
 which time, I caught three, one weigliing 39 lbs. 
 ■ He must choo«e a good tight vessel, and enter, in his 
 agreement with the Captain) to be supplied with 3 quarts 
 of good fresh water a day* 
 
 The pext thing he will want, if a single man, will be a> 
 mattress, a couple of blankets, and a coverlet, and let 
 him take care that they are good. The mattress filled^ 
 with curled hair, and it will serve as a bed for him for 
 years after he gets to his destination. 
 
 If any of his provisions should be left, after he lands^ 
 let him take them also with him wherever he goes, and^ 
 they will be a great savin g-to him. 
 
 Whatever money he may have, let him take it to some 
 bank which will give him a letter o( credit on some 
 bank or merchant in Quebec or Montreal, keeping, how- 
 ever, a few sovereigns in case of contingencies. 
 
 When he arrives here, whatever doubts and fears and 
 misgivings he may have, and I can assure him he will ^' 
 have many, all he has to do, is- to call at the Offices- 
 
■^IT' 
 
 61 
 
 of th& Emigrant Agents, and he will receive every 
 assistance in his difficulties, and all the instruction and 
 advice necessary for his guidance afterwards, or, he 
 may apply to J. H. Kerr,, Esq. of Quebec, who is not 
 connected with any Company, or with the Government, 
 and he will gratuitously receive every information which 
 Mr. Kerr's long experience and extensive knowledge 
 enable hinr so well to bestow. Or when in the country," 
 if he have no private friend with whom to advise, 1^ 
 him apply to the clergyman, if there be one, or, if not, 
 to the minister of any dissenting, congregation, who wiH 
 give him all the information he may require, and upon 
 which he can depend* 
 
 ill' 
 
 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS TO EMIGRANTS. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 In the course of these memoirs I have given such' in- 
 formation to Emigrants, possessing a capital of JC300 
 sterling, as will enable them, with prudence and good 
 management, to accomplish this object, viz., a ^ com- 
 fortable competency. To those who have larger means 
 it is oihly necessary to observe, that they can dj all that 
 I have done, and more, in much less time. But, as 
 those who have less, say jClOO'steriing, may feel that 
 their circumstances have not been taken into consideration 
 sufficiently to form even the ground plan of that substan- 
 tial and matter of fact edifice which they perceive, on 
 their arrival in the country, they can erect upon the ruins 
 of those air built castles they had formed on the com- 
 mencement of their pilgrimage, I would propose the fol- 
 lowing mode of laying it out : 
 
 
62 
 
 jDlOO sterling, at the [>resent rate of exchange, wilt 
 amount to something more than X120 currency. 
 
 A farm of 150 acres may be purchased} one-fourth cleared, with a 
 imall house and barn upon it for i)l&0, £25 downj and JC25 a yeav 
 with interest, until all be paid, thu& : 
 
 . „ ;. ■ Dr. 
 
 To first payment for farmj say April 1,. . . . 
 
 To Stove, Kitchen and Dairy Utensils, and 
 some little Furniture,. 
 
 To Provisions fbr a man and his wife, be- 
 sides milk and butter from his cows, for 
 half a year, 
 
 To Seed, Grain and Potatoes, 
 
 To a Yoke of light Oxen and Yoke, 
 
 To half a ton of Hay for them, 208. and Pro- 
 vender 20 j 
 
 To Ox Cart and wheels £§>, leioug^b £^ 
 Harrow 20s.. 
 
 To Sled 15d, two Chains SOs, 2 Cows £10, 
 4 Sheep £2, 
 
 To Axe lOs, 2 Hoea Ts, Spade and Shovel 
 78, Dung and Hay Fork 5s,.. 
 
 To 2 Rakes 3s, 2 Sickles 2s, Cradle and 
 Sythel5s, 
 
 To 2 other Sythes 15s 6d, a few Carpen- 
 ters* tools, flails, &c. 15s, 
 
 To 2 Shoats 30s, 3 Pigs l5s, Poultry 10s, 
 Garden Seeds 5s, 
 
 To a Man's wages, 1 month in Summer, and 
 board, 
 
 To ditto in Autumn, 2 months, 
 
 Ta sundry trifles and contingencies. ....... 
 
 £ s. d» 
 
 £ t. d. 
 
 25 a 
 
 12 
 
 7 v5 
 
 
 
 5 2 
 
 
 
 14 10 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 9' 
 
 0^ 
 
 14 5 
 
 
 
 1 9 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 10 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 15 
 
 
 
 4 10, 
 
 0. 
 
 2 10 
 
 0. 
 
 XlOd 16 
 
 6. 
 
63 
 
 To amount brought forwarti, 1 06 1 6 6 
 
 Cb. 
 
 £ ». d, £ #. d. 
 
 By Cash, £100 Stg. say Currency, 120 , 
 
 By Proceeds from two Cows, besides con* 
 
 sumption, 3 10 
 
 By sale of 150 bushels of Potatoes, at Is 6d, 11 5 
 By ^0. 7 bushels of Wheat for seed, at 69, 2 2 
 By do. 10 cwt. of Oat Meal, at 15s,.. . . 7 10 
 By do. 20 bushels Indian CorO) at 4s... 4 
 By remainder of produce, feeding Pig, Pro- 
 Tender, Provisions, &e 
 
 Balance in hand» 41 10 6 
 
 £148 7 148 7 
 
 !)i 
 
 5 
 
 0, 0. 
 
 0. 
 
 6 6. 
 
 SECOND YEAR. 
 
 JDr. 
 
 To second payn. nt on Farm with interest, 32 10 
 To another Cow £5, 4 young Pigs 20s, 2 
 
 additional Sheep 20s, 7 
 
 To Grass, Turnip and Garden Seeds, 15 
 
 To Wages, 3 months in Summer, and 2 in 
 
 Winter, 10 16 
 
 To Kettle to make Salts, Sugar, Soap, &c. 1 10 
 
 To another Axe 1 Os. Sundries 20s 1 10 
 
 > ; ^ : , 54 10 
 
 -. V '■-■, • -._ : ■: '■.: . Cb. ' ' 
 
 By Balance on hand from last year, 4110 
 
 By sale of Produce, besides consumption, 
 
 Seed,&c 43 10 *' 
 
 Balance on band carried clown to Gr. 30 10 
 
 ; ' ' • ' ' JE85 6 85 fl 
 
 4! 
 
 ! :■•' 
 
 IP:. 
 
 I : 
 
 il 
 
 lii 
 
Ill j^aiiivp 
 
 ■•..I 
 
 64 
 
 THIRD YEAR. , 
 Dr. 
 
 £ t. 
 
 TV) third instalment, for farm, 
 
 To a Man's wages during Summer and Win* 
 ter, 
 
 To Doctors' Bill 35s, Shoemakers' and Tai- 
 lors* Bills TOs^ 
 
 To Subscription for building a School House 
 
 To a pair of Horses, £25, Harness X7,. ... 
 
 To a pair of wheels for a Waggon, with Ox 
 Wheels, 
 
 To Waggon Body 20», Horse Sled 25s, box 
 for ditto, 15s, 
 
 To Blacksmiths' Bill 50s, Sundries T^s,. ... 
 
 -Cr. 
 
 By Balance on hand from Isstyear, 30 10 
 
 By sale of (train and Potatoes, 68 
 
 By do Butter 85s, Pork 75a, Onions 30s, 9 10 
 
 By do of Oxen, StalKed through Winter 20 
 
 By do of 9cwU Blac1cSalUatl5s,.... 6 15 
 By do cf a Fat Calf 208, and two Fat 
 
 Sheep 178'6i',.- 2 16 
 
 ■Balame on band canried down,. . . 
 
 (2. £ f. d, 
 
 31 10 
 
 19 
 
 6 5 
 
 . 1 
 
 32 
 
 4 10 
 
 .! 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 £100 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 ■ . 
 
 37 10 6 
 
 '1 
 
 137 10 6 137 10 
 
 Dn. 
 
 Fourth-year's Instalment with interest, 29 10 
 
 Leaving a balance of £8 15s in hand to carry on the farm during 
 the spring ; but it is unnecessary to carry the account further ; in- 
 deed I cannot do so without anticipating the real history of the 
 person from which it has been taken, who has now a good stock of 
 cattlcy with his clearing doubled, and every (itospeet of good crops, 
 besides a stack of hay of 10 tons, remaining Over from last year, 
 and only two more inatalmedts to pay on his farm, when he will 
 build himself a new house, in which to enjoy a comfortable compe- 
 tency fdr the remainder' •Nils life. 
 
65 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 m- 
 the 
 of 
 
 ipe- 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Table shewing the price of conveyance to Quebec 
 from the different parts mentioned below, in the cabin 
 with all necessaries except bedding, and in the interme* 
 diate and steerage, the passengers to provide themselves 
 with every thing. 
 
 Cabin, Intcrmediaie* Steer a ire. 
 
 To Quebec. 
 From London, 
 
 Liverpool, 
 
 Leitb, 
 
 Greenock, 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 Belfast, 
 
 Londonderry, 
 
 Sligo, 
 
 Limerick, 
 
 Cork, 
 
 je20 
 18 
 12. 
 15 
 11 
 14 
 12 
 10 
 U 
 
 je5 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 £^ 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 the 
 
 List of the Government Emigration Agents in 
 
 United Kingdom, 
 
 Lieut. Lean, li.N,, London, (Office, East Smilhfield.) 
 Lieut. Henry, R.N., Liverpool, (Office, 33, Union-street.) 
 Lieut. Forrest, R.N., Leith. 
 Lieut. Hemmans, R.N., Greenock. 
 Lieut. HoDDER, R.N., Dublin. 
 Lieut. Friend, R.N., Cork. 
 Lieut. Starke, R.N., Belfast. 
 Mr. Lynch, R.N., Limerick. 
 Lieut. Shuttleworth, R.N., Sligo. 
 Lieut. Ramsay, R.N., Londonderry. 
 These officers act under the immediate directions of the 
 
 E 
 
 
 ■^^ 
 
 ii 
 
 Hi 
 
ee 
 
 Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, and the 
 following is a summary of their duties ; — 
 
 They correspond with any magistrates, clergymen, 
 parish officers, or others who may apply to them for infor- 
 mation as to the facilities for emigration from their re- 
 spective stations. They procure, and give gratuitously, 
 information as to the sailing of ships, and means of ac- 
 commodation fur emigrants ; and whenever applied to for 
 that purpose, they see that all agreements between ship- 
 owners, agents, or masters, and intending emigrants are 
 duly performed. They also see that the provissions of the 
 Passengers' Act are strictly complied with, viz., that pas- 
 senger-vessels are sea-worthy, that they have on board a 
 sufficient supply of provisions, water, medicines, &cc., and 
 that they sail with proper pun' ility. 
 
 They attend personally at their offices on every week 
 day, and generally they afford, gratuitously, all the as- 
 sistance in their power to protect intending emigrants 
 against fraud and imposition, and to obtain redress where 
 oppression or injury has been practised on them. 
 
 Government Emigration Agents in Canada, 
 
 Montreal, 
 
 Bytown, . 
 Toronto, . 
 
 Kingston, 
 
 C A. C. Buchanan, Esq., Chief Agent for 
 . / Eastern (Lower) Canada, 
 
 ( James Allison, Esq. 
 . . George Burke, Esq. 
 
 . Dr. D. R. Bradley, 
 
 J A. B. Hawke, Esq., Chief Agent for 
 
 I Western (Upper) Canada. 
 
67 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Table showing the difibrence of Mean Temperature in 
 Lower and Upper Canada, during one year, and the 
 number of Fine and Wet or Snowy days — from Mr. 
 Evans' Woik on Agriculture. 
 
 
 Lower Canada. 
 
 
 Max. 
 
 Min. 
 
 Mean 
 
 Fine 
 Days. 
 
 Kaino 
 Snow. 
 
 For Ihc months June, ) 
 July, and August. I 
 
 99.33 
 
 58.83 
 
 77.57 
 
 75 
 
 17 
 
 Winter Months . . . 
 
 38.66 
 
 24.32 
 
 11.25 
 
 • • 
 
 21 
 Snow. 
 
 For the Year .... 
 
 65.25 
 
 11.75 
 
 42.1 
 
 309 
 
 56 
 
 
 Upper Canada. 
 
 
 Max. 
 
 Min. 
 
 Mean. 
 
 Fine 
 Days. 
 
 Rain or 
 Snow. 
 
 For the months June, } 
 July, and August, ) 
 
 99.66 
 
 57.33 
 
 7.37 
 
 76 
 
 16 
 
 Winter Months . . . 
 
 46.33 
 
 4.67 
 
 22.49 
 
 • • 
 
 34 
 Snow 
 
 For the Year .... 
 
 73.8 
 
 25.72 
 
 48.37 
 
 276 
 
 89 
 
 ■it 
 
 
 u 
 
 M 
 
 ij 
 
68 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 CAUTIOM TO EMIGRANTS AGAINST REFUSING 
 OFFERS OF GOOD WAGES, 
 
 The following ia an Extract of a Report from the Chief 
 Immigration Agent at Quebec, to the Governor 
 General of Canada, dated 31st July, 1841. 
 
 " The most important measure is, first to endeavour to 
 undeceive the emigrants in the very erroneous ideas 
 which they almost all entertain as to the remuneration 
 which they will receive for their labour on arrival in this 
 country. Instances occur almost daily of persons who, 
 in their own country (Ireland,) were glad to work for lOd. 
 to Is. per day, refusing employment here at 3s., and they 
 do not consider that for the first season, until they become 
 acquainted with the labour of the country, tiieir services 
 are worth little more than one-half to the farmer. Many, 
 to my certain knowledge, have been offered advantageous 
 engagements in this neighbourhood, but refused perma- 
 nent employment, preferring to proceed in, hopes of better 
 wages, but in which very many are disappointed. 
 
 "Wages for agricultural labour in the Eastern Town- 
 ships, and in almost every section of the western division 
 of the province, are higher than in the neighbourhood 
 of Montreal : six to seven do'lars per month is as much 
 as farmers will or can tfford to give to newly arrived 
 emigrants, with board and lodging. Good hands, after a 
 year or so of residence, will generally command from 10 
 to 12 dollars, and found. Labourers who board them- 
 selves receive here from 12 to 15 dollars per month. 
 Day labourers always get 2s 6d to 3s. and at this season 
 oftener the latter than the former, but if they possess the 
 
()9 
 
 means of proceeding furllier, they will seldom work \\>v 
 this. 
 
 " It is most desirable to impress on the intending emi- 
 grant the necessity of their bcmg in possession of sulli- 
 cient means to enable them to proceed to where a 
 demand for their labour exists, and it is extremely difli- 
 cult, I may say impossible, when from 2000 to 3000, 
 and in some instances 5000 people arrive here in a week, 
 (as was the case this season for several weeks in siicces- 
 siori) that employment can immediately be found for all 
 who stand in need. 
 
 "Facilities have occurred this season which were w t 
 formerly to be obtained in the neighbourhood of this city 
 (Quebec) and Montreal, viz., immediate employment to 
 all classes of emigrants on the public works and road im- 
 provements. This, however, cannot be relied on in 
 future beyond another season." 
 
 n 
 ?d 
 
 n 
 le 
 
 No. V. 
 
 On arriving at Q,uebec,the Emigrant should on no account 
 leave the vessel, unless it be to go with Ihc long-boat 
 direct with his luggage to the steamer for Montreal ^ 
 and not unfrequently the steamer comes alongside the 
 Emigrant ship, and thus facilitates the re-embarkation 
 of the Emigrant. The captain of the ship can easily 
 arrange this with the steamer. Very little difficulty is 
 experienced by the Emigrant at Quebec — a few hours 
 suffice to provide his family with thfi necessaries of life, 
 if his supplies are run ouf. The Steamboat goes up 
 the river to Montreal in about 24 hours, a distance of 
 180 miles. The charge for deck passengers is 78 6d, 
 and no charge is made for luggage 
 
 The fare is reduced, when there is any competition, to 
 
 g2 
 
 Currency. 
 X'. s. d. 
 
 7 6 
 
 ^h 
 
m 
 
 70 
 
 OS,, and less. Next year it may be reduced much 
 
 more, as new steamers are preparing fur this route. 
 
 The Emigrant, before going on board the steamer, 
 
 should boil as much pork or beef as will serve him for a 
 
 day or two, nhich he can do before leaving the ship ; 
 
 in d few minutes he can procure Tresh bread j and if he 
 
 has a large tin tea-pot, with a few tin 9, he can with 
 
 ease get hut water in the steamer to make some tea, 
 
 to refresh the members of his family on the way up. 
 
 On his arrival at Montreal he should, with as little 
 
 delay as possible, get his luggage tran^'^ported to the 
 
 barges of the forwarding company. He will find 
 
 many carters in readiness for this purpose, and must 
 
 take care not to be imposed upor^by them ; Is. 6d. 1 6 
 
 should be sufficient to take all his things to the station 
 
 of the barges Here the fare is, from Montreal to 
 
 Bytown, per adult, 83. Allowance for luggage, 1 cwt. 
 
 or U cwt., free J 8 
 
 and for any quantity over and above this, 2». per cwt. 
 
 The barges* arrive at Bytown about 72 ho* »'s after 
 
 leaving Montreal. The same barges continue through 
 
 to Kingston. The fare from Bytown to Kingston is, 
 
 per adult, IO5. ; same allowance of luggage as above, 10 
 
 and 23. od. for each cwt. extra : add Is. per day for 
 
 rr.eals f om Quebec to Bytown, say 8 days, 8 
 
 When th'j Emigrant gets on board the barge at Montreal, 
 his luggage need n.ot be moved until he reaches King- 
 ston. He will find utensils for cooking, and the female 
 part of his family wiil find shelter in the cabin of the 
 vessel. 
 
 Th' jarges there take seven or eight hours in getting 
 through the locks, and getting up to Grenville. On. the 
 way, the Emigrant can buy a few potatoes from the 
 Airmers on the canal. The prices of provisions do not 
 vary from Montreal to Kingston; potatoes Is 6tl and 
 
 • There are now several small steamers which go the whole dis- 
 tance, and in much less lime. These are more comfortable, and 
 charges the same. 
 
71 
 
 2s per bushel j pork 5J. to 7d prr lb. j butler 8d to 
 lOd ; flour 2|d to 3J per lb. j tea 43 per lb. ; sugar 7d 
 per lb.; eggs 6d per dozen; butchers' meat SjJ per. 
 lb. All these articles arc easily procu:ed on tlie way. 
 From Grenville to By^own is 68 miles, and the barges 
 are towed by a steamer, and reach in about 15 hours. 
 On their arrival at Bytown the birgei! have again to 
 pass through the locks, which causes a detention of 
 some hour?. The passage from Bytown to Kingston is 
 rather tedious ; but as it affords to the Emigrant 
 various opportunities of seeing the country, and many 
 of engaging as farm servant?, he should not look upon 
 it as altogether lost time. Ind«.cu at any of those stop- 
 ping places he can locale himself whether with a capi- 
 tal, or without one as advantageously as any where 
 else, and perhaps more so. 
 great error is committed by the Eniigrunt in asking 
 
 exorbitant 
 
 wages 
 
 on his arrival : he should content 
 
 himself at first with from 6 to 7 dollars a monih with 
 board, which is all he can expect for the first year. — 
 See No. 4. Many Emigrants on arrival at Quebec 
 and Montreal, have not the means to carry them 
 (orward, but they !ind no difliculty in gellijig work 
 about the coves at Quebec, and are very soon ena- 
 bled to lay up sufficient to carry them up the coun- 
 try. They should on no account remain in Quebec or 
 Montreal during wiiiter, as they will assuredly have 
 much privation and hardship to contend with. How- 
 ever high the wages n; be in the busy season, the 
 winter presents to them a barren field. 
 At Kingston there are steamers for Toronto, distant 170 
 miles, and for Hamilton, at the head of Lake Ontario, 
 distant from Kingston 210 miles. The time occupied 
 at Toronto is 24 hours ; the deck fare is usually 7?. 6d. 
 Last season it was only Ss. for each adult, exclusive 
 of provisions. Two children under 14 years of age are 
 charged as one passenger. The distance from Quebec 
 to Toronto is 606 miles ; time occupied in performing 
 it last season about 10 days, and the total expense fcr 
 each adult, including provisions, i?,. including 2 days' 
 provisions from Kingston to Toronto, 2 
 
 i 
 
 7 6 
 
 
 
 £2 4 6 
 
72 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Mr. WidJer, one of the Commissioners of the Canada 
 Company, has furnished the following statement with 
 reference to tillage, which he states he procured from a 
 very intelligent and respectable yeoman, settled in the 
 London District, Upper Canada : — 
 
 Cost of clearing 10 acres of heavy timbered land, in the usual 
 Canadian fashion, with an estimate of the crops to be produced 
 therefiom during the first three years after clearing • — 
 
 UPPER CANADA, 
 
 FIRST TEAR. Dl', Cr. 
 
 £ s. d. X 6-. d. 
 Chopping, clearing, and fencing 10 acre?, so 
 
 as to leave it fit tor the drag, at £1 per acre, 40 C 
 Seed, li bushel wheat to the acre, say Ir^ 
 
 bushels, at 5f 3 15 
 
 Sowing and dragp;ing, at 5?. per acre, 2 10 
 
 Harvesting, at 7s. 6 J. per acre, 3 15 
 
 The value of the straw, tailiui; ^ heat bulls, 
 
 &c. on the farm, are supposed to be equal 
 
 to the thrashing and cartage to the barr... 
 To timothy and clover seed, at 2s. Gd. per 
 
 acre,-. < 1 ^^ 
 
 Or. ^0 bushels wheat per acre — 200 bush- 
 els, at Ss. 9d 37 10 
 
 SECOND YEAR. 
 
 Mowing and taking off hay, at 7s. Cd. per 
 
 acre, 3 15 
 
 Cr. By I3 ton per acre of hay, at 6 dollars 
 per ton, 22 10 
 
 THIRD YEAR. 
 
 To mowing and taking off u e hay, at 7s. 6o\ 
 
 per acre, .3 15 
 
 Cr. By I5 ton hav per acr*, at 6 dollitrs per 
 ton,... '. 22 10 
 
 82 10 
 Balance in clear profit,. . . 23 15 
 
 £S2 10 82 10 
 
 Sc 
 HI 
 
 Tf 
 
73 
 
 THE SAME, FROM MY OWN EXPERIENCE IN LOWER 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 FIRST YEAR. Dt Ct. 
 
 £ 8. d. £ s. d. 
 Chopping, clearing, and fencing 10 acres, so 
 
 as t'j leave it fit for the drag, at £3 per acre, 30 
 Seed, I 1-10 bushel wheat to the acre, say 11 
 
 bushels, at 6s. 6d 3 11 6 
 
 SowJH? and dragging, at 2d. 6d. per acre,.... 15 
 
 Harvesting, at 53. per acre, 2 10 
 
 The value of the straw, tailing wheat hulls, 
 
 &c. on the farm, are supposed to be equal 
 
 to the thrashing and cartage to the barn. 
 To timothy and clover seed, at 2s. 6d. per 
 
 acre, 1 5 
 
 Cr. By I62 bushels wheat per acre— 200 
 
 bushels, lit 5s 41 5 
 
 SECOND YEAR. 
 
 Mowing and taking off hay, at 73. (>J. per 
 
 acre, 3 15 
 
 Cr, By li ton per acre of hay, at 6 dollars 
 
 per ton, , 22 10 
 
 THIRD YEAR. 
 
 To nr\oi»"i".g and taking oflTlhe hay, at Ts. 6d. 
 
 per acre, 3 15 
 
 Cr. By 1 \ ton hay per acre, at 6 dollars per 
 
 ton,.. 22 10 
 
 46 1 6 86 5 
 Balance in clear profit,. . 40 3 6 
 
 £86 5 £86 5 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 I 
 
mm 
 
75 
 
 THE PASSENGER ACT. 
 
 The following is an abridgment of the Colonial Land 
 and Emigration Commissioners' Bill, adopted by Lord 
 Stanley, for the amendment and en'argement of the exist- 
 ing Passengers' Act: 
 
 1 — The first clause repea's former acts, 5 and o Wil- 
 liam IV. r. 53, and 3 and ■% Victoria, c. 21. 
 
 2 — The number of passengers to be carried in each 
 vessel is limited ; vessels proceeding from the United 
 Kingdom or the Channel Islands to any place out of 
 Europe, not being within the Mediterranean sea, shall 
 carry no more than one passenger for every two tons of 
 the registered tonnago. In the lower deck or platform 
 ten clear superficial feet are to be allowed for each pas- 
 senger ; or if the ship pass within the tropics, the voyage 
 not being computed at more than twelve weeks, twelve 
 feet are to be allowed ; at more than twelve wrecks, fif- 
 teen feet. One passenger may be carried under the poop 
 for every thirty passengers. The master incurs a penalty 
 of £d for every passenger in excess of the proper num- 
 ber. 
 
 3. — Every ship must have a lower deck or platform 
 above or level with the top of the lower beams, properly 
 secured to them, of an inch and a half in thickness. 
 
 4. — There must be a height of at least six feet between 
 the upper and lower decks. 
 
 5.— There must be only two tiers of berths j the lower 
 6 inches from the deck. 
 
 6. — A supply of no less than three quarts of water 
 
76 
 
 i 
 
 must be issued to each passenger per day, and seven 
 pounds of bread-stufls per week ; of the latter, one third 
 may consist of potatoes, reckoned at the rale of five 
 pounds for one of bread stuffs. No ship to be cleared out 
 without having on board sufficient supplies of provisions 
 and water. 
 
 7. — Regulations for securing the supply of water and 
 for its preservation on the voyage. 
 
 8. — The length of the voyages is to be computed ac- 
 cording to the following rule : to North America, 10 
 weeks ; West Coast of Africa, 12 weeks j Cape of Good 
 Hope or the Falkland Islands, 15 weeks; Mauritius, 18 
 weeks J Western Australia, 20 weeks; other Australian 
 colonies, 22 weeks ; New Zealand, 24 weeks. 
 
 9. — Two children under 14 years of age, to be reck- 
 oned as one adult person. 
 
 10. — The Emigration Agent at the port where the ves- 
 sel leaves, or in the absence of such a functionary, the 
 officers of the customs are to examine the provisions and 
 water aa to quantity and quality, and the allotment of 
 space ; and to ascertain tha> there is an ample supply of 
 water and stores for the crew of the ship or other persons 
 on board, over and above w hat is provided for the pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 12. — Every ship of 150 and under 250 tons must 
 carry two boats ; under 500 tons three boats ; more than 
 that four boats. 
 
 13. — Masters to carry two copies of the act, open to 
 the perusal of tlie passengers. 
 
 H. — With every ship carrying 100 passengers a me- 
 dical practitioner is to sail ; in every ship carryiqg a 
 
77 
 
 Btftaller number, naeJicines of sufticient amount and of 
 proper kind to be carrie(i. 
 
 15. — Spirits are not to be laden on board by way of 
 stores, except for the master and crew and cabin passen- 
 gers, or as medical comforts ; but the sale of spirits to 
 any passenger during the voyage is absolutely prohibited, 
 under a penalty of not less than JG50 nor more than 
 i;200. 
 
 16. — The masters are to keep a list of passengers ac- 
 cording to a given form, to be countersigned by the 
 officers of customs at the port of clearance, and deposited 
 with the officers of customs or consul at the port of dis- 
 charge. 
 
 17. — A like list is to be kept of additional passengers, 
 who may be taken on board during the voyage. 
 
 18. — Written receipts for passage-money to any place 
 in North America are to be given to steerage passengers, 
 according to a given form, under a penalty of j£2. 
 
 19. — Passage-brokers contracting for passages to North 
 America are to be licensed by justices in the petty or 
 quarter sessions of their district ; and will incur a penalty 
 of £10 for every passage contracted without a license. 
 
 20. — All brokers who contract for a passage without 
 due authority from the parties to whom the vessel belongs, 
 incur a penalty not exceeding JG5; with the liability on 
 the pan of the licensed broker to have the license taken 
 away. 
 
 21. — If a contract for passage is broken, the aggrieved 
 parties, unless maintained at the expense of the con- 
 tractor, shall recover the amount of passage-money, with 
 ji sum not exceeding £o for each passage, by vi-ay of 
 ^compensation. 
 
 H 
 
78 
 
 22. — In case vessels are detained beyond the appointed 
 day of departure, lodgings and rations are to be provided 
 for each passenger, or he is to be allowed Is. a day as 
 subsistence money. 
 
 23. — At the close of the voyage, persons are to be en- 
 titled to remain on board for forty-eight hours after the 
 arrival in port, and are to be provided for in the same 
 manner as during the voyage ; unless in the ulterior 
 prosecution of her voyage, any such ship shall quit any 
 such port or place within the said period of 48 hours. 
 
 24. — The master of the vessel is to afford every facility 
 to the proper officers for the inspection of the ship. 
 
 25. — This clause enumerates many of the foregoing 
 regulations, to the breach of which special penalties have 
 not been affixed, and enforces them under a penalty of 
 not less than j£5, nor more than j£50. 
 
 26. — The right is reserved to passengers to proceed at 
 law for any breach of contract. 
 
 27.— The mode of recovering penalties is directed. 
 
 28. — Owners or charterers and masters of vessels car- 
 rying more than fifty passengers are to enter into a bond, 
 without stamp, for the due performance of the regulations 
 prescribed by the Act. 
 
 29. — Vessels not carrying more than twenty passen- 
 gers, and ships in the service of the Admiralty or East 
 India Company, ships of war, or transports, are exempted 
 from the operations of this Act. 
 
 30. — The Act is extended to the carriage of passengers 
 by sea from any of the British West Indies (in which 
 terms are included the British West India Islands, the 
 Bahamas, and British Guiana,) from Malta, British pos- 
 sessions on the west coast of Africa, and from Mauritius, 
 or to any other place whatsoever. 
 
 4 
 
79 
 
 31,-- Governors of colonies not already enumerated, 
 may adopt this Act by proclamation. 
 
 32. — Those Governors are empowered to declare the 
 computed length of voyages from their own colony to 
 any other place for the purposes of the Act ; but short 
 voyages of less than three weeks are reserved for parti- 
 cular enactment below. 
 
 33. — The Governor may substitute different articles of 
 provisions from those specified in the Act. 
 
 34. — The proclamation is to be transmitted to the 
 Queen in Council for confirmation or disallowance, but 
 until disallowed, it is to be in force. 
 
 35. — Governors are to possess the powers vested in 
 customs' officers for determining the seaworthiness of 
 vessels. 
 
 36. — Bonds are not required in respect of voyages 
 from colonies. 
 
 37. — And such voyages are exempted from the regula* 
 tions as to the keeping copies of the Act, ihe form of 
 receipts for passage money, the licensing of passage- 
 brokers, the return of passage-money and compensation, 
 and the payment of bubsistence-money. 
 
 38. — With these exceptions, the Act is extended to 
 voyages from the West Indies of less than three weeks' 
 but not less than three days', duration, except as relates 
 to the construction or thickness of the lower deck, the 
 height between decks, the surgeon and medicine chcsti?, 
 and the maintenance of passengers for forty-eight hours. 
 In such short voyages from the West Indies the owner or 
 charterer may contract with passengers to provide them- 
 selves with food, not including water ; but nevertheless 
 the proper officer must ascertain that the passengers have 
 provided an adequate quantity of food. 
 
 • k 
 
80 
 
 •39. — Governors of colonies otliers tlian the West In- 
 dies may adopt these regulations respecting ehort voyages. 
 
 40. — This Act is not to prevent local Legislatures in 
 the West Indies, the Bahama Islands, and Berinuda, or 
 the Queen in Council, IVom estahlishing necessary rulem 
 and regulations, unless counter to the provisions of the 
 Act. 
 
 41. — The Governor-^General of India is empowered 
 to extend the Act, from time to time, to any ports or 
 places within his jurisdiction. 
 
 42. — Foreign vessels engaged in any voyages specified 
 in the Act are to be subject to its provisions. 
 
 43. — The term " passengers" in the Act is not held 
 to include cabin passengers. 
 
 44. — In all proceedings it shall be sufficient to cite the 
 Act by the title of " The Passengers' Act." 
 

 >.; 
 
 LANDS Fdii SALE. 
 
 .% 
 
 THE fottowriiig X^I^ED PIM^PftRTY for Salt, on eaiy terms 
 of ptlQMIit. Om fonrlh on ptiilny <(m BMdfp tnd tn emaindcr 
 inimi^iyMrtyiiiitidmtBta^onkitorw^ '^ 
 
 l»t*.<J000 4CRB8 in tht TOwmyj^ or,CK4THAK, IwMd in ^. 
 petuHy to a nsailbiry,^^ £150 « yw 
 
 2rtdi— tot |<b. 5, tt ilie Hrft nuiie of Oesntiixb, cfmubi- 
 ing abpotl^Acrai, Sa of i*|ifrMt^tle»rtd^ 
 ifbll fituatob and a STONfi KOUftB parUj ^ upon U. 
 
 3rd.-^ SMAUi F4ia^ ior 40 Aoi^ good impton- 
 
 ment upon >, bulHTtto^ buHdi%k AU thow^^^ 
 and'Caii^'O^alf. ' '■-*'■'"" '']' 'l^^A-'^-^: ' 
 
 Forfttrtlier ]Nirtfe(llarf appif to Mr. M'CALLCM, CteA of the 
 Court. at,%eit^ on tbeOttaWBiftr. ^' 
 
 ■ '■-.■■ '-^y '■ . * ^ , ■ . 
 
 %; '•Mt*A||^,w^th|ood|^^^ 
 
 lii :§%^m^p of Chatham IrSoig^tttorrof AaoaiiTiuii., 
 ▼ery adTautAgeoutly situated^ u regaitb Marlcotf , Sdiooli, Chorchtt, 
 &c. Priee, from one to fid^on dolttrs an acre« 
 
 Appir to JOttN MEliCtE, BfQ.; La. CKuto, «is niiUt m»Di 
 CtriUoiii Ihe flrit Btoppiirg $]1««e sAer bavlirg Laohfaie. 
 
 A SUPERIOR FARM OF 260 AORjfiS, a consideriDlci part of 
 whttir'ii in the i^^iheat ttato of etOtlfilioai^t^^ wit dei^iraU^; 
 An e^nt HOUSE andot^ a^iHdiiif^'^^ H. Appl^i to t^yU, 
 Ren VHmiAyi mpn, of i^; Afi^W4,ii«|r earliton, i 
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