There Is, Moreover,
A Peculiar Charm In The Excitement Of Improving A Wilderness For
The Benefit Of Children And Posterity; There Is In It, Also, That
Consciousness Of Usefulness Which Forms So Essential An Ingredient
In True Happiness.
Every tree that falls beneath the axe opens a
wider prospect, and encourages the settler to persevere in his
efforts to attain independence.
Mr. S - - had secured for me a portion of the military grant of four
hundred acres, which I was entitled to as a half-pay officer, in his
immediate neighbourhood. Though this portion amounted to only sixty
acres, it was so far advantageous to me as being in a settled part
of the country. I bought a clergy reserve of two hundred acres,
in the rear of the sixty acres for 1 pound per acre, for which
immediately afterwards I was offered 2 pounds per acre, for at that
period there was such an influx of settlers into that locality that
lands had risen rapidly to a fictitious price. I had also purchased
one hundred acres more for 1 pound 10s. per acre, from a private
individual; this also was considered cheap at the time.
These lots, forming altogether a compact farm of three hundred and
sixty acres, were situated on the sloping banks of a beautiful lake,
or, rather, expansion of the river Otonabee, about half-a-mile wide,
and studded with woody islets. From this lake I afterwards procured
many a good meal for my little family, when all other means of
obtaining food had failed us. I thus secured a tract of land which
was amply sufficient for the comfortable subsistence of a family,
had matters gone well with me.
It should be distinctly borne in mind by the reader, that uncleared
land in a remote situation from markets possesses, properly
speaking, no intrinsic value, like cleared land, for a great deal of
labour or money must be expended before it can be made to produce
anything to sell. My half-pay, which amounted to about 100 pounds
per annum of Canadian currency, was sufficient to keep us supplied
with food, and to pay for clearing a certain extent of land, say
ten acres every year, for wheat, which is immediately afterwards
sown with grass-seeds to supply hay for the cattle during winter.
Unfortunately, at this period, a great change took place in my
circumstances, which it was impossible for the most prudent or
cautious to have foreseen.
An intimation from the War-office appeared in all the newspapers,
calling on half-pay officers either to sell their commissions or to
hold themselves in readiness to join some regiment. This was a hard
alternative, as many of these officers were situated; for a great
many of them had been tempted to emigrate to Canada by the grants
of land which were offered them by government, and had expended all
their means in improving these grants, which were invariably given
to them in remote situations, where they were worse than worthless
to any class of settlers but those who could command sufficient
labour in their own families to make the necessary clearings and
improvements.
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