He Showed Me A
Portrait Of George IV., Given To Him, He Said, From The Hands Of That
Monarch, And A Coloured Engraving Of The Installation Of One Of The
Royal Princes As Chief Of The Hurons.
The poor old man, broken down
with extreme age, had still the remains of a commanding presence, which
even his miserable dress, unshaven beard, and bleared and misty eye,
could not altogether extinguish.
"This village gives an example of the fate of all the Indian tribes.
Here, once brought together to live after the manner of the whites,
this tribe has been reduced in number, and finally all but absorbed;
and in a few years not one of the unmixed race will remain, and the
language of the tribe will be obliterated.
"At Lorette are the falls of the St. Charles, which are very
interesting. After seeing them, I had some milk at the 'Billy Button,'
a public-house kept by a Yankee, who deals in the Indian ornaments made
in the village, and shows the falls, and then drove round to Quebec,
through a fine and richly-tilled district; and, in passing, saw a
hotly-contested heat run upon the course on the plains of Abraham - for
it was Quebec races."
* * * * *
"TORONTO, "Saturday, September 6th, 1851.
"Returning to Montreal, I spent Thursday in visiting various
institutions of that city, and drove out with Mr. - - to see the
country residence of a friend of his, which is hidden in a sweet little
glen, from whence, however, glimpses of the St. Lawrence river are
obtained. This gentleman lives here in summer, and employs his leisure
in the cultivation of the fruits and flowers, which a fine soil and a
forcing climate produce in perfection. He complains of the destruction
of the large trees in his vicinage, regretting that those who own the
neighbouring woods should be impelled to bring down, first, the oldest
and finest timber, and should be unable to preserve even so much of it
as might illustrate hereafter the magnificent proportions of the native
forest wood. This is truly one of the sad features of advancing
civilization. The fine old forests, like the native Indians, lose their
noblest chieftains, and, degenerating to a few dwarfed and scattered
specimens, at last disappear and are forgotten.
"Mr. - - told us much of the happy and comfortable lives of the farmers
and settlers hereabouts. All have land; food in abundance, including
sugar from their own maple-bush; cattle; horses; light spring waggons,
which serve as family coaches when not required for the week-day's
work; good homely furniture and clothing: in short, an abundance of all
the essentials of existence, and even wealth - but they possess little
money. In many cases, and now that agricultural improvement has become
a necessity, this want of money is found to be a great evil. The
ordinary sized farms, of 100 acres of good land, all in cultivation,
are worth from 500l., to 1,000l.; and very often an
expenditure of 200l. or 300l. in improvements would
double their value. The legal rate of interest here is 6 per cent.; and
as high a rate as 7 or 8 per cent could be got for small loans on
mortgages for these purposes were the money to be had. The banks,
however, do not, as a rule, lend money on mortgage, and the monied men
of the country have usually lands of their own requiring the same sort
of development. Foreign capital is therefore looked to; and doubtless
it will ultimately be procured in abundance, the security being
undeniable, and the rate of interest so high.
"Mr. - - does not consider the long winter any impediment to farming,
but rather the contrary, as the sudden burst of spring, and the rapid
growths of summer, make up for it; while in a country like this, where
roads are so scanty, many of the farmers' operations are performed more
easily during the snow and hard frosts which prevail.
"Leaving Montreal, by a short railroad of nine miles in length,
constructed to avoid the rapids of a bend of the St. Lawrence, I came
to Lachine. Here are the head-quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, and
the house of Sir George Simpson, the Governor; and hence, annually,
towards the end of April, proceed the 'maitre-canots,' or large canoes,
of the company, manned by its officers and hardy 'voyageurs,' up the
waters of the Ottawa to Lake Nipissing, and down the Riviere des
Francais into Lake Huron.
"At Lachine I took the 'Champion,' a fine new steamer, built and
equipped at Montreal, and worked up the St. Lawrence, along Lake
Ontario, to Toronto, a journey of 450 miles, and occupying about forty
hours in the performance.
"The navigation of the St. Lawrence is impeded by several large
'rapids,' formed by the action of the suddenly descending current upon
sunken rocks deep below the surface of the water. On the upward voyage
these are impassable for merchandize vessels; and, though the large
steamers struggle through many of them, there are others which no force
can cope with. To remedy these impediments, several fine canals, equal
to any similar works in the world, have been constructed. The first of
these, the Beauharnois Canal, connects, by a cut eleven miles long, the
broad embayment called 'Lake St. Louis,' above Montreal, with the
similar reach called 'Lake St. Francis;' and in the narrow passage
between these unruffled waters are the principal rapids - the 'Coteau du
Lac,' the 'Cedars,' and the 'Cascades.' The passage through this
'sixteen miles' declivity of boiling waters' is exciting. The large
steamers rush down with the rapidity of the wind, through waves lashed
into foam - sweeping close past the rocks and islets in the stream, and
only kept in safety in their course by the united exertions of six or
seven 'voyageurs,' and a pilot, at the wheel.
"The upper shores of the St. Lawrence are populous and well cultivated.
In stopping to take in our supply of wood, which we had to do several
times during the day and night, usually at quiet secluded nooks along
shore, or on some little island, I had many opportunities of seeing the
comfort of the people, and the progress of the country.
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