The Englishwoman in America

I >> Isabella Lucy Bird >> The Englishwoman in America

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

The road along which the dwellings of these small farmers lie is
macadamised, and occasionally a cross stands by the roadside, at which
devotees may be seen to prostrate themselves. There is a quiet, lethargic,
old-world air about the country, contrasting strangely with the bustling,
hurrying, restless progress of Upper Canada. Though the condition of the
_habitans_ is extremely unprofitable to themselves, it affords a short
rest to the thinking and observing faculties of the stranger, overstrained
as they are with taking in and contemplating the railroad progress of
things in the New World.

While we admire and wonder at the vast material progress of Western Canada
and the North-western States of the Union, considerations fraught with
alarm will force themselves upon us. We think that great progress is being
made in England, but, without having travelled in America, it is scarcely
possible to believe what the Anglo-Saxon race is performing upon a new
soil. In America we do not meet with factory operatives, seamstresses, or
clerks overworked and underpaid, toiling their lives away in order to keep
body and soul together; but we have people of all classes who could obtain
competence and often affluence by moderate exertions, working harder than
slaves--sacrificing home enjoyments, pleasure, and health itself to the
one desire of the acquisition of wealth. Daring speculations fail; the
struggle in unnatural competition with men of large capital, or
dishonourable dealings, wears out at last the overtasked frame--life is
spent in a whirl--death summons them, and finds them unprepared. Everybody
who has any settled business is overworked. Voices of men crying for
relaxation are heard from every quarter, yet none dare to pause in this
race which they so madly run, in which happiness and mental and bodily
health are among the least of their considerations. All are spurred on by
the real or imaginary necessities of their position, driven along their
headlong course by avarice, ambition, or eager competition.

The Falls of Montmorenci, which we reached after a drive of eight miles,
are beautiful in the extreme, and, as the day was too cold for picnic
parties, we had them all to ourselves. There is no great body of water,
but the river takes an unbroken leap of 280 feet from a black narrow
gorge. The scathed black cliffs descend in one sweep to the St. Lawrence,
in fine contrast to the snowy whiteness of the fall. Montmorenci gave me
greater sensations of pleasure than Niagara. There are no mills, museums,
guides, or curiosity-shops. Whatever there is of beauty bears the fair
impress of its Creator's hand; and if these Falls are beautiful on a late
October day, when a chill east wind was howling through leafless trees
looming through a cold, grey fog, what must they be in the burst of spring
or the glowing luxuriance of summer?

We drove back for some distance, and entered a small _cabaret_, where some
women were diligently engaged in spinning, and some men were
superintending with intense interest the preparation of some _soupe
maigre_. Their _patois_ was scarcely intelligible, and a boy whom we took
as our guide spoke no English. After encountering some high fences and
swampy ground, we came to a narrow rocky pathway in a wood, with bright
green, moss-covered trees, stones, and earth. On descending a rocky bank
we came to the "natural staircase," where the rapid Montmorenci forces its
way through a bed of limestone, the broken but extremely regular
appearance of the layers being very much like wide steps. The scene at
this place is wildly beautiful. The river, frequently only a few feet in
width, sometimes foams furiously along between precipices covered with
trees, and bearing the marks of years of attrition; then buries itself in
dark gulfs, or rests quiescent for a moment in still black pools, before
it reaches its final leap.

The day before I left Quebec I went to the romantic falls of Lorette,
about thirteen miles from the city. It was a beauteous day. I should have
called it oppressively warm, but that the air was fanned by a cool west
wind. The Indian summer had come at last; "the Sagamores of the tribes had
lighted their council-fires" on the western prairies. What would we not
give for such a season! It is the rekindling of summer, but without its
heat--it is autumn in its glories, but without its gloom. The air is soft
like the breath of May; everything is veiled in a soft pure haze, and the
sky is of a faint and misty blue.

A mysterious fascination seemed to bind us to St. Roch, for we kept
missing our way and getting into "streams as black as Styx." But at length
the city of Quebec, with its green glacis and frowning battlements, was
left behind, and we drove through flat country abounding in old stone
dwelling-houses, old farms, and large fields of stubble. We neared the
blue hills, and put up our horses in the Indian village of Lorette.
Beautiful Lorette! I _must_ not describe, for I _cannot_, how its river
escapes from under the romantic bridge in a broad sheet of milk-white
foam, and then, contracted between sullen barriers of rock, seeks the deep
shade of the pine-clad precipices, and hastens to lose itself there. It is
perfection, and beauty, and peace; and the rocky walks upon its forest-
covered crags might be in Switzerland.

Being deserted by the gentlemen of the party, my fair young companion and
I found our way to Lorette, which is a large village built by government
for the Indians; but by intermarrying with the French they have lost
nearly all their distinctive characteristics, and the next generation will
not even speak the Indian language. Here, as in every village in Lower
Canada, there is a large Romish church, ornamented with gaudy paintings.
We visited some of the squaws, who wear the Indian dress, and we made a
few purchases. We were afterwards beset by Indian boys with bows and
arrows of clumsy construction; but they took excellent aim, incited by the
reward of coppers which we offered to them. It is grievous to see the
remnants of an ancient race in such a degraded state; the more so as I
believe that there is no intellectual inferiority as an obstacle to their
improvement. I saw some drawings by an Indian youth which evinced
considerable talent: one in particular, a likeness of Lord Elgin, was
admirably executed.

I have understood that there is scarcely a greater difference between
these half-breeds and the warlike tribes of Central America, than between
them and the Christian Indians of the Red River settlements. There are
about fourteen thousand Indians in Canada, few of them in a state of great
poverty, for they possess annuities arising from the sale of their lands.
They have no incentives to exertion, and spend their time in shooting,
fishing, and drinking spirits in taverns, where they speedily acquire the
vices of the white men without their habits of industry and enterprise.
They have no idols, and seldom enter into hostile opposition to
Christianity, readily exchanging the worship of the Great Spirit for its
tenets, as far as convenient. It is very difficult, however, to arouse
them to a sense of sin, or to any idea of the importance of the world to
come; but at the same time, in no part of the world have missionary
labours been more blessed than at the Red River settlements. Great changes
have passed before their eyes. Year, as it succeeds year, sees them driven
farther west, as their hunting-grounds are absorbed by the insatiate white
races. The twang of the Indian bow, and the sharp report of the Indian
rifle, are exchanged for the clink of the lumberer's axe and the "g'lang"
of the sturdy settler. The corn waves in luxuriant crops over land once
covered with the forest haunts of the moose, and the waters of the lakes
over which the red man paddled in his bark canoe are now ploughed by
crowded steamers. Where the bark dwellings of his fathers stood, the
locomotive darts away on its iron road, and the helpless Indian looks on
aghast at the power and resources of the pale-faced invaders of his soil.

The boat by which I was to leave Quebec was to sail on the afternoon of
the day on which I visited Lorette, but was detained till the evening by
the postmaster-general, when a heavy fog came on, which prevented its
departure till the next morning. The small-pox had broken out in the city,
and rumours of cholera had reached and alarmed the gay inhabitants of St.
Louis. I never saw terror so unrestrainedly developed as among some ladies
on hearing of the return of the pestilence. One of them went into
hysterics, and became so seriously ill that it was considered necessary
for her to leave Quebec the same evening. In consequence of the delay of
the boat, it was on a Sunday morning that I bade adieu to Quebec. I had
never travelled on a Sunday before, and should not have done so on this
occasion had it not been a matter of necessity. I am happy to state that
no boats run on the St. Lawrence on the Sabbath, and the enforced sailing
of the _John Munn_ caused a great deal of grumbling among the stewards and
crew. The streets were thronged with people going to early mass, and to a
special service held to avert the heavy judgments which it was feared were
impending over the city. The boat was full, and many persons who were
flying from the cholera had slept on board.

I took a regretful farewell of my friends, and with them of beautiful
Quebec. I had met with much of kindness and hospitality, but still I must
confess that the excessive gaiety and bustle of the city exercise a
depressing influence. People appear absorbed by the fleeting pleasures of
the hour; the attractions of this life seem to overbalance the importance
of the life to come; and among the poor there is a large amount of sin and
sorrow--too many who enter the world without a blessing, and depart from
it without a hope. The bright sun of the Indian summer poured down its
flood of light upon the castled steep, and a faint blue mist was diffused
over the scene of beauty. Long undulating lines showed where the blue
hills rose above the green island of Orleans, and slept in the haze of
that gorgeous season. Not a breath of wind stirred the heavy folds of the
flag of England on the citadel, or ruffled the sleeping St. Lawrence, or
the shadows of the countless ships on its surface; and the chimes of the
bells of the Romish churches floated gently over the water. Such a morning
I have seldom seen, and Quebec lay basking in beauty. Surely that
morning's sun shone upon no fairer city! The genial rays of that autumn
sun were typical of the warm kind hearts I was leaving behind, who had
welcomed a stranger to their hospitable homes; and, as the bell rang, and
the paddles revolved in the still deep water, a feeling of sorrow came
over my heart when I reflected that the friendly voices might never again
sound in my ear, and that the sunshine which was then glittering upon the
fortress-city might, to my eyes, glitter upon it no more.

The _John Munn_ was a very handsome boat, fitted up with that prodigality
which I have elsewhere described as characteristic of the American
steamers; but in the course of investigation I came upon the steerage, or
that part of the middle floor which is devoted to the poorer class of
emigrants, of whom five hundred had landed at Quebec only the day before.
The spectacle here was extremely annoying, for men, women, and children
were crowded together in an ill-ventilated space, with kettles, saucepans,
blankets, bedding, and large blue boxes. There was a bar for the sale of
spirits, which, I fear, was very much frequented, for towards night there
were sounds of swearing, fighting, and scuffling, proceeding from this
objectionable locality.

A day-boat was such a rare occurrence that some of the citizens of Quebec
took the journey merely to make acquaintance with the beauties of their
own river. We passed the Heights of Abraham, and Wolfe's Cove, famous in
history; wooded slopes and beautiful villas; the Chaudiere river, and its
pine-hung banks; but I was so ill that even the beauty of the St. Lawrence
could not detain me in the saloon, and I went down into the ladies' cabin,
where I spent the rest of the day on a sofa wrapped in blankets. A good
many of the ladies came down stairs to avoid some quadrilles which a
French Canadian lady was playing, and a friend of mine, Colonel P----,
having told some one that I had had the cholera, there was a good deal of
mysterious buzzing in consequence, of which I only heard a few
observations, such as--"How very imprudent!" "How very wrong to come into
a public conveyance!" "Just as we were trying to leave it behind too!" But
I was too ill to be amused, even when one lady went so far as to remove
the blanket to look at my face. There was a very pale and nervous-looking
young lady lying on a sofa opposite, staring fixedly at me. Suddenly she
got up, and asked me if I were very ill? I replied that I had been so.
"She's had the cholera, poor thing!" the stewardess unfortunately
observed. "The cholera!" she said, with an affrighted look; and, hastily
putting on her bonnet, vanished from the cabin, and never came down again.
She had left Quebec because of the cholera, having previously made
inquiries as to whether any one had died of it in the _John Munn_; and
now, being brought, as she fancied, into contact with it, her imagination
was so strongly affected that she was soon taken seriously ill, and brandy
and laudanum were in requisition. So great was the fear of contagion,
that, though the boat was so full that many people had to sleep on sofas,
no one would share a state-room with me.

We were delayed by fog, and did not reach Montreal till one in the
morning. I found Montreal as warm and damp as it had been cold and bracing
on my first visit; but the air was not warmer than the welcome which I
received. Kind and tempting was the invitation to prolong my stay at the
See House; enticing was the prospect offered me of a visit to a seigneurie
on the Ottawa; and it was with very great reluctance that, after a sojourn
of only one day, I left this abode of refinement and hospitality, and the
valued friends who had received me with so much kindness, for a tedious
journey to New York. I left the See House at five o'clock on the last day
of October, so ill that I could scarcely speak or stand. It was pitch-
dark, and the rain was pouring in torrents. The high wind blew out the
lamp which was held at the door; an unpropitious commencement of a
journey. Something was wrong with the harness; the uncouth vehicle was
nearly upset backwards; the steam ferryboat was the height of gloom,
heated to a stifling extent, and full of people with oil-skin coats and
dripping umbrellas. We crossed the rushing St. Lawrence just as the yellow
gas-lights of Montreal were struggling with the pale, murky dawn of an
autumn morning, and reached the cars on the other side before it was light
enough to see objects distinctly. Here the servant who had been kindly
sent with me left me, and the few hours which were to elapse before I
should join my friends seemed to present insurmountable difficulties. The
people in the cars were French, the names of the stations were French, and
"_Prenez-garde de la locomotive_!" denoted the crossings. How the
_laissez-faire_ habits of the _habitans_ must he outraged by the clatter
of a steam-engine passing their dwellings at a speed of thirty-five miles
an hour! Yet these very _habitans_ were talking in the most unconcerned
manner in French about a railway accident in Upper Canada, by which forty-
eight persons were killed! After a journey of two hours I reached Rouse's
Point, and, entering a handsome steamer on Lake Champlain, took leave of
the British dominions.

Before re-entering the territory of the stars and stripes, I will offer a
few concluding remarks on Canada.

CHAPTER XIV.

Concluding remarks on Canada--Territory--Climate--Capabilities--Railways
and canals--Advantages for emigrants--Notices of emigration--Government--
The franchise--Revenue--Population--Religion--Education--The press--
Literature--Observations in conclusion.

The increasing interest which attaches to this noble colony fully
justifies me in devoting a chapter to a fuller account of its state and
capabilities than has yet been given here.

Canada extends from Gaspe, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to Lake Superior.
Its shores are washed by the lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and by the
river St. Lawrence as far as the 45th parallel of latitude; from thence
the river flows through the centre of the province to the sea. Canada is
bounded on the west and south by the Great Lakes and the United States; to
the east by New Brunswick and the ocean; and to the north by the Hudson's
Bay territory, though its limits in this direction are by no means
accurately defined. Canada is but a small portion of the vast tract of
country known under the name of British America, the area of which is a
ninth part of the globe, and is considerably larger than that of the
United States, being 2,630,163,200 acres.

Canada contains 17,939,000 occupied acres of land, only 7,300,000 of which
are cultivated; and about 137,000,000 acres are still unoccupied. Nearly
the whole of this vast territory was originally covered with forests, and
from the more distant districts timber still forms a most profitable
article of export; but wherever the land is cleared it is found to be
fertile in an uncommon degree. It is very deficient in coal, but in the
neighbourhood of Lake Superior mineral treasures of great value have been
discovered to abound.

Very erroneous ideas prevail in England on the subject of the Canadian
climate. By many persons it is supposed that the country is for ever
"locked in regions of thick-ribbed ice," and that skating and sleighing
are favourite summer diversions of the inhabitants. Yet, on the contrary,
Lower Canada, or that part of the country nearest to the mouth of the St.
Lawrence, has a summer nearly equalling in heat those of tropical
climates. Its winter is long and severe, frequently lasting from the
beginning of December until April; but, if the thermometer stands at 35
below zero in January, it marks 90 in the shade in June. In the
neighbourhood of Quebec the cold is not much exceeded by that within the
polar circle, but the dryness of the air is so great that it is now
strongly recommended for those of consumptive tendencies. I have seen a
wonderful effect produced in the early stages of pulmonary disorders by a
removal from the damp, variable climate of Europe to the dry, bracing
atmosphere of Lower Canada. Spring is scarcely known; the transition from
winter to summer is very rapid; but the autumn or _fall_ is a long and
very delightful season. It is not necessary to dwell further upon the
Lower Canadian climate, as, owing to circumstances hereafter to be
explained, few emigrants in any class of life make the Lower Province more
than a temporary resting-place.

From the eastern coast to the western boundary the variations in climate
are very considerable. The peninsula of Canada West enjoys a climate as
mild as that of the state of New York. The mean temperature, taken from
ten years' observation, was 44 , and the thermometer rarely falls lower
than 11 below zero, while the heat in summer is not oppressive. The peach
and vine mature their fruit in the neighbourhood of Lake Ontario, and
tobacco is very successfully cultivated on the peninsula between Lake Erie
and Lake Huron. It seems that Upper Canada, free from the extremes of heat
and cold, is intended to receive a European population. Emigrants require
to become acclimatised, which they generally are by an attack of ague,
more or less severe; but the country is extraordinarily healthy; with the
exception of occasional visitations of cholera, epidemic diseases are
unknown, and the climate is very favourable to the duration of human life.

The capabilities of Canada are only now beginning to be appreciated. It
has been principally known for its vast exports of timber, but these
constitute a very small part of its wealth. Both by soil and climate Upper
Canada is calculated to afford a vast and annually-increasing field for
agricultural and pastoral pursuits. Wheat, barley, potatoes, turnips,
maize, hops, and tobacco, can all be grown in perfection. Canada already
exports large quantities of wheat and flour of a very superior
description; and it is stated that in no country of the world is there so
much wheat grown, in proportion to the population and the area under
cultivation, as in that part of the country west of Kingston. The grain-
growing district is almost without limit, extending as it does along the
St. Lawrence, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, to Windsor, with a vast expanse
of country to the north and west. The hops, which are an article of recent
cultivation, are of very superior quality, and have hitherto been
perfectly free from blight.

Vast as are the capabilities of Canada for agricultural pursuits, she also
offers great facilities for the employment of capital in manufacturing
industry, though it is questionable whether it is desirable to divert
labour into these channels in a young country where it is dear and scarce.
The streams which intersect the land afford an unlimited and very
economical source of power, and have already been used to a considerable
extent. Lower Canada and the shores of the Ottawa afford enormous supplies
of white pine, and the districts about Lake Superior contain apparently
inexhaustible quantities of ore, which yields a very large percentage of
copper. We have thus in Canada about 1400 miles of territory, perhaps the
most fertile and productive ever brought under the hands of the
cultivator; and as though Providence had especially marked out this
portion of the New World as a field for the enterprise of the European
races, its natural facilities for transit and communication are nearly
unequalled. The Upper Lakes, the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the
Saguenay, besides many rivers of lesser note, are so many natural highways
for the conveyance of produce of every description from the most distant
parts of the interior to the Atlantic Ocean. Without these natural
facilities Canada could never have progressed to the extraordinary extent
which she has already done.

Great as these adventitious advantages are, they have been further
increased by British energy and enterprise. By means of ship-canals,
formed to avoid the obstructions to navigation caused by the rapids of the
St. Lawrence, Niagara, and the Sault Sainte Marie, small vessels can load
at Liverpool and discharge their cargoes on the most distant shores of
Lake Superior. On the Welland canal alone, which connects Lake Erie with
Lake Ontario, the tolls taken in 1853 amounted to more than 65,000_l._ In
the same year 19,631 passengers and 1,075,218 tons of shipping passed
through it: the traffic on the other canals is in like proportion, and is
monthly on the increase. But an extensive railway system, to facilitate
direct communication with the Atlantic at all seasons of the year, is
paving the way for a further and rapid development of the resources of
Canada, and for a vast increase in her material prosperity. Already the
Great Western Company has formed a line from Windsor, opposite Detroit, U.
S., to Toronto, passing through the important towns of Hamilton, London,
and Woodstock: a branch also connects Toronto with Lake Simcoe, opening up
the very fertile tract of land in that direction. Another railway extends
from Fort Erie, opposite Buffalo, to Goderich on Lake Huron, a distance of
158 miles. A portion of the Grand Trunk Railway has recently been opened,
and trains now regularly run between Quebec and Montreal, a distance of
186 miles. When this magnificent railway is completed it will connect the
cities of Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto, where, joining the Great Western
scheme, the whole of Upper and Lower Canada will be connected with the
great lakes and the western States of the neighbouring republic. The main
line will cross the St. Lawrence at Montreal by a tubular bridge two miles
in length. The Grand Trunk Railway will have its eastern terminus at
Portland, in the State of Maine, between which city and Liverpool there
will be regular weekly communication. This railway is, however,
embarrassed by certain financial difficulties, which may retard for a time
the completion of the gigantic undertaking.

Another railway connects the important city of Ottawa with Prescott, on
the river St. Lawrence, and has its terminus opposite to the Ogdensburgh
station of the Boston railway. Besides these there are numerous branches,
completed or in course of construction, which will open up the industry of
the whole of the interior. Some of these lines, particularly the Great
Western, have a large traffic already, and promise to be very successful
speculations.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30