Life in the Backwoods

S >> Susanna Moodie >> Life in the Backwoods

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"Never fret about the china," said Moodie; "thank God, the man and the
horses are uninjured."

I should have felt more thankful had the crocks been spared too; for, like
most of my sex, I had a tender regard for china, and I knew that no fresh
supply could be obtained in this part of the world. Leaving his brother to
collect the scattered fragments, D____ proceeded on his journey. We left
the road, and were winding our way over a steep hill, covered with heaps
of brush and fallen timber, and as we reached the top, a light gleamed
cheerily from the windows of a log house, and the next moment we were at
my brother's door.

I thought my journey was at an end; but here I was doomed to fresh
disappointment. His wife was absent on a visit to her friends, and it had
been arranged that we were to stay with my sister, Mrs. T____, and her
husband. With all this I was unacquainted; and I was about to quit the
sleigh and seek the warmth of the fire when I was told that I had yet
further to go. Its cheerful glow was to shed no warmth on me, and, tired
as I was, I actually buried my face and wept upon the neck of a hound
which Moodie had given to Mr. S____, and which sprang up upon the sleigh
to lick my face and hands. This was my first halt in that weary
wilderness, where I endured so many bitter years of toil and sorrow. My
brother-in-law and his family had retired to rest, but they instantly rose
to receive the way-worn travellers; and I never enjoyed more heartily a
warm welcome after a long day of intense fatigue, than I did that night of
my first sojourn in the backwoods.

CHAPTER II.

THE WILDERNESS, AND OUR INDIAN FRIENDS.

The clouds of the preceding night, instead of dissolving into snow,
brought on a rapid thaw. A thaw in the middle of winter is the most
disagreeable change that can be imagined. After several weeks of clear,
bright, bracing, frosty weather, with a serene atmosphere and cloudless
sky, you awake one morning surprised at the change in the temperature;
and, upon looking out of the window, behold the woods obscured by a
murky haze--not so dense as an English November fog, but more black
and lowering--and the heavens shrouded in a uniform covering of
leaden-coloured clouds, deepening into a vivid indigo at the edge of the
horizon. The snow, no longer hard and glittering, has become soft and
spongy, and the foot slips into a wet and insidiously-yielding mass at
every step. From the roof pours down a continuous stream of water, and the
branches of the trees collecting the moisture of the reeking atmosphere,
shower it upon the earth from every dripping twig. The cheerless and
uncomfortable aspect of things without never fails to produce a
corresponding effect upon the minds of those within, and casts such a damp
upon the spirits that it appears to destroy for a time all sense of
enjoyment. Many persons (and myself among the number) are made aware of
the approach of a thunder-storm by an intense pain and weight about the
head; and I have heard numbers of Canadians complain that a thaw always
made them feel bilious and heavy, and greatly depressed their animal
spirits.

I had a great desire to visit our new location, but when I looked out upon
the cheerless waste, I gave up the idea, and contented myself with hoping
for a better day on the morrow; but many morrows came and went before a
frost again hardened the road sufficiently for me to make the attempt.

The prospect from the windows of my sister's log hut was not very
prepossessing. The small lake in front, which formed such a pretty object
in summer, now looked like an extensive field covered with snow, hemmed in
from the rest of the world by a dark belt of sombre pine-woods. The
clearing round the house was very small, and only just reclaimed from the
wilderness, and the greater part of it covered with piles of brushwood, to
be burned the first dry days of spring. The charred and blackened stumps
on the few acres that had been cleared during the preceding year were
every thing but picturesque; and I concluded, as I turned, disgusted, from
the prospect before me, that there was very little beauty to be found in
the backwoods. But I came to this decision during a Canadian thaw, be it
remembered, when one is wont to view every object with jaundiced eyes.

Moodie had only been able to secure sixty-six acres of his government
grant upon the Upper Kutchawanook Lake, which, being interpreted, means in
English, the "Lake of the Waterfalls," a very poetical meaning, which most
Indian names have. He had, however, secured a clergy reserve of two
hundred acres adjoining; and he afterwards purchased a fine lot which
likewise formed a part of the same block, one hundred acres, for L150.
[Footnote: After a lapse of fifteen years, we have been glad to sell
these lots of land, after considerable clearings had been made upon them,
for less than they originally cost us.] This was an enormously high price
for wild land, but the prospect of opening the Trent and Otonabee for the
navigation of steamboats and other small craft, was at that period a
favourite speculation, and its practicability, and the great advantages to
be derived from it, were so widely believed, as to raise the value of the
wild lands along these remote waters to an enormous price; and settlers in
the vicinity were eager to secure lots, at any sacrifice, along their
shores.

Our government grant was upon the lake shore, and Moodie had chosen for
the site of his log house a bank that sloped gradually from the edge of
the water, until it attained to the dignity of a hill. Along the top of
this ridge, the forest-road ran, and midway down the hill, our humble
home, already nearly completed, stood, surrounded by the eternal forest.
A few trees had been cleared in its immediate vicinity, just sufficient to
allow the workmen to proceed, and to prevent the fall of any tree injuring
the building, or the danger of its taking fire during the process of
burning the fallow.

A neighbour had undertaken to build this rude dwelling by contract, and
was to have it ready for us by the first week in the new year. The want of
boards to make the divisions in the apartments alone hindered him from
fulfilling his contract. These had lately been procured, and the house was
to be ready for our reception in the course of a week. Our trunks and
baggage had already been conveyed by Mr. D____ hither; and in spite of my
sister's kindness and hospitality, I longed to find myself once more
settled in a home of my own.

The day after our arrival, I was agreeably surprised by a visit from
Monaghan, whom Moodie had once more taken into his service. The poor
fellow was delighted that his nurse-child, as he always called little
Katie, had not forgotten him, but evinced the most lively satisfaction at
the sight of her dark friend.

Early every morning, Moodie went off to the house; and the first fine day,
my sister undertook to escort me through the wood, to inspect it. The
proposal was joyfully accepted; and although I felt _rather_ timid when I
found myself with only my female companion in the vast forest, I kept my
fears to myself, lest I should be laughed at. This foolish dread of
encountering wild beasts in the woods, I never could wholly shake off,
even after becoming a constant resident in their gloomy depths, and
accustomed to follow the forest-path, alone, or attended with little
children, daily. The cracking of an old bough, or the hooting of the owl,
was enough to fill me with alarm, and try my strength in a precipitate
flight. Often have I stopped and reproached myself for want of faith in
the goodness of Providence, and repeated the text, "The wicked are afraid
when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion," as if to
shame myself into courage. But it would not do; I could not overcome the
weakness of the flesh. If I had one of my infants with me, the wish to
protect the child from any danger which might beset my path gave me for a
time a fictitious courage; but it was like love fighting with despair.

It was in vain that my husband assured me that no person had ever been
attacked by wild animals in the woods, that a child might traverse them
even at night in safety; whilst I knew that wild animals existed in those
woods, I could not believe him, and my fears on this head rather increased
than diminished.

The snow had been so greatly decreased by the late thaw, that it had been
converted into a coating of ice, which afforded a dangerous and slippery
footing. My sister, who had resided for nearly twelve months in the woods,
was provided for her walk with Indian moccasins, which rendered her quite
independent; but I stumbled at every step. The sun shone brightly, the air
was clear and invigorating, and, in spite of the treacherous ground and my
foolish fears, I greatly enjoyed my first walk in the woods. Naturally of
a cheerful, hopeful disposition, my sister was enthusiastic in her
admiration of the woods. She drew such a lively picture of the charms of a
summer residence in the forest that I began to feel greatly interested in
her descriptions, and to rejoice that we too were to be her near
neighbours and dwellers in the woods; and this circumstance not a little
reconciled me to the change.

Hoping that my husband would derive an income equal to the one he had
parted with from the investment of the price of his commission in the
steamboat stock, I felt no dread of want. Our legacy of L700 had afforded
us means to purchase land, build our house, and give out a large portion
of land to be cleared, and, with a considerable sum of money still in
hand, our prospects for the future were in no way discouraging.

When we reached the top of the ridge that overlooked our cot, my sister
stopped, and pointed out a large dwelling among the trees. "There, S____,"
she said, "is your home. When that black cedar swamp is cleared away, that
now hides the lake from us, you will have a very, pretty view." My
conversation with her had quite altered the aspect of the country, and
predisposed me to view things in the most favourable light. I found Moodie
and Monaghan employed in piling up heaps of bush near the house, which
they intended to burn off by hand previous to firing the rest of the
fallow, to prevent any risk to the building from fire. The house was made
of cedar logs, and presented a superior air of comfort to most dwellings
of the same kind. The dimensions were thirty-six feet in length, and
thirty-two in breadth, which gave us a nice parlour, a kitchen, and two
small bedrooms, which were divided by plank partitions. Pantry or
storeroom there was none; some rough shelves in the kitchen, and a deal
cupboard n a corner of the parlour, being the extent of our accommodations
in that way.

Our servant, Mary Tate, was busy scrubbing out the parlour and bedroom;
but the kitchen, and the sleeping-room off it, were still knee-deep in
chips, and filled with the carpenter's bench and tools, and all our
luggage. Such as it was, it was a palace when compared to Old Satan's log
hut, or the miserable cabin we had wintered in during the severe winter of
1833, and I regarded it with complacency as my future home.

While we were standing outside the building, conversing with my husband, a
young gentleman, of the name of Morgan, who had lately purchased land in
that vicinity, went into the kitchen to light his pipe at the stove, and,
with true backwood carelessness, let the hot cinder fall among the dry
chips that strewed the floor. A few minutes after, the whole mass was in a
blaze, and it was not without great difficulty that Moodie and Mr. R____
succeeded in putting out the fire. Thus were we nearly deprived of our
home before we had taken up our abode in it.

The indifference to the danger of fire in a country where most of the
dwellings are composed of inflammable materials, is truly astonishing.
Accustomed to see enormous fires blazing on every hearth-stone, and to
sleep in front of these fires, his bedding often riddled with holes made
by hot particles of wood flying out during the night, and igniting beneath
his very nose, the sturdy backwoodsman never dreads an enemy in the
element that he is used to regard as his best friend. Yet what awful
accidents, what ruinous calamities arise, out of this criminal negligence,
both to himself and others!

A few days after this adventure, we bade adieu to my sister, and took
possession of our new dwelling and commenced "a life in the woods."

The first spring we spent in comparative ease and idleness. Our cows had
been left upon our old place during the winter. The ground had to be
cleared before it could receive a crop of any kind, and I had little to do
but to wander by the lake shore, or among the woods, and amuse myself.
These were the halcyon days of the bush. My husband had purchased a very
light cedar canoe, to which he attached a keel a sail; and most of our
leisure hours, directly the snows melted, were spent upon the water.

These fishing and shooting excursions were delightful. The pure beauty of
the Canadian water, the sombre but august grandeur of the vast forest that
hemmed us in on every side and shut us out from the rest of the world,
soon cast a magic spell upon our spirits, and we began to feel charmed
with the freedom and solitude around us. Every object was new to us. We
felt as if we were the first discoverers of every beautiful flower and
stately tree that attracted our attention, and we gave names to fantastic
rocks and fairy isles, and raised imaginary houses and bridges on every
picturesque spot which we floated past during our aquatic excursions. I
learned the use of the paddle, and became quite a proficient in the gentle
craft.

It was not long before we received visits from the Indians, a people whose
beauty, talents, and good qualities have been somewhat overrated, and
invested with a poetical interest which they scarcely deserve. Their
honesty and love of truth are the finest traits in characters otherwise
dark and unlovely. But these are two God-like attributes, and from them
spring all that is generous and ennobling about them.

There never was a people more sensible of kindness, or more grateful for
any little act of benevolence exercised towards them. We met them with
confidence; our dealings with them were conducted with the strictest
integrity; and they became attached to our persons, and in no single
instance ever destroyed the good opinion we entertained of them.

The tribes that occupy the shores of all these inland waters back of the
great lakes, belong to the Chippewa or Missasagua Indians, perhaps the
least attractive of all these wild people, both with regard to their
physical and mental endowments. The men of this tribe are generally small
of stature, with very coarse and repulsive features. The forehead is low
and retreating, the observing faculties large, the intellectual ones
scarcely developed; the ears large, and standing off from the face; the
eyes looking towards the temples, keen, snake-like, and far apart; the
cheek-bones prominent; the nose long and flat, the nostrils very round;
the jaw-bone projecting, massy, and brutal; the mouth expressing ferocity
and sullen determination; the teeth large, even, and dazzilngly white. The
mouth of the female differs widely in expression from that of the male;
the lips are fuller, the jaw less projecting, and the smile is simple and
agreeable. The women are a merry, light-hearted set, and their constant
laugh and incessant prattle form a strange contrast to the iron
taciturnity of their grim lords.

Now I am upon the subject, I will recapitulate a few traits and sketches
of these people, as they came under my own immediate observation.

A dry cedar swamp, not far from the house, by the lake shore, had been
their usual place of encampment for many years. The whole block of land
was almost entirely covered with maple-trees, and had originally been an
Indian sugar-bush. Although the favourite spot had now passed into the
hands of strangers, they still frequented the place, to make canoes and
baskets, to fish and shoot, and occasionally to follow their old
occupation. Scarcely a week passed away without my being visited by the
dark strangers; and as my husband never allowed them to eat with the
servants, but brought them to his own table, they soon grew friendly and
communicative, and would point to every object that attracted their
attention, asking a thousand questions as to its use, the material of
which it was made, and if we were inclined to exchange it for their
commodities? With a large map of Canada, they were infinitely delighted.
In a moment they recognized every bay and headland in Ontario, and almost
screamed with delight when, following the course of the Trent with their
fingers, they came to their own lake.

How eagerly each pointed out the spot to his fellows; how intently their
black heads were bent down, and their dark eyes fixed upon the map! What
strange, uncouth exclamations of surprise burst from their lips as they
rapidly repeated the Indian names for every lake and river on this
wonderful piece of paper!

The old chief, Peter Nogan, begged hard for the coveted treasure. He would
give "Canoe, venison, duck, fish, for it; and more, by and by."

I felt sorry that I was unable to gratify his wishes; but the map had cost
upwards of six dollars, and was daily consulted by my husband, in
reference to the names and situations of localities in the neighbourhood.

I had in my possession a curious Japanese sword, which had been given to
me by an uncle of Tom Wilson's--a strange gift to a young lady; but it was
on account of its curiosity, and had no reference to my warlike
propensities. This sword was broad, and three-sided in the blade, and in
shape resembled a moving snake. The hilt was formed of a hideous carved
image of one of their war-gods; and a more villainous wretch was never
conceived by the most distorted imagination. He was represented in a
sitting attitude, the eagle's claws, that formed his hands, resting upon
his knees; his legs terminated in lion's paws; and his face was a strange
compound of beast and bird--the upper part of his person being covered
with feathers, the lower with long, shaggy hair. The case of this awful
weapon was made of wood, and, in spite of its serpentine form, fitted it
exactly. No trace of a join could be found in this scabbard, which was of
hard wood, and highly polished.

One of my Indian friends found this sword lying upon the book-shelf, and
he hurried to communicate the important discovery to his companions.
Moodie was absent, and they brought it to me to demand an explanation of
the figure that formed the hilt. I told them that it was a weapon that
belonged to a very fierce people who lived in the East, far over the Great
Salt Lake; that they were not Christians, as we were, but said their
prayers to images made of silver, and gold, and ivory, and wood, and that
this was one of them; that before they went into battle they said their
prayers to that hideous thing, which they had made with their own hands.
The Indians were highly amused by this relation, and passed the sword from
one to the other, exclaiming, "A god!--Owgh!--A god!"

But, in spite of these outward demonstrations of contempt, I was sorry to
perceive that this circumstance gave the weapon a great value in their
eyes, and they regarded it with a sort of mysterious awe.

For several days they continued to visit the house, bringing along
with them some fresh companion to look at Mrs. Moodie's _god!_--until,
vexed and annoyed by the delight they manifested at the sight of the
eagle-beaked monster, I refused to gratify their curiosity by not
producing him again.

The manufacture of the sheath, which had caused me much perplexity, was
explained by old Peter in a minute. "'Tis burnt out," he said. "Instrument
made like sword--heat red-hot--burnt through--polished outside."

Had I demanded a whole fleet of canoes for my Japanese sword, I am certain
they would have agreed to the bargain. The Indian possesses great taste,
which is displayed in the carving of his paddles, in the shape of his
canoes, in the elegance and symmetry of his bows, in the cut of his
leggings and moccasins, the sheath of his hunting-knife, and in all the
little ornaments in which he delights. It is almost impossible for a
settler to imitate to perfection an Indian's cherry-wood paddle. My
husband made very creditable attempts, but still there was something
wanting--the elegance of the Indian finish was not there. If you show
them a good print, they invariably point out the most natural and the
best-executed figure in the group. They are particularly delighted with
pictures, examine them long and carefully, and seem to feel an artist-like
pleasure in observing the effect produced by light and shade.

I had been showing John Nogan, the eldest son of old Peter, some beautiful
coloured engravings of celebrated females; and to my astonishment he
pounced upon the best, and grunted out his admiration in the most approved
Indian fashion. After having looked for a long time at all the pictures
very attentively, he took his dog Sancho upon his knee, and showed him the
pictures, with as much gravity as if the animal really could have shared
in his pleasure. The vanity of these grave men is highly amusing. They
seem perfectly unconscious of it themselves; and it is exhibited in the
most childlike manner.

Peter and his son John were taking tea with us, when we were joined by my
brother Mr. S____. The latter was giving us an account of the marriage of
Peter Jones, the celebrated Indian preacher.

"I cannot think," he said, "how any lady of propeity and education could
marry such a man as Jones. Why, he's as ugly as Peter here."

This was said, not with any idea of insulting the red-skin on the score of
his beauty, of which he possessed not the smallest particle, but in total
forgetfulness that our guest understood English. Never shall I forget the
red flash of that fierce, dark eye as it glared upon my unconscious
brother. I would not have received such a fiery glance for all the wealth
that Peter Jones obtained with his Saxon bride. John Nogan was highly
amused by his father's indignation. He hid his face behind the chief; and
though he kept perfectly still, his whole frame was convulsed with
suppressed laughter.

A plainer human being than poor Peter could scarcely be imagined; yet he
certainly deemed himself handsome. I am inclined to think that their ideas
of personal beauty differ very widely from ours. Tom Nogan, the chief's
brother, had a very large, fat ugly squaw for his wife. She was a mountain
of tawny flesh; and, but for the innocent, good-natured expression, which,
like a bright sunbeam penetrating a swarthy cloud, spread all around a
kindly glow, she might have been termed hideous.

This woman they considered very handsome, calling her "a fine squaw--
clever squaw--a much good woman;" though in what her superiority
consisted, I never could discover, often as I visited the wigwam. She was
very dirty, and appeared quite indifferent to the claims of common decency
(in the disposal of the few filthy rags that covered her). She was,
however, very expert in all Indian craft. No Jew could drive a better
bargain than Mrs. Tom; and her urchins, of whom she was the happy mother
of five or six, were as cunning and avaricious as herself. One day she
visited me, bringing along with her a very pretty covered basket for sale.
I asked her what she wanted for it, but could obtain from her no
satisfactory answer. I showed her a small piece of silver. She shook her
head. I tempted her with pork and flour, but she required neither. I had
just given up the idea of dealing with her, in despair, when she suddenly
seized upon me, and, lifting up my gown, pointed exultingly to my quilted
petticoat, clapping her hands, and laughing immoderately.

Another time she led me all over the house, to show me what she wanted in
exchange for _basket_. My patience was well nigh exhausted in following
her from place to place, in her attempt to discover the coveted article,
when, hanging upon a peg in my chamber, she espied a pair of trowsers
belonging to my husband's logging-suit. The riddle was solved. With a
joyful cry she pointed to them, exclaiming "Take basket.--Give them!" It
was with no small difficulty that I rescued the indispensables from her
grasp.

From this woman I learned a story of Indian coolness and courage which
made a deep impression on my mind. One of their squaws, a near relation of
her own, had accompanied her husband on a hunting expedition into the
forest. He had been very successful, and having killed more deer than they
could well carry home, he went to the house of a white man to dispose of
some of it, leaving the squaw to take care of the rest until his return.
She sat carelessly upon the log with his hunting-knife in her hand, when
she heard the breaking of branches near her, and, turning round, beheld a
great bear only a few paces from her.

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