Various - "Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, May 23, 1891"

Thomas R. Allinson - "The Allinson Vegetarian Cookery Book"

Jerome B. Lavay - "Disputed Handwriting"

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius - "The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy"

Book Review: The Case Against Adolescence by Doug French
Moreover Technologies - Premier purveyor of real-time news and RSS feeds from across the Web

Book Review: grown up digital
Ad -

Books: Book review: 'The Mercy Papers' and 'Downtown Owl'
Extract not available.

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / R / S / T / U / V / W / Y / Z

The Backwoods of Canada written by Catharine Parr Traill

C >> Catharine Parr Traill >> The Backwoods of Canada




Opposite to the Quebec suburbs, just in front of the rapids, is situated
the island of St. Helens, a spot of infinite loveliness. The centre of
it is occupied by a grove of lofty trees, while the banks, sloping down
to the water, seem of the most verdant turf. The scene was heightened by
the appearance of the troops which garrison the island.

The shores of the river, studded with richly cultivated farms; the
village of La Prairie, with the little island of St. Ann's in the
distance; the glittering steeples and roofs of the city, with its
gardens and villas,--looked lovely by the softened glow of a Canadian
summer sunset.

The church bells ringing for evening prayer, with the hum of voices from
the shore, mingled not inharmoniously with the rush of the rapids.

These rapids are caused by a descent in the bed of the river. In some
places this declination is gradual, in others sudden and abrupt. Where
the current is broken by masses of limestone or granite rock, as at the
Cascades, the Cedars, and the Long Sault, it creates whirlpools and
cataracts. But the rapids below Montreal are not of this magnificent
character, being made perceptible only by the unusual swiftness of the
water, and its surface being disturbed by foam, and waving lines and
dimples. In short, I was disappointed in my expectation of seeing
something very grand; and was half angry at these pretty behaved quiet
rapids, to the foot of which we were towed in good style by our faithful
consort the _British America_.

As the captain is uncertain how long he may be detained at Montreal, I
shall send this letter without further delay, and write again as soon as
possible.




LETTER IV.

Landing at Montreal.--Appearance of the Town.--Ravages of the Cholera.--
Charitable Institutions in Montreal.--Catholic Cathedral.--Lower and
Upper Town.--Company and Conversation at the Hotel.--Writer attacked
with the Cholera.--Departure from Montreal in a Stage coach.--Embark at
Lachine on board a Steam-vessel.--Mode of travelling alternately in
Steam-vessels and Stages.--Appearance of the Country.--Manufactures.--
Ovens at a distance from the Cottages.--Draw-wells.--Arrival at
Cornwall.--Accommodation at the Inn.--Departure from Cornwall, and
Arrival at Prescott.--Arrival at Brockville.--Ship-launch there.--Voyage
through Lake Ontario.--Arrival at Cobourg

Nelson Hotel, Montreal, August 21.

Once more on terra ferma, dearest mother: what a strange sensation it is
to tread the land once again, free from the motion of the heaving
waters, to which I was now, in truth, glad to bid farewell.

By daybreak every creature on board was up and busily preparing for
going on shore. The captain himself obligingly escorted us, and walked
as far with us as the hotel, where we are at present lodged.

We found some difficulty in getting on shore, owing to the badness of
the landing. The river was full of floating timbers, between which it
required some skill to guide the boat. A wharf is now being built--not
before it was needed*. [* Some excellent wharfs have since been
completed.]

We were struck by the dirty, narrow, ill-paved or unpaved streets of the
suburbs, and overpowered by the noisome vapour arising from a deep open
fosse that ran along the street behind the wharf. This ditch seemed the
receptacle for every abomination, and sufficient in itself to infect a
whole town with malignant fevers*.

[* This has since been arched over. A market has been erected above it.]

I was greatly disappointed in my first acquaintance with the interior of
Montreal; a place of which travellers had said so much. I could compare
it only to the fruits of the Dead sea, which are said to be fair and
tempting to look upon, but yield only ashes and bitterness when tasted
by the thirsty traveller**.

..........

[** The following description of Montreal is given by M'Gregor in his
British America, vol. ii. p. 504:--"Betwixt the royal mountain and the
river, on a ridge of gentle elevation, stands the town. Including the
suburbs, it is more extensive than Quebec. Both cities differ very
greatly in appearance; the low banks of the St. Laurence at Montreal
want the tremendous precipices frowning over them, and all that grand
sublimity which characterizes Quebec.

"There are no wharfs at Montreal, and the ships and steamers lie quietly
in pretty deep water, close to the clayey and generally filthy bank of
the city. The whole of the lower town is covered with gloomy-looking
houses, having dark iron shutters; and although it may be a little
cleaner than Quebec, it is still very dirty; and the streets are not
only narrow and ill-paved, but the footpaths are interrupted by slanting
cellar doors and other projections."

"It is impossible (says Mr. Talbot, in his Five Years' Residence) to
walk the streets of Montreal on a Sunday or holiday, when the shops are
closed, without receiving the most gloomy impressions; the whole city
seems one vast prison;"--alluding to the window-shutters and outer doors
of iron, that have been adopted to counteract the effects of fire.]

..........

I noticed one peculiar feature in the buildings along the suburb facing
the river--that they were mostly furnished with broad wooden balconies
from the lower to the upper story; in some instances they surrounded the
houses on three sides, and seemed to form a sort of outer chamber. Some
of these balconies were ascended by flights of broad stairs from the
outside.

I remember when a child dreaming of houses so constructed, and fancying
them very delightful; and so I think they might be rendered, if shaded
by climbing shrubs, and adorned with flowers, to represent a hanging-
garden or sweet-scented bowery walk. But nothing of this kind gladdened
our eyes as we toiled along the hot streets. Every house of public
resort was crowded from the top to the bottom with emigrants of all
ages, English, Irish, and Scotch. The sounds of riotous merriment that
burst from them seemed but ill-assorted with the haggard, careworn faces
of many of the thoughtless revellers.

The contrast was only too apparent and too painful a subject to those
that looked upon this show of outward gaiety and inward misery.

The cholera had made awful ravages, and its devastating effects were to
be seen in the darkened dwellings and the mourning habiliments of all
classes. An expression of dejection and anxiety appeared in the faces of
the few persons we encountered in our walk to the hotel, which plainly
indicated the state of their minds.

In some situations whole streets had been nearly depopulated; those that
were able fled panic-stricken to the country villages, while others
remained to die in the bosom of their families.

To no class, I am told, has the disease proved so fatal as to the poorer
sort of emigrants. Many of these, debilitated by the privations and
fatigue of a long voyage, on reaching Quebec or Montreal indulged in
every sort of excess, especially the dangerous one of intoxication; and,
as if purposely paving the way to certain destruction, they fell
immediate victims to the complaint.

In one house eleven persons died, in another seventeen; a little child
of seven years old was the only creature left to tell the woful tale.
This poor desolate orphan was taken by the nuns to their benevolent
institution, where every attention was paid that humanity could suggest.

The number both of Catholic and Protestant benevolent societies is very
great, and these are maintained with a liberality of principle that does
honour to both parties, who seem indeed actuated by a fervent spirit of
Christian charity.

I how of no place, not even excepting London itself, where the exercise
of benevolent feelings is more called for than in these two cities,
Quebec and Montreal. Here meet together the unfortunate, the
improvident, the helpless orphan, the sick, the aged, the poor virtuous
man, driven by the stern hand of necessity from his country and his
home, perhaps to be overtaken by sickness or want in a land of
strangers.

It is melancholy to reflect that a great number of the poorest class of
emigrants that perished in the reign of the cholera have left no trace
by which their sorrowing anxious friends in the old country may learn
their fate. The disease is so sudden and so violent that it leaves no
time for arranging worldly matters; the sentinel comes, not as it did to
Hezekiah, "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die, and not live."

The weather is sultry hot, accompanied by frequent thunder-showers,
which have not the effect one would expect, that of cooling the heated
atmosphere. I experience a degree of languor and oppression that is very
distressing, and worse than actual pain.

Instead of leaving this place by the first conveyance for the upper
province, as we fully purposed doing, we find ourselves obliged to
remain two days longer, owing to the dilatoriness of the custom-house
officers in overlooking our packages. The fact is that everything and
everybody are out of sorts.

The heat has been too oppressive to allow of my walking much abroad. I
have seen but little of the town beyond the streets adjacent to the
hotel: with the exception of the Catholic Cathedral, I have seen few of
the public buildings. With the former I was much pleased: it is a fine
building, though still in an unfinished state, the towers not having
been carried to the height originally intended. The eastern window,
behind the altar, is seventy feet in height by thirty-three in width.
The effect of this magnificent window from the entrance, the altar with
its adornments and paintings, the several smaller altars and shrines,
all decorated with scriptural designs, the light tiers of galleries that
surround the central part of the church, the double range of columns
supporting the vaulted ceiling, and the arched windows, all combine to
form one beautiful whole. What most pleased me was the extreme lightness
of the architecture though I thought the imitation of marble, with which
the pillars were painted, coarse and glaring. We missed the time-
hallowing mellowness that age has bestowed on our ancient churches and
cathedrals. The grim corbels and winged angels that are carved on the
grey stone, whose very uncouthness tells of time gone by when our
ancestors worshipped within their walls, give an additional interest to
the temples of our forefathers. But, though the new church at Montreal
cannot compare with our York Minster, Westminster Abbey, and others of
our sacred buildings, it is well worthy the attention of travellers, who
will meet with nothing equal to it in the Canadas.

There are several colleges and nunneries, a hospital for the sick,
several Catholic and Protestant churches, meeting-houses, a guard-house,
with many other public edifices.

The river-side portion of the town is entirely mercantile. Its narrow,
dirty streets and dark houses, with heavy iron shutters, have a
disagreeable appearance, which cannot but make an unfavourable
impression on the mind of a British traveller. The other portion of the
town, however, is of a different character, and the houses are
interspersed with gardens and pleasant walks, which looked very
agreeable from the windows of the ball-room of the Nelson Hotel. This
room, which is painted from top to bottom, the walls and ceiling, with a
coarse imitation of groves and Canadian scenery, commands a superb view
of the city, the river, and all surrounding country, taking in the
distant mountains of Chamblay, the shores of St. Laurence, towards La
Prairie, and the rapids above and below the island of St. Anne's. The
royal mountain (Mont Real), with its wooded sides, its rich scenery, and
its city with its streets and public buildings, lie at your feet: with
such objects before you the eye may well be charmed with the scenery of
Montreal.

We receive the greatest attention from the master of the hotel, who is
an Italian. The servants of the house are very civil, and the company
that we meet at the ordinary very respectable, chiefly emigrants like
ourselves, with some lively French men and women. The table is well
supplied, and the charges for board and lodging one dollar per day
each*.

[* This hotel is not of the highest class, in which the charge is a
dollar and a half per day. Ed.]

I am amused with the variety of characters of which our table is
composed. Some of the emigrants appear to entertain the most sanguine
hopes of success, appearing to foresee no difficulties in carrying their
schemes into effect. As a contrast to these there is one of my
countrymen, just returned from the western district on his way back to
England, who entreats us by no means to go further up this horrid
country, as he emphatically styles the Upper Province, assuring us he
would not live in it for all the land it contained.

He had been induced, by reading Cattermole's pamphlet on the subject of
Emigration, to quit a good farm, and gathering together what property he
possessed, to embark for Canada. Encouraged by the advice of a friend in
this country, he purchased a lot of wild land in the western district;
"but sir," said he, addressing my husband with much vehemence, "I found
I had been vilely deceived. Such land, such a country--I would not live
in it for all I could see. Why, there is not a drop of wholesome water
to be got, or a potato that is fit to eat. I lived for two months in a
miserable shed they call a shanty, eaten up alive with mosquitoes. I
could get nothing to eat but salted pork, and, in short, the discomforts
are unbearable. And then all my farming knowledge was quite useless--
people know nothing about farming in this country. Why, it would have
broken my heart to work among the stumps, and never see such a thing as
a well-ploughed field. And then," he added, in a softer tone, "I thought
of my poor wife and the little one. I might, for the sake of bettering
my condition, have roughed out a year or so myself, but, poor thing, I
could not have had the heart to have brought her out from the comforts
of England to such a place, not so good as one of our cow-houses or
stables, and so I shall just go home; and if I don't tell all my
neighbours what sort of a country this is they are all crazing to throw
up their farms and come to, never trust a word of mine again."

It was to no purpose that some persons present argued with him on the
folly of returning until he had tried what could be done: he only told
them they were fools if they staid an hour in a country like this; and
ended by execrating those persons who deceived the people at home by
their false statements, who sum up in a few pages all the advantages,
without filling a volume with the disadvantages, as they might well do.

"Persons are apt to deceive themselves as well as to be deceived," said
my husband; "and having once fixed their minds on any one subject, will
only read and believe those things that accord with their wishes."

This young man was evidently disappointed in not finding all things as
fair and pleasant as at home. He had never reflected on the subject, or
he could not have been so foolish as to suppose he would encounter no
difficulties in his first outset, in a settlement in the woods. We are
prepared to meet with many obstacles, and endure considerable
privations, although I dare say we may meet with many unforeseen ones,
forewarned as we have been by our Canadian friend's letters.

Our places are taken in the stage for Lachine, and if all is well, we
leave Montreal to-morrow morning. Our trunks, boxes, &c. are to be sent
on by the forwarders to Cobourg.--August 22.

Cobourg, August 29.--When I closed my last letter I told you, my dear
mother, that we should leave Montreal by sunrise the following day; but
in this we were doomed to be disappointed, and to experience the truth
of these words: "Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not
what an hour may bring forth." Early that very morning, just an hour
before sunrise, I was seized with the symptoms of the fatal malady that
had made so many homes desolate. I was too ill to commence my journey,
and, with a heavy heart, heard the lumbering wheels rattle over the
stones from the door of the hotel.

I hourly grew worse, till the sister of the landlady, an excellent young
woman, who had previously shown me great attention, persuaded me to send
for a physician; and my husband, distracted at seeing me in such agony,
ran off to seek for the best medical aid. After some little delay a
physician was found. I was then in extreme torture; but was relieved by
bleeding, and by the violent fits of sickness that ensued. I will not
dwell minutely on my sufferings, suffice to say, they were intense; but
God, in his mercy, though he chastened and afflicted me, yet gave me not
over unto death. From the females of the house I received the greatest
kindness. Instead of fleeing affrighted from the chamber of sickness,
the two Irish girls almost quarrelled which should be my attendant;
while Jane Taylor, the good young woman I before mentioned, never left
me from the time I grew so alarmingly ill till a change for the better
had come over me, but, at the peril of her own life, supported me in her
arms, and held me on her bosom, when I was struggling with mortal agony,
alternately speaking peace to me, and striving to soothe the anguish of
my poor afflicted partner.

The remedies applied were bleeding, a portion of opium, blue pill, and
some sort of salts--not the common Epsom. The remedies proved effectual,
though I suffered much from sickness and headache for many hours. The
debility and low fever that took place of the cholera obliged me to keep
my bed some days. During the two first my doctor visited me four times a
day; he was very kind, and, on hearing that I was the wife of a British
officer emigrating to the Upper Province, he seemed more than ever
interested in my recovery, evincing a sympathy for us that was very
grateful to our feelings. After a weary confinement of several days, I
was at last pronounced in a sufficiently convalescent state to begin my
journey, though still so weak that I was scarcely able to support
myself.

The sun had not yet risen when the stage that was to take us to Lachine,
the first nine miles of our route, drove up to the door, and we gladly
bade farewell to a place in which our hours of anxiety had been many,
and those of pleasure few. We had, however, experienced a great deal of
kindness from those around us, and, though perfect strangers, had tasted
some of the hospitality for which this city has often been celebrated. I
omitted, in my former letter, telling you how we formed an acquaintance
with a highly respectable merchant in this place, who afforded us a
great deal of useful information, and introduced us to his wife, a very
elegant and accomplished young woman. During our short acquaintance, we
passed some pleasant hours at their house, much to our satisfaction.

I enjoyed the fresh breeze from the river along the banks of which our
road lay. It was a fine sight to see the unclouded sun rising from
behind the distant chain of mountains. Below us lay the rapids in their
perturbed state, and there was the island of St. Anne's, bringing to our
minds Moore's Canadian boat song: "We'll sing at Saint Anne's our
parting hymn."

The bank of the St. Laurence, along which our road lay, is higher here
than at Montreal, and clothed with brushwood on the summit, occasionally
broken with narrow gulleys. The soil, as near as I could see, was sandy
or light loam. I noticed the wild vine for the first time twining among
the saplings. There were raspberry bushes, too, and a profusion of that
tall yellow flower we call Aaron's golden rod, a _solidago_, and the
white love-everlasting, the same that the chaplets are made of by the
French and Swiss girls to adorn the tombs of their friends, and which
they call _immortelle_; the Americans call it life-everlasting; also a
tall purple-spiked valerian, that I observed growing in the fields among
the corn, as plentiful as the bugloss is in our light sandy fields in
England.

At Lachine we quitted the stage and went on board a steamer, a fine
vessel elegantly fitted up with every accommodation. I enjoyed the
passage up the river exceedingly, and should have been delighted with
the journey by land had not my recent illness weakened me so much that I
found the rough roads very unpleasant. As to the vehicle, a Canadian
stage, it deserves a much higher character than travellers have had the
candour to give it, and is so well adapted for the roads over which it
passes that I doubt if it could be changed for a more suitable one. This
vehicle is calculated to hold nine persons, three back, front, and
middle; the middle seat, which swings on broad straps of leather; is by
far the easiest, only you are liable to be disturbed when any of the
passengers choose to get out.

Certainly the travelling is arranged with as little trouble to the
traveller as possible. Having paid your fare to Prescott you have no
thought or care. When you quit the steam-boat you find a stage ready to
receive you and your luggage, which is limited to a certain proportion.
When the portage is passed (the land carriage), you find a steam-vessel
ready, where you have every accommodation. The charges are not
immoderate, considering the comforts you enjoy.

In addition to their own freight, the steamers generally tow up several
other vessels. We had three Durham boats at one time, beside some other
small craft attached to us, which certainly afforded some variety, if
not amusement.

With the exception of Quebec and Montreal, I must give the preference to
the Upper Province. If not on so grand a scale, the scenery is more
calculated to please, from the appearance of industry and fertility it
displays. I am delighted, in travelling along the road, with the
neatness, cleanliness, and comfort of the cottages and farms. The log-
house and shanty rarely occur, having been supplanted by pretty frame
houses, built in a superior style, and often painted white-lead colour
or a pale pea-green. Around these habitations were orchards, bending
down with a rich harvest of apples, plums, and the American crab, those
beautiful little scarlet apples so often met with as a wet preserve
among our sweetmeats at home.

You see none of the signs of poverty or its attendant miseries. No
ragged, dirty, squalid children, dabbling in mud or dust; but many a
tidy, smart-looking lass was spinning at the cottage-doors, with bright
eyes and braided locks, while the younger girls were seated on the green
turf or on the threshold, knitting and singing as blithe as birds.

There is something very picturesque in the great spinning-wheels that
are used in this country for spinning the wool, and if attitude were to
be studied among our Canadian lasses, there cannot be one more becoming,
or calculated to show off the natural advantages of a fine figure, than
spinning at the big wheel. The spinster does not sit, but walks to and
fro, guiding the yarn with one hand while with the other she turns the
wheel.

I often noticed, as we passed by the cottage farms, hanks of yarn of
different colours hanging on the garden or orchard fence to dry; there
were all manner of colours, green, blue, purple, brown, red, and white.
A civil landlady, at whose tavern we stopped to change horses, told me
these hanks of yarn were first spun and then dyed by the good wives,
preparatory to being sent to the loom. She showed me some of this home-
spun cloth, which really looked very well. It was a dullish dark brown,
the wool being the produce of a breed of black sheep. This cloth is made
up in different ways for family use.

"Every little dwelling you see," said she, "has its lot of land, and,
consequently, its flock of sheep; and, as the children are early taught
to spin, and knit, and help dye the yarn, their parents can afford to
see them well and comfortably clothed.

"Many of these very farms you now see in so thriving a condition were
wild land thirty years ago, nothing but Indian hunting-grounds. The
industry of men, and many of them poor men, that had not a rood of land
of their own in their own country, has effected this change."

I was much gratified by the reflection to which this good woman's
information gave rise. "We also are going to purchase wild land, and why
may not we see our farm, in process of time," thought I, "equal these
fertile spots. Surely this is a blessed country to which we have
emigrated," said I, pursuing the pleasing idea, "where every cottage
abounds with the comforts and necessaries of life."

I perhaps overlooked at that time the labour, the difficulties, the
privations to which these settlers had been exposed when they first came
to this country. I saw it only at a distance of many years, under a high
state of cultivation, perhaps in the hands of their children or their
children's children, while the toil-worn parent's head was low in the
dust.

Among other objects my attention was attracted by the appearance of open
burying-grounds by the roadside. Pretty green mounds, surrounded by
groups of walnut and other handsome timber trees, contained the graves
of a family, or may be, some favoured friends slept quietly below the
turf beside them. If the ground was not consecrated, it was hallowed by
the tears and prayers of parents and children.