Jesuits, priests, and recollets. The Jesuits are, without doubt, the
most considerable; therefore they commonly say here, by way of proverb,
that a hatchet is sufficient to sketch out a recollet; a priest cannot
be made without a chissel; but a Jesuit absolutely requires the pencil
[44]; to shew how much one surpasses the others. The Jesuits are
commonly very learned, studious, and are very civil and agreeable in
company. In their whole deportment there is something pleasing; it is
no wonder therefore that they captivate the minds of people. They
seldom speak of religious matters; and if it happens, they generally
avoid disputes. They are very ready to do any one a service; and when
they see that their assistance is wanted, they hardly give one time to
speak of it, falling to work immediately, to bring about what is
required of them. Their conversation is very entertaining and learned,
so that one cannot be tired of their company. Among all the Jesuits I
have conversed with in Canada, I have not found one who was not
possessed of these qualities in a very eminent degree. They have large
possessions in this country, which the French king gave them. At
Montreal they have likewise a fine church, and a little neat house,
with a small but pretty garden within. They do not care to become
preachers to a congregation in the town and country; but leave these
places, together with the emoluments arising from them, to the priests.
All their business here is to convert the heathens; and with that view
their missionaries are scattered over every part of this country. Near
every town and village, peopled by converted Indians, are one or two
Jesuits, who take great care that they may not return to paganism, but
live as Christians ought to do. Thus there are Jesuits with the
converted Indians in Tadoussac, Lorette, Becancourt, St. François,
Sault St. Louis, and all over Canada. There are likewise Jesuit
missionaries with those who are not converted; so that there is
commonly a Jesuit in every village belonging to the Indians, whom he
endeavours on all occasions to convert. In winter he goes on their
great hunts, where he is frequently obliged to suffer all imaginable
inconveniencies; such as walking in the snow all day; lying in the open
air all winter; being out both in good and bad weather, the Indians not
regarding any kind of weather; lying in the Indian huts, which often
swarm with fleas and other vermin, &c. The Jesuits undergo all these
hardships for the sake of converting the Indians, and likewise for
political reasons. The Jesuits are of great use to their king; for they
are frequently able to persuade the Indians to break their treaty with
the English, to make war upon them, to bring their furs to the French,
and not to permit the English to come amongst them. But there is some
danger attending these attempts; for when the Indians are in liquor,
they sometimes kill the missionaries who live with them; calling them
spies, or excusing themselves by saying that the brandy had killed
them. These are accordingly the chief occupations of the Jesuits here.
They do not go to visit the sick in the town, they do not hear the
confessions, and attend at no funerals. I have never seen them go in
processions in remembrance of the Virgin Mary, and other saints. They
seldom go into a house in order to get meat; and though they be
invited, they do not like to stay, except they be on a journey. Every
body sees, that they are, as it were, selected from the other people,
on account of their superior genius and qualities. They are here
reckoned a most cunning set of people, who generally succeed in their
undertakings, and surpass all others in acuteness of understanding. I
have therefore several times observed that they have enemies in Canada.
They never receive any others into their society, but persons of very
promising parts; so that there are no blockheads among them. On the
other hand, the priests receive the best kind of people among their
order they can meet with; and in the choice of monks, they are yet less
careful. The Jesuits who live here, are all come from France; and many
of them return thither again, after a stay of a few years here. Some
(five or six of which are yet alive) who were born in Canada, went over
to France, and were received among the Jesuits there; but none of them
ever came back to Canada. I know not what political reason hindered
them. During my stay in Quebec, one of the priests, with the bishop’s
leave, gave up his priesthood, and became a Jesuit. The other priests
were very ill pleased with this, because it seemed as if he looked upon
their condition as too mean for himself. Those congregations in the
country that pay rents to the Jesuits, have, however, divine service
performed by priests, who are appointed by the bishop; and the
land-rent only belongs to the Jesuits. Neither the priests nor the
Jesuits carry on any trade with furs and skins, leaving that entirely
to the merchants.
This afternoon I visited the building called the Seminary, where all
the priests live in common. They have a great house, built of stone,
with walks in it, and rooms on each side. It is several stories high,
and close to it is a fine garden, full of all sorts of fruit-trees and
pot-herbs, and divided by walks. The prospect from hence is the finest
in Quebec. The priests of the seminary are not much inferior to the
Jesuits in civility; and therefore I spent my time very agreeably in
their company.
The priests are the second and most numerous class of the clergy in
this country; for most of the churches, both in towns and villages (the
Indian converts excepted) are served by priests. A few of them are
likewise missionaries. In Canada are two seminaries; one in Quebec, the
other in Montreal. The priests of the seminary in Montreal are of the
order of St. Sulpitius, and supply only the congregation on the isle of
Montreal, and the town of the same name. At all the other churches in
Canada, the priests belonging to the Quebec seminary officiate. The
former, or those of the order of St. Sulpitius, all come from France;
and I was assured that they never suffer a native of Canada to come
among them. In the seminary at Quebec, the natives of Canada make the
greater part. In order to fit the children of this country for orders,
there are schools at Quebec and St. Joachim; where the youths are
taught Latin, and instructed in the knowledge of those things and
sciences, which have a more immediate connexion with the business they
are intended for. However, they are not very nice in their choice; and
people of a middling capacity are often received among them. They do
not seem to have made great progress in Latin; for notwithstanding the
service is read in that language, and they read their Latin Breviary,
and other books, every day, yet most of them found it very difficult to
speak it. All the priests in the Quebec seminary are consecrated by the
bishop. Both the seminaries have got great revenues from the king; that
in Quebec has above thirty thousand livres. All the country on the west
side of the river St. Lawrence, from the town of Quebec to bay St.
Paul, belongs to this seminary, besides their other possessions in the
country. They lease the land to the settlers for a certain rent, which,
if it be annually paid according to their agreement, the children or
heirs of the settlers may remain in an undisturbed possession of the
lands. A piece of land, three arpens [45] broad, and thirty, forty, or
fifty arpens long, pays annually an ecu [46], and a couple of chickens,
or some other additional trifle. In such places as have convenient
water-falls, they have built water-mills, or saw-mills, from which they
annually get considerable sums. The seminary of Montreal possesses the
whole ground on which that town stands, together with the whole isle of
Montreal. I have been assured, that the ground-rent of the town and
isle is computed at seventy thousand livres; besides what they get for
saying masses, baptizing, holding confessions, attending at marriages
and funerals, &c. All the revenues of ground-rent belong to the
seminaries alone, and the priests in the country have no share in them.
But as the seminary in Montreal, consisting only of sixteen priests,
has greater revenues than it can expend, a large sum of money is
annually sent over to France, to the chief seminary there. The
land-rents belonging to the Quebec seminary are employed for the use of
the priests in it, and for the maintenance of a number of young people,
who are brought up to take orders. The priests who live in the country
parishes, get the tythe from their congregation, together with the
perquisites on visiting the sick, &c. In small congregations, the king
gives the priests an additional sum. When a priest in the country grows
old, and has done good services, he is sometimes allowed to come into
the seminary in town. The seminaries are allowed to place the priests
on their own estates; but the other places are in the gift of the
bishop.
The recollets are the third class of clergymen in Canada. They have a
fine large dwelling house here, and a fine church, where they
officiate. Near it is a large and fine garden, which they cultivate
with great application. In Montreal, and Trois Rivieres, they are
lodged almost in the same manner as here. They do not endeavour to
choose cunning fellows amongst them, but take all they can get. They do
not torment their brains with much learning; and I have been assured,
that after they have put on their monastic habit, they do not study to
increase their knowledge, but forget even what little they knew before.
At night they generally ly on mats, or some other hard matrasses;
however, I have sometimes seen good beds in the cells of some of them.
They have no possessions here, having made vows of poverty, and live
chiefly on the alms which people give them. To this purpose, the young
monks, or brothers, go into the houses with a bag, and beg what they
want. They have no congregations in the country, but sometimes they go
among the Indians as missionaries. In each fort, which contains forty
men, the king keeps one of these monks, instead of a priest, who
officiates there. The king gives him lodging, provisions, servants, and
all he wants; besides two hundred livres a year. Half of it he sends to
the community he belongs to; the other half he reserves for his own
use. On board the king’s ships are generally no other priests than
these friars, who are therefore looked upon as people belonging to the
king. When one of the chief priests [47] in the country dies, and his
place cannot immediately be filled up, they send one of these friars
there, to officiate whilst the place is vacant. Part of these monks
come over from France, and part are natives of Canada. There are no
other monks in Canada besides these, except now and then one of the
order of St. Austin or some other, who comes with one of the king’s
ships, but goes off with it again.
August the 11th. This morning I took a walk out of town, with the royal
physician M. Gaulthier, in order to collect plants, and to see a
nunnery at some distance from Quebec. This monastery which is built
very magnificently of stone, lies in a pleasant spot, surrounded with
corn-fields, meadows, and woods, from whence Quebec and the river St.
Lawrence may be seen; a hospital for poor old people, cripples, &c.
makes part of the monastery, and is divided into two halls, one for
men, the other for women. The nuns attend both sexes, with this
difference however, that they only prepare the meal for the men and
bring it in to them, give them physick, and take the cloth away when
they have eaten, leaving the rest for male servants. But in the hall
where the women are, they do all the work that is to be done. The
regulation in the hospital was the same as in that at Quebec. To shew
me a particular favour, the bishop, at the desire of the Marquis la
Galissonniere, governor-general of Canada, granted me leave to see this
nunnery likewise, where no man is allowed to enter, without his leave,
which is an honour he seldom confers on any body. The abbess led me and
M. Gaulthier through all the apartments, accompanied by a great number
of nuns. Most of the nuns here are of noble families and one was the
daughter of a governor. Many of them are old, but there are likewise
some very young ones among them, who looked very well. They seemed all
to be more polite than those in the other nunnery. Their rooms are the
same as in the last place, except some additional furniture in their
cells; the beds are hung with blue curtains; there are a couple of
small bureaux, a table between them and some pictures on the walls.
There are however no stoves in any cell. But those halls and rooms, in
which they are assembled together, and in which the sick ones ly, are
supplied with an iron stove. The number of nuns is indeterminate here,
and I saw a great number of them. Here are likewise some probationers
preparing for their reception among the nuns. A number of little girls
are sent hither by their parents, to be instructed by the nuns in the
principles of the christian religion, and in all sorts of ladies work.
The convent at a distance looks like a palace, and, as I am told, was
founded by a bishop, who they say is buried in a part of the church.
We botanized till dinner-time in the neighbouring meadows, and then
returned to the convent to dine with a venerable old father recollet,
who officiated here as a priest. The dishes were all prepared by nuns,
and as numerous and various as on the tables of great men. There were
likewise several sorts of wine, and many preserves. The revenues of
this monastery are said to be considerable. At the top of the building
is a small steeple with a bell. Considering the large tracts of land
which the king has given in Canada to convents, Jesuits, priests, and
several families of rank, it seems he has very little left for himself.
Our common rasp-berries, are so plentiful here on the hills, near
corn-fields, rivers and brooks, that the branches look quite red on
account of the number of berries on them. They are ripe about this
time, and eaten as a desert after dinner, both fresh and preserved.
The Mountain Ash, or Sorb-tree [48] is pretty common in the woods
hereabouts.
They reckon the north-east wind the most piercing of all, here. Many of
the best people here, assured me, that this wind when it is very
violent in winter, pierces through walls of a moderate thickness, so
that the whole wall on the inside of the house is covered with snow, or
a thick hoar frost; and that a candle placed near a thinner wall is
almost blown out by the wind which continually comes through. This wind
damages the houses which are built of stone, and forces the owners to
repair them very frequently on the north-east side. The north and
north-east winds are likewise reckoned very cold here. In summer the
north wind is generally attended with rain.
The difference of climate between Quebec and Montreal is on all hands
allowed to be very great. The wind and weather of Montreal are often
entirely different from what they are at Quebec. The winter there is
not near so cold as in the last place. Several sorts of fine pears will
grow near Montreal; but are far from succeeding at Quebec, where the
frost frequently kills them. Quebec has generally more rainy weather,
spring begins later, and winter sooner than at Montreal, where all
sorts of fruits ripen a week or two earlier than at Quebec.
August the 12th. This afternoon I and my servant went out of town, to
stay in the country for a couple of days that I might have more leisure
to examine the plants which grow in the woods here, and the state of
the country. In order to proceed the better, the governor-general had
sent for an Indian from Lorette to shew us the way, and teach us what
use they make of the spontaneous plants hereabouts. This Indian was an
Englishman by birth, taken by the Indians thirty years ago, when he was
a boy, and adopted by them, according to their custom, instead of a
relation of theirs killed by the enemy. Since that time he constantly
stayed with them, became a Roman Catholic and married an Indian woman;
he dresses like an Indian, speaks English and French, and many of the
Indian languages. In the wars between the French and English, in this
country, the French Indians have made many prisoners of both sexes in
the English plantations, adopted them afterwards, and they married with
people of the Indian nations. From hence the Indian blood in Canada is
very much mixed with European blood, and a great part of the Indians
now living, owe their origin to Europe. It is likewise remarkable, that
a great part of the people they had taken during the war and
incorporated with their nations, especially the young people, did not
choose to return to their native country, though their parents and
nearest relations came to them and endeavoured to persuade them to it,
and though it was in their power to do it. The licentious life led by
the Indians, pleased them better than that of their European relations;
they dressed like the Indians, and regulated all their affairs in their
way. It is therefore difficult to distinguish them, except by their
colour, which is somewhat whiter than that of the Indians. There are
likewise examples of some Frenchmen going amongst the Indians and
following their way of life. There is on the contrary scarce one
instance of an Indian’s adopting the European customs; but those who
were taken prisoners in the war, have always endeavoured to come to
their own people again, even after several years of captivity, and
though they enjoyed all the privileges that were ever possessed by the
Europeans in America.
The lands, which we passed over, were every where laid out into
corn-fields, meadows, or pastures. Almost all round us the prospect
presented to our view farms and farm-houses, and excellent fields and
meadows. Near the town the land is pretty flat, and intersected now and
then by a clear rivulet. The roads are very good, broad, and lined with
ditches on each side, in low grounds. Further from the town, the land
rises higher and higher, and consists as it were of terraces, one above
another. This rising ground is, however, pretty smooth, chiefly without
stones, and covered with rich mould. Under that is the black
lime-slate, which is so common hereabouts, and is divided into small
shivers, and corroded by the air. Some of the strata were horizontal,
others perpendicular; I have likewise found such perpendicular strata
of lime-states in other places, in the neighbourhood of Quebec. All the
hills are cultivated; and some are adorned with fine churches, houses,
and corn-fields. The meadows are commonly in the vallies, though some
were likewise on eminencies. Soon after we had a fine prospect from one
of these hills. Quebec appeared very plain to the eastward, and the
river St. Lawrence could likewise be seen; further distant, on the
south-east side of that river, appears a long chain of high mountains,
running generally parallel to if, though many miles distant from it. To
the west again, at some distance from the rising lands where we were,
the hills changed into a long chain of very high mountains, lying very
close to each other, and running parallel likewise to the river, that
is nearly from south to north. These high mountains consist of a grey
rock-stone, composed of several kinds of stone, which I shall mention
in the sequel. These mountains seem to prove, that the lime-slates are
of as antient a date as the grey rock-stone, and not formed in later
times; for the amazing large grey rocks ly on the top of the mountains,
which consist of black lime-slates.
The high meadows in Canada are excellent, and by far preferable to the
meadows round Philadelphia, and in the other English colonies. The
further I advanced northward here, the finer were the meadows, and the
turf upon them was better and closer. Almost all the grass here is of
two kinds, viz. a species of the narrow leaved meadow grass [49]; for
its spikes [50] contain either three or four flowers; which are so
exceedingly small, that the plant might easily be taken for a bent
grass [51]; and its seeds have several small downy hairs at the bottom.
The other plant, which grows grows in the meadows, is the white clover
[52]. These two plants form the hay in the meadows; they stand close
and thick together, and the meadow grass (poa) is pretty tall, but has
very thin stalks. At the root of the meadow grass, the ground was quite
covered with clover, so that one cannot wish for finer meadows, than
are found here. Almost all the meadows have been formerly corn-fields,
as appears from the furrows on the ground, which still remained. They
can be mown but once every summer, as spring commences very late.
They were now busied with making hay, and getting it in, and I was
told, they had begun about a week ago. They have hay-stacks near most
of their meadows, and on the wet ones, they make use of conic
hay-stacks. Their meadows are commonly without enclosures, the cattle
being in the pastures on the other side of the woods, and having
cowherds to take care of them where they are necessary.
The corn-fields are pretty large. I saw no drains any where, though
they seemed to be wanting in some places. They are divided into ridges,
of the breadth of two or three yards broad, between the furrows. The
perpendicular height of the middle of the ridge, from the level to the
ground, is near one foot. All their corn is summer-corn; for as the
cold in winter destroys the corn which lies in the ground, they never
sow in autumn. I found white wheat most commonly in the fields. They
have likewise large fields with pease, oats, in some places summer-rye,
and now and then barley. Near almost every farm I met with cabbages,
pumpions, and melons. The fields are not always sown, but ly fallow
every two years. The fallow-fields are not ploughed in summer, so the
weeds grow without restraint in them, and the cattle are allowed to go
on them all summer [53].
The houses in the country are built promiscuously of stone, or wood. To
those of stone they do not employ bricks, as there is not yet any
considerable quantity of bricks made here. They therefore take what
stones they can find in the neighbourhood, especially the black
lime-slates. These are quite compact when broke, but shiver when
exposed to the air; however, this is of little consequence, as the
stones stick fast in the wall, and do not fall asunder. For want of it,
they sometimes make their buildings of lime-stone, or sand-stone, and
sometimes of grey rock-stone. The walls of such houses are commonly two
foot thick, and seldom thinner. The people here can have lime every
where in this neighbourhood. The greater part of the houses in the
country, are built of wood, and sometimes plaistered over on the
outside. The chinks in the walls are filled with clay, instead of moss.
The houses are seldom above one story high. In every room is either a
chimney or stove, or both together. The stoves have the form of an
oblong square; some are entirely of iron, about two feet and a half
long, one foot and a half, or two feet, high, and near a foot and a
half broad; these iron stoves are all cast at the iron-works at Trois
Rivieres. Some are made of bricks, or stones, not much larger than the
iron stoves, but covered at top with an iron plate. The smoke from the
stoves is conveyed up the chimney, by an iron pipe. In summer the
stoves are removed.
This evening we arrived at Lorette, where we lodged with the Jesuits.
August the 13th. In the morning we continued our journey through the
woods to the high mountains, in order to see what scarce plants and
curiosities we could get there. The ground was flat at first, and
covered with a thick wood all round, except in marshy places. Near half
the plants, which are to be met with here, grow in the woods and
morasses of Sweden.
We saw wild Cherry-trees here, of two kinds, which are probably mere
varieties, though they differ in several respects. Both are pretty
common in Canada, and both have red berries. One kind, which is called
Cerisier by the French, tastes like our Alpine cherries, and their acid
contracts the mouth, and cheeks. The berries of the other sort have an
agreeable sourness, and a pleasant taste [54].
The three-leaved Hellebore [55] grows in great plenty in the woods, and
in many places it covers the ground by itself. However, it commonly
chooses mossy places, that are not very wet; and the wood-sorrel [56],
with the Mountain Enchanter’s Nightshade [57], are its companions. Its
seeds were not yet ripe, and most of the stalks had no seeds at all.
This plant is called Tissavoyanne jaune by the French, all over Canada.
Its leaves and stalks are used by the Indians, for giving a fine yellow
colour to several kinds of work, which they make of prepared skins. The
French, who have learnt this from them, dye wool and other things
yellow with this plant.
We climbed with a great deal of difficulty to the top of one of the
highest mountains here, and I was vexed to find nothing at its summit,
but what I had seen in other parts of Canada before. We had not even
the pleasure of a prospect, because the trees, with which the mountain
is covered, obstructed it. The trees that grow here are a kind of
hornbeam, or Carpinus Ostrya, Linn. the American elm, the red maple,
the sugar-maple, that kind of maple which cures scorched wounds (which
I have not yet described), the beech, the common birch-tree, the
sugar-birch [58], the sorb-tree, the Canada pine, called Perusse, the
mealy-tree with dentated leaves [59], the ash, the cherry-tree,
(Cerisier) just before described, and the berry-bearing yew.
The Gnats in this wood were more numerous than we could have wished.
Their bite caused a blistering of the skin; and the Jesuits at Lorette
said, the best preservative against their attacks is to rub the face,
and naked parts of the body, with grease. Cold water they reckon the
best remedy against the bite, when the wounded places are washed with
it, immediately after.
At night we returned to Lorette, having accurately examined the plants
of note we met with to-day.