provinces. This perhaps depends upon the difference of custom, taste,
and religion, between the two nations. They eat three meals a day, viz.
breakfast, dinner, and supper. They breakfast commonly between seven
and eight. For the French here rise very early, and the
governor-general can be spoke to at seven o’clock, which is the time
when he has his levee. Some of the men dip a piece of bread in brandy,
and eat it; others take a dram of brandy, and eat a piece of bread
after it. Chocolate is likewise very common for breakfast, and many of
the ladies drink coffee. Some eat no breakfast at all. I have never
seen tea made use of; perhaps because they can get coffee and chocolate
from the French provinces in South-America; but must get tea from
China, for which it is not worth their while to send the money out of
their country. Dinner is pretty exactly at noon. People of quality have
a great variety of dishes, and the rest follow their example, when they
invite strangers. The loaves are oval, and baked of wheat flour. For
each person they put a plate, napkin, spoon, and fork. Sometimes they
likewise give knives; but they are generally omitted, all the ladies
and gentlemen being provided with their own knives. The spoons and
forks are of silver, and the plates of Delft ware. The meal begins with
a soup, with a good deal of bread in it. Then follow fresh meats of
various kinds, boiled, and roasted, poultry, or game, fricassees,
ragoos, &c. of several sorts; together with different kinds of sallads.
They commonly drink red claret at dinner, mixed with water; and spruce
beer is likewise much in use. The ladies drink water, and sometimes
wine. After dinner the fruit and sweet-meats are served up, which are
of many different kinds, viz. walnuts from France, or Canada, either
ripe, or pickled; almonds, raisins, haselnuts, several kinds of
berries, which are ripe in the summer season, such as currants,
cran-berries, which are preserved in treacle; many preserves in sugar
as straw-berries, rasp-berries, black-berries, and moss-berries. Cheese
is likewise a part of the desert, and so is milk, which they eat last
of all with sugar. Friday and Saturday they eat no flesh, according to
the Roman catholic rites; but they well know how to guard against
hunger. On those days they boil all sorts of kitchen-herbs, and fruit;
fishes, eggs, and milk, prepared in various ways. They cut cucumbers
into slices, and eat them with cream, which is a very good dish.
Sometimes they put whole cucumbers on the table, and every body that
likes them takes one, peels, and slices it, and dips the slices into
salt, eating them like raddishes. Melons abound here, and are always
eaten with sugar. They never put any sugar into wine, or brandy, and
upon the whole, they and the English do not use half so much sugar, as
we do in Sweden; though both nations have large sugar-plantations in
their West-Indian possessions. They say no grace before, or after their
meals, but only cross themselves, which is likewise omitted by some.
Immediately after dinner, they drink a dish of coffee, without cream.
Supper is commonly at seven o’clock, or between seven and eight at
night, and the dishes the same as at dinner. Pudding and punch is not
to be met with here, though the latter is well known.
August the 23d. In many places hereabouts they use their dogs to fetch
water out of the river. I saw two great dogs to-day put before a little
cart, one before the other. They had neat harness, like horses, and
bits in their mouths. In the cart was a barrel. The dogs are directed
by a boy, who runs behind the cart, and as soon as they come to the
river, they jump in, of their own accord. When the barrel is filled,
the dogs draw their burthen up the hill again, to the house they belong
to. I have frequently seen dogs employed in this manner, during my stay
at Quebec. Sometimes they put but one dog before the water-carts, which
are made small on purpose. The dogs are not very great, hardly of the
size of our common farmers dogs. The boys that attend them have great
whips, with which they make them go on occasionally. I have seen them
fetch not only water, but likewise wood, and other things. In winter it
is customary in Canada, for travellers to put dogs before little
sledges, made on purpose to hold their clothes, provisions, &c. Poor
people commonly employ them on their winter-journies, and go on foot
themselves. Almost all the wood, which the poorer people in this
country fetch out of the woods in winter, is carried by dogs, which
have therefore got the name of horses of the poor people. They commonly
place a pair of dogs before each load of wood. I have likewise seen
some neat little sledges, for ladies to ride in, in winter; they are
drawn by a pair of dogs, and go faster on a good road, than one would
think. A middle-sized dog is sufficient to draw a single person, when
the roads are good. I have been told by old people, that horses were
very scarce here in their youth, and almost all the land-carriage was
then effected by dogs. Several Frenchmen, who have been among the
Esquimaux on Terra Labrador, have assured me, that they not only make
use of dogs for drawing drays, with their provisions, and other
necessaries, but are likewise drawn by them themselves, in little
sledges.
August the 25th. The high hills, to the west of the town, abound with
springs. These hills consist of the black lime-slate, before mentioned,
and are pretty steep, so that it is difficult to get to the top. Their
perpendicular height is about twenty or four and twenty yards. Their
summits are destitute of trees, and covered with a thin crust of earth,
lying on the lime-slates, and are employed for corn-fields, or
pastures. It seems inconceivable therefore, from whence these naked
hills could take so many running springs, which in some places gush out
of the hills, like torrents. Have these hills the quality of attracting
the water out of the air in the day time, or at night? Or are the
lime-slates more apt to it, than others?
All the horses in Canada are strong, well made, swift, as tall as the
horses of our cavalry, and of a breed imported from France. The
inhabitants have the custom of docking the tails of their horses, which
is rather hard upon them here, as they cannot defend themselves against
the numerous swarms of gnats, gad-flies, and horse-flies. They put the
horses one before the other in their carts, which has probably
occasioned the docking of their tails, as the horses would hurt the
eyes of those behind them, by moving their tails backwards and
forwards. The governor-general, and a few of the chief people in town,
have coaches, the rest make use of open horse-chairs. It is a general
complaint, that the country people begin to keep too many horses, by
which means the cows are kept short of food in winter.
The cows have likewise been imported from France, and are of the size
of our common Swedish cows. Every body agreed that the cattle, which
were born of the original French breed, never grow up to the same size.
This they ascribe to the cold winters, during which they are obliged to
put their cattle into stables, and give them but little food. Almost
all the cows have horns, a few, however, I have seen without them. A
cow without horns would be reckoned an unheard of curiosity in
Pensylvania. Is not this to be attributed to the cold? The cows give as
much milk here as in France. The beef and veal at Quebec, is reckoned
fatter and more palatable than at Montreal. Some look upon the salty
pastures below Quebec, as the cause of this difference. But this does
not seem sufficient; for most of the cattle, which are sold at Quebec,
have no meadows with Arrow-headed grass [70], on which they graze. In
Canada the oxen draw with the horns, but in the English colonies they
draw with their withers, as horses do. The cows vary in colour;
however, most of them are either red, or black.
Every countryman commonly keeps a few sheep, which supply him with as
much wool as he wants to cloth himself with. The better sort of clothes
are brought from France. The sheep degenerate here, after they are
brought from France, and their progeny still more so. The want of food
in winter is said to cause this degeneration.
I have not seen any goats in Canada, and I have been assured that there
are none. I have seen but very few in the English colonies, and only in
their towns, where they are kept on account of some sick people, who
drink the milk by the advice of their physicians.
The harrows are triangular; two of the sides are six feet, and the
third four feet long. The teeth, and every other part of the harrows
are of wood. The teeth are about five inches long, and about as much
distant from each other.
The prospect of the country about a quarter of a mile Swedish, north of
Quebec, on the west side of the river St. Lawrence, is very fine. The
country is very steep towards the river, and grows higher as you go
further from the water. In many places it is naturally divided into
terraces. From the heights, one can look a great way: Quebec appears
very plain to the south, and the river St. Lawrence to the east, on
which were vessels sailing up and down. To the west are the high
mountains, which the hills of the river end with. All the country is
laid out for corn-fields, meadows, and pastures; most of the fields
were sown with wheat, many with white oats, and some with pease.
Several fine houses and farms are interspersed all over the country,
and none are ever together. The dwelling-house is commonly built of
black lime-slates, and generally white-washed on the outside. Many
rivulets and brooks roll down the high grounds, above which the great
mountains ly, and which consist entirely of the black lime-slates, that
shiver in pieces in the open air. On the lime-slates lies a mould of
two or three feet in depth. The soil in the corn-fields is always mixed
with little pieces of the lime-slate. All the rivulets cut their beds
deep into the ground; so that their shores are commonly of lime-slate.
A dark-grey lime-stone is sometimes found among the strata, which, when
broke, smells like stink-stone.
They were now building several ships below Quebec, for the king’s
account. However, before my departure, an order arrived from France,
prohibiting the further building of ships of war, except those which
were already on the stocks; because they had found, that the ships
built of American oak do not last so long as those of European oak.
Near Quebec is found very little oak, and what grows there is not fit
for use, being very small; therefore they are obliged to fetch their
oak timber from those parts of Canada which border upon New-England.
But all the North-American oaks have the quality of lasting longer, and
withstanding putrefaction better, the further north they grow, and vice
versâ. The timber from the confines of New-England is brought in floats
or rafts on the rivers near those parts, and near the lake St. Pierre,
which fall into the great river St. Lawrence. Some oak is likewise
brought from the country between Montreal and Fort St. Frederic, or
Fort Champlain; but it is not reckoned so good as the first, and the
place it comes from is further distant.
August the 26th. They shewed a green earth, which had been brought to
the general, marquis de la Galissonniere, from the upper parts of
Canada. It was a clay, which cohered very fast together, and was of a
green colour throughout, like verdigrease. [71]
All the brooks in Canada contain crawfish, of the same kind with ours.
The French are fond of eating them, and say they are vastly decreased
in number since they have begun to catch them.
The common people in the country, seem to be very poor. They have the
necessaries of life, and but little else. They are content with meals
of dry bread and water, bringing all other provisions, such as butter,
cheese, flesh, poultry, eggs, &c. to town, in order to get money for
them, for which they buy clothes and brandy for themselves, and dresses
for their women. Notwithstanding their poverty, they are always
chearful, and in high spirits.
August the 29th. By the desire of the governor-general, marquis de la
Jonquiere, and of marquis de la Galissonniere, I set out, with some
French gentlemen, to visit the pretended silver-mine, or the lead-mine,
near the bay St. Paul. I was glad to undertake this journey, as it gave
me an opportunity of seeing a much greater part of the country, than I
should otherwise have done. This morning therefore we set out on our
tour in a boat, and went down the river St. Lawrence.
The harvest was now at hand, and I saw all the people at work in the
corn-fields. They had began to reap wheat and oats, a week ago.
The prospect near Quebec is very lively from the river. The town lies
very high, and all the churches, and other buildings, appear very
conspicuous. The ships in the river below ornament the landscape on
that side. The powder magazine, which stands at the summit of the
mountain, on which the town is built, towers above all the other
buildings.
The country we passed by afforded a no less charming sight. The river
St. Lawrence flows nearly from south to north here; on both sides of it
are cultivated fields, but more on the west side than on the east side.
The hills on both shores are steep, and high. A number of fine hills,
separated from each other, large fields, which looked quite white from
the corn with which they are covered, and excellent woods of deciduous
trees, made the country round us look very pleasant. Now and then we
saw a church of stone, and in several places brooks fell from the hills
into the river. Where the brooks are considerable, there they have made
saw-mills, and water-mills.
After rowing for the space of a French mile and a half, we came to the
isle of Orleans, which is a large island, near seven French miles and a
half long, and almost two of those miles broad, in the widest part. It
lies in the middle of the river St. Lawrence, is very high, has steep
and very woody shores. There are some places without trees, which have
farm-houses below, quite close to the shore. The isle itself is well
cultivated, and nothing but fine houses of stone, large corn-fields,
meadows, pastures, woods of deciduous trees, and some churches built of
stone, are to be seen on it.
We went into that branch of the river which flows on the west side of
the isle of Orleans, it being the shortest. It is reckoned about a
quarter of a French mile broad, but ships cannot take this road, on
account of the sand-banks, which ly here near the projecting points of
land, and on account of the shallowness of the water, the rocks, and
stones at the bottom. The shores on both sides still kept the same
appearance as before. On the west side, or on the continent, the hills
near the river consist throughout of black lime-slate, and the houses
of the peasants are made of this kind of stone, white-washed on the
outside. Some few houses are of different kinds of stone. The row of
ten mountains, which is on the west side of the river, and runs nearly
from south to north, gradually comes nearer to the river: for at Quebec
they are near two French miles distant from the shore; but nine French
miles lower down the river, they are almost close to the shore. These
mountains are generally covered with woods, but in some places the
woods have been destroyed by accidental fires. About eight French miles
and a half from Quebec, on the west side of the river, is a church,
called St. Anne, close to the shore. This church is remarkable, because
the ships from France and other parts, as soon as they are got so far
up the river St. Lawrence, as to get sight of it, give a general
discharge of their artillery, as a sign of joy, that they have past all
danger in the river, and have escaped all the sands in it.
The water had a pale red colour, and was very dirty in those parts of
the river, which we saw to-day, though it was every where computed
above six fathoms deep. Somewhat below St. Anne, on the west side of
the river St. Lawrence, another river, called la Grande Riviere, or the
Great River, falls in it. Its water flows with such violence, as to
make its way almost into the middle of the branch of the river St.
Lawrence, which runs between the continent, and the isle of Orleans.
About two o’clock in the afternoon the tide began to flow up the river,
and the wind being likewise against us, we could not proceed any
farther, till the tide began to ebb. We therefore took up our night
lodgings in a great farm, belonging to the priests in Quebec, near
which is a fine church, called St. Joachim, after a voyage of about
eight French miles. We were exceeding well received here. The king has
given all the country round about this place to the seminary, or the
priests at Quebec, who have leased it to farmers, who have built houses
on it. Here are two priests, and a number of young boys, whom they
instruct in reading, writing, and Latin. Most of these boys are
designed for priests: Directly opposite this farm, to the eastward, is
the north-east point, or the extremity of the isle of Orleans.
All the gardens in Canada abound with red currant shrubs, which were at
first brought over from Europe. They grow excessively well here, and
the shrubs, or bushes, are quite red, being covered all over with the
berries.
The wild vines [72] grow pretty plentifully in the woods. In all other
parts of Canada they plant them in the gardens, near arbours, and
summer-houses. The summer-houses are made entirely of laths, over which
the vines climb with their tendrils, and cover them entirely with their
foliage, so as to shelter them entirely from the heat of the sun. They
are very refreshing and cool, in summer.
The strong contrary winds obliged us to ly all night at St. Joachim.
August the 30th. This morning we continued our journey in spite of the
wind, which was very violent against us. The water in the river begins
to get a brackish taste, when the tide is highest, somewhat below St.
Joachim, and the further one goes down, the more the saline taste
encreases. At first the western shore of the river has fine, but low
corn-fields, but soon after the high mountains run close to the river
side. Before they come to the river the hilly shores consist of black
lime-slate; but as soon as the high mountains appear on the river side,
the lime-slates disappear. For the stone, of which the high mountains
consist, is a chalky rock-stone, mixed with glimmer and quartz [73].
The glimmer is black; the quartz partly violet, and partly grey. All
the four constituent parts are so well mixed together, as not to be
easily separated by an instrument, though plainly distinguishable with
the eye. During our journey to-day, the breadth of the river was
generally three French miles. They shewed me the turnings the ships are
obliged to sail in, which seem to be very troublesome, as they are
obliged to bear away for either shore, as occasion requires, or as the
rocks and sands in the river oblige them to do.
For the distance of five French miles we had a very dangerous passage
to go through; for the whole western shore, along which we rowed,
consists of very high and steep mountains, where we could not have
found a single place to land with safety, during the space of five
miles, in case a high wind had arisen. There are indeed two or three
openings, or holes, in the mountains, into which one could have drawn
the boat, in the greatest danger. But they are so narrow, that in case
the boat could not find them in the hurry, it would inevitably be
dashed against the rocks. These high mountains are either quite bare,
or covered with some small firs, standing far asunder. In some places
there are great clefts, going down the mountains, in which trees grow
very close together, and are taller than on the other parts of the
mountain; so that those places look like quick-hedges, planted on the
solid rock. A little while after we passed a small church, and some
farms round it. The place is called Petite Riviere, and they say, its
inhabitants are very poor, which seems very probable. They have no more
land to cultivate, than what lies between the mountains and the river,
which in the widest part is not above three musket shot, and in most
parts but one broad. About seventeen French miles from Quebec the water
is so salty in the river, that no one can drink it, our rowers
therefore provided themselves with a kettle full of fresh water this
morning. About five o’clock in the evening, we arrived at bay St. Paul,
and took our lodgings with the priests, who have a fine large house
here, and entertained us very hospitably.
Bay St. Paul is a small parish, about eighteen French miles below
Quebec, lying at some distance from the shore of a bay formed by the
river, on a low plain. It is surrounded by high mountains on every
side, one large gap excepted, which is over-against the river. All the
farms are at some distance from each other. The church is reckoned one
of the most ancient in Canada; which seems to be confirmed by its bad
architecture, and want of ornaments; for the walls are formed of pieces
of timber, erected at about two feet distance from each other,
supporting the roof. Between these pieces of timber, they have made the
walls of the church of lime-slate. The roof is flat. The church has no
steeple, but a bell fixed above the roof, in the open air. Almost all
the country in this neighbourhood belongs to the priests, who have
leased it to the farmers. The inhabitants live chiefly upon agriculture
and making of tar, which last is sold at Quebec.
This country being low, and situated upon a bay of the river, it may be
conjectured, that this flat ground was formerly part of the bottom of
the river, and formed itself, either by a decrease of water in the
river, or by an encrease of earth, which was carried upon it from the
continent by the brooks, or thrown on it by storms. A great part of the
plants, which are to be met with here, are likewise marine; such as
glass-wort, sea milk-wort, and sea-side pease [74]. But when I have
asked the inhabitants, whether they find shells in the ground by
digging for wells, they always answered in the negative. I received the
same answer from those who live in the low fields directly north of
Quebec, and all agreed, that they never found any thing by digging, but
different kinds of earth and sand.
It is remarkable, that there is generally a different wind in the bay
from that in the river, which arises from the high mountains, covered
with tall woods, with which it is surrounded on every side but one. For
example, when the wind comes from the river, it strikes against one of
the mountains at the entrance of the bay, it is reflected, and
consequently takes a direction quite different from what it had before.
I found sand of three kinds upon the shore; one is a clear coarse sand,
consisting of angulated grains of quartz, and is very common on the
shore; the other is a fine black sand, which I have likewise found in
abundance on the shores of lake Champlain, [75] and which is common all
over Canada. Almost every grain of it is attracted by the magnet.
Besides this, there is a granet coloured sand [76], which is likewise
very fine. This may owe its origin to the granet coloured grains of
sand, which are to be found in all the stones and mountains here near
the shore. The sand may have arisen from the crumbled pieces of some
stones, or the stones may have been composed of it. I have found both
this and the black sand on the shores, in several parts of this
journey; but the black sand was always the most plentiful.
August the 31st. All the high hills in the neighbourhood sent up a
smoke this morning, as from a charcoal-kiln.
Gnats are innumerable here; and as soon as one looks out of doors, they
immediately attack him; and they are still worse in the woods. They are
exactly the same gnats as our common Swedish ones, being only somewhat
less than the North-American gnats all are. Near Fort St. Jean, I have
likewise seen gnats which were the same with ours, but they were
somewhat bigger, almost of the size of our crane-flies [77]. Those
which are here, are beyond measure blood-thirsty. However, I comforted
myself, because the time of their disappearance was near at hand.
This afternoon we went still lower down the river St. Lawrence, to a
place, where, we were told, there were silver or lead mines. Somewhat
below bay St. Paul, we passed a neck of land, which consists entirely
of a grey, pretty compact lime-stone, lying in dipping, and almost
perpendicular strata. It seems to be merely a variety of the black
lime-slates. The strata dip to the south-east, and basset out to the
north-west. The thickness of each is from ten to fifteen inches. When
the stone is broken, it has a strong smell, like stink-stone. We kept,
as before, to the western shore of the river, which consists of nothing
but steep mountains and rocks. The river is not above three French
miles broad here. Now and then we could see stripes in the rock of a
fine white, loose, semi-opaque spar. In some places of the river are
pieces of rock as big as houses, which had rolled from the mountains in
spring. The places they formerly occupied are plainly to be seen.
In several places, they have eel-traps in the river, like those I have
before described [78].
By way of amusement, I wrote down a few Algonkin words, which I learnt
from a Jesuit who has been a long time among the Algonkins. They call
water, mukuman; the head, ustigon; the heart, uta; the body, veetras;
the foot, ukhita; a little boat, ush; a ship, nabikoan; fire, skute;
hay, maskoosee; the hare, whabus; (they have a verb, which expresses
the action of hunting hares, derived from the noun); the marten,
whabistanis; the elk, moosu [79] (but so that the final u is hardly
pronounced); the rein-deer, atticku; the mouse, mawitulsis. The Jesuit
who told me those particulars, likewise informed me, that he had great
reason to believe, that, if any Indians here owed their origin to
Tataria, he thought the Algonkins certainly did; for their language is
universally spoken in that part of North-America, which lies far to the
west of Canada, towards Asia. It is said to be a very copious language;
as for example, the verb to go upon the ice, is entirely different in
the Algonkin from to go upon dry land, to go upon the mountains, &c.
Late at night we arrived at Terre d’Eboulement, which is twenty-two
French miles from Quebec, and the last cultivated place on the western
shore of the river St. Lawrence. The country lower down is said to be
so mountainous, that no body can live in it, there not being a single
spot of ground, which could be tilled. A little church, belonging to
this place, stands on the shore, near the water.