sugar-maple, for making sugar. On the 7th the gardeners began to make
hot-beds. On the 20th the ice in the river broke loose near Quebec, and
went down; which rarely happens so soon; for the river St. Lawrence is
sometimes covered with ice opposite Quebec, on the 10th of May. On the
22d, and 23d, there fell a quantity of snow. On the 25th they began to
sow near St. Joachim. The same day they saw some swallows. The 29th
they sowed corn all over the country. Ever since the 23d the river had
been clear at Quebec.
May. The third of this month the cold was so great in the morning, that
Celsius’s, or the Swedish thermometer, was four degrees below the
freezing point; however, it did not hurt the corn. On the 16th all the
summer-corn was sown. On the 5th the Sanguinaria, Narcissus, and
violet, began to blow. The 17th the wild cherry-trees, rasberry-bushes,
apple-trees, and lime-trees, began to expand their leaves. The
strawberries were in flower about that time. The 29th the wild
cherry-trees were in blossom. On the 26th part of the French
apple-trees, cherry-trees, and plum-trees, opened their flowers.
June. The 5th of this month all the trees had got leaves. The
apple-trees were in full flower. Ripe straw-berries were to be had on
the 22d. Here it is noted, that the weather was very fine for the
growth of vegetables.
July. The corn began to shoot into ears on the 12th, and had ears every
where on the 21st. (It is to be observed, that they sow nothing but
summer-corn here.) Soon after the corn began to flower. Hay making
began the 22d. All this month the weather was excellent.
August. On the 12th there were ripe pears and melons at Montreal. On
the 20th the corn was ripe round Montreal, and the harvest was begun
there. On the 22d the harvest began at Quebec. On the 30th, and 31st,
there was a very small hoar-frost on the ground.
September. The harvest of all kinds of corn ended on the 24th, and
25th. Melons, water-melons, cucumbers, and fine plums, were very
plentiful during the course of this month. Apples and pears were
likewise ripe, which is not always the case. On the last days of this
month they began to plough the land. The following is one of the
observations of this month: “The old people in this country say, that
the corn was formerly never ripe till the 15th, or 16th, of September,
and sometimes on the 12th; but no sooner. They likewise assert, that it
never was perfectly ripe. Bur since the woods have been sufficiently
cleared, the beams of the sun have had more room to operate, and the
corn ripens sooner than before [103].” It is further remarked, that the
hot summers are always very fruitful in Canada, and that most of the
corn has hardly ever arrived at perfect maturity.
October. During this month the fields were ploughed, and the weather
was very fine all the time. There was a little frost for several
nights, and on the 28th it snowed. Towards the end of this month the
trees began to shed their leaves.
November. They continued to plough till the 10th of this month, when
the trees had shed all their leaves. Till the 18th the cattle went out
of doors, a few days excepted, when bad weather had kept them at home.
On the 16th there was some thunder and lightning. There was not yet any
ice in the river St. Lawrence on the 24th.
December. During this month it is observed, that the autumn has been
much milder than usual. On the 1st a ship could still set sail for
France; but on the 16th the river St. Lawrence was covered with ice on
the sides, but open in the middle. In the river Charles the ice was
thick enough for horses with heavy loads to pass over it. On the 26th
the ice in the river St. Lawrence was washed away by a heavy rain; but
on the 28th part of that river was again covered with ice.
The next observations shew, that the winter has likewise been one of
the mildest. I now resume the account of my own journey.
This evening I left Quebec with a fair wind. The governor-general of
Canada, the marquis de la Jonquiere, ordered one of the king’s boats,
and seven men to bring me to Montreal. The middle of the boat was
covered with blue cloth, under which we were secured from the rain.
This journey I made at the expence of the French king. We went three
French miles to-day.
September the 12th. We continued our journey during all this day.
The small kind of maize, which ripens in three months time, was ripe
about this time, and the people drew it out of the ground, and hung it
up to dry.
The weather about this time was like the beginning of our August, old
stile. Therefore it seems, autumn commences a whole month later in
Canada, than in the midst of Sweden.
Near each farm there is a kitchen-garden, in which onions are most
abundant; because the French farmers eat their dinners of them with
bread, on Fridays and Saturdays, or fasting days. However, I cannot
say, the French are strict observers of fasting; for several of my
rowers ate flesh to-day, though it was Friday. The common people in
Canada may be smelled when one passes by them, on account of their
frequent use of onions. Pumpions are likewise abundant in the farmer’s
gardens. They dress them in several ways, but the most common is to cut
them through the middle, and place the inside on the hearth, towards
the fire, till it is quite roasted. The pulp is then cut out of the
peel, and eaten; people above the vulgar put sugar to it. Carrots,
sallad, French beans, cucumbers, and currant shrubs, are planted in
every farmer’s little kitchen-garden.
Every farmer plants a quantity of tobacco near his house, in proportion
to the size of his family. It is likewise very necessary that they
should plant tobacco, because it is so universally smoaked by the
common people. Boys of ten or twelve years of age, run about with the
pipe in their mouths, as well as the old people. Persons above the
vulgar, do not refuse to smoak a pipe now and then. In the northern
parts of Canada, they generally smoak tobacco by itself; but further
upwards, and about Montreal, they take the inner bark of the red
Cornelian cherry [104], crush it, and mix it with the tobacco, to make
it weaker. People of both sexes, and of all ranks, use snuff very much.
Almost all the tobacco, which is consumed here, is the produce of the
country, and some people prefer it even to Virginian tobacco: but those
who pretend to be connoisseurs, reckon the last kind better than the
other.
Though many nations imitate the French customs; yet I observed on the
contrary, that the French in Canada in many respects follow the customs
of the Indians, with whom they converse every day. They make use of the
tobacco-pipes, shoes, garters, and girdles, of the Indians. They follow
the Indian way of making war with exactness; they mix the same things
with tobacco, they make use of the Indian bark-boats, and row them in
the Indian way; they wrap square pieces of cloth round their feet,
instead of stockings, and have adopted many other Indian fashions. When
one comes into the house of a Canada peasant, or farmer, he gets up,
takes his hat off to the stranger, desires him to sit down, puts his
hat on and sits down again. The gentlemen and ladies, as well as the
poorest peasants and their wives, are called Monsieur and Madame. The
peasants, and especially their wives, wear shoes, which consist of a
piece of wood hollowed out, and are made almost as slippers. Their
boys, and the old peasants themselves, wear their hair behind in a cue;
and most of them wear red woollen caps at home, and sometimes on their
journies.
The farmers prepare most of their dishes of milk. Butter is but seldom
seen, and what they have is made of sour cream, and therefore not so
good as English butter. Many of the French are very fond of milk, which
they eat chiefly on fasting days. However, they have not so many
methods of preparing it as we have in Sweden. The common way was to
boil it, and put bits of bread, and a good deal of sugar, into it. The
French here eat near as much flesh as the English, on those days when
their religion allows it. For excepting the soup, the sallads, and the
desert, all their other dishes consist of flesh variously prepared.
At night we lay at a farm-house, near a river called Petite Riviere,
which falls here into the river St. Lawrence. This place is reckoned
sixteen French miles from Quebec, and ten from Trois Rivieres. The tide
is still considerable here. Here is the last place where the hills,
along the river, consist of black lime-slate; further on they are
composed merely of earth.
Fire-flies flew about the woods at night, though not in great numbers;
the French call them Mouches à feu.
The houses in this neighbourhood are all made of wood. The rooms are
pretty large. The inner roof rests on two, three, or four, large thick
spars, according to the size of the room. The chinks are filled with
clay, instead of moss. The windows are made entirely of paper. The
chimney is erected in the middle of the room; that part of the room
which is opposite the fire, is the kitchen; that which is behind the
chimney, serves the people to sleep, and receive strangers in.
Sometimes there is an iron stove behind the chimney.
September the 13th. Near Champlain, which is a place about five French
miles from Trois Rivieres, the steep hills near the river consist of a
yellow, and sometimes ockre-coloured sandy earth, in which a number of
small springs arise. The water in them is generally filled with yellow
ockre, which is a sign, that these dry sandy fields contain a great
quantity of the same iron ore, which is dug at Trois Rivieres. It is
not conceivable from whence that number of small rivulets takes their
rise, the ground above being flat, and exceeding dry in summer. The
lands near the river are cultivated for about an English mile into the
country; but behind them there are thick forests, and low grounds. The
woods, which collect a quantity of moisture, and prevent the
evaporation of the water, force it to make its way under ground to the
river. The shores of the river are here covered with a great deal of
black iron-sand.
Towards evening we arrived at Trois Rivieres, where we staid no longer,
than was necessary to deliver the letters, which we brought with us
from Quebec. After that we went a French mile higher up, before we took
our night’s lodging.
This afternoon we saw three remarkable old people. One was an old
Jesuit, called father Joseph Aubery, who had been a missionary to the
converted Indians of St. François. This summer he ended the fiftieth
year of his mission. He therefore returned to Quebec, to renew his vows
there; and he seemed to be healthy, and in good spirits. The other two
people were our landlord and his wife; he was above eighty years of
age, and she was not much younger. They had now been fifty-one years
married. The year before, at the end of the fiftieth year of their
marriage, they went to church together, and offered up thanks to God
Almighty for the great grace he gave them. They were yet quite well,
content, merry, and talkative. The old man said, that he was at Quebec
when the English besieged it, in the year 1690, and that the bishop
went up and down the streets, dressed in his pontifical robes, and a
sword in his hand, in order to recruit the spirits of the soldiers.
This old man said, that he thought the winters were formerly much
colder than they are now. There fell likewise a greater quantity of
snow, when he was young. He could remember the time when pumpions,
cucumbers, &c. were killed by the frost about mid-summer, and he
assured me, that the summers were warmer now than they used to be
formerly. About thirty and some odd years ago, there was such a severe
winter in Canada, that the frost killed many birds; but the old man
could not remember the particular year. Every body allowed, that the
summers in 1748, and 1749, had been warmer in Canada than they have
been many years ago.
The soil is reckoned pretty fertile; and wheat yields nine or ten
grains from one. But when this old man was a boy, and the country was
new and rich every where, they could get twenty, or four-and-twenty,
grains from one. They sow but little rye here; nor do they sow much
barley, except for the use of cattle. They complain, however, that when
they have a bad crop, they are obliged to bake bread of barley.
September the 14th. This morning we got up early, and pursued our
journey. After we had gone about two French miles, we got into lake St.
Pierre, which we crossed. Many plants, which are common in our Swedish
lakes, swim at the top of this water. This lake is said to be covered
every winter with such strong ice, that a hundred loaded horses could
go over it together with safety.
A craw-fish, or river lobster, somewhat like a crab, but quite minute,
about two geometrical lines long, and broad in proportion, was
frequently drawn up by us with the aquatic weeds, its colour is a pale
greenish white.
The cordated Pontederia [105] grows plentiful on the sides of a long
and narrow canal of water, in the places frequented by our water-lilies
[106]. A great number of hogs wade far into this kind of strait, and
sometimes duck the greatest part of their bodies under water, in order
to get at the roots, which they are very fond of.
As soon as we were got through lake St. Pierre, the face of the country
was entirely changed, and became as agreeable as could be wished. The
isles, and the land on both sides of us, looked like the prettiest
pleasure-gardens; and this continued till near Montreal.
Near every farm on the river-side there are some boats, hollowed out of
the trunks of single trees, but commonly neat and well made, having the
proper shape of boats. In one single place I saw a boat made of the
bark of trees.
September the 15th. We continued our journey early this morning. On
account of the strength of the river, which came down against us, we
were sometimes obliged to let the rowers go on shore, and draw the
boat.
At four o’clock in the evening we arrived at Montreal; and our voyage
was reckoned a happy one, because the violence of the river flowing
against us all the way, and the changeableness of the winds, commonly
protract it to two weeks.
September the 19th. Several people here in town have got the French
vines, and planted them in their gardens. They have two kinds of
grapes, one of a pale green, or almost white; the other, of a reddish
brown colour. From the white ones they say, white wine is made; and
from the red ones, red wine. The cold in winter obliges them to put
dung round the roots of the vines, without which they would be killed
by the frost. The grapes began to be ripe in these days; the white ones
are a little sooner ripe than the red ones. They make no wine of them
here, because it is not worth while; but they are served up at deserts.
They say these grapes do not grow so big here as in France.
Water-melons [107] are cultivated in great plenty in the English and
French American colonies; and there is hardly a peasant here, who has
not a field planted with them. They are chiefly cultivated in the
neighbourhood of towns; and they are very rare in the north part of
Canada. The Indians plant great quantities of water-melons at present;
but whether they have done it of old is not easily determined. For an
old Onidoe Indian (of the six Iroquese nations) assured me, that the
Indians did not know water-melons before the Europeans came into the
country, and communicated them to the Indians. The French, on the other
hand, have assured me, that the Illinois Indians have had abundance of
this fruit, when the French first came to them; and that they declare,
they had planted them since times immemorial. However, I do not
remember having read that the Europeans, who first came to
North-America, mention the water-melons, in speaking of the dishes of
the Indians at that time. How great the summer heat is in those parts
of America which I have passed through, can easily be conceived, when
one considers, that in all those places, they never sow water-melons in
hot-beds, but in the open fields in spring, without so much as covering
them, and they ripen in time. Here are two species of them, viz. one
with a red pulp, and one with a white one. The first is more common to
the southward, with the Illinois, and in the English colonies; the last
is more abundant in Canada. The seeds are sown in spring, after the
cold is entirely gone off, in a good rich ground, at some distance from
each other; because their stalks spread far, and require much room, if
they shall be very fruitful. They were now ripe at Montreal; but in the
English colonies they ripen in July and August. They commonly require
less time to ripen in, than the common melons. Those in the English
colonies are commonly sweeter, and more agreeable, than the Canada
ones. Does the greater heat contribute any thing towards making them
more palatable? Those in the province of New-York are, however,
reckoned the best.
The water-melons are very juicy; and the juice is mixed with a cooling
pulp, which is very good in the hot summer-season. Nobody in Canada, in
Albany, and in other parts of New-York, could produce an example, that
the eating of water-melons in great quantities had hurt any body; and
there are examples even of sick persons eating them without any danger.
Further to the south, the frequent use of them it is thought brings on
intermitting fevers, and other bad distempers, especially in such
people as are less used to them. Many Frenchmen assured me, that when
people born in Canada came to the Illinois, and eat several times of
the water-melons of that part, they immediately got a fever; and
therefore the Illinois advise the French not to eat of a fruit so
dangerous to them. They themselves are subject to be attacked by
fevers, if they cool their stomachs too often with water-melons. In
Canada they keep them in a room, which is a little heated; by which
means they will keep fresh two months after they are ripe; but care
must be taken, that the frost spoil them not. In the English
plantations they likewise keep them fresh in dry cellars, during part
of the winter. They assured me that they keep better when they are
carefully broke off from the stalk, and afterwards burnt with a red-hot
iron, in the place where the stalk was fastened. In this manner they
may be eaten at Christmas, and after. In Pensylvania, where they have a
dry sandy earth, they make a hole in the ground, put the water-melons
carefully into it with their stalks, by which means they keep very
fresh during a great part of winter. Few people, however, take this
trouble with the water-melons; because they being very cooling, and the
winter being very cold too, it seems to be less necessary to keep them
for eating in that season, which is already very cold. They are of
opinion in these parts, that cucumbers cool more than water-melons. The
latter are very strongly diuretic. The Iroquese call them
Onoheserakatee.
Gourds of several kinds, oblong, round, flat or compressed,
crook-necked, small, &c. are planted in all the English and French
colonies. In Canada, they fill the chief part of the farmers
kitchen-gardens, though the onions came very near up with them. Each
farmer in the English plantations, has a large field planted with
gourds, and the Germans, Swedes, Dutch, and other Europeans, settled in
their colonies, plant them. Gourds are a considerable part of the
Indian food; however, they plant more squashes than common gourds. They
declare, that they have had gourds long before the Europeans discovered
America; which seems to be confirmed by the accounts of the first
Europeans that came into these parts, who mentioned gourds as common
food among the Indians. The French here call them citrouilles, and the
English in the colonies, pumpkins. They are planted in spring, when
they have nothing to fear from the frost, in an enclosed field, and a
good rich soil. They are likewise frequently put into old hot-beds. In
Canada, they ripen towards the beginning of September, but further
southward they are ripe at the end of July. As soon as the cold weather
commences, they take off all the pumpions that remain on the stalk,
whether ripe or not, and spread them on the floor, in a part of the
house, where the unripe ones grow perfectly ripe, if they are not laid
one upon the other. This is done round Montreal in the middle of
September; but in Pensylvania, I have seen some in the fields on the
19th of October. They keep fresh for several months, and even
throughout the winter, if they be well secured in dry cellars (for in
damp ones they rot very soon) where the cold cannot come in, or, which
is still better, in dry rooms which are heated now and then, to prevent
the cold from damaging the fruit.
Pumpions are prepared for eating in various ways. The Indians boil them
whole, or roast them in ashes, and eat them then, or go to sell them
thus prepared in the towns, and they have, indeed, a very fine flavour,
when roasted. The French and English slice them, and put the slices
before the fire to roast; when they are roasted, they generally put
sugar on the pulp. Another way of roasting them, is to cut them through
the middle, take out all the seeds, put the halves together again, and
roast them in an oven. When they are quite roasted, some butter is put
in, whilst they are warm, which being imbibed into the pulp, renders it
very palatable. They often boil pumpions in water, and afterwards eat
them, either alone or with flesh. Some make a thin kind of pottage of
them, by boiling them in water, and afterwards macerating the pulp.
This is again boiled with a little of the water, and a good deal of
milk, and stirred about whilst it is boiling. Sometimes the pulp is
stamped and kneaded into dough, with maize flour or other flour; of
this they make cakes. Some make puddings and tarts of gourds. The
Indians, in order to preserve the pumpions for a very long time, cut
them in long slices, which they fasten or twist together, and dry them
either by the sun, or by the fire in a room. When they are thus dried,
they will keep for years together, and when boiled, they taste very
well. The Indians prepare them thus at home and on their journies, and
from them the Europeans have adopted this method. Sometimes they do not
take the time to boil it, but eat it dry with hung beef, or other
flesh; and I own they are eatable in that state, and very welcome to a
hungry stomach. They sometimes preserve them in the following manner at
Montreal: They cut a pumpion in four pieces, peal them, and take the
seeds out of them. The pulp is put in a pot with boiling water, in
which it must boil from four to six minutes. It is then put into a
cullender, and left in it till the next day, that the water may run
off. When it is mixed with cloves, cinnamon, and some lemon peel,
preserved in syrup, and there must be an equal quantity of syrup and of
the pulp. After which it is boiled together, till the syrup is entirely
imbibed, and the white colour of the pulp is quite lost.
September the 20th. The corn of this year’s harvest in Canada, was
reckoned the finest they had ever had. In the province of New-York, on
the contrary, the crop was very poor. The autumn was very fine this
year in Canada.
September the 22d. The French in Canada carry on a great trade with the
Indians; and though it was formerly the only trade of this extensive
country, yet its inhabitants were considerably enriched by it. At
present, they have besides the Indian goods, several other articles
which are exported from hence. The Indians in this neighbourhood, who
go hunting in winter like the other Indians nations, commonly bring
their furs and skins to sale in the neighbouring French towns; however
this is not sufficient. The Indians who live at a greater distance,
never come to Canada at all; and, lest they should bring their goods to
the English, as the English go to them, the French are obliged to
undertake journies, and purchase the Indian goods in the country of the
Indians. This trade is chiefly carried on at Montreal, and a great
number of young and old men every year, undertake long and troublesome
voyages for that purpose, carrying with them such goods as they know
the Indians like, and are in want of. It is not necessary to take money
on such a journey, as the Indians do not value it; and indeed I think
the French, who go on these journies, scarce ever take a sol or penny
with them.
I will now enumerate the chief goods which the French carry with them
for this trade, and which have a good run among the Indians.