man, see sights; if you have not money to throw away, do not stay one hour
in Quebec, or in any other town, longer than you can possibly avoid, "but
get your luggage on board the Montreal steam-boat, and be off if possible
in ten minutes after anchor has been let go;--for by daudling about Quebec,
Montreal, Kingston, and York, you will spend more money and lose more time,
than, if properly employed, might have lodged and fed yourself and family
during the first and worst year of your residence in the new world." In
the choice of land, the writer recommends the Huron tract:--"It has been
objected by some, that this tract of country is _out of the world_; but no
place can be considered in that light, to which a steam-boat can come; and
on this continent, if you find a tract of good land, and open it for sale,
the world will very soon come to you. Sixteen years ago, the town of
Rochester consisted of a tavern and a blacksmith's shop--it is now a town
containing upwards of 16,000 inhabitants. The first time the Huron tract
was ever trod by the foot of a white man was in the summer of 1827; next
summer a road was commenced, and that winter and in the ensuing spring of
1829, a few individuals made a lodgment: now it contains upwards of 600
inhabitants, with taverns, shops, stores, grist and saw-mills, and every
kind of convenience that a new settler can require; and if the tide of
emigration continues to set in as strongly as it has done, in ten years
from this date it may be as thickly settled as any part of America."