To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.
Silleri, Sept. 18.
Your brother, my dear, is gone to Montreal with Sir George Clayton,
of whom I suppose you have heard, and who is going to marry a friend of
mine, to pay a visit to _Monsieur le General_, who is arrived
there. The men in Canada, the English I mean, are eternally changing
place, even when they have not so pleasing a call; travelling is cheap
and amusing, the prospects lovely, the weather inviting; and there are
no very lively pleasures at present to attach them either to Quebec or
Montreal, so that they divide themselves between both.
This fancy of the men, which is extremely the mode, makes an
agreable circulation of inamoratoes, which serves to vary the amusement
of the ladies; so that upon the whole 'tis a pretty fashion, and
deserves encouragement.
You expect too much of your brother, my dear; the summer is charming
here, but with no such very striking difference from that of England,
as to give room to say a vast deal on the subject; though I believe, if
you will please to compare our letters, you will find, putting us
together, we cut a pretty figure in the descriptive way; at least if
your brother tells me truth.
You may expect a very well painted frost-piece from me in the
winter; as to the present season, it is just like any fine autumn in
England: I may add, that the beauty of the nights is much beyond my
power of description: a constant _Aurora borealis_, without a
cloud in the heavens; and a moon so resplendent that you may see to
read the smallest print by its light; one has nothing to wish but that
it was full moon every night. Our evening walks are delicious,
especially at Silleri, where 'tis the pleasantest thing in the world to
listen to soft nonsense,
"Whilst the moon dances through the trembling leaves"
(A line I stole from Philander and Sylvia): But to return:
The French ladies never walk but at night, which shews their good
taste; and then only within the walls of Quebec, which does not: they
saunter slowly, after supper, on a particular battery, which is a kind
of little Mall: they have no idea of walking in the country, nor the
least feeling of the lovely scene around them; there are many of them
who never saw the falls of Montmorenci, though little more than an
hour's drive from the town. They seem born without the smallest portion
of curiosity, or any idea of the pleasures of the imagination, or
indeed any pleasure but that of being admired; love, or rather
coquetry, dress, and devotion, seem to share all their hours: yet, as
they are lively, and in general handsome, the men are very ready to
excuse their want of knowledge.
There are two ladies in the province, I am told, who read; but both
of them are above fifty, and they are regarded as prodigies of
erudition.
Eight in the evening.
Absolutely, Lucy, I will marry a savage, and turn squaw (a pretty soft
name for an Indian princess!): never was any thing so delightful as
their lives; they talk of French husbands, but commend me to an Indian
one, who lets his wife ramble five hundred miles, without asking where
she is going.
I was sitting after dinner with a book, in a thicket of hawthorn
near the beach, when a loud laugh called my attention to the river,
where I saw a canoe of savages making to the shore; there were six
women, and two or three children, without one man amongst them: they
landed, tied the canoe to the root of a tree, and finding out the most
agreable shady spot amongst the bushes with which the beach was
covered, which happened to be very near me, made a fire, on which they
laid some fish to broil, and, fetching water from the river, sat down
on the grass to their frugal repast.
I stole softly to the house, and, ordering a servant to bring some
wine and cold provisions, returned to my squaws: I asked them in French
if they were of Lorette; they shook their heads: I repeated the
question in English, when the oldest of the women told me, they were
not; that their country was on the borders of New England; that, their
husbands being on a hunting party in the woods, curiosity, and the
desire of seeing their brethren the English who had conquered Quebec,
had brought them up the great river, down which they should return as
soon as they had seen Montreal. She courteously asked me to sit down,
and eat with them, which I complied with, and produced my part of the
feast. We soon became good company, and _brighten'd the chain
of friendship_ with two bottles of wine, which put them into such
spirits, that they danced, sung, shook me by the hand, and grew so very
fond of me, that I began to be afraid I should not easily get rid of
them. They were very unwilling to part with me; but, after two or three
very ridiculous hours, I with some difficulty prevailed on the ladies
to pursue their voyage, having first replenished their canoe with
provisions and a few bottles of wine, and given them a letter of
recommendation to your brother, that they might be in no distress at
Montreal.
Adieu! my father is just come in, and has brought some company with
him from Quebec to supper.
Yours ever,
A. Fermor.
Don't you think, my dear, my good sisters the squaws seem to live
something the kind of life of our gypsies? The idea struck me as they
were dancing. I assure you, there is a good deal of resemblance in
their persons: I have seen a fine old seasoned female gypsey, of as
dark a complexion as a savage: they are all equally marked as children
of the sun.