From St. George's Cross to the Stars and Stripes--Unpunctuality--
Incompetence----A wretched night--Colonial curiosity--The fashions--A
night in a buffalo robe--A stage journey--A queer character--Politics--
Chemistry--Mathematics--Rotten bridges--A midnight arrival--Colonial
ignorance--Yankee conceit--What ten-horse power chaps can do--The
pestilence--The city on the rock--New Brunswick--Steamboat peculiarities--
Going ahead in the eating line--A storm--Stepping ashore.
The ravages of the cholera having in some degree ceased, I left Prince
Edward Island for the United States, and decided to endure the delays and
inconveniences of the intercolonial route for the purpose of seeing
something of New Brunswick on my way to Boston.
The journey from the island to the States is in itself by no means an easy
one, and is rendered still more difficult by the want of arrangement on
the part of those who conduct the transit of travellers. The inhabitants
of our eastern colonies do not understand the value of time, consequently
the uncertain arrivals and departures of the _Lady Le Marchant_ furnish
matter for numerous speculations. From some circumstances which had
occurred within my knowledge--one being that the captain of this steamer
had _forgotten_ to call for the continental mails--I did not attach much
importance to the various times which were fixed definitely for her
sailing between the hours of four and ten.
A cloudy, gloomy night had succeeded to the bright blaze of an August day,
and midnight was fast approaching before the signal-bell rang. Two friends
accompanied me as far as Bedeque, and, besides the gentleman under whose
escort I was to travel, there were twelve island gentlemen and two ladies,
all supposed to be bound, like myself, for Boston. All separate
individualities were, however, lost amid the confusion of bear-skin and
waterproof coats and the impenetrable darkness which brooded both on wharf
and steamer.
An amusing scene of bungling marked our departure from Charlotte Town. The
captain, a sturdy old Northumbrian seaman, thoroughly understood his
business; but the owners of the ship compelled him to share its management
with a very pertinacious pilot, and the conflicting orders given, and the
want of harmony in the actions produced, gave rise to many reflections on
the evils of divided responsibility. On the night in question some
mysterious spell seemed to bind us to the shores of Prince Edward Island.
In an attempt to get the steamer off she ran stern foremost upon the
bowsprit of a schooner, then broke one of the piles of the wharf to
pieces, crushing her fender to atoms at the same time. Some persons on the
pier, compassionating our helplessness, attempted to _stave_ the ship off
with long poles, but this well-meant attempt failed, as did several
others, until some one suggested to the captain the very simple expedient
of working the engines, when the steamer moved slowly away, smashing the
bulwarks of a new brig, and soon in the dark and murky atmosphere the few
lights of Charlotte Town ceased to be visible.
The compass was then required, but the matches in the ship hung fire; and
when a passenger at length produced a light, it was discovered that the
lamp in the binnacle was without that essential article, oil. Meanwhile no
one had ascertained what had caused the heavy smash at the outset, and
certain timid persons, in the idea that a hole had been knocked in the
ship's side, were in continual apprehension that she would fill and sink.
To drown all such gloomy anticipations we sang several songs, among others
the appropriate one, "Isle of Beauty, fare thee well." The voices rapidly
grew more faint and spiritless as we stood farther out to sea, a failure
which might have been attributed to grief at leaving old friends on the
chance of making new ones, had not hints and questions been speedily
interchanged, such as "Do you like the sea?" "Are you feeling
comfortable?" "Would you prefer being downstairs?"--and the like.
Cloaks and pillows became more thought of than either songs or friends;
indefinable sensations of melancholy rendered the merriest of the party
silent, and a perfect deluge of rain rendered a retreat into the lower
regions a precautionary measure which even the boldest were content to
adopt. Below, in addition to the close overpowering odour of cabins
without any ventilation, the smell of the bilge-water was sufficient in
itself to produce nausea. The dark den called the ladies' cabin, which was
by no means clean, was the sleeping abode of twelve people in various
stages of discomfort, and two babies.
I spent a very comfortless four hours, and went on deck at dawn to find a
thick fog, a heavy rain, the boards swimming with soot and water, and one
man cowering at the wheel. Most of the gentlemen, induced by the
discomfort to be early risers, came up before we reached Bedeque, in
oilskin caps, coats, and leggings, wearing that expression on their
physiognomies peculiar to Anglo-Saxons in the rain.
The K----s wished me to go ashore here, but the skipper, who seemed to
have been born with an objection on the tip of his tongue, dissuaded me,
as the rain was falling heavily, and the boat was a quarter full of water;
but as my clothes could not be more thoroughly saturated than they were, I
landed; and even at the early hour of six we found a blazing log-fire in
the shipbuilder's hospitable house, and "Biddy," more the "Biddy" of an
Irish novelist than a servant in real life, with her merry face, rich
brogue, and potato-cakes, welcomed us with many expressions of
commiseration for our drowned plight.
Who that has ever experienced the miseries of a voyage in a dirty,
crowded, and ill-ventilated little steamer, has not also appreciated the
pleasure of getting upon the land even for a few minutes? The
consciousness of the absence of suffocating sensations, and of the comfort
of a floor which does not move under the feet--of space, and cleanliness,
and warmth--soon produce an oblivion of all past miseries; but if the
voyage has not terminated, and the relief is only temporary, it enhances
the dread of future ones to such an extent that, when the captain came to
the door to fetch me, I had to rouse all my energies before I could leave
a blazing fire to battle with cold and rain again. The offer of a cup of
tea, which I would have supposed irresistible, would not induce him to
permit me to finish my breakfast, but at length his better nature
prevailed, and he consented to send the boat a second time.
After allowing my pocket to be filled with "notions" by the generous
"Biddy," I took leave of Miss Kenjins, who is good, clever, and agreeable
enough to redeem the young-ladyhood of the island--nor was there enough of
pleasant promise for the future to compensate for the regret I felt at
leaving those who had received a stranger with such kindness and
hospitality.
I jumped into the boat, where I stood with my feet in the water, in
company with several gentlemen with dripping umbrellas, whose marked want
of nasal development rendered Disraeli's description of "flat-nosed
Franks" peculiarly appropriate. The rain poured down as rain never pours
in England; and under these very dispiriting circumstances I began my
travels over the North American continent.
I went down to my miserable berth, and vainly tried to sleep, the
discomfort and mismanagement which prevailed leading my thoughts by force
of contrast to the order, cleanliness, and regularity of the inimitable
line of steamers on the West Highland coast. Wherever the means of
locomotion are concerned, these colonies are very far behind either the
"old country" or their enterprising neighbours in Canada; and at present
they do not appear conscious of the deficiencies which are sternly forced
upon a traveller's observation.
The prospect which appeared through the door was not calculated to please,
as it consisted of a low, dark, and suffocating cabin, filled with men in
suits of oilskin, existing in a steamy atmosphere, loaded with the odours
of india-rubber, tobacco, and spirits. The stewardess was ill, and my
companions were groaning; unheeded babies were crying; and the only
pleasing feature in the scene was the gruff old pilot, ubiquitous in
kindness, ever performing some act of humanity. At one moment he was
holding smelling-salts to some exhausted lady--at another carrying down a
poor Irishwoman, who, though a steerage passenger, should not, he said, be
left to perish from cold and hunger--and again, feeding some crying baby
with bread and milk. My clothes were completely saturated, and his good
offices probably saved me from a severe illness by covering me up with a
blanket.
At twelve we reached Shediac in New Brunswick, a place from which an
enormous quantity of timber is annually exported. It is a village in a
marsh, on a large bay surrounded by low wooded hills, and presents every
appearance of unhealthiness. Huge square-sided ships, English, Dutch, and
Austrian, were swallowing up rafts of pine which kept arriving from the
shore. The water on this coast is shallow, and, though our steamer was not
of more than 150 tons burthen, we were obliged to anchor nearly two miles
from shore.
Shediac bad recently been visited by the cholera, and there was an
infectious melancholy about its aspect, which, coupled with the fact that
I was wet, cold, and weary, and with the discovery that my escort and I
had not two ideas in common, had a tendency to produce anything but a
lively frame of mind.
We and our luggage were unceremoniously trundled into two large boats,
some of the gentlemen, I am sorry to say, forcing their way into the
first, in order to secure for themselves inside places in the stage. An
American gentleman offered our rowers a dollar if they could gain the
shore first, but they failed in doing so, and these very ungallant
individuals hired the first waggon, and drove off at full speed to the
Bend on the Petticodiac river, confident in the success of their scheme.
What was their surprise and mortification to find that a gentleman of our
party, who said he was "an old stager, and up to a dodge or two," had
leisurely telegraphed from Shediac for nine places! Thus, on their arrival
at the Bend, the delinquents found that, besides being both censured and
laughed at for their selfishness, they had lost their places, their
dinners, and their tempers.
As we were rowing to shore, the captain told us that our worst difficulty
was yet to come--an insuperable one, he added, to corpulent persons. There
was no landing-place for boats, or indeed for anything, at low water, and
we had to climb up a wharf ten feet high, formed of huge round logs placed
a foot apart from each other, and slippery with sea-grass. It is really
incredible that, at a place through which a considerable traffic passes,
as being on the high road from Prince Edward Island to the United States,
there should be a more inconvenient landing-place than I ever saw at a
Highland village.
Large, high, springless waggons were waiting for us on this wharf, which,
after jolting us along a bad road for some distance, deposited us at the
door of the inn at Shediac, where we came for the first time upon the
track of the cholera, which had recently devastated all the places along
our route. Here we had a substantial dinner of a very homely description,
and, as in Nova Scotia, a cup of tea sweetened with molasses was placed by
each plate, instead of any intoxicating beverage.
After this meal I went into the "house-room," or parlour, a general
"rendezvous" of lady visitors, babies, unmannerly children, Irish servant-
girls with tangled hair and bare feet, colonial gossips, "cute" urchins,
and not unfrequently of those curious-looking beings, pauper-emigrant lads
from Erin, who do a little of everything and nothing well, denominated
stable-helps.
Here I was assailed with a host of questions as to my country, objects in
travelling, &c., and I speedily found that being from the "old country"
gave me a _status_ in the eyes of the colonial ladies. I was requested to
take off my cloak to display the pattern of my dress, and the performance
of a very inefficient country _modiste_ passed off as the latest Parisian
fashion. My bonnet and cloak were subjected to a like scrutiny, and the
pattern of the dress was taken, after which I was allowed to resume my
seat.
Interrogatories about England followed, and I was asked if I had seen the
queen? The hostess "guessed" that she must be a "tall grand lady," and one
pretty damsel that "she must dress beautiful, and always wear the crown
out of doors." I am afraid that I rather lessened the estimation in which
our gracious liege lady was held by her subjects when I replied that she
dressed very simply on ordinary occasions; had never, I believed, worn the
crown since her coronation, and was very little above my height. They
inquired about the royal children, but evinced more curiosity about the
princess-royal than with respect to the heir to the throne. One of the
querists had been at Boston, but guessed that "London must be a pretty
considerable touch higher." Most, however, could only compare it in idea
with St. John, N. B., and listened with the greatest appearance of
interest to the wonders which I narrated of the extent, wealth, and
magnificence of the British metropolis. Altogether I was favourably
impressed by their intelligence, and during my short journey through New
Brunswick I formed a higher opinion of the uneducated settlers in this
province than of those in Nova Scotia. They are very desirous to possess a
reputation for being, to use their borrowed phraseology, "Knowing 'coons,
with their eye-teeth well cut." It would be well if they borrowed from
their neighbours, the Yankees, something more useful than their slang,
which renders the vernacular of the province rather repulsive. The spirit
of enterprise, which has done so much for the adjacent state of Maine, has
not yet displayed itself in New Brunswick in the completion of any works
of practical utility; and though the soil in many places has great natural
capabilities, these have not been taken due advantage of.
There are two modes of reaching St. John from Shediac, one by stage, the
other by steamer; and the ladies and children, fearful of the fatigue of a
land journey, remained to take the steamer from the Bend. I resolved to
stay under Mr. Sandford's escort, and go by land, one of my objects being
to see as much of the country as possible; also my late experiences of
colonial steamboat travelling had not been so agreeable as to induce me to
brave the storms of the Bay of Fundy in a crazy vessel, which had been
injured only two nights before by a collision in a race. On the night on
which some of my companions sailed the _Creole's_ engines were disabled,
and she remained in a helpless condition for four hours, so I had a very
fortunate escape.
Taking leave of the amusingly miscellaneous party in the "house-room," I
left Shediac for the Bend, in company with seven persons from Prince
Edward Island, in a waggon drawn by two ponies, and driven by the
landlord, a shrewd specimen of a colonist.
This mode of transit deserves a passing notice. The waggon consisted of an
oblong shallow wooden tray on four wheels; on this were placed three
boards resting on high unsteady props, and the machine was destitute of
springs. The ponies were thin, shaggy, broken-kneed beings, under fourteen
hands high, with harness of a most meagre description, and its cohesive
qualities seemed very small, if I might judge from the frequency with
which the driver alighted to repair its parts with pieces of twine, with
which his pockets were stored, I suppose in anticipation of such
occasions.
These poor little animals took nearly four hours to go fourteen miles, and
even this rate of progression was only kept up by the help of continual
admonitions from a stout leather thong.
It was a dismal evening, very like one in England at the end of November--
the air cold and damp--and I found the chill from wet clothes and an east
wind anything but agreeable. The country also was extremely uninviting,
and I thought its aspect more gloomy than that of Nova Scotia. Sometimes
we traversed swamps swarming with bullfrogs, on corduroy roads which
nearly jolted us out of the vehicle, then dreary levels abounding in
spindly hacmetac, hemlock, and birch-trees; next we would go down into a
cedar-swamp alive with mosquitoes. Dense forests, impassable morasses, and
sedgy streams always bounded the immediate prospect, and the clearings
were few and far between. Nor was the conversation of my companions
calculated to beguile a tedious journey; it was on "_snatching_,"
"_snarlings_" and other puerilities of island politics, corn, sugar, and
molasses.
About dusk we reached the Bend, a dismal piece of alluvial swampy-looking
land, drained by a wide, muddy river, called the Petticodiac, along the
shore of which a considerable shipbuilding village is located. The tide
here rises and falls twenty-four feet, and sixty at the mouth of the
river, in the Bay of Fundy. It was a dispiriting view--acres of mud bare
at low water, and miles of swamp covered with rank coarse grass,
intersected by tide-streams, which are continually crossed on rotten
wooden bridges without parapets. This place had recently been haunted by
fever and cholera.
As there was a slight incline into the village, our miserable ponies
commenced a shambling trot, the noise of which brought numerous idlers to
the inn-door to inquire the news. This inn was a rambling, unpainted
erection of wood, opposite to a "cash, credit, and barter store," kept by
an enterprising Caledonian--an additional proof of the saying which
ascribes ubiquity to "Scots, Newcastle grindstones, and Birmingham
buttons." A tidy, bustling landlady, very American in her phraseology, but
kind in her way, took me under her especial protection, as forty men were
staying in the house, and there was an astonishing paucity of the softer
sex; indeed, in all my subsequent travels I met with an undue and rather
disagreeable preponderance of the "lords of the creation."
Not being inclined to sit in the "parlour" with a very motley company, I
accompanied the hostess into the kitchen, and sat by the fire upon a
chopping-block, the most luxurious seat in the apartment. Two shoeless
Irish girls were my other companions, and one of them, hearing that I was
from England, inquired if I were acquainted with "one Mike Donovan, of
Skibbereen!" The landlady's daughter was also there, a little, sharp-
visaged, precocious torment of three years old, who spilt my ink and lost
my thimble; and then, coming up to me, said, "Well, stranger, I guess
you're kinder tired." She very unceremoniously detached my watch from my
chain, and, looking at it quite with the eye of a _connoisseur_, "guessed
it must have cost a pretty high figure"! After she had filled my purse
with ink, for which misdemeanour her mother offered no apology, I looked
into the tea-room, which presented the curious spectacle of forty men,
including a number of ship-carpenters of highly respectable appearance,
taking tea in the silent, business-like way in which Transatlantic meals
are generally despatched. My own meal, which the landlady evidently
intended should be a very luxurious one, consisted of stewed tea,
sweetened with molasses, soft cheese instead of butter, and dark rye-
bread.
The inn was so full that my hostess said she could not give me a bed--
rather an unwelcome announcement to a wayworn traveller--and with
considerable complacency she took me into a large, whitewashed, carpetless
room, furnished with one chair, a small table, and my valise. She gave me
two buffalo robes, and left me, hoping I should be comfortable! Rather
disposed to quarrel with a hardship which shortly afterwards I should have
laughed at, I rolled up my cloak for a pillow, wrapped myself in a
buffalo-skin, and slept as soundly as on the most luxurious couch. I was
roused early by a general thumping and clattering, and, making the hasty
toilette which one is compelled to do when destitute of appliances, I
found the stage at the early hour of six ready at the door; and, to my
surprise, the coachman was muffled up in furs, and the morning was
intensely cold.
This vehicle was of the same construction as that which I have already
described in Nova Scotia; but, being narrower, was infinitely more
uncomfortable. Seven gentlemen and two ladies went inside, in a space
where six would have been disagreeably crowded. Mr. Sandford preferred the
outside, where he could smoke his cigar without molestation. The road was
very hilly, and several times our progress was turned into retrogression,
for the horses invariably refused to go up hill, probably, poor things!
because they felt their inability to drag the loaded wain up the steep
declivities which we continually met with. The passengers were therefore
frequently called upon to get out and walk--a very agreeable recreation,
for the ice was the thickness of a penny; the thermometer stood at 35°;
there was a piercing north-east wind; and though the sun shone from a
cloudless sky, his rays had scarcely any power. We breakfasted at eight,
at a little wayside inn, and then travelled till midnight with scarcely
any cessation.
The way would have been very tedious had it not been enlivened by the
eccentricities of Mr. Latham, an English passenger. After breakfast the
conversation in the stage was pretty general, led by the individual
aforesaid, who _lectured_ and _preached_, rather than conversed. Few
subjects were untouched by his eloquence; he spoke with equal ease on a
difficult point in theology, and on the conformation of the sun. He
lectured on politics, astronomy, chemistry, and anatomy with great fluency
and equal incorrectness. In describing the circulation of the blood, he
said, "It's a purely metaphysical subject;" and the answering remark, "It
is the most purely physical," made him vehemently angry. He spoke of the
sun by saying, "I've studied the sun; I know it as well as I do this
field; it's a dark body with a luminous atmosphere, and a climate more
agreeable than that of the earth"--thus announcing as a fact what has been
timidly put forward as a theory only by our greatest astronomers.
Politics soon came on the _tapis_, when he attacked British institutions
violently, with an equal amount of ignorance and presumption, making such
glaring misstatements that I felt bound to contradict them; when he, not
liking to be lowered in the estimation of his companions, contested the
points in a way which closely bordered upon rudeness.
He made likewise a very pedantic display of scientific knowledge, in
virtue of an occasional attendance at meetings of mechanics' institutes,
and asked the gentlemen for "We're all gentlemen here"--numerous
questions, to which they could not reply, when one of the party took
courage to ask him why fire burned. "Oh, because of the hydrogen in the
air, of course," was the complacent answer. "I beg your pardon, but there
is no hydrogen in atmospheric air."--"There is; I know the air well: it is
composed one-half of hydrogen, the other half of nitrogen and oxygen."
"You're surely confounding it with water."--"No, I am as well acquainted
with the composition of water as with that of air; it is composed of the
same gases, only in different proportions." This was too monstrous, and
his opponent, while contradicting the statement, could not avoid a hearty
laugh at its absurdity, in which the others joined without knowing why,
which so raised the choler of this irascible gentleman, that it was most
difficult to smooth matters. He contended that he was right and the other
wrong; that his propositions were held by all chemists of eminence on both
sides of the water; that, though he had not verified the elements of these
fluids by analysis, he was perfectly acquainted with their nature; that
the composition of air was a mere theory, but that his opponent's view was
not held by any _savans_ of note. The latter merely replied, "When you
next light a candle you may be thankful that there is no hydrogen in the
air;" after which there was a temporary cessation of hostilities.
But towards night, being still unwarned by the discomfitures of the
morning, he propounded some questions which his companions could not
answer; among which was, "Why are there black sheep?" How he would have
solved this difficult problem in natural history, I do not know.
Mystification sat on all faces, when the individual who had before
attacked Mr. Latham's misstatements, took up the defence of the puzzled
colonists by volunteering to answer the question if he would explain how
"impossible roots enter equations." No reply was given to this, when, on
some of the gentlemen urging him, perhaps rather mischievously, to answer,
he retorted angrily,--"I'm master of mathematics as well as of other
sciences; but I see there's an intention to make fun of me. I don't choose
to be made a butt of, and I'll show you that I can be as savage as other
people." This threat had the effect of producing a total silence for the
remainder of the journey; but Mr. Latham took an opportunity of explaining
to me that in this speech he intended no personal allusion, but had found
it necessary to check the ill-timed mirth in the stage. In spite of his
presumption and pedantry, he never lost an opportunity of showing
kindness. I saw him last in the very extremity of terror, during a violent
gale off the coast of Maine.
For the first fifty miles after leaving the Bend, our road lay through
country as solitary and wild as could be conceived--high hills, covered
with endless forests of small growth. I looked in vain for the gigantic
trees so celebrated by travellers in America. If they ever grew in this
region, they now, in the shape of ships, are to be found on every sea
where England's flag waves. Occasionally the smoke of an Indian wigwam
would rise in a thin blue cloud from among the dark foliage of the
hemlock; and by the primitive habitation one of the aboriginal possessors
of the soil might be seen, in tattered habiliments, cleaning a gun or
repairing a bark canoe, scarcely deigning an apathetic glance at those
whom the appliances of civilisation and science had placed so immeasurably
above him. Then a squaw, with a papoose strapped upon her back, would peep
at us from behind a tree; or a half-clothed urchin would pursue us for
coppers, contrasting strangely with the majesty of _Uncas_, or the
sublimity of _Chingachgook_; portraits which it is very doubtful if Cooper
ever took from life.
In the few places where the land had been cleared the cultivation was
tolerable and the houses comfortable, surrounded generally by cattle-sheds
and rich crops of Tartarian oats. The potatoes appeared to be free from
disease, and the pumpkin crop was evidently abundant and in good
condition. Sussex Valley, along which we passed for thirty miles, is
green, wooded, and smilingly fertile, being watered by a clear rapid
river. The numerous hay-meadows, and the neat appearance of the arable
land, reminded me of England. It is surprising, considering the advantages
possessed by New Brunswick, that it has not been a more favourite resort
of emigrants. It seems to me that one great reason of this must be the
difficulty and expense of land-travelling, as the province is destitute of
the means of internal communication in the shape of railways and canals.
It contains several navigable rivers, and the tracts of country near the
St. John, the Petticodiac, and the Miramichi rivers are very fertile, and
adapted for cultivation. The lakes and minor streams in the interior of
the province are also surrounded by rich land, and the capacious bays
along the coast abound with fish. New Brunswick possesses "responsible
government," and has a Governor, an Executive Council, a Legislative
Council, and a House of Assembly. Except that certain expenses of defence,
&c., are borne by the home government, which would protect the colony in
the event of any predatory incursions on the part of the Americans, it has
all the advantages of being an independent nation; and it is believed that
the Reciprocity Treaty, recently concluded with the United States, will
prove of great commercial benefit.
Yet the number of emigrants who have sought its shores is comparatively
small, and these arrivals were almost exclusively of the labouring
classes, attracted by the extraordinarily high rates of wages, and were
chiefly absorbed by mechanical employments. The numbers landed in 1853
were 3762, and, in 1854, 3618. With respect to the general affairs of New
Brunswick, it is very satisfactory to observe that the provincial revenue
has increased to upwards of 200,000_l._ per annum.
Fredericton, a town of about 9000 inhabitants, on the St. John river, by
which it has a daily communication with the city of St. John, 90 miles
distant, by steamer, is the capital and seat of government. New Brunswick
has considerable mineral wealth; coal and iron are abundant, and the
climate is less foggy than that of Nova Scotia; but these great natural
advantages are suffered to lie nearly dormant. The colonists are very
hardy and extremely loyal; but the vice of drinking, so prevalent in
northern climates, has recently called for legislative interference.
We stopped at the end of every stage of eighteen miles to change horses,
and at one of the little inns an old man brought to the door of the stage
a very pretty, interesting-looking girl of fifteen years old, and placed
her under my care, requesting me to "see her safely to her home in St.
John, and not allow any of the gentlemen to be rude to her." The latter
part of the instructions was very easy to fulfil, as, whatever faults the
colonists possess, they are extremely respectful in their manners to
ladies. But a difficulty arose, or rather what would have been a
difficulty in England, for the stage was full both inside and out, and all
the passengers were desirous to reach Boston as speedily as possible.
However, a gentleman from New England, seeing the anxiety of the young
girl to reach St. John, got out of the stage, and actually remained at the
little roadside inn for one whole day and two nights, in order to
accommodate a stranger. This act of kindness was performed at great
personal inconvenience, and the gentleman who showed it did not appear to
attach the slightest merit to it The novelty of it made a strong
impression upon me, and it fully bore out all that I had read or heard of
the almost exaggerated deference to ladies which custom requires from
American gentlemen.
After darkness came on, the tedium of a journey of twenty hours, performed
while sitting in a very cramped posture, was almost insupportable, and the
monotony of it was only broken by the number of wooden bridges which we
crossed, and the driver's admonition, "Bridge dangerous; passengers get
out and walk." The night was very cold and frosty, and so productive of
aguish chills, that I was not at all sorry for the compelled pedestrianism
entailed upon me by the insecure state of these bridges.
My young charge seemed extremely timid while crossing them, and uttered a
few suppressed shrieks when curious splitting noises, apparently
proceeding from the woodwork, broke the stillness; nor was I altogether
surprised at her emotions when, as we were walking over a bridge nearly
half a mile in length, I was told that a coach and six horses had
disappeared through it a fortnight before, at the cost of several broken
limbs.
While crossing the St. John, near the pretty town of Hampton, one of our
leaders put both his fore feet into a hole, and was with difficulty
extricated.
Precisely at midnight the stage clattered down the steep streets of the
city of St. John, to which the ravages of the cholera had recently given
such a terrible celebrity. After a fruitless pilgrimage to three hotels,
we were at length received at Waverley House, having accomplished a
journey of one hundred miles in twenty hours! On ringing my bell, it was
answered by a rough porter, and I soon found that _waiting_ chambermaids
are not essential at Transatlantic hotels; and the female servants, or
rather _helps_, are of a very superior class. A friend of mine, on leaving
an hotel at Niagara, offered a _douceur_ in the shape of half a dollar to
one of these, but she drew herself up, and proudly replied, "American
ladies do not receive money from gentlemen." Having left my keys at the
Bend, I found my valise a useless incumbrance, rather annoying after a
week of travelling.
We spent the Sunday at St. John, and, the opportune arrival of my keys
enabling me to don some habiliments suited to the day, I went to the
church, where the service, with the exception of the sermon, was very well
performed. A solemn thanksgiving for the removal of the cholera was read,
and was rendered very impressive by the fact that most of the congregation
were in new mourning. The Angel of Death had long hovered over the doomed
city, which lost rather more than a tenth of its population from a disease
which in the hot summer of America is nearly as fatal and terrible as the
plague. All who could leave the town fled; but many carried the disease
with them, and died upon the road. The hotels, shipyards, and stores were
closed, bodies rudely nailed up in boards were hurried about the streets,
and met with hasty burial outside the city, before vital warmth had fled;
the holy ties of natural affection were disregarded, and the dying were
left alone to meet the King of Terrors, none remaining to close their
eyes; the ominous clang of the death-bell was heard both night and day,
and a dense brown fog was supposed to brood over the city, which for five
weeks was the abode of the dying and the dead.
A temporary regard for religion was produced among the inhabitants of St.
John by the visit of the pestilence; it was scarcely possible for the most
sceptical not to recognise the overruling providence of God: and I have
seldom seen more external respect for the Sabbath and the ordinances of
religion than in this city.
The preponderance of the rougher sex was very strongly marked at Waverley
House. Fifty gentlemen sat down to dinner, and only three ladies,
inclusive of the landlady. Fifty-three cups of tea graced the table, which
was likewise ornamented with six boiled legs of mutton, numerous dishes of
splendid potatoes, and corn-cobs, squash, and pumpkin-pie, in true
colonial abundance.
I cannot forbear giving a conversation which took place at a meal at this
inn, as it is very characteristic of the style of persons whom one
continually meets with in travelling in these colonies: "I guess you're
from the Old Country?" commenced my _vis-à-vis_; to which recognition of
my nationality I humbly bowed. "What do you think of us here d own east?"
"I have been so short a time in these provinces, that I cannot form any
just opinion." "Oh, but you must have formed some; we like to know what
Old Country folks think of us." Thus asked, I could not avoid making some
reply, and said, "I think there is a great want of systematic enterprise
in these colonies; you do not avail yourselves of the great natural
advantages which you possess." "Well, the fact is, old father Jackey Bull
ought to help us, or let us go off on our own hook right entirely." "You
have responsible government, and, to use your own phrase, you are on 'your
own hook' in all but the name." "Well, I guess as we are; _we're a long
chalk above the Yankees_, though them is fellers as thinks nobody's got
their eye teeth cut but themselves."
The self-complacent ignorance with which this remark was made was
ludicrous in the extreme. He began again: "What do you think of Nova
Scotia and the 'Blue Noses'? Halifax is a grand place, sure_ly_!" "At
Halifax I found the best inn such a one as no respectable American would
condescend to sleep at, and a town of shingles, with scarcely any
sidewalks. The people were talking largely of railways and steamers, yet I
travelled by the mail to Truro and Pictou in a conveyance that would
scarcely have been tolerated in England two centuries ago. The people of
Halifax possess the finest harbour in North America, yet they have no
docks, and scarcely any shipping. The Nova-Scotians, it is known, have
iron, coal, slate, limestone, and freestone, and their shores swarm with
fish, yet they spend their time in talking about railways, docks, and the
House of Assembly, and end by walking about doing nothing."
"Yes," chimed in a Boston sea-captain, who had been our fellow-passenger
from Europe, and prided himself upon being a "thorough-going down-easter,"
"it takes as long for a Blue Nose to put on his hat as for one of our free
and enlightened citizens to go from Bosting to New _Orleens_. If we don't
whip all creation it's a pity! Why, stranger, if you were to go to
Connecticut, and tell 'em what you've been telling this ere child, they'd
guess you'd been with _Colonel Crockett_."
"Well, I proceeded, in answer to another question from the New-
Brunswicker," if you wish to go to the north of your own province, you
require to go round Nova Scotia by sea. I understand that a railway to the
Bay of Chaleur has been talked about, but I suppose it has ended where it
began; and, for want of a railway to Halifax, even the Canadian traffic
has been diverted to Portland."
"We want to invest some of our surplus revenue," said the captain. "It'll
be a good spec when Congress buys these colonies; some of our ten-horse
power chaps will come down, and, before you could whistle 'Yankee Doodle,'
we'll have a canal to Bay Varte, with a town as big as Newhaven at each
end. The Blue Noses will look kinder streaked then, I guess." The New-
Brunswicker retorted, with some fierceness, that the handful of British
troops at Fredericton could "chaw up" the whole American army; and the
conversation continued for some time longer in the same boastful and
exaggerated strain on each side, but the above is a specimen of colonial
arrogance and American conceit.
The population of New Brunswick in 1851 was 193,800; but it is now over
210,000, and will likely increase rapidly, should the contemplated
extension of the railway system to the province ever take place; as in
that case the route to both the Canadas by the port of St. John will
probably supersede every other. The spacious harbour of St. John has a
sufficient depth of water for vessels of the largest class, and its tide-
fall of about 25 feet effectually prevents it from being frozen in the
winter.
The timber trade is a most important source of wealth to the colony--the
timber floated down the St. John alone, in the season of 1852, was of the
value of 405,208_l._ sterling. The saw-mills, of which by the last census
there were 584, gave employment to 4302 hands. By the same census there
were 87 ships, with an average burthen of 400 tons each, built in the year
in which it was taken, and the number has been on the increase since.
These colonial-built vessels are gradually acquiring a very high
reputation; some of our finest clippers, including one or two belonging to
the celebrated "White Star" line, are by the St. John builders. Perhaps,
with the single exception of Canada West, no colony offers such varied
inducements to emigrants.
I saw as much of St. John as possible, and on a fine day was favourably
impressed with it. It well deserves its cognomen, "The City of the Rock,"
being situated on a high, bluff, rocky peninsula, backed on the land-side
by steep barren hills. The harbour is well sheltered and capacious, and
the suspension-bridge above the falls very picturesque. The streets are
steep, wide, and well paved, and the stores are more pretentious than
those of Halifax. There is also a very handsome square, with a more
respectable fountain in it than those which excite the ridicule of
foreigners in front of our National Gallery. It is a place where a large
amount of business is done, and the shipyards alone give employment to
several thousand persons.
Yet the lower parts of the town are dirty in the extreme. I visited some
of the streets near the water before the cholera had quite disappeared
from them, nor did I wonder that the pestilence should linger in places so
appropriate to itself; for the roadways were strewn to a depth of several
inches with sawdust, emitting a foul decomposing smell, and in which lean
pigs were _routing_ and fighting.
Yet St. John wears a lively aspect. You see a thousand boatmen, raftmen,
and millmen, some warping dingy scows, others loading huge square-sided
ships; busy gangs of men in fustian jackets, engaged in running off the
newly sawed timber; and the streets bustling with storekeepers, lumber-
merchants, and market-men; all combining to produce a chaos of activity
very uncommon in the towns of our North American colonies. But too often,
murky-looking wharfs, storehouses, and half-dismantled ships, are
enveloped in drizzling fog--the fog rendered yet more impenetrable by the
fumes of coal-tar and sawdust; and the lower streets swarm with a
demoralised population. Yet the people of St. John are so far beyond the
people of Halifax, that I heartily wish them success and a railroad.
The air was ringing with the clang of a thousand saws and hammers, when,
at seven on the morning of a brilliant August day, we walked through the
swarming streets bordering upon the harbour to the _Ornevorg_ steamer,
belonging to the United States, built for Long Island Sound, but now used
as a coasting steamer. All my preconceived notions of a steamer were here
at fault. If it were like anything in nature, it was like Noah's ark, or,
to come to something post-diluvian, one of those covered hulks, or "ships
in ordinary," which are to be seen at Portsmouth and Devonport.
She was totally unlike an English ship, painted entirely white, without
masts, with two small black funnels alongside each other; and several
erections one above another for decks, containing multitudes of windows
about two feet square. The fabric seemed kept together by two large beams,
which added to the top-heavy appearance of the whole affair. We entered by
the paddle-box (which was within the outer casing of the ship), in company
with a great crowd, into a large square uncarpeted apartment, called the
"Hall," with offices at the sides for the sale of railway and dinner
tickets. Separated from this by a curtain is the ladies' saloon, a large
and almost _too_ airy apartment extending from the Hall to the stem of the
ship, well furnished with sofas, rocking-chairs, and marble tables. A row
of berths runs along the side, hung with festooned drapery of satin
damask, the curtains being of muslin, embroidered with rose-coloured
braid.
Above this is the general saloon, a large, handsomely furnished room, with
state rooms running down each side, and opening upon a small deck fourteen
feet long, also covered; the roof of this and of the saloon, forming the
real or hurricane deck of the ship, closed to passengers, and twelve feet
above which works the beam of the engine. Below the Hall, running the
whole length of the ship, is the gentlemen's cabin, containing 170 berths.
This is lighted by artificial light, and is used for meals. An enclosure
for the engine occupies the centre, but is very small, as the machinery of
a, high-pressure engine is without the encumbrances of condenser and air-
pump. The engines drove the unwieldy fabric through the calm water at the
rate of fifteen miles an hour. I have been thus minute in my description,
because this one will serve for all the steamers in which I subsequently
travelled in the United States and Canada.
The city of St. John looked magnificent on its lofty steep; and for some
time we had some very fine coast scenery; lofty granite cliffs rising
abruptly from the water, clothed with forests, the sea adjoining them so
deep, that we passed them, as proved by actual demonstration, within a
stone's throw. At one we arrived at Eastport, in Maine, a thriving-looking
place, and dinner was served while we were quiescent at the wharf. The
stewardess hunted up all the females in the ship, and, preceding them down
stairs, placed them at the head of the table; then, and not an instant
before, were the gentlemen allowed to appear, who made a most obstreperous
rush at the viands. There were about 200 people seated in a fetid and
dimly-lighted apartment, at a table covered over with odoriferous viands--
pork stuffed with onions, boiled legs of mutton, boiled chickens and
turkeys, roast geese, beef-steaks, yams, tomatoes, squash, mush, corn-
cobs, johnny cake, and those endless dishes of pastry to which the
American palate is so partial. I was just finishing a plate of soup when a
waiter touched me on the shoulder--"Dinner ticket, or fifty cents"; and
almost before I had comprehended the mysteries of American money
sufficiently to pay, other people were eating their dessert. So simple,
however, is the coinage of the United States, that in two days I
understood it as well as our own. Five dollars equal an English sovereign,
and one hundred cents make a dollar, and with this very moderate amount of
knowledge one can conduct one's pecuniary affairs all over the Union. The
simplicity of the calculation was quite a relief to me after the relative
values of the English sovereign in the colonies, which had greatly
perplexed me: 25_s._ 6_d._ in New Brunswick, 25_s._ in Nova Scotia, and
30_s._ in Prince Edward Island. I sat on deck till five, when I went down
to my berth. As the evening closed in gloomily, the sea grew coarser, and
I heard the captain say, "We are likely to have a very fresh night of it."
At seven a wave went down the companion-way, and washed half the tea-
things off the table, and before I fell asleep, the mate put his head
through the curtain to say, "It's a rough night, ladies, but there's no
danger"; a left-handed way of giving courage, which of course frightened
the timid. About eleven I was awoke by confused cries, and in my dawning
consciousness everything seemed going to pieces. The curtain was undrawn,
and I could see the hall continually swept by the waves.
Everything in our saloon was loose; rocking-chairs were careering about
the floor and coming into collision; the stewardess, half-dressed, was
crawling about from berth to berth, answering the inquiries of terrified
ladies, and the ship was groaning and straining heavily; but I slept
again, till awoke at midnight by a man's voice shouting "Get up, ladies,
and dress, but don't come out till you're called; the gale's very heavy."
Then followed a scene. People, helpless in illness a moment before, sprang
out of their berths and hastily huddled on their clothes; mothers caught
hold of their infants with a convulsive grasp; some screamed, others sat
down in apathy, while not a few addressed agonised supplications to that
God, too often neglected in times of health and safety, to save them in
their supposed extremity.
Crash went the lamp, which was suspended from the ceiling, as a huge wave
struck the ship, making her reel and stagger, and shrieks of terror
followed this event, which left us in almost total darkness. Rush came
another heavy wave, sweeping up the saloon, carrying chairs and stools
before it, and as rapidly retiring. The hall was full of men, clinging to
the supports, each catching the infectious fear from his neighbour. Wave
after wave now struck the ship. I heard the captain say the sea was making
a clean breach over her, and order the deck-load overboard. Shortly after,
the water, sweeping in from above, put out the engine-fires, and, as she
settled down continually in the trough of the sea, and lay trembling there
as though she would never rise again, even in my ignorance I knew that she
had "no way on her" and was at the mercy of the waters. I now understood
the meaning of "blowing great guns." The wind sounded like continual
discharges of heavy artillery, and the waves, as they struck the ship,
felt like cannon-balls. I could not get up and dress, for, being in the
top berth, I was unable to get out in consequence of the rolling of the
ship, and so, being unable to mend matters, I lay quietly, the whole
passing before me as a scene. I had several times been called on to
anticipate death from illness; but here, as I heard the men outside say,
"She's going down, she's water-logged, she can't hold together," there was
a different prospect of sinking down among the long trailing weeds in the
cold, deep waters of the Atlantic. Towards three o'clock, a wave, striking
the ship, threw me against a projecting beam of the side, cutting my head
severely and stunning me, and I remained insensible for three hours. We
continued in great danger for ten hours, many expecting each moment to be
their last, but in the morning the gale moderated, and by most strenuous
exertions at the pumps the water was kept down till assistance was
rendered, which enabled us about one o'clock to reach the friendly harbour
of Portland in Maine, with considerable damage and both our boats stove.
Deep thankfulness was expressed by many at such an unlooked-for
termination of the night's terrors and adventures; many the resolutions
expressed not to trust the sea again.
We were speedily moored to the wharf at Portland, amid a forest of masts;
the stars and stripes flaunted gaily overhead in concert with the American
eagle; and as I stepped upon those shores on which the sanguine suppose
that the Anglo-Saxon race is to renew the vigour of its youth, I felt that
a new era of my existence had begun.