_Baffled in reaching the Western States—Buffalo—4th of July—Oneida
Indians—Fort Erie—Early Marriages—David Baxter—Petersburgh—Separate
from Companions—Musquittoes—Settlers around Dunville—Earing of
Wheat—Dunville—Face of the Country—Notices of Nature—Breaking
Fruit-trees—Bar-room Group—Junction with Companions—Visit a New
Settler—Politicians—Hamilton—York._
As it was my intention to visit the Western States of the Union, my
friends agreed to accompany me round the north side of Lake Erie, and
cross over to Cleveland, proceeding down the Ohio canal and river,
passing north, through Illinois and Michigan, east by Upper and Lower
Canada, and to Britain by the St Lawrence. We could not get information
regarding roads or conveyances at the Pavilion, which we left in a stage
for Buffalo on the morning of the 3d July, to push our way in the best
manner we could, having forwarded our heavy luggage to York. The day
being fine, the drive was delightful up the banks of the Niagara; here a
broad smooth flowing stream, divided by islands, and a few feet below
the surrounding country. The river does not at any time overflow its
banks, seldom varying ten inches in depth, a peculiarity arising from
the lakes, through which the waters flow, acting as reservoirs. The soil
is clay of good quality, badly fenced, without indication of recent
improvements, and appearances did not bespeak wealth or industry in the
inhabitants. At the village of Waterloo, we crossed the river in a
four-horse ferry-boat, and after passing through a country of recently
cleared and inferior soil, reached the Eagle tavern at Buffalo in time
for dinner, served in a well-lighted room, 93 feet long, and crowded
with company.
Buffalo is situated in the extremity of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the
Erie canal, and is the depôt of commerce passing between the Eastern and
Western States. In 1814, the village was reduced to one house, having
been burned by the enemy. Now it contains many brick houses of large
size; and I was struck with the stores, or warehouses, at the wharf, and
the immense quantity of merchandise they contained. It is the chief port
on the lake for steam-boats—a daily line sailing for Detroit, one of
which, in course of the season, was said to have left the pier with 800
passengers on board. The Americans have fifteen steam-boats on the lake,
many of them of the largest size, and four are building. The British had
not one at this time—two small boats having been launched in course of
the season, were undergoing repair, after having made a trip or two.
American steamers do not touch at any port on the Canada side of Lake
Erie, with exception of Amherstburgh, on the river Detroit.
The 4th July is a holiday over the Union, being the anniversary of
American independence, and was ushered in at Buffalo with firing of
guns, and other demonstrations of joy. All was again quiet by breakfast
time; and a procession was to take place at noon. Approving of keeping
such a day in remembrance, as impressing the mind of youth with love of
liberty, I felt inclined to witness the proceedings, but the necessity
of continuing my journey induced me to abandon the idea.
After breakfast, we got on board a miserable steamer of eight horse
power, which landed us at Fort Erie in Canada. On the wharf at Buffalo
we saw a number of the Oneida tribe of Indians, on their way to
Greenbay, a branch of Lake Michigan. This tribe having sold their lands
in the state of New York, government was conveying them to their new
possessions. The poor creatures were standing in groups, dressed in
their best attire, and many young and old of both sexes stupified by
intoxication. I particularly remarked a grey-haired aged female, with a
countenance of the deepest suffering, bearing in her arms a child of
spurious origin. These descendants of the original owners of the soil
have been gradually deprived of their birthright; and although Greenbay
is 1000 miles from their old habitations, the white man in progress of
time will envy their new possessions, and the poor Indian will retire
still farther to the west, if drunkenness, and other vices acquired from
the whites, do not exterminate the race.
On landing at Fort Erie, consisting of four or five houses, I was
disappointed at finding that a gentleman, to whom I had a letter,
resided three miles from the fort, and that it was doubtful if we could
make our way round the south side of the lake, there being no regular
conveyance of any kind; but I flattered myself if we could reach
Gravelbay, at the mouth of the Welland canal, all difficulty would be
over; and after some little enquiry, we succeeded in engaging a farmer
to drive us there in his waggon.
I delivered letters, and dined at Fort Erie, where a pretty little miss,
when enquiring about her friends at Edinburgh, said her cousin, Mrs ——,
was old when married. On replying I did not think so, she added, “O
yes—quite old; she was six-and-twenty.” This lady’s opinion of marriage
was pretty well expressed, and I hope she may not be disappointed in her
own fate. The people of America marry early. When at Montreal, a couple
was pointed out, the lady being only thirteen years of age.
The waggon arrived soon after dinner, driven by its owner, Mr David
Baxter, so much improved by change of dress, that I had difficulty in
recognising him. He was son of a captain of militia, farmed 100 acres,
and owned 200 more in the London district, yet he readily left his
employment, and engaged to carry us nineteen miles for 8s. 6d. sterling.
The horses were excellent, and he said to them a thousand times, “Jim
and Jerry, go-a-long; bid you both; what-you-bout? wheel-away;” and
being good-humoured and intelligent, time passed pleasantly in the
waggon.
For eight or nine miles the shores of Lake Erie resembled the beach of
the sea. The country at some distance was wet and partly newly cleared;
the ridges eight or ten feet wide; crops, with exception of some
wheat-fields, indifferent, and included a considerable extent of peas.
Houses were mean; the inhabitants ragged and dirty. Cattle were small
and lean. Many pigs were pictures of starvation; and on the 5th July
their winter hair was hanging on them in matted masses, like the wool of
sheep. At dusk, we reached a few log-houses, called Petersburgh, on the
Welland canal, where we had one bed assigned to three of us, which was
occupied by two, the third reposing on a chest, with a great coat below,
and a cloak above him.
We rose at four o’clock next morning, and walked down the banks of the
canal to its junction with the lake, and some miles to the west, to see
a property for sale belonging to Mr ——, for which $10 per acre was
asked. After breakfast, we expected a waggon and a pair of horses to
take us to Dunville, but the waggon being engaged in carrying hay, a
small boat was provided to carry our luggage up the canal to the
junction of the feeder from the grand river, in hope of getting a
conveyance to Dunville. On learning the passage-boat was expected from,
instead of going to Dunville, my companions became angry, and announced
their intention of returning to Britain without loss of time, by way of
the St Lawrence, a piece of intelligence not altogether unexpected. The
luggage was the chief obstacle to our progress; and if it could have
been dispensed with, they might have been induced to persevere. It was
arranged that they should proceed down the canal to St Catherine’s, and
wait my arrival at Hamilton.
I proceeded on foot to Dunville, distant eighteen miles, dining on poor
fare at Marshville. On passing Cranberry-marsh, I was attacked by
musquittoes, which clustered chiefly behind my ears, and defended myself
for two hours by waving the branch of a tree in each hand, reaching my
destination after nightfall, having walked fifteen hours in course of
the day. My repose was disturbed by the nibbling of musquittoes; and on
rising at daybreak, I found vegetation most copiously covered with dew.
In the course of the day I visited settlers in the neighbourhood of
Dunville, resident from a few weeks to three years, and found them
leading lives of privation and hardship. In every instance, they were
cheerful and looking with confidence to futurity; but it was evident to
me they, generally, had entangled themselves with an extent of
possession far beyond their means of paying for, and at a price so much
beyond its real value, that accumulation of interest on the purchase
money would ultimately weigh down the utmost industry. I felt for their
situation; but the morning of first settlement shone so brightly, that
prognostics of a coming storm would have been disregarded, and
considered unkind. First crops on small clearances were half suffocated
for want of air, and what came under notice, satisfied me that a settler
in the forest, trusting alone to his own labour, will have difficulty in
raising sufficient food for a family during the first three years.
The wheat crop of Upper Canada is sown in autumn, termed fall in this
part of the world; that of the Lower Province in spring. I was informed
fall-wheat sown in spring does not put forth the ear until that time
twelve-months, while the wheat of Lower Canada produces a good crop in
August following; and in corroboration was shown, on the 7th July, a
crop of wheat just coming into ear of the spring wheat of the country,
while one from seed, brought from Roxburghshire, Scotland, sown under a
parity of circumstance, was only a few inches high, without indication
of shooting into ear. This appearing inexplicable, induced me to bring
home samples of fall and spring wheats, the plants from which were
destroyed at Mungoswells by hares. I found, however, plants from Scotch
wheat sown in the garden did not show a disposition to ear when sown in
the middle of May. The effects of climate on the non-earing of wheat
seems the same in Britain as in Upper Canada.
Dunville is situated on the Ouse, or Grand River, four miles from its
mouth, and where the feeder of the Welland canal branches off, by means
of a dam eight feet high. There are about twenty small wooden houses, a
grist and saw-mill. The river is navigable to the lake, and it is said
to be in contemplation to render it so as far as Brantford by means of
locks. Dunville may increase in progress of time; at present it stands
amidst stagnant waters, and is a perfect bull-frog and musquitto
nursery.
It was my intention to have walked up the river, and across the country
to Hamilton, but learning that a friend, whose dwelling I had passed,
resided near the Falls of Niagara, induced me to change my route. I left
Dunville at five in the morning, passing along the feeder and canal to
Port Robinson, and from thence by Lundyslane to my friend’s house.
The country at the junction of the Welland canal with Lake Erie is
little cleared, and few habitations or traces of cultivation are met
with on the banks or feeder. Many trees have perished, from stagnant
water, on the margins of the feeder, and impart a gloomy aspect to the
scene. Part of Cranberry-marsh is seen on the banks of the feeder; the
soil is peat-moss, thickly covered with stunted larch-trees, ten to
twenty feet high; and the water is yellow coloured, but not unpleasant
to the taste. A plough, drawn by four oxen, was turning over part of the
marsh bearing grass twenty inches in height, and five or six Irishmen
planting it with potatoes on 6th July. The country improved on
descending the canal, and the banks of the Chippeway were well cleared;
the soil is dry, and some good crops of wheat and grass were seen.
Cattle and sheep were in considerable numbers; the inhabitants seemed
wealthy, and resided in good houses.
When near Dunville I saw, for the first time, wood-pigeons and
humming-birds, also a few carrion crows and herons, similar to those of
Britain, and different kinds of hawks. On the south from the canal,
annual thistles and wild mustard were growing; and on the north bank of
the feeder red and white French willow, the latter having afterwards
been seen only in one situation.
After an agreeable visit my friends drove me to St Catherine’s next day,
to get the stage for Hamilton. On the way we met an Irish funeral,
accompanied by waggons filled with both sexes, who, on approaching,
descended, and broke immense branches from cherry-trees, loaded with
ripe fruit. The owner of the trees halloed to the depredators in vain,
and I felt indignant that they should composedly take the fruit, and
destroy the trees. I was told it is customary for the people of the
country to help themselves to peaches and other kinds of fruit in the
same way.
While waiting for the arrival of the coach, I strolled into the bar-room
of the hotel, which would be better named bear-room, and witnessed a
group deserving the pencil of Cruikshank to immortalize them. The
landlord, a little, spruce, talkative Yankee, was swinging in the chair,
with his legs on the table; another individual was sitting with his face
to the back of the chair, a third stretched at full length on the table;
and one occupied two chairs. The forms were adorned in a similar manner,
and there was only one person sitting in an upright position by the
wall, fast asleep, in a state of intoxication. The subject of discussion
was a riot on the 4th July, the anniversary of North American
independence. Some boys of the village were innocently firing guns in
the morning in rear of the hotel, with which they had no connexion. The
landlord being a Yankee, the firing was considered insulting to the
British government: a multitude assembled, broke the windows, and
attempted to set fire to the hotel. The mob was said to have been headed
by a justice of the peace. My friend, who drove me to St Catherine’s,
said a travelling trunk had been found open in a wood a short time ago,
in the Niagara district, containing a few articles marked with initials.
He owner was supposed to have been robbed and murdered, yet the
circumstance had passed unnoticed.
The stage arrived with one passenger, tipsy, who placed his head on one
side of the coach, with his feet out at the opposite one, and snored
loudly. Next stage the driver was intoxicated, and I began to ruminate
on the possibility of the horses participating in the common vice.
I reached Hamilton at one in the morning, and after a few hours’ sleep,
took my friends out of bed in another hotel. At separating on the banks
of the Welland canal they despaired of getting a conveyance to Port
Robinson, and accepted the offer of a farmer to accompany him to his
house on the Chippeway in the evening, and be taken in his waggon next
day to Hamilton. They were much pleased with the farmer and the country
which they travelled through.
On learning that a relation, who left Britain in March, was residing in
the neighbourhood, a waggon was obtained, in which we rode out to
breakfast. The waggons of America are light, uncovered, four-wheeled
carriages, used for carrying goods or human beings, and almost the only
vehicle in the country. We passed the Albion mills, situated in a
romantic glen, where a rock was pointed out, over which a young woman
threw herself some years before. Being deserted by a lover, her mind
gave way under the shock her feelings sustained, and the spot where she
sought relief from her sufferings will long remain associated with human
frailty, and the perfidy of man. The family with which my relative
resided were about to sit down to breakfast, and I tasted, for the first
time, mash, or Indian corn meal porridge. Mr C—— had only been ten days
on his farm, having judiciously purchased a moderate extent, including
live stock and growing crops. He converted what had been erected for a
barn into a tolerable dwelling-house; and, with sobriety and industry,
will have little difficulty in bringing up his family.
A gentleman of Hamilton, to whom I had a letter of introduction,
remarked, in course of conversation, he was a Whig at one time, and had
lately changed and opposed the mob, as there was no end to innovation. I
replied, most people do so after sharing the pickings of Tory
governments, not being aware at the time that he himself had lately
obtained a government situation worth L.300 a-year. A feeling of toryism
pervaded most people in the Canadas I came in contact with, more
especially those lately arrived from Britain. Whig and Radical in the
mother country, after becoming possessed of a few acres of forest in
Canada, seem to consider themselves part of the aristocracy, and speak
with horror of the people and liberality. Politicians are too seldom
influenced by patriotism and philanthropy; changing opinions as they do
garments, according to fashion and interest.
Hamilton is situated within half a mile of Lake Ontario, and at a short
distance from an elevated ridge passing round the head of the lake. The
houses are chiefly of wood, forming a broad street, resembling some of
the villages of the States. It is in the midst of a beautiful country,
and forms one of the cleanest and most desirable places of residence in
Canada.
From Hamilton we proceeded to York at 10 P. M. by the mail stage, the
evening being cold with bright moonshine, and the passengers walking up
and down hills in crossing several creeks to ease the horses. When
objects became visible by return of day, the country seemed partially
and recently cleared, and the inhabitants far from wealthy. The soil
clay and sand, the former yielding good wheat and grass; the latter
prevailed on approaching York, where we took up our residence at the
Ontario house.
York is situated on Lake Ontario, and is the seat of government of the
province from which it derives its chief importance. Steam-boats arrive
and depart almost hourly, and the inhabitants amount to about 8000. The
progress of American cities in newly settled districts seems to be
uniform;—at first mean wooden houses, which, as wealth increases,
gradually give way to better ones of the same material, and ultimately
to those of brick or stone,—clay for making the former being almost
everywhere to be had. The houses of the principal streets of York are
passing from wood to brick, and in no place, during my tour, did I see
more brick erections going forward.