AMONG the numerous works on Canada that have been published within the
last ten years, with emigration for their leading theme, there are few,
if any, that give information regarding the domestic economy of a
settler's life, sufficiently minute to prove a faithful guide to the
person on whose responsibility the whole comfort of a family depends--
the mistress, whose department it is "to haud the house in order."
Dr. Dunlop, it is true, has published a witty and spirited pamphlet,
"The Backwoodsman," but it does not enter into the routine of feminine
duties and employment, in a state of emigration. Indeed, a woman's pen
alone can describe half that is requisite to be told of the internal
management of a domicile in the backwoods, in order to enable the
outcoming female emigrant to form a proper judgment of the trials and
arduous duties she has to encounter.
"Forewarned, forearmed," is a maxim of our forefathers, containing much
matter in its pithy brevity; and, following its spirit, the writer of
the following pages has endeavoured to afford every possible information
to the wives and daughters of emigrants of the higher class who
contemplate seeking a home amid our Canadian wilds. [Illustration:
Peter, the Chief] Truth has been conscientiously her object in the work,
for it were cruel to write in flattering terms calculated to deceive
emigrants into the belief that the land to which they are transferring
their families, their capital, and their hopes, a land flowing with milk
and honey, where comforts and affluence may be obtained with little
exertion. She prefers honestly representing facts in their real and true
light, that the female part of the emigrant's family may be enabled to
look them firmly in the face; to find a remedy in female ingenuity and
expediency for some difficulties; and, by being properly prepared,
encounter the rest with that high-spirited cheerfulness of which well-
educated females often give extraordinary proofs. She likewise wishes to
teach them to discard every thing exclusively pertaining to the
artificial refinement of fashionable life in England; and to point out
that, by devoting the money consumed in these incumbrances to articles
of real use, which cannot be readily obtained in Canada, they may enjoy
the pleasure of superintending a pleasant, well-ordered home. She is
desirous of giving them the advantage of her three years' experience,
that they may properly apply every part of their time, and learn to
consider that every pound or pound's worth belonging to any member of an
out-coming emigrant's family, ought to be sacredly considered as
_capital_, which must make proper returns either as the means of
bringing increase in the shape of income, or, what is still better, in
healthful domestic comfort.
These exhalations in behalf of utility in preference to artificial
personal refinement, are not so needless as the English public may
consider. The emigrants to British America are no longer of the rank of
life that formerly left the shores of the British Isles. It is not only
the poor husbandmen and artisans, that move in vast bodies to the west,
but it is the enterprising English capitalist, and the once affluent
landholder, alarmed at the difficulties of establishing numerous
families in independence, in a country where every profession is
overstocked, that join the bands that Great Britain is pouring forth
into these colonies! Of what vital importance is it that the female
members of these most valuable colonists should obtain proper
information regarding the important duties they are undertaking; that
they should learn beforehand to brace their minds to the task, and thus
avoid the repinings and discontent that is apt to follow unfounded
expectations and fallacious hopes!
It is a fact not universally known to the public, that British officers
and their families are usually denizens of the backwoods; and as great
numbers of unattached officers of every rank have accepted grants of
land in Canada, they are the pioneers of civilization in the wilderness,
and their families, often of delicate nurture and honourable descent,
are at once plunged into all the hardships attendant on the rough life
of a bush-settler. The laws that regulate the grants of lands, which
enforce a certain time of residence, and certain settlement duties to be
performed, allow no claims to absentees when once the land is drawn.
These laws wisely force a superiorly-educated man with resources of both
property and intellect, to devote all his energies to a certain spot of
uncleared land. It may easily be supposed that no persons would
encounter these hardships who have not a young family to establish in
the healthful ways of independence. This family renders the residence of
such a head still more valuable to the colony; and the half-pay officer,
by thus leading the advanced guard of civilization, and bringing into
these rough districts gentle and well-educated females, who soften and
improve all around them by _mental_ refinements, is serving his country
as much by founding peaceful villages and pleasant homesteads in the
trackless wilds, as ever he did by personal courage, or military
stratagem, in times of war.
It will be seen, in the course of this work, that the writer is as
earnest in recommending ladies who belong to the higher class of
settlers to cultivate all the mental resources of a superior education,
as she is to induce them to discard all irrational and artificial wants
and mere useless pursuits. She would willingly direct their attention to
the natural history and botany of this new country, in which they will
find a never-failing source of amusement and instruction, at once
enlightening and elevating the mind, and serving to fill up the void
left by the absence of those lighter feminine accomplishments, the
practice of which are necessarily superseded by imperative domestic
duties. To the person who is capable of looking abroad into the beauties
of nature, and adoring the Creator through his glorious works, are
opened stores of unmixed pleasure, which will not permit her to be dull
or unhappy in the loneliest part of our Western Wilderness. The writer
of these pages speaks from experience, and would be pleased to find that
the simple sources from which she has herself drawn pleasure, have
cheered the solitude of future female sojourners in the backwoods of
Canada.
As a general remark to all sorts and conditions of settlers, she would
observe, that the struggle up the hill of Independence is often a severe
one, and it ought not to be made alone. It must be aided and encouraged
by the example and assistance of an active and cheerful partner.
Children should be taught to appreciate the devoted love that has
induced their parents to overcome the natural reluctance felt by all
persons to quit for ever the land of their forefathers, the scenes of
their earliest and happiest days, and to become aliens and wanderers in
a distant country,--to form new ties and new friends, and begin, as it
were, life's toilsome march anew, that their children may be placed in a
situation in which, by industry and activity, the substantial comforts
of life may be permanently obtained, and a landed property handed down
to them, and their children after them.
Young men soon become reconciled to this country, which offers to them
that chief attraction to youth,--great personal liberty. Their
employments are of a cheerful and healthy nature; and their amusements,
such as hunting, shooting, fishing, and boating, are peculiarly
fascinating. But in none of these can their sisters share. The hardships
and difficulties of the settler's life, therefore, are felt peculiarly
by the female part of the family. It is with a view of ameliorating
these privations that the following pages have been written, to show how
some difficulties may be best borne and others avoided. The simple
truth, founded entirely on personal knowledge of the facts related, is
the basis of the work; to have had recourse to fiction might have
rendered it more acceptable to many readers, but would have made it less
useful to that class for whom it is especially intended. For those who,
without intending to share in the privations and dangers of an
emigrant's life, have a rational curiosity to become acquainted with
scenes and manners so different from those of a long-civilized county,
it is hoped that this little work will afford some amusement, and
inculcate some lessons not devoid of moral instruction.