Recapitulation of various Topics.--Progress of Settlement.--Canada, the
Land of Hope.--Visit to the Family of a Naval Officer.--Squirrels.--
Visit to, and Story of, an Emigrant Clergyman.--His early Difficulties.
--The Temper, Disposition, and Habits of Emigrants essential Ingredients
in Failure or Success.
September the 20th, 1834.
I PROMISED when I parted from you before I left England to write as soon
as I could give you any satisfactory account of our settlement in this
country. I shall do my best to redeem that promise, and forward you a
slight sketch of our proceedings, with such remarks on the natural
features of the place in which we have fixed our abode, as I think
likely to afford you interest or amusement. Prepare your patience, then,
my dear friend, for a long and rambling epistle, in which I may possibly
prove somewhat of a Will-o'-the-wisp, and having made you follow me in
my desultory wanderings,--
Over hill, over dale,
Through bush, through briar,
Over park, over pale,
Through flood, through fire,--
Possibly leave you in the midst of a big cedar swamp, or among the
pathless mazes of our wild woods, without a clue to guide you, or even a
_blaze_ to light you on your way.
You will have heard, through my letters to my dear mother, of our safe
arrival at Quebec, of my illness at Montreal, of all our adventures and
misadventures during our journey up the country, till after much weary
wandering we finally found a home and resting-place with a kind
relative, whom it was our happiness to meet after a separation of many
years.
As my husband was anxious to settle in the neighbourhood of one so
nearly connected with me, thinking it would rob the woods of some of the
loneliness that most women complain so bitterly of, he purchased a lot
of land on the shores of a beautiful lake, one of a chain of small lakes
belonging to the Otanabee river.
Here, then, we are established, having now some five-and-twenty acres
cleared, and a nice house built. Our situation is very agreeable, and
each day increases its value. When we first came up to live in the bush,
with the exception of S------, here were but two or three settlers near
us, and no roads cut out. The only road that was available for bringing
up goods from the nearest town was on the opposite side of the water,
which was obliged to be crossed on a log, or birch-bark canoe; the
former nothing better than a large pine-log hollowed with the axe, so as
to contain three or four persons; it is flat-bottomed, and very narrow,
on which account it is much used on these shallow waters. The birch
canoe is made of sheets of birch bark, ingeniously fashioned and sewn
together by the Indians with the tough roots of the cedar, young pine,
or larch (tamarack, as it is termed by the Indians); it is exceedingly
light, so that it can be carried by two persons easily, or even by one.
These, then, were our ferry-boats, and very frail they are, and require
great nicety in their management; they are worked in the water with
paddles, either kneeling or standing. The squaws are very expert in the
management of the canoes, and preserve their balance with admirable
skill, standing up while they impel the little bark with great velocity
through the water.
Very great is the change that a few years have effected in our
situation. A number of highly respectable settlers have purchased land
along the shores of these lakes, so that we no longer want society. The
roads are now cut several miles above us, and though far from good can
be travelled by waggons and sleighs, and are, at all events, better than
none.
A village has started up where formerly a thick pine-wood covered the
ground; we have now within a short distance of us an excellent saw-mill,
a grist-mill, and store, with a large tavern and many good dwellings. A
fine timber bridge, on stone piers, was erected last year to connect the
opposite townships and lessen the distance to and from Peterborough; and
though it was unfortunately swept away early last spring by the unusual
rising of the Otanabee lakes, a new and more substantial one has risen
upon the ruins of the former, through the activity of an enterprising
young Scotchman, the founder of the village.
But the grand work that is, sooner or later, to raise this portion of
the district from its present obscurity, is the opening a line of
navigation from Lake Huron through Lake Simcoe, and so through our chain
of small lakes to Rice Lake, and finally through the Trent to the Bay of
Quinte. This noble work would prove of incalculable advantage, by
opening a direct communication between Lake Huron and the inland
townships at the back of the Ontario with the St. Laurence. This project
has already been under the consideration of the Governor, and is at
present exciting great interest in the country: sooner or later there is
little doubt but that it will be carried into effect. It presents some
difficulties and expense, but it would be greatly to the advantage and
prosperity of the country, and be the means of settling many of the back
townships bordering upon these lakes.
I must leave it to abler persons than myself to discuss at large the
policy and expediency of the measure; but as I suppose you have no
intention of emigrating to our backwoods, you will be contented with my
cursory view of the matter, and believe, as in friendship you are bound
to do, that it is a desirable thing to open a market for inland produce.
Canada is the land of hope; here every thing is new; every thing going
forward; it is scarcely possible for arts, sciences, agriculture,
manufactures, to retrograde; they must keep advancing; though in some
situations the progress may seem slow, in others they are proportionably
rapid.
There is a constant excitement on the minds of emigrants, particularly
in the partially settled townships, that greatly assists in keeping them
from desponding. The arrival of some enterprising person gives a
stimulus to those about him: a profitable speculation is started, and
lo, the value of the land in the vicinity rises to double and treble
what it was thought worth before; so that, without any design of
befriending his neighbours, the schemes of one settler being carried
into effect shall benefit a great number. We have already felt the
beneficial effect of the access of respectable emigrants locating
themselves in this township, as it has already increased the value of
our own land in a three-fold degree.
All this, my dear friend, you will say is very well, and might afford
subject for a wise discussion between grave men, but will hardly amuse
us women; so pray turn to some other theme, and just tell me how you
contrive to pass your time among the bears and wolves of Canada.
One lovely day last June I went by water to visit the bride of a young
naval officer, who had purchased a very pretty lot of land some two
miles higher up the lake; our party consisted of my husband, baby, and
myself; we met a few pleasant friends, and enjoyed our excursion much.
Dinner was laid out in the _stoup_, which, as you may not know what is
meant by the word, I must tell you that it means a sort of wide
verandah, supported on pillars, often of unbarked logs; the floor is
either of earth beaten hard, or plank; the roof covered with sheets of
bark or else shingled. These stoups are of Dutch origin, and were
introduced, I have been told, by the first Dutch settlers in the states,
since which they have found their way all over the colonies.
Wreathed with the scarlet creeper, a native plant of our woods and
wilds, the wild vine, and also with the hop, which here grows
luxuriantly, with no labour or attention to its culture, these stoups
have a very rural appearance; in summer serving the purpose of an open
ante-room, in which you can take your meals and enjoy the fanning breeze
without being inconvenienced by the extreme heat of the noon-day sun.
The situation of the house was remarkably well chosen, just on the
summit of a little elevated plain, the ground sloping with a steep
descent to a little valley, at the bottom of which a bright rill of
water divided the garden from the opposite corn-fields, which clothed a
corresponding bank. In front of the stoup, where we dined, the garden
was laid out with a smooth plot of grass, surrounded with borders of
flowers, and separated from a ripening field of wheat by a light railed
fence, over which the luxuriant hop-vine flung its tendrils and graceful
blossoms. Now I must tell you the hop is cultivated for the purpose of
making a barm for raising bread. As you take great interest in
housewifery concerns, I shall send you a recipe for what we call hop-
rising*. [* See Appendix.]
The Yankees use a fermentation of salt, flour, and warm water or milk;
but though the _salt-rising_ makes beautiful bread to look at, being far
whiter and firmer than the hop-yeast bread, there is a peculiar flavour
imparted to the flour that does not please every one's taste, and it is
very difficult to get your salt-rising to work in very cold weather.
And now, having digressed while I gave you my recipes, I shall step back
to my party within the stoup, which, I can assure you, was very
pleasant, and most cordially disposed to enjoy the meeting. We had books
and drawings, and good store of pretty Indian toys, the collection of
many long voyages to distant shores, to look at and admire. Soon after
sun-set we walked down through the woods to the landing at the lake
shore, where we found our bark canoe ready to convey us home.
During our voyage, just at the head of the rapids, our attention was
drawn to some small object in the water, moving very swiftly along;
there were various opinions as to the swimmer, some thinking it to be a
water-snake, others a squirrel, or a musk-rat; a few swift strokes of
the paddles brought us up so as to intercept the passage of the little
voyager; it proved to be a fine red squirrel, bound on a voyage of
discovery from a neighbouring island. The little animal, with a courage
and address that astonished his pursuers, instead of seeking safety in a
different direction, sprung lightly on the point of the uplifted paddle,
and from thence with a bound to the head of my astonished baby, and
having gained my shoulder, leaped again into the water, and made direct
for the shore, never having deviated a single point from the line he was
swimming in when he first came in sight of our canoe. I was surprised
and amused by the agility and courage displayed by this innocent
creature; I could hardly have given credence to the circumstance, had I
not been an eye-witness of its conduct, and moreover been wetted
plentifully on my shoulder by the sprinkling of water from his coat.
Perhaps you may think my squirrel anecdote incredible; but I can vouch
for the truth of it on my own personal experience, as I not only saw but
also felt it: the black squirrels are most lovely and elegant animals,
considerably larger than the red, the grey, and the striped: the latter
are called by the Indians "chit-munks."
We were robbed greatly by these little depredators last summer; the red
squirrels used to carry off great quantities of our Indian corn not only
from the stalks, while the crop was ripening, but they even came into
the house through some chinks in the log-walls, and carried off vast
quantities of the grain, stripping it very adroitly from the cob, and
conveying the grain away to their storehouses in some hollow 1og or
subterranean granary.
These little animals are very fond of the seeds of the pumpkins, and you
will see the soft creatures whisking about among the cattle, carrying
away the seeds as they are scattered by the beasts in breaking the
pumpkins: they also delight in the seeds of the sunflowers, which grow
to a gigantic height in our gardens and clearings. The fowls are
remarkably fond of the sunflower-seeds, and I saved the plants with the
intention of laying up a good store of winter food for my poor chicks.
One day I went to cut the ripe heads, the largest of which was the size
of a large dessert-plate, but found two wicked red squirrels busily
employed gathering in the seeds, not for me, be sure, but themselves.
Not contented with picking out the seeds, these little thieves
dexterously sawed through the stalks, and conveyed away whole heads at
once: so bold were they that they would not desist when I approached
till they had secured their object, and, encumbered with a load twice
the weight of their own agile bodies, ran with a swiftness along the
rails, and over root, stump, and log, till they eluded my pursuit.
[Illustration: Red-squirrel]
Great was the indignation expressed by this thrifty little pair on
returning again for another load to find the plant divested of the
heads. I had cut what remained and put them in a basket in the sun, on a
small block in the garden, close to the open glass-door, on the steps of
which I was sitting shelling some seed-beans, when the squirrels drew my
attention to them by their sharp scolding notes, elevating their fine
feathery tails and expressing the most lively indignation at the
invasion: they were not long before they discovered the Indian basket
with the ravished treasure; a few rapid movements brought the little
pair to the rails within a few paces of me and the sunflower-heads;
here, then, they paused, and sitting up looked in my face with the most
imploring gestures. I was too much amused by their perplexity to help
them, but turning away my head to speak to the child, they darted
forward, and in another minute had taken possession of one of the
largest of the heads, which they conveyed away, first one carrying it a
few yards, then the other, it being too bulky for one alone to carry it
far at a time. In short, I was so well amused by watching their
manoeuvres that I suffered them to rob me of all my store. I saw a
little family of tiny squirrels at play in the spring on the top of a
hollow log, and really I think they were, without exception, the
liveliest, most graceful creatures I ever looked upon.
The flying squirrel is a native of our woods, and exceeds in beauty, to
my mind, any of the tribe. Its colour is the softest, most delicate tint
of grey; the fur thick and short, and as silken as velvet; the eyes like
all the squirrel kind, are large, full, and soft; the whiskers and long
hair about the nose black; the membrane that assists this little animal
in its flight is white and delicately soft in texture, like the fur of
the chinchilla; it forms a ridge of fur between the fore and hind legs;
the tail is like an elegant broad grey feather. I was agreeably
surprised by the appearance of this exquisite little creature; the
pictures I had seen giving it a most inelegant and _batlike_ look,
almost disgusting. The young ones are easily tamed, and are very playful
and affectionate when under confinement.
[Illustration: Flying Squirrel]
How my little friend Emily would delight in such a pet! Tell her if ever
I should return to dear old England, I will try to procure one for her;
but at present she must be contented with the stuffed specimens of the
black, red, and striped squirrels which I enclose in my parcel. I wish I
could offer you any present more valuable, but our arts and manufactures
being entirely British, with the exception of the Indians' toys, I
should find it a difficult matter to send you any thing worth your
attention; therefore I am obliged to have recourse to the natural
productions of our woods as tokens of remembrance to our friends _at
home_, for it is ever thus we speak of the land of our birth.
You wish to know if I am happy and contented in my situation, or if my
heart pines after my native land. I will answer you candidly, and say
that, as far as regards matters of taste, early association, and all
those holy ties of kindred, and old affections that make "home" in all
countries, and among all nations in the world, a hallowed spot, I must
ever give the preference to Britain.
On the other hand, a sense of the duties I have chosen, and a feeling of
conformity to one's situation, lessen the regret I might be inclined to
indulge in. Besides, there are new and delightful ties that bind me to
Canada: I have enjoyed much domestic happiness since I came hither;--and
is it not the birthplace of my dear child? Have I not here first tasted
the rapturous delight arising from maternal feelings? When my eye rests
on my smiling darling, or I feel his warm breath upon my cheek, I would
not exchange the joy that fills my breast for any pleasure the world
could offer me. "But this feeling is not confined to the solitude of
your Canadian forests, my dear friend," you will say. I know it; but
here there is nothing to interfere with your little nursling. You are
not tempted by the pleasures of a gay world to forget your duties as a
mother; there is nothing to supplant him in your heart; his presence
endears every place; and you learn to love the spot that gave him birth,
and to think with complacency upon the country, because it is _his_
country; and in looking forward to his future welfare you naturally
become doubly interested in the place that is one day to be his.
Perhaps I rather estimate the country by my own feelings; and when I
find, by impartial survey of my present life, that I am to the full as
happy, if not really happier, than I was in the old country, I cannot
but value it.
Possibly, if I were to enter into a detail of the advantages I possess,
they would appear of a very negative character in the eyes of persons
revelling in all the splendour and luxury that wealth could procure, in
a country in which nature and art are so eminently favourable towards
what is usually termed the pleasures of life; but I never was a votary
at the shrine of luxury or fashion. A round of company, a routine of
pleasure, were to me sources of weariness, if not of disgust. "There's
nothing in all this to satisfy the heart," says Schiller; and I admit
the force of the sentiment.
I was too much inclined to spurn with impatience the fetters that
etiquette and fashion are wont to impose on society, till they rob its
followers of all freedom and independence of will; and they soon are
obliged to live for a world that in secret they despise and loathe, for
a world, too, that usually regards them with contempt, because they dare
not act with an independence, which would be crushed directly it was
displayed.
And I must freely confess to you that I do prize and enjoy my present
liberty in this country exceedingly: in this we possess an advantage
over you, and over those that inhabit the towns and villages in _this_
country, where I see a ridiculous attempt to keep up an appearance that
is quite foreign to the situation of those that practise it. Few, very
few, are the emigrants that come to the colonies, unless it is with the
view of realising an independence for themselves or their children.
Those that could afford to live in ease at home, believe me, would never
expose themselves to the privations and disagreeable consequences of a
settler's life in Canada: therefore, this is the natural inference we
draw, that the emigrant has come hither under the desire and natural
hope of bettering his condition, and benefiting a family that he has not
the means of settling in life in the home country. It is foolish, then,
to launch out in a style of life that every one knows cannot be
maintained; rather ought such persons to rejoice in the consciousness
that they can, if they please, live according to their circumstances,
without being the less regarded for the practice of prudence, economy,
and industry.
Now, we _bush-settlers_ are more independent: we do what we like; we
dress as we find most suitable and most convenient; we are totally
without the fear of any Mr. or Mrs. Grundy; and having shaken off the
trammels of Grundyism, we laugh at the absurdity of those who
voluntarily forge afresh and hug their chains.
If our friends come to visit us unexpectedly we make them welcome to our
humble homes, and give them the best we have; but if our fare be
indifferent, we offer it with good will, and no apologies are made or
expected: they would be out of place; as every one is aware of the
disadvantages of a new settlement; and any excuses for want of variety,
or the delicacies of the table, would be considered rather in the light
of a tacit reproof to your guest for having unseasonably put your
hospitality to the test.
Our society is mostly military or naval; so that we meet on equal
grounds, and are, of course, well acquainted with the rules of good
breeding and polite life; too much so to allow any deviation from those
laws that good taste, good sense, and good feeling have established
among persons of our class.
Yet here it is considered by no means derogatory to the wife of an
officer or gentleman to assist in the work of the house, or to perform
its entire duties if occasion requires it; to understand the mystery of
soap, candle, and sugar-making; to make bread, butter, and cheese, or
even to milk her own cows; to knit and spin, and prepare the wool for
the loom. In these matters we bush-ladies have a wholesome disregard of
what Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so thinks or says. We pride ourselves on
conforming to circumstances; and as a British officer must needs be a
gentleman and his wife a lady, perhaps we repose quietly on that
incontestable proof of our gentility, and can afford to be useful
without injuring it.
Our husbands adopt a similar line of conduct: the officer turns his
sword into a ploughshare, and his lance into a sickle; and if he be seen
ploughing among the stumps in his own field, or chopping trees on his
own land, no one thinks less of his dignity, or considers him less of a
gentleman, than when he appeared upon parade in all the pride of
military etiquette, with sash, sword and epaulette. Surely this is as it
should be in a country where independence is inseparable from industry;
and for this I prize it.
Among many advantages we in this township possess, it is certainly no
inconsiderable one that the lower or working class of settlers are well
disposed, and quite free from the annoying Yankee manners that
distinguish many of the earlier-settled townships. Our servants are as
respectful, or nearly so, as those at home; nor are they admitted to our
tables, or placed on an equality with us, excepting at "bees," and such
kinds of public meetings; when they usually conduct themselves with a
propriety that would afford an example to some that call themselves
gentlemen, viz., young men who voluntarily throw aside those restraints
that society expects from persons filling a respectable situation.
Intemperance is too prevailing a vice among all ranks of people in this
country; but I blush to say it belongs most decidedly to those that
consider themselves among the better class of emigrants. Let none such
complain of the airs of equality displayed towards them by the labouring
class, seeing that they degrade themselves below the honest, sober
settler, however poor. If the sons of gentlemen lower themselves, no
wonder if the sons of poor men endeavour to exalt themselves about him
in a country where they all meet on equal ground; and good conduct is
the distinguishing mark between the classes.
Some months ago, when visiting a friend in a distant part of the
country, I accompanied her to stay a few days in the house of a resident
clergyman, curate of a flourishing village in the township of ------. I
was struck by the primitive simplicity of the mansion and its
inhabitants. We were introduced into the little family sitting-room, the
floor of which was painted after the Yankee fashion; instead of being
carpeted, the walls were of unornamented deal, and the furniture of the
room of corresponding plainness. A large spinning-wheel, as big as a
cart-wheel, nearly occupied the centre of the room, at which a neatly-
dressed matron, of mild and lady-like appearance, was engaged spinning
yarn; her little daughters were knitting beside the fire, while their
father was engaged in the instruction of two of his sons; a third was
seated affectionately in a little straw chair between his feet, while a
fourth was plying his axe with nervous strokes in the court-yard,
casting from time to time wistful glances through the parlour-window at
the party within.
The dresses of the children were of a coarse sort of stuff, a mixture of
woollen and thread, the produce of the farm and their mother's
praiseworthy industry. The stockings, socks, muffatees, and warm
comforters were all of home manufacture. Both girls and boys wore
mocassins, of their own making: good sense, industry, and order presided
among the members of this little household.
Both girls and boys seemed to act upon the principle, that nothing is
disgraceful but that which is immoral and improper.
Hospitality without extravagance, kindness without insincerity of
speech, marked the manners of our worthy friends. Every thing in the
house was conducted with attention to prudence and comfort. The living
was but small (the income arising from it, I should have said), but
there was glebe land, and a small dwelling attached to it, and, by dint
of active exertion without-doors, and economy and good management
within, the family were maintained with respectability: in short, we
enjoyed during our sojourn many of the comforts of a cleared farm;
poultry of every kind, beef of their own killing, excellent mutton and
pork: we had a variety of preserves at our tea-table, with honey in the
comb, delicious butter, and good cheese, with divers sorts of cakes; a
kind of little pancake, made from the flour of buck-wheat, which are
made in a batter, and raised with barm, afterwards dropped into boiling
lard, and fried; also a preparation made of Indian corn-flour, called
supporne-cake, which is fried in slices, and eaten with maple-syrup,
were among the novelties of our breakfast-fare.
I was admiring a breed of very fine fowls in the poultry-yard one
morning, when my friend smiled and said, "I do not know if you will
think I came honestly by them."
"I am sure you did not acquire them by dishonest means," I replied,
laughing; "I will vouch for your principles in that respect."
"Well," replied my hostess, "they were neither given me, nor sold to me,
and I did not steal them. I found the original stock in the following
manner. An old black hen most unexpectedly made her appearance one
spring morning at our door; we hailed the stranger with surprise and
delight; for we could not muster a single domestic fowl among our little
colony at that time. We never rightly knew by what means the hen came
into our possession, but suppose some emigrant's family going up the
country must have lost or left her; she laid ten eggs, and hatched
chickens from them; from this little brood we raised a stock, and soon
supplied all our neighbours with fowls. We prize the breed, not only on
account of its fine size, but from the singular, and, as we thought,
providential, manner in which we obtained it."
I was much interested in the slight sketch given by the pastor one
evening, as we all assembled round the blazing log-fire, that was piled
half-way up the chimney, which reared its stone fabric so as to form
deep recesses at either side of its abutments.
Alluding to his first settlement, he observed, "it was a desolate
wilderness of gloomy and unbroken forest-trees when we first pitched our
tent here: at that time an axe had not been laid to the root of a tree,
nor a fire, save by the wandering Indians, kindled in these woods.
"I can now point out the identical spot where my wife and little ones
ate their first meal, and raised their feeble voices in thankfulness to
that Almighty and merciful Being who had preserved them through the
perils of the deep, and brought them in safety to this vast solitude.
"We were a little flock wandering in a great wilderness, under the
special protection of our mighty Shepherd.
"I have heard you, my dear young lady," he said, addressing the
companion of my visit, "talk of the hardships of the bush; but, let me
tell you, you know but little of its privations compared with those that
came hither some years ago.
"Ask these, my elder children and my wife, what were the hardships of a
bush-settler's life ten years ago, and they will tell you it was to
endure cold, hunger, and all its accompanying evils; to know at times
the want of every necessary article of food. As to the luxuries and
delicacies of life, we saw them not;--how could we? we were far removed
from the opportunity of obtaining these things: potatoes, pork, and
flour were our only stores, and often we failed of the two latter before
a fresh supply could be procured. We had not mills nearer than thirteen
miles, through roads marked only by blazed lines; nor were there at that
time any settlers near us. Now you see us in a cleared country,
surrounded with flourishing farms and rising villages; but at the time I
speak of it was not so: there were no stores of groceries or goods, no
butchers' shops, no cleared farms, dairies, nor orchards; for these
things we had to wait with patience till industry should raise them.
"Our fare knew no other variety than salt pork, potatoes, and sometimes
bread, for breakfast; pork and potatoes for dinner; pork and potatoes
for supper; with a porridge of Indian corn-flour for the children.
Sometimes we had the change of pork without potatoes, and potatoes
without pork; this was the first year's fare: by degrees we got a supply
of flour of our own growing, but bruised into a coarse meal with a hand-
mill; for we had no water or windmills within many miles of our colony,
and good bread was indeed a luxury we did not often have.
"We brought a cow with us, who gave us milk during the spring and
summer; but owing to the wild garlic (a wild herb, common to our woods),
on which she fed, her milk was scarcely palatable, and for want of
shelter and food, she died the following winter, greatly to our sorrow:
we learned experience in this and in many other matters at a hard cost;
but now we can profit by it."
"Did not the difficulties of your first settlement incline you to
despond, and regret that you had ever embarked on a life so different to
that you had been used to?" I asked.
"They might have had that effect had not a higher motive than mere
worldly advancement actuated me in leaving my native country to come
hither. Look you, it was thus: I had for many years been the pastor of a
small village in the mining districts of Cumberland. I was dear to the
hearts of my people, and they were my joy and crown in the Lord. A
number of my parishioners, pressed by poverty and the badness of the
times, resolved on emigrating to Canada.
"Urged by a natural and not unlawful desire of bettering their
condition, they determined on crossing the Atlantic, encouraged by the
offer of considerable grants of wild land, which at that period were
freely awarded by Government to persons desirous of becoming colonists.
"But previous to this undertaking, several of the most respectable came
to me, and stated their views and reasons for the momentous step they
were about to take; and at the same time besought me in the most moving
terms, in the name of the rest of their emigrant friends, to accompany
them into the Wilderness of the West, lest they should forget their Lord
and Saviour when abandoned to their own spiritual guidance.
"At first I was startled at the proposition; it seemed a wild and
visionary scheme: but by degrees I began to dwell with pleasure on the
subject. I had few ties beyond my native village; the income arising
from my curacy was too small to make it any great obstacle: like
Goldsmith's curate, I was
'Passing rich with forty pounds a year.'
My heart yearned after my people; ten years I had been their guide and
adviser. I was the friend of the old, and the teacher of the young. My
Mary was chosen from among them; she had no foreign ties to make her
look back with regret upon the dwellers of the land in distant places;
her youth and maturity had been spent among these very people; so that
when I named to her the desire of my parishioners, and she also
perceived that my own wishes went with them, she stifled any regretful
feeling that might have arisen in her breast, and replied to me in the
words of Ruth:--
"'Thy country shall be my country; thy people shall be my people; where
thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me,
and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.'
"A tender and affectionate partner hast thou been to me, Mary," he
added, turning his eyes affectionately on the mild and dignified matron,
whose expressive countenance bespoke with more eloquence than words the
feelings passing in her mind. She replied not by words, but I saw the
big bright tears fall on the work she held in her hand. They sprang from
emotions too sacred to be profaned by intrusive eyes, and I hastily
averted my glance from her face; while the pastor proceeded to narrate
the particulars of their leaving England, their voyage, and finally,
their arrival in the land that had been granted to the little colony in
the then unbroken part of the township of ------.
"We had obtained a great deal of useful advice and assistance from the
Government agents previous to our coming up hither, and also hired some
choppers at high wages to initiate us in the art of felling, logging,
burning, and clearing the ground; as it was our main object to get in
crops of some kind, we turned to without any delay further than what was
necessary for providing a temporary shelter for our wives and children,
and prepared the ground for spring crops, helping each other as we could
with the loan of oxen and labour. And here I must observe, that I
experienced every attention and consideration from my friends. My means
were small, and my family all too young to render me any service;
however, I lacked not help, and had the satisfaction of seeing a little
spot cleared for the growth of potatoes and corn, which I could not have
effected by my single exertions.
"My biggest boy John was but nine years old, Willie seven, and the
others still more helpless; the two little ones you see there," pointing
to two young children, "have been born since we came hither. That
yellow-haired lassie knitting beside you was a babe at the breast;--a
helpless, wailing infant, so weak and sickly before we came here that
she was scarcely ever out of her mother's arms; but she grew and throve
rapidly under the rough treatment of a bush-settler's family.
"We had no house built, or dwelling of any kind to receive us when we
arrived at our destination; and the first two nights were passed on the
banks of the creek that flows at the foot of the hill, in a hut of cedar
and hemlock boughs that I cut with my axe, and, with the help of some of
my companions, raised to shelter my wife and the little ones.
"Though it was the middle of May the nights were chilly, and we were
glad to burn a pile of wood in front of our hut to secure us from the
effects of the cold and the stings of the mosquitoes, that came up in
myriads from the stream, and which finally drove us higher up the bank.
"As soon as possible we raised a shanty, which now serves as a shed for
my young cattle; I would not pull it down, though often urged to do so,
as it stands in the way of a pleasant prospect from the window; but I
like to look on it, and recall to mind the first years I passed beneath
its lowly roof. We need such mementos to remind us of our former state;
but we grow proud, and cease to appreciate our present comforts.
"Our first Sabbath was celebrated in the open air: my pulpit was a pile
of rude logs; my church the deep shade of the forest, beneath which we
assembled ourselves; but sincerer or more fervent devotion I never
witnessed than that day. I well remember the text I chose, for my
address to them was from the viiith chapter of Deuteronomy, the 6th,
7th, and 9th verses, which appeared to me applicable to our
circumstances.
"The following year we raised a small blockhouse, which served as a
school-house and church. At first our progress in clearing the land was
slow, for we had to buy experience, and many and great were the
disappointments and privations that befel us during the first few years.
One time we were all ill with ague, and not one able to help the other;
this was a sad time; but better things were in store for us. The tide of
emigration increased, and the little settlement we had formed began to
be well spoken of. One man came and built a saw mill; a grist-mill
followed soon after; and then one store and then another, till we beheld
a flourishing village spring up around us. Then the land began to
increase in value, and many of the first settlers sold their lots to
advantage, and retreated further up the woods. As the village increased,
so, of course, did my professional duties, which had for the first few
years been paid for in acts of kindness and voluntary labour by my
little flock; now I have the satisfaction of reaping a reward without
proving burdensome to my parishioners. My farm is increasing, and
besides the salary arising from my curacy I have something additional
for the school, which is paid by Government. We may now say it is good
for us to be here, seeing that God has been pleased to send down a
blessing upon us."
I have forgotten many very interesting particulars relating to the
trials and shifts this family were put to in the first few years; but
the pastor told us enough to make me quite contented with my lot, and I
returned home, after some days' pleasant sojourn with this delightful
family, with an additional stock of contentment, and some useful and
practical knowledge, that I trust I shall be the better for all my life.
I am rather interested in a young lad that has come out from England to
learn Canadian farming.
The poor boy had conceived the most romantic notions of a settler's
life, partly from the favourable accounts he had read, and partly
through the medium of a lively imagination, which had aided in the
deception, and led him to suppose that his time would be chiefly spent
in the fascinating amusements and adventures arising from hunting the
forest in search of deer and other game, pigeon and duck-shooting,
spearing fish by torchlight, and voyaging on the lakes in a birch-bark
canoe in summer, skating in winter, or gliding over the frozen snow like
a Laplander in his sledge, wrapped up to the eyes in furs, and
travelling at the rate of twelve miles an hour to the sound of an
harmonious peal of bells. What a felicitous life to captivate the mind
of a boy of fourteen, just let loose from the irksome restraint of
boarding-school!
How little did he dream of the drudgery inseparable from the duties of a
lad of his age, in a country where the old and young, the master and the
servant, are alike obliged to labour for a livelihood, without respect
to former situation or rank!
Here the son of the gentleman becomes a hewer of wood and drawer of
water; he learns to chop down trees, to pile brush-heaps, split rails
for fences, attend the fires during the burning season, dressed in a
coarse over-garment of hempen cloth, called a logging-shirt, with
trousers to correspond, and a Yankee straw hat flapped over his eyes,
and a handspike to assist him in rolling over the burning brands. To
tend and drive oxen, plough, sow, plant Indian corn and pumpkins, and
raise potatoe-hills, are among some of the young emigrant's
accomplishments. His relaxations are but comparatively few, but they are
seized with a relish and avidity that give them the greater charm.
You may imagine the disappointment felt by the poor lad on seeing his
fair visions of amusement fade before the dull realities and distasteful
details of a young settler's occupation in the backwoods.
Youth, however, is the best season for coming to this country; the mind
soon bends itself to its situation, and becomes not only reconciled, but
in time pleased with the change of life. There is a consolation, too, in
seeing that he does no more than others of equal pretensions as to rank
and education are obliged to submit to, if they would prosper; and
perhaps he lives to bless the country which has robbed him of a portion
of that absurd pride that made him look with contempt on those whose
occupations were of a humble nature. It were a thousand pities wilfully
to deceive persons desirous of emigrating with false and flattering
pictures of the advantages to be met with in this country. Let the _pro_
and _con_ be fairly stated, and let the reader use his best judgment,
unbiassed by prejudice or interest in a matter of such vital importance
not only as regards himself, but the happiness and welfare of those over
whose destinies Nature has made him the guardian. It is, however, far
more difficult to write on the subject of emigration than most persons
think: it embraces so wide a field that what would be perfectly correct
as regards one part of the province would by no means prove so as
regarded another. One district differs from another, and one township
from another, according to its natural advantages; whether it be long
settled or unsettled, possessing water privileges or not; the soil and
even the climate will be different, according to situation and
circumstances.
Much depends on the tempers, habits, and dispositions of the emigrants
themselves. What suits one will not another; one family will flourish,
and accumulate every comfort about their homesteads, while others
languish in poverty and discontent. It would take volumes to discuss
every argument for and against, and to point out exactly who are and who
are not fit subjects for emigration.
Have you read Dr. Dunlop's spirited and witty "Backwoodsman?" If you
have not, get it as soon as you can; it will amuse you. I think a
Backwoods-woman might be written in the same spirit, setting forth a few
pages, in the history of bush-ladies, as examples for our sex. Indeed,
we need some wholesome admonitions on our duties and the folly of
repining at following and sharing the fortunes of our spouses, whom we
have vowed in happier hours to love "in riches and in poverty, in
sickness and in health." Too many pronounce these words without heeding
their importance, and without calculating the chances that may put their
faithfulness to the severe test of quitting home, kindred, and country,
to share the hard lot of a settler's life; for even this sacrifice
renders it hard to be borne; but the truly attached wife will do this,
and more also, if required by the husband of her choice.
But now it is time I say farewell: my dull letter, grown to a formidable
packet, will tire you, and make you wish it at the bottom of the
Atlantic.