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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. |
