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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.
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.
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 wiith 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. |
