Chapter III: Part 3

Two canoes now arrived from the same quarter as the rest with several men and our young Indian along with them. They brought a very few small sea-otter skins out of season, with some pieces of raw seal's flesh. The former were of no value, but hunger compelled some of my people to take the latter at an extravagant price. Mr. Mackay lighted a bit of touchwood with a burning-glass in the cover of his tobacco-box, which so surprised the natives that they exchanged the best of their otter-skins for it. The young man was now very anxious to persuade our people to depart, as the natives, he said, were as numerous as mosquitoes and of very malignant character. This information produced some very earnest remonstrances to me to hasten our departure, but, as I was determined not to leave this place, except I was absolutely compelled to it, till I had ascertained its situation,[3] these solicitations were not repeated.

While I was taking a meridian, two canoes of a larger size and well-manned appeared from the main South-West channel. They seemed to be the forerunners of others who were coming to co-operate with the people of the village ... and our young Indian, who understood them, renewed his entreaties for our departure, as they would soon come to shoot their arrows and hurl their spears at us. In relating our danger, his agitation was so violent that he foamed at the mouth.... The two canoes now approached the shore, and in a short time five men with their families landed very quietly from them. My instruments being exposed, they examined them with much apparent admiration and astonishment....

I now mixed up some vermilion in melted grease, and inscribed in large characters on the South-East face of the rock on which we had slept last night this brief memorial: "Alexander Mackenzie from Canada by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three."

As I thought that we were too near the village, I consented to leave the place, and accordingly proceeded North-East three miles, when we landed on a point in a small cove, where we should not be readily seen and could not be attacked except in our front.

23. A SERVANT OF THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY (1800).

=Source.=--The Journal of James M'Kenzie in the Athabasca District, printed in _Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest_, by L. R. Masson. Quebec, 1890.

16 Jan. This morning, Charles Cadien's comrade arrived and paid 62 skins.... He was so haughty on his arrival on account of his skins that he threw the tobacco I gave him in my face, saying it was not good, and that I lied when I said there was none better in the fort. The men's advice, though not asked, was to pack the piece of tobacco into the Indian's nose, or give him a kicking for his bad breeding.... This rough usage I thought bad encouragement for him to kill more beaver, and a very indifferent recompense for those he had already brought, which I think made ample amends for his insults. However, in case he might do the like again, perhaps when he had no such substantial atonement to offer, I told him to take care and not behave so impudently in future....

17 Feb. It is unnecessary telling always in the journal that every Indian who arrives, whether good, bad, or indifferent, gets a bit of tobacco and a dram; it suffices to tell once that it is the custom of the place; and any one who reads of an Indian's arrival may suppose that this custom is followed, and, should he wish to know how many bits of tobacco and drams were expended, he can count the Montagners on his fingers as he reads on; the number of Montagners found will be the number of the bits of tobacco and drams required. If he wishes to know the real value given, I will tell him, the tobacco is always rotten and the rum mostly water....

28 March. Sent Marlin 15 measures mixed rum and 3 feet tobacco. Now, for you, Antitheses Philosophers, who are for ever moved by the spirit of contradiction and feel an itching to find fault where there is none, here is a fine occasion to show your wonderful parts and produce something worthy of your sect. Sending rum to the Indians, according to you, is an unpardonable error in a poor fellow's conduct; but may he beg leave, Gentlemen, to ask you a few plain questions by way of vindication of his supposed error? Pray then! will 19 packs of fine beaver have no weight in your debates? If they will not, I am sure they will in the Gentlemen of the North-West Company's pockets, when reduced into hard cash.

What is the reason you fret so much about sending rum to the Indians more than other goods? Is it because 7 parts of the 8 of this rum are pure water, of course, less expensive to the Company and more pleasing to the Indians than other goods? No, Gentlemen, I suppose you will say it is because it debauches the Indians and renders them troublesome....

If the Indians be spoiled, it is the _Bourgeois_ and not the clerks that do it; the former give the Indians every time they pass large presents, which the latter are either afraid or forbidden to give; the one, in consequence, is regarded by the Indians as a superior being whom they must respect, the other is a mere tool to them whom they despise and need not mind....

Here again, Gentlemen of the "Critic Class," you will reprimand my warmth, which in your opinion is impertinence, to presume to speak against my employers, but be pleased to recollect that, though I have spoken against some of their actions, yet I have not against their interests.

24. THE BEAVER (1807).

=Source.=--_Travels through the Canadas_, by George Heriot, Deputy Postmaster-General of British North America. London, 1807.

The beavers associate in bands to the number of about an hundred in each, and are supposed, by several who have witnessed their economy, to possess a certain jargon, by means of which they communicate their sentiments to each other. Certain it is, that they have a mode of consulting together respecting the construction of their cabins, their dykes, their artificial lakes, and many other things which concern the preservation and safety of their republic. They are said to station sentinels, whilst they are occupied in cutting down with their teeth trees as large in circumference as casks, on the borders of the lakes; and these sentinels, by a cry or by knocking their tail against the surface of the water, give warning of the approach of men or animals, when the others instantly forsake their labours, and, plunging into the water, save themselves by swimming to their cabins.

When beavers have made choice of a meadow traversed by a rivulet, they construct, by their joint operation, dams or causeways, which, impeding the course of the water, produce an inundation over the whole meadow, sometimes several leagues in circumference. The dam is composed of trees, which these animals cut down with their four incisive teeth, drag along through the water, and arrange across the river in the situation most convenient for stopping its course. They afterwards bring grass, small wood and clay in their mouths and on their tails, which they deposit between the wood with so much industry and art, that a wall of masonry of greater strength could scarcely be constructed. They labour during the night with diligence and perseverance. Their tails supply the want of trowels, their teeth serve them for axes, and their forefeet for hands. Dykes, two or three hundred feet in length, twenty feet high, and seven or eight in thickness, are thus completed in the space of five or six months, although not more than a hundred of these little animals have assisted each other in the operation. The savages never destroy these dykes, but, from a principle of superstition, allow them to remain entire, and are satisfied with making only a small passage for the draining of the water. Besides the faculty which the beavers possess of cutting down trees, the judgment which they have acquired in directing the fall of these immense masses upon the water, appears still more singular. They pay attention to the direction of the wind, and carry on the process in such a manner as to derive aid from thence, and thereby to ensure the falling of the tree upon a lake or across a rivulet.

The neatness and convenience of their habitations seem to evince a greater portion of skill and ingenuity than even the dykes, both strength and address being necessary to enable them to plant six stakes in the bed of the water. These are arranged exactly in the centre of the pond, and upon them their house is erected in the form of an oven, being composed of clay, of grass and of branches of trees, to the height of three stages, in order to possess a retreat, by ascending from one to the other when the waters are increased by inundations, caused by the melting of the ice and snows. The floors are made of junks of trees, and each beaver has a distinct apartment. The entrance is from beneath the water, where a large hole is made in the first floor, surrounded by tender branches cut into small pieces, that they may be more easily drawn into the cells when they are inclined to eat; for, as these constitute their principal food, they have the foresight to lay in a great store, particularly in autumn, before the frosts congeal their lake and confine them to their cabins for two or three months.

The precaution which they use to establish and maintain order in their republic, and to guard against pursuit, is admirable. All other animals upon earth, however strong, however swift, vigorous and armed by nature, stand in awe of creatures that are capable of injuring them. The beaver, however, seems to have no other foe than man to apprehend. The wolves, the foxes, and the bears, are little solicitous to attack it in its cabin; had they even the faculty of diving, they would not find the event greatly to their profit, for the beaver, with his incisory and penetrating teeth, is capable of maintaining a formidable defence.

The beavers are seldom taken in snares, unless they are baited with a species of willow which is rare and of which they are very fond. The mode of taking them in autumn is by making a hole of three or four feet in diameter in the foundation of the dyke, to draw off the water, and the beavers being left dry, the savages find them an easy prey....

In winter, when the waters are frozen, they make holes in the ice around the lodges of the beavers, to which nets are fixed from the one to the other, and when they are properly extended, they uncover with axes the cabins of these poor animals, which, throwing themselves into the water and returning to breathe at the holes, are entangled in the snares, from whence none escape but such as the savages are inclined to exempt from the general havoc.

25. A RAPID ON THE FRASER RIVER (1808).

=Source.=--Simon Fraser's "Journal" of the First Descent of the River, printed in Masson's _Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest_. Quebec, 1889-90.

21 June. Soon after we were alarmed by the loud bawling of our guides whom we saw running full speed towards us and making signs that our people were lost in the rapid. As we could not account for this misfortune, we immediately ran over to the baggage where we found Mr. Quesnel all alone. We inquired of him about the men; at the same time we discovered that three of the canoes were missing, but he had seen none of them, nor did he know where they were. On casting our view across the river, we remarked one of the canoes and some of the men ashore there. From this incident we had reason to believe that the others were either ahead or had perished. We immediately directed our speed to the lower end of the rapid....

We had not proceeded far when we observed one of our men, Dalaire, walking slowly from the bank with a stick in his hand, and, on coming up to him, we discovered that he was so wet, so weak and exhausted that he could scarcely speak. However, after leaning a little while on his stick and recovering his breath, he informed us that unfortunately he and the others, finding the carrying place too long and the canoes too heavy, took it upon themselves to venture down by water; that the canoe in which he was happened to be the last in setting out.

"In the first cascade," said he, "our canoe filled and upset; the foreman and the steersman got on the outside, but I, who was in the centre, remained a long while underneath upon the bars; the canoe still drifting was thrown into a smoothy current and the other two men finding an opportunity sprang from their situation into the water and swam ashore. The impulse occasioned by their weight in leaping off raised one side of the canoe above the surface, and, having still my recollection though I had swallowed a quantity of water, I seized the critical moment to disentangle myself, and I gained, though not without a struggle, the top of the canoe. By this time I found myself again in the middle of the stream; here I continued astride the canoe, humouring the tide as well as I could with my body to preserve my balance, and, although I scarcely had time to look about me, I had the satisfaction to observe the two other canoes ashore near an eddy and their crews safe among the rocks.

"In the second or third cascade (for I do not recollect which), the canoe plunged from a great height into an eddy below, and striking with great violence against the bottom split in two. Here I lost my recollection, which, however, I soon recovered, and was surprised to find myself on a smooth, easy current, with only one half of the canoe in my arms. In this condition I continued through several cascades until the stream carried me into an eddy at the foot of a high and steep rock. Here, my strength being exhausted, I lost my hold, a large wave washed me from off the wreck among the rocks and another still larger hoisted me clear on shore, where I remained, you readily believe, some time motionless. At length, recovering a little of my strength, I crawled up among the rocks and found myself once more safe on firm ground, just as you see."

Here he finished his melancholy tale, then pointed to the place of his landing which we went to see and were lost in astonishment, not only at his escape from the waves, but also at his courage and perseverance in effecting a passage up through a place which appeared to us a perfect precipice. Continuing our course along the bank, we found that he had drifted three miles among rapids, cascades, whirlpools, etc., all inconceivably dangerous....

Some time after, upon advancing towards the camp, we picked up all the men on our side of the river; the men who had been thrown ashore on the other side joined us in the evening. They informed us that the Indians assisted greatly in extricating them from their difficulties; indeed, the Indians showed us every possible attention during our misfortune on this trying occasion.

26. LAURA SECORD, JUNE, 1813.

=Source.=--Her Own Narrative in the _Anglo-American Magazine_, Toronto, November, 1853: quoted in _The Documentary History of the Campaigns upon the Niagara Frontier_, edited for the Lundy's Lane Historical Society by Lieut.-Col. E. Cruikshank.

I shall commence at the battle of Queenston, where I was at the time the cannon balls were flying around me in every direction. I left the place during the engagement. After the battle I returned to Queenston, and there found that my husband had been wounded, my house plundered and property destroyed. It was while the Americans had possession of the frontier that I learned the plans of the American commander and determined to put the British troops under FitzGibbon in possession of them, and if possible to save the British troops from capture or perhaps total destruction. In doing so I found I should have great difficulty in getting through the American guards, which were out ten miles in the country. Determined to persevere, I left early in the morning, walked nineteen miles in the month of June over a rough and difficult part of the country, when I came to a field belonging to a Mr. Decamp in the neighbourhood of the Beaver Dam. By this time daylight had left me. Here I found all the Indians encamped; by moonlight the scene was terrifying and to those accustomed to such scenes might be considered grand. Upon advancing to the Indians they all rose and with some yells said, "Woman," which made me tremble. I cannot express the awful feeling it gave me, but I did not lose my presence of mind. I was determined to persevere. I went up to one of the chiefs, made him understand that I had great news for Captain FitzGibbon, and that he must let me pass to his camp, or that he and his party would all be taken. The chief at first objected to let me pass, but finally consented, after some hesitation, to go with me and accompany me to FitzGibbon's station, which was at the Beaver Dam, where I had an interview with him. I then told him what I had come for and what I had heard--that the Americans intended to make an attack upon the troops under his command and would, from their superior numbers, capture them all. Benefiting by this information, Captain FitzGibbon formed his plans accordingly, and captured about five hundred American infantry, about fifty mounted dragoons; and a field piece or two was taken from the enemy. I returned home the next day exhausted and fatigued. I am now advanced in years, and when I look back I wonder how I could have gone through so much fatigue with the fortitude to accomplish it.

27. THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE, 25 JULY, 1814.

=Source.=--_The Annual Register_ for 1814.

After the action near Chippawa, General Riall retreated to a position near Fort Niagara, and the American army took post at Chippawa. The British force in Canada had been at this time augmented by the arrival at Quebec of some transports from Bordeaux, conveying veteran troops which had served under Lord Wellington in Spain. On July 25th, General Drummond, arriving at Niagara, found that General Riall had moved forward to the Falls in order to support the advance of his division at that place; and he despatched Lieut.-Col. Morrison with the 39th regiment and detachments of two others, in order that he might, if necessary, act with the united force of the army, against the enemy posted at Street's creek, with his advance at Chippawa. General Drummond, proceeding to join General Riall, learned that the Americans were advancing in great force; and, pushing forwards, he found that the advance of Riall's division had commenced their retreat. He immediately drew up his troops in line of battle, when his whole front was warmly and closely engaged. The Americans gained a temporary advantage, during which General Riall, having been severely wounded, was made prisoner. In the centre, the enemy's repeated and determined attacks were resisted with the greatest steadiness and intrepidity by the detachments of the Royals and King's and the light company of the 41st; and so obstinate was the encounter that the British artillerymen were bayoneted while in the act of loading, and the muzzles of the enemy's guns were brought within a few yards of those of their opponents. The action continued from six in the evening to nine, when there was a short intermission, during which the Americans were employed in bringing up the whole of their remaining force, and with this they renewed their efforts to carry the height on which the British were posted till about midnight. The gallantry with which they were received and their severe losses at length obliged them to give up the contest, and retreat with precipitation beyond the Chippawa. On the following day they abandoned their camp, threw the greatest part of their baggage and provisions into the Rapids, and, having set fire to Street's mills and destroyed the bridge over the Chippawa, continued their retreat in great disorder to Fort Erie. General Drummond estimates the enemy's loss at not less than 1500, including several hundred prisoners; their whole force, rated at 5000, having been engaged. The British force during the first three hours of the action did not exceed 1600 men, and the additional troops under Colonel Scott did not augment it beyond 2800 of all descriptions. Of these, the loss amounted in killed, wounded and missing to 878. In this manner was defeated another attempt of the Americans to penetrate into Canada; respecting which, it cannot escape observation that, although British valour and discipline were finally triumphant, the improvement of the American troops in these qualities was eminently conspicuous.

28. THE ATTACK ON THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT (1816).

=Source.=--A Narrative by Mr. Pritchard, one of the principal settlers, quoted in a _Statement respecting the Earl of Selkirk's Settlement upon the Red River_, published by the personal friends of the Earl in London in 1817.

In the course of the winter we were much alarmed by reports that the Half-breeds were assembling in all parts of the North for the purpose of driving us away, and that they were expected to arrive at the settlement early in the spring. The nearer the spring approached, the more prevalent these reports grew, and letters received from different posts confirmed the same. Our hunters and those free Canadians who had supplied us with provisions were much terrified with the dread of the punishment they might receive for the support they had given us. My neighbours, the Half-breeds, began to show a disposition to violence, and threatened to shoot our hunter Bollenaud's horse and himself too, if he did not desist from running the buffalo; at the same time they told me that, if I did not prevent him from so doing, they would go in a body on horseback, drive the cattle away, and cause my people to starve.

In the month of March, Messrs. Fraser and Hesse arrived at my neighbour's house, which gave us great uneasiness, as Fraser was represented as the leader of the Half-breeds, and that he was a daring and violent man. On his arrival he sent a threatening message to one of my hunters; and, whenever an opportunity offered, he was very assiduous in his endeavours to seduce from us our servants and settlers; likewise a report was very current that a party of Half-breeds and Cree Indians were expected to arrive from Fort des Prairies on the Saskatchewan River, as soon as the melting of the snow would admit of their travelling; and the language of every free Canadian we saw was "_Méfiez vous bien pour l'amour de Dieu; méfiez vous bien_." At the same time we were informed that the Half-breed servants of the North-West Company who were then in the plains, were ordered home to their house. The assemblage of those men gave us the most serious apprehensions for the safety of the settlers and those servants who were employed to bring provisions from the plains to the fort....

On the afternoon of the 19th of June, a man in the watch-house called out that the Half-breeds were coming. The governor, some other gentlemen and myself, looked through spy-glasses, and I distinctly saw some armed people on horseback passing along the plains. A man then called out, "They (meaning the Half-breeds), are making for the settlers"; on which the governor said, "We must go out and meet these people; let twenty men follow me." We proceeded by the old road leading down the settlement. As we were going along, we met many of the settlers running to the fort, crying, "The Half-breeds, the Half-breeds." ... We had not proceeded far, before the Half-breeds on horseback, with their faces painted in the most hideous manner and in the dresses of Indian warriors, came forward and surrounded us in the form of a half-moon. We then extended our line and moved more into the open plain; and, as they advanced, we retreated a few steps backwards, and then saw a Canadian named Boucher ride up to us waving his hand and calling out, "What do you want?" The governor replied, "What do _you_ want?" To which Boucher answered, "We want our fort." The governor said, "Go to your fort." They were by this time near each other, and consequently spoke too low for me to hear. Being at some little distance to the right of the governor, I saw him take hold of Boucher's gun, and almost immediately a general discharge of fire-arms took place; but whether it began on our side or that of the enemy it was impossible to distinguish: my attention was then directed towards my personal defence. In a few minutes almost all our people were either killed or wounded.... I was rescued from death in the most providential manner no less than six different times on my road to, and at, the Frog Plain (the headquarters of those cruel murderers).... With the exception of myself, no quarter was given to any of us.... The amiable and mild Mr. Semple, lying on his side (his thigh having been broken) and supporting his head upon his hand, addressed the chief commander of our enemies, by inquiring if he was Mr. Grant; and, being answered in the affirmative, "I am not mortally wounded," said Mr. Semple, "and, if you could get me conveyed to the fort, I think I should live." Grant promised he would do so; and immediately left him in the care of a Canadian, who afterwards told that an Indian of their party came up and shot Mr. Semple in the breast. I entreated Grant to procure me the watch or even the seals of Mr. Semple for the purpose of transmitting them to his friends, but I did not succeed. Our force amounted to twenty-eight persons, of whom twenty-one were killed and one wounded.... The enemy, I am told, were sixty-two persons, the greater part of whom were the contracted servants and clerks of the North-West Company. They had one man killed and one wounded.

29. PROPOSED UNION OF THE CANADAS (1822).

=Source.=--A Petition from the British Inhabitants of Montreal, December, 1822: printed in the _Report on the Canadian Archives for 1897_.

It is a consequence of the relative geographical situation of the Provinces, that Upper Canada is entirely dependent on Lower Canada for the means of communicating with the parent state and other countries; it is only through Lower Canada that the Upper Province can receive its supplies or export its surplus commodities.

The port of Quebec is the entrance common to both. This being situated in Lower Canada, the inhabitants of Upper Canada can have neither free ingress into, nor egress from, their country, except in so far as it may be permitted by the Government of Lower Canada. This, your Majesty's petitioners humbly represent, is a cause for the union of the Provinces perpetual in its operation, and which cannot be counteracted without a long series of inconveniences and disasters to both. If, while it may still be done, the population of the two Provinces be not gradually assimilated and identified in their interests by a union, the differences between them from the causes now in operation and the collisions to which they will give rise, must have the effect of rendering the inhabitants of each a separate and distinct people, with the most hostile feelings towards each other, requiring only a fit occasion to urge them into measures of actual violence. In the progress of things towards this conclusion, the inhabitants of Upper Canada would imperceptibly be induced to form connections with their American neighbours, and, being unnaturally disjoined from Lower Canada, would seek to diminish the inconveniences arising by a more intimate intercourse with the adjoining states, leading inevitably to a union with that country. The actual tendency of things to this result, while the Provinces continue under separate Legislatures, it is to be observed, is likely to be much promoted by the artificial means of communication by canals which have been lately formed at immense expense in the state of New York, affording to Upper Canada, if the outlet at the port of Quebec should be rendered inconvenient to her, an easy communication to American seaports; and her disposition to avail herself of this communication will obviously be increased while the Lower Province continues in its character to be French.

Some of the circumstances arising from the division of countries thus united by nature ... have been practically exhibited in the disputes respecting revenue between the two Provinces. Upper Canada relies on the revenue to be derived from import duties for the payment of her civil expenditure. The nature of her local situation precludes her from conveniently or effectually levying these duties within her own limits; it is at the port of Quebec only that she can levy them: but this is in another Province, and, while she has a separate Legislature, beyond the authority of her Government....

In adverting to the injurious consequences arising from the division of the late Province of Quebec, your Majesty's petitioners cannot omit to notice more particularly the effect that measure has had in preventing the increase of the British population in Lower Canada and the development of its resources. The preponderance of the French population in the Legislature has occasioned obstacles to the settlement of British emigrants that have not been surmounted; so that the vast increase of British population to have been expected from this cause has been, in a general degree, prevented. The injury sustained in this particular may be easily appreciated when it is observed that, since the late American War, upwards of eighty thousand souls (that is, a number equal to one-fourth of the actual French population) have found their way to this Province from Great Britain and Ireland, and of these scarcely one-twentieth part remains within its limits, the rest, with the exception of a small number who have settled in Upper Canada, having been induced by the foreign character of the country in which they had sought an asylum, and the discouragements they experienced, to try their fortunes in the United States. The loss thus sustained is not confined to those who left the country, but comprises their connections and friends who would have followed them. In the same proportion as the increase of British population has been prevented, has the agricultural and commercial prosperity of the country been retarded and obstructed; as it is to the enterprise, intelligence and persevering industry of that population that both agriculture and commerce must be principally indebted for their advancement. On this head it may be fairly advanced that, had not the impolitic division of the late Province of Quebec taken place, and had a fit plan of representation been adopted, the British population would now exceed the French, and the imports and exports of the country be greatly beyond their present amount.

30. THE FOUNDING OF GUELPH, ONTARIO (1827).

=Source.=--_The Autobiography of John Galt._ London, 1833.

On the 22nd of April, the day previous to the time appointed for laying the foundations of my projected polis, I went to Galt, a town situated on the banks of the Grand River, which my friend, the Honourable William Dixon, in whose township it is situated, named after me long before the Canada Company was imagined; it was arrived at the maturity of having a post office before I heard of its existence. There I met by appointment, at Mr. Dickson's, Dr. Dunlop, who held a roving commission in the Canada Company, and was informed that the requisite woodmen were assembled.

Next morning we walked after breakfast towards the site which had been selected. The distance was about eighteen miles from Galt, half of it in the forest, but till we came near the end of the road no accident happened. Scarcely, however, had we entered the bush, as the woods are called, when the doctor found he had lost the way. I was excessively angry, for such an accident is no trifle in the woods; but after "wandering up and down" like the two babes, with not even the comfort of a blackberry, the heavens frowning and the surrounding forest sullenly still, we discovered a hut, and "tirling at the pin" entered and found it inhabited by a Dutch shoemaker. We made him understand our lost condition, and induced him to set us on the right path. He had been in the French army, and had after the peace emigrated to the United States; thence he had come into Upper Canada, where he bought a lot of land, which, after he had made some betterments, he exchanged for the location in the woods, or as he said himself "Je swapé" the first land for the lot on which he was now settled.

With his assistance we reached the skirts of the wild to which we were going, and were informed in the cabin of a squatter that all our men had gone forward. By this time it began to rain, but undeterred by that circumstance we resumed our journey in the pathless wood. About sunset, dripping wet, we arrived near the spot we were in quest of, a shanty which an Indian who had committed murder had raised as a refuge for himself....

We found the men under the orders of Mr. Prior, whom I had employed for the Company, kindling a roaring fire, and after endeavouring to dry ourselves, and having recourse to the store-basket, I proposed to go to the spot chosen for the town. By this time the sun was set, and Dr. Dunlop with his characteristic drollery having doffed his wet garb and dressed himself Indian fashion in blankets, we proceeded with Mr. Prior, attended by two woodmen with their axes.

It was consistent with my plan to invest our ceremony with a little mystery, the better to make it be remembered. So, intimating that the main body of the men were not to come, we walked to the brow of the neighbouring rising ground, and, Mr. Prior having shown the site selected for the town, a large maple tree was chosen, on which, taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first stroke. To me at least the moment was impressive--and the silence of the woods that echoed to the sound was as the sigh of the solemn genius of the wilderness departing for ever.

The doctor followed me; then, if I recollect correctly, Mr. Prior, and the woodmen finished the work. The tree fell with a crash of accumulating thunder, as if ancient Nature were alarmed at the entrance of social man into her innocent solitudes with his sorrows, his follies, and his crimes.

I do not suppose that the sublimity of the occasion was unfelt by the others, for I noticed that after the tree fell there was a funereal pause, as when the coffin is lowered into the grave; it was, however, of short duration, for the doctor pulled a flask of whiskey from his bosom, and we drank prosperity to the City of Guelph.

The name was chosen in compliment to the royal family, both because I thought it auspicious in itself, and because I could not recollect that it had ever been before used in all the King's dominions.

After the solemnity--for, though the ceremony was simple, it may be so denominated--we returned to the shanty, and the rain, which had been suspended during the performance, began again to pour.

It may appear ludicrous to many readers that I look on this incident with gravity, but in truth I am very serious; for, although Guelph is not so situated as ever to become celebrated for foreign commerce, the location possesses many advantages independent of being situated on a tongue of land surrounded by a clear and rapid stream. It will be seen by the map of the province that it stands almost in the centre of the table-land which separates four of the great lakes, namely, Ontario, Simcoe, Huron and Erie.

31. SAM SLICK CRITICISES THE "BLUENOSES" OR NOVA SCOTIANS (1836).

=Source.=--_The Clockmaker, or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick_, by T. C. Haliburton. London, 1838.

As we approached within fifteen or twenty miles of Parrsboro', a sudden turn of the road brought us directly in front of a large wooden house, consisting of two stories and an immense roof, the height of which edifice was much increased by a stone foundation rising several feet above ground. Now did you ever see, said Mr. Slick, such a catamaran as that; there's a proper goney for you, for to go and raise such a building as that are; and he has as much use for it, I do suppose, as my old waggon here has for a fifth wheel. Bluenose always takes keer to have a big house, cause it shows a big man, and one that's considerable forehanded, and pretty well to do in the world. These Nova Scotians turn up their blue noses, as a bottle nose porpoise turns up his snout, and puff and snort exactly like him at a small house. If neighbour Carrit has a two storey house, all filled with winders like Sandy Hook lighthouse, neighbour Parsnip must add jist two feet more on to the post of hisn, and about as much more to the rafter, to go ahead of him; so all these long sarce gentlemen strive who can get the furdest in the sky, away from their farms. In New England our maxim is a small house and amost an everlastin almighty big barn; but these critters revarse it, they have little hovels for their cattle, about the bigness of a good sizeable bear trap, and a house for the humans as grand as Noah's Ark. Well, jist look at it and see what a figur it does cut. An old hat stuffed into one pane of glass, and an old flannel petticoat as yaller as jaundice in another, finish off the front; an old pair of breeches and the pad of a bran new cart-saddle worn out titivate the eend, while the back is all closed up on account of the wind. When it rains, if there aint a pretty how-do-you-do, it's a pity--beds toted out of this room, and tubs set in tother to catch soft water to wash; while the clapboards, loose at the eends, go clap, clap, clap, like gals a hacklin flax, and the winders and doors keep a dancin to the music. The only dry place in the house is in the chimbley corner, where the folks all huddle up, as an old hen and her chickens do under a cart of a wet day. I wish I had the matter of half a dozen pound of nails (you'll hear the old gentleman in the grand house say), for if I had, I'd fix them are clapboards; I guess they'll go for it some o' these days. I wish you had, his wife would say, for they do make a most particular unhansum clatter, that's a fact; and so they let it be till the next tempestical time comes, and then they wish agin. Now this grand house has only two rooms down stairs, that are altogether slicked up and finished off complete; the other is jist petitioned off roughlike, one half great dark entries, and tother half places that look a plaguy sight more like packin' boxes than rooms. Well, all upstairs is a great onfarnished place, filled with every sort of good for nothin trumpery in natur--barrels without eends, corncobs half husked, cast-off clothes and bits of old harness, sheep skins, hides and wool, apples, one half rotten and tother half squashed, a thousand or two of shingles that have bust their withs and broke loose all over the floor, hay rakes, forks and sickles without handles or teeth, rusty scythes and odds and eends without number....

Whenever you come to such a grand place as this Squire, depend on't the farm is all of a piece, great crops of thistles, and an everlastin yield of weeds, and cattle the best fed of any in the country, for they are always in the grain fields or mowin lands, and the pigs a rootin in the potatoe patches....

The last time I came by here, it was a little bit arter daylight down, rainin cats and dogs and as dark as Egypt; so, thinks I, I'll jist turn in here for shelter to Squire Bill Blake's. Well, I knocks away at the front door, till I thought I'd a split it in; but arter a rappin a while to no purpose and findin no one come, I gropes my way round to the back door, and opens it, and feelin all along the partition for the latch of the keepin room without finding it, I knocks agin, when someone from inside calls out "Walk." Thinks I, I don't cleverly know whether that indicates "walk in" or "walk out," it's plaguy short metre, that's a fact; but I'll see anyhow. Well, arter gropin about a while, at last I got hold of the string and lifted the latch and walked in, and there sot old Marm Blake, close into one corner of the chimbley fire-place, a see-sawin in a rockin-chair, and a half-grown black house-help, half asleep in tother corner, a scroudgin up over the embers. Who be you, said Marm Blake, for I can't see you. A stranger, said I. Beck, says she ... get up this minit and stir the coals till I see the man. Arter the coals were stirred into a blaze, the old lady surveyed me from head to foot, then she axed me my name, and where I came from, where I was agoin, and what my business was. I guess, said she, you must be reasonable wet, sit to the fire and dry yourself, or mayhap your health may be endamnified pr'aps.

So I sot down, and we soon got pretty considerably well acquainted, and quite sociable like, and her tongue, when it fairly waked up, began to run like a mill race when the gate's up.... Well, when all was sot to rights and the fire made up, the old lady began to apologise for having no candles; she said she'd had a grand tea party the night afore, and used them all up, and a whole sight of vittals too; the old man hadn't been well since, and had gone to bed airly. But, says she, I do wish with all my heart you had a come last night, for we had a most a special supper--punkin-pies and dough-nuts and apple-sarce, and a roast goose stuffed with Indian puddin, and a pig's harslet stewed in molasses and onions, and I don't know what all; and the fore part of to-day folks called to finish. I actilly have nothin left to set afore you; for it was none o' your skim-milk parties, but superfine uppercrust real jam, and we made clean work of it. But I'll make some tea anyhow for you, and perhaps after that, said she, alterin of her tone, perhaps you'll expound the Scriptures, for it's one while since I've heerd them laid open powerfully.... The tea-kettle was accordingly put on, and some lard fried into oil and poured into a tumbler; which, with the aid of an inch of cotton-wick, served as a makeshift for a candle.

32. A STRUGGLE, NOT OF PRINCIPLES, BUT OF RACES (1838).

=Source.=--Lord Durham's _Report on the Affairs of North America_, edited by Sir C. P. Lucas. Vol. II. Oxford, 1912.

From the peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, I was enabled to make such effectual observations as convinced me that there had existed in the constitution of the Province, in the balance of political powers, in the spirit and practice of administration in every department of the Government, defects that were quite sufficient to account for a great deal of mismanagement and dissatisfaction. The same observation had also impressed on me the conviction, that, for the peculiar and disastrous dissensions of this Province, there existed a far deeper and far more efficient cause,--a cause which penetrated beneath its political institutions into its social state,--a cause which no reform of constitution or laws, that should leave the elements of society unaltered, could remove; but which must be removed, ere any success could be expected in any attempt to remedy the many evils of this unhappy Province. I expected to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single state: I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races, and I perceived that it would be idle to attempt any amelioration of laws or institutions until we could first succeed in terminating the deadly animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower Canada into the hostile divisions of French and English....

The grounds of quarrel which are commonly alleged, appear, on investigation, to have little to do with its real cause; and the inquirer, who has imagined that the public demonstrations or professions of the parties have put him in possession of their real motives and designs, is surprised to find, upon nearer observation, how much he has been deceived by the false colours under which they have been in the habit of fighting. It is not, indeed, surprising, that each party should, in this instance, have practised more than the usual frauds of language, by which factions, in every country, seek to secure the sympathy of other communities. A quarrel based on the mere ground of national animosity, appears so revolting to the notions of good sense and charity prevalent in the civilised world, that the parties who feel such a passion the most strongly, and indulge it the most openly, are at great pains to class themselves under any denominations but those which would correctly designate their objects and feelings. The French Canadians have attempted to shroud their hostility to the influence of English emigration, and the introduction of British institutions, under the guise of warfare against the Government and its supporters, whom they represented to be a small knot of corrupt and insolent dependents; being a majority, they have invoked the principles of popular control and democracy, and appealed with no little effect to the sympathy of liberal politicians in every quarter of the world. The English, finding their opponents in collision with the Government, have raised the cry of loyalty and attachment to British connexion, and denounced the republican designs of the French, whom they designate by the appellation of Radicals. Thus the French have been viewed as a democratic party, contending for reform; and the English as a conservative minority, protecting the menaced connexion with the British Crown, and the supreme authority of the Empire. There is truth in this notion in so far as respects the means by which each party sought to carry its own views of Government into effect. The French majority asserted the most democratic doctrines of the rights of a numerical majority. The English minority availed itself of the protection of the prerogative, and allied itself with all those of the colonial institutions which enabled the few to resist the will of the many. But when we look to the objects of each party, the analogy to our own politics seems to be lost if not actually reversed; the French appear to have used their democratic arms for conservative purposes, rather than those of liberal and enlightened movement; and the sympathies of the friends of reform are naturally enlisted on the side of sound amelioration which the English minority in vain attempted to introduce into the antiquated laws of the Province.

33. THE FRENCH CANADIANS IN 1838.

=Source.=--Appendix "C" to Lord Durham's _Report_. Lucas. Vol. III.

The _habitants_, or agricultural population of French origin, hold their lands by feudal tenure, which prevails in the "seignorial" districts. Though under the sway of England for 75 years, they are but little changed in usages, and not at all in language. A very small proportion of them are acquainted with the first rudiments of education; they use comparatively few imported articles, and their system of agriculture is generally rude and antiquated. Owing to the neglect of manure and a proper rotation of crops, the land in many places has become exhausted, and its cultivators, year after year, sink deeper in poverty. Scanty harvests during the last six or eight years, caused mainly by imperfect modes of culture or injudicious cropping, have reduced considerable numbers of the _habitants_ in the district of Quebec to a state of extreme destitution. In the district of Montreal, the farming is better, and the people more prosperous. The _habitant_ is active, hardy and intelligent, but excitable, credulous; and, being a stranger to everything beyond his own contracted sphere, he is peculiarly liable to be made the dupe of political speculators. His ignorance of the English language prevents him from acquiring any knowledge of the sentiments and views of the British Government and people, except what he may derive from educated persons of his own race, interested, it may be, in deceiving him. Never having _directly_ experienced the benefits of British rule in local affairs, and almost as much insulated from British social influences as if the colony had never changed masters, it is idle to expect that he should entertain any active feeling of attachment to the Crown.

For opening new settlements the _habitant_ has many useful qualifications, being usually competent to provide, by his personal skill, all the essentials requisite for his situation, such as house, clothing, and the ordinary farming implements. But having cleared his land, erected a dwelling for himself and a church for the _curé_, he remains stationary, contented with his lot, and living and dying as his ancestors lived and died before him. At the present day, for instance, a traveller may pass through districts where there is an abundance of excellent milk, and be unable to procure either butter or cheese with the sour and black-looking country bread which is served up at his meals; and it is by no means an uncommon circumstance for a _habitant_ to sell his manure to a neighbouring farmer, or throw it into the adjoining river, while every season his crops are deteriorating, in consequence of the degeneracy of the seed and the exhaustion of the soil.

By the _habitant_ a small gain, or saving of actual coin, is deemed much more important than a large expenditure of time; and he will not easily be induced to venture on an immediate pecuniary outlay to secure a remote advantage, unless indeed the money is to be devoted to litigation, in which he loves to indulge.

There is no class resembling English "country gentlemen" among the Canadians; nor do the doctors, notaries and lawyers, who overabound in the colony, form an efficient substitute for such a class. Needy and discontented, they are more disposed to attempt an improvement in their own condition of political agitation, than to labour for the advancement of their uninstructed neighbours. The only body of men to whom the _habitants_ can look for aid and direction are the parochial clergy, who, in the districts where their authority is unimpaired, act as a vigilant moral police, the efficiency of which is manifested in established habits of sobriety and order. Persons acquainted with the province are well aware that, in the disaffected districts, the influence of the Canadian clergy is much diminished.

It appears, then, that the mode of village settlement adopted by the Franco-Canadians is favourable to the establishment of municipal institutions, and that the obstacles to be encountered are the absence of education, popular inexperience, blind repugnance to taxation, and the absence of a wealthy and instructed class, interested in the prosperity of the many, and desirous of engaging gratuitously in the administration of local affairs.

34. THE IRRESPONSIBLE OPPOSITION IN LOWER CANADA (1838).

=Source.=--Lord Durham's _Report_. Lucas. Vol II.