Category: Travel Writing

Sketches in Canada, and rambles among the red men

Produced by Iona Vaughan, Ross Cooling, Mark Akrigg and the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

Chapters

9. Part 9

The population consists principally of artisans--as blacksmiths, carpenters, builders, all flourishing. There is, I fear, a good deal of drunkenness and profligacy; for though t...

29. Part 29

Leaving behind this cape and river, we came again upon lovely groups of Elysian islands, channels winding among rocks and foliage, and more fields of water-lilies. In passing th...

13. Part 13

"We were soon made welcome, and I had leisure to look round me in admiration of the comfort displayed in the arrangement of the interior. A covering of fresh branches of the you...

21. Part 21

In the afternoon Mr. Johnson informed me that the Indians were preparing to dance, for my particular amusement. I was, of course, most thankful and delighted. Almost in the same...

28. Part 28

Then, when we speak of the _drudgery_ of the women, we must note the equal division of labour; there is no class of women privileged to sit still while others work. Every squaw...

1. Part 1

Produced by Iona Vaughan, Ross Cooling, Mark Akrigg and the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net (This file was produced from images generous...

2. Part 2

In summer, the country round is rich and beautiful, with a number of farms all in a high state of cultivation; but Canada in winter and in summer must be like two different regi...

22. Part 22

I offered an extra gratuity to the men, if they would keep to their oars without interruption; and then, fairly exhausted, lay down on my locker and blanket. But whenever I woke...

19. Part 19

The language spoken around me is the Chippewa tongue, which, with little variation, is spoken also by the Ottawas, Pottowottomies and Missasaguas, and diffused all over the coun...

10. Part 10

The goodness of the road is owing to the systematic regulations of Colonel Talbot. Throughout the whole "country" none can obtain land without first applying to him, and the pri...

3. Part 3

A Canadian settler _hates_ a tree, regards it as his natural enemy, as something to be destroyed, eradicated, annihilated by all and any means. The idea of useful or ornamental...

17. Part 17

The sun had now risen in cloudless glory--all was life and movement. I strayed and loitered for full three hours along the shore, I hardly knew whither, sitting down occasionall...

15. Part 15

Long after the time of Pontiac, Detroit and all the country round it became the scene of even more horrid and unnatural conflicts between the Americans and British, during the w...

4. Part 4

"Goethe's 'Erl-Koenig' is a moral allegory of deep meaning, though I am not sure he meant it as such, or intended all that it signifies. There are beings in the world who see, w...

11. Part 11

So one morning he went and took unto himself the woman nearest at hand--one, of whom we must needs suppose that he chose her for her virtues, for most certainly it was not for h...

27. Part 27

"But, Children! let it be distinctly understood, that the British government has not come to a determination to cease to give presents to the Indians of the United States. On th...

26. Part 26

The place derives its name from a large rock which they say, being struck, vibrates like a bell. But I had no opportunity of trying the experiment, therefore cannot tell how thi...

12. Part 12

Turning the horses' heads again westward, we plunged at once into the deep forest, where there was absolutely no road, no path, except that which is called a _blazed_ path, wher...

25. Part 25

Sir John Colborne took a strong interest in the conversion and civilisation of the Indians, and though often discouraged did not despair. He promised to found a village, and bui...

18. Part 18

I was loitering by the garden gate this evening, about sunset, looking at the beautiful effects which the storm of the morning had left in the sky and on the lake. I heard the s...

8. Part 8

From Brandtford we came to Paris, a new settlement, beautifully situated, and thence to Woodstock, a distance of eighteen miles. There is no village, only isolated inns, far rem...

20. Part 20

Henry describes in a touching manner the interment of a young girl, with an axe, snow-shoes, a small kettle, several pairs of moccasins, her own ornaments, and strings of beads;...

14. Part 14

The banks of the Thames are studded with a succession of farms, cultivated by the descendants of the early French settlers--precisely the same class of people as the _Habitans_...

5. Part 5

Mr. M. told me, that for the first seven or eight years they had all lived and worked together on his farm; but latterly he had reflected that though the proceeds of the farm af...

7. Part 7

The next day, on going on from Niagara to Hamilton in a storm of rain, I found, to my no small gratification, the English emigrant and his quiet, silent little wife, already sea...

24. Part 24

Notwithstanding that her future husband and future greatness were so clearly prefigured in this dream, the pretty O,shah,gush,ko,da,na,qua having always regarded a white man wit...

6. Part 6

A black man, a slave somewhere in Kentucky, having been sent on a message, mounted on a very valuable horse, seized the opportunity of escaping. He reached Buffalo after many da...

16. Part 16

The captain told me that last season he had never gone up the lakes with less than four or five hundred passengers. This year, fortunately for my individual comfort, the case is...

23. Part 23

He said it was inseparable from their principles of war and their mode of warfare; the first consists in inflicting the greatest possible insult and injury on their foe with the...

30. Part 30

Next morning we embarked on board the Peter Robinson steamer, and proceeded down Lake Simcoe. This most beautiful piece of water is above forty miles in length, and about twenty...