Part 1
Travels Through the States of North America, and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, During the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, Vol. II.
_TRAVELS_
THROUGH THE STATES
OF
_NORTH AMERICA_,
AND THE
PROVINCES OF
UPPER AND LOWER CANADA,
DURING
THE YEARS 1795, 1796, AND 1797.
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BY _ISAAC WELD_, JUNIOR.
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SECOND EDITION.
ILLUSTRATED AND EMBELLISHED WITH SIXTEEN PLATES.
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_IN TWO VOLUMES_.
_VOL. II_
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_LONDON_:
PRINTED FOR JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCADILLY.
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1799.
_CONTENTS_
To _ VOLUME _ II.
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_LETTER _ XXVIII.
_Leave Quebec.—Convenience of travelling page 1 between that City and Montreal.—Post Houses.—Calashes.—Drivers.—Canadian Horses very serviceable.—Salutations on arriving at different Post Houses.—Beautiful Prospects from the Road on the Top of the Banks of the St. Lawrence.—Female Peasants.—Style of Farming in Canada.—Considerably improved of late.—Inactivity of Canadians in not clearing more Land.—Their Character contrasted with that of the People of the States.—Arrival at Trois Rivieres.—Description of that Town and its Vicinity.—Visit to the Convent of St. Ursule.—Manufactures of Birch Bark.—Birch Canoes, how formed.—Leave Trois Rivieres, and reach Montreal._
_LETTER _ XXIX.
_The Party make the usual Preparations page 19 for ascending the St. Lawrence.—Buffalo Skins.—How used by Travellers.—Difficulty of proceeding to Lake Ontario otherwise than by Water.—Rapids above Montreal.— Village of La Chine.—King’s Stores there.—Indian Village on the opposite Side of the River.—Similitude between French Canadians and Indians in Person and Disposition of Mind.—Owing to this the Power of the French over the Indians.—Summary View of the Indians in Lower Canada.—The Party embark in a Bateau at La Chine.—Mode of conducting Bateaux against a strong Current.—Great Exertion requisite—Canadians addicted to smoking.—How they measure Distances.—Description of Lake St. Louis.—Clouds of Insects over Reed Banks.—Party encamps on l’Isle Perot.—Passage of Rapids called Les Cascades—Their tremendous Appearance.—Description of the Village of the Hill of Cedars.—Rapids du Coteau du Lac.—Wonderful Rapidity of the Current.—Party encamps.—Lake St. Francis.—Point au Baudet.—L’Isle aux Raisins.—Island in the River still the Property of the Indians.—Not determined yet whether in the British Territory or that of the States.—Party encamps.—Storm.—Unpleasant Situation of the Party.—Relieved.—Continue the Voyage.—Account of more Rapids.—Canals and Locks at different Places on the River St. Lawrence.—Immense Flights of Pigeons.—Emigration of Squirrels and Bears.—Oswegatchee River and Fort la Galette described.—Advantageous Position of the latter.—Current above this gentle.—Bateaux sail on all Night.—Songs of the Canadians.—Good Ear for Music.—Lake of a Thousand Isles.—Arrival at Kingston on Lake Ontario.—Observations on the Navigation of the St. Lawrence.—The St. Lawrence compared with the Mississippi.—A View of the different Rivers which open a Water Communication between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic.—Great Superiority of the St. Lawrence over all the rest.—Of the Lake Trade._
_LETTER _ XXX.
_Description of the Town of page 64 Kingston.—Formerly called Fort Cadaraqua.—Extensive Trade carried on here.—Nature of it.—Inhabitants very hospitable.—Harbours on Lake Ontario.—Ships of War on that Lake.—Merchant Vessels.—Naval Officers.—Expence of building and keeping up Vessels very great.—Why.—No Iron Mines yet opened in the Country.—Copper may be more easily procured than Iron.—Found in great Quantities on the Borders of Lake Superior.—Embark in a Trading Vessel on Lake Ontario.—Description of that Lake.—A Septennial Change in the Height of the Waters said to be observable—also a Tide that ebbs and flows every two Hours.—Observations on these Phenomena.—Voyage across the Lake similar to a Sea Voyage.—Come in Sight of Niagara Fort.—Land at Mississaguis Point.—Mississaguis Indians.—One of their Chiefs killed, in an Affray.—How treated by the British Government.—Their revengeful Disposition.—Mississaguis good Hunters.—How they kill Salmon.—Variety of Fish in the Lakes and Rivers of Canada.—Sea Wolves.—Sea Cows.—Description of the Town of Niagara or Newark.—The present Seat of Government.—Scheme of removing it elsewhere.—Unhealthiness of the Town of Niagara and adjacent Country.—Navy Hall.—Fort of Niagara surrendered pursuant to Treaty.—Description of it.—Description of the other Forts surrendered to the People of the United States.—Shewn not to be so advantageous to them as was expected.—Superior Position of the new British Posts pointed out_
_LETTER _ XXXI.
_Description of the River and Falls of page 108 Niagara and the Country bordering upon the navigable Part of the River below the Falls_
_LETTER _ XXXII.
_Description of Fort Chippeway.—Plan in page 135 meditation to cut a Canal to avoid the Portage at the Falls of Niagara.—Departure from Chippeway.—Intense Heat of the Weather.—Description of the Country bordering on Niagara River above the Falls.—Observations on the Climate of Upper Canada.—Rattlesnakes common in Upper Canada.—Fort Erie.—Miserable Accommodation there.—Squirrel hunting.—Seneka Indians.—Their Expertness at the Use of the Blow-gun.—Description of the Blow-gun.—Excursion to the Village of the Senekas.—Whole Nation absent.—Passage of a dangerous Sand Bar at the Mouth of Buffalo Creek.—Sail from Fort Erie.—Driven back by a Storm.—Anchor under Point Abineau.—Description of the Point.—Curious Sand Hills there.—Bear hunting.—How carried on.—Dogs, what Sort of, used.—Wind changes.—The Vessel suffers from the Storm whilst at Anchor.—Departure from Point Abineau.—General Description of Lake Erie.—Anecdote.—Reach the Islands at the Western End of the Lake.—Anchor there.—Description of the Islands.—Serpents of various Kinds found there.—Rattlesnakes.—Medicinal Uses made of them.—Fabulous Accounts of Serpents.—Departure from the Islands.—Arrival at Malden.—Detroit River_
_LETTER _ XXXIII.
_Description of the District of page 170 Malden.—Establishment of a new British Post there.—Island of Bois Blanc.—Difference between the British and Americans respecting the Right of Possession.—Block Houses, how constructed.—Captain E—’s Farm.—Indians.—Description of Detroit River, and the Country bordering upon it.—Town of Detroit.—Head Quarters of the American Army.—Officers of the Western Army.—Unsuccessful Attempt of the Americans to impress upon the Minds of the Indians an Idea of their Consequence.—Of the Country round Detroit.—Doubts concerning our Route back to Philadelphia.—Determine to go by Presqu’ Isle.—Departure from Detroit_
_LETTER _ XXXIV.
_Presents delivered to the Indians on page 192 the Part of the British Government.—Mode of distributing them.—Reasons why given.—What is the best Method of conciliating the good Will of the Indians.—Little Pains taken by the Americans to keep up a good Understanding with the Indians.—Consequences thereof.—War between the Americans and Indians.—A brief Account of it.—Peace concluded by General Wayne.—Not likely to remain permanent.—Why.—Indian Manner of making Peace described_
_LETTER _ XXXV.
_A brief Account of the Persons, page 224 Manners, Character, Qualifications, mental and corporeal, of the Indians; interspersed with Anecdotes_
_LETTER _ XXXVI.
_Departure from Malden.—Storm on Lake page 296 Erie.—Driven back amongst the Islands.—Shipwreck narrowly avoided.—Voyage across the Lake.—Land at Fort Erie.—Proceed to Buffalo Creek.—Engage Indians to go through the Woods.—Set out on Foot.—Journey through the Woods.—Description of the Country beyond Buffalo Creek.—Vast Plains.—Grand Appearance of the Trees here.—Indian Dogs.—Arrival at the Settlements on Genesee River.—First Settlers.—Their general Character.—Description of the Country bordering on Genesee River.—Fevers common in Autumn.—Proceed on Foot to Bath_
_LETTER _ XXXVII.
_Account of Bath.—Of the page 332 Neighbourhood.—Singular Method taken to improve it.—Speculators.—Description of one, in a Letter from an American Farmer.—Conhorton Creek.—View of the Navigation from Bath downwards.—Leave Bath for Newtown.—Embark in Canoes.—Stranded in the Night.—Seek for Shelter in a neighbouring House.—Difficulty of procuring Provisions.—Resume our Voyage.—Lochartsburgh.—Description of the eastern Branch of the Susquehannah River.—French Town.—French and Americans ill suited to each other.—Wilkes-barré.—Mountains in the Neighbourhood.—Country thinly settled towards Philadelphia.—Description of the Wind-Gap in the Blue Mountains.—Summary Account of the Moravian Settlement at Bethlehem.—Return to Philadelphia_
_LETTER _ XXXVIII.
_Leave Philadelphia.—Arrive at New page 367 York.—Visit Long Island.—Dreadful Havoc by the Yellow Fever.—Dutch Inhabitants suspicious of Strangers.—Excellent Farmers.—Number of Inhabitants.—Culture of Corn.—Immense Quantities of Grouse and Deer.—Laws to protect them.—Increase of the same.—Decrease of Beavers.—New York agreeable to Strangers.—Conclusion_
_TRAVELS_, &c. ──────
_LETTER _ XXVIII.
_Leave Quebec.—Convenience of travelling between that City and Montreal.—Post Houses.—Calashes.—Drivers.—Canadian Horses very serviceable.—Salutations on arriving at different Post Houses.—Beautiful Prospects from the Road on the top of the Banks of the St. Lawrence.—Female Peasants.—Style of Farming in Canada.—Considerably improved of late.—Inactivity of Canadians in not clearing more Land.—Their Character contrasted with that of the People of the States.—Arrival at Trois Rivieres.—Description of that town and its Vicinity.—Visit to the Convent of St. Ursule.—Manufactures of Birch Bark.—Birch Canoes, how formed.—Leave Trois Rivieres, and reach Montreal._
Montreal, August.
HAVING remained in Quebec and the neighbourhood as long as we could, consistently with the plan which we had formed of visiting the Falls of Niagara, and returning again into the States before the commencement of winter, we set out for Montreal by land.
In no part of North America can a traveller proceed so commodiously as along this road between Quebec and Montreal; a regular line of post houses, at convenient distances from each other, being established upon it, where calashes or carioles, according to the season, are always kept in readiness. Each postmaster is obliged to have four calashes, and the same number of carioles; and besides these, as many more are generally kept at each stage by persons called aids-de-poste, for which the postmaster calls when his own happen to be engaged. The postmaster has the exclusive privilege of furnishing these carriages at every stage, and, under a penalty, he must have them ready in a quarter of an hour after they are demanded by a traveller, if it be day-light, and in half an hour should it be in the night. The drivers are bound to take you on at the rate of two leagues an hour. The charge for a calash with a single horse is one shilling Halifax[1] currency per league; no gratuity is expected by the driver.
Footnote 1:
According to Halifax currency, which is the established, currency of Lower Canada, the dollar passes for five shillings.
The silver coins current in Canada are dollars, halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths of dollars, pistareens, Spanish coins somewhat less valuable than quarter dollars, and French and English crowns and half crowns. Gold coins pass only as bullion by weight. British and Portugal gold coins are deemed the best; next to them those of Spain, then those of France.
[Sidenote: CANADIAN HORSES.]
The post calashes are very clumsily built, but upon the whole we found them easy and agreeable carriages; they are certainly far superior to the American stage waggons, in which, if persons wish to travel with comfort, they ought always to set out provided with cushions for their hips and elbows, otherwise they cannot expect but to receive numberless contusions before they get to the end of their journey.
The horses in Canada are mostly small and heavy, but extremely serviceable, as is evident from those employed for the post carriages being in general fat and very brisk on the road, notwithstanding the poor fare and ill usage they receive. They are seldom rubbed down; but as soon as they have performed their journey are turned into a field, and there left until the next traveller arrives, or till they are wanted to perform the work of the farm. This is contrary to the regulations of the post, according to which the horses should be kept in the stable, in perfect readiness for travellers; however, I do not recollect that we were at any place detained much beyond the quarter of an hour prescribed, notwithstanding that the people had frequently to send for their horses, more than a mile, to the fields where they were employed. When the horses happened to be at a distance, they were always brought home in a full gallop, in order to avoid complaints; they were yoked in an instant, and the driver set off at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour; a little money, indeed, generally induces them to exceed the established rate; this, however, does not always answer, but play upon their vanity and you may make them go on at what rate you please, for they are the vainest people, perhaps, in the world. Commend their great dexterity in driving, and the excellence of the Canadian horses, and it seldom fails to quicken your pace at least two or three miles an hour; but if you wish to go in a gallop, you need only observe to your companion, so as to be overheard by the driver, that the Canadian calashes are the vilest carriages on earth, and so heavy that you believe the people are afraid the horses would fall down and break their necks if they attempted to make them go as fast as in other countries; above all, praise the carriages and drivers of the United States. A few remarks of this sort at once discompose the tempers of the drivers, and their passion is constantly vented in lashes on their horses.
[Sidenote: CANADIAN DRIVERS]
To hasten the speed of their horses they have three expressions, rising above each other in a regular climax. The first, “Marche,” is pronounced in the usual tone of voice; “Marche-donc,” the second, is pronounced more hastily and louder; if the horse is dull enough not to comprehend this, then the “Marche-donc,” accompanied with one of Sterne’s magical words, comes out, in the third place, in a shrill piercing key, and a smart lash of the whip follows. From the frequent use made by the drivers of these words, the calashes have received the nick-name of “marche-doncs.”
The first post house is nine miles from Quebec, which our drivers, of their own accord, managed to reach in one hour. No sooner were we in sight of it, than the postmaster, his wife in her close French cap, and all the family, came running out to receive us. The foremost driver, a thin fellow of about six feet high, with a queue bound with eel skins that reached the whole way down his back, immediately cracked his whip, and having brought his calash to the door, with a great air he leapt out, bowed respectfully at a distance to the hostess, then advancing with his hat off, paid her a few compliments, and kissed both her cheeks in turn, which she presented to him with no small condescension. Some minutes are generally spent thus at every post house in mutual congratulations on meeting, before the people ever think of getting a fresh carriage ready.
The road between Quebec and Montreal runs, for the most part, close upon the banks of the River St. Lawrence, through those beautiful little towns and villages seen to so much advantage from the water; and as the traveller passes along, he is entertained with prospects, if possible, superior to those which strike the attention in sailing down the river.
For the first thirty or forty miles in the way from Quebec, the views are in particular extremely grand. The immense River St. Lawrence, more like a lake confined between ranges of mountains than a river, appears at one side rolling under your feet, and as you look down upon it from the top of the lofty banks, the largest merchant vessels scarcely seem bigger than fishing boats; on the other side, deep mountains, skirted with forests, present themselves to the view at a distance, whilst, in the intermediate space, is seen a rich country, beautifully diversified with whitened cottages and glittering spires, with groves of trees and cultivated fields, watered by innumerable little streams: groups of the peasantry, busied as we passed along in getting in the harvest, which was not quite over, diffused an air of cheerfulness and gaiety over the scene, and heightened all its charms.
[Sidenote: FEMALE PEASANTS.]
The female French peasants are in general, whilst young, very pretty, and the neat simplicity of their dress in summer, which consists mostly of a blue or scarlet bodice without sleeves, a petticoat of a different colour, and a straw hat, makes them appear extremely interesting; like the Indians, however, they lose their beauty very prematurely, and it is to be attributed much to the same cause, namely, their laborious life, and being so much exposed to the air, the indolent men suffering them to take a very active part in the management of the farms.
The style of farming amongst the generality of the French Canadians has hitherto been very slovenly; manure has been but rarely used; the earth just lightly turned up with a plough, and without any other preparation the grain sown; more than one half of the fields also have been left without any fences whatsoever, exposed to the ravages of cattle. The people are beginning now, however, to be more industrious, and better farmers, owing to the increased demand for grain for exportation, and to the advice and encouragement given to them by the English merchants at Quebec and Montreal, who send agents through the country to the farmers to buy up all the corn they can spare. The farmers are bound to have their corn ready by a certain day on the banks of the St. Lawrence, and bateaux are then sent by the merchants to receive and convey it to the port where it is to be shipped.
[Sidenote: CHARACTERS.]
All the settlements in Lower Canada lie contiguous to the River St. Lawrence: in no place perhaps do they extend farther back than twelve miles from it, except along the banks of the River St. Jean, the River des Prairies, and some other navigable streams falling into the St. Lawrence. This is owing to the disposition of the French Canadians, who, like the Germans, are fond of living near each other; nay more, as long as the farm of the father will admit of a division, a share of it is given to the sons when they are grown up, and it is only when the farm is exceedingly small, or the family numerous, that they ever think of taking up a piece of fresh land from the seignior. In this respect a wonderful difference appears between their conduct and that of the young people of the United States, particularly of those of New England, who, as soon as they are grown up, immediately emigrate, and bury themselves in the woods, where, perhaps, they are five or six hundred miles distant from every relation upon earth: yet a spirit of enterprize is not wanting amongst the Canadians; they eagerly come forward, when called upon, to traverse the immense lakes in the western regions; they laugh at the dreadful storms on those prodigious bodies of water; they work with indefatigable perseverance at the oar and the pole in stemming the rapid currents of the rivers; nor do they complain, when, on these expeditions, they happen to be exposed to the inclemency of the seasons, or to the severest pangs of hunger. The spirit of the Canadian is excited by vanity; he delights in talking to his friends and relatives of the excursions he has made to those distant regions; and he glories in the perils which he has encountered: his vanity would not be gratified by chopping down trees and tilling the earth; he deems this therefore merely a secondary pursuit, and he sets about it with reluctance: self interest, on the contrary, it is that rouses the citizen of the states into action, and accordingly he hastily emigrates to a distant part of the country, where he thinks land is in the most rising state, and where he hopes to be able the soonest to gratify a passion to which he would readily make a sacrifice of every social tie, and of all that another man would hold dear.