Part 21

It was about eleven o’clock in the morning when we left Montreal, and at five in the afternoon we reached the town of Sorelle, fifteen leagues distant. The current is very strong the whole way between the two places. Sorelle stands at the mouth of the river of the same name, which runs from Lake Champlain into the St. Lawrence. It was laid out about the year 1787, and on an extensive plan, with very wide streets and a large square, but at present it contains only one hundred houses, are all very indifferent, and standing widely asunder. This is the only town on the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and Quebec, wherein English is the predominant language. The inhabitants consist principally of loyalists from the United States, who took refuge in Canada. The chief business carried on here is that of ship-building; there are several vessels annually launched from fifty to two hundred tons burthen; these are floated down to Quebec, and there rigged. Ship-building is not carried on to so much advantage in Canada as might be imagined, all the bolts and other articles of iron, the blocks, and the cordage, being imported; so that what is gained by having excellent timber on the spot is lost in bringing over these different articles, which are so bulky, from Europe. The river of Sorelle is deep at the mouth, and affords good shelter for ships from the ice, at the breaking up of winter: it is not navigable far beyond the town, even in boats, on account of the rapids.

[Sidenote: SCENERY.]

The next morning we left Sorelle, beyond which place the St. Lawrence expands to a great breadth. Here it abounds with small islands, situated so closely to each other, that it is impossible to think without astonishment of large vessels, like those that go to Montreal, passing between them: the channel through them is very intricate. This wide part of the river is called Lac St. Pierre; the greatest breadth of it is about four leagues and a half, and its length from the islands at the head of the lake downwards about eight leagues. From hence to Quebec the river is in no place more than two miles across, and in some parts it narrows to the breadth of three quarters of a mile. The tide ebbs and flows in the river within a few leagues of Lac St. Pierre; the great expansion of the water at the lake, and the strong current which sets out from it, prevents its action higher up.

From Montreal as far as the town of Trois Rivieres, which stands about four leagues below Lac St. Pierre, the shores on each side of the St. Lawrence are very flat; the land then begins to rise, and on the south-east side it continues lofty the whole way down to Quebec. On the opposite side, however, below Trois Rivieres, the banks vary considerably; in some places they are high, in others very low, until you approach within a few leagues of Quebec, when they assume a bold and grand appearance on each side. The scenery along various parts of the river is very fine: it is impossible, indeed, but that there must be a variety of pleasing views along a noble river like the St. Lawrence, winding for hundreds of miles through a rich country, diversified with rising grounds, woodlands, and cultivated plains. What particularly attracts the attention, however, in going down this river, is, the beautiful disposition of the towns and villages on its banks. Nearly all the settlements in Lower Canada are situated close upon the borders of the rivers, and from this circumstance the scenery along the St. Lawrence and others differs materially from that along the rivers in the United States. The banks of the Hudson river, which are more cultivated than those of any of the other large rivers there, are wild and desolate in comparison with those of the St. Lawrence. For several leagues below Montreal the houses stand so closely together, that it appears as if it were but one village, which extended the whole way. All the houses have a remarkably neat appearance at a distance; and in each village, though it be ever so small, there is a church. The churches are kept in the neatest repair, and most of them have spires, covered, according to the custom of the country, with tin, that, from being put on in a particular manner, never becomes rusty[31]. It is pleasing beyond description to behold one of these villages opening to the view, as you sail round a point of land covered with trees, the houses in it overhanging the river, and the spires of the churches sparkling through the groves with which they are encircled, before the rays of the setting sun.

Footnote 31:

The square plates of tin are nailed on diagonally, and the corners are carefully folded over the heads of the nails, so as to prevent any moisture from getting to them.

There is scarcely any part of the river, where you pass along, for more than a league, without seeing a village and church.

[Sidenote: BATISCON.]

The second night of our voyage we landed at the village of Batiscon. It stands on the north-west side of the river, about eighty miles below Montreal. Here the shore is very flat and marshy, and for a considerable distance from it the water is so shallow when the tide is out, that a bateau even, cannot at that time come within one hundred yards of the dry ground. Lower down the river the shore is in some places extremely rocky.

The first habitation we came to at Batiscon was a farm house, where we readily got accommodation for the night. The people were extremely civil, and did all in their power to serve us. A small table was quickly set out, covered with a neat white table cloth, and bread, milk, eggs, and butter, the best fare which the house afforded, were brought to us. These things may always be had in abundance at every farm house; but it is not often that you can procure meat of any sort; in going through Canada, therefore, it is customary for travellers to carry a provision basket with them. The houses in Lower Canada are in general well furnished with beds, all in the French style, very large, and raised four or five feet high, with a paillasse, a mattrass, and a feather bed.

The houses for the most part are built of logs; but they are much more compact and better built than those in the United States; the logs are made to fit more closely together, and instead of being left rough and uneven on the outside, are planed and white washed. At the inside also the walls are generally lined with deal boards, whereas in the United States the common log-houses are left as rough within as they are without. One circumstance, however, renders the Canadian houses very disagreeable, and that is the inattention of the inhabitants to air them occasionally by opening the windows, in consequence of which they have a close heavy smell within doors. As we travelled by land from Quebec to Montreal, we scarcely observed ten houses the whole way with the windows open, notwithstanding that the weather was very warm. If you ask the people why they don’t let a little fresh air into their houses, their constant answer is, as it is to all questions of a similar tendency, “Ce n’est pas la maniere des habitans”—It is not the custom of the people of the country.

[Sidenote: SUPERSTITION.]

Some of the lower classes of the French Canadians have all the gaiety and vivacity of the people of France; they dance, they sing, and seem determined not to give way to care; others, to appearance, have a great deal of that sullenness and bluntness in their manners characteristic of the people of the United States; vanity, however, is the ascendant feature in the character of all of them, and by working upon that you may make them do what you please. Few of the men can read or write; the little learning there is amongst the inhabitants is confined to the women: a Canadian never makes a bargain, or takes any step of importance, without consulting his wife, whose opinion is generally abided by. Both men and women are sunk in ignorance and superstition, and blindly devoted to their priests. The following anecdote may serve to shew how much they are so.

On the evening before we reached Quebec, we stopped at the village of St. Augustin Calvaire, and after having strolled about for some time, returned to the farm house where we had taken up our quarters for the night. The people had cooked some fish, that had been just caught, while we had been walking about, and every thing being ready on our return, we sat down to supper by the light of a lamp, which was suspended from the ceiling. The glimmering light, however, that it afforded, scarcely enabled us to see what was on the table; we complained of it to the man of the house, and the lamp was in consequence trimmed; it was replenished with oil; taken down and set on the table; still the light was very bad. “Sacre Dieu!” exclaimed he, “but you shall not eat your fish in the dark;” so saying, he stepped aside to a small cupboard, took out a candle, and having lighted it, placed it beside us. All was now going on well, when the wife, who had been absent for a few minutes, suddenly returning, poured forth a volley of the most terrible execrations against her poor husband for having presumed to have acted as he had done. Unable to answer a single word, the fellow stood aghast, ignorant of what he had done to offend her; we were quite at a loss also to know what could have given rise to such a sudden storm; the wife, however, snatching up the candle, and hastily extinguishing it, addressed us in a plaintive tone of voice, and explained the whole affair. It was the holy candle—“La chandelle benite,” which her giddy husband had set on the table; it had been consecrated at a neighbouring church, and supposing there should be a tempest at any time, with thunder and lightning ever so terrible, yet if the candle were but kept burning while it lasted, the house, the barn, and every thing else belonging to it, were to be secured from all danger. If any of the family happened to be sick, the candle was to be lighted, and they were instantly to recover. It had been given to her that morning by the priest of the village, with an assurance that it possessed the miraculous power of preserving the family from harm, and she was confident that what he told her was true.—To have contradicted the poor woman would have been useless; for the sake of our ears, however, we endeavoured to pacify her, and that being accomplished, we sat down to supper, and e’en made the most of our fish in the dark.

The village of St. Augustin Calvaire is about five leagues from Quebec, at which last place we arrived early on the next morning, the fourth of our voyage. When the wind is fair, and the tide favourable also, it does not take more than two days to go from Montreal to Quebec.

+LETTER + XXIV.

_Situation of the City of Quebec.—Divided into Upper and Lower Town.—Description of each.—Great Strength of the Upper Town.—Some Observations on the Capture of Quebec by the English Army under General Wolfe.—Observations on Montgomery’s and Arnold’s Attack during the American War.—Census of Inhabitants of Quebec.—The Chateau, the Residence of the Governor.—Monastery of the Recollets.—College of the Jesuits.—One Jesuit remaining of great Age. —His great Wealth.—His Character.—Nunneries.—Engineer’s Drawing Room.—State House.—Armoury.—Barracks.—Market-place.—Dogs used in Carts.—Grandeur of the Prospects from Parts of the Upper Town.—Charming Scenery of the Environs.—Description of Montmorenci Water Fall.—Of La Chaudiere Water Fall._

Quebec, August.

THE city of Quebec is situated on a very lofty point of land, on the north-west side of the River St. Lawrence. Nearly facing it, on the opposite shore, there is another point, and between the two the river is contracted to the breadth of three quarters of a mile, but after passing through this strait it expands to the breadth of five or six miles, taking a great sweep behind that point whereon Quebec stands. The city derives its name from the word Quebec or Quebeio, which signifies in the Algonquin tongue, a sudden contraction of a river. The wide part of the river, immediately before the town, is called The Bason; and it is sufficiently deep and spacious to float upwards of one hundred sail of the line.

[Sidenote: QUEBEC.]

Quebec is divided into two parts; the upper town, situated on a rock of limestone, on the top of the point; and the lower town, built round the bottom of the point, close to the water. The rock whereon the upper town stands, in some places towards the water rises nearly perpendicularly, so as to be totally inaccessible; in other places it is not so steep but that there is a communication between the two towns, by means of streets winding up the side of it, though even here the ascent is so great, that there are long flights of stairs at one side of the streets for the accommodation of foot passengers.

The lower town lies very much exposed to an enemy, being defended merely by a small battery towards the bason, which at the time of high tides is nearly on a level with the water, and by barriers towards the river, in which guns may be planted when there is any danger of an attack.

The upper town, however, is a place of immense strength. Towards the water it is so strongly guarded by nature, that it is found unnecessary to have more than very slight walls; and in some particular places, where the rock is inaccessible, are no walls at all. There are several redoubts and batteries however here. The principal battery, which points towards the bason, consists of twenty-two twenty-four pounders, two French thirty-six pounders, and two large iron mortars; this battery is flanked by another of six guns, that commands the passes from the lower town.

On the land side, the town owes its strength solely to the hand of art, and here the fortifications are stupendous. Considerable additions and improvements have been made to them since the place has been in the possession of Great Britain; but even at the time when it belonged to France, the works were so strong, that had it not been for the conduct of M. de Montcalm, the French general, it is almost doubtful whether the genius of the immortal Wolfe himself would not have been baffled in attempting to reduce it.

[Sidenote: GENERAL WOLFE.]

Had M. de Montcalm, when the first intelligence of the British army’s having ascended the Heights of Abraham was carried to him, instead of disbelieving the account, and laughing at it as a thing impossible, marched immediately to the attack, without giving General Wolfe time to form his men; or had he, when the account was confirmed of the enemy’s procedure, and of their having formed on the plain, waited for a large division of his troops, whose station was below the town, and who might have joined him in two hours, instead of marching out to give General Wolfe battle with the troops he had with him at the time, the fate of the day might have turned out very differently; or had he, instead of hazarding a battle at all, retired within the walls of the city and defended it, the place was so strong that there is reason to think it might have held out until the approach of winter, when the British ships must have quitted the river, and General Wolfe would consequently have been under the necessity of raising the siege.

General Wolfe thought it a vain attempt to make an assault on the side of the town which lies towards the water, where the rock is so steep, and so easily defended; his object was to get behind it, and to carry on the attack on the land side, where there is an extensive plain adjoining the town, and not a great deal lower than the highest part of the point. In order to do so, he first of all attempted to land his troops some miles below the town, near the Falls of Montmorenci. Here the banks of the river are by no means so difficult of ascent as above the town; but they were defended by a large division of the French forces, which had thrown up several strong redoubts, and, in attempting to land, Wolfe was repulsed with loss.

[Sidenote: GENERAL ARNOLD.]

Above Quebec, the banks of the river are extremely high, and so steep at the same time, that by the French they were deemed inaccessible. Foiled, however, in his first attempt to get on shore, General Wolfe formed the bold design of ascending to the top of these banks, commonly called the Heights of Abraham. To prepare the way for it, possession was taken of Point Levi, the point situated opposite to that on which Quebec stands, and from thence a heavy bombardment was commenced on the town, in order to deceive the enemy. In the mean time boats were prepared; the troops embarked; they passed the town with muffled oars, in the night, unobserved, and landed at a cove, about two miles above. The soldiers clambered up the heights with great difficulty, and the guns were hauled up by means of ropes and pullies fixed round the trees, with which the banks are covered from top to bottom. At the top the plain commences, and extends close under the walls of the city: here it was that the memorable battle was fought, in which General Wolfe unhappily perished, at the very moment when all his noble exertions were about to be crowned with that success which they so eminently deserved. The spot where the illustrious hero breathed his last is marked with a large stone, on which a true meridional line is drawn.

Notwithstanding that the great Wolfe found it such a very difficult task to get possession of Quebec, and that it has been rendered so much stronger since his time, yet the people of the United States confidently imagine, at this day, that if there were a rupture with Great Britain, they need only send an army thither, and the place must fall into their hands immediately. Arnold, after his return from the expedition against the place, under Montgomery, in the year 1775, used frequently to declare, that if he had not been wounded he should certainly have carried it. But however that expedition may be admired for its great boldness, it was, in reality, far from being so nearly attended with success as the vanity of Arnold has led his countrymen to imagine.

All thoughts of taking the city by a regular siege were abandoned by the Americans, when they came before it; it was only by attempting to storm it at an unexpected hour that they saw any probability of wresting it from the British. The night of the thirty-first of December was accordingly fixed upon, and the city was attacked at the same moment in three places. But although the garrison were completely surprised, and the greater part of the rampart guns had been dismounted, and laid up for the winter, during which season it was thought impossible for an army to make an attack so vigorous that cannon would be wanting to repel it, yet the Americans were at once baffled in their attempt. Arnold, in endeavouring to force St. John’s Gate, which leads out on the back part of the town, not far from the plains of Abraham, was wounded, and repulsed with great loss. Montgomery surprised the guard of the first barrier, at one end of the lower town, and passed it; but at the second he was shot, and his men were driven back. The third division of the Americans entered the lower town in another quarter, which, as I have before said, lies very much exposed, by passing over the ice: they remained there for a day or two, and during that time they set fire to some buildings, amongst which was one of the religious houses; but they were finally dislodged without much difficulty. The two divisions under Montgomery and Arnold were repulsed with a mere handful of men: the different detachments, sent down from the upper town against the former, did not altogether amount, it is said, to two hundred men. Arnold’s attack was the maddest possible; for St. John’s Gate, and the walls adjoining, are stupendous, and a person need but see them to be convinced that any attempt to storm them must be fruitless without the aid of heavy artillery, which the Americans had not.

[Sidenote: CITADEL.]

Independent of what it owes to its fortifications, and situation on the top of a rock, Quebec is indebted for much of its strength to the severity and great length of the winter, as in that season it is wholly impracticable for a besieging army either to carry on any works or blockade the town.

It requires about five thousand soldiers to man the works at Quebec completely. A large garrison is always kept in it, and abundance of stores of every description. The troops are lodged partly in barracks, and partly in block houses near Cape Diamond, which is the most elevated part of the point, and is reckoned to be upwards of one thousand feet above the level of the river. The Cape is strongly fortified, and may be considered as the citadel of Quebec; it commands the town in every direction, and also the plains at the outside of the walls. The evening and morning guns, and all salutes and signals, are fired from hence. Notwithstanding the great height of the rock above the river, water may readily be had even at the very top of it, by sinking wells of a moderate depth, and in some particular places, at the sides of the rock, it gushes out in large streams. The water is of a very good quality.

No census has been lately taken of the number of houses and inhabitants in Quebec; but it is supposed that, including the upper and lower towns and suburbs, there are at least two thousand dwellings; at the rate of six therefore to each house, the number of inhabitants would amount to twelve thousand. About two thirds of the inhabitants are of French extraction. The society in Quebec is agreeable, and very extensive for a place of the size, owing to its being the capital of the lower province, and therefore the residence of the governor, different civil officers, principal lawyers, &c. &c. The large garrison constantly kept in it makes the place appear very gay and lively.

The lower town of Quebec is mostly inhibited by the traders who are concerned with the shipping, and it is a very disagreeable place. The streets are narrow and dirty, and owing to the great height of the houses in most of them, the air is much confined; in the streets next to the water also, there is oftentimes an intolerable stench from the shore when the tide is out. The upper town, on the contrary, is extremely agreeable: from its elevated situation the air is as pure as possible, and the inhabitants are never oppressed with heat in summer; it is far, however, from being well laid out, the streets being narrow and very irregular. The houses are for the most part built of stone, and except a few, erected of late years, small, ugly, and inconvenient.

[Sidenote: GOVERNOR’S CHATEAU.]