Part 25

{296} 19th. Arrived at Kingston, which is situated at the north-eastern extremity of Lake Ontario. This place contains about 3000 people, and is the largest town in Upper Canada. It was here that the warships which navigated the lake during the late war were built, and several vessels of a larger size than any on the ocean, are still on the stocks. An island before Kingston, appears to be strongly fortified.

To the north of Kingston, and towards the Utawas [Ottawa] or Grand River, is the new town of Perth, and the settlement of a considerable body of Scots who emigrated in 1815. One of these people, who was on board the steam-boat, told me that the settlers had succeeded well; and a gentleman who lives in their neighbourhood assured me, that they have already attained to a more comfortable style of living than the French in the older settlements of the lower province.

On the 20th I sailed in a steam-boat for Prescott, which is seventy miles down the river. In immediate continuation with the eastern extremity is an expansion of the river St. Lawrence, which is called the lake of the thousand islands, from the great number of small islands it contains. These are rocky, and covered over with small pine trees, forming a romantic labyrinth, in which it is not always easy to discriminate between islands and the main land. Markings on the rocks show, that the waters rise occasionally to the height of four feet, but these slight floods must be occasioned by winds, rather than the immediate effect of rainy weather.

Brokeville is a new town on the north side of the river. The name is in honour of the British General Broke who fell in the late war.[166] The houses {297} are chiefly of stone, and have a neat appearance. In consequence of the settlements forming to the northward, Brokeville is of some importance as a landing place, and in its trade.

Prescott is a considerable town, with a small fort on the Canadian side of the river. It is a curious fact, that the thriving town of Ogdensburg, on the United States shore, is directly opposite, and though within the range of British cannon, is without defensive works, and without a garrison.

There being a number of rapids in the river between Prescott and Montreal, the intermediate navigation is performed by small flat-bottomed vessels, called Durham boats, which carry about three hundred barrels of flour each. These boats have no other decks than narrow foot-ways round the gunwales, leaving the middle space open, where the cargo is piled up.

On the 21st I left Prescott in a Durham boat,[167] in which there were three passengers besides myself. Two of these were Americans from Arkansaw river, on their way for Quebec, a journey of 2100 miles, and the other an Englishman, who had gone out to see the lands in Upper Canada, and was on his return to England, where he intends to give up a small farm that he holds in lease, and remove his family to the back woods near Kingston. From hearing the swearing and rude conversation of the boat’s crew, I concluded that they were persons of the lowest character.

The waters of the St. Lawrence appear green, on account of the great depth of the river, but when taken up in a vessel, they seem perfectly transparent. The islands below Prescott are of a rich soil, and, like the banks on both sides of the river, are low, and covered with grass almost to the margin of the water. We passed over four rapids on {298} the 21st, viz. the Rifts _le Galete_, the Flat Rifts, the Long Falls, and the _Maligne Rifts_. All these run with great velocity; and at the lower end of each, where the stream rushes into waters that run on a lesser declivity, a great swell or heaving motion is produced. We stopped for the night at Cornwall, a considerable village on the Canadian shore. I was there told the river opposite to that place is so deep, that when the people attempted to drag it in search of the body of a man who had been drowned, the bottom was not felt.

On the 22d we passed St. Regis, an Indian town, which is built with stone. Below this place, the boundary line which separates the United States from Canada leaves the river. Lake St. Francis is an expansion of the river that is about thirty miles long, and from four to six miles broad. The banks are low, and the declivity of the neighbouring lands is very moderate. To the south-east, a number of high mountains in New York State are to be seen. Their distance from the river seems to be about thirty miles, and they are covered with trees to their summits.

On the northern bank of Lake St. Francis, is a settlement of Canadian French. It extends to the length of seven or eight miles, and is only about one mile broad. The farms are said to consist of one hundred acres each, and as they extend from the lake back to the woods, they are long narrow stripes of land, each having the dwelling-house, barn, &c. almost close to the bank. The houses are white-washed, and externally very neat. Their being almost completely uniform in size and appearance, might cause any stranger to believe that their owners are nearly on a parity in wealth.

At the east end of the lake are the falls of St. Francis. These are furious rapids, and a canal {299} for avoiding them has been cut at the village _Cotu du Lac_, but as the cut is not deep enough, the work is of very little use. Of the falls of St. Lawrence river, it may be remarked generally, that as there are no high floods, and as the banks are low, there can be no great difficulty in improving the navigation. There is a very small Fort at the _Cotu du Lac_, which is garrisoned by about half a dozen of soldiers.

On the 23d we took in a pilot, who conducted us over the Cedar Rifts, the Thicket Falls, and Le Trou Falls. The former of these rapids runs with tremendous fury. The two latter canals are cut, but, like that at the _Cotu du Lac_, they are too shallow to admit loaded boats. The Cedar village is most delightfully situated on the north side of the river.

The Utawas, or Grand river, forms the division line between Upper and Lower Canada, and falls into the St. Lawrence by two mouths, one above and the other below the island of Montreal. The great magnitude of the former river is manifested by the dark colour of its waters, which are sufficient to give a tinge to the Lake St. Louis, in which the two rivers meet. On this lake a new steam-boat has lately begun to ply.

La Chine is a small town on the Island Montreal, and at the head of the falls of St. Louis. In consequence of this interruption to the navigation, La Chine is at the head of a portage over which a great portion of the produce and goods that pass upward of Montreal are carried. The inhabitants of this place are Canadian French, many of whom are employed as carters between the landing place and the city, which is about seven miles distant. Cachnewaga, on the opposite side of {300} the river, is an Indian town, built of stone, and of a neat appearance.

On the 24th I proceeded by land to Montreal. The soil in that part is good, and well adapted to pasturage. I observed some farms that are occupied by Scotsmen, and cultivated in a neater style than any thing of the kind that I have ever seen in America. Several iron ploughs which were made at Uddingstone, on the Clyde, were lying by the side of the road. The horses are small, but elegantly formed and hardy.

The language in most common use here is the French. People of every possible shade of colour, between the French complexion and the copper colour of the Indian, are to be heard conversing in that tongue.

The suburbs of Montreal are composed of narrow dirty streets. The houses are of stone, plastered over with lime. A few private houses, and the court-house and jail, are built of hewed stone. The roofs of many of the houses are covered with small plates of tinned iron, which preserves its metallic lustre well, and produces a disagreeable glare during sunshine. In the end of the market place, is a monument in memory of Lord Nelson. It is a Doric column, with a plaster bust of the hero on the top, and some naval figures in relief upon the pedestal. This compound substance is already yielding to the weather, and probably will not long resist the effects of this rigorous climate. To the north of the town, there is a hill covered with timber, which contributes much toward giving the place a picturesque appearance. In the neighbourhood there are a few neat villas, and many luxuriant orchards. In the streets people are to be seen driving small carts drawn by dogs; {301} they are usually loaded with sticks, ashes, and other light articles. Montreal has a great trade, being the emporium of the upper country, and the residence of the principal agents of the North West Company. The port is accessible to large ships from the ocean, but is not a tenable harbour in the winter, on account of its being exposed to the breaking up of the ice. Montreal is the seat of justice for the upper district of Lower Canada. The court is composed of a chief justice, and three puisne judges. There is in the city, a barrack occupied by a small body of troops. A square in the form of a terrace, called the _Place d’Arms_, for the exercising of soldiers; a college, and a convent, where a considerable number of nuns are kept. The clergy of the Roman Catholic religion retain the tithes of the island.

Early on the morning of the 25th I sailed in a steam-boat for Quebec. There are now twelve large vessels of this kind which ply between Montreal and that place, and one that crosses between La Prairie and Montreal.

The steam-boats, on their passage between Montreal and Quebec, touch at the town of Sorel, at the mouth of Sorel river. Sorel is a small town, and its principal business is ship-building. It was formerly called Fort William Henry, known as the place of the earliest settlement of Europeans in North America, and as the scene of the cruel massacre committed by the Indians under the French General Montcalm, in 1757.[168]

The Lake St. Peter’s is another expansion of the river, about twenty miles long and fifteen broad. The great lakes in the upper country, and the smaller ones in the course of the St. Lawrence, have the effect of equalizing the stream, and prevent {302} inundations, which are very injurious to the neighbourhood of most large rivers.

In the afternoon, the vessel was anchored in consequence of a contrary wind, which was accompanied with a fall of snow, the first that had occurred during the season. The town _Trois Rivieres_, (Three Rivers,) then in our sight, is a large place, and is the seat of justice for one of the three districts of Lower Canada. Most of the inhabitants here, as in the other parts of the lower province, are Canadian French. The houses are covered with tinned iron.

On both sides of the river, a row of farm houses, placed at very short intervals, stretches along almost without interruption. These houses are white-washed, and have throughout a degree of similarity in size and appearance which I have not observed in any other part except the banks of the St. Lawrence. These houses are white-washed, and have each a barn and other inferior houses attached. As the grain is housed, and the barns seem to be of no great dimensions, it is a proof that the crops are certainly small. In viewing these ranges of farming establishments obliquely, the whole has the aspect of a continued village on both sides, with churches at very short distances from one another. Were it not for seeing the uncleared woods, which are in most parts only about a mile from the river, and for recollecting that the number of white people in Lower Canada was, a few years ago, estimated at only 200,000, I should have been induced to believe that this is a populous country.

On the 26th we proceeded downwards with a fair wind. The tide reaches to the distance of about sixty miles above Quebec. We descended the Falls of Richlieu, by the joint action of wind, tide, steam, and the stream, at the rate of fifteen {303} miles an hour. These falls are furious rapids at low stages of the tide, but in times of high water they are covered up and smooth. The banks are of a dark coloured schistous substance, very steep, and about a hundred feet high, and the soil inferior to that farther up the river.

On approaching Quebec, I was shown the steep recess of the rock through which General Wolf conducted his army on the night previous to his memorable victory.--This narrow defile retains the name of Wolfe’s Cove.

The first sight of Quebec that is obtained in descending the river, is imposing; the shipping viewed in the direction of the line that it forms along the wharfs, has something like the appearance of a thick forest of deadened pine-trees, and the dark-coloured rock, which rises almost from the water’s edge, towers high in air. An angle of the fort that stands on the edge of the precipice, and a stone tower and a signal-post that occupy a still higher summit in the rear, are the most prominent objects. On advancing farther, it is discovered that the low ground below widens to the westward, and is occupied by a part of the lower town, and a considerable extent of the circumvallation that occupies the top of the cleft, and incloses the castle of St. Louis, and some other high buildings. The situation and aspect of the castle of St. Louis, (the residence of the governor,) reminds me of the barracks on the west side of the castle of Edinburgh. Indeed the whole of the northern front of Quebec has a general resemblance to the ancient Scottish fortress.

Quebec stands on a point of land formed by the junction of the rivers St. Lawrence, and is divided by the cliffs into two parts, the Lower and the Upper town. The Lower town, adjoining to the wharfs, is narrow and dirty, and the wharfs are {304} disconnected from one another by the intervention of houses. The Upper town is inclosed within the fort, and is much better built and more clean than the lower division of the city. The whole of the works occupy ground of the most commanding description, and are well furnished with the apparatus necessary for defence.

On the Heights of Abraham, the place is shown where Wolfe fell, and, till lately, the granite block remained on which the hero expired. There are some fragments still to be found, lying at a small wooden house adjoining, which will probably be soon broken into smaller pieces and carried off by strangers.

To the west of Quebec is Lorete, an Indian town, which is built of stone; and the neighbouring fields seem to be well cultivated. At Point Levi, on the opposite bank of the St. Lawrence, a tribe of Indians encamp occasionally for the purpose of trading. It is curious that the aborigines remain so long amongst the thickest settlements in Lower Canada, while in other parts of the continent they disappear before a very thin population of whites. This must have been occasioned by the French, who have at all times ingratiated themselves with the natives, and even intermarried with them, and by the Indians becoming proselytes to the Roman Catholic religion.

The Canadian French are universally acknowledged to be true Roman Catholics, strict in their observance of holidays, submissive to the exactions of their priesthood, and the loyal subjects of Britain. They seem to retain the depressed characters of a conquered people. Their bow is low, and apparently obsequious, and they are usually ready to make out of the way of any one who walks rapidly along the streets. Many of {305} them are dirty and coarsely clothed, and instead of buttoning their coats, they tie them with a sort of sash that is wrapped round their middle. At meals each produces his pocket knife, the same, perhaps, with which he cuts his tobacco, and spits on the blade, and then rubs it on his clothes previous to eating. They are slovenly agriculturists, and use the most wretched implements, and yoke their oxen by the horns. A gentleman told me that he lately asked one of them, why they did not yoke these animals by the shoulders as other people do? The other replied--because the strength of the head would be lost. It is not uncommon to see the Canadian coming into market with only one or two bushels of wheat. Here, as at Montreal, the cruel practice of causing dogs to draw carts, prevails. On seeing a young man riding in one of these little vehicles, and whipping the docile creature till it lay down and turned up its feet, I was much shocked at the conduct of the wretch; and, though you may not altogether approve of the principle, I felt considerable satisfaction from the circumstance, that the profane imprecations which he with great fluency uttered, were not pronounced in the English language.

Timber is the principal article exported here. The period for which Canadian timber is exempted from paying duty in Britain, is about to expire, and a fear is entertained that a tax may be imposed by parliament at their next session. The subject excites much interest at present, and in the event of a timber tax being enacted, it may operate as a test for Canadian loyalty.

The government of the Canadas consists of a governor, a legislative council, and a house of assembly in each province. This organization is vested with the power of making such laws as are not {306} contrary to the acts of the British Parliament. The legislative council is summoned by the governor, under the authority of the king, and its members are appointed for life. The assembly is elected by freeholders, whose qualification is possessing landed property to the yearly value of forty shillings or upwards; or possessing a dwelling house and lot of ground in towns to the yearly value of five pounds, or paying for one year, at least a rent of ten pounds. These assemblies continue for four years at most, but can be dissolved before the termination of the full period. Quebec is the seat of justice for the lower district of the lower province. The court consists of a chief justice and three puisne judges, and public business is conducted by a solicitor-general and an attorney-general. The criminal laws are the same as those of England, but in civil cases the old _coutume de Paris_ is retained. The existence of French laws in the lower province is said to be repulsive to people from Britain, and is probably one of the causes that determines many of them on settling in Upper Canada.

The climate of Canada varies between extremes of heat and cold. A temperature of 96° of Fahrenheit’s scale has been observed at this place in summer, and it is believed that mercury has been frozen by the cold in winter. I am not able to judge of the inconvenience which attends wintering here, but the inhabitants look forward to that season as the gayest of the year. Most of the labours without doors at this season are suspended, and the people sally forth in their sledges on excursions of pleasure, or in visiting their friends. The deep and long continued snows in this country protect the crops of wheat from being injured by the frosts, and enable the Canadians to drag the {307} largest trees to the rivers, a work that would otherwise be difficult in the woods, where there are no good roads. Just now the ground is covered with snow, and the cold, which increases daily, shows that winter is about to commence in earnest. At least three-fourths of the ships that were here a week ago have sailed down the river, and the seamen who remain in port are all in a bustle, preparing for going to sea. Probably by a few days hence there will not be a ship left.

FOOTNOTES:

[159] For notes on the following persons and places mentioned in this chapter, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series: Presque Isle, note 62. J. Long’s _Travels_, volume ii of our series: Fort Niagara, note 19; Ogdensburg, note 15; Cedars, note 27; La Chine, note 34; Caughnawaga, note 9; Trois Rivieres, note 8; Lorette, note 92.--ED.

[160] Flint’s route from Ohio to Quebec was by way of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Kingston, and Montreal.--ED.

[161] This first steam-boat on Lake Erie was launched at Black Rock (now Buffalo), May 28, 1818. It was named from a Wyandot chieftain, and in 1821 was lost in a storm.--ED.

[162] The Erie Canal was begun at Rome, New York, July 4, 1817, being completed in eight years.--ED.

[163] Morse has stated the _average_ depth at this place (the ferry) to be twenty-five feet. According to him, its average rapidity from thence to Chipeway is six miles an hour, and that at the ferry it is much greater.--FLINT.

_Comment by Ed._ Jedidiah Morse, _American Gazetteer_ (Boston, 1797).

[164] The height of the division of the falls that lies between the island and the south-east shore has been formerly estimated at 160 feet. I have been told that a measurement made last summer has determined it to be 162 feet.--FLINT.

[165] Lake Ontario averages six hundred feet in depth.--ED.

[166] For an account of General Isaac Brock, see Buttrick’s _Voyages_, volume viii of our series, note 6.--ED.

[167] Durham boats were heavy freight craft built along the lines of an Indian canoe. Their designer (about 1750) was Robert Durham, manager and engineer of the Durham furnace, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The ordinary Durham boat was sixty feet long, eight feet wide, and two feet deep. When laden with fifteen tons, it drew twenty inches of water.--ED.

[168] Flint seems here to have obtained his facts from a typical guide-book. Fort William Henry, the scene of the massacre, stood at the head of Lake George; Montcalm captured it in 1757, and spread terror to Albany, and even as far as New York. Many of the prisoners of war were massacred by Indians, over whom the French claimed to have had little or no control.--ED.

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_The_ Philippine Islands

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Explorations by early Navigators, descriptions of the Islands and their Peoples, their History, and records of the Catholic Missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial, and religious conditions of those Islands from their earliest relations with European Nations to the end of the nineteenth century.

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