Volume 2 — 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 2of 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.

CANADIAN HORSES.

3The 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 4any 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 5tempers of the drivers, and their passion is constantly vented in lashes on their horses.

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 6kissed 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, 7busied 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.

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 8at 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.

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 9hundred 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.

10On the second day of our journey from Quebec to Montreal we reached Trois Rivieres, lying nearly midway between the two places. This town is situated on the banks of the St. Lawrence, close to the mouth of the River St. Maurice, the largest of upwards of thirty that fall into the St. Lawrence, on the north-west side alone, between Quebec and Montreal. This river, before it unites with the St. Lawrence, is divided into three streams by two large islands, so that to a person sailing past its mouth it appears as if three distinct rivers disembogued at the one spot; from hence it is that the town of Trois Rivieres receives its name.

The St. Maurice is not navigable for large vessels, neither is it for sloops more than a few miles above its mouth. In bateaus and canoes, however, it may be ascended nearly to its source; from whence, if credit is to be given to the accounts of the Indians, the distance is not very great to the head of navigable rivers that fall into Hudson’s Bay; at a future day, therefore, if ever the dreary and inhospitable waste through which it passes shall put on a different aspect from what it now wears, and become the abode of human beings instead of wild beasts, the St. Maurice may be esteemed a river of the first importance in a commercial point of view; at present there are a few 11scattered settlements on each side of it, from its mouth as far as the iron works, which are about nine miles distant from Trois Rivieres; beyond that the country is but little known except to Indians.

TROIS RIVIERES.

Trois Rivieres contains about two hundred and fifty or three hundred houses, and ranks as the third town, in point of size, in the provinces. It is one of the oldest settlements in the country, and its founder, it is said, calculated upon its becoming in a short time a city of great extent. It has hitherto, however, increased but very slowly in size, and there is no reason to imagine that it will increase more rapidly in future, at least until the country bordering upon the St. Maurice becomes settled, a period that may be very distant. The bank of iron ore in the neighbourhood, by the manufacture of which it was expected that the town would suddenly become opulent, is now nearly exhausted; nor do we find that this bank has ever furnished more ore than was sufficient to keep one small forge and one small foundry employed at intervals. The fur trade also, from which so much benefit was expected, is now almost wholly centered at Quebec and Montreal; it is merely the small quantity of furs brought down the St. Maurice, and some of the northern rivers that fall into the St. Lawrence, nearer to the town 12of Trois Rivieres than to Quebec or Montreal, that is shipped there. These furs are laden on board the Montreal ships, which stop opposite to the town as they go down the river.

The country in the vicinity of Trois Rivieres has been represented by some French travellers as wonderfully fertile, and as one of the most agreeable parts of Canada; but it is totally the reverse. It is a level barren tract, and so sandy, that in walking along many of the streets of the town, and the roads in the neighbourhood, you sink into the sand at every step above the ankles. The sand is of a whitish colour, and very loose. The air also swarms with musquitoes, a certain proof of the low damp situation of the place. In none of the other inhabited parts of Canada, except in the neighbourhood of Lake St. Charles, were we ever annoyed with these troublesome insects. In Quebec, indeed, and Montreal, they are scarcely ever seen.

The streets in Trois Rivieres are narrow, and the houses in general small and indifferent; many of them are built of wood. There are two churches in the town, the one an English episcopalian, the other a large Roman catholic parish church, formerly served by the Recollets, or Franciscan friars, but the order is now extinct in Trois Rivieres. The old monastery of the order, a large stone building, 13at present lies quite deserted; and many of the houses in the neighbourhood being also uninhabited, that part of the town wherein it is situated has a very dull gloomy aspect. The college or monastery of the Jesuits, also a large old building of stone in the same neighbourhood, has been converted into a gaol.

ST. URSULE.

The only religious order at present existing in the town is that of St. Ursule, the sisterhood of which is as numerous as the convent will well permit. It was founded by M. de St. Vallier, bishop of Quebec, in the year 1677. It is a spacious building, situated near that formerly belonging to the Recollets; and annexed to it, under the same roof, there is an hospital attended by the nuns. We were introduced to the chaplain of the order, a poor French emigrant curé, an interesting and apparently a most amiable man, and under his guidance we received permission to visit the convent.

The first part we entered was the chapel, the doors of which open to the street under a porch. It is very lofty, but the area of it is small. The altar, which is grand, and richly ornamented, stands nearly opposite to the entrance, and on each side of it is a lattice, the one communicating with an apartment allotted for sick nuns, the other with the cœur of the chapel. On ringing a small bell, a 14curtain at the inside of this last lattice was withdrawn, and an apartment discovered, somewhat larger than the chapel, surrounded with pews, and furnished with an altar, at the foot of which sat two of the sisterhood, with books in their hands, at their meditations. The fair Ursuline, who came to the lattice, seemed to be one of those unfortunate females that had at last begun to feel all the horrors of confinement, and to lament the rashness of that vow which had secluded her for ever from the world, and from the participation of those innocent pleasures, which, for the best and wisest of purposes, the beneficent Ruler of the universe meant that his creatures should enjoy. As she withdrew the curtain, she cast a momentary glance through the grating, that imparted more than could be expressed by the most eloquent words; then retiring in silence, seated herself on a bench in a distant part of the cœur. The melancholy and sorrow pourtrayed in the features of her lovely countenance interested the heart in her behalf, and it was impossible to behold her without partaking of that dejection which hung over her soul, and without deprecating at the same time the cruelty of the custom which allows, and the mistaken zeal of a religion that encourages, an artless and inexperienced young creature to renounce a world, of 15which she was destined, perhaps, to be a happy and useful member, for an unprofitable life of solitude, and unremitted penance for sins never committed!

URSULINES.

The hospital, which lies contiguous to the chapel, consists of two large apartments, wherein are about twelve or fourteen beds. The apartments are airy, and the beds neat and well appointed. Each bed is dedicated to a particular saint, and over the foot of it is an invocation to the tutelary saint, in large characters, as, “St. Jaques priez pour moi.” “St. Jean priez pour moi,” &c. The patients are attended by a certain number of the sisterhood appointed for that purpose. An old priest, who appeared to be near his death, was the only person in the hospital when we passed through it; he was seated in an easy chair by the bed-side, and surrounded by a number of the sisters, who paid him the most assiduous attention.

The dress of the Ursulines consists of a black stuff gown; a handkerchief of white linen tied by a running string close round the throat, and hanging down over the breast and shoulders, being rounded at the corners; a head-piece of white linen, which covers half the forehead, the temples, and ears, and is fastened to the handkerchief; a black gauze veil, which conceals half the face only when 16down, and flows loosely over the shoulders; and a large plain silver cross suspended from the breast. The dress is very unbecoming, the hair being totally concealed, and the shape of the face completely disguised by the close white head-piece.

From the hospital we were conduced through a long passage to an agreeable light parlour, the windows of which opened into the gardens of the convent. This was the apartment of the “Superieure,” who soon made her appearance, accompanied by a number of the lay sisters. The conversation of the old lady and her protegées was lively and agreeable; a thousand questions were asked us respecting the former part of our tour, and our future destination; and they seemed by no means displeased at having a few strangers of a different sex from their own within the walls of the convent. Many apologies were made, because they could not take us through the “interieure,” as there was an ordinance against admitting any visiters into it without leave from the bishop; they regretted exceedingly that we had not obtained this leave before we left Quebec. After some time was spent in conversation, a great variety of fancy works, the fabrication of the sisterhood, was brought down for our inspection, some of which it is always expected that strangers 17will purchase, for the order is but poor. We selected a few of the articles which appeared most curious, and having received them packed up in the neatest manner in little boxes kept for the purpose, and promised to preserve them in memory of the fair Ursulines, that handed them to us, we bade adieu to the superieure, and returned to our lodgings.

BARK CANOES.

It is for their very curious bark work that the sisters of this convent are particularly distinguished. The bark of the birch tree is what they use, and with it they make pocket-books, work-baskets, dressing-boxes, &c. &c. which they embroider with elk hair died of the most brilliant colours. They also make models of the Indian canoes, and various warlike implements used by the Indians.

Nearly all the birch bark canoes in use on the St. Lawrence and Utawa Rivers, and on the nearer lakes, are manufactured at Three Rivers, and in the neighbourhood, by Indians. The birch tree is found in great plenty near the town; but it is from the more northern part of the country, where the tree attains a very large size, that the principal part of the bark is procured that canoes are made with. The bark resembles in some degree that of the cork tree, but it is of a closer grain, and also much more pliable, for it admits of being rolled up the same as a piece of cloth. The 18Indians of this part of the country always carry large rolls of it in their canoes when they go on a hunting party, for the purpose of making temporary huts. The bark is spread on small poles over their heads, and fastened with strips of elm bark, which is remarkably tough, to stakes, so as to form walls on the sides.

The canoes are made with birch bark, as follows: The ribs, consisting of thick tough rods, are first bound together; then the birch bark is sowed on in as large pieces as possible, and a thick coat of pitch is laid over the seams between the different pieces. To prevent the bark being injured by the cargo, and to make the canoe stronger, its inside is lined with two layers of thin pieces of pine, laid in a contrary direction to each other. A canoe made in this manner is so light that two men could easily carry one on their shoulders capable of containing six people.

The birch canoes made at Three Rivers are put together with the utmost neatness, and on the water they appear very beautiful. They are made from a size sufficient to hold one man only, to a size large enough for upwards of twenty. It is wonderful to see with what velocity a few skilful men with paddles can take on of these canoes of a size suitable to their number. In a few minutes they would leave the best moulded keel boat, conducted 19by a similar number of men with oars, far behind. None but experienced persons ought ever to attempt to navigate birch canoes, for they are so light that they are apt to be overset by the least improper movement of the persons in them.

VILLAGES.

The day after that on which we quitted Trois Rivieres, we reached Montreal once more. The villages between the two places are very numerous, and the face of the country around them is pleasing, so that the eye of the traveller is constantly entertained as he passes on; but there is nothing in this part of the country particularly deserving of mention.