ff IT

THE EMIGRANT.

1846.

THE EMIGRANT.

BY

SIR)FRANCIS b!' HEAD, Baet.

« SEND HER VICTORIOUS, HAPPY AND GLORIOUS, LONG TO REIGN OVER US, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN V

Old Song.

LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1846.

London : Printed by W. Clowes & SoN3, Stamfotd Street.

PREFACE,

As the Common Crow is made up of a small lump of carrion and two or three handfuls of feathers, so is this Volume composed of Poli- tical History, buoyed up by a few light sketches, solely written to make a dull subject fly.

If this strange mixture of grave matter with gay referred only to the happiness of those who have emigrated, or who may hereafter emigrate, to our Colonies, it would, I am sen- sible, be beneath the notice of the general reader ; but, I regret to say, it discloses facts which not only threaten the safety of our Institutions, but in which the Honour of the British Crown is deeply involved : and having made this declaration, the truth of which no person who shall patiently read my sketches will, I believe, be disposed to deny, I now commit my evidence to the public to speak for itself.

CONTENTS.

Chapter Page

I. A NEW SKY 1

II. THE BACK-WOODS 32

III. SERGEANT NEILL . . . . . 53

IV. THE GRENADIERS' POND . . . . 62 V. THE EMIGRANT'S LARK . 69

VI. THE LONG TROT . . . . .78

VII. THE BARK CANOE . . . . . .121

VIII. THE FLARE-UP K ... . . .154

IX. THE BRITISH FLAG 187

X. THE FALLS OF NIAGARA .... 205

XI. THE APOLOGY 238

XII. THE HUNTED HARE 261

XIII. HOME ... . . . . .288

XIV. POLITICAL POISON . . . . 324 XV. THE EXPLOSION 366

XVI. MORAL .400

APPENDIX . . . . o .429

THE EMIGRANT.

Chapter I.

A NEW SKY.

However deeply prejudiced an Englishman may be in favour of his own country, yet I think it is impossible for him to cross the At- lantic without admitting that in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the new world Nature has not only outlined her works on a larger scale, but has painted the whole picture with brighter and more costly colours than she used in delineating and in beautifying the old world.

The heavens of America appear infinitely higher — the sky is bluer — the clouds are whiter — the air is fresher — the cold is intenser — the moon looks larger — the stars are brighter — the thunder is louder — the lightning is vivider — the wind is stronger — the rain is heavier — the

B

2

A NEW SKY.

Chap. L

mountains are higher — the rivers larger — the forests bigger — the plains broader ; in short, the u'i^antic and beautiful features of the new world seem to correspond very wonderfully with the increased locomotive powers and other brilliant discoveries which, under the blessing of an Almighty power, have lately been developed to mankind.

The difference of climate in winter between the old and new world amounts, it has been estimated, to about thirteen degrees of latitude. Accordingly, the region of North America which basks under the same sun or latitude as Florence, is visited in winter with a cold equal to those of St. Petersburgh or of Moscow ; and thus, while the inhabitant of the Mediterranean is wearing cotton or other light clothing, the inhabitant of the very same latitude in the new world is to be found either huddled close to a stove hot enough to burn his eyes out, or muffled up in furs, with all sorts of contri- vances to preserve the very nose on his face, and the ears on his head, from being frozen.

This extra allowance of cold is the effect of various causes, one of which I will endeavour shortly to describe.

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

3

It is well known that so far as temperature is concerned, cold is increased by altitude as it is by latitude ; accordingly, that by ascending a steep mountain — the Himalayas, for instance — one may obtain, with scarcely any alteration of latitude, and in a few hours, the same change of temperature which would require a long journey over the surface of the earth to reach ; and thus it appears that in the hottest regions of the globe there exists impending stratifica- tions of cold proportionate in intensity to their respective altitudes.

Now, as soon as moisture or vapour enters these regions, in southern countries it is con- densed into rain, and in the winter of northern ones it is frozen into snow, which, from its specific gravity, continues its feathery descent until it is deposited upon the surface of the ground, an emblem of the cold region from which it has proceeded.

But from the mere showing of the case, it is evident that this snow is as much a stranger in the land on which it is reposing, as a Lap- lander is who lands at Lisbon, or as in England a pauper is who enters a parish in which he is not entitled to settlement; and, therefore,

b 2

4

A NEW SKY.

Chap. L

just as the parish officers, under the authority of the law, vigorously proceed to eject the pauper, so does Nature proceed to eject the cold that has taken temporary possession of land to which it does not owe its birth ; and the process of ejectment is as follows.

The superincumbent atmosphere, warmed by the sun, melts the surface of the snow ; and as soon as the former has taken to itself a por- tion of the cold, the wind bringing with it a new atmosphere, repeats the operation ; and thus on, until the mass of snow is either effec- tually ejected, or materially diminished.

But while the combined action of sun and wind are producing this simple effect in the old world, there exists in the northern regions of the new world a physical obstruction to the operation. I allude to the interminable forest, through the boughs and branches of which the descending snow falls, until reaching the ground it remains hidden from the sun and protected from the wind ; and thus every day's snow adds to the accumulation, until the whole region is converted into an almost boundless ice-house, from which there slowly but con- tinuously arises, like a mist from the ground, a

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

5

stratum of cold air, which the north-west pre- vailing wind wafts over the south, and which freezes every thing in its way.

The effect of air passing over ice is curiously exemplified on. the Atlantic, where, at certain periods of the year, all of a sudden, and often during the night, there suddenly comes over every passenger a cold mysterious chill, like the hand of death itself, caused by the vicinity of a floating iceberg.

In South America, I remember a trifling instance of the same effect. I was walking in the main street of San Jago in the middle of the summer, and, like every human or living being in the city, was exhausted by extreme heat, when I suddenly felt as if some one was breath- ing upon my face with frozen lungs. I stopped, and turning round, perceived at a little dis- tance, a line of mules laden with snow, which they had just brought down from the Andes. And if this insignificant cargo — if the presence of a solitary little iceberg in the ocean can produce the sensation I have described, it surely need hardly be observed how great must be the freezing effects on the continent of North America, of the north-west wind blowing over

6

A NEW SKY.

Chap. L

an uncovered icehouse, composed of masses of accumulated snow several feet in thickness, and many hundreds of miles both in length and breadth.

Now, it is curious to reflect that while every backwoodsman in America is occupying him- self, as he thinks, solely for his own interest, in clearing his location, every tree — which, falling under his axe, admits a patch of sunshine to the earth — in an infinitesimal degree softens and ameliorates the climate of the vast con- tinent around him ; and yet, as the portion of cleared land in North America, compared with that which remains uncleared, has been said scarcely to exceed that which the seams of a coat bear to the whole garment, it is evident, that although the assiduity of the Anglo-Saxon race has no doubt affected the climate of North America, the axe is too weak an instrument to produce any important change.

But one of the most wonderful character- istics of Nature is the manner in which she often, unobservedly, produces great effects from causes so minute as to be almost invisible, and accordingly while the human race — so far as an alteration of climate is concerned — are

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

7

labouring almost in vain in the regions in question, swarms of little flies, strange as it may sound, are, and for many years have been, most materially altering the climate of the great continent of North America !

The manner in which they unconsciously perform this important duty is as follows :—

They sting, bite, and torment the wild animals to such a degree, that, especially in summer, the poor creatures, like those in Abys- sinia, described by Bruce, become almost in a state of distraction, and to get rid of their assailants, wherever the forest happened to be on fire, they rushed to the smoke, instinctively knowing quite well that the flies would be unable to follow them there.

The wily Indian observing these movements, shrewdly perceived that by setting fire to the forest the flies would drive to him his game, instead of his being obliged to trail in search of it ; and the experiment having proved emi- nently successful, the Indians for many years have been, and still are, in the habit of burning tracts of wood so immense, that from very high and scientific authority I have been in- formed, that the amount of land thus burned

8

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

under the influence of the flies has exceeded many millions of acres, and that it has been, and still is, materially changing the climate of North America !

But besides the effect it is producing on the thermometer, it is simultaneously working out another great operation of Nature.

Although the game, to avoid the stings of their tiny assailants, come from distant regions to the smoke, and therein fall from the arrows and rifles of their human foes, yet this burning of the forest destroys the rabbits and small game, as well as the young of the larger game, and, therefore, just as brandy and whisky for a short time raise the spirits of the drunkard, but eventually leave him pale, melancholy, and dejected, so does this vicious improvident mode of poaching game for a short time fatten, but eventually afflict with famine all those who have engaged in it ; and thus, for instance, the Beaver Indians, who forty years ago were a powerful and numerous tribe, are now reduced to less than one hundred men, who can scarcely find wild animals enough to keep themselves alive, — in short, the red population is diminish- ing in the same ratio as the destruction of the

Chap, h

A NEW SKY.

9

moose and wood buffalo, on which their fore- fathers had subsisted : and as every traveller, as well as trader, in those various regions con- firms these statements, how wonderful is the dispensation of the Almighty, under which, by the simple agency of little flies, not only is the American Continent gradually undergoing a process which, with other causes, will assi- milate its climate to that of Europe, but that the Indians themselves are clearing * and pre- paring their own country for the reception of another race, who will hereafter gaze at the remains of the elk, the bear, and the beaver, with the same feelings of astonishment with which similar vestiges are discovered in Europe — the monuments of a state of existence that has passed away !

In the meanwhile, however, the climate of North America forms the most remarkable feature in its physical character.

In Europe, Asia, and Africa, just as the old proverb says, " Tell me his company and I '11 tell you the man so, if the latitude be given, the climate may with considerable accuracy be described ; in fact, the distinction between hot climates and cold ones is little else but the dif-

b3

10

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

ference between the distances of each from the equator or from the pole.

But in the continent of North America, the climate, comparatively speaking, regardless of latitude, is both hot and cold; and thus, for instance, in Canada, while the summer is as roasting a$ the Mediterranean, and occasionally as broiling as the West Indies, the winter is that of the capitals of Norway and Sweden ; indeed, the cold of the Canada winter must be felt to be imagined, and when felt can no more be described by words than colours to a blind man or music to a deaf one.

Even under bright sunshine, and in a most exhilarating air, the biting effect of the cold upon the portion of the face that is exposed to it resembles the application of a strong acid ; and the healthy grin which the countenance assumes, requires — as I often observed on those who for many minutes had been in a warm room waiting to see me — a considerable time to relax.

In a calm almost any degree of cold is bear- able, but the application of successive doses of it to the face, by wind, becomes occasionally almost unbearable ; indeed I remember seeing

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

11

the left cheek of nearly twenty of our soldiers simultaneously frost-bitten in marching about a hundred yards, across a bleak open space, completely exposed to a strong and bitterly cold north-west wind that was blowing upon us all.

The remedy for this intense cold to which many Canadians and others have occasionally recourse, is — at least to my feelings it always appeared — infinitely worse than the disease. On entering, for instance, the small parlour of a little inn, a number of strong able-bodied fellows are discovered holding their hands a few inches before their faces, and sitting in silence immediately in front of a stove of such excruciating power, that it really feels as if it would roast the very eyes in their sockets, and yet, as one endures this agony, the back part is as cold as if it belonged to what is called at home " Old Father Christmas !"

Of late years, English fire-places have been introduced into many houses ; and though mine at Toronto was warmed with hot air from a large oven, with fires in all our sitting-rooms, nevertheless the wood for my grate which was piled close to the fire, often remained till night

12

A NEW SKY.

Chai\ L

covered with the snow which was on it when first deposited there in the morning ; and as a further instance of the climate, I may add that several times while my mind was very warmly occupied in writing my despatches, I found my pen full of a lump of stuff that appeared to be honey, but which proved to be frozen ink ; again, after washing in the morning, when I took up some money that had lain all night on my table, I at first fancied it had become sticky until I discovered that the sensation was caused by its freezing to my fingers, which in conse- quence of my ablutions were not perfectly dry.

Notwithstanding however this intensity of cold, the powerful circulation of the blood of large quadrupeds keeps the red fluid, like the movement of the waters in the great lakes, from freezing ; but the human frame not being gifted with this power, many people lose their limbs, and occasionally their lives from cold.

I one day inquired of a fine ruddy honest- looking man who called upon me, and whose toes and insteps of each foot had been trun- cated, how the accident happened? He told me that the first winter he came from England he lost his way in the forest, and that after

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

13

walking for some hours, feeling pain in his feet, he took off his boots, and from the flesh immediately swelling, he was unable to put them on again.

His stockings, which were very old ones, soon wore into holes, and as rising on his in- steps he was hurriedly proceeding he knew not where, he saw with alarm, but without feeling the slightest pain, first one toe and then ano- ther break off as if they had been pieces of brittle stick, and in this mutilated state he con- tinued to advance till he reached a path which led him to an inhabited log-house, where he remained suffering great pain till his cure was effected.

On another occasion, while an Englishman was driving one bright beautiful day in a sleigh on the ice, his horse suddenly ran away, and fancying he could stop him better without his cumbersome fur gloves than with them, he unfortunately took them off. As the infuri- ated animal at his utmost speed proceeded, the man, who was facing a keen north-west wind, felt himself gradually as it were turning into marble, and by the time he stopped both his hands were so completely and so irrecoverably

14

A NEW SKY.

Chap. L

frozen, that he was obliged to have them am- putated.

Although the sun, from the latitude, has considerable power, it appears only to illumi- nate the sparkling snow, which, like the sugar on a bridal cake, conceals the whole surface. The instant however the fire of heaven sinks below the horizon, the cold descends from the upper regions of the atmosphere with a feeling as if it were poured down upon the head and shoulders from a jug.

From the above sketch it must be evident that the four seasons of the year in Canada exhibit pictures strikingly contrasted with each other.

In the summer, the excessive heat — the vio- lent paroxysms of thunder — the parching drought — the occasional deluges of rain — the sight of bright red, bright blue, and other gaudy plumaged birds — of the brilliant hum- ming-bird, and of innumerable fire-flies that at night appear like the reflection upon earth of the stars shining above them in the heavens, would almost persuade the emigrant that he was living within the tropics.

As autumn approaches, the various trees of

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

15

the forest assume hues of every shade of red, yellow, and brown, of the most vivid descrip- tion. The air gradually becomes a healthy and delightful mixture of sunshine and frost, and the golden sunsets are so many glorious assemblages of clouds — some like mountains of white wool, others of the darkest hues — and of broad rays of yellow, of crimson, and of golden light, which without intermixing radiate up- wards to a great height from the point of the horizon at which the deep red luminary is about to disappear.

As the winter approaches the cold daily strengthens, and before the branches of the trees and the surface of the country become white, every living being seems to be sensible of the temperature that is about to arrive.

The gaudy birds, humming-birds, and fire- flies, depart first; then follow the pigeons; the wild-fowl take refuge in the lakes, until scarcely a bird remains to be seen in the forest. Several of the animals seek refuge in warmer regions; and even the shaggy bear, whose coat seems warm enough to resist any degree of cold, instinctively looks out in time for a hollow tree into which he may leisurely climb,

16

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

to hang in it during the winter as inanimate as a flitch of bacon from the ceiling of an English farm-house ; and even many of the fishes make their deep-water arrangements for not coming to the surface of the rivers and harbours during the period they are covered with ice.

Notwithstanding the cheerful brightness of the winter's sun, I always felt that there was something indescribably awful and appalling in all these bestial, bijrdal, and piscal precau- tions ; and yet it is with pride that one ob- serves that while the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, one after another, are seen retreating before the approaching winter like women and children before an advancing army, the Anglo-Saxon race stand firm ! and indeed they are quite right to do so, inasmuch as the winter, when it does arrive, turns out to be a season of hilarity and of healthy enjoyment.

Not only is the whole surface of the ground, including roads and paths of every description, beautifully macadamised with a covering of snow, over which every man's horse, with tink- ling bells, can draw him and his family in a sleigh ; but every harbour becomes a national

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

17

play-ground to ride on, and every river an arterial road to travel on.

In all directions running water gradually congeals. The mill-wheel becomes covered with a frozen torrent, in which it remains as in a glass case ; and I have even seen small water- falls begin to freeze on both sides, until the cataract, arrested in its fall by the power of heaven, is converted for the season into a solid mirror.

Although the temperature of the water in the great lakes is infinitely below freezing, yet the restless rise and fall of the waves prevents their congelation. As a trifling instance, how- ever, of their disposition to do so, I may men- tion that during the two winters I was at Toronto, I made a rule from which I never de- parted, to walk every morning to the end of a long wooden pier that ran out into the un- frozen waters of the lake. In windy weather, and during extreme cold, the water, in dashing against this work, rose in the air ; but before it could reach me it often froze, and thus, without wetting my cloak, the drops of ice used to fall harmless at my feet.

But although the great lake, for want of a

18

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

moment's tranquillity, cannot congeal, yet for hundreds of miles along its shores the waves, as they break on the ground, instantly freeze, and this operation continuing by night as well as by day, the quiet shingled beach is con- verted throughout its whole length into high, sharp, jagged rocks of ice, over which it is occasionally difficult to climb.

I was one day riding with a snaffle-bridle on the glare ice of the great bay of Toronto, on a horse I had just purchased, without having been made aware of his vice, which I after- wards learned had been the .cause of a serious accident to his late master, when he suddenly, unasked, explained it to me by running away. On one side of me was the open water of the lake, into which, if I had ridden, I should almost instantly have been covered with a coating of ice as white as that on a candle that has just received its first dip; while on every other side I was surrounded by these jagged rocks of ice, the narrow passes through which I was going much too fast to be able to investi- gate.

My only course, therefore, was to force my horse round and round within the circum-

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

19

ference of the little troubles that environed me, and this I managed to do, every time dimi- nishing the circle, until before I was what Sidney Smith termed " squirrel-minded," the animal became sufficiently tired to stop.

The scene on these frozen harbours and bays in winter is very interesting. Sleighs in which at least one young representative of the softer sex is generally seated are to be seen and heard driving and tinkling across in various direc- tions, or occasionally standing still to witness a trotting-match or some other amusement on the ice.

In the midst of this scene here and there are a few dark spots on the surface which it is difficult to analyze even when approached, until from beneath the confused mass there gradually arises, with a mild " Why-disturb- rne?" expression of countenance, the red face and shaggy head of an Indian, who for hours has been lying on his stomach to spear fish through a small hole which, for that purpose, he has cut through the ice.

In other parts are to be seen groups of men occupied in sawing out for sale large cubical blocks of ice of a beautiful bluish appearance,

20

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

piled upon each other like dressed Bath-stones for building.

The water of which this ice is composed is as clear as crystal, resembling that which, under the appellation of Wenham ice, has lately been imported to England as well as to India, and which has become a new luxury of general use.

I have often been amused at observing how imperfectly the theory of ice is, practically speaking, understood in England.

People talk of its being " as hot as fire/' and "as cold as ice," just as if the temperature of each were a fixed quantity, whereas there are as many temperatures of fire, and as many temperatures of ice, as there are climates on the face of the globe.

The heat of " boiling water" is a fixed quantity, and any attempt to make water hot- ter than " boiling" only creates steam, which flies off from the top exactly as fast as, and exactly in the proportion to, the amount of heat, be it great or small, that is applied at the bottom.

Now for want of half a moment's reflection, people in England are very prone to believe

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

21

that water cannot be made colder than ice ; and accordingly if a good-humoured man succeeds in filling his ice-house, he feels satisfied that his ice is as good as any other man's ice ; in short, that ice is ice, and that there is no use in any body attempting to deny it. But the truth is, that the temperature of thirty-two de- grees of Fahrenheit, that at which water freezes, is only the commencement of an operation that is almost infinite; for after its congelation water is as competent to continue to receive cold as it was when it was fluid. The applica- tion of cold to a block of ice does not therefore, as in the case of heat applied beneath boiling water, cause what is added at one end to fly out at the other, but on the contrary, the extra cold is added to and retained by the mass, and thus the temperature of the ice falls with the temperature of the air, until in Lower Canada it occasionally sinks to forty degrees below zero, or to seventy-two degrees below the tem- perature of ice just congealed.

It is evident, therefore, that if two ice-houses were to be filled, the one with the former, say Canada ice, and the other with the latter, say English ice, the difference between the quantity of cold stored up in each would be as appre-

22

A NEW SKY.

Cbap, I.

ciable as the difference between a cellar full of gold and a cellar full of copper ; in short, the intrinsic value of ice, like that of metals, depends on the investigation of an assayer — that is to say, a cubic foot of Lower Canada ice is infinitely more valuable, or, in other words, it contains infinitely more cold than a cubic foot of Upper Canada ice, which again contains more cold than a cubic foot of Wenham ice, which contains infinitely more cold than a cubic foot of English ice ; and thus, although each of these four cubic feet of ice has pre- cisely the same shape, they each, as summer approaches, diminish in value, that is to say, they each gradually lose a portion of their cold, until, long before the Lower Canada ice has melted, the English ice has been converted into luke-warm water.

The above theory is so clearly understood in North America, that the inhabitants of Boston, who annually store for exportation immense quantities of Wenham ice, and who know quite well that cold ice will meet the markets in India, while the warmer article melts on the passage, talk of their "crops of ice" just as an English farmer talks of his crop of wheat.

The various forms of sleighs which are used

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

23

in Canada, it would be impossible to describe ; some are handsomely painted bright scarlet, highly varnished, richly carved, and orna- mented with valuable black bear-skin " robes," as they are termed ; others are composed of an old English packing-case placed on runners. However, whatever may be their construction, their proprietors, rich or poor, appear alike happy.

One healthy clear morning, accompanied by a friend, I was enjoying my early walk along the cliff which overhangs the bay of Toronto, when I saw a runaway horse and sleigh ap- proaching me at full gallop, and it was not until both were within a few yards of the pre- cipice, that the animal, suddenly seeing his danger, threw himself on his haunches, and then, turning from the death that had stared him in the face, stood as if riveted to the ground.

On going up to the sleigh, which was one of very humble fabric, I found seated in it a wild young Irishman, and, as he did not appear to be at all sensible of the danger from which he had just been providentially preserved, I said to him, — u You have had a most narrow escape, my man I "

24

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

" Och ! your honour" he replied, u it 9s na- thing at arl. It 's jist this bar as titches hi? hacks!" And, to show me what he meant, he pulled at the reins with all his strength, till -the splinter-bar touched the poor creature's thigh, when instantly this son of Erin, looking as happy as if he had just demonstrated a problem, tri- umphantly exclaimed, — " There' t is agin!" And away he went, if possible, faster than before.

I watched him till the horse galloped with him completely out of my sight; indeed, he vanished like a meteor in the sky, and where he came from, and where he went, I am igno- rant to this day.

The Canada spring commences with a bril- liant, but rather an uncomfortable admixture of warm days and of freezing cold nights. By the beginning of April the sun is as hot as it is in the south of France, the roads are slushy until sunset, when in a few minutes they congeal, and become covered with ice.

As this operation continues, as the sun strengthens, and as the day lengthens, the thick stratum of snow, which has so long covered the surface of the country, gradually melts by day and freezes by night, until the heat increasing and the cold diminishing, the

Chap. I. ANEW SKY. 25

black ground begins to appear ; and no sooner does the earth, escaping from its wearisome imprisonment, once again see daylight, than, without waiting for a general clearance, there start up in each of these little oases in the desert of snow that surrounds them a variety of small lovely flowers, which seem to have burst into existence as if to hail the arrival and orna- ment the happy path of approaching spring.

But while this joyful process is -proceeding in the vegetable world, the interminable forest is once again becoming the cheerful scene of animal life. The old bear slowly descends, tail foremost, from the lofty chamber in which he has so long been dormant. The air is filled — the light of heaven is occasionally almost intercepted from morning till night — by clouds of pigeons, which, as the harbingers of spring, are seen for many days flying over the forest, guided, I have been credibly informed, by a miraculous instinct, not only to the particular remote region in which they were reared, but to build their own nests in the very trees upon whose branches each individual bird was hatched ! but if, as is well known, they are instinctively led to the country of their birth,

c

26

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

it is not improbable that, when they reach it, they will readily search out for themselves their own " homes."

In £ very short time the whole surface of the country becomes cleared from snow, and the effect of the change is most interesting ; for instance, on my arrival in Canada I found everything around me buried in snow, and my lonely house standing apparently in a white barren desolate field, to which my eyes soon became accustomed. But as soon as the spring removed this covering, flower borders of all shapes, a green lawn, and gravel walks meandering in various directions, made their welcome appearance, until I found myself the possessor — and if it had not been for English politics I should have been the happy pos- sessor— of a beautiful English garden, the monument of the good taste of Sir Peregrine and Lady Sarah Maitland, who many years ago had planned it and had stocked it with roses and shrubs of the best description.

But " all is not gold that glitters ;" and ac- cordingly, though spring ornaments almost beyond the powers of description the surface of Canada, she is no respecter of the Queen's

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

27

highways, but on the contrary, creates dreadful havoc among roads of all descriptions. The departure of the snow is followed by a general blistering and up-wrenching of the surface of the earth, which for some weeks remains what is called "rotten/' and which, especially in the roads, is so troublesome to ride over, that at this period a well-mounted horseman can occasionally hardly travel above twenty or twenty-five miles in a day ; indeed I have sometimes come to narrow quagmires in the roads which I have stood gazing at for minutes in despair, and which it was almost imprac- ticable to cross at any price. However, the first heavy rains settle the ground, and then the rush of vegetation, being as beautiful as it is surprising, it is most interesting to ramble in solitude through the secret recesses of the forest.

The enjoyment, however, without great pre- caution, is a very dangerous one, as it is almost incredible how quickly a stranger loses his reckoning, and becomes lost in the laby- rinth that surrounds him.

In the lonely rides I was in the habit of enjoying, I took some pains to make myself intelligent upon this point, but with very little

c 2

28

A NEW SKY.

Chap. I.

success ; and though I endeavoured to carry in my head a <c carte dupays," I often suddenly felt myself completely bewildered.

On these occasions, however, without any difficulty I always extricated myself from all danger by the following process : —

I threw my hat on the ground, and then riding from it in any direction, to a distance greater than that which I knew to exist be- tween me and the road I was anxious to regain, I returned on the footmarks of my horse to my hat, and then radiating from it in any other direction, and returning, I repeated the trials, until taking the right direction, I at last recovered the road; whereas, if, without me- thod, I had wandered among the trees in search of it, I might, and most probably should, have been lost — a victim to the allurements and beauties of spring. Of course, on reach- ing the road I had to recover the hat to which my head had been so much indebted.

The storms which occasionally reign and rage about the forest are very similar to those which characterise the tropics. The sudden explosion and loud rolls of thunder are not only awful to hear, but this cannonading from

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

29

heaven generally leaves behind it proof of its having been composed of shot as well as of powder ; indeed in my rides through the forest I became intimately acquainted with several trees that had been struck by lightning.

In one there was merely a deep furrowed line from the top of the stem to the earth ; but in others the effect had been terrific- The lightning had descended down the bark of the tree till it had met a knot, or something that had turned it inwards, and which had there caused it to explode. In these cases, a huge stump, fifteen or twenty feet high, was left standing, while around it, in all directions, the remainder of the tree was to be seen lying on the ground literally shivered to atoms.

In one immense pine the electric mine had burnt in the heart of its victim within a foot of the ground. The tree in its stupendous fall snapped about fifty feet above the ground another pine tree, about forty feet distant, and resting and remaining on the top of this lofty column, the two trees formed a right angled triangle of most extraordinary appearance, standing in the forest as if to demonstrate the irresistible power of one of the greatest agents of nature.

30

A NEW SKY.

Chap. L

But awful as are the effects of the lightning of heaven, there are occasionally in Canada sudden squalls of wind, which create havoc on a much larger scale. Indeed, when a traveller inquires for a road to any particular place, he is often told to proceed in a certain direction, u until he comes to a hurricane which means, until he finds in the lone wilderness a parcel of trees torn up by the roots, and in indescribable confusion lying prostrate on the ground.

From the foregoing sketches, I think it will appear that, although the climate of England is said to be the most uncertain on the surface of the globe, that of North America is infinitely more variable, as well as exposed to greater vicissitudes.

In the latter country, not only do the ex- tremes of heat in summer, and of cold in winter, create an extensive range of temperature, which in England is tethered to very narrow limits, but in Canada the sudden alternations of tem- perature which attend every change of wind constantly cause in the course of the day, and even in a few hours, a change of climate of forty degrees of Fahrenheit.

These sudden changes, however, when effected, generally last three days : for instance,

Chap. I.

A NEW SKY.

31

a heavy rain almost invariably continues that time ; so does a paroxysm of intense cold ; so does every unusually heavy gale of wind ; and so does every occasional " sweating sickness" of extreme heat.

On the whole, I am of opinion that the cli- mate of Canada is more healthy and invigorating than that of England, but infinitely more de- structive to the skin, hair, teeth, and other items of what is termed " personal appearance." In short, those who admire pretty children, green fields, and out-of-doors exercise may justly con- tinue to sing, —

" Through pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home."

( 32 )

Chapter II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

Among the list of hackneyed expressions which for years I have been in the habit of repeating to myself, there is no one that comes oftener uppermost in my mind than the words —

M England, with all thy faults, I love thee still !"

At times, when I have seen our merchants of London lend millions after millions of money, first, to countries in South America, whose geographical position I had reason to know they could not, with any one of their fingers, point out on a chart of the globe ; and then, nothing daunted by defeat, to northern states in the same hemisphere, whose institu- tions everybody knows to be recipient, without ability to repay ; when again I witnessed the mania which this country evinced for working transatlantic mines, and which it still evinces for expending hundreds of millions of money

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

33

in the projection of British and of foreign rail- roads, which the capital of the empire has not power to construct, I own I have occasionally found it difficult to maintain the feelings of respect so justly due to the monosyllables "John Bull." On the other hand, "with all his faults," it is, I think, impossible for his bitterest enemy to help acknowledging that there is something generous and amiable beyond description — -noble and high-minded beyond example — and evidently productive of far-sighted political results, in the fact, that every day, be the weather what it may, Jane, his beloved wife, presents to him one thousand babies more than the number he had requested of her to replace those members of his family who had just died !

Now, inasmuch as this deliberate increase to our population of 365,000 babies a year (which equals the number of men, women, and children in the county of Worcestershire) as clearly evinces a desire, as it creates a necessity, for Great Britain to people, by emigration, some of those vast regions of the globe which, since the creation of the world, have remained unin-

c3

34

THE BACK-WOODS.

habited, it is wonderful to observe how ad- mirably Nature has parcelled out to the dif- ferent nations of mankind the cultivation of those territories which are best suited to their respective characters and physical strength.

For instance, the indolent inhabitants of Old Spain and of Portugal were led, apparently by blind chance, to discover, in the New World, plains of vast extent, situated in a genial climate, which, without any culture, were fitted for the breeding of almost every animal which forms the food of man.

On the other hand, by the same mariner's compass, the Anglo-Saxon race were con- ducted to a region visited by intense cold, and covered with trees of such enormous size that emigration to this country has justly been termed " War with the Wilderness ;9 and cer- tainly any man who has experienced in it the amount of fatigue to be endured in cutting down a single tree, in ploughing among its roots, and in sowing and reaping around its stump, must feel that it required a strong, healthy, hardy race of men to clear a country in which the settler has, as it were, to engage

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

35

himself in a duel with each and every indivi- dual tree of the interminable forest that sur- rounds him.

But, on the discovery of America, Nature not only led the British to the battle-ground Thave described, but by instinctive feeling she has since conducted, and continues to conduct to it, the individuals of our country best suited to the task.

It would be incorrect to state that the many thousands of emigrants that have annually sailed for our North American provinces have been particularly athletic ; but, as the French army truly say, " C'est le cceur qui fait le grenadier " so it may accurately be stated that, with a few exceptions, they must have been persons of rather more enterprising disposition than their comrades whom they left at home ; indeed, when I have reflected on the expense, anxiety, and uncertainty attendant upon emi- grating to a new world, I have often felt astonished that labourers, tethered to their parish by so many ties and prejudices, should ever have summoned courage enough to make up their minds to sail with their families in a

36

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II.

ship for countries in which, to say the least, they must land ignorant, friendless, and un- known.

But besides a certain amount of enterprise, there has, I believe, existed in the minds of all emigrants some little propulsive feeling or other — oftener good than bad — that has tended to put them on, as it is termed, their mettle, and to make them decide on a change of scene ; indeed, when I was in Canada I often thought that it would have been as amusing to have kept a list of the various different reasons that had propelled from England those who were around me, as it is to read in Gil Bias the dissimilar causes which had brought together the motley inmates of Rolando's cave.

For instance, one very gallant naval officer told me that, after having obtained two steps in his profession, by actions with the enemy,, he waited on William the Fourth, when he was Lord High Admiral, to ask for a ship, in reply to which request he was good-humouredly told that " he was too young.'"

That a few weeks afterwards, on making a similar request to Sir James Graham, who had

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

37

just succeeded to be First Lord of the Ad- miralty, with grave dignity he was told " that the policy of the Government was to bring forward young men, and that 6 he was too old;' and so," said my friend, u I instantly turned on my heel, and declaring that I would never again set my foot in the Admiralty till I was sent for, I came out to Canada."

The inability of the Government to attend to every just claim that was brought before its consideration drove crowds of distinguished officers of both services to the back- woods. Many fine fellows came out because they could not live without shooting, and did not choose to be poachers ; a vast number crossed over because they had " heavy families and small incomes ; 99 and one of the most loyal men I was acquainted with, and to whose protection I had afterwards occasion to be indebted, in answer to some questions I was inquisitively putting to him, stopped me by honestly say- ing, as he looked me full in the face, " My character, Sir, won't bear investigation ! "

Of course, a proportion of the emigrants to our North American Colonies belong to that

38

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II.

philanthropic class of men who, under the ap- pellation of Socialistes, Communistes, or Li- berals, are to be met with in every corner of the Old World. Their doctrine is, Community of goods : but they have no goods at all. They preach — Division of property : but they have no property to divide. So that their principle is ; — not so much to give all they have (for they have nothing to give) to other people ; — as that other people should give all they have to them.

Propelled by these motley reasons, feelings, grievances, and doctrines, many thousands of families and indviduals of various grades (in 1842 their number exceeded 42,000) have an- nually taken leave of the shores of Great Britain to seek refuge in the splendid wilderness of Canada, or, in other words, sick of " vain pomp and glory," have left the old world for what they hoped would be a better.

Now, just as seafaring men declare that after Thames soup has undergone fermentation — during which process it emits from the bung- * hole of the casks which contain it a gas highly offensive, and even inflammable, it becomes

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

39

the clearest, the sweetest, and most wholesome water that can be taken to sea — sd does the same sort of clarification and the same results take place in the moral feelings of the crowds of emigrants I have described.

For a short time, on their arrival at their various locations, they fancy, or rather they really and truly feel, more or less strongly, that there is something very fine in the theory of having apparently got rid of all the musty ma- terials of " Church and State ;" and revelling in this sentiment, they for a short time enjoy the novel luxury of being able to dress as they like, do as they like, go where they like. They appreciate the happiness of living in a land in which the Old Country's servile cus- tom of touching the hat does not exist, in which every carter and waggoner rides instead of walks, and in which there are no purse- proud millionnaires, no dukes, duchesses, lords, ladies, parsons, parish-officers, beadles, poor- law commissioners, or paupers ; no tithes and no taxes.

But after the mind, like the Thames water, has continued for a sufficient time in this state of pleasing fermentation, the feelings I have

40

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II.

just described begin gradually to subside. Some fly away, and some crawl away ; some evaporate, and some sink, until the judgment, his best friend, clearly points out to the emi- grant that, after all, " liberty and equality," like many other resplendent substances, con- tain in their compositions a considerable quan- tity of alloy.

One of the first wants, like a flower in the wilderness, that springs up in the mind of a backwoodsman, is to attend occasionally a place of worship. Solitude has first slightly intro- duced, and has then welcomed to his mind, more serious reflections than any it had pre- viously entertained. The thunder and the lightning of heaven, the sudden storms, the intense cold, the magnificent colouring of the sky, the buoyant air, the gorgeous sunsets, one after another, have sometimes sternly and sometimes smilingly imparted to him truths which have gradually explained to him that there is something very fearful as well as fal- lacious in the idea of any human being boast- ing to himself of being " independent " of that power so eminently conspicuous in the wilderness of America !

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

41

As soon as this want has taken firm root in the heart, it soon produces its natural fruit. The emigrants meet, consult, arrange with each other, subscribe according to their means a few dollars, a few pounds, or a few hundred pounds (one of the most powerful axe-men in Upper Canada expended on this object upwards of a thousand pounds) ; the simple edifice rapidly grows up — is roofed in — is furnished with benches — until at last on some bright sabbath- day, a small bell, fixed within a little turret on its summit, is heard slowly tolling in the forest. From various directions sleighs and waggons, each laden with at least one man, a woman or two, and some little children, are seen converg- ing towards it; and it would be impossible to describe the overwhelming feelings of the various members of the congregation of both sexes, and of all ages, when their selected and respected minister, clad in a decent white sur- plice, for the first time opens his lips, to pro- nounce to them those well-known words which declare that when the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness he has committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

42

THE BACK-WOODS.

Cil,U>. II.

The thunder and the hurricane have now lost all their terrors, the sunshine has suddenly become a source of legitimate enjoyment, the rude log-hut an abode of happiness and con- tentment, and thus the emigrant every day more and more appreciates the blessing which is rewarding him for having erected in the wilderness his own established church.

Among the various good feelings that sub- sequently vegetate in his mind, is that of filial attachment to Old England.

The banished heart first yearns for the crooked lanes, green fields, and rosy cheeks which adorn the surface of the old country ; and then, not satisfied with loving the land, it soon learns to love all who live in it.

But while these British sentiments are growing, local politics first assail and soon apparently entirely engross the emigrant's attention. He has perhaps applied to be made a magistrate, and has seen his, neighbour ap- pointed instead ; he has written to the Governor for a patent for the land he is clearing, and has received no answer ; his nearest neighbour and intimate friend is a reformer, who has told him that " Reform" would very likely give

Chap. II.

THE BACK- WOODS.

43

him a road, would perhaps get him some ap- pointment ; would indemnify him in some way for the cow that died ; in short, he under- stands, and firmly believes, that any change would do him good, and that even if it did not, at all events it would be a change; and so, he is ready to vote for the man that is already promising to effect " a change."

Now it is almost inconceivable how eagerly the backwoodsman engages in local politics of this nature. Every angry word he utters in- flames his own angry feelings. He disputes with one neighbour, and allies himself with another ; and as neither the one nor the other, nor any of them, have any knowledge of what is really going on at the seat of Government, except what they read in provincial newspapers, which are often of the vilest description, a murmur is created which, by people in Eng- land who do not understand emigrants' lan- guage, is supposed very clearly to threaten separation from the mother country ! Whereas, the moment that question is undisguisedly pro- posed, the whole fabric of local politics falls to the ground ; party feelings are forgotten, and from all directions the Irishman, Scotchman,

44

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II.

and Englishman, are seen worming their way through the trees, to join together hand in hand to maintain connexion with " Old England," whom it may truly be said they love infinitely more dearly and more devotedly than do her own children at home.

With respect to the Canadian population the same feelings exist. They dispute and quarrel among each other quite as vigorously as their brethren from the old country ; yet although they have never seen our green lanes, and can therefore have no filial attachment to them, they are most decidedly more proud of the title of " British subjects" than people are in Eng- land ; and for this plain reason, that having throughout their whole lives had an opportunity not only of beholding immediately before their eyes, but of studying the fallacy of " Repub- lican government," they infinitely better under- stand and appreciate than we do the inestimable superiority of British institutions.

In no part of the world which it has been my fortune to visit have I ever met with a body of British subjects more enlightened and unprejudiced than the native-born Upper Cana- dians.

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

45

They have English blood in their veins — have English tongues, English hearts, English heads — have received an English education, and are well versed in English history. But with an Englishman's average stock of know- ledge, they are divested of many of his preju- dices. On the subject of government they are infinitely more enlightened than he is; not instinctively or intuitively, but simply because, from the days of their childhood, they have enjoyed advantages of observing both sides of a most important question, of which English- men can only see one. In short, as political engineers, understanding the mechanism of democracy as well as that of monarchy, they see infinitely clearer than our great statesmen in England possibly can do how subtle and minute are the changes by which the latter system can eventually be converted into the former.

For instance, an Englishman improperly deals with British institutions as our sailors very properly treat a seventy-four gun ship.

If any trifling object appears on the ocean, they all run in a body either to windward or to leeward, for they know the old ship will

46

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II!

bear it. The carpenter makes an incision here, and with a sledge hammer drives a spike - nail in there. He clears the decks for action ; musketry and grape stick in this bulwark, cannon shot go slap through that, but the good old ship does not feel it : in fact, if the master will but keep her off the rocks, her crew truly declare there is no rough usage that can hurt her. And so it is with many of our great and good men in England. They see no harm, as regards the safety of British in- stitutions, in taking out a little screw here, and in cutting asunder a plank there; see nothing to fear in pecking a stone or two out of this arch, or in diminishing the thickness of that old-fashioned beam. " A little exten- sion of suffrage," they say, " surely can't hurt a great country like this ! A concession or two to public opinion will surely do no harm ; in short, if we oppose actual revolution, there is no moderately rough treatment that our insti- tutions are not strong enough to bear."

On the other hand, an Upper Canadian deals with British institutions as an Indian manages his bark canoe.

The red pilot is not afraid of the storm, but

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

47

he unceasingly watches every approaching wave, takes care to sit exactly in the middle of his band-box, not to rise up in it too sud- denly, to step along it lightly, and above all, never to drop into it any heavy weight that might shiver or even shake the bottom of the frail bark ; and thus he manages to traverse waves in which many a stout vessel has foun- dered.

A very few facts will practically exemplify the meaning of the latter comparison.

Within a week after my arrival at Toronto, I had to receive an address from the Speaker and Commons' House of Assembly; and on inquiring in what manner I was to perform my part in the ceremony allotted to me, I was informed that I was to sit very still on a large scarlet chair with my hat on.

The first half was evidently an easy job ; but the latter part was really revolting to my habits and feelings, and as I thought I ought to try and govern by my head and not by my hat, I felt convinced that the former would risk nothing by being for a few minutes divorced from the latter, and accordingly I determined

4S

THE BACK- WOODS.

Chap. II.

with white gloves to hold the thing in my hands ; and several of my English party quite agreed with me in thinking my project not only an innocent but a virtuous act of common courtesy : however, I happened to mention my intention to an Upper Canadian, and never shall I forget the look of silent scorn with which he listened to me. I really quite quailed beneath the reproof, which, without the utter- ance of a word, and after scanning me from head to foot, his mild intelligent faithful coun- tenance read to me, and which but too clearly expressed — " What ! to purchase five minutes' loathsome popularity, will you barter one of the few remaining prerogatives of the British Crown? Will you, for the vain hope of con- ciliating insatiable Democracy, meanly sell to it one of the distinctions of your station ? Miserable man ! beware, before it be too late, of surrendering piecemeal that which it is your duty to maintain, and for which, after all, you will only receive in exchange contumely and contempt \"

I remained for a few seconds as mute as my Canadian Mentor, and then, without taking

Chap. II.

THE BACK-WOODS.

49

any notice of the look with which he had been chastising me, I spoke to him on some other subjects, but I did not forget the picture I had seen, and accordingly my hat was tight enough on my head when the Speaker bowed to it, and I shall ever feel indebted to that man for the sound political lesson which he taught me.

I could mention many similar reproofs which I verbally received from native-born Cana- dians, especially one which very strongly con- demned me for a desire I had innocently enter- tained to go once — merely as a compliment — to the Presbyterian church, which, when quar- tered in Scotland, I had often attended ; but I was gravely admonished by the son of the soil on which I stood, that, although I ought to protect all churches, yet, as the representative of the Established Church, I ought to take part in no other service but my own ; and a few moments' reflection told me that he was right ; and as a further illustration of this transatlantic doctrine, I may state that when the bold, venerable, and respected leader of the Church of England in Upper Canada was lately appointed " Bishop of Toronto," he was not only immediately ad-

d

50

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II.

dressed by the title of " My Lord," but his humble dwelling was, and to this day is, de- signated " The Palace" for the simple reason that the emigrants and native-born inhabitants of the province saw no reason for being- ashamed of British institutions, or of the dis- tinctions which characterize them ; and yet how astonishing it is that people in England, both Whigs and Tories, will persist in de- claring that monarchical pomp cannot possibly be popular in our British North American Colonies, and therefore that it ought not to be maintained there !

In reply to this incorrect, unsound, and most unfortunate doctrine, I will, to what I have just stated, only add, that the Irish, Scotch, English, and native inhabitants of Canada, appeared to me to be quite as anxious that I should ride good horses as I was myself — that they liked to see a well-appointed carriage, and that though it be a highly popular, it is really a vulgar error to believe, that if I had ridden about in a shooting jacket, distributing stunted nods and talking through my nose, I should have prevented the rebellion. Whereas on the contrary, I found the general feeling of the

Chap. II.

THE BACK- WOODS.

51

Canadian people to be, that if, contrary to the policy with which they had been so long afflicted, I would but avow uncompromising hatred to democracy ; if I would but oppose, for them, irresponsible, or, as it is jeeringly termed, " responsible" government; in short, if I would maintain the prerogatives of the British mo- narchy, they would maintain its glorious insti- tutions; and accordingly, as soon* as I printed and circulated throughout the province the following words : —

" The people of Upper Canada detest de- mocracy, revere their constitutional charter, and are staunch in allegiance to their king.

" Never will I allow the power and pa- tronage of this thinly-peopled province to be transferred from His Majesty's representative to the domination of c a Provincial Ministry,' an irresponsible and self-constituted cabinet"—

The moment I published the above decla- ration, the British emigrants and the Canadian people rose almost en masse, and drove from their house of representatives Mr. Bid well, Mr. McKenzie, and every other prominent sup- porter of " responsible" government.

d 2

52

THE BACK-WOODS.

Chap. II.

And yet, notwithstanding this undeniable historical fact, strange to say, thousands of great and good men in England, of all parties, persist in believing, as obstinately as ever, that our noble institutions are unsuited to the soil of America !

( 53 )

Chapter III.

SERGEANT NEILL.

The breaking up of the ice in the rivers of North America is one of the most wonderful operations exhibited by nature on that Conti- nent.

By the beginning of April, although the sun has attained very considerable power, yet the ice in the rivers is so thick, and its temperature so many degrees below freezing, that little or no effect is produced upon it in the middle of the stream. The banks, however, of the river receiving heat from the sun, treacherously melt that portion of the ice which immediately touches them, and this operation continues until a space of blue water intervenes between the shore and the ice sufficient to prevent any one from passing on foot from the one to the other, and yet, long after this period, the ice in the middle of the stream remains strong enough to bear artillery or carriages of any weight.

54

SERGEANT NEILL.

Chap. III.

Now, it is evident that if a river through- out its course were straight arid of equal breadth, the current, without waiting until the sun should melt the ice, would carry it bodily away into the ocean so soon as the banks ceased to hold it.

Rivers, however, being more or less tortuous, and containing generally little islands and rocks, it became necessary for Nature to resort to an admixture in about equal parts of fair means and foul, or, in other words, to combine the persuasive powers of the sun with the rude violence of the torrent, and thus the dense stratum of ice which covers the surface of the river finds itself between two powerful enemies, one of which, by the constant application of heat, is trying to melt it, while the other, as it glides beneath it, is exerting a never-ceasing effort to drag it towards the sea. Any one who in swimming down a stream has ever chanced to grasp the branch of a tree over- hanging the banks, has no doubt found it almost impossible to hold on, and even if the palm of the hand be applied to the surface of running water, a rude guess may be made of the force which a large river throughout its

Chap. III. SERGEANT NEILL.

55

whole course must exert against a covering of ice which, standing stock still, refuses to par- take of its course.

As the sun strengthens, the velocity and power of the current is hourly increased by the melting of the snow, which, by wrenching the ice upwards, isolates it, excepting at particular bends and turns of the river, which retain or jam the whole mass.

At these fortresses, as they may be termed, the pressure on the ice becomes immense ; bit after bit breaks, until each obstruction having given way, the whole mass is retained at some single point only. This last conflict between the elements of nature is truly terrific ; fields of ice are forced upon the land, and then grinding, squeezing, undermining, and raising each other, continue to form impending rocks from 50 to 80 feet high ! While the resistance of the ice is daily decreasing, the strength of the never-tiring current is hourly increasing, until by the swelling of the water the ice is either lifted above the insular obstruction that impeded it, or, unable any longer to resist, it is forcibly rent asunder. The hour of victory has then arrived, the spring of another new

5G

SERGEANT NEILL.

Ciiai>. III.

year has once again conquered the winter ; the liquid water has overcome its frozen enemy, and the whole of the ice, writhing and break- ing up in all directions, like a vanquished army, at first slowly surrenders its position, and then by a " sauve-qui-peut" movement retreats in confusion proportionate to its mass.

I happened twice to succeed in witnessing the breaking up of the ice of the Humber, a small river in the neighbourhood of Toronto. The floods which had wrenched up the ice had floated a large quantity of timber of every possible description, and as soon as the great movement commenced, these trees and the ice were hurried before my eyes in indescribable confusion. Every piece of ice, whatever might be its shape or size, as it proceeded, was either revolving horizontally, or rearing up on end until it reeled over ; sometimes a tree, striking against the bottom, would slowly rise up, and for a moment stand erect as if it grew out of the river ; at other times it would, apparently for variety's sake, stand on its head with its roots uppermost and then turn over ; sometimes the ice as it proceeded would rise up like a house and chimneys, and then rolling head

Chap. III. SERGEANT NEILL.

57

over heels, sink, and leave in its place clear water.

In a few hours, however, this turmoil was completely at an end, the torrent had subsided, the stream had returned to its ordinary limits, and nothing remained to tell of the struggle and the chance-medley confusion I had wit- nessed but some white little islands of ice, intermixed with dark masses of timber, floating off the mouth of the river in the deep blue lake.

In the different regions of the globe which it has been my fortune to visit, I have always experienced great pleasure in pausing for a few minutes at the various spots which have been distinguished by some feat or other of British enterprise, British mercy, British ho- nesty, British generosity, or British valour.

About the time I was in Canada a trifling circumstance occurred on the breaking up of the ice, which I feel proud to record.

In the middle of the great St. Lawrence there is, nearly opposite Montreal, an island called St. Helens, between which and the shore

d 3

58

SERGEANT NEILL.

Chap. III.

the stream, about three quarters of a mile broad, runs with very great rapidity, and yet, notwithstanding this current, the intense cold of winter invariably freezes its surface.

The winter I am speaking of was unusually severe, and the ice on the St. Lawrence par- ticularly thick ; however, while the river be- neath was rushing towards the sea, the ice was waiting in abeyance in the middle of the stream until the narrow fastness between Montreal and St. Helens should burst and allow the whole mass to break into pieces, and then in stupendous confusion to hurry down- wards towards Quebec.

On St. Helens there was quartered a small detachment of troops, and while the breaking up of the ice was momently expected, many of the soldiers, muffled in their great-coats with thick storm-gloves on their hands, and with a piece of fur attached to their caps to protect their ears from being frozen, were on the ice employed in attending to the road across it to Montreal.

After a short suspense, which increased rather than allayed their excitement, a deep thundering noise announced to them that the

Chap. III.

SERGEANT NEILL.

59

process I have described had commenced. The ice before them writhed, heaved up, burst, broke into fragments, and the whole mass, ex- cepting a small portion, which remaining riveted to the shore of St. Helens formed an artificial pier with deep water beneath it, gra- dually moved downwards.

Just at this moment of intense interest, a little girl, the daughter of an artilleryman on the island, was seen on the ice in the middle of the river in an attitude of agony and alarm. Imprudently and unobserved she had attempted to cross over to Montreal, and was hardly half- way when the ice both above, below her, and in all directions, gave way. The child's fate seemed inevitable, and it was exciting various sensations in the minds, and various exclama- tions from the mouths of the soldiers, when something within the breast of Thomas Neill, a young sergeant in the 24th regiment, who happened to be much nearer to her than the rest, distinctly uttered to him the monosylla- bles " Quick march J" and in obedience thereto, fixing his eyes on the child as on a parade bandarole, he steadily proceeded towards her.

Sometimes just before him, sometimes just

60

SERGEANT NEILL

Ciiai>. III.

behind him, and sometimes on either side, an immense piece of ice would pause, rear up an end, and roll over, so as occasionally to hide him altogether from view. Sometimes he was seen jumping from a piece that was beginning to rise, and then, like a white bear carefully clambering down a piece that was beginning to sink, however, onwards he proceeded, until reaching the little island of ice on which the poor child stood, with the feelings of calm triumph with which he would have surmounted a breach, he firmly grasped her by the hand.

By this time he had been floated down the river nearly out of sight of his comrades. However, some of them, having run to their barracks for spy-glasses, distinctly beheld him about two miles below them, sometimes leading the child in his hand, sometimes carrying her in his arms, sometimes " halting," sometimes running " double quick ;" and in this dan- gerous predicament he continued for six miles, until, after passing Longeuil, he was given up by his comrades as — lost.

He remained with the little girl floating down the middle of the river for a considerable time ; at last, towards evening, they were dis-

Chap. III.

SERGEANT NEILL.

61

covered by some French Canadians, who, at no small risk, humanely pushed off in a canoe to their assistance, and thus rescued them both from their perilous situation.

The Canadians took them to their home; at last, in due time, they returned to St. Helens. The child was happily restored to its parents, and Sergeant Neill quietly returned to his barracks,

Colour-Sergeant William Delaney, and Pri- vate George Morgan, of the 24th Regiment, now at Chatham, were eye-witnesses of the above occurrence.

( 02 )

Chapter IV.

THE GRENADIERS' POND.

Whenever a man has a favourite propensity, good or evil, it matters not a straw, his mind is always exceeding'^ clever in finding out reasons for its indulgence; and accordingly, as soon as I commenced my duties at Toronto, something within me strenuously advised that I should every day take a good long ride. " You will never," said my mentor, " be able to get through your business without it ! Your constitution will become enervated ; you will get sallow, yellow, bitter-minded, sour- tempered ; you will die if you don't take your usual exercise ! "

Not wishing to be considered obstinate, I yielded to this advice, and I believe I may say that, up to the period of the rebellion, I never departed from it for a single day: indeed I am confident that, under Providence, the preservation of my health has been the reward of my dutiful obedience.

Chap. IV. THE GRENADIERS* POND.

63

In Canada, as soon as the hand of winter paints the ground white, everybody, muffled in fur, instinctively steps into a sleigh ; and as matter, philosophers say, cannot occupy two places at the same time, it follows that nobody can be seen on what sailors call " the outside of a horse." To this rule, however, I formed, I believe, a solitary exception.

Whether it was hot or cold— whether it rained, blew, or froze, sooner or later I ma- naged every day, unattended by any one, to get a canter through the dark pine-forest which immediately surrounds Toronto, and then across the Humber Plains, a distance of about fourteen miles.

In spring, summer, and autumn, this whole- some exercise was indescribably delightful, especially because its solitude afforded me op- portunity quietly to reflect on various subjects which were weighing heavily on my mind. In winter this recreation was also highly ex- hilarating; but as I was constantly detained by business until the blood-red sun was within a few inches of the horizon, and had therefore oftentimes to ride through the forest in the dark, it was necessary to take due precaution

64

THE GRENADIERS' POND.

Chap. IV.

to prevent being frozen; and, indeed, after being all day in a house heated by a stove, I found that it occasionally required some little resolution to face a temperature occasionally forty or fifty degrees below freezing. However, as soon as through the double windows of my room I saw my horse walking backwards and forwards, waiting for me, I always felt en- couraged to make my toilette, of which I will only say that, like that of a Turkish lady, it left little but my eyes uncovered.

This protection I found quite impervious to the weather ; and although if I had lost one of my fur gloves I should have lost a hand, and if I had been stripped of my fur coat, should have been frozen, yet as no such accidents were likely to befall me, I proceeded in daylight or in darkness along my usual track, the sensation of cantering through snow very nearly resem- bling that of riding across ploughed land.

One lovely day in spring I had crossed the H umber Plains, which in high beauty were covered with shrubs, little flowers of various descriptions — wild strawberries, wild rasp- berries, and immense scarlet tiger-lilies in full bloom, and I had reached the shore of Lake

Chap. IV. THE GRENADIERS' POND.

65

Ontario at a point about three miles from To- ronto, when I saw immediately before me a group of men stooping down to raise from the ground something which, on my riding up to them, proved to be an enormous land-tortoise, which had burrowed into the sand of the beach. After laying the creature on its back the men continued with their hands to excavate the sand in search, as they told me, of eggs ; and accord- ingly in a short time they brought to light almost a hat full of them, as round as, and about the size of canister shot. On conversing with the men, I found that, as payment for her eggs, they were going to roast the poor mother— an unjust arrangement, which by a little money I managed to prevent; and I had scarcely pro- ceeded a hundred yards when I came to two men standing still, and holding between them a weak-looking middle-aged man, who did not appear to be offering any resistance, and whose countenance, the moment I beheld it, pro- claimed that he was insane.

" What had we better do with this poor fel- low?" said one of his captors to me; "he wants to make away with himself, and says he is determined to drown himself, either in the Lake or in the Grenadiers' Pond here ! "

GG

THE GRENADIERS' POND.

Chap. IV.

Now, the beautiful blue Lake, covered with a healthy ripple, and extending as far as the eye could reach, was close to us ; and on the other side, within fifty yards of us, there was hidden in the forest a horrid miry little spot, called the Grenadiers' Pond, because a party of English soldiers, in endeavouring, during the war, to cross it in a boat, had been upset, and after floundering in the mud had sunk in it, and were there still. Poor fellows ! I had often shuddered at their fate, as I looked at the spot, — an image of John Bunyan's " Slough of Despond."

As there was no asylum for lunatics in the province, it required some few moments' con- sideration to determine what to do ; at last, after a short conversation with the men, I ar- ranged with them that they should take their prisoner to the hospital at Toronto; and as I had to ride by it in my way home, I told them I would see that, by the time they arrived, proper arrangements should be made for treat- ing him with kindness and attention.

The poor maniac paid no attention whatever to what we were saying : he offered no resist- ance ; made not the slightest effort to escape ; but never shall I forget the wistful expression

Chap. IV. THE GRENADIERS' POND.

67

of countenance with which he kept turning his haggard face sometimes towards the blue Lake, and sometimes towards the bank which concealed from us the Grenadiers' Pond; in short, it was painfully evident that the affec- tions of this nameless, friendless being were, as nearly as possible, divided between both, and that, weaned from every other attachment to this world, or to the next, his agonising dis- traction solely proceeded from the difficulty of determining which of two delightful resting places to prefer; indeed, so strong was his in- fatuation, that as the two men led him between them before me, a stranger would have fancied that, instead of leading him away from death, we were conducting him to execution; — that his wife and children were behind him ; and that he was looking back, first over one shoul- der, and then over another, to offer them one more blessing, and to bid them another — and then another — last — " farewell ! 99

When the party reached the hospital, they found everything ready for the man's recep- tion, and next morning I was happy to learn that he appeared perfectly calm and tranquil* On the following day, however, when I in-

68

THE GRENADIERS' POND. Chap. IV,

quired, I was informed that he had managed a few hours ago to escape, and that he was gone — they knew not where !

I knew well enough where he was gone, and it being in my daily track, I immediately rode to the point I have described, between the Lake and the Grenadiers' Pond. He was not there; but it was afterwards ascertained that, within an hour after he had escaped from the hospital, a man exactly answering his description had been seen walking hurriedly up and down the narrow space I have described, and that when the person who had passed him turned his head back to look for him, he had, to his sur- prise, completely disappeared !

If he had gone into the lake, his body, in due time, would have been washed on shore ; but as this did not happen, well knowing where he was, I often rode to the Grenadiers' Pond to indulge for a few moments in feelings

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF A POOR LUNATIC.

( 69 )

Chapter V.

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

Henry Patterson and his wife Elizabeth sailed from the Tower in the year 1834, as emigrants on board a vessel heavily laden with passengers, and bound to Quebec.

Patterson was an intimate friend of a noted bird-catcher in London called " Charley Nash." Now Nash had determined to make his friend a present of a good skylark to take to Canada with him ; but not having what he called " a real good un" among his collection, he went into the country on purpose to trap one. In this effort he succeeded, but when he returned to London he found that his friend Patterson had embarked, and that the vessel had sailed a few hours before he reached the Tower Stairs. He therefore jumped on board a steamer that was just starting, and overtook the ship just as she reached Gravesend, where he hired a small boat, and then sculling alongside, he was soon

70

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

Chap. v.

recognised by Patterson and his wife, who with a crowd of other male and female emigrants, of all ages, were taking a last farewell of the various objects which the vessel was slowly passing.

" Here 's a bird for you, Harry," said Nash to Patterson, as standing up in the skiff he took the frightened captive out of his hat, " and if it sings as well in a cage as it did just now in the air, it will be the best you have ever heard."

Patterson, descending a few steps from the gangway, stretched out his hand and received the bird, which he immediately called " Char- ley" in remembrance of his faithful friend Nash.

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence the vessel was wrecked, almost every thing was lost except the lives of the crew and passengers, and ac- cordingly when Patterson, with his wife hang- ing heavily on his arm, landed in Canada, he was destitute of every thing he had owned on board excepting Charley, whom he had pre- served and afterwards kept for three days in the foot of an old stocking.

After some few sorrows, and after some

Chap. V.

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

71

little time, Patterson settled himself at Toronto, in the lower part of a small house in King Street, the principal thoroughfare of the town, where he worked as a shoemaker. His shop had a southern aspect ; he drove a nail into the outside of his window, and regularly every morning, just before he sat upon his stool to commence his daily work, he carefully hung upon this nail a common skylark's cage, which had a solid back of dark wood, with a bow or small wire orchestra in front, upon the bottom of which there was to be seen, whenever it could be procured, a fresh sod of green turf.

As Charley's wings were of no use to him in this prison, the only wholesome exercise he could take was by hopping on and off his little stage ; and this sometimes he would con- tinue to do most cheerfully for hours, stopping only occasionally to dip his bill into a small square tin box of water suspended on one side, and then to raise it for a second or two towards the sky. As soon, however, as (and only when his spirit moved him) this feathered captive again hopped upon his stage, and there, standing on a bit of British soil, with his little neck extended, his small head slightly

72

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

Chap. V.

turned, his drooping wings gently fluttering, his bright black eyes intently fixed upon the distant deep, dark-blue Canada sky, he com- menced his unpremeditated morning song, his extempore matin prayer !

The effect of his thrilling notes, of his shrill, joyous song, of his pure, unadulterated English voice upon the people of Canada cannot be described, and probably can only be imagined by those who either by adversity have been prematurely weaned from their mother country, or who, from long-continued absence from it, and from hope deferred, have learned in a foreign land to appreciate the inestimable blessings of their father-land, of their parent home. All sorts of men, riding, driving, walking, propelled by urgent business, or sauntering for appetite or amusement, as if by word of command, stopped spell-bound to listen, for more or less time, to the inspired warbling, to the joyful hallelujahs of a com- mon homely-dressed English lark ! The loyal listened to him with the veneration with which they would have listened to the voice of their Sovereign ; reformers, as they leaned towards him, heard nothing in his enchanting melody

Chap. V.

THE EMIGRANT S LARK.

73

which even they could desire to improve. I believe that in the hearts of the most obdurate radicals he reanimated feelings of youthful attachment to their mother country ; and that even the trading Yankee, in whose country birds of the most gorgeous plumage snuffle rather than sing, must have acknowledged that the heaven-born talent of this little bird unaccountably warmed the Anglo-Saxon blood that flowed in his veins. Nevertheless, whatever others may have felt, I must own that, al- though I always refrained from joining Charley's motley audience, yet, while he was singing, I never rode by him without acknowledging, as he stood with his outstretched neck looking to heaven, that he was (at all events, for his size) the most powerful advocate of Church and State in Her Majesty's dominions; and that his eloquence was as strongly appreciated by others, Patterson received many convincing proofs.

Three times as he sat beneath the cage, proud as Lucifer, yet hammering away at a shoe-sole lying in purgatory on his lap-stone, and then, with a waxed thread in each hand, suddenly extending his elbows, like a scara-

E

74

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

Chat. V-

mouch ; three times was he interrupted in his work by people who each separately offered him one hundred dollars for his lark : an old farmer repeatedly offered him a hundred acres of land for him; and a poor Sussex carter who had imprudently stopped to hear him sing, was so completely overwhelmed with affection and maladie du pays, that, walking into the shop, he offered for him all he pos- sessed in the world .... his horse and cart ; but Patterson would sell him to no one.

On the evening of the — th of October, 1 837, the shutters of Patterson's shop-windows were half closed, on account of his having that morning been accidentally shot dead on the island opposite the city. The widow's pro- spects were thus suddenly ruined, her hopes blasted, her goods sold, and I need hardly say that I made myself the owner — the lord and the master of poor Patterson's lark.

It was my earnest desire,, if possible, to better his condition, and I certainly felt very proud to possess him ; but somehow or other this "Charley-is-my-darling " sort of feeling evidently was not reciprocal. Whether it was that in the conservatory of Government House

Chap. V.

THE EMIGRANTS LARK.

75

at Toronto Charley missed the sky — whether it was that he disliked the movement, or rather want of movement, in my elbows — or whether from some mysterious feelings, some strange fancy or misgiving, the chamber of his little mind was hung with black, I can only say that during the three months he remained in my service I could never induce him to open his mouth, and that up to the last hour of my departure he would never sing to me.

On leaving Canada I gave him to Daniel Orris, an honest, faithful, loyal friend, who had accompanied me to the province. His station in life was about equal to that of poor Patterson ; and accordingly, so soon as the bird was hung by him on the outside of his humble dwelling, he began to sing again as exquisitely as ever. He continued to do so all through Sir George Arthur's administration. He sang all the time Lord Durham was at work — he sang after the Legislative Council — the Execu- tive Council — the House of Assembly of the province had ceased for ever to exist — he sang all the while the Imperial Parliament were framing and agreeing to an Act by which even

e2

70

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

Chap. V.

the name of Upper Canada was to cease to exist — he sang all the while Lords John Russell and Sydenham were arranging, effect- ing, and perpetuating upon the United Pro- vinces of Canada the baneful domination of what they called u responsible government ;" and then, feeling that the voice of an English lark could no longer be of any service to that noble portion of Her Majesty's dominions — he died!

Orris sent me his skin, his skull, and his legs. I took them to the very best artist in London — the gentleman who stuffs for the British Museum — who told me to my great joy that these remains were perfectly unin- jured. After listening with great professional interest to the case, he promised me that he would exert his utmost talent ; and in about a month Charley returned to me with unruffled plumage, standing again on the little orchestra of his cage, with his mouth open, looking upwards — in short, in the attitude of singing, just as I have described him.

I have had the whole covered with a large glass case, and upon the dark wooden back of the cage there is pasted a piece of white

Chap. V.

THE EMIGRANT'S LARK.

paper, upon which I have written the follow ing words : —

THIS LARK,

TAKEN TO CANADA BY A POOR EMIGRANT, WAS SHIPWRECKED IN THE ST. LAWRENCE, AND AFTER SINGING AT TORONTO FOR NINE YEARS DIED THERE ON THE 14TH OF MARCH, 1843, UNIVERSALLY REGRETTED.

Home ! Home ! Sweet Home !

( 78 )

Chapter VI.

THE LONG TROT.

When an engineer has to construct, in a fo- reign country, a work of magnitude upon which his reputation must stand or fall, his first object should be, by repeated trials, to ascertain the quality of the timber, iron, stone, lime, cement, and other materials of which his work is to be composed.

The same precaution is evidently necessary in the administration of the government of an important colony ; and accordingly my princi- pal endeavour during the time I was in Canada was to make myself acquainted with the anta- gonist opinions, dissenting sects, and conflict- ing interests, as represented by the conglome- rated population of the Province.

As my despatches were almost invariably written at night, for upwards of two years I was principally occupied in receiving for six days in the week, from ten in the morning till

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

79

three or four o'clock in the afternoon, whoever might desire to see me; and as everybody had either some little grievance to complain of, some little favour to ask, or some slight curiosity to become acquainted with me— in short, some small excuse for a holiday-trip to Toronto, my waiting-room was almost con- stantly supplied with a round-robin list of attendants, to which there was apparently no end.

I need hardly say that I had some endless, objectless, miserably-unimportant, and conse- quently most wearisome stories to listen to; and that the bulk of the business, if such it could be termed, would have been infinitely better transacted by written memorials, to be carefully examined and reported on, by the various departments to which each respectively belonged.

On the other hand, though I was often much fatigued by giving attention to such a variety of minute statements, many of which had nei- ther head nor tail, and which were quite as confusedly understood by the various explain- ants as they were by me ; yet I always felt it to be of infinite service to me thus to learn

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THE LONG TROT.

Chap. VI.

from their own mouths whatever the inhabit- ants of the Province might have to complain of ; and that a little patience, a few sentences of explanation, and a few words of kindness, were seeds well worth the trouble of sowing.

But although by this dull routine I became personally acquainted with most of those who could afford the enjoyment of a journey to Toronto, yet there were, of course, many emi- grants in the remote districts whose purses and whose occupations tethered them to their locations. From some of these I was in the habit of receiving letters on all sorts of sub- jects; and although it was occasionally not a very easy task to decipher them, it was very gratifying to me, after a careful analysis of their contents, to ascertain what very trifling grounds of complaint they contained : indeed, I believe that in many cases the grievance was not half equal to the trouble of describing it. Some evidently did not know in what form to begin or end their epistle ; and some who had managed to ascertain this, had really nothing to put in the middle of it. In short, I was ad- dressed in all sorts of ways, and with all sorts of requests ; as a sample of which I will insert

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

81

the following very reasonable letter which I received from an old soldier of the 49th : —

" 29th March, 1837. " May it plase your Honor and glory, for iver more, Amen !

" 1, James Ketsoe, Formly belonging to the 49 Regt. of Foot, was sent to this contry in 1817 by his Majesty Gorge the Forth to git land for myself and boys ; but my boys was to small, but Plase your Honor now the Can work, so I hope your honor wold be so good to a low them Land, because the are Intitle to land by Lord Bathus. I was spaking to His Lord Ship in his one office in Downing Street, London, and he tould to beshure I wold Git land for my boys. Plase your Honor, I was spaking to Lord Almor before he went home about the land for my boys, and he sed to beshure I was Intitle to it.

" Lord Almor was Captain in the one Regt., that is, the Old 49th Regt. foot. Plase your Honor, I hope you will doe a old Solder Justis. God bless you and your family.

" Your most humble Sarvint,

" James Ketsoe."

" N.B. — Plase your Honor, I hope you will excuse my Vulgar way of writing to you, but these is hard times, Governor, so I hope you will send me an answer."

To these various applications I gave the clearest answers in my power ; but knowing

e 3

82

THE LONG TROT.

Chap. VI.

that a visit to my malcontents would give much more satisfaction than any letters I could write to them, I resolved to inspect every dis- trict in the province, and accordingly, during the two summers I was in Canada, I employed myself in this duty.

The plan I pursued was, to give notice of the time and place at which I proposed to enter each district ; and accordingly, on my arrival, I generally found assembled, on horseback, people of all conditions, who, generally from good feelings, and occasionally from curiosity, had determined to accompany me through their respective townships.

The pace I travelled at, from morning till five or six o'clock in the evening, was a quiet, steady, unrelenting trot ; and in this way I pro- ceeded many hundred miles, listening some- times to one description of politics and some- times to another— sometimes to an anecdote and sometimes to a complaint- — sometimes to a compliment and sometimes, though very rarely, to observations evidently proceeding from a moral region " on the north side of friendly."

I thus visited all the cities, towns, and

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

83

largest villages ; all the principal locations — The Rideau, St. Lawrence, and Welland canals ; all the public works, the macadamised roads, plank roads, corduroy roads, the great harbours, light-houses, and the great rivers. I went down the rapids of the Trent in a bark canoe, — down the Ottawa water-slide on a raft, with the lumberers ; in fact, I traversed the wilder- ness of Canada in various directions, from the extreme east to the extreme west, and visited Lakes Huron, Erie, Simcoe, and Ontario.

But although the features of the country were highly interesting, the experience I valued most of all was the moral and political information I was enabled to collect from the numerous persons who were good enough to ride along with me, and whom I always found as ready to instruct me as I was to learn ; in short, quite as willing to couch from my eyes the film of ignorance and prejudice as I was to submit — so far as it could rudely be done at a trot — to the operation.

It would not only make a large volume, but an exceedingly dull one, were I to describe in detail the various public works I inspected, the scenes I visited, or the facts and opinions I

84

THE LONG TROT.

Chap. VL

collected ; I will therefore briefly make but a few unconnected observations.

Although every foreigner, the instant he lands in England, is struck with the evidence displayed before him, in every direction, of the wealth and energy of the British people, yet a much more striking exemplification of both is to be seen by any one who will carefully sur- vey a British colony.

For instance, the growth of the colony of Upper Canada demonstrates beyond all doubt the extraordinary vigour of its parent state.

Fifty years ago, the region in question, which is considerably larger than England and Wales, and which is bounded by five or six of the largest States of the adjoining republic, was a splendid wilderness of deep rich soil, covered with trees — pine, beech, birch, cedar, and oak, of unusual girth and height, under the branches of which there existed, almost hidden from the ra)rs of the sun, the wild beasts of the forest, and their lords and masters, a few red Indians, who, with no fixed abodes, rambled through the trees as freely as the wind, which " goeth where it listeth."

In the hidden recesses of this vast wilderness,

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

85

man and beast, unseen by any living witness, were occasionally desperately engaged in single combat. The Indian sometimes was hungry — sometimes was gorged — sometimes, emerging from the wilderness, he stood for a moment gazing at the splendid interminable ocean of fresh water before him ; and then, diving again into the forest, he would traverse it for hundreds of miles in search of game, or of friends whose hunting grounds, as well as innumerable other localities, were clearly traced on the tablet of his mind ; in short, he was acquainted with the best salt-licks- — he knew where to go for bears or for beavers, for fish, flesh, or fur, and he knew how to steer his course to com- mune with " the Great Spirit" at that solemn place of worship, the falls of Niagara ; never- theless, with all his instinct and intelligence, the vast country he inhabited remained unal- tered and even untouched, except by his foot as he rambled across it.

Upon this strange scene of unadulterated, uncontaminated nature, a solitary white man's face intruded ; and within the short, fleeting space of half a century, what an extraordinary change has he effected !

86

THE LONG TROT.

Chap. VI.

Upwards of half a million of his race are now busily cultivating the country, and in various other ways reaping the golden harvests of their industry.

Cities and towns, composed of substantial brick or stone houses, and lighted with gas, have arisen, as it were by magic, from the ground. Magnificent harbours have been for- tified, valuable fisheries and timber trade established, and mines in operation.

On macadamised roads upwards of 200,000/. has already been expended, as also an immense sum on plank roads.

On inland navigation there has already been expended — on the Rideau Canal, upwards of a million sterling ; on the Welland Canal, nearly half a million; on the St. Lawrence Canal, more than 300,000/. ; on the Lachine Canal, about 100,000/.; besides large sums on the Grand River Navigation, Tay Navigation, &c.

Innumerable mills of various descriptions have been constructed.

A legislature has been created; and by its power and authority, and under the blessing of sound religious establishments of various denominations, the supremacy of the law has,

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

87

throughout the whole Province, been enabled to guard life and property as effectually as they are protected in England.

Lastly, and in addition to the above, a mil- lion and a half sterling, the late loan from the mother-country, either has been expended or at this moment is expending on public works and improvements of various descrip- tions; and when it is considered that the region in question, in which, within the period stated, civilization has made more rapid strides than on any other portion of North America or of the habitable globe, is singularly gifted with a salubrious and exhilarating climate ; that it is connected not only with a series of the noblest fresh-water seas on the surface of the world, but with the colonies of Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and Newfoundland, which comprehend harbours, collieries, and fisheries of the most valuable description ; is it not aston- ishing to reflect that there should exist British Statesmen, both Whigs and Tories, of great moral worth, who are disposed to argue that our North American colonies, the nursery for our seamen, the employers of our shipping, the

88

THE LONG TROT.

Chap. VI.

brightest jewel in the British Crown, are of no use ?

Why, even if the cities, towns, villages, houses, farms, cleared land, fisheries, lumber- slides, mines, collieries, harbours, mills, light- houses, canals, macadamized roads, fortifica- tions, and various other public works and build- ings which might be enumerated, were to be sold by public auction, the sum which all this British property would fetch in the market, enormous as it would be, would bear but little proportion to its real intrinsic value, inas- much as in all new countries the value of every possession hourly increases with the swelling growth of the whole country : by which I mean, that while A is working with his axe in the wilderness, his location and his log-hut are improved in value by every neighbouring clearance, by the establishment of every ad- joining mill ; in fact, by every road, canal, village, town, city, or market of any de- scription, constructed in any part of the country.

But besides the present marketable value of our North American colonies, it is surely of inestimable importance, not only to Great

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

89

Britain, but to the whole family of mankind, that the immense surplus population of our empire, instead of being every day cast adrift, as an infant is deserted by an unnatural mother— instead of being left without educa- tion, religious, moral, or political, to the com- mission of every possible crime, and thus to bring " sorrow, and sin, and shame" upon the English name — should be parentally conducted by the mother-country to a fertile, healthy, and happy country, inhabited by colonists who glory in the name of Britain — whose virtues and whose bravery do honour to Old England, and who, with open arms, receive all those whose labour in the mother country is a drug, but in the young country, an assistance of in- estimable value.

In riding through the forest I often passed deserted log-huts, standing in the middle of what is called " cleared land," — that is to say, the enormous pine trees of the surrounding forest had been chopped down to stumps about a yard high, around which there had rushed up a luxurious growth of hard brush-

90

THE LONG TROT.

Chap. VI.

wood, the height of which denoted that several years must have elapsed since the tenants had retired.

There was something which I always felt to be deeply affecting in passing these little monuments of the failure of human expecta- tions— of the blight of human hopes !

The courage that had been evinced in set- tling in the heart of the wilderness, and the amount of labour that had been expended in cutting down so many large trees, had all ended in disappointment, and occasionally in sorrows of the severest description. The arm that had wielded the axe had perhaps become gradually enervated by ague (which always ungratefully rises out of cleared ground), until death had slowly terminated the existence of the poor emigrant, leaving a broken-hearted woman and a helpless family with nothing to look to for support but the clear bright blue heavens above them.

In many of the spots I passed, I ascertained that these dispensations of Providence had been as sudden as they were awful. The emigrant had arisen in robust health — surrounded by his numerous and happy family, had partaken of a

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

91

homely breakfast — had left his log-hut with a firm step, and with manly pride had again resumed his attack upon the wilderness, through which every blow of his axe, like the tick of a clock, recorded the steady progress of the hand that belonged to it. But at the hour of dinner he did not return ! The wife waited — bid her rosy-faced children be patient — waited — felt anxious — alarmed — stepped beyond the threshhold of her log hut — listened : the axe was not at work ! Excepting that inde- scribable seolian murmur which the air makes in passing through the stems and branches of the forest, not a sound was to be heard. Her heart misgives her ; she walks — runs towards the spot where she knew her husband to have been at work. She finds him, without his jacket or neckcloth, lying, with extended arms, on his back, cold, and crushed to death by the last tree he had felled, which in falling, jump- ing from its stump, had knocked him down, and which is now resting with its whole weight upon his bared breast !

The widow screams in vain ; she endeavours to extricate her husband's corpse, but it is utterly impracticable. She leaves it to satisfy

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her infant's hunger — to appease her children's cries !

The above is but a faint outline of a scene that has so repeatedly occurred in the wilder- ness of America — that it is usually summed up in the words, " He was killed by the fall of a tree"

In riding through the midland district I passed a log-hut which stood about one hundred yards from the road, in the centre of a clear- ance of about four acres.

, As it had evidently been deserted many years, I inquired, as usual, of the person be- longing to the township, who happened to be riding nearest to me, to whom it belonged ? in reply to which I received the following little story, which has since very often flitted across my mind.

The British emigrant who had reared this humble shanty was one day engaged in a remote part of his two-hundred-acre lot in ploughing a small space of ground which he had but partially cleared, and he was proceeding without his coat close to his plough, driving a

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

93

yoke of oxen, when the animals, starting at some wild beast or other object which they saw in the forest, suddenly dragged the plough be- tween an immense fallen tree and a stump, by which the driver's right foot and ankle were so firmly jammed, that the plough was not only completely stopped, but immoveably fixed.

For a considerable time the poor fellow, standing with his left leg on his plough, suf- fered excruciating agony, from which he saw not the slightest chance of release. At times he almost fainted ; but on recovering from his miserable dreams he always found himself in the same position — in the same agony — in the same writhing attitude of despair.

In a fit of desperation he drew his knife from his belt, and for a few seconds meditated on endeavouring to release himself by cutting off his own foot ; but reflection again plunged him into despair, and in this agony he re- mained until he bethought himself of the fol- lowing plan.

Stooping forwards, he cut the band that connected his oxen to the plough. As soon as they were at liberty he drew the patient animals towards him by the rope-reins he had

94

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continued to hold, and when their heads were close to him, he passed his hands down his naked arms, which for some time had been bleeding from the musquitoes that had been assailing them, and then daubing the points of the horns of both his bullocks with his blood, he cut their reins short off, and striking the animals with their reins they immediately left him, and, just as he had intended that they should, they proceeded homewards.

On their arrival at his log-hut the blood on their horns instantly attracted the attention of a labourer who lived with him, and who, fan- cying that the animals must have gored their master, hastened to the clearance, where they found him, like Milo, fixed in the cleft oak, in the dreadful predicament I have described, and from which it was with the utmost difficulty that he could be released.

I cannot accurately recollect whether or not the poor fellow suffered amputation ; but his deserted log-hut, as I trotted by it, bore me- lancholy evidence that he had been unable to continue to labour as a back-woodsman, and that accordingly he had deserted it.

Chap. VI.

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The Rideau Canal, which by a channel of 154 miles connects the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario with the Ottawa River, is not only, without any exception, the most permanent as well as the best constructed work on either continent of America, but it is of incalculable military importance, inasmuch as it secures a communication between the Great Lakes and Upper Canada with Montreal and Quebec, in case the frontier road, that of the St. Lawrence River, should fall into the hands of the repub- lican territory which adjoin it.

In taking the levels for the construction of this vast work it appeared that there were two modes in which it could be executed.

1st. By deep cuttings and embankments to retain the water within the usual limits of a canal; and,

2nd. By constructing locks at more advan- tageous levels, and then by flooding consider- able portions of land between them, to form a series of artificial lakes, instead of a narrow channel.

The latter course, after very mature consi- deration, was adopted; and although its ad-

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vantages may be undeniable, yet it has pro- duced a very appalling and unusual picture.

The flooding of the wilderness was a sen- tence of death to every tree whose roots re- mained covered with water; and yet no sooner was this operation effected than Nature ap- peared determined to repair the injury by con- verting the fluid which had created the devas- tation into a verdant prairie ; and accordingly from the hidden soil beneath there arose to the surface of these artificial lakes a thin green scum, which gradually thickened, until the whole surface assumed the appearance I have described.

But this vegetable matter, beautiful as it appears, mixed with the gradual decay of the dead trees, becomes rank poison to human life ; so much so, that by native-born Canadians, as well as by emigrants, it is invariably designated by the horrid appellation of "fever and ague."

As I proceeded in a steamer through this treacherous mass, which, rolling in thick folds before the prow of the vessel, again closed in at its stern, the view wras desolate beyond de- scription.

Chap. VI. THE LONG TROT. 97

As far as I could see, in all directions, I was surrounded by dead, leafless trees, whose pale, livid, unwholesome-looking bark gave them the appearance of so many corpses; and as the wind whistled and moaned through the net-work of their stiff, stark, sapless branches, I could not help feeling it was wafting with it, in the form of miasma, Nature's punishment for the wholesale murder that had .been com- mitted ; in short, I felt that as a single tree may stand in the middle of a deserted battle- plain, surrounded by countless groups of muti- lated human corpses, so I stood on the deck of the steamer, almost a solitary witness of the melancholy picture of a dead forest; or, as in Canada it is usually termed, of " drowned land."

In justice, however, to the deceased distin- guished officer who constructed this work, it is proper to say, that on my inspection of the Welland Canal I beheld a similar scene ; and that for practical reasons, which it would be tedious to detail, the system of flooding land for canals is often adopted on the Continent of North America.

F

98

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As I was journeying towards the banks of the Ottawa, I trotted some miles out of my way to visit a lone shanty, which nearly thirty years ago witnessed the death of an English nobleman under circumstances of unexampled fortitude, which have often been repeated to me, and of which T believe the following to be an accurate account.

In the latter end of August, 1819, the Duke of Richmond, who was then Governor-General of the Canadas, after visiting Niagara and other parts of the upper province, reached Kingston on his return to Quebec.

He had pre-arranged to inspect a new set of recently settled townships ; that is to say, blocks of the wilderness which had been desig- nated on the map as such, on the line of the Rideau canal, between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa.

The expedition was to occupy three or four

davs.

«/

On the morning of the first day, as the duke, accompanied by his staff, was rumbling through the forest in a light waggon of the country, he observed that he felt unwell, com- plained of a pain in his shoulder, and men-

Chap. VI

THE LONG TROT.

99

tioned to the officers who were with him that he had had great difficulty in drinking some hot wine and water that had been recom- mended to him.

On the evening of this day, he called the attention of a trusty servant who had been ac- companying him to an unfinished letter he had addressed to a member of his family at Quebec, and which the man was. to deliver when they all arrived there !

The next day he became so much worse, that some of his staff would fain have persuaded him to relinquish his expedition, and make for the St. Lawrence as the easier route to Quebec. He, however, determined to make his inspec- tion according to his appointments.

On the following day he was evidently ex- tremely unwell, and he so far consented to alter his plan, that he stopped short of the village he had intended to reach, in consequence of there being a swamp through which he would have had to walk.

Colonel ■ , therefore, went forward to

make preparations for the next day, and the duke remained all night at a cottage.

Colonel saw how ill he was, and ear-

f2

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nestly advised him to stop ; but the duke feeling unwilling to disappoint those who were to meet him, persisted in proceeding.

On the following morning he crossed the swamp ; and it was observed that whenever the water was disturbed he was very much agitated, and occasionally jumped upwards. On reaching

the settlement he was met by Colonel ,

who was struck with his altered looks and Humner, and begged him to endeavour to ob- tain some rest ; but he turned the subject by saying he should like to walk round the vil- lage, and he accordingly proceeded to do so.

, In the course of their walk they reached a small stream which crossed the road, on which the duke turned suddenly, and said to Co- lonel , that though he had never been

nervous, his feelings were then such that he could not cross it if his life depended on it. Nevertheless, though so ill, and though he was pressed to remain quiet, he persisted in desir- ing that he should not disappoint the chief officers of the settlement from dining with him, and begged they might be asked as usual.

To one of his party he calmly remarked, " You know, , I am in general not afraid

Chap, VI.

THE LONG TROT.

101

of a glass of wine, yet you will see with what difficulty I shall drink it." During dinner the duke asked this officer to take wine with him, and it was evident that from some unaccount- able reason it required the utmost resolution and effort on his part to bring the glass to his lips.

The party retired early, but as the duke, in consequence of certain feelings during the pre- ceding night, expressed a great horror and disinclination to go to bed, it was not till late that he did so.

Early the next morning he was found calmly finishing his letter to a member of his family, which he sealed, and then delivered to

Colonel , with a desire that it might be

delivered at Montreal, a request at the time utterly incomprehensible.

Colonel — — , on receiving this letter, natu- rally enough observed that they should all proceed there together ; on which the duke mildly but firmly observed, " It is no use de- ceiving you, I shall never go down there alive.9'

Colonel , considering this to be deli- rium, entreated him to remain quiet, and to send for medical advice. The duke, however,

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persisted in going as far as he could, and inquired what arrangements had been made for his proceeding to the Rideau Falls, where a birch canoe belonging to the North-west Com- pany was waiting for him.

In reply, he was informed that it was pro- posed he should go by himself in a small canoe down a little stream which meandered through the forest for some miles, after which he would have to ride and walk. The duke made some objection to the canoe, intimating that he did not believe he could get into it ; but he added, " If I fail you must force me" Now all this was deemed by the officers of his suite to be the ef- fect of over excitement, fatigue, and the extreme heat of the sun. However, after breakfast the duke's party, attended by all the principal in- habitants of the little settlement, walked down to this stream, where they found the canoe in waiting manned by a couple of half Indians.

After taking leave of the assembled party and attendants, the duke with an evident effort forced himself into the canoe, and he had scarcely sat down when the frail bark pushed off, and almost immediately afterwards was lost sight of in the dark forest.

Chap. VI.

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103

So remarkable however was the appearance and effort he had made in approaching and in seating himself in the canoe, that a gentleman present immediately exclaimed, " By Heavens ! gentlemen, the Duke of Richmond has the hy- drophobia J"

This appalling observation conveyed to the minds of his devotedly attached attendants the first intimation or suspicion of the awful fact which they had so unconsciously witnessed ; and then flashed upon them the various cor- roborating circumstances which for the few preceding days had been appearing to them unaccountable ; namely, the spasms he had suffered in drinking — his agitation in crossing the swamp — his inability to pass the stream, &c.

The agony of mind of the officers of his staff at such overwhelming intelligence was inde- scribable ; and while the object of all their thoughts was threading his way down the stream, they proceeded along a new road that had lately been cut through the forest to the point at which the Duke was to disembark.

They had proceeded about a mile, bewil- dered as to what possible course they should pursue, when to their horror they saw the

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Duke running with fearful energy across the path, and then dart onwards into the forest.

They immediately ran after him, but he went so fast that it was some time before he could be overtaken, and when he was — he was raving mad !

They secured him and held him down on a fallen tree for a considerable time. At last his consciousness returned, and the verv first use he made of it was to desire that they wrould take no orders from him, and that he would do whatever they determined for him.

What to do wTas of course a difficult point to settle ; they at last resolved to return to the settlement, and accordingly in that direction they all proceeded on foot.

Close to the settlement, they reached the little stream which he had arrived at the pre- vious day, and which he had told Colonel he could not cross.

At this point the duke stopped short, and turning round said, that as the last request he should have to make, he begged they would not require him to cross that stream, as he felt he could not survive the effort.

Under the difficult circumstances in which

Chap. VI.

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105

they were placed, they could not resist such an appeal, and they therefore turned back along the path which led into the forest not knowing where to go, or on what plan to proceed.

They at last arrived at the little shanty I have mentioned, and it being the only place of refuge for many miles, his staff requested the duke to remain there.

After looking at it for a short time, he said he would prefer to go into the barn rather than into the hovel, as he felt sure it was fur- ther from water. His attendants of course immediately assented to his wish, and he then sprang over a high fence and walked in.

He remained in that barn the whole day, occasionally perfectly collected, with intermis- sions of spasmodic paroxysms, which affected both mind and body.

Towards evening he consented to be moved into the hut, and accordingly such a bed as could be got ready was speedily prepared. The officers in attendance anxiously watched over him throughout the night, and he became so much more calm that they suffered them- selves to hope that he might recover.

The duke, however, who from many circum-

f3

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stances which afterwards transpired, must, for several days, have been clearly sensible not only of the nature of his malady, but that he could not survive it, was now perfectly aware of his approaching end, and accordingly, after calmly expressing to those around him that his greatest earthly consolation was that his title and name would be inherited by a son of whose character he declared the highest opinion and confidence, he died expressing calm resignation to the will of God, and without a struggle.

His body was brought down in a canoe from the Rideau to Montreal, where his family, who ha:d scarcely heard of his illness, had assem- bled to welcome his return ; and was subse- quently removed in a steamer to Quebec, where after lying in state for some days his remains were interred close to the Communion table in the cathedral of Quebec.

Nothing could exceed the affliction, not only of those immediately about him, but of the inhabitants of both Canadas, by whom he was universally beloved.

The bare facts of his illness, which I have purposely repeated as nearly as possible in the words in which I have often heard them

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

107

detailed by those on whose hearts his name is indelibly recorded, form the simplest and best evidence that could be offered of the un- exampled power of the human mind to meet with firmness and submission the greatest calamity which can assail the human frame.

As I remained for a few minutes on horse- back before the hovel which commemorates, on the continent of North America, the well- known facts I have just related, I deeply felt, and have ever since been of opinion, that there exists in the British peerage no name that is recollected in Canada by all parties with such affectionate regard as that noble Englishman and English nobleman, Charles Lennox, the late Duke of Richmond.

On my arrival at the Ottawa I received from a number of very intelligent persons much information, of which I had been igno- rant, respecting the lumber- trade, in which they were all very deeply engaged. I after- wards, for a considerable time, conversed with a gang of those fine athletic fellows who, under the appellation of " lumberers," transport an-

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aually immense quantities of valuable timber of all descriptions to the Ottawa, to be floated down that river for the markets of Europe.

A little above the picturesque city of Bytown, which appears to overhang the river, there are steep rapids and falls, by which the passage of this timber was seriously delayed. To obviate this, some capitalists constructed a very im- portant work, by which the torrent was first retained, and then conducted over a long pre- cipitous " slide " into the deep wrater beneath, along which it afterwards continued its unin- terrupted course.

Although the lumberers described to me with great eagerness the advantages of this work, I did not readily understand them ; in consequence of which they proposed that I should see a raft of timber descend the slide ; and as one was approaching I got into a boat, and rowing to the raft, I joined the two men who were conducting it, and my companions who had taken me to it then returned to the shore.

The scenery on both sides of the Ottawa is strikingly picturesque, and as the current hurried us along, the picture continually varied.

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

109

On approaching the slide, one of my two comrades gave me a staff about eight feet long, armed at one end with a sharp spike; and I then took up my position between them at what may be termed the stern end of the raft, which was composed of eight or ten huge trees, firmly connected together.

As soon as the raft reached the crest of the slide, its stem, as it proceeded, of course took leave of the water, and continued an indepen- dent horizontal course, until its w7eight over- balancing the stern, the raft, by tilting down- wards, adapted itself to the surface of the slide, and then with great velocity rushed with the stream to the water, which was boiling and breaking beneath.

During the descent, which was totally di- vested of all danger, I found that by sticking my staff into the timber, I had no difficulty whatever in retaining my position ; and al- though the foremost end of the raft disappeared in the deep water into which it had plunged, yet, like the head of a ship, it rose triumphantly above the breakers; and it had scarcely reco- vered, when the raft rapidly glided under a bridge, from the summit of which it received

110 THE LONG TROT. Chap. VI

three hearty cheers from my brother lumber- men, who had assembled there to see it pass.

We had been riding for several hours, when, as we were approaching the Rice Lake, we arrived about noon at the end of a long strag- gling village of Indians, on whose civilization much care and benevolent attention had been bestowed.

On this occasion I adopted the course I had pursued on reaching several other Indian settlements — namely, I requested our party to halt, and then, dismounting, I walked quietly by myself into every single habitation of the disjointed street, which extended upwards of half a mile.

By this means I managed to pay my red children a visit without being known to them, and consequently without in any way ruffling or rumpling the simple, placid habits of their life.

I found few at home except women and children; some of the former were dfessing their children, a few were playing with them,

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

Ill

and some were feeding the ravenous little things with spoons as large as a common saucer.

Many of the huts were clean and tidy ; and, as I was kindly received in all, I was well enough disposed to take a favourable view of the condition of their inmates. There was, however, something in the complexion of most of the children who were playing round the doors that completely divested the picture of the sentiment with which I was desirous to adorn it.

Whether eating rice had made all their faces white — what could have made so many of their eyes blue, or have caused their hair to curl, I felt it might be unneighbourly and ungrateful to inquire ; and yet these little alterations, in- significant as many may deem them to be, created in my mind considerable disappoint- ment ; indeed, I felt it useless to bother myself by considering whether or not civilization is a blessing to the red Indian, if the process prac- tically ends — as I regret to say it invariably does — by turning him white I

112

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After continuing my trot through the forest, during which I rode over a corduroy-bridge, so barely covered with loose poles that, as I crossed it, I could see the water of the torrent rushing beneath my horse's legs, I arrived early one fine morning at the head of the steep rapids of the Trent ; and, as I had had occasion to give considerable attention to one or two very expensive projects for improving the naviga- tion of that valuable river, I made the neces- sary arrangements for descending the declivity, in order that I might see what it really was.

The broad portion of the river before me was covered bv floating trees, and masses of large timber, which lumberers, many miles above, had committed to its waters, and which, unattended by any one, were now on their journey to a distant market.

This timber, in various groups, advancing sometimes endways, and sometimes sideways, came slowly towards us, until it reached the narrow crest of the declivity, when, just as if the bugle had sounded the word " canter /" away it started, to descend a crooked water- hill nine miles long.

A couple of full-blooded Indians had brought

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

113

on their shoulders to this spot a small bark- canoe, in which I had intended to have de- scended, as I had been strongly recommended, with no one but themselves. An English boy, however, who was with me looked so wistfully and so sorrowfully, that, when the moment came, I could not perpetrate the cruelty of leaving him behind; and I had scarcely nodded to him a reluctant assent, than I found him seated in ecstasy by my* side.

For a short time the Indians held on by the bank, to give respectful precedence to some timber which was approaching; however, so soon as they saw a space of clear water suf- ficiently large, they let go ; the canoe slowly followed the stream, until, reaching the crest of the rapids, over it went, and I need hardly add, away we went, on a little journey without any exception the most interesting I have ever enjoyed.

The declivity down which we were hurrying was apparently composed of large stones, some close to the surface, some two or three feet beneath it, over which the heavy mass of water flowed, rolled, and tumbled, excepting that occasionally, without apparent reason, it would

114

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in certain places stand still and boil. Every now and then, I thought our band-box must have been smashed to atoms ; but the old shaggy-headed Indian who was standing- at the prow, with calm dexterity guided us be- tween the stones, and then immediately with equal success, avoided " snags" and " sawyers," the former of which, fixed by one end to the bottom, presented the other at us, as if deter- mined to spit us.

But, besides the little local difficulties be- longing to the passage, we were often appa- rently on the very brink of engaging in a civil war with our fellow-travellers the floating tim- ber. Occasionally, these trees and rafts, as they were hurrying along before us, would strike against a rock, stop, stagger, and then, slowly reeling round, proceed, as if for a change, with their other ends foremost. During this very unpleasant operation, our placid pilots steered diagonally, to lose time, and thus pre- vent the canoe dashing against them. And yet we had not much time to dispose of, inas- much as the timber behind us, like irregular cavalry, was rapidly and confusedly following our rear. However, although to raw strangers

Chap. VI.

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115

like ourselves, the difficulties which preceded, followed, and environed us were apparently great, and really at times seemed to be almost insurmountable, yet the calm tranquil attitudes of the old Indian, as sometimes with a finger and sometimes with an elbow he would silently instruct his comrade in which direction to concur with him in steering, clearly proved that he was as much the master and com- mander of his frail bark as an experienced railway driver is of his locomotive-engine, or as the coachman of an English mail is of his cantering team.

Nevertheless, the interest of the voyage was beyond description, and as every second created something new to look at, and as there was nothing at all to talk about, in due time we reached still water, without the utterance, from the moment we had started, of a single word ; and as soon as we disembarked, we found our horses on the bank ready and waiting for us.

We had arrived very nearly at the eastern extremity of Upper Canada, and had been trotting for some time through the forest, when,

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ob reaching some cleared land, we found in the road, at some little distance, waiting to receive ns, a fine athletic body of men. The instant we reached them a bag-pipe gave us a hearty welcome ; and in a few moments, very much to my satisfaction, I found myself surrounded by the muscular frames and sinewy counte- nances of the Glengarry Highlanders.

About fifty years ago Bishop M'Donell brought one thousand eight hundred men of that name to the settlement which I had now reached, and their religion, language, habits, and honour have continued there ever since, unaltered, unadulterated, and unsullied. Their loyalty has always been conspicuous, and I need hardly say with what reverence they remember the distant land of their forefathers. In short, so far as I was competent to judge, there exists no difference whatever between these people and their clansmen in the old country, and they certainly most strongly ex- emplify the old remark —

" Coelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt."

I received from these fine fellows not only a hearty welcome, but every possible attention.

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

117

During the time I remained in the settlement a Highlander guarded the door of the house at which I stopped, and the piper, with no little pride, during the whole period continued marching up and down as he serenaded me with various tunes, the soul-inspiring meaning of which he no doubt considered that I as fully understood as himself.

As the inhabitants of the township of Glen- garry speak nothing but Gaelic, there exists scarcely a stranger among them ; and as their names are all alike, they must, one would think, occasionally have some difficulty in designating each other ; for instance, a cause was lately tried there in which not only the names of both plaintiff and defendant were M'Donell, but each had selected from the Canadian bar a counsel of that name ; the jury, twelve in number, were all M'Donells or M 'Donalds, and so were almost all the wit- nesses. The four members of Parliament for the county and town bear the same name ; their sheriff is a M'Donell, so is their vicar general, so are most of their priests, and so was their late bishop.

However, by whatever name they may be

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designated, the Glengarry Highlanders in Up- per Canada may well be proud of it.

They are devotedly attached to British in- stitutions, and when I had afterwards occasion to send them to Lower Canada to assist Sir J. Colborne, they showed the rebels in that pro- vince very clearly that Highland blood is not to be trifled with ; indeed there was so much of Rob Roy in their dispositions, that it is whispered of them that though they went down infantry they came back cavalry !

I at last reached the eastern extremities of the province, from whence I returned by the St. Lawrence, and from Kingston to Toronto in the steamer. The next summer I started on a similar tour through the western districts to the opposite boundary of Upper Canada. But my reader is no doubt tired unto death of my long trot, and therefore, without asking him to follow me throughout another one, rougher, if possible, than the last, I will only say, that the splendid region which lies between Toronto and Lake Huron contains the richest land on the continent of North America, and must

Chap. VI.

THE LONG TROT.

119

hereafter become one of the most favoured countries on the surface of the globe.

The enormous size of the trees clearly indi- cates the luxuriance of the earth in which they flourish, and although it is truly astonishing to observe how much has been done by the emi- grant, yet as a solitary example of what ample room there still is in this favoured spot for the redundant population of the mother country, I will state, that between Lakes Ontario and Huron there exist six million acres of uncleared land in one block !

The Crown lands of Canada, which, in my humble opinion, ought always to have been given to the British emigrant for nothing, or, to speak more correctly, as payment by the mother country for his courage, trouble, and expense in clearing them, can even now be purchased at about five shillings an acre.

An Irish gentleman, resident in Canada, was desirous to persuade his sons to work as back-woodsmen instead of frittering away their constitutions and money in luxuries and plea- sure; and as champagne costs in America something more than a dollar a bottle, when-

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ever this old gentleman saw his sons raise the bright sparkling mixture to their lips he used humorously to exclaim to them, " Ah, my

boys I there goes an acre of land, trees a**d

ALL !"

( 121 )

Chapter VII.

THE BARK CANOE.

I do not know at what rate in the eastern world the car of Juggernaut advances over its victims, but it has been roughly estimated that in the opposite hemisphere of America the population of the United States, like a great wave, is constantly rolling towards the west- ward, over the lands of the Indians, at the rate of about twenty miles per annum.

In our colonies the rights of the Indians have been more carefully attended to. The British Sovereign and British Parliament have faithfully respected them ; and as a very friendly feeling exists between the red men of the forest and their white brethren, our Governors have never found any difficulty in maintaining the title of "Father" by which the Indians invari- ably address them.

Yet notwithstanding this just feeling and this general desire of our countrymen to act

G

122

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Chap. VII.

kindly towards the Indians, it had for some time been in contemplation in Upper Canada to prevail upon a portion of them to dispose of their lands to the Crown, and to remove to the British Manitoulin Islands in Lake Huron.

When first I heard of this project, I felt much averse to it ; and by repeated personal in- spections of the territories in which they were located, took a great deal of pains to ascertain what was the real condition of the Indians in Canada, and whether their proposed removal would be advantageous to them, as well as to the province, and the result of my inqui- ries induced me, without any hesitation, to take the necessary steps for recommending to them to carry this arrangement into effect.

Whoever, by the sweat of his brow, culti- vates the ground, creates out of a very small area, food and raiment sufficient not only for himself, but for others ; whereas the man who subsists solely on game, requires even for his own family a large hunting ground. Now so long as Canada was very thinly peopled with whites, an Indian preserve, as large as one of our counties in England, only formed part and parcel of the great forest which was common

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to all, and thus, for a considerable time, the white men and the red men, without inconve- nience to each other, following their respective avocations, the latter hunted, while the former were employing themselves in cutting down trees, or in laboriously following the plough. In process of time, however, the Indian pre- serves became surrounded by small patches of cleared land ; and so soon as this was effected, the truth began to appear that the occupations of each race were not only dissimilar, but hos- tile to the interests of each other. For while the great hunting ground of the red man only inconvenienced the white settler, the little clearances of the latter, as if they had been so many chained-up barking dogs, had the effect of first scaring and then gradually cutting off the supplies of wild animals on whose flesh and skins the red race had been subsisting ; besides which, every trader that came to visit the dwell- ings of the white man, finding it profitable to sell whisky to the Indians, and the fatal re- sults of drunkenness, of small-pox, and other disorders combined, produced, as may be ima- gined, the most unfortunate results.

The remedy which naturally would first

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suggest itself to most men, and which actually did suggest itself to the minds of Sir Peregrine Maitland, Sir John Colborne, and other ad- ministrators of the Government who paid pa- rental attention to the Indians, was to induce them to give up their hunting propensities, and tether themselves to the laborious occupations of their white brethren. In a few cases, where the Indians, circumscribed by temptations such as I have described, had become a race of half- castes, the project to a certain degree succeeded ; but one might as well attempt to decoy a flight of wild fowl to the ponds of Hampstead Heath — one might as well endeavour to persuade the eagle to descend from the lofty region in which he has existed to live with the fowls in our court-yards, as to prevail upon the red men of North America to become what we call civilized ; in short, it is against their nature, and they cannot do it.

Having ascertained that in one or two parts of Upper Canada there existed a few Indians in the unfortunate state I have described, and having found them in a condition highlv de- moralized, and almost starving on a large block of rich valuable land, which in their possession

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was remaining roadless and stagnant, I deter- mined to carry into effect the project of my predecessors by endeavouring to prevail on these people to remove to the British Islands in Lake Huron, in which there was some game, and which were abundantly supplied with fish ; and with a view to introduce them to the spot, I caused it to be made known to the various tribes of Indians resident through- out the immense wilderness of Canada, that on a certain day of a certain moon, I would meet them in council, on a certain uninhabited island in Lake Huron, where they should receive their annual presents.

In the beginning of August, 1836, I ac- cordingly left Toronto, and with a small party crossed that most beautiful piece of water, Lake Simcoe, and then rode to Penetan- guishene Bay, from whence we were to start the next morning in bark canoes.

It was proposed that we should take tents ; but as I had had some little experience of the healthy enjoyment of an out-of-doors life, as well as of the discomfort of a mongrel state of existence, and as, to use the words of Baillie Nicol Jarvie, " a man canna aye carry at his

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tail the luxuries o' the Saut-market o' Glas- gow," I determined that, in our visit to our red brethren, we would adopt Indian habits, and sleep under blankets on the ground.

As soon as our wants were supplied, we embarked in two canoes, each manned by eight Lower Canadian Indians ; and when we got about a mile from the shore, nothing could be more beautiful than the sudden chorus of their voices, as, with their faces towards the prow, and with a paddle in their hands, keep- ing time with their song, they joyfully pushed us along.

For some hours we steered directly from the land, until, excepting the shore on our right, we could see nothing but the segment of a circle of blue water ; and as the wind became strong, as our canoes were heavily laden with provisions, portmanteaus, powder, shot, &c, I certainly for some time looked with very respectful attention to each waye, as one after another was seen rapidly and almost angrily advancing towards us ; but the Indian at the helm was doing exactly the same thing, and accordingly, whenever it arrived, the canoe was always precisely in the proper position to

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meet it ; and thus, sometimes to one tune, and sometimes to another, we proceeded under a splendid sky, through pure, exhilarating air, and over the surface of one of the most noble of those inland seas which in the Western hemi- sphere diversify the interminable dominions of the British crown.

Towards evening we steered for the belt of uninhabited islands on our right ; and as soon as the sun had nearly reached the magnificent newly-gilt clouds that for nearly an hour had been slowly rising from the horizon to receive it, our pilot advised us to disembark on one of these islands for the night.

The simple operation was soon effected ; in a few minutes our canoes were lying bottom up wards on the shore ; and while we, like Alonso and his crew, were strolling about our island, the Indians were busily occupied in preparing our supper. The manner in which one of them created a kitchen-fire was as follows : — As soon as sufficient sticks and wood had been collected, he made a nucleus of some of the finest fibres of birch-bark, around this he wound coarser ones, until the mass was the size of, and somewhat resembled, a small

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bird's-nest, in the middle of which he put a piece of vegetable tinder, which he had lighted by a flint and steel.

Holding the whole in his right hand, and with a countenance destitute of expression, he then began to make his arm rapidly vibrate.

In a few seconds there proceeded from the mass a little smoke, which rapidly increased until all of a sudden the whole substance, as if by magic, burst into flames; and the Indian then placing his handful of fire amongst the sticks already prepared, they burst into a blaze, and the fire was thus established.

While some of the Indians, stooping over and gliding around it, were cooking our supper, others were quietly occupied in preparing our beds, by snapping off the fresh elastic shoots of the spruce fir, upon which was. spread a blanket, over which two other blankets were suspended from a horizontal pole, in the an- gular form of a roof.

The next morning at daybreak we all arose from our lairs. The sky formed the painted ceiling of my dressing-room — Lake Huron my wash-hand basin ; and while in this state of magnificence I was arranging my toilette, eggs

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were spluttering in a frying-pan, a kettle sus- pended from a green bough was vigorously boiling, and in a few minutes a sumptuous breakfast was spread upon a piece of clean naked granite rock.

As soon as our meal was concluded we again embarked in our canoes, and, accompanied by a joyous song, echoing through the wild scenery around us, we proceeded to worm our way through the commencement of-— strange to say— upwards of twenty-five thousand little islands, which, like skirmishers thrown out in front of an army, guard the northern shore of Lake Huron.

Although these islands are composed of granite, they were all more or less covered with shrubs and trees ; and as we proceeded in our canoes it was truly astonishing to observe the intelligence with which the Indians conducted us through this labyrinth, from which there constantly appeared to be no exit ; however, whenever we expected that the canoes in a few seconds must inevitably be wrecked upon the rocks immediately before them, we all of a sudden came to an opening ; and, the wild fowl

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rising from the newly discovered water the instant they saw us, we proceeded along a new channel, which shortly led us to another ap- parent stand-still, and to another sudden open- ing ; and thus every moment were Nature's scene-shifters busily employed in changing the lovely pictures that were successively exhibited to us.

In consequence of the islands being com- posed of rock, the water which surrounded them was as clear as in the middle of the lake ; and as the air was equally pure, an effect was produced by these simple causes beautiful be- yond all powers of description.

Not only every tree and bush that was flourishing on the rocky edges of these islands, but the rocks themselves, were reflected so faithfully in the lake, that in the outline as well as colouring of these objects, we all re- peatedly observed there existed not the slightest distinction between the original and the picture ; excepting, indeed, that in the former the trees grew upwards, while in the lat- ter from the very same roots they grew down- wards : the back-ground of the picture was the

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dark blue sky, every cloud and feature of which appeared identical in the deep cerulean lake.

As we proceeded through this beautiful scenery, which in its shapes and colours changed as suddenly as the pieces of painted glass in a kaleidoscope, our party amused themselves, sometimes in shooting at flights of wild-fowl, which in their passage through the air, just clearing the trees of the islands, started from their course the instant they unexpectedly discovered our canoes beneath them ; at other times we employed ourselves in catching fish, not less beautiful to look at than to eat.

These occupations were occasionally en- livened, or, as it may be termed, set to music by the sudden choruses of the Indians, who with unabated steadiness continued to propel us ; and although the heat of the sun did not impede us, yet as it strengthened, and as the hours of their labour lengthened, the coun- tenances of these faithful beardless men began to show fatigue, and by mid-day they would appear nearly exhausted, when all of a sudden they would startle us by a simultaneous scream of " Widdy ! Widdy ! ! " caused by a rat, racoon,

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or some other description of game, the sight of which seemed completely to reanimate their frames for half an hour.

At about one o'clock we determined to com- mit two acts which, with Englishmen, always have been, are, and ever will be, inseparable — namely, to rest and eat, and accordingly, se- lecting an island for the purpose, the Indians landed, and we were preparing to follow them, when we perceived them retreating towards us backwards, striking with their arms as if they were boxing ! The enemy they were combat- ing was a swarm of musquitoes which had risen from a little swamp.

In general a musquito approaches his vic- tim as a Neapolitan approaches his inamorata, with a whining song, which resounds some- times near one ear, and sometimes near the other, until the capricious, timid, dainty little creature has determined on the exact spot on which he will alight; but the musquitoes which assailed our Indians, and which, as it were by the point of the bayonet, triumphantly drove us from the island, flew at us straight as bull-dogs, or as arrows from a bow : indeed, it evidently mattered not to them whether our faces were red, white, yellow, young, old,

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tender, or tough; for sick unto death of vegetable diet, all they wanted was warm blood.*

To escape from their intemperate desires, we paddled across to another island, which we found perfectly free from any assailant.

An uninhabited island has always in my mind possessed indescribable charms, and ac- cordingly while luncheon was preparing, con- stantly changing my mind, like an ant on its hillock, 1 rambled about in all directions, until in one of the most secluded parts of the island I came unexpectedly to the grave of one of the red aborigines of the land. It was composed of flat stones, piled in the shape of a coffin upon the clean granite rock. Within this quiet cell some Indians had deposited their departed comrade; and although our relative situations were different, inasmuch as I was

* An American living near the Grand River, Michigan, told the following story concerning the musquitoes : Being in the woods, he was one day so annoyed by them, that he took refuge under an inverted potash-kettle. His first emotions of joy at his happy deliverance and secure asylum were hardly over, when the musquitoes, having found him, began to drive their probosces through the kettle. Fortunately, he had a hammer in his pocket, and he clenched them down as fast as they came through, until at last such a host of them were fastened to the poor man's domi- cile, that they rose and flew away with it, leaving him shelterless !

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living and he dead, I felt, as I respectfully stood at his feet, that in the chancery of Heaven his title to the bare rock on which he lay was better than mine to the soil on which I stood ; and I might have carried my reflec- tions farther, had not one of my companions interrupted them by exclaiming to me, with a countenance in which the sentiments of joy and hunger appeared indissolubly united, " the fish is quite ready I " I will, therefore, en route to- wards the canoes, only observe, as a remarkable instance of the unwritten laws of honour which govern the Indians, that in these graves there are invariably deposited by their friends powder, shot, and other implements, to enable the de- parted warrior to hunt for game so soon as "The Great Spirit" shall bid him "arise!" and that although there are neither bars, nor bolts, nor sentinels to guard this property, it remains by the side of its owners, inviolable and unviolated.

For the remainder of the day we continued in uninterrupted solitude across large squares, and along streets, lanes, alleys of water, to thread our w7ay through an archipelago of little islands of various shapes and dimensions, until at sunset we disembarked on one containing

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about six acres, on which we were to stop for the night.

Before, however, we retired to rest — before the moon had risen, and while the stars alone enlivened the darkness that enveloped us, I accompanied my companions on a fishing ex- cursion.

At the head and stern of the canoe there stood, mute as a statue, an Indian, holding in his hand a long piece of birch-bark, which, as soon as all was ready, each of them set on fire. The effect of the blaze was strikingly pic- turesque. In an instant the darkness above and around us seemed, if possible, to increase ; and yet, while almost everything above water was thus shrouded from view, everything beneath its surface was as suddenly revealed to us as if the light of heaven had been transported from the firmament to the bottom of Lake Huron. Every fissure in the rock was visible, every little stone or stick at the bottom of the creek seemed to shine; and although there were neither " wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearls, nor unvalued jewels," yet we distinctly saw at different depths fishes of all ages and sizes, motionless, fast asleep, and ut-

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terly unconscious of the evil presence immedi- ately above them — of the Red Lords of creation, whose attitudes, as they either calmly held the flaming bark, or eagerly raised their sinewy arms to dart their spears, would have formed a picture of great interest.

The precision with which the Indians aimed their deadly blows was surprising ; indeed, they seldom missed, but, on the contrary, the instant their lithesome arms descended, the scales of their victim beneath them, by a sudden flash, told that the barb had fatally aroused him from his last slumber.

Our amusement, if such it may be termed, was suddenly stopped by some large heavy drops of rain, which, gravely admonishing us to return, the word was no sooner given than the flaring bark at each end of the canoe was dropped into the water; and thus the lurid picture it had been creating instantly vanished into utter darkness.

In a few minutes the rain fell in torrents, and continued throughout the whole night: however, my gipsey canopy kept me quite dry, and I never awoke until daylight.

The weather had then cleared up ; and shortly

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after sunrise we were once again to be seen continuing our paddling career.

The waters through which we steered our course appeared, if possible, to be bluer than ever; and the colouring was so strong, that, when leaning over the side of the canoe, -I dipped a tumbler into the lake, I could not help feeling surprised to find on raising it that the fluid it contained was bright, sparkling, and as clear as crystal.

At about eight o'clock several of our party began to talk openly about what all of us, I believe, had for some time been secretly think- ing of — our breakfast ; and, out of the innume- rable islands we were passing, we were looking for one to suit us, when smoke from an Indian's wigwam determined us to land on the spot he had chosen.

It was a heavenly morning; and I never remember to have beheld a homely picture of what is called "savage life" which gave me more pleasure than that which, shortly after I landed, appeared immediately before me.

On a smooth table rock, surrounded by trees and shrubs, every leaf of which had been washed by the night's rain as clean as it could

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have appeared on the day of its birth, there were seated in front of their wigwam, and close to a fire, the white smoke from which was gracefully meandering upwards through the trees, an Indian's family, composed of a very old man, two or three young ones, about as many wives, and a most liberal allowance of joyous-looking children of all ages.

The distinguishing characteristic of the group was robust, ruddy, healthy. More happy or more honest countenances could not exist ; and as the morning sun with its full force beamed on their shining jet-black hair and red coun- tenances, it appeared as if it had imparted to the latter that description of colour which it itself assumes in England when beheld through one of our dense fogs.

The family, wives, grandfather and all, did great credit to the young men by whose rifles and fishing tackle they had been fed. They were all what is called full in flesh ; and the Bacchus-like outlines of two or three little naked children, who with frightened faces stood looking at us, very clearly exclaimed in the name and on behalf of each of them, " Haven t I had a good breakfast this morning ? " In short,

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without entering into particulars, the little urchins were evidently as full of bear's flesh, berries, soup, or something or other, as they could possibly hold.

On our approaching the party, the old man rose to receive us ; and though we could only communicate with him through one of our crew, he lost no time in treating his white brethren with hospitality and kindness. Like ourselves, they had only stopped at the island to feed ; and we had scarcely departed when we saw the paddles of their canoes in motion, following us.

Whatever may be said in favour of the u blessings of civilization," yet certainly in the life of a red Indian there is much for which he is fully justified in the daily thanksgivings he is in the habit of offering to "the Great Spirit." He breathes pure air, beholds splendid scenery, traverses unsullied water, and subsists on food which, generally speaking, forms not only his sustenance, but the manly amusement, as well as occupation, of his life.

In the course of the day we saw several Indian families cheerily paddling in their canoes towards the point to which we were

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proceeding. The weather was intensely hot ; and though our crew continued occasionally to sing to us, yet by the time of sunset they were very nearly exhausted.

During the night it again rained for seven or eight hours ; however, as is always the case, the wetter our blankets became the better they excluded the storm.

As we were now within eight or ten miles of our destination, and had therefore to pay a little extra attention to our toilette, we did not start next morning until the sun had climbed many degrees into the clear blue sky ; however, by about eight o'clock we once again got into our canoes, and had proceeded about an hour, when our crew, whose faces, as they propelled us, were always towards the prow, pointed out to us a canoe ahead, which had been lying still, but which was now evidently paddling from us with unusual force, to announce our ap- proach to the Indians, who from the most remote districts had, according to appointment, congregated to meet us.

In about half an hour, on rounding a point of land, we saw immediately before us the great Manitoulin Island ; and, compared with

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the other uninhabited islands through which we had so long been wandering, it bore the appearance of a populous city ; indeed, from the innumerable threads of white smoke which in all directions, curling through the bright green foliage, were seen slowly escaping into the pure blue air, this place of rendezvous was evidently swarming alive with inhabitants, who, as we approached, were seen hurrying from all points towards the shore; and by the time we arrived within one hundred and fifty yards of the island, the beach for about half a mile was thronged with Indians of all tribes, dressed in their various costumes : some displayed a good deal of the red garment which nature had given to them ; some were partially covered with the skins of wild animals they had slain ; others were enveloped in the folds of an English white blanket, and some in cloth and cottons of the gaudiest colours.

The scene altogether was highly picturesque, and I stood up in the canoe to enjoy it, when all of a sudden, on a signal given by one of the principal chiefs, every Indian present levelled his rifle towards me ; and from the centre to both extremities of the line there

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immediately irregularly rolled a feu-de-joie, which echoed and re-echoed among the wild uninhabited islands behind us.

As soon as I landed I w7as accosted by some of the principal chiefs ; but from that native good breeding which in every situation in which they can be placed invariably distin- guishes the Indian tribes, I was neither hustled nor hunted by a crowd ; on the contrary, during the three davs I remained on the island, and after I was personally known to every individual upon it, I was enabled, without any difficulty or inconvenience, or without a single person following or even stopping to stare at me, to wander completely by myself among all their wigwams.

Occasionally the head of the family would rise and salute me, but generally speaking, I received from the whole group what I valued infinitely more — a smile of happiness and con- tentment ; and when I beheld their healthy countenances and their robust active frames, I could not help feeling how astonished people in England would be if they could but behold, and study, a state of human existence in which every item in the long list of artificial luxuries

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which they have been taught to venerate is utterly unknown, and, if described, would be listened to with calm inoffensive indifference, or with a smile approaching very nearly to the confines of contempt ; but the truth is, that between what we term the civilized portion of mankind, and what we call " the savage," there is a moral gulf which neither party can cross, or, in other words, on the subject of happiness, they have no ideas with us in common. For instance, if I could suddenly have transported one of the ruddy squaws before me to any of the principal bedrooms in Grosvenor Square, her first feeling on entering the apartment would have been that of suffocation from heat and impure air; but if, gently drawing aside the thick damask curtains of a four-post bed, I had shown her its young aristocratic inmates fast asleep, protected from every breath of air by glass windows, wooden shutters, holland blinds, window-curtains, hot bed-clothes, and beautiful fringed night-caps, — as soon as her smile had subsided, her simple heart would have yearned to return to the clean rocks and pure air of Lake Huron ; and so it would have been if I could suddenly have transported any of the

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young men before me to the narrow contracted hunting-grounds of any of our English country gentlemen ; indeed an Indian would laugh outright at the very idea of rearing and feeding game for the sake of afterwards shooting it ; and the whole system of living, house-fed, in gaiters, and drinking port wine, would to his mind appear to be an inferior state of happiness to that which it had pleased " the Great Spirit" to allow him to enjoy.

During the whole evening, and again early the next morning, I was occupied in attending to claims on the consideration of the British Government which were urged by several of the tribes, and in making arrangements with some of our ministers of religion of various sects, who, at their own expense, and at much inconvenience, had come to the island.

At noon I proceeded to a point at which it had been arranged that I should hold a council with the chiefs of all the tribes, who, according to appointment, had congregated to meet me ; and on mv arrival there I found them all assembled, standing in groups, dressed in their finest costumes, writh feathers waving on their heads, with their faces painted, half-painted,

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quarter-painted, or one eye painted, according to the customs of their respective tribes, while on the breasts and arms of most of the oldest of them there shone resplendent the silver gorgets and armlets which in former years had been given to them by their ally — the British Sovereign.

After a few salutations it was proposed that our Council should commence ; and accord- ingly, while I took possession of a chair which the Chief Superintendent of Indian affairs had been good enough to bring for me, the chiefs sat down opposite to me in about eighteen or twenty lines parallel to each other.

For a considerable time we indolently gazed at each other in dead silence. Passions of all sorts had time to subside ; and the judgment, divested of its enemy, was thus enabled calmly to consider and prepare the subjects of the ap- proaching discourse ; and as if still further to facilitate this arrangement, " the pipe of peace" was introduced, slowly lighted, slowly smoked by one chief after another, and then sedately handed to me to smoke it too. The whole assemblage having, in this simple manner, been solemnly linked together in a chain of

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friendship, and as it had been intimated to them by the Superintendent that I was ready to consider whatever observations any of them might desire to offer, one of the oldest chiefs arose ; and, after standing for some seconds erect, yet in a position in which he was evidently perfectly at his ease, he commenced his speech — translated to me by an interpreter at my side — by a slow, calm expression of thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for having safely conducted so many of his race to the point on which they had been requested to assemble. He then, in very appropriate terms, expressed the feelings of attachment which had so long connected the red man with his Great Parent across the Salt Lake ; and after this exordium, which in composition and mode of utterance would have done credit to any legislative assembly in the civilized world, he proceeded, with great calmness, by very beau- tiful metaphors, and by a narration of facts it was impossible to deny, to explain to me how gradually and — since their acquaintance with their white brethren — how continuously the race of red men had melted, and were still melting, like snow before the sun. As I did not take

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notes of this speech, or of those of several other chiefs who afterwards addressed the Council, I could only very inaccurately repeat them. Besides which, a considerable portion of them related to details of no public importance: I will therefore, in general terms, only observe, that nothing can be more interesting, or offer to the civilized world a more useful lesson than the manner in which the red aborigines of America, without ever interrupting each other, conduct their Councils.

The calm, high-bred dignity of their de- meanour— the scientific manner in which they progressively construct the framework of what- ever subject they undertake to explain — the sound arguments by which they connect, as well as support it — and the beautiful wild flowers of eloquence with which, as they proceed, they adorn every portion of the moral architecture they are constructing, form alto- gether an exhibition of grave interest ; and yet, is it not astonishing to reflect that the orators in these Councils are men whose lips and gums are — while they are speaking — black from the wild berries on which they have been subsist- ing— who have never heard of education —

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never seen a town — but who, born in the secluded recesses of an almost interminable forest, have spent their lives in either fol- lowing zigzaggedly the game on which they subsist through a labyrinth of trees, or in paddling their canoes across lakes, and among a congregation of islands such as I have de- scribed !

They hear more distinctly — see farther — smell clearer — can bear more fatigue — can subsist on less food — and have altogether fewer wants than their white brethren ; and yet, while from morning till night we stand gazing at our- selves in the looking-glass of self-admiration, we consider the red Indian of America as " outside barbarians."

But I have quite forgotten to be the Hansard of my own speech at the Council, which was an attempt to explain to the tribes assembled the reasons which had induced their late "Great Father" to recommend some of them to sell their lands to the Provincial Government, and to remove to the innumerable islands in the waters before us. I assured them that their titles to their present hunting-grounds re- mained, and ever would remain, respected and

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undisputed ; but that, inasmuch as their white brethren had an equal right to occupy and cul- tivate the forest that surrounded them, the consequence inevitably would be to cut off their supply of wild game, as I have already described. In short, I stated the case as fairly as I could; and, after a long debate, suc- ceeded in prevailing on the tribe to whom I had particularly been addressing myself to dispose of their lands on the terms I had pro- posed ; and whether the bargain was for their weal or woe, it was, and, so long as I live, will be, a great satisfaction to me to feel that it was openly discussed and agreed to in pre- sence of every Indian tribe with whom Her Majesty is allied ; for, be it always kept in mind, that while the white inhabitants of our North American Colonies are the Queen's subjects, the red Indian is by solemn treaty Her Majesty's ally.

As soon as the council was over, the super- intendent of Indian affairs proceeded to deliver to the tribes assembled their annual " presents," or, as they might more justly be termed, " tri- butes ;" and before evening many a happy squaw grinned approbation of the bright,

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gaudy, glittering ornaments, white blankets, &c, which adorned her wigwam.

The next day, after I had been occupied some hours in business of detail, the whole of the Indian chiefs and young men who were on the island assembled to take part in some Olympic games which I had directed to be prepared for them, and which appeared to give them indescribable delight.

We had prizes for archery, prizes for rifle shooting — at both of which sports, or rather professions, for they exist by them, the Indians highly excel.

We had then canoe races, and last of all swimming races.

For the latter none but the very strongest and most active of their young men competed.

The candidates, about twenty in number, assembled in line on the beach about fifty yards from the waters of the blue lake, which, without a ripple on its lovely countenance, lay sleeping before them. Their anxiety to start was clearly evident from the involuntary movement of little tell-tale muscles on their cheeks, red arms, backs, and straight legs ; in short, they stood trembling, now in one part, now in another,

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like young horses by the side of a cover in England which hounds are drawing.

As soon as the signal rifle was fired, off they started at their utmost speed ; and certainly nothing could be finer than to see them, like so many Newfoundland dogs, dash into and then hop, skip, and jump through the water, until the first strike of their extended arms showed that they had taken leave of the bottom, and were, comparatively speaking, tranquilly afloat.

The whoop and encouragement of their respective friends, as sometimes turning one cheek upwards and sometimes the other, they gallantly stemmed through the water towards a canoe lying about half a mile from the shore, were highly exhilarating ; and the excitement increased, as first two or three jet-black heads, and then four or five more rounding the canoe, suddenly changed into as many blood-red faces strenuously approaching a prize which had been selected as not only the most appropriate but the most encouraging — namely, a horizontal pole covered from end to end with glass beads for young squaws.

The eye of every swimmer as he advanced

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appeared eagerly fixed upon the glittering- prize, which no doubt his heart had already destined for the object or objects of his affec- tion ; however, in all regions of the globe human hopes are eggs that very often indeed turn out to be addled ; and thus it was with the hopes of the swimmers before us. The race was what is termed excellent ; indeed the struggle was so severe that half a dozen of the leading swimmers might, to use a sporting phrase, " have been covered with a sheet ;" the consequence of which was, that they came within their depths at the same moment, and they were no sooner on their feet than, with uplifted arms, tearing and splashing through the shallow water, they rushed to the beach, then onwards to their goal; and arriving there nearly together, they knocked pole and pole-holders head over heels on the ground, and then throwing them- selves upon them they crushed all the beautiful glass beads to atoms !

" The lovely toys, so keenly sought, Thus lost their charms by being caught."

The young squaws for whom the prize had been destined, had they been present, might no doubt have drawn a useful moral from the

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result. The catastrophe, however, was really most tragical, and was so deeply affecting that, to restore sunshine after the storm, I ordered the pole to be refitted with beads, to be fairly divided among the young conquerors ; and in- deed, to tell the truth, I took care that even the squaws of the defeated should have some reason to be thankful for the exertions that had been made in their behalf.

While the excitement caused by these little games was at its height, we managed, unper- ceived, to get into our canoes, and to paddle homewards. As our duty was over, we had plenty of time to shoot and fish as we pro- ceeded. Our days were passed in meandering under a clear sky, through the beautiful islands I have described, and on which, at night, we slept as before. The expedition was altoge- ther a most delightful one : wholesome exer- cise for the body, healthy recreation for the mind ; and I certainly returned to my daily work at Toronto considerably stronger than when I had left it to make my visit to that simple, high-bred, and virtuous race of men, the red aborigines of the forest.

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Chapter VIII.

THE FLARE-UP.

This chapter contains a few trifling details of events with the outlines of which the public is already acquainted.

As soon as Mr. McKenzie, Dr. Duncombe, Mr. Robert Baldwin, Mr. Speaker Bidwell, Dr. Rolph, and other nameless demagogues found that their demand for " responsible govern- ment " was repudiated by the people of Upper Canada, to whom they had appealed ; that in consequence of their having made this de- mand they had lost their elections, and that their seats in the Commons' House of Assembly were filled up with loyal men, opposed to the revolutionary innovation they had desired to effect, it was naturally to be expected that they would have given up a political contest in which it was evident that they had morally, been completely and irretrievably defeated.

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In England, where the popular voice is a many-stringed instrument composed of fund- holders, landowners, churchmen, statesmen, shipowners, manufacturers, independent la- bourers, and paupers, it is quite impossible that any measure can be approved of by all these different and conflicting interests ; but in the back-woods of North America these arti- ficial distinctions do not exist; and as almost universal suffrage prevailed in Upper Canada, it must have been evident to Messrs. Baldwin, Bidwell, Rolph, and Mr. McKenzie, as it was to me, that the moral opinion against respon- sible government, which had been constitution- ally declared by the free and independent electors of the province, was identical with the physical force with which, if necessary, it would be resisted by them ; and when it is considered that the physical strength of the British empire, and that the bayonets of the Queen's troops were ready to join this prepon- derating force, I perhaps ought to have sus- pected, from the mere fact of a few fundless demagogues holding out against such odds, that they were encouraged to do so by the Government and by the people of the United

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States. The idea, however, never for a mo- ment entered my mind : my council was com- posed of men of great sagacity, high character, and prudence ; yet no one among them fore- saw or even suspected danger from our neigh- bouring ally. Mr. Ex-Speaker Bidwell and his comrades, however, well enough knew whose expectations they were fulfilling, and to whom they were to look for reward ; and accord- ingly, so soon as all hope of being re-elected to the legislature ceased, Mr. McKenzie com- menced a set of operations against me which I felt at the time could only be compared to the antics which Robinson Crusoe's man Friday played off upon the poor bear.

The course of policy which I had determined to pursue — whether right or wrong it now matters not — was at all events a plain one. For upwards of two years I had occupied myself in ascertaining the real sentiments of the people whom it was my fate to govern, and the result of this minute investigation having been most powerfully corroborated by the late elections, I felt that I might confidently await the hour, should it ever arrive, in which it would be my duty to call upon the brave and

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loyal inhabitants of Upper Canada to rally round me to suppress rebellion, and, above all, to resist the smallest attempt to introduce that odious principle of " responsible government" which a few republicans in the province had been desirous to force upon them.

Now this course of policy, which it will be perceived treated Mr. McKenzie with abject contempt, was exactly that which he was par- ticularly desirous I should not pursue ; for he felt, and justly felt, that as a political mounte- bank, it was no use at all for him to be every day performing dangerous tricks unless he could assemble an audience, and he therefore resolved to do everything he could to force me to patron- ise or bring him into notice ; and so, first, he wrote, and then he printed, and then he rode, and then he spoke, stamped, foamed, wiped his seditious little mouth, and then spoke again ; and thus, like a squirrel in a cage, he continued with astonishing assiduity the centre of a revo- lutionary career, until many, bewildered by his movements, wondered that I did not begin to follow his example and do the same ; and, indeed, by several I was seriously blamed for what they were pleased to term " supineness"

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As soon, however, as Mr. McKenzie found that his poisonous prescriptions would not ope- rate upon me, he resolved to strengthen the dose, and he accordingly issued placards an- nouncing monster-meetings, at which speeches, very nearly approaching to sedition and trea- son, were uttered, and the next morning printed and published in his newspaper.

These proceedings and these newspapers were brought to me by many of my best sup- porters, who, with feelings more or less excited, expressed in unexceptionable terms their dis- approbation of the course I was pursuing.

Mr. McKenzie's next step was to prevail upon his followers to assemble at their meet- ings with " loaded fire-arms," and under the pretence of shooting at pigeons, they were ad- vised in placards to bring bullets, and * to keep their powder dry."

This measure of course increased to a very considerable degree the unpopularity of the course I was pursuing ; and many declaring to me they were in bodily fear, and whose countenances truly enough certified the state- ment, called at Government House to entreat me, in justice to the loyal inhabitants of the

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province, to arrest Mr. McKenzie for high treason ; a recommendation in which people of almost all classes appeared to concur.

It was from no feeling of obstinacy, but after the most deliberate reflection, that I declined to adopt the proceedings suggested to me.

I need hardly say I was as anxious to incar- cerate Mr. McKenzie, and as willing to dis- perse illegal assemblages as any who advocated these measures. But I had no troops, no physical force but that which is the represent- ative of moral justice. Many people have blamed, and I believe still blame me, for hav- ing, as they say, " sent the troops out of the province." I however did no such thing. Sir John Colborne, the Commander of the Forces in Canada, felt that he required the whole of them to defend the lower province, and deem- ing the moral power which he saw I possessed sufficient, he offered me a couple of companies only, and then, without consulting me, recalled the whole of the remainder of the troops.

Considering that Upper Canada was larger in surface than England and Wales, I felt that I should gain more by throwing myself entirely upon the militia, than by keeping

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these two companies ; and Sir John Colborne fully concurring- in this opinion, he acceded to my request, and accordingly by recalling them enormously increased my power.

Being thus without troops, I felt that ev^n if I had wished to commit an arbitrary act, it would not be prudent for me to attempt to seize Mr. McKenzie until he had advanced within the short clumsy clutches of the law ; and as I had long ago directed, and was re- minding daily the Queen's Attorney-General, Mr. Hagerman, to report to me whenever that moment should have arrived, I had no alterna- tive but to set law and justice at defiance,, or, regardless of clamour, to await until in the sacred name of both I could seize my victim.

But I had another most powerful reason, which, though well understood in Canada, and most particularly by Mr. McKenzie, was from fear and excitement insufficiently appreciated by those who were blaming me.

Upon the loyalty of the province I well knew I had every reason to rely ; yet it was equally well known to me that the militia of Canada are men whose time cannot with im* punity be trifled with.

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They always have been, and always will be, ready to turn out when required ; but the ad- ministrators of the government of our North American provinces should ever beware of keeping these men — I may truly say these gentlemen — away from their farms and families, doing nothing.

Now, Mr. McKenzie knew this well enough, and, inasmuch as his crafty pigeon-shooting policy was to force me to call out the militia, send them back, call them out again, send them back again, until, when the moment of his real attack should arrive, I might, like the shepherd- boy in the fable, in all probability have called for assistance in vain ; so, on the other hand, my antagonist policy was to refuse to harass the militia, to show them that my supineness only appeared great because my reliance upon them was great ; and thus, repressing rather than exciting their ardour, to wait until I really wanted their services, and then, pointing to the rebels, to bid them " make short work of 'em, and then go back home."

For these reasons 1 adhered to my determi- nation. Those who were alarmed looked to me; I looked to the Attorney-General; he

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continued silent, and I therefore remained (for which by people in England who did not under- stand my difficulties I have occasionally been much blamed) "with folded arms."

But during the suspense in which I was thus placed, there was another path by which Mr. McKenzie endeavoured by every exertion in his power to assail me.

A servant girl had poisoned her mistress, for which offence she had been arrested, tried, and condemned to death. I believe a female had never before been executed in Upper Canada, besides which, she was young and beautiful. All these circumstances combined, naturally enough interested many in her favour, and a petition was addressed to me, praying that her life might be spared.

I need not say that I fervently joined in the prayer, and with that feeling I forwarded it to Chief- Justice Robinson, and to the judges for their report. The subject received their most serious attention ; but inasmuch as there was nothing in the evidence upon which the young woman had been convicted that cast the slightest shadow of doubt upon her guilt, or which offered the smallest excuse for the deli-

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berate murder she had committed, they sub- mitted to me a detailed report of their notes, almost without comment. *

As soon as, by the advice of my council, I had declined to accede to the prayer of this petition, Mr. McKenzie felt that a great com- motion might easily be produced ; and as a number of the best men in the province con- sented to be agitators in such a cause, the excitement extended ; and as the hour of re- bellion in both provinces was evidently ap- proaching, many who might have judged better joined in petitioning and in advising me, as a matter of " policy," to grant a reprieve. I again consulted the judges; but with that calm integrity which has always distinguished their leader, he merely repeated what he had written. The executive council, much to their credit, remained firm in the opinion they had ex- pressed ; and as the moment was one in which the smallest concession to clamour, the slightest departure from sound principles, the most trifling attempt to conciliate opponents whom it was my duty to defy, probably would, and at all events might, have been productive of serious results, I declared, with feelings which

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I need not describe, that the sentence was irre- vocable, and that the law was to take its course — as indeed it did — at Toronto.

Mr. McKenzie immediately perceived that he had better make the execution of this }rourig girl the moment of his outbreak. He accord- ingly made arrangements for concealing arms in the town, and for an assemblage of all his deluded followers, who were to enter the city under the excuse of witnessing the execution. They were then to come to Government House to petition in her favour, " dispose" of me, save the girl, plunder the banks, seize the govern- ment muskets, &c.

If Mr. McKenzie had, after concocting this plan, remained quiet, a number of very fine fellows would no doubt, under the impulse of the moment, have felt themselves justified in rescuing a young woman from a horrid and ignominious death ; and when once the authorities were overcome, considerable mis- chief might have ensued until the yeomen and farmers forming the militia had had time to advance ; but in the madness of his guilt he wanted method, and his conduct became so out- rageous, that without being aware of his plot,

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I made arrangements for calling out at a mo- ment's warning a small portion of the militia.

The instant this order was issued, Mr. McKenzie clearly saw that, although I could remain doing nothing, he could not He there- fore, in the following number of his newspaper, published a list of nineteen successful strikes for freedom which had taken place in the his- tory of the world, and in very plain language called upon his followers to follow these glo- rious examples.

The Attorney-General, who with calm un- remitting attention had been watching the eccentric movements of this contemptible de- magogue, now called upon me to report that Mr. McKenzie had at last crossed the line of demarcation, and that he was within the reach and power of British law.

1 instantly assembled my council, and with their advice I directed the Attorney-General to lose not a moment in arresting Mr. McKenzie for high treason ; but he had all along under- stood his position as clearly as the legal ad- viser to the Crown, and accordingly, at the very instant I was ordering his apprehension, he had fled from Toronto, had assembled his fol-

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lowers, and as a leader of a band of rebels, armed with loaded rifles and pikes, he was advancing to attack Toronto.

About a mile from Toronto, on the edge of a lonely cliff which overhangs the beautiful waters of Lake Ontario, there had been constructed many years ago a weak fort in which a regiment of the line had always been quartered. As soon as Mr. McKenzie commenced the agitation I have just described, I requested the officer of engineers of the district to strengthen this fort by every means in his power ; and accordingly its earth-works were surrounded by a couple of lines of palisadoes, the barracks were loop- holed, the magazine stockaded, and a company of Toronto militia were lodged in a corner of the barracks.

Although, however, I made these prepara- tions, and also took the necessary precautions for preventing Government House from being carried by surprise, I secretly resolved, that on the breaking out of the rebellion which had already commenced in Lower Canada, and which I was quite aware would sooner or later

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take place in the Upper Province, I would take up my position in the market-place of Toronto, instead of retiring, as it was expected I would, to this fort. For although I was a commander without troops, I had served long enough in the corps of engineers to know — first, that there exists in warfare no more dangerous trap than a fortress too large for its garrison ; and se- condly, that there is no hold against a rabble more impregnable than a substantial isolated building, well loop-holed, swarming alive with men, and containing, hidden within its portal of entrance — as the market-house of Toronto did contain — a couple of six-pounders with plenty of grape-shot, as also about four thou- sand stand of arms, with bayonets, belts, ball cartridges, &c.

I submit to the opinion of any military man of experience, that such a position, within a couple of hundred yards of my own house, was not only perfectly adequate to any attack I could possibly have to expect, but that it was infinitely better adapted for defence by the militia of Upper Canada than a circumvalla- tion of low earth-works, situated nearly a mile from any human habitation, and immediately bounded on one side by the forest. Besides

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which, in the moral contest in which I was about to be engaged, I should have been out of my proper element in a military fort : for as my army — if I was to have any — were the peo- ple of Upper Canada, my proper position was, without metaphor, in the heart of their capital ; and I therefore submit, that if I had abandoned Toronto, I should have deserted my post.

I state these few explanatory details, because in Canada, as well as in England, many people very kindly disposed towards me, but unversed in the rudiments of war, have considered that I was very nearly taken by surprise ; whereas, the truth is, that if Mr. McKenzie had con- ducted his gang within pistol-shot of the market-house, the whole of the surprise would have belonged to him.

I had taken to bed a bad sick head-ache, and at midnight of the 4th of December, was fast asleep with it, when I was suddenly awakened by a person who informed me that Mr. McKen- zie was conducting a large body of rebels upon Toronto, and that he was within two or three miles of the city.

A few faithful friends kindly conducted my

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family to a place of safety, and eventually to a steamer floating in the harbour, and while they were proceeding there, I walked along King Street to the position I had prepared in the market-house.

The stars were shining bright as diamonds in the black canopy over my head. The air was intensely cold, and the snow-covered planks which formed the footpath of the city creaked as I trod upon them. The principal bell of the town was, naturally enough, in an agony of fear, and her shrill, irregular, mono- tonous little voice, strangely breaking the serene silence of night, was exclaiming to the utmost of its strength — " Murder I Murder I Murder I and much worse I J"

As soon as I reached the market-house I found assembled there the armed guard of the town, and a small body of trusty men, among whom were the five judges, a force quite suffi- cient to have repelled and punished any attack which we were likely at that moment to expect.

We, however, lost no time in unpacking cases of muskets and of ball cartridges, and in distributing them to those who kept joining our party. That, however, among us we had

i

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Chip. VIII.

at least one whose zeal exceeded his discretion, I soon learned by a musket-ball, which, passing through the door of a small room in which I was consulting with Judge Jones, stuck in the wall close beside us.

In a verv short time we organized our little force, and as we had detached, in advance, piquets of observation, to prevent our being surprised, we lay down on the floor to sleep.

About eight o'clock in the morning I in- spected my followers in the square in which the market-house stands. We were of course a motley group. I had a short double-bar- relled gun in my belt and another on my shoulder. The Chief Justice had about thirty rounds of ball-cartridge in his cartouch, the rest of the party were equally well armed, and the two six-pounders were comfortably filled with grape-shot.

Still, however, our " family compact" was but a small one, and as Mr. McKenzie's forces were much exaggerated, and as. Rumour, with her usual positiveness, of course declared that rebels were flocking to him by hundreds from all directions, and as he had already committed murder, arson, and robbery to a considerable

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171

amount, it was evident to us all that a problem of serious importance to the civilized world was about to be solved.

In one of my printed proclamations I had lately said — " The people of Upper Canada detest democracy, revere their Constitutional Charter, and are staunch in allegiance to their King." Was the publication of these words by me an empty bluster, or a substantial truth ? Again, in reply to the demand for " responsible government," I had stated that " I had not the power to alter the Constitution of the province, and that, if I had the power, I had not the will." Was that despotic declaration now to be revenged, or would the farmers and yeomen of the province rise en masse to maintain it ? The result of the late election, and of the ob- servations I had been enabled to make in my tours through the province, had convinced me that the people of Upper Canada preferred the freedom of monarchy to the tyranny of demo- cracy ; but would they, in the depth of winter, leave their farms and families, to substantiate this theory ? Would they, unsolicited by me, risk their lives in its defence? I knew that they ought — I firmly believed that they would.

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If they did, the triumph of British institutions over the new-fangled demand for " responsible government 99 would be unanswerable. If they did not, I felt that the hour for the legitimate repudiation by the mother-country of her North American colonies would have arrived, and that, whatever penalty I individually might have to pay, no man could reasonably condemn me for having maintained, on the soil of America, so long as I was able, and without concession, the supremacy of British institu- tions. Impressed with this latter opinion, I fancied that my mind was perfectly tranquil, and in this state I passed the day, which was occasionally enlivened by an alarm that the rebels were advancing upon us, and which of course caused every barricadoed window to be suddenly bristled with the muzzles of loaded muskets, " like quills upon the fretful por- cupine."

The sun set without our receiving succour, or any intimation of its approach. My confi- dence, however, on the people of Upper Canada still remained in the zenith, and I have now the pleasure to show that in that position it was not misplaced.

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At two o'clock in the afternoon, Sir Allan MacNab received intelligence, at Hamilton, a considerable town at the head of Lake Ontario, and situated about forty-five miles from Toronto, that I was in the market-place, invested by Mr. McKenzie and his band of rebels.

He immediately mounted his horse and rode to the wharf, seized a steamer that was lying there, put a guard on board of her, despatched messengers in various directions to the Canadian farmers, yeomen, &c, in his neighbourhood, and at five o'clock sailed, with the vessel heavily laden with " the men of Gore," upwards of a thousand of whom had but lately spontaneously proceeded to Toronto to express to Sir John Colborne their abhorrence of a letter published by a certain member of the British House of Commons, in which he had designated their glorious connexion with Great Britain as " the baneful domination of the mother country"

In all parts of the provinces similar exertions were made; and thus without a moment's delay whole companies, small detachments, straggling parties, and individuals, without waiting to congregate, had left their farms and families,

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and were converging in the dark through the forest, from all directions, upon the market- place of Toronto. Poor fellows ! they could not, however, compete with the power of steam, and accordingly the " men of Gore" first came to the goal for which all were striving.

I was sitting by tallow-candle light in the large hall, surrounded by my comrades, when we suddenly heard in the direction of the lake shore a distant cheer. In a short time, two or three people rushing in at the door, told us that " a steamer full of the men of Gore had just arrived !" an