Near the shore, is a grey clay, full of ferruginous cracks, and pierced by worms. The holes are small, perpendicular, and big enough to admit a middling pin. Their sides are likewise ferruginous, and half-petrified; and where the clay has been washed away by the water, the rest looks like ocker-coloured stumps of tobacco-pipe tubes. [224]
At noon we left Petite Riviere, and continued our journey towards St. Joachim.
Between Petite Riviere, which lies in a little bay, and St. Joachim, the western shore of the river St. Lawrence consists of prominent mountains, between which there are several small bays. They have found, by long experience, that there is always a wind on these mountains, even when it is calm at Petite Riviere. And when the wind is pretty high at the last-mentioned place, it is not adviseable to go to Quebec in a boat, the wind and waves, in that case, being very high near these mountains. We had at present an opportunity of experiencing it. In the creeks between the mountains, the water was almost quite smooth; but on our coming near one of the points formed by the high mountains, the waves encreased, and the wind was so high, that two people were forced to take care of the helm, and the mast broke several times. The waves are likewise greatly encreased by the strong current near those points or capes.
September the 7th. A little before noon, we continued our voyage from St. Joachim.
They employ tree-mushrooms very frequently instead of tinder. Those which [225]are taken from the sugar-maple are reckoned the best; those of the red maple are next in goodness; and next to them, those of the sugar-birch. For want of these, they likewise make use of those which grow on the asp-tree or tremble.
There are no other ever-green trees in this part of Canada, than the thuya, the yew, and some of the fir kind.
The thuya is esteemed for resisting putrefaction much longer than any other wood; and next in goodness to it is the pine, called perusse here.
They make cheese in several places hereabouts. That of the isle of Orleans is, however, reckoned the best. This kind is small, thin, and round; and four of them weigh about a French pound. Twelve of them sell for thirty sols. A pound of salt butter costs ten sols at Quebec, and of fresh butter, fifteen sols. Formerly, they could get a pound of butter for four sols here.
The corn-fields towards the river are sloping; they are suffered to ly fallow and to be sown alternately. The sown ones looked yellow at this distance, and the fallow ones green. The weeds are left on the latter all summer, for the cattle to feed upon.
The ash wood furnishes the best hoops for tuns here; and for want of it, they take [226]the thuya, little birch-trees, wild cherry-trees, and others.
The hills near the river, on the western side, opposite the isle of Orleans, are very high and pretty steep. They consist, in most part, of black lime-slate. There are likewise some spots which consist of a rock-stone, which, at first sight, looks like a sand-stone, and is composed of grey quartz, a reddish lime-stone, a little grey lime-stone, and some pale grey grains of sand. These parts of the stone are small and pretty equally mixed with each other. The stone looks red, with a greyish cast, and is very hard. It lies in strata, one above another. The thickness of each stratum is about five inches. It is remarkable, that there are both elevated and hollow impressions of pectinites on the surface, where one likewise meets with the petrified shells themselves; but on breaking the stone, it does not even contain the least vestige of an impression or petrified shell. All the impressions are small, about the length and breadth of an inch. The particles of quartz in the stone strike fire with steel, and the particles of lime-stone effervesce strongly with aqua-fortis. The upper and lower surfaces of the strata consist of lime-stone, and the inner parts of quartz. They break great quantities of this stone [227]in order to build houses of it, pave floors with it, and make stair-cases of it. Great quantities of it are sent to Quebec. It is remarkable, that there are petrefactions in this stone, but never any in the black lime-slates.
The women dye their woollen yarn yellow with seeds of gale,95 which is called poivrier here, and grows abundant in wet places.
This evening, M. Gaulthier and I went to see the water-fall at Montmorenci. The country near the river is high and level, and laid out into meadows. Above them the high and steep hills begin, which are covered with a crust of mould, and turned into corn-fields. In some very steep places, and near the rivulets, the hills consist of mere black lime-slate, which is often crumbled into small pieces, like earth. All the fields below the hills are full of such pieces of lime-slate. When some of the larger pieces are broken, they smell like stink-stone. In some more elevated places, the earth consists of a pale red colour; and the lime-slates are likewise reddish.
The water-fall near Montmorenci is one of the highest I ever saw. It is in a river [228]whose breadth is not very considerable, and falls over the steep side of a hill, consisting entirely of black lime-slate. The fall is now at the bottom of a little creek of the river. Both sides of the creek consist merely of black lime-slate, which is very much cracked and tumbled down. The hill of lime-slate under the water-fall is quite perpendicular, and one cannot look at it without astonishment. The rain of the preceding days had encreased the water in the river, which gave the fall a grander appearance. The breadth of the fall is not above ten or twelve yards. Its perpendicular height Mr. Gaulthier and I guessed to be between a hundred and ten and a hundred and twenty feet; and on our return to Quebec, we found our guess confirmed by several gentlemen, who had actually measured the fall, and found it to be nearly as we had conjectured. The people who live in the neighbourhood exaggerate in their accounts of it, absolutely declaring that it is three hundred feet high. Father Charlevoix96 is too sparing in giving it only forty feet in height. At the bottom of the fall, there is always a thick fog of vapours, spreading about the water, being resolved into them by its violent [229]fall. This fog occasions almost perpetual rain here, which is more or less heavy, in proportion to its distance from the fall. Mr. Gaulthier and myself, together with the man who shewed us the way, were willing to come nearer to the falling water, in order to examine more accurately how it came down from such a height, and how the stone behind the water looked. But, being about twelve yards off the fall, a sudden gust of wind blew a thick fog upon us, which, in less than a minute, had wet us as thoroughly as if we had walked for half an hour in a heavy shower. We therefore hurried away as fast as we could, and were glad to get off. The noise of the fall is sometimes heard at Quebec, which is two French miles off to the southward; and this is a sign of a north-east wind. At other times, it can be well heard in the villages, a good way lower to the north; and it is then reckoned an undoubted sign of a south-west wind, or of rain. The black lime-slate on the sides of the fall lies in dipping, and almost perpendicular strata. In these lime-slate strata, are the following kinds of stone to be met with.
Fibrous gypsum.97 This lies in very thin [230]leaves between the cracks of the lime-slate. Its colour is a snowy white. I have found it in several parts of Canada, in the same black lime-stone.
Pierre à Calumet. This is the French name of a stone disposed in strata between the lime-slate, and of which they make almost all the tobacco-pipe heads in the country. The thickness of the strata is different. I have seen pieces near fifteen inches thick; but they are commonly between four and five inches thick. When the stone is long exposed to the open air or heat of the sun, it gets a yellow colour; but in the inside it is grey. It is a lime-stone of such a compactness, that its particles are not distinguishable by the naked eye. It is pretty soft, and will bear cutting with a knife. From this quality, the people likewise judge of the goodness of the stone for tobacco-pipe heads; for the hard pieces of it are not so fit for use as the softer ones. I have seen some of these stones shivering into thin leaves on the outside where they were exposed to the sun. All the tobacco-pipe heads, which the common people in Canada make use of, are made of this stone, and are ornamented in different ways. A great part of the gentry likewise make use of them, especially when they are on a journey. [231]The Indians have employed this stone for the same purposes for several ages past, and have taught it the Europeans. The heads of the tobacco-pipes are naturally of a pale grey colour; but they are blackened whilst they are quite new, to make them look better. They cover the head all over with grease, and hold it over a burning candle, or any other fire, by which means it gets a good black colour, which is encreased by frequent use. The tubes of the pipes are always made of wood98.
There are no coals near this fall, or in the steep hills close to it. However, the people in the neighbouring village shewed me a piece of coal, which, they said, they had found on one of the hills about the fall.
We arrived at Quebec very late at night.
September the 8th, Intermitting fevers of all kinds are very rare at Quebec, as Mr. Gaulthier affirms. On the contrary, [232]they are very common near Fort St. Frederic, and near Fort Detroit, which is a French colony, between lake Erie and lake Huron, in forty-three degrees north latitude.
Some of the people of quality make use of ice-cellars, to keep beer cool in, during summer, and to keep fresh flesh, which would not keep long in the great heat. These ice-cellars are commonly built of stone, under the house. The walls of it are covered with boards, because the ice is more easily consumed by stones. In winter, they fill it with snow, which is beat down with the feet, and covered with water. They then open the cellar holes and the door, to admit the cold. It is customary in summer to put a piece of ice into the water or wine which is to be drank.
All the salt which is made use of here, is imported from France. They likewise make good salt here of the sea water; but France keeping the salt trade entirely to itself, they do not go on with it here.
The Esquimaux are a particular kind of American savages, who live only near the water, and never far in the country, on Terra Labrador, between the most outward point of the mouth of the river St. Lawrence and Hudson’s bay. I have never had [233]an opportunity of seeing one of them. I have spoken with many Frenchmen who have seen them, and had them on board their own vessels. I shall here give a brief history of them, according to their unanimous accounts.
The Esquimaux are entirely different from the Indians of North-America, in regard to their complexion and their language. They are almost as white as Europeans, and have little eyes: the men have likewise beards. The Indians, on the contrary, are copper-coloured, and the men have no beards. The Esquimaux language is said to contain some European words.99 Their houses are either caverns or clefts in the mountains, or huts of turf above ground. They never sow or plant vegetables, living chiefly on various kinds of whales, on seals,100 and walrusses101. Sometimes they likewise [234]catch land animals, on which they feed. They eat most of their meat quite raw. Their drink is water; and people have likewise seen them drinking the sea water, which was like brine.
Their shoes, stockings, breeches, and jackets are made of seal-skins well prepared, and sewed together with nerves of whales, which may be twisted like threads and are very tough. Their cloaths, the hairy side of which is turned outwards, are sewed together so well, that they can go up to their shoulders in the water without wetting their under cloaths. Under their upper cloaths, they wear shirts and waistcoats made of seals skins, prepared so well as to be quite soft. I saw one of their womens dresses; a cap, a waistcoat, and coat, made all of one piece of seals skin well prepared, soft to the touch, and the hair on the outside. Their is a long train behind at their coats, which scarce reach them to the middle of the thigh before; under it they wear breeches and boots, all of one piece. The shirt I saw was likewise made of a very soft seals skin. The Esquimaux women are said to be handsomer than any of the American Indian women, and their husbands are accordingly more jealous in proportion. [235]
I have likewise seen an Esquimaux boat. The outside of it consists entirely of skins, the hair of which has been taken off; and the sides of the skins on which they were inserted are turned outwards, and feel as smooth as vellum. The boat was near fourteen feet long, but very narrow, and very sharp pointed at the extremities. In the inside of the boat, they place two or three thin boards, which give a kind of form to the boat. It is quite covered with skins at the top, excepting, near one end, a hole big enough for a single person to sit and row in, and keep his thighs and legs under the deck. The figure of the hole resembles a semi-circle, the base or diameter of which is turned towards the larger end of the boat. The hole is surrounded with wood, on which a soft folded skin is fastened, with straps at its upper end. When the Esquimaux makes use of his boat, he puts his legs and thighs under the deck, sits down at the bottom of the boat, draws the skin before mentioned round his body, and fastens it well with the straps; the waves may then beat over his boat with considerable violence, and not a single drop comes into it; the cloaths of the Esquimaux keep the wet from him. He has an oar in his hand, which has a paddle at each end; it serves him for [236]rowing with, and keeping the boat in equilibrium during a storm. The paddles of the oar are very narrow. The boat will contain but a single person. Esquimaux have often been found safe in their boats many miles from land, in violent storms, where ships found it difficult to save themselves. Their boats float on the waves like bladders, and they row them with incredible velocity. I am told, they have boats of different shapes. They have likewise larger boats of wood, covered with leather in which several people may sit, and in which their women commonly go to sea.
Bows and arrows, javelins and harpoons, are their arms. With the last they kill whales, and other large marine animals. The points of their arrows and harpoons are sometimes made of iron, sometimes of bone, and sometimes of the teeth of the walruss. Their quivers are made of seals skins. The needles with which they sow their cloaths are likewise made of iron or of bone. All their iron they get by some means or other from the Europeans.
They sometimes go on board the European ships in order to exchange some of their goods for knives and other iron. But it is not adviseable for Europeans to go on shore, unless they be numerous; for the [237]Esquimaux are false and treacherous, and cannot suffer strangers amongst them. If they find themselves too weak, they run away at the approach of strangers; but if they think they are an over-match for them, they kill all that come in their way, without leaving a single one alive. The Europeans, therefore, do not venture to let a greater number of Esquimaux come on board their ships than they can easily master. If they are ship-wrecked on the Esquimaux coasts, they may as well be drowned in the sea as come safe to the shore: this many Europeans have experienced. The European boats and ships which the Esquimaux get into their power, are immediately cut in pieces and robbed of all their nails and other iron, which they work into knives, needles, arrow-heads, &c. They make use of fire for no other purposes but working of iron, and preparing the skins of animals. Their meat is eaten all raw. When they come on board an European ship, and are offered some of the sailors meat, they never will taste of it till they have seen some Europeans eat it. Though nothing pleased other savage nations so much as brandy, yet many Frenchmen have assured me, that they never could prevail on the Esquimaux to take a dram of it. Their mistrust of other nations [238]the cause of it; for they undoubtedly imagine, that they are going to poison them, or do them some hurt; and I am not certain, whether they do not judge right. They have no ear-rings, and do not paint the face like the American Indians. For many centuries past, they have had dogs, whose ears are erected, and never hang down. They make use of them for hunting, and instead of horses in winter, for drawing their goods on the ice. They themselves sometimes ride in sledges drawn by dogs. They have no other domestic animal. There are, indeed, plenty of reindeer in their country; but it is not known, that either the Esquimaux, or any of the Indians in America, have ever tamed them. The French in Canada, who are in a manner the neighbours of the Esquimaux, have taken a deal of pains to carry on some kind of trade with them, and to endeavour to engage them to a more friendly intercourse with other nations. For that purpose, they took some Esquimaux children, taught them to read, and educated them in the best manner possible. The intention of the French was, to send these children to the Esquimaux again, that they might inform them of the kind treatment the French had given them, and thereby incline them to [239]conceive a better opinion of the French. But unhappily all the children died of the small-pox, and the scheme was dropt. Many persons in Canada doubted, whether the scheme would have succeeded, though the children had been kept alive. For they say, there was formerly an Esquimaux taken by the French, and brought to Canada, where he staid a good while, and was treated with great civility. He learnt French pretty well, and seemed to relish the French way of living very well. When he was sent back to his countrymen, he was not able to make the least impression on them, in favour of the French; but was killed by his nearest relations, as half a Frenchman and foreigner. This inhuman proceeding of the Esquimaux against all strangers, is the reason why none of the Indians of North America ever give quarter to the Esquimaux if they meet with them, but kill them on the spot; though they frequently pardon their other enemies, and incorporate the prisoners into their nation.
For the use of those, who are fond of comparing the languages of several nations, I have here inserted a few Esquimaux words, communicated to me by the Jesuit Saint Pie. One, kombuc; two, tigal; three, ké; four, missilagat; water, sillalokto; rain, [240]killaluck; heaven, taktuck, or nabugakshe; the sun, shikonak, or sakaknuk; the moon, takock; an egg, manneguk; the boat, kagack; the oar, pacotick; the knife, shavié; a dog, mekké, or timilok; the bow, petiksick; an arrow, katso; the head, niakock; the ear, tchiu; the eye, killik, or shik; the hair, nutshad; a tooth, ukak; the foot, itikat. Some think that they are nearly the same nation with the Greenlanders, of Skralingers; and pretend that there is a great affinity in the language102.
Plumb-trees of different sorts, brought over from France, succeed very well here. The present year they did not begin to flower till this month. Some of them looked very well; and I am told the winter does not hurt them.
September the 11th. The marquis de la Galissonniere is one of the three noblemen, who, above all others, have gained high esteem with the French admiralty in the last war. They are the marquisses de la Galissonniere, de la Jonquiere, and de l’Etendure. [241]The first of these was now above fifty years of age, of a low stature, and somewhat hump-backed, but of a very agreeable look. He had been here for some time as governor-general; and was going back to France one day this month. I have already mentioned something concerning this nobleman; but when I think of his many great qualities, I can never give him a sufficient encomium. He has a surprizing knowledge in all branches of science, and especially in natural history; in which he is so well versed, that when he began to speak with me about it, I imagined I saw our great Linnæus under a new form. When he spoke of the use of natural history, of the method of learning, and employing it to raise the state of a country, I was astonished to see him take his reasons from politics, as well as natural philosophy, mathematics, and other sciences. I own, that my conversation with this nobleman was very instructive to me; and I always drew a deal of useful knowledge from it. He told me several ways of employing natural history to the purposes of politics, and to make a country powerful, in order to depress its envious neighbours. Never has natural history had a greater promoter in this country; and it [242]is very doubtful whether it will ever have his equal here. As soon as he got the place of governor-general, he began to take those measures for getting information in natural history, which I have mentioned before. When he saw people, who had for some time been in a settled place of the country, especially in the more remote parts, or had travelled in those parts, he always questioned them about the trees, plants, earths, stones, ores, animals, &c. of the place. He likewise enquired what use the inhabitants made of these things; in what state their husbandry was; what lakes, rivers, and passages there are; and a number of other particulars. Those who seemed to have clearer notions than the rest, were obliged to give him circumstantial descriptions of what they had seen. He himself wrote down all the accounts he received; and by this great application, so uncommon among persons of his rank, he soon acquired a knowledge of the most distant parts of America. The priests, commandants of forts, and of several distant places, are often surprized by his questions, and wonder at his knowledge, when they come to Quebec to pay their visits to him; for he often tells them that near such a mountain, or on such a shore, &c. where they often went a [243]hunting, there are some particular plants, trees, earths, ores, &c. for he had got a knowledge of those things before. From hence it happened, that some of the inhabitants believed he had a preternatural knowledge of things, as he was able to mention all the curiosities of places, sometimes near two hundred Swedish miles from Quebec, though he never was there himself. Never was there a better statesman than he; and nobody can take better measures, and choose more proper means for improving a country, and encreasing its welfare. Canada was hardly acquainted with the treasure it possessed in the person of this nobleman, when it lost him again; the king wanted his services at home, and could not leave him so far off. He was going to France with a collection of natural curiosities; and a quantity of young trees and plants, in boxes full of earth.
The black lime-slate has been repeatedly mentioned during the course of my journey. I will here give a more minute detail of it. The mountain on which Quebec is built, and the hills along the river St. Lawrence, consist of it for some miles together, on both sides of Quebec. About a yard from the surface, this stone is quite compact, and without any cracks; so that [244]one cannot perceive that it is a slate, its particles being imperceptible. It lies in strata, which vary from three or four inches, to twenty thick, and upwards. In the mountains on which Quebec is built, the strata do not ly horizontal, but dipping, so as to be nearly perpendicular; the upper ends pointing north-west, and the lower ones south-east. From hence it is, that the corners of these strata always strike out at the surface into the streets, and cut the shoes in pieces. I have likewise seen some strata, inclining to the northward, but nearly perpendicular as the former. Horizontal strata, or nearly such, have occurred to me too. The strata are divided by narrow cracks, which are commonly filled with fibrous white gypsum, which can sometimes be got loose with a knife, if the layer or stratum of slate above it is broken in pieces; and in that case it has the appearance of a thin white leaf. The larger cracks are almost filled up with transparent quartz crystals, of different sizes. One part of the mountain contains vast quantities of these crystals, from which the corner of the mountain which lies to the S. S. E. of the palace, has got the name of Pointe de Diamante, or Diamond Point. The small cracks which divide the stone, [245]go generally at right angles; the distances between them are not always equal. The outside of the stratum, or that which is turned towards the other stratum, is frequently covered with a fine, black, shining membrane, which looks like a kind of a pyrous horn-stone. In it there is sometimes a yellow pyrites, always lying in small grains. I never found petrefactions or impressions, or other kinds of stone in it, besides those I have just mentioned. The whole mountain on which Quebec is situated, consists entirely of lime-slate from top to bottom. When this stone is broken, or scraped with a knife, it gives a strong smell like the stink-stone. That part of the mountain which is exposed to the open air, crumbles into small pieces, had lost their black colour, and got a pale red one in its stead. Almost all the public and private buildings at Quebec consist of this lime-slate; and likewise the walls round the town, and round the monasteries and gardens, it is easily broken, and cut to the size wanted. But it has the property of splitting into thin shivers, parallel to the surface of the stratum from whence they are taken, after lying during one or more years in the air, and exposed to the sun. However, this quality does no damage [246]to the walls in which they are placed; for the stones being laid on purpose into such a position that the cracks always run horizontally, the upper stones press so much upon the lower ones, that they can only get cracks outwardly, and shiver only on the outside, without going further inwards. The shivers always grow thinner, as the houses grow older.
In order to give my readers some idea of the climate of Quebec, and of the different changes of heat and cold, at the several seasons of the year, I will here insert some particulars extracted from the meteorological observations, of the royal physician, Mr. Gaulthier: he gave me a copy of those which he had made from October 1744, to the end of September 1746. The thermometrical observations I will omit, because I do not think them accurate; for as Mr. Gaulthier made use of de la Hire’s thermometer, the degrees of cold cannot be exactly determined, the quicksilver being depressed into the globe at the bottom, as soon as the cold begins to be considerable. The observations are made throughout the year, between seven and eight in the morning, and two and three in the afternoon. He has seldom made any observations in the afternoon. His thermometer [247]was likewise inaccurate, by being placed in a bad situation.
The year 1745.
January. The 29th of this month the river St. Lawrence was covered over with ice, near Quebec. In the observations of other years, it is observed, that the river is sometimes covered with ice in the beginning of January, or the end of December.
February. Nothing remarkable happend during the course of this month.
March. They say this has been the mildest winter they ever felt; even the eldest persons could not remember one so mild. The snow was only two feet deep, and the ice in the river, opposite Quebec, had the same thickness. On the twenty-first there was a thunder-storm, which fell upon a soldier, and hurt him very much. On the 19th and 20th, they began to make incisions into the sugar-maple, and to prepare sugar from its juice.
April. During this month they continued to extract the juice of the sugar-maple, for making sugar. On the 7th the gardeners began to make hot-beds. On the 20th the ice in the river broke loose near Quebec, and went down; which rarely happens so soon; for the river St. [248]Lawrence is sometimes covered with ice opposite Quebec, on the 10th of May. On the 22d, and 23d, there fell a quantity of snow. On the 25th they began to sow near St. Joachim. The same day they saw some swallows. The 29th they sowed corn all over the country. Ever since the 23d the river had been clear at Quebec.
May. The third of this month the cold was so great in the morning, that Celsius’s, or the Swedish thermometer, was four degrees below the freezing point; however, it did not hurt the corn. On the 16th all the summer-corn was sown. On the 5th the Sanguinaria, Narcissus, and violet, began to blow. The 17th the wild cherry-trees, rasberry-bushes, apple-trees, and lime-trees, began to expand their leaves. The strawberries were in flower about that time. The 29th the wild cherry-trees were in blossom. On the 26th part of the French apple-trees, cherry-trees, and plum-trees, opened their flowers.
June. The 5th of this month all the trees had got leaves. The apple-trees were in full flower. Ripe straw-berries were to be had on the 22d. Here it is noted, that the weather was very fine for the growth of vegetables.
July. The corn began to shoot into ears on the 12th, and had ears every where [249]on the 21st. (It is to be observed, that they sow nothing but summer-corn here.) Soon after the corn began to flower. Hay making began the 22d. All this month the weather was excellent.
August. On the 12th there were ripe pears and melons at Montreal. On the 20th the corn was ripe round Montreal, and the harvest was begun there. On the 22d the harvest began at Quebec. On the 30th, and 31st, there was a very small hoar-frost on the ground.
September. The harvest of all kinds of corn ended on the 24th, and 25th. Melons, water-melons, cucumbers, and fine plums, were very plentiful during the course of this month. Apples and pears were likewise ripe, which is not always the case. On the last days of this month they began to plough the land. The following is one of the observations of this month: “The old people in this country say, that the corn was formerly never ripe till the 15th, or 16th, of September, and sometimes on the 12th; but no sooner. They likewise assert, that it never was perfectly ripe. Bur since the woods have been sufficiently cleared, the beams of the sun have had more room to operate, and the corn ripens sooner [250]than before103.” It is further remarked, that the hot summers are always very fruitful [251]in Canada, and that most of the corn has hardly ever arrived at perfect maturity.
October. During this month the fields were ploughed, and the weather was very fine all the time. There was a little frost for several nights, and on the 28th it snowed. Towards the end of this month the trees began to shed their leaves.
November. They continued to plough till the 10th of this month, when the trees had shed all their leaves. Till the 18th the cattle went out of doors, a few days excepted, when bad weather had kept them at home. On the 16th there was some thunder and lightning. There was not yet any ice in the river St. Lawrence on the 24th.
December. During this month it is observed, that the autumn has been much milder than usual. On the 1st a ship could still set sail for France; but on the 16th the river St. Lawrence was covered with ice on the sides, but open in the middle. [252]In the river Charles the ice was thick enough for horses with heavy loads to pass over it. On the 26th the ice in the river St. Lawrence was washed away by a heavy rain; but on the 28th part of that river was again covered with ice.
The next observations shew, that the winter has likewise been one of the mildest. I now resume the account of my own journey.
This evening I left Quebec with a fair wind. The governor-general of Canada, the marquis de la Jonquiere, ordered one of the king’s boats, and seven men to bring me to Montreal. The middle of the boat was covered with blue cloth, under which we were secured from the rain. This journey I made at the expence of the French king. We went three French miles to-day.
September the 12th. We continued our journey during all this day.
The small kind of maize, which ripens in three months time, was ripe about this time, and the people drew it out of the ground, and hung it up to dry.
The weather about this time was like the beginning of our August, old stile. Therefore it seems, autumn commences a whole month later in Canada, than in the midst of Sweden. [253]
Near each farm there is a kitchen-garden, in which onions are most abundant; because the French farmers eat their dinners of them with bread, on Fridays and Saturdays, or fasting days. However, I cannot say, the French are strict observers of fasting; for several of my rowers ate flesh to-day, though it was Friday. The common people in Canada may be smelled when one passes by them, on account of their frequent use of onions. Pumpions are likewise abundant in the farmer’s gardens. They dress them in several ways, but the most common is to cut them through the middle, and place the inside on the hearth, towards the fire, till it is quite roasted. The pulp is then cut out of the peel, and eaten; people above the vulgar put sugar to it. Carrots, sallad, French beans, cucumbers, and currant shrubs, are planted in every farmer’s little kitchen-garden.
Every farmer plants a quantity of tobacco near his house, in proportion to the size of his family. It is likewise very necessary that they should plant tobacco, because it is so universally smoaked by the common people. Boys of ten or twelve years of age, run about with the pipe in their mouths, as well as the old people. [254]Persons above the vulgar, do not refuse to smoak a pipe now and then. In the northern parts of Canada, they generally smoak tobacco by itself; but further upwards, and about Montreal, they take the inner bark of the red Cornelian cherry104, crush it, and mix it with the tobacco, to make it weaker. People of both sexes, and of all ranks, use snuff very much. Almost all the tobacco, which is consumed here, is the produce of the country, and some people prefer it even to Virginian tobacco: but those who pretend to be connoisseurs, reckon the last kind better than the other.
Though many nations imitate the French customs; yet I observed on the contrary, that the French in Canada in many respects follow the customs of the Indians, with whom they converse every day. They make use of the tobacco-pipes, shoes, garters, and girdles, of the Indians. They follow the Indian way of making war with exactness; they mix the same things with tobacco, they make use of the Indian bark-boats, and row them in the Indian way; they wrap square pieces of cloth round their feet, instead of stockings, and have adopted many other Indian fashions. When [255]one comes into the house of a Canada peasant, or farmer, he gets up, takes his hat off to the stranger, desires him to sit down, puts his hat on and sits down again. The gentlemen and ladies, as well as the poorest peasants and their wives, are called Monsieur and Madame. The peasants, and especially their wives, wear shoes, which consist of a piece of wood hollowed out, and are made almost as slippers. Their boys, and the old peasants themselves, wear their hair behind in a cue; and most of them wear red woollen caps at home, and sometimes on their journies.
The farmers prepare most of their dishes of milk. Butter is but seldom seen, and what they have is made of sour cream, and therefore not so good as English butter. Many of the French are very fond of milk, which they eat chiefly on fasting days. However, they have not so many methods of preparing it as we have in Sweden. The common way was to boil it, and put bits of bread, and a good deal of sugar, into it. The French here eat near as much flesh as the English, on those days when their religion allows it. For excepting the soup, the sallads, and the desert, all their other dishes consist of flesh variously prepared. [256]
At night we lay at a farm-house, near a river called Petite Riviere, which falls here into the river St. Lawrence. This place is reckoned sixteen French miles from Quebec, and ten from Trois Rivieres. The tide is still considerable here. Here is the last place where the hills, along the river, consist of black lime-slate; further on they are composed merely of earth.
Fire-flies flew about the woods at night, though not in great numbers; the French call them Mouches à feu.
The houses in this neighbourhood are all made of wood. The rooms are pretty large. The inner roof rests on two, three, or four, large thick spars, according to the size of the room. The chinks are filled with clay, instead of moss. The windows are made entirely of paper. The chimney is erected in the middle of the room; that part of the room which is opposite the fire, is the kitchen; that which is behind the chimney, serves the people to sleep, and receive strangers in. Sometimes there is an iron stove behind the chimney.
September the 13th. Near Champlain, which is a place about five French miles from Trois Rivieres, the steep hills near the river consist of a yellow, and sometimes ockre-coloured sandy earth, in which [257]a number of small springs arise. The water in them is generally filled with yellow ockre, which is a sign, that these dry sandy fields contain a great quantity of the same iron ore, which is dug at Trois Rivieres. It is not conceivable from whence that number of small rivulets takes their rise, the ground above being flat, and exceeding dry in summer. The lands near the river are cultivated for about an English mile into the country; but behind them there are thick forests, and low grounds. The woods, which collect a quantity of moisture, and prevent the evaporation of the water, force it to make its way under ground to the river. The shores of the river are here covered with a great deal of black iron-sand.
Towards evening we arrived at Trois Rivieres, where we staid no longer, than was necessary to deliver the letters, which we brought with us from Quebec. After that we went a French mile higher up, before we took our night’s lodging.
This afternoon we saw three remarkable old people. One was an old Jesuit, called father Joseph Aubery, who had been a missionary to the converted Indians of St. François. This summer he ended the fiftieth year of his mission. He therefore [258]returned to Quebec, to renew his vows there; and he seemed to be healthy, and in good spirits. The other two people were our landlord and his wife; he was above eighty years of age, and she was not much younger. They had now been fifty-one years married. The year before, at the end of the fiftieth year of their marriage, they went to church together, and offered up thanks to God Almighty for the great grace he gave them. They were yet quite well, content, merry, and talkative. The old man said, that he was at Quebec when the English besieged it, in the year 1690, and that the bishop went up and down the streets, dressed in his pontifical robes, and a sword in his hand, in order to recruit the spirits of the soldiers.
This old man said, that he thought the winters were formerly much colder than they are now. There fell likewise a greater quantity of snow, when he was young. He could remember the time when pumpions, cucumbers, &c. were killed by the frost about mid-summer, and he assured me, that the summers were warmer now than they used to be formerly. About thirty and some odd years ago, there was such a severe winter in Canada, that the frost killed many birds; but the old man [259]could not remember the particular year. Every body allowed, that the summers in 1748, and 1749, had been warmer in Canada than they have been many years ago.
The soil is reckoned pretty fertile; and wheat yields nine or ten grains from one. But when this old man was a boy, and the country was new and rich every where, they could get twenty, or four-and-twenty, grains from one. They sow but little rye here; nor do they sow much barley, except for the use of cattle. They complain, however, that when they have a bad crop, they are obliged to bake bread of barley.
September the 14th. This morning we got up early, and pursued our journey. After we had gone about two French miles, we got into lake St. Pierre, which we crossed. Many plants, which are common in our Swedish lakes, swim at the top of this water. This lake is said to be covered every winter with such strong ice, that a hundred loaded horses could go over it together with safety.
A craw-fish, or river lobster, somewhat like a crab, but quite minute, about two geometrical lines long, and broad in proportion, was frequently drawn up by us with the aquatic weeds, its colour is a pale greenish white. [260]
The cordated Pontederia105 grows plentiful on the sides of a long and narrow canal of water, in the places frequented by our water-lilies106. A great number of hogs wade far into this kind of strait, and sometimes duck the greatest part of their bodies under water, in order to get at the roots, which they are very fond of.
As soon as we were got through lake St. Pierre, the face of the country was entirely changed, and became as agreeable as could be wished. The isles, and the land on both sides of us, looked like the prettiest pleasure-gardens; and this continued till near Montreal.
Near every farm on the river-side there are some boats, hollowed out of the trunks of single trees, but commonly neat and well made, having the proper shape of boats. In one single place I saw a boat made of the bark of trees.
September the 15th. We continued our journey early this morning. On account of the strength of the river, which came down against us, we were sometimes obliged to let the rowers go on shore, and draw the boat. [261]
At four o’clock in the evening we arrived at Montreal; and our voyage was reckoned a happy one, because the violence of the river flowing against us all the way, and the changeableness of the winds, commonly protract it to two weeks.
September the 19th. Several people here in town have got the French vines, and planted them in their gardens. They have two kinds of grapes, one of a pale green, or almost white; the other, of a reddish brown colour. From the white ones they say, white wine is made; and from the red ones, red wine. The cold in winter obliges them to put dung round the roots of the vines, without which they would be killed by the frost. The grapes began to be ripe in these days; the white ones are a little sooner ripe than the red ones. They make no wine of them here, because it is not worth while; but they are served up at deserts. They say these grapes do not grow so big here as in France.
Water-melons107 are cultivated in great plenty in the English and French American colonies; and there is hardly a peasant here, who has not a field planted with them. They are chiefly cultivated in the [262]neighbourhood of towns; and they are very rare in the north part of Canada. The Indians plant great quantities of water-melons at present; but whether they have done it of old is not easily determined. For an old Onidoe Indian (of the six Iroquese nations) assured me, that the Indians did not know water-melons before the Europeans came into the country, and communicated them to the Indians. The French, on the other hand, have assured me, that the Illinois Indians have had abundance of this fruit, when the French first came to them; and that they declare, they had planted them since times immemorial. However, I do not remember having read that the Europeans, who first came to North-America, mention the water-melons, in speaking of the dishes of the Indians at that time. How great the summer heat is in those parts of America which I have passed through, can easily be conceived, when one considers, that in all those places, they never sow water-melons in hot-beds, but in the open fields in spring, without so much as covering them, and they ripen in time. Here are two species of them, viz. one with a red pulp, and one with a white one. The first is more common to the southward, with the Illinois, and in the [263]English colonies; the last is more abundant in Canada. The seeds are sown in spring, after the cold is entirely gone off, in a good rich ground, at some distance from each other; because their stalks spread far, and require much room, if they shall be very fruitful. They were now ripe at Montreal; but in the English colonies they ripen in July and August. They commonly require less time to ripen in, than the common melons. Those in the English colonies are commonly sweeter, and more agreeable, than the Canada ones. Does the greater heat contribute any thing towards making them more palatable? Those in the province of New-York are, however, reckoned the best.
The water-melons are very juicy; and the juice is mixed with a cooling pulp, which is very good in the hot summer-season. Nobody in Canada, in Albany, and in other parts of New-York, could produce an example, that the eating of water-melons in great quantities had hurt any body; and there are examples even of sick persons eating them without any danger. Further to the south, the frequent use of them it is thought brings on intermitting fevers, and other bad distempers, especially in such people as are less used to them. Many [264]Frenchmen assured me, that when people born in Canada came to the Illinois, and eat several times of the water-melons of that part, they immediately got a fever; and therefore the Illinois advise the French not to eat of a fruit so dangerous to them. They themselves are subject to be attacked by fevers, if they cool their stomachs too often with water-melons. In Canada they keep them in a room, which is a little heated; by which means they will keep fresh two months after they are ripe; but care must be taken, that the frost spoil them not. In the English plantations they likewise keep them fresh in dry cellars, during part of the winter. They assured me that they keep better when they are carefully broke off from the stalk, and afterwards burnt with a red-hot iron, in the place where the stalk was fastened. In this manner they may be eaten at Christmas, and after. In Pensylvania, where they have a dry sandy earth, they make a hole in the ground, put the water-melons carefully into it with their stalks, by which means they keep very fresh during a great part of winter. Few people, however, take this trouble with the water-melons; because they being very cooling, and the winter being very cold too, it seems to be less necessary to [265]keep them for eating in that season, which is already very cold. They are of opinion in these parts, that cucumbers cool more than water-melons. The latter are very strongly diuretic. The Iroquese call them Onoheserakatee.
Gourds of several kinds, oblong, round, flat or compressed, crook-necked, small, &c. are planted in all the English and French colonies. In Canada, they fill the chief part of the farmers kitchen-gardens, though the onions came very near up with them. Each farmer in the English plantations, has a large field planted with gourds, and the Germans, Swedes, Dutch, and other Europeans, settled in their colonies, plant them. Gourds are a considerable part of the Indian food; however, they plant more squashes than common gourds. They declare, that they have had gourds long before the Europeans discovered America; which seems to be confirmed by the accounts of the first Europeans that came into these parts, who mentioned gourds as common food among the Indians. The French here call them citrouilles, and the English in the colonies, pumpkins. They are planted in spring, when they have nothing to fear from the frost, in an enclosed field, and a good rich soil. They are likewise frequently put into old [266]hot-beds. In Canada, they ripen towards the beginning of September, but further southward they are ripe at the end of July. As soon as the cold weather commences, they take off all the pumpions that remain on the stalk, whether ripe or not, and spread them on the floor, in a part of the house, where the unripe ones grow perfectly ripe, if they are not laid one upon the other. This is done round Montreal in the middle of September; but in Pensylvania, I have seen some in the fields on the 19th of October. They keep fresh for several months, and even throughout the winter, if they be well secured in dry cellars (for in damp ones they rot very soon) where the cold cannot come in, or, which is still better, in dry rooms which are heated now and then, to prevent the cold from damaging the fruit.
Pumpions are prepared for eating in various ways. The Indians boil them whole, or roast them in ashes, and eat them then, or go to sell them thus prepared in the towns, and they have, indeed, a very fine flavour, when roasted. The French and English slice them, and put the slices before the fire to roast; when they are roasted, they generally put sugar on the pulp. Another way of roasting them, is to cut them through the middle, take out all the seeds, put the halves together again, and roast them in an [267]oven. When they are quite roasted, some butter is put in, whilst they are warm, which being imbibed into the pulp, renders it very palatable. They often boil pumpions in water, and afterwards eat them, either alone or with flesh. Some make a thin kind of pottage of them, by boiling them in water, and afterwards macerating the pulp. This is again boiled with a little of the water, and a good deal of milk, and stirred about whilst it is boiling. Sometimes the pulp is stamped and kneaded into dough, with maize flour or other flour; of this they make cakes. Some make puddings and tarts of gourds. The Indians, in order to preserve the pumpions for a very long time, cut them in long slices, which they fasten or twist together, and dry them either by the sun, or by the fire in a room. When they are thus dried, they will keep for years together, and when boiled, they taste very well. The Indians prepare them thus at home and on their journies, and from them the Europeans have adopted this method. Sometimes they do not take the time to boil it, but eat it dry with hung beef, or other flesh; and I own they are eatable in that state, and very welcome to a hungry stomach. They sometimes preserve them in the following manner at Montreal: They [268]cut a pumpion in four pieces, peal them, and take the seeds out of them. The pulp is put in a pot with boiling water, in which it must boil from four to six minutes. It is then put into a cullender, and left in it till the next day, that the water may run off. When it is mixed with cloves, cinnamon, and some lemon peel, preserved in syrup, and there must be an equal quantity of syrup and of the pulp. After which it is boiled together, till the syrup is entirely imbibed, and the white colour of the pulp is quite lost.
September the 20th. The corn of this year’s harvest in Canada, was reckoned the finest they had ever had. In the province of New-York, on the contrary, the crop was very poor. The autumn was very fine this year in Canada.
September the 22d. The French in Canada carry on a great trade with the Indians; and though it was formerly the only trade of this extensive country, yet its inhabitants were considerably enriched by it. At present, they have besides the Indian goods, several other articles which are exported from hence. The Indians in this neighbourhood, who go hunting in winter like the other Indians nations, commonly bring their furs and skins to sale in the neighbouring [269]French towns; however this is not sufficient. The Indians who live at a greater distance, never come to Canada at all; and, lest they should bring their goods to the English, as the English go to them, the French are obliged to undertake journies, and purchase the Indian goods in the country of the Indians. This trade is chiefly carried on at Montreal, and a great number of young and old men every year, undertake long and troublesome voyages for that purpose, carrying with them such goods as they know the Indians like, and are in want of. It is not necessary to take money on such a journey, as the Indians do not value it; and indeed I think the French, who go on these journies, scarce ever take a sol or penny with them.
I will now enumerate the chief goods which the French carry with them for this trade, and which have a good run among the Indians.
Muskets, Powder, Shot, and Balls. The Europeans have taught the Indians in their neighbourhood the use of fire-arms, and they have laid aside their bows and arrows, which were formerly their only arms, and make use of muskets. If the Europeans should now refuse to supply the Indians with muskets, they would be starved to death; [270]as almost all their food consists of the flesh of the animals, which they hunt; or they would be irritated to such a degree as to attack the Europeans. The Indians have hitherto never tried to make muskets or similar fire-arms; and their great indolence does not even allow them to mend those muskets which they have got. They leave this entirely to the Europeans. As the Europeans came into North-America, they were very careful not to give the Indians any fire-arms. But in the wars between the French and English, each party gave their Indian allies fire-arms, in order to weaken the force of the enemy. The French lay the blame upon the Dutch settlers in Albany, saying, that they began, in 1642, to give their Indians fire-arms, and taught them the use of them, in order to weaken the French. The inhabitants of Albany, on the contrary, assert, that the French first introduced this custom, as they would have been too weak to resist the combined force of the Dutch and English in the colonies. Be this as it will, it is certain that the Indians buy muskets from the Europeans, and know at present better how to make use of them, than some of their teachers. It is likewise certain, that the Europeans gain [271]considerably by their trade in muskets and ammunition.
Pieces of white cloth, or of a coarse uncut cloth. The Indians constantly wear such pieces of cloth, wrapping them round their bodies. Sometimes they hang them over their shoulders; in warm weather, they fasten them round the middle; and in cold weather, they put them over the head. Both their men and women wear these pieces of cloth, which have commonly several blue or red stripes on the edge.
Blue or red cloth. Of this the Indian women make their petticoats, which reach only to their knees. They generally chuse the blue colour.
Shirts and shifts of linen. As soon as an Indian fellow, or one of their women, have put on a shirt, they never wash it, or strip it off, till it is entirely torn in pieces.
Pieces of cloth, which they wrap round their legs instead of stockings, like the Russians.
Hatchets, knives, scissars, needles, and a steel to strike fire with. These instruments are now common among the Indians. They all take these instruments from the Europeans, and reckon the hatchets and knives much better, than those which they formerly made of stones and bones. The [272]stone hatchets of the ancient Indians are very rare in Canada.
Kettles of copper or brass, sometimes tinned in the inside. In these the Indians now boil all their meat, and they have a very great run with them. They formerly made use of earthen or wooden pots, into which they poured water, or whatever else they wanted to boil, and threw in red hot stones to make it boil. They do not want iron boilers, because they cannot be easily carried on their continual journies, and would not bear such falls and knocks as their kettles are subject to.
Ear-rings of different sizes, commonly of brass, and sometimes of tin. They are worn by both men and women, though the use of them is not general.
Vermillion. With this they paint their face, shirt, and several parts of the body. They formerly made use of a reddish earth, which is to be found in the country; but, as the Europeans brought them vermillion, they thought nothing was comparable to it in colour. Many persons have told me, that they had heard their fathers mention, that the first Frenchmen who came over here, got a great heap of furs from the Indians, for three times as much cinnabar as would ly on the tip of a knife. [273]
Verdigrease, to paint their faces green. For the black colour, they make use of the soot at the bottom of their kettles, and daub their whole face with it.
Looking glasses. The Indians are very much pleased with them, and make use of them chiefly when they want to paint themselves. The men constantly carry their looking glasses with them on all their journies; but the women do not. The men, upon the whole, are more fond of dressing than the women.
Burning glasses. These are excellent pieces of furniture in the opinion of the Indians; because they serve to light the pipe without any trouble, which an indolent Indian is very fond of.
Tobacco is bought by the northern Indians, in whose country it will not grow. The southern Indians always plant as much of it as they want for their own consumption. Tobacco has a great run amongst the northern Indians, and it has been observed, that the further they live to the northward, the more they smoke of tobacco.
Wampum, or, as they are here called, porcelanes. They are made of a particular kind of shells, and turned into little short cylindrical beads, and serve the Indians for money and ornament. [274]
Glass beads, of a small size, and white or other colours. The Indian women know how to fasten them in their ribbands, pouches, and clothes.
Brass and steel wire, for several kinds of work.
Brandy, which the Indians value above all other goods that can be brought them; nor have they any thing, though ever so dear to them, which they would not give away for this liquor. But, on account of the many irregularities which are caused by the use of brandy, the sale of it has been prohibited under severe penalties; however, they do not always pay an implicit obedience to this order.
These are the chief goods which the French carry to the Indians, and they have a good run among them.
The goods which they bring back from the Indians, consist entirely in furs. The French get them in exchange for their goods, together with all the necessary provisions they want on the journey. The furs are of two kinds; the best are the northern ones, and the worst sort those from the south.
In the northern parts of America there are chiefly the following skins of animals: [275]beavers, elks108, rein-deer109, wolf-lynxes110, and martens. They sometimes get martens skins from the south, but they are red, and good for little. Pichou du Nord is perhaps the animal which the English, near Hudson’s bay, call the wolverene. To the northern furs belong the bears, which are but few, and foxes, which are not very numerous, and generally black; and several other skins.
The skins of the southern parts are chiefly taken from the following animals: wild cattle, stags, roebucks, otters, Pichoux du Sud, of which P. Charlevoix makes mention111, and are probably a species of cat-lynx, or perhaps a kind of panther; foxes of various kinds, raccoons, cat-lynxes, and several others.
It is inconceivable what hardships the people in Canada must undergo on their journies. Sometimes they must carry their goods a great way by land; frequently they are abused by the Indians, and sometimes they are killed by them. They often suffer hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, and are bit by gnats, and exposed to the bites of poisonous [276]snakes, and other dangerous animals and insects. These destroy a great part of the youth in Canada, and prevent the people from growing old. By this means, however, they become such brave soldiers, and so inured to fatigue, that none of them fear danger or hardships. Many of them settle among the Indians far from Canada, marry Indian women, and never come back again.
The prices of the skins in Canada, in the year 1749, were communicated to me by M. de Couagne, a merchant at Montreal, with whom I lodged. They were as follows:
Great and middle sized bear skins, cost five livres.
I will now insert a list of all the different kinds of skins, which are to be got in Canada, and which are sent from thence to Europe. I got it from one of the greatest merchants in Montreal. They are as follows: