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Title: Canada (1535-Present Day)
Author: Munro, James
Language: English
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Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
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More detail can be found at the end of the book.
Bell's English History Source Books
General Editors: S. E. Winbolt, M.A., and Kenneth Bell, M.A.
CANADA
(1535--PRESENT-DAY)
* * * * * *
BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS.
_Volumes now Ready. 1s. net each._
=1307-1399. War and Misrule= (special period for the School
Certificate Examination, July and December, 1913). Edited by A.
A. LOCKE.
=1154-1216. The Angevins and the Charter.= Edited by S. M.
TOYNE, M.A., Headmaster of St. Peter's School, York, late
Assistant Master at Haileybury College.
=1485-1547. The Reformation and the Renaissance.= Edited by F.
W. BEWSHER, Assistant Master at St. Paul's School.
=1547-1603. The Age of Elizabeth.= Edited by ARUNDELL ESDAILE,
M.A.
=1603-1660. Puritanism and Liberty.= Edited by KENNETH BELL,
M.A.
=1660-1714. A Constitution in Making.= Edited by G. B. PERRETT,
M.A.
=1714-1760. Walpole and Chatham.= Edited by K. A. ESDAILE.
=1760-1801. American Independence and the French Revolution.=
Edited by S. E. WINBOLT, M.A.
=1801-1815. England and Napoleon.= Edited by S. E. WINBOLT, M.A.
=1815-1837. Peace and Reform.= Edited by A. C. W. EDWARDS,
Assistant Master at Christ's Hospital.
=1876-1887. Imperialism and Mr. Gladstone.= Edited by R. H.
GRETTON.
=1535-Present-day. Canada.= Edited by JAMES MUNRO, M.A.,
Lecturer in Colonial and Indian History in the University of
Edinburgh.
_Other volumes, covering the whole range of English History
from Roman Britain to 1887, are in active preparation, and will
be issued at short intervals._
LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
* * * * * *
CANADA
(1535--PRESENT-DAY)
by
JAMES MUNRO, M.A.
Lecturer in Colonial and Indian History
in the University of Edinburgh
[Illustration]
London
G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.
1913
INTRODUCTION
This series of English History Source Books is intended for use
with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has
conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable--nay, an
indispensable--adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of
two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close
of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook
is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems
and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and
are admirably illustrated in a _History of England for Schools_,
Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no
wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall
exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with
materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The
very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them
within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable
the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history
lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave
to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades
of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys
in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What
differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is
not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount
they can read into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the
natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance,
we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our
intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in
style--that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even
strongly partisan--and should not so much profess to give the
truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible
variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads
and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics,
London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history,
are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being
numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text
is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no
difficulties in reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us
suggestions for improvement.
S. E. WINBOLT.
KENNETH BELL.
NOTE TO THIS VOLUME
For liberty to reproduce the more recent of the extracts here
quoted, I have to acknowledge the kindness of Miss E. Pauline
Johnson of Vancouver (No. 52); of Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts (No.
57); of Mr. F. A. Talbot and Messrs. Seeley, Service & Co., author
and publishers of _The Making of a Great Canadian Railway_ (No.
55); and of Messrs. Constable & Co., the publishers of the late
Lord Wolseley's _Story of a Soldier's Life_ (No. 48). To several
of the sources quoted I was directed by the volume of selections
published in 1907 under the title _Canadian Constitutional
Development_, by Professor H. E. Egerton of Oxford and Professor W.
L. Grant of Kingston, Ontario, both of whom have also made other
helpful suggestions, as has Mr. H. P. Biggar, the representative
of the Canadian Archives Office in this country. Finally, the task
of finding what one wanted has been very greatly facilitated by
the sympathetic aid of Mr. P. E. Lewin, who never loses a chance
of making the superb collection over which he presides in the
Library of the Royal Colonial Institute useful to anyone who may
be interested in the Britains overseas.
J. M.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
1. A GREAT LAND OF RIVERS AND
LAKES _Speech by Lord Dufferin_ 1
2. JACQUES CARTIER AT HOCHELAGA,
1535 _Lescarbot's "History"_ 3
3. THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT AT ST.
CROIX, 1604 " " 5
4. "THE ANCIENT MARINER," 1631-2 _T. James's "Voyage"_ 7
5. TWO ENGLISH EXPLORERS IN
HUDSON BAY, 1631 _"The North-west Fox"_ 8
6. THE BIRTHDAY OF MONTREAL,
1642 _F. Parkman_ 10
7. GOVERNOR FRONTENAC LEADS THE
WAR-DANCE, 1690 " 11
8. MADELAINE DE VERCHÈRES, 1696 _Her Own Narrative_ 13
9. THE FRENCH CANADIANS, 1737
(in French) _Memoir by G. Hocquart_ 17
10. THE "WHITE" MEN OF THE
PRAIRIES, 1738 _La Vérendrye's "Journal"_ 18
11. THE EXPULSION OF THE ACADIANS, _Lieut.-Gov. Lawrence's
1755 Circular Letter_ 21
12. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA, _H. Walpole's "Letters"_ 23
1757-60
13. THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC, 1759 "_Gentleman's Magazine_" 26
14. WOLFE'S DIFFICULTIES, 1759 " " 28
15. THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM, 1759 _Capt. J. Knox's
"Journal"_ 30
16. THE GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC _SHORTT AND DOUGHTY'S
UNDER THE BRITISH, 1763-74 "Const. Docts."_ 33
17. THE COPPERMINE RIVER, 1771 _S. Hearne's "Journey"_ 35
18. THE QUEBEC ACT, 1774 _Shortt and Doughty's
"Const. Docts."_ 37
19. ONE OF THE LOYALISTS, 1783 _Transactions of U.E.
Loyalists' Association_ 38
20. THE MACKENZIE RIVER, 1789 _Sir A. Mackenzie's
"Voyages"_ 41
21. THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT, 1791 _Shortt and Doughty's
"Const. Docts."_ 43
22. TO THE PACIFIC OVERLAND, 1793 _Sir A. Mackenzie's
"Voyages"_ 45
23. A SERVANT OF THE NORTH-WEST _MASSON'S "BOURGEOIS DU
COMPANY, 1800 Nord-Ouest"_ 48
24. THE BEAVER, 1807 _G. Heriot's "Travels"_ 49
25. A RAPID ON THE FRASER RIVER, _Masson's "Bourgeois du
1808 Nord-Ouest"_ 52
26. LAURA SECORD, 1813 _Her Own Narrative_ 54
27. LUNDY'S LANE, 1814 _"The Annual Register"_ 55
28. ATTACK ON LORD SELKIRK'S _A "STATEMENT" PUBLISHED
COLONY, 1816 in 1817_ 57
29. PROPOSED UNION OF THE CANADAS, _Canadian Archives Report,
1822 1897_ 59
30. THE FOUNDING OF GUELPH _THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
(ONTARIO), 1827 John Galt_ 62
31. SAM SLICK CRITICISES THE _T. C. HALIBURTON'S "THE
"BLUENOSES," 1836 Clockmaker"_ 64
32. A STRUGGLE NOT OF PRINCIPLES _SIR C. LUCAS'S EDITION OF
BUT OF RACES, 1838 Lord Durham's Report_ 67
33. THE FRENCH CANADIANS IN 1838 _Sir C. Lucas's edition of
Lord Durham's Report_ 69
34. THE IRRESPONSIBLE OPPOSITION _SIR C. LUCAS'S EDITION OF
IN LOWER CANADA, 1838 Lord Durham's Report_ 71
35. DURHAM'S RECOMMENDATIONS _Sir C. Lucas's edition of
Lord Durham's Report_ 73
36. DURHAM RESIGNS AND APPEALS TO _1839 EDITION OF THE
PUBLIC OPINION "Report and Despatches"_ 75
37. THE EVILS OF THE OLD COLONIAL _J. HOWE'S "LETTERS AND
SYSTEM, 1839 Public Speeches"_ 77
38. THE BENEFITS OF RESPONSIBLE _J. HOWE'S "LETTERS AND
GOVERNMENT Public Speeches"_ 79
39. THE UNION ACT, 1840 _Houston's "Documents"_ 80
40. EDMONTON IN 1841 _Sir G. Simpson's "Journey"_ 81
41. THE MOHAWK INDIANS IN ONTARIO, _J. R. Godley's "Letters
1842 from America"_ 84
42. THE POSITION OF THE GOVERNOR, _Elgin's "Letters and
1854 Journals"_ 86
43-45. THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES, _Debates in the Parliament
1865 of Canada_ 87
46. THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT, _Egerton's "Federations
1867 and Unions"_ 91
47. THE WORK OF THE HUDSON BAY
COMPANY (to 1869) _Paper by Lord Strathcona_ 96
48. RED RIVER REBELLION, 1870 _Lord Wolseley's "Story
of a Soldier's Life"_ 98
49. ENTERING THE ROCKIES, 1872 _"Ocean to Ocean," by G.
M. Grant_ 100
50. THE DESTINY OF CANADA (1873) _"Ocean to Ocean," by G.
M. Grant_ 102
51. TARIFF REFORM IN CANADA IN _SPEECH BY SIR J. A.
1876 Macdonald_ 104
52. PRAIRIE GREYHOUNDS (SINCE _POEM BY E. PAULINE
1885) Johnson_ 105
53. LAURIER'S TRIBUTE TO _SPEECH IN CANADIAN
MACDONALD, 1891 House of Commons_ 106
54. CANADIAN TROOPS IN THE BOER _SPEECH IN CANADIAN
WAR, 1900 House of Commons_ 108
55. PIONEERS OF THE RAILWAY, 1910 _Talbot's "Making of a
Great Canadian Railway"_ 110
56. CANADIAN NAVAL POLICY, 1912 _"The Times" Supplement_ 112
57. CANADIAN STREAMS _Poem by C. G. D.
Roberts_ 115
NOTES ON PERSONS NAMED IN THE EXTRACTS 117
CANADA
(1535--PRESENT-DAY)
1. A GREAT LAND OF RIVERS AND LAKES.
=Source.=--A Speech delivered by Lord Dufferin at Winnipeg, quoted
in _Round the Empire_, by Mr. G. R. Parkin. London, 1893.
As a poor man cannot live in a big house, so a small country cannot
support a big river.
Now to an Englishman or a Frenchman the Severn or the Thames, the
Seine or the Rhone, would appear considerable streams; but in the
Ottawa, a mere affluent of the St. Lawrence, an affluent, moreover,
which reaches the parent stream six hundred miles from its mouth,
we have a river nearly five hundred and fifty miles long, and three
or four times as big as any of them.
But even after having ascended the St. Lawrence itself to Lake
Ontario, and pursued it across Lake Erie, St. Clair, Lake Huron,
and Lake Superior to Thunder Bay--a distance of fifteen hundred
miles, where are we? In the estimation of a person who has made
the journey, at the end of all things; but to us, who know better,
scarcely at the beginning of the great fluvial systems of the
Dominion; for from that spot, that is to say, from Thunder Bay,
we are able at once to ship our astonished traveller on to the
Kaministiquia, a river of some hundred miles long. Thence, almost
in a straight line, we launch him on to Lake Shebandowan and Rainy
Lake and River--a magnificent stream three hundred yards broad
and a couple of hundred miles long, down whose tranquil bosom he
floats to the Lake of the Woods, where he finds himself on a sheet
of water which, though diminutive as compared with the inland
seas he has left behind him, will probably be found sufficiently
extensive to render him fearfully sea-sick during his passage
across it.
For the last eighty miles of his voyage, however, he will be
consoled by sailing through a succession of land-locked channels,
the beauty of whose scenery, while it resembles, certainly excels,
the far-famed Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence.
From this lacustrine paradise of sylvan beauty we are able at once
to transfer our friend to the Winnipeg, a river whose existence
in the very heart and centre of the continent is in itself one of
Nature's most delightful miracles--so beautiful and varied are its
rocky banks, its tufted islands; so broad, so deep, so fervid is
the volume of its waters, the extent of their lake-like expansions,
and the tremendous power of their rapids.
At last let us suppose we have landed our traveller at the town
of Winnipeg, the half-way house of the continent, the capital of
the Prairie Province.... Having had so much of water, having now
reached the home of the buffalo, like the extenuated Falstaff he
naturally "babbles of green fields" and careers in imagination
over the green grasses of the prairie. Not at all.... We take him
down to your quay and ask him which he will ascend first--the Red
River or the Assiniboine--two streams, the one five hundred miles
long, the other four hundred and eighty, which so happily mingle
their waters within your city limits. After having given him a
preliminary canter up these respective rivers, we take him off
to Lake Winnipeg, an inland sea 300 miles long and upwards of 60
broad, during the navigation of which, for many a weary hour, he
will find himself out of sight of land, and probably a good deal
more indisposed than ever he was on the Lake of the Woods, or even
the Atlantic.
At the north-west angle of Lake Winnipeg he hits upon the mouth
of the Saskatchewan, the gateway of the North-West, and the
starting-point to another 1500 miles of navigable water flowing
nearly due East and West between its alluvial banks.
Having now reached the foot of the Rocky Mountains, our Ancient
Mariner--for by this time he will be quite entitled to such an
appellation--knowing that water cannot run uphill, feels certain
his aquatic experiences are concluded.
He was never more mistaken. We immediately launch him upon the
Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers, and start him on a longer trip than
he has yet undertaken--the navigation of the Mackenzie River alone
exceeding 2500 miles. If he survives this last experience we wind
up his peregrinations by a concluding voyage of 1400 miles down the
Fraser River, or, if he prefers it, the Thompson River, to Victoria
in Vancouver, whence, having previously provided him with a first
class return ticket for that purpose, he will probably prefer
getting home _via_ the Canadian Pacific.
Now, in this enumeration, those who are acquainted with the country
are aware that, for the sake of brevity, I have omitted thousands
of miles of other lakes and rivers which water various regions
of the North-West: the Qu'Appelle River, the Belly River, Lake
Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, Shoal Lake, and others, along whose
interminable banks and shores I might have dragged, and finally
exterminated, our way-worn guest.
2. JACQUES CARTIER'S VISIT TO HOCHELAGA IN OCTOBER (1535).
=Source.=--Lescarbot's _History of New France_, edited for the
Champlain Society, by W. L. Grant and H. P. Biggar. Toronto, 1911.
Early next morning the captain donned his armour and ordered his
men to be marshalled in order to visit the town and habitation of
this tribe, and a mountain which lies close to the town, whither
the captain went with the noblemen and twenty mariners, leaving
the rest to guard the boats, and taking three men from the town
of Hochelaga to be his guides and escort to the spot. And when on
the road we found it as well beaten as could be, in a fair country
like a park; with as fine oaks as in any forest in France, and the
whole ground beneath them thick with acorns. When we had gone about
a league and a half, we came upon one of the chiefest lords of the
town of Hochelaga, with a large company, who made sign to us to
rest there beside a fire which they had lighted in the roadway. And
then this chief began to make a sermon and discourse, which, as we
have already said, is their mode of showing joy and friendship,
welcoming the captain and his company; and our captain gave him
two hatchets and two knives, with a cross and a crucifix which he
made him kiss, and then hung it around his neck, whereof the chief
thanked our captain. This done, we went along, and about half a
league further on began to come upon ploughed fields, and fair
large meadows full of their manner of corn, which resembles the
millet of Brazil, as large as a pea or larger, whereon they live
as we do on wheat. And amid these fields is situated and placed
the said town of Hochelaga, stretching up to a mountain which
lies beside it, which is well cultivated and most fertile, and
from whose top one can see to a great distance. This mountain we
called Mount Royal. The town is built in a circle, and surrounded
with a wooden palisade in three tiers, like a pyramid; the top
row is crosswise, the centre row upright, and the bottom row is
laid lengthwise; the whole compactly joined and lashed together
after their manner, rising to about twice the height of a lance.
The town has but one gate or entry, closed with bars; on it and at
several points along the wall are galleries of a kind, with ladders
ascending to them, provided with rocks and stones for its guard
and defence. In the town are about fifty houses, each about fifty
paces long or more, and twelve to fifteen broad, built all of wood,
with roofs and sides made of strips of bark or of wood as broad as
a table, well and cunningly knotted together after their fashion;
within these are several rooms, large and small; in the midst of
each house, on the ground, is a large hall where they light their
fire and live in common, afterwards retiring, the men with their
women and children, to their said chambers. They also have garners
at the top of their houses, where they store their corn, which
they call caraconi, whereof they make their bread in the following
manner. They have wooden mortars, like those for beating hemp, and
in these with wooden beetles they beat the corn to powder, then
make paste of it and cakes of the paste, which they put on a hot
stone and cover with hot pebbles, and thus they bake their bread,
for want of an oven. They also make many stews of this corn, and
also of beans and peas, of which they have good store; also of
large cucumbers and other fruits. They have also in their houses
large vats like tuns, wherein they store their eels and other fish,
which they smoke during the summer and live upon in winter; of
these they gather great plenty, as we by experience have seen. None
of their viands have any touch of salt; and they sleep on strips of
bark laid on the ground, covered with wretched skins, whereof they
also make their garments, such as otters, beavers, martens, foxes,
wild cats, roes, stags and other wild beasts, though indeed the
greater part of them go practically stark naked.
3. THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN THE ISLAND OF ST. CROIX (1604).
=Source.=--Grant and Biggar's edition of Lescarbot's _History_.
During the above voyage M. de Monts worked away at his fort, which
he had placed at the foot of the island, opposite the end on which,
as we have said, he had lodged his cannon. This was well thought
on, in order to control the whole river both up stream and down.
But the trouble was that the said fort faced the north, and was
without any shelter, save the trees along the shore of the island,
which in the vicinity of the fort he had forbidden to be cut down.
And outside the said fort was the barracks for the Swiss, large and
spacious, and other small buildings like a suburb. Some had built
log-huts on the mainland near the stream. But inside the fort was
the dwelling of the said M. de Monts, built of fair sawn timber,
with the banner of France overhead. Elsewhere within the fort was
the magazine, wherein lay the safety and the life of each, built
likewise of fair timber, and covered with shingles. And opposite
the magazine were the lodgings and dwellings of MM. d'Orville,
Champlain, Champdoré, and other notable persons. Opposite the
quarters of the said M. de Monts was a covered gallery, to be used
either for sports or by the workmen in wet weather. And the whole
space between the said fort and the battery was taken up with
gardens, at which every man worked lightheartedly. Thus passed
the whole autumn; and it was not bad progress to have built their
houses and cleared the island before winter; while in these parts
pamphlets were being circulated under the name of Master William,
stuffed with all sorts of news, wherein among other things this
prognosticator said that M. de Monts was pulling out thorns in
Canada. And when all is well considered, it may truly be called
pulling out thorns to take in hand such enterprises, full of
toils and of continual danger, care, vexation and discomfort.
But virtue and the courage which overcomes all such obstacles
make these thorns to be but gilly-flowers and roses to those who
set themselves to these heroic deeds in order to win glory in
the memory of men, closing their eyes to the pleasures of those
weaklings who are good for nothing but to stay at home.
Having done the things of greatest urgency, and grey-bearded father
Winter being come, they needs must keep indoors, and live every man
under his own roof-tree. During this time our friends had three
special discomforts in this island, to wit, want of wood (for that
on the said island had been used for the buildings), want of fresh
water, and the night watch for fear of a surprise from the Indians
who were encamped at the foot of the said island, or from some
other enemy; for such is the evil disposition and fury of many
Christians, that one must be more on one's guard against them than
against the infidel. This it grieveth me to say; would indeed that
I were a liar herein, and that I had no cause to speak it. Thus
when water or wood was required they were constrained to cross the
river, which on either side is more than three times as broad as
the Seine at Paris. This was both painful and tedious; so that very
often one had to bespeak the boat a day in advance before being
able to get the use of it. On top of this came cold and snow and
frost so hard that the cider froze in the casks, and each man was
given his portion by weight. As for wine, it was only given out
on certain days of the week. Some lazy fellows drank melted snow
without troubling to cross the river. In short, unknown diseases
broke out, like those which Captain Jacques Cartier has already
described for us, of which for fear of vain repetition I shall
therefore not give an account. No remedy could be found.
4. THE ANCIENT MARINER (1631).
=Source.=--_The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas
James to Hudson Bay, 1631-2_: which is believed to be the source
of much of Coleridge's _Ancient Mariner_. Reprinted by the Hakluyt
Society, 1894.
[Nov.] I lay ashore till the 17, all which time our miseries did
increase. It did snow and freeze most extremely. At which time, we
looking from the shore towards the ship, she did look like a piece
of ice in the fashion of a ship, or a ship resembling a piece of
ice. The snow was all frozen about her....
The three-and-twentieth, the ice did increase extraordinarily, and
the snow lay on the water in flakes as it did fall; much ice withal
drove by us, yet nothing hard all this while. In the evening, after
the watch was set, a great piece came athwart our hawse, and four
more followed after him, the least of them a quarter of a mile
broad; which, in the dark, did very much astonish us, thinking it
would have carried us out of the harbour upon the shoals Easter
Point, which was full of rocks. It was newly congealed, a matter of
two inches thick, and we broke thorough it, the cable and anchor
enduring an incredible stress, sometimes stopping the whole ice....
[May.] The second, it did snow and blow, and was so cold that we
were fain to keep house all day. This unexpected cold at this time
of the year did so vex our sick men that they grew worse and worse.
We cannot now take them out of their beds but they would swound,
and we had much ado to fetch life in them.
The third, those that were able went aboard betimes to heave out
the ice. The snow was now melted in many places upon the land, and
stood in plashes. And now there came some cranes and geese to it.
The fourth, while the rest wrought aboard, I and the surgeon went
with a couple of pieces to see if we could kill any of these fowl
for our sick men; but never did I see such wild-fowl: they would
not endure to see anything move....
[July.] ... We were continually till the 22 so pestered and
tormented with ice that it would seem incredible to relate it.
Sometimes we were so blinded with fog that we could not see about
us; and, being now become wilful in our endeavours, we should so
strike against the ice that the forepart of the ship would crack
again, and make our cook and others to run up all amazed and think
the ship had been beaten all to pieces. Indeed we did hourly strike
such unavoidable blows that we did leave the hatches open; and, 20
times in a day, the men would run down into the hold to see if she
were bulged.
Sometimes, when we had made her fast in the night to a great piece
of ice, we should have such violent storms that our fastening would
break, and then the storm would beat us from piece to piece most
fearfully; other-while, we should be fast enclosed amongst great
ice as high as our poop.
5. TWO ENGLISH EXPLORERS MEET IN HUDSON BAY (1631).
=Source.=--_The North-West Fox_, Captain Luke Fox's account of his
voyage. Reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, 1894.
[30 Aug.] I was well entertained and feasted by Captain James with
variety of such cheer as his sea provisions could afford, with
some partridges; we dined betwixt decks, for the great cabin was
not big enough to receive ourselves and followers; during which
time the ship ... threw in so much water as we could not have
wanted sauce if we had had roast mutton.
Whereat I began to ponder whether it were better for his company
to be impounded amongst ice, where they might be kept from
putrefaction by the piercing air; or in open sea, to be kept sweet
by being thus daily pickled. However, they were to be pitied, the
ship taking her liquor as kindly as ourselves, for her nose was
no sooner out of the pitcher but her neb, like the duck's, was in
it again. The gentleman could discourse of Art (as observations,
calculations and the like), and shewed me many instruments, so that
I did perceive him to be a practitioner in the mathematics; but,
when I found that he was no seaman, I did blame those very much who
had counselled him to make choice of that ship for a voyage of such
importance....
And (being demanded) I did not think much for his keeping out his
flag; for my ambition was [not so] ethereal, and my thoughts not so
airy, so to set my sight towards the sky, but when I either called
to God or made celestial observation. To this was replied that he
was going to the Emperor of Japan with letters from his Majesty;
and that, if it were a ship of his Majesty's of 40 pieces of
ordnance, he could not strike his flag. "Keep it up then," quoth I,
"but you are out of the way to Japan, for this is not it." He would
have persuaded me to take harbour to winter in, telling me that Sir
Thomas Button took harbour the 14 of this instant. Quoth I, "He is
no precedent for me. I must parallel my poverty with poor Hudson's,
who took no harbour before the first of November; and that then I
durst not take harbour until the midst of the same; besides, I was
not come to do so much as another man, but more than any, as I had
already done...."
We parted not until the next morning's dawning, and this 17 hours
was the worst spent of any time of my discovery. My men told me his
men gave them some tobacco, a thing good for nothing.
6. THE BIRTHDAY OF MONTREAL (1642).
=Source.=--_The Jesuits in North America_, by Francis Parkman,
1867--not itself an original contemporary source, but based mainly
on a MS. _Histoire de Montreal_, by Dollier de Casson.
In many of its aspects, this enterprise of Montreal belonged to the
time of the first Crusades....
On the seventeenth of May, 1642, Maisonneuve's little flotilla--a
pinnace, a flat-bottomed craft moved by sails, and two
row-boats--approached Montreal; and all on board raised in unison
a hymn of praise. Montmagny was with them, to deliver the island,
in behalf of the Company of the Hundred Associates, to Maisonneuve,
representative of the Associates of Montreal. And here, too, was
Father Vimont, Superior of the missions; for the Jesuits had been
prudently invited to accept the spiritual charge of the young
colony. On the following day, they glided along the green and
solitary shores now thronged with the life of a busy city, and
landed on the spot which Champlain, thirty-one years before, had
chosen as the fit site of a settlement. It was a tongue or triangle
of land, formed by the junction of a rivulet with the St. Lawrence,
and known afterwards as Point Callière. The rivulet was bordered by
a meadow, and beyond rose the forest with its vanguard of scattered
trees. Early spring flowers were blooming in the young grass, and
birds of varied plumage flitted among the boughs.
Maisonneuve sprang ashore, and fell on his knees. His followers
imitated his example; and all joined their voices in enthusiastic
songs of thanksgiving. Tents, baggage, arms and stores were
landed. An altar was raised on a pleasant spot near at hand;
and Mademoiselle Mance, with Madame de la Peltrie, aided by her
servant, Charlotte Barré, decorated it with a taste which was the
admiration of the beholders. Now all the company gathered before
the shrine. Here stood Vimont, in the rich vestments of his office.
Here were the two ladies, with their servant; Montmagny, no very
willing spectator; and Maisonneuve, a war-like figure, erect and
tall, his men clustering around him--soldiers, sailors, artisans,
and labourers--all alike soldiers at need. They kneeled in reverent
silence as the Host was raised aloft; and when the rite was over,
the priest turned and addressed them:
"You are a grain of mustard-seed, that shall rise and grow till its
branches overshadow the earth. You are few, but your work is the
work of God. His smile is on you, and your children shall fill the
land."
The afternoon waned; the sun sank behind the western forest, and
twilight came on. Fire-flies were twinkling over the darkened
meadow. They caught them, tied them with threads into shining
festoons, and hung them before the altar, where the Host remained
exposed. Then they pitched their tents, lighted their bivouac
fires, stationed their guards, and lay down to rest. Such was the
birth-night of Montreal.
7. GOVERNOR FRONTENAC LEADS THE WAR-DANCE (1690).
=Source.=--F. Parkman's _Count Frontenac and New France under
Louis XIV_. (1877). The foot-note appended gives the words of the
original French authorities.
Having painted, greased and befeathered themselves, the Indians
mustered for the grand council which always preceded the opening
of the market. The Ottawa orator spoke of nothing but trade, and,
with a regretful memory of the cheapness of English goods, begged
that the French would sell them at the same rate. The Huron touched
upon politics and war, declaring that he and his people had come to
visit their old father and listen to his voice, being well assured
that he would never abandon them, as others had done, nor fool away
his time, like Denonville, in shameful negotiations for peace;
and he exhorted Frontenac to fight, not the English only, but the
Iroquois also, till they were brought to reason. "If this is not
done," he said, "my father and I shall both perish; but, come what
may, we will perish together." "I answered," writes Frontenac,
"that I would fight the Iroquois till they came to beg for peace,
and that I would grant them no peace that did not include all my
children, both white and red, for I was the father of both alike."
Now ensued a curious scene. Frontenac took a hatchet, brandished
it in the air and sang the war-song. The principal Frenchmen
present followed his example. The Christian Iroquois of the two
neighbouring missions rose and joined them, and so also did
the Hurons and the Algonquins of Lake Nipissing, stamping and
screeching like a troop of madmen; while the Governor led the
dance, whooping like the rest. His predecessor would have perished
rather than play such a part in such company; but the punctilious
old courtier was himself half Indian at heart, as much at home in
a wigwam as in the halls of princes. Another man would have lost
respect in Indian eyes by such a performance. In Frontenac, it
roused his audience to enthusiasm. They snatched the proffered
hatchet and promised war to the death.
Then came a solemn war-feast. Two oxen and six large dogs had been
chopped to pieces for the occasion, and boiled with a quantity of
prunes. Two barrels of wine with abundant tobacco were also served
out to the guests, who devoured the meal in a species of frenzy.
["Je leur mis moy-mesme la hache à la main en chantant la chanson
de guerre pour m'accomoder à leurs façons de faire." _Frontenac au
Ministre_, 9 et 12 Nov. 1690.
"Monsieur de Frontenac commença la chanson de guerre, la hache à
la main; les principaux chefs des François se joignant à luy avec
de pareilles armes la chantèrent ensemble. Les Iroquois du Saut et
de la Montagne, les Hurons et les Nipisiriniens donnèrent encore
le branle: l'on eut dit, Monsieur, que ces acteurs étoient des
possedez par les gestes et les contorsions qu'ils faisoient. Les
_Sassakouez_, ou les cris et les hurlemens que Mr. de Frontenac
étoit obligé de faire pour se conformer à leur manière, augmentoit
encore la fureur bachique." _La Potherie_, iii. 97.]
8. MADELAINE DE VERCHÈRES (1696).
=Source.=--Narrative of the Heroic Deeds of Mlle. Marie-Madelaine
de Verchères, aged fourteen years, against the Iroquois, on the
22nd October, in the year 1696, at eight o'clock in the morning,[1]
quoted in Mr. E. Richard's _Supplement to the Report on Canadian
Archives_, 1899.
I was five arpents away from the fort of Verchères, belonging to
Sieur de Verchères, my father, who was then at Kebek by order of M.
le Chevalier de Callières, Governor of Montreal, my mother being
also in Montreal. I heard several shots without knowing at whom
they were fired. I soon saw that the Iroquois were firing at our
settlers, who lived about a league and a half from the fort. One of
our servants called out to me:
"Fly, mademoiselle, fly! the Iroquois are upon us!"
I turned instantly and saw some forty-five Iroquois running towards
me, and already within pistol shot. Determined rather to die than
fall into their hands, I sought safety in flight. I ran towards the
fort, commending myself to the Blessed Virgin....
Meantime my pursuers, seeing that they were too far off to take me
alive before I could enter the fort, and knowing they were near
enough to shoot me, stood still in order to discharge their guns at
me. I was under fire for quite a time, at any rate I found the time
quite long enough! Forty-five bullets whistling past my ears made
the time seem long and the distance from the fort interminable,
though I was so near. When within hearing of the fort, I cried out:
"To arms! to arms!"
I hoped that some one would come out to help me, but it was a vain
hope. There were but two soldiers in the fort, and these were
so overcome by fear that they had sought safety by concealing
themselves in the redoubt. Having reached the gates at last, I
found there two women lamenting for the loss of their husbands, who
had just been killed. I made them enter the fort, and closed the
gates myself. I then began to consider how I might save myself and
the little party with me, from the hands of the savages. I examined
the fort, and found that several of the stakes had fallen, leaving
gaps through which it would be easy for the enemy to enter. I gave
orders to have the stakes replaced, and heedless of my sex and
tender age, I hesitated not to seize one end of the heavy stake
and urge my companions to give a hand in raising it. I found by
experience that, when God gives us strength, nothing is impossible.
The breaches having been repaired, I betook myself to the redoubt,
which served as a guard-house and armoury. I there found two
soldiers, one of them lying down and the other holding a burning
fuse. I said to the latter:
"What are you going to do with that fuse?"
"I want to set fire to the powder," said he, "and blow up the fort."
"You are a miserable wretch," I said, adding, "Begone, I command
you!"
I spoke so firmly that he obeyed forthwith. Thereupon putting aside
my hood and donning a soldier's casque, I seized a musket and said
to my little brothers:
"Let us fight to the death for our country and for our holy
religion. Remember what our father has so often told you, that
gentlemen are born but to shed their blood for the service of God
and the king!"
Stirred up by my words, my brothers and the two soldiers kept up a
steady fire on the foe. I caused the cannon to be fired, not only
to strike terror into the Iroquois and show them that we were well
able to defend ourselves, since we had a cannon, but also to warn
our own soldiers, who were away hunting, to take refuge in some
other fort.
But alas! what sufferings have to be endured in these awful
extremities of distress! Despite the thunder of our guns, I heard
unceasingly the cries and lamentations of some unfortunates who had
just lost a husband, a brother, a child or a parent. I deemed it
prudent, while the firing was still kept up, to represent to the
grief-stricken women that their shrieks exposed us to danger, for
they could not fail to be heard by the enemy, notwithstanding the
noise of the guns and the cannon. I ordered them to be silent and
thus avoid giving the impression that we were helpless and hopeless.
While I was speaking thus, I caught sight of a canoe on the river,
opposite the fort. It was Sieur Pierre Fontaine with his family,
who were about to land at the spot where I had just barely escaped
from the Iroquois, the latter being still visible on every hand.
The family must fall into the hands of the savages if not promptly
succoured.
I asked the two soldiers to go to the landing-place, only five
arpents away, and protect the family. But seeing by their silence,
that they had but little heart for the work, I ordered our servant,
Laviolette, to stand sentry at the gate of the fort and keep it
open, while I would myself go to the bank of the river, carrying a
musket in my hand and wearing my soldier's casque. I left orders
on setting out, that if I was killed, they were to shut the gates
and continue to defend the fort sturdily. I set out with the
heaven-sent thought that the enemy, who were looking on, would
imagine that it was a ruse on my part to induce them to approach
the fort, in order that our people might make a sortie upon them.
This was precisely what happened, and thus was I enabled to save
poor Pierre Fontaine, with his wife and children. When all were
landed, I made them march before me as far as the fort, within
sight of the enemy. By putting a bold face upon it, I made the
Iroquois think there was more danger for them than for us.
They did not know that the whole garrison, and only inhabitants
of the fort of Verchères, were my two brothers aged 12 years, our
servant, two soldiers, an old man of eighty, and some women and
children.
Strengthened by the new recruits from Pierre Fontaine's canoe,
I gave orders to continue firing at the enemy. Meantime the sun
went down, and a fierce north-easter accompanied by snow and hail
ushered in a night of awful severity. The enemy kept us closely
invested, and instead of being deterred by the dreadful weather,
led me to judge by their movements that they purposed assaulting
the fort under cover of the darkness.
I gathered all my troops--six persons--together, and spoke to them
thus: "God has saved us to-day from the hands of our enemies, but
we must be careful not to be caught in their snares to-night. For
my part, I want to show you that I am not afraid. I undertake the
fort for my share, with an old man of eighty, and a soldier who
has never fired a gun. And you, Pierre Fontaine, with La Bonté and
Galhet (our two soldiers), will go to the redoubt, with the women
and children, as it is the strongest place. If I am taken, never
surrender, even though I should be burnt and cut to pieces before
your eyes. You have nothing to fear in the redoubt, if you only
make some show of fighting."
Thereupon I posted my two young brothers on two of the bastions,
the _youth_ of 80 on a third bastion, and myself took charge of the
fourth. Each one acted his part to the life. Despite the whistling
of the north-east wind, which is a fearful wind in Canada at this
season, and in spite of the snow and hail, the cry of "All's well"
was heard at close intervals, echoing and re-echoing from the fort
to the redoubt and from the redoubt to the fort.
One would have fancied, to hear us, that the fort was crowded with
warriors. And in truth the Iroquois, with all their astuteness and
skill in warfare, were completely deceived, as they afterwards
avowed to M. de Callières. They told him they had held a council
with a view to assaulting the fort during the night, but that
the increasing vigilance of the guard had prevented them from
accomplishing their design, especially in view of their losses of
the previous day (under the fire maintained by myself and my two
brothers)....
On the eighth day (for we were eight days in continual alarms,
under the eyes of our enemies and exposed to their fury and savage
attacks), on the eighth day, I say, M. de la Monnerie, a lieutenant
detached from the force under M. de Callières, reached the fort
during the night with forty men.... So soon as I saw the officer in
command I saluted him, saying:
"Sir, you are welcome, I surrender my arms to you."
"Mademoiselle," he answered, with a courtly air, "they are in good
hands."
"Better than you think," I replied.
He inspected the fort and found it in a most satisfactory
condition, with a sentry on each bastion. I said to him:
"Sir, kindly relieve my sentries, so that they may take a little
rest, for we have not left our posts for the last eight days."
9. THE FRENCH CANADIANS (1737).
=Source.=--A Memoir transmitted to the French Ministry, probably
by Gilles Hocquart, intendant of New France: quoted in _Documents
relating to the Seigniorial Tenure in Canada_, edited by W. B.
Munro. Toronto, 1908.
La colonie de la Nouvelle-France peut comprendre environ 40,000
personnes de tout âge et de tout sexe, sur lesquelles il se trouve
dix mille hommes en estat de porter les armes. Les Canadiens sont
naturellement grands, bien faits, d'un tempérament vigoureux. Comme
les arts n'y sont point gênés par des maîtrises, et que dans les
commencements de l'établissement de la colonie les ouvriers étoient
rares, la nécessité les a rendus industrieux de génération en
génération. Les habitans des campagnes manient tous adroitement la
hache. Ils font eux-mêmes la pluspart des outils et ustensiles de
labourage, bâtissent leurs maisons, leurs granges. Plusieurs sont
tisserans, font de grosses toiles et des étoffes qu'ils appellent
droguet, dont ils se servent pour se vêtir eux et leur famille.
Ils aiment les distinctions et les caresses, se piquant de
bravoure, sont extrêmement sensibles aux mépris et aux moindres
punitions: ils sont intéressés, vindicatifs, sont sujets à
l'ivrognerie, font un grand usage de l'eau-de-vie, [et] passent
pour n'être pas véridiques.
Ce portrait convient au grand nombre particulièrement aux gens de
la campagne. Ceux des villes sont moins vicieux. Tous sont attachés
à la religion. On voit peu de scélérats. Ils sont volages, ont trop
bonne opinion d'euxmêmes, ce qui les empêche de réussir comme ils
pourroient le faire dans les arts, l'agriculture et le commerce.
Joignons à cela l'oisiveté à laquelle la longueur et la rigueur
de l'hiver donne occasion. Ils aiment la chasse, la navigation,
les voyages et n'ont point l'air grossier et rustique de nos
paysans de France. Ils sont communément assez souples lorsqu'on
les pique d'honneur et qu'on les gouverne avec justice, mais ils
sont naturellement indociles. Il est nécessaire de fortifier de
plus en plus l'exacte subordination qui doit estre dans tous les
ordres, particulièrement dans les gens de la campagne. Cette
partie du service a esté de tout temps la plus importante et la
plus difficile à remplir. Un des moyens pour y parvenir est de
choisir pour officiers dans les costes les habitans les plus
sages et les plus capables de commander, et d'apporter de la part
du gouvernement toute l'attention convenable pour les maintenir
dans leur autorité. On ose dire que le manque de fermeté dans les
gouvernemens passés a beaucoup nui à la subordination. Depuis
plusieurs années les crimes ont esté punis, les désordres ont été
reprimés par des châtiments proportionés. La police par rapport aux
chemins publics, aux cabarets, etc., a esté mieux observée et en
général les habitants ont esté plus contenus qu'ils ne l'estoient
autrefois. Il y a quelques familles nobles en Canada, mais elles
sont si nombreuses qu'il y a beaucoup de gentilshommes.
10. THE SUPPOSED WHITE MEN OF THE PRAIRIES (1738).
=Source.=--The Journal of the French explorer, the Sieur de La
Vérendrye, describing an expedition to the Missouri in 1738-9.
Printed in the _Report on Canadian Archives_, 1889.
On the 20th, the whole village set out on the march to go the
seventeen leagues where the meeting-place for the Mandans had been
chosen; every day they entertained us with the tale that the whites
we were going to see were Frenchmen like ourselves, who said they
were our descendants. All they told us gave us good hope of making
a discovery which would deserve attention. Mr. de la Marque and I
made plans along the road from what they were telling us, believing
that to be true, from which we had to deduct much. I observed to
Mr. de la Marque the good order in which the Assiniboines march to
prevent surprise, marching always on the prairies, the hill-sides
and valleys from the first mountain, which did not make them
fatigued by mounting and descending often in their march during
the day. There are magnificent plains of three or four leagues.
The march of the Assiniboines, especially when they are numerous,
is in three columns, having skirmishers in front, with a good rear
guard; the old and lame march in the middle, forming the central
column. I kept all the French together as much as possible. If the
skirmishers discover herds of cattle on the road, as often happens,
they raise a cry which is soon returned by the rear guard, and all
the most active men in the columns join the vanguard to hem in the
cattle, of which they secure a number, and each takes what flesh
he wants. Since that stops the march, the vanguard marks out the
encampment which is not to be passed; the women and dogs carry all
the baggage, the men are burdened only with their arms; they make
the dogs even carry wood to make the fires, being often obliged
to encamp in the open prairie, from which the clumps of wood may
be at a great distance. On the morning of the 28th, we arrived at
the place selected for the meeting with the Mandans, who arrived
towards evening--a chief with thirty men and the four Assiniboines.
The chief having from the top of a height considered the extent of
our village, which appeared of a good size, I had him brought to
the hut where I was, where a place had been prepared to receive
him on one side of it. He came and placed himself near me; one of
his people then, on his part, presented me with a gift of Indian
corn in the ear, and of their tobacco in rolls, which is not good,
as they do not know how to cure it like us. It is very like ours,
with this difference, that it is not cultivated and is cut green,
everything being turned to account, the stalks and the leaves
together. I gave him some of mine, which he thought very good.
I acknowledged that I was surprised, expecting to see different
people from the other Indians, especially after the account given
me. There is no difference from the Assiniboines....
I marched in good order to the fort, into which I entered on the
3rd of December at four in the afternoon, escorted by all the
French and Assiniboines. We were led into the hut of the head
chief. It was certainly large, but not enough to hold all who
wished to enter. The crowd was so great that they crushed one
another, Assiniboines and Mandans. There was only the place where
we were, Mr. de la Marque, his brother and my children, free of
them. I asked that the crowd should retire, to leave our Frenchmen
clear, and to put their baggage in a place of safety, telling them
they had all time to see us. Everyone was put out, but I had been
too late. The bag of goods had been stolen, in which were all my
presents, through the fault of one of the hired men, in whose
care I had placed it before reaching the fort. He had unloaded on
entering the hut without looking out for the bag, which he had put
beside him in the great crowd. I felt rather confounded, my box
lost, my bag of presents, which was very necessary for the place,
and there were upwards of 300 livres inside. The Assiniboines
seemed greatly annoyed and at once made a strict but useless
search. Their fort is full of caves, well suited for concealment.
The chief of the Mandans appeared to be greatly moved at my loss,
and said for my consolation that there were many rascals among
them. He would do his utmost to discover something about it. Had I
accepted the offer of the Assiniboines I might have had it found
in a little time by force, but I preferred to lose it and to make
peace about everything, as I wanted to spend a part of the winter
with them to get a knowledge of the more distant country....
... The Assiniboines did not yet speak of leaving, although they
had purchased all they were able to do, such as painted ox-robes,
deerskin, dressed buck skin, and ornamented furs and feathers,
painted feathers, and peltry, wrought garters, circlets for the
head, girdles. These people dress leather better than any of the
other nations, and work in furs and feathers very tastefully,
which the Assiniboines are not capable of doing. They are cunning
traders, cheating the Assiniboines of all they may possess, such
as muskets, powder, balls, kettles, axes, knives or awls. Seeing
the great consumption of food daily by the Assiniboines, and afraid
that it would not last long, they set afloat a rumour that the
Sioux were near and that several of their hunters had noticed them.
The Assiniboines fell into the trap and made up their minds quickly
to decamp, not wishing to be obliged to fight.
11. THE EXPULSION OF THE ACADIANS (1755).
=Source.=--A letter sent by Charles Lawrence, Lieut.-Governor of
Nova Scotia, to the Governors of the Colonies to which the Acadians
were removed: printed in Thomas C. Haliburton's _Historical and
Statistical Account of Nova Scotia_. Halifax, 1829.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, 11th Aug., 1755.
Sir,
The success that has attended his Majesty's arms in driving the
French out from the encroachments they had made in the Province,
furnished me with a favourable opportunity of reducing the
French inhabitants of this colony to a proper obedience to his
Majesty's Government, or of forcing them to quit the country. These
inhabitants were permitted in quiet possession of their lands,
upon condition they should take the oath of allegiance to the King
within one year after the treaty of Utrecht, by which this Province
was ceded to Great Britain; with this condition they have ever
refused to comply without having from the Governor an assurance in
writing that they should not be called upon to bear arms in the
defence of the Province; and with this General Philips did comply,
of which steps his Majesty has disapproved, and the inhabitants
therefrom pretending to be in a state of neutrality between his
Majesty and his enemies, have continually furnished the French and
Indians with intelligence, quarters, provisions and assistance in
annoying the Government; and while one part have abetted the French
encroachments by their treachery, the other have countenanced them
by open rebellion; and three hundred of them were actually found in
arms in the French fort at Beauséjour when it surrendered.
Notwithstanding all their former bad behaviour, as his Majesty was
pleased to allow me to extend still further his royal grace to such
as would return to their duty, I offered such of them as had not
been openly in arms against us a continuance of the possession of
their lands, if they would take the oath of allegiance unqualified
with any reservation whatever. But this they have audaciously
as well as unanimously refused; and if they would presume to do
this when there was a large fleet of ships of war in the harbour
and considerable land forces in the Province, what might not we
expect from them when the approaching winter deprives us of the
former, and when the troops, which are only hired from New England
occasionally and for a short time, have returned home?
As by this behaviour the inhabitants have forfeited all title to
their lands and any further favour from the Government, I called
together his Majesty's Council, at which the Hon. Vice-Admiral
Boscawen and Rear-Admiral Mostyn assisted, to consider by what
means we could with the greatest security and effect rid ourselves
of a set of people who would for ever have been an obstruction to
the intention of settling this colony, and that it was now from
their refusal of the oath absolutely incumbent to remove.
As their numbers amount to near seven thousand persons, the
driving them off, with leave to go whithersoever they pleased,
would have doubtless strengthened Canada with so considerable a
number of French inhabitants; and, as they have no cleared lands
to give them at present, such as are able to bear arms must have
been immediately employed in annoying this and the neighbouring
Colonies. To prevent such an inconveniency, it was judged a
necessary and the only practicable measure, to divide them among
the Colonies, where they may be of some use, as most of them are
healthy strong people, and as they cannot easily collect themselves
together again, it will be out of their power to do any mischief,
and they may become profitable, and it is possible in time faithful
subjects.
As this step was indispensably necessary to the security of
the colony, upon whose preservation from French encroachments
the prosperity of North America is esteemed in a great measure
dependent, I have not the least reason to doubt of your
Excellency's concurrence, and that you will receive the inhabitants
I now send, and dispose of them in such a manner as may best answer
in preventing their re-union....
12. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (1757-60).
=Source.=--_The Letters of Horace Walpole_: edited by Peter
Cunningham. Edinburgh, 1906.
8 Sept., 1757. We had a torrent of bad news yesterday from America.
Lord Loudon has found an army of twenty-one thousand French, gives
over the design on Louisbourg, and retires to Halifax. Admiral
Holbourn writes that they have nineteen ships to his seventeen,
and he cannot attack them. It is time for England to slip her own
cables and float away into some unknown ocean.
24 Aug., 1758. Our next and greatest triumph is the taking of
Cape Breton, the account of which came on Friday. The French have
not improved like their wines by crossing the sea; but lost their
spirit at Louisbourg as much as on their own coast. The success,
especially in the destruction of their fleet, is very great; the
triumphs not at all disproportionate to the conquest, of which you
will see all the particulars in the Gazette. Now for the chapter
of cypresses. The attempt on Crownpoint has failed; Lord Howe was
killed in a skirmish; and two days afterward by blunders, rashness
and bad intelligence we received a great blow at Ticonderoga.... My
hope is that Cape Breton may buy us Minorca and a peace.
9 Feb., 1759. The expedition, called to Quebec, departs on Tuesday
next under Wolfe and George Townshend, who has thrust himself again
into the service, and, as far as wrongheadedness will go, very
proper for a hero. Wolfe, who was no friend of Mr. Conway last year
and for whom I consequently have no affection, has great merit,
spirit and alacrity, and shone extremely at Louisbourg. I am not
such a Juno but I will forgive him after eleven more labours.
16 Oct., 1759. I love to prepare your countenance for every event
that may happen, for an ambassador, who is nothing but an actor,
should be that greatest of actors, a philosopher; and, with the
leave of wise men (that is, hypocrites), philosophy I hold to be
little more than presence of mind; now undoubtedly preparation is
a prodigious help to presence of mind. In short, you must not be
surprised that we have failed at Quebec, as we certainly shall.[2]
You may say, if you please, in the style of modern politics, that
your court never supposed it could be taken; the attempt was only
made to draw off the Russians from the King of Prussia, and leave
him at liberty to attack Daun. Two days ago came letters from
Wolfe, despairing, as much as heroes can despair. The town is
well victualled, Amherst is not arrived, and fifteen thousand men
encamped defend it. We have lost many men by the enemy, and some
by our friends--that is, we now call our nine thousand only seven
thousand.
19 Oct. I had no occasion to be in such a hurry to prepare your
ambassadorial countenance; if I had stayed but one day more,
I might have left its muscles to behave as they pleased. The
notification of a probable disappointment at Quebec came only to
heighten the pleasure of the conquest. You may now give yourself
what airs you please, you are master of East and West Indies. An
ambassador is the only man in the world whom bullying becomes: I
beg your pardon, but you are spies, if you are not bragadochios.
All precedents are on your side: Persians, Greeks, Romans, always
insulted their neighbours when they conquered Quebec....
It was a very singular affair, the generals on both sides slain,
and on both sides the second in command wounded; in short, very
near what battles should be, in which only the principals ought to
suffer. If their army has not ammunition and spirit enough to fall
again upon ours before Amherst comes up, all North America is ours.
21 Oct. Instead of the glorious and ever-memorable year 1759, as
the newspapers call it, I call it this ever-warm and victorious
year: one would think we had plundered East and West Indies
of sunshine. Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for
victories.... Adieu! I don't know a word of news less than the
conquest of America.
P.S.--You shall hear from me again if we take Mexico or China
before Christmas.
20 June, 1760. Who the deuce was thinking of Quebec? America was
like a book one has read and done with; or at least if one looked
at the book, one just recollected that there was a supplement
promised, to contain a chapter on Montreal, the starving and
surrender of it--but here are we on a sudden reading our book
backwards. An account came two days ago that the French on the
march to besiege Quebec had been attacked by General Murray, who
got into a mistake and a morass, attacked two bodies that were
joined, when he hoped to come up with one of them before the
junction, was enclosed, embogged and defeated. By the list of
officers killed and wounded, I believe there has been a rueful
slaughter,--the place, too, I suppose will be retaken. The year
1760 is not the year 1759.
28 June, 1760. Well, Quebec is come to life again. Last night I
went to see the Holdernesses ... in Sion-lane. As Cibber says
of the Revolution, I met the Raising of the Siege; that is, I
met my Lady in a triumphal car, drawn by a Manx horse thirteen
little fingers high, with Lady Emily ... they were going to see
the bonfire at the alehouse at the corner. The whole procession
returned with me; and from the countess's dressing-room, we saw a
battery fired before the house, the mob crying, "God bless the good
news!"
5 Oct., 1760. I am afraid you will turn me off from being your
gazetteer. Do you know that I came to town to-day by accident,
and was here four hours before I heard that Montreal was taken?
The express came early this morning. I am so posthumous in my
intelligence that you must not expect any intelligence from me....
All I know is, that the bonfires and squibs are drinking General
Amherst's health.
13. THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC (1759).
=Source.=--A Letter from an Officer to his Friend, quoted in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for December, 1759.
I make no doubt but your anxiety with regard to our success in this
part of the world has been very great, both with respect to the
navigable part (as we were all strangers and new adventurers) as
also for the progress of our troops.
What the French have ever reported of this river is a mere bugbear,
as there are but few dangerous spots in it, and those very easily
discovered; a proof of their having acted a very politic part in
keeping us so long from attempting to approach one of the finest
countries and climates in the world. The river abounds with great
variety and plenty of fine fish, such as salmon, sturgeon, bass,
cod and all kinds of flat fish. At the place from which I date this
letter the water is entirely fresh, like that of the Thames, so
that we fill all our casks with it alongside the ship. Great part
of the country, from the isle Bic to Montreal (which is about 25
leagues above Quebec) is well cultivated, and sowed with wheat,
barley, peas, flax and almost every other kind of grain.
The isle of Orleans is an exceeding fine island, rising very
gradually from the water's edge each way to the middle. It has
many thousand acres of good grain now growing upon it, and the
lands are parted with good paling. It produces great plenty of
French beans, cabbage, turnips and other useful plants and roots.
This island and Coudre the French evacuated at our approach,
and left us masters both of their houses and lands; so that our
men were at liberty to pick and choose among fine green peas,
currants, gooseberries, apples, raspberries, cherries and, in
short, everything of the like kind. This country abounds also with
horned cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry; and in all the woods there
is plenty of gooseberries and raspberries uncultivated. Here are
numbers of churches, and all kinds of mills round the country.
In short, it is a second England, and I am credibly informed the
weather is very fine the greatest part of the year.
Quebec is a large city, one part very high, the other at the foot
of the eminence. The lower part, containing a large cathedral
and Bishop's palace with many other churches, we have reduced to
rubbish. Quebec, I assure you, is not that trifling poor fishing
town the French have hitherto represented it to be.
The first salutation our ships had on their approach near the town
was seven fire-ships well filled with combustibles, and their
rigging smeared with tar. These came burning down the river with
the help of a strong current, directed on the body of our fleet.
But as some such contrivance was expected by the Admiral, good
provision was made for his defence by having all the boats of
the squadron out, well manned and armed, with an officer in each
boat and fire-grapplings. The fire-ships were instantly boarded
by our men, who so fixed their grapplings and chains as to tow
them clear of every ship to shore on the isle of Orleans, where
they burned to ashes without doing the least damage. The next
annoyance was 17 fire-rafts, well supplied with gun and pistol
barrels loaded, granadoes, and combustibles of all sorts, each
of them 103 feet long, and slackly chained together, so that at
the least interruption they might surround whatever opposed their
passage. They came burning down with the current, and one would
have thought the whole river in a flame as they spread almost
from shore to shore; but these were also grappled in like manner,
and, being towed clear off all the ships, consumed with the loss
only of one boat, and I believe all the men saved. General Wolfe,
finding so great an opposition, published a placard and spread
it in the French camp; but it had no effect on the Canadians; he
therefore ordered all the habitations, barns, stables and corn on
the lands, as soon as ripe, to be totally destroyed. The sides of
the river began immediately to show a most dismal appearance of
fire and smoke; and (as the troops employed on this service were
the remains of those who escaped the massacre by the French at
Fort William Henry, where they killed and scalped every wounded
officer and common man) they spared little or nothing that came in
their way. Admiral Holmes in the _Sutherland_ passed a very strong
battery and went about twenty leagues above the town in order to
burn some frigates and other ships that were got high up the river.
The French pilots themselves were amazed at the hazards we run with
ships of so great burthen, as we were all higher up the river than
any French ships of equal burthen ever were, above the traverse
which their ships scarce ever passed.
14. WOLFE'S DIFFICULTIES AT QUEBEC (1759).
=Source.=--Wolfe's Despatch of 2nd September, 1759, quoted in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for October, 1759.
... The Admiral's despatches and mine would have gone eight or ten
days sooner, if I had not been prevented from writing by a fever.
I found myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the
general officers to consult together for the public utility. They
are all of opinion that (as more ships and provisions have now got
above the town) they should try, by conveying up a corps of 4, or
5000 men (which is nearly the whole strength of the army, after the
points of Lévis and Orleans are left in a proper state of defence),
to draw the enemy from their present situation and bring them to an
action. I have acquiesced in their proposal, and we are preparing
to put it in execution.
The Admiral and I have examined the town with a view to a general
assault; but, after consulting with the chief engineer, who is well
acquainted with the interior parts of it, and after viewing it
with the utmost attention, we found that, though the batteries of
the lower town might be easily silenced by the men-of-war, yet the
business of an assault would be little advantaged by that, since
the few passages that lead from the lower to the upper town are
carefully entrenched; and the upper batteries cannot be affected
by the ships, which must receive considerable damage from them and
from the mortars. The Admiral would readily join in this or in any
other measure for the public service; but I could not propose to
him an undertaking of so dangerous a nature and promising so little
success.
To the uncommon strength of the country, the enemy have added (for
the defence of the river) a great number of floating batteries
and boats. By the vigilance of these and the Indians round our
different posts, it has been impossible to execute anything by
surprise. We have had almost daily skirmishes with these savages,
in which they are generally defeated, but not without loss on our
side.
By the list of disabled officers (many of whom are of rank) you may
perceive, Sir, that the army is much weakened. By the nature of the
river the most formidable part of this armament is deprived of the
power of acting, yet we have almost the whole force of Canada to
oppose. In this situation, there is such a choice of difficulties
that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great
Britain, I know, require the most vigorous measures; but then the
courage of a handful of brave men should be exerted only where
there is some hope of a favourable event. However, you may be
assured, Sir, that the small part of the campaign which remains
shall be employed (as far as I am able) for the honour of his
Majesty and the interest of the nation, in which I am sure of being
well seconded by the Admiral and by the Generals. Happy if our
efforts here can contribute to the success of his Majesty's arms
in any other parts of America, I have the honour to be, with the
greatest respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
JAMES WOLFE.
15. The Plains Of Abraham (1759).
=Source.=--_An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North
America, 1757-60_, by Captain John Knox. London, 1769.
Thursday, September 13, 1759. Before daybreak this morning we made
a descent upon the north shore, about half a quarter of a mile to
the eastward of Sillery; and the light troops were fortunately by
the rapidity of the current carried lower down between us and Cape
Diamond; we had in this debarkation thirty flat-bottomed boats
containing about sixteen hundred men. This was a great surprise
on the enemy, who, from the natural strength of the place, did
not suspect, and consequently were not prepared against, so bold
an attempt. The chain of sentries which they had posted along the
summit of the heights galled us a little and picked off several
men and some officers before our light infantry got up to dislodge
them. This grand enterprise was conducted and executed with great
good order and discretion; as fast as we landed, the boats put off
for reinforcements, and the troops formed with much regularity;
the General with Brigadiers Monckton and Murray were ashore with
the first division. We lost no time here, but clambered up one
of the steepest precipices that can be conceived, being almost a
perpendicular and of an incredible height. As soon as we gained
the summit, all was quiet and not a shot was heard owing to the
excellent conduct of the light infantry under Colonel Howe; it
was by this time clear daylight. Here we formed again, the river
and the south country in our rear, our right extending to the
town, our left to Sillery, and halted a few minutes. The General
then detached the light troops to our left to rout the enemy from
their battery and to disable their guns, except they could be
rendered serviceable to the party who were to remain there; and
this service was soon performed. We then faced to the right and
marched towards the town by files till we came to the plains of
Abraham, an even piece of ground which Mr. Wolfe had made choice
of while we stood forming upon the hill. Weather showery: about
six o'clock the enemy first made their appearance upon the heights
between us and the town; whereupon we halted and wheeled to the
right, thereby forming the line of battle.... The enemy had now
likewise formed the line of battle, and got some cannon to play
on us with round and canister shot; but what galled us most was
a body of Indians and other marksmen they had concealed in the
corn opposite to the front of our right wing and a coppice that
stood opposite to our centre inclining towards our left; but
the Colonel Hale, by Brigadier Monckton's orders, advanced some
platoons alternately from the forty-seventh regiment, which after
a few rounds obliged these skulkers to retire: we were now ordered
to lie down, and remained some time in this position. About eight
o'clock we had two pieces of short brass six-pounders playing on
the enemy, which threw them into some confusion, and obliged them
to alter their disposition, and Montcalm formed them into three
large columns; about nine the two armies moved a little nearer each
other. The light cavalry made a faint attempt upon our parties at
the battery of Sillery, but were soon beat off, and Monsieur de
Bougainville with his troops from Cape Rouge came down to attack
the flank of our second line, hoping to penetrate there; but by
a masterly disposition of Brigadier Townshend they were forced
to desist, and the third battalion of Royal Americans was then
detached to the first ground we had formed on after we gained the
heights, to preserve the communication with the beach and our
boats. About ten o'clock the enemy began to advance briskly in
three columns with loud shouts and recovered arms, two of them
inclining to the left of our army and the third towards our right,
firing obliquely at the two extremities of our line from the
distance of one hundred and thirty until they came within forty
yards; which our troops withstood with the greatest intrepidity
and firmness, still reserving their fire and paying the strictest
obedience to their officers; this uncommon steadiness, together
with the havoc which the grape-shot from our field-pieces made
among them, threw them into some disorder and was most critically
maintained by a well-timed, regular, and heavy discharge of our
small arms, such as they could no longer oppose; hereupon they gave
way and fled with precipitation, so that by the time the cloud of
smoke was vanished our men were again loaded, and profiting by
the advantage we had over them pursued them almost to the gates
of the town and the bridge over the little river, redoubling our
fire with great eagerness, making many officers and men prisoners.
The weather cleared up, with a comfortably warm sunshine; the
Highlanders chased them vigorously towards Charles's river, and
the fifty-eighth to the suburb close to John's gate, until they
were checked by the cannon from the two hulks; at the same time a
gun, which the town had brought to bear upon us with grape-shot,
galled the progress of the regiments to the right, who were
likewise pursuing with equal ardour, while Colonel Hunt Walsh by
a very judicious movement wheeled the battalions of Bragg and
Kennedy to the left, and flanked the coppice where a body of the
enemy made a stand, as if willing to renew the action; but a few
platoons from these corps completed our victory. Then it was that
Brigadier Townshend came up, called off the pursuers, ordered the
whole line to dress and recover their former ground. Our joy at
this success is inexpressibly damped by the loss we sustained of
one of the greatest heroes which this or any other age can boast
of,--GENERAL JAMES WOLFE, who received his mortal wound, as he was
exerting himself at the head of the grenadiers of Louisbourg....
The officers who are prisoners say that Quebec will surrender in a
few days: some deserters, who came out to us in the evening, agree
in that opinion, and inform us that the Sieur de Montcalm is dying
in great agony of a wound he received to-day in their retreat.
=Source.=--The Letter in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, December,
1759, already quoted (13).
[Wolfe was wounded three times.] He then went reeling aside, but
was soon supported by an officer, of whom he inquired if the enemy
were put to flight; and, being assured they were, and that our
troops were in pursuit, he smiled and said he died with pleasure on
the spot he ever wished to die on, and then closed his eyes. Thus
died this great young General, whose behaviour on this day will
ever be an honour to his country....
'Tis a noble summer's work, though many brave fellows have suffered
much by it; but all, both soldiers and sailors, to a man behaved
nobly. The French army consisted of about 5000 regulars, the rest
Canadians, some of very considerable fortune, many of whom fell
in the action, and the rest are reduced almost to beggary. The
prisoners all agree that this is the greatest stroke the French
ever felt from the English arms; and I readily believe it, as the
place is incredibly strong, and by its surrender we must make North
America our own.
16. GOVERNMENT OF QUEBEC UNDER THE BRITISH (1763-74).
=Source.=--The Proclamation of 7th October, 1763, printed in
_Documents relating to the Constitutional History of Canada,
1759-91_, edited by Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty.
WHEREAS we have taken into Our Royal Consideration the extensive
and valuable Acquisitions in America, secured to our Crown by the
late Definitive Treaty of Peace, concluded at Paris, the 10th Day
of February last; and being desirous that all Our loving Subjects,
as well of our Kingdom as of our Colonies in America, may avail
themselves with all convenient Speed, of the great Benefits
and Advantages which must accrue therefrom to their Commerce,
Manufactures and Navigation, We have thought fit, with the Advice
of our Privy Council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation, hereby
to publish and declare to all our loving Subjects, that we have,
with the advice of our said Privy Council, granted our Letters
Patent, under our Great Seal of Great Britain, to erect, within the
Countries and Islands ceded and confirmed to Us by the said Treaty,
Four distinct and separate Governments, styled and called by the
names of Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Grenada....
And whereas it will greatly contribute to the speedy settling our
said new Governments, that our loving subjects should be informed
of our Paternal care, for the security of the Liberties and
Properties of those who are and shall become Inhabitants thereof,
We have thought fit to publish and declare ... that we have ...
given express Power and Direction to our Governors of our said
Colonies respectively, that so soon as the state and circumstances
of the said Colonies will admit thereof, they shall, with the
Advice and Consent of the Members of our Council, summon and call
General Assemblies within the said Governments respectively, in
such Manner and Form as is used and directed in those Colonies and
Provinces in America which are under our immediate Government; and
We have also given Power to the said Governors, with the consent
of our said Councils and the Representatives of the People so to
be summoned as aforesaid, to make, constitute, and ordain Laws,
Statutes, and Ordinances for the Public Peace, Welfare, and good
Government of our said Colonies, and of the People and Inhabitants
thereof, as near as may be agreeable to the Laws of England, and
under such Regulations and Restrictions as are used in other
Colonies; and in the mean Time, and until such Assemblies can be
called as aforesaid, all Persons Inhabiting in or resorting to our
said Colonies may confide in our Royal Protection for the Enjoyment
of the Benefit of the Laws of our Realm of England; for which
Purpose We have given Power under our Great Seal to the Governors
of our said Colonies respectively to erect and constitute, with
the Advice of our said Councils respectively, Courts of Judicature
and public Justice within our said Colonies for hearing and
determining all Causes, as well Criminal as Civil, according to Law
and Equity, and as near as may be agreeable to the Laws of England,
with Liberty to all Persons who may think themselves aggrieved by
the Sentences of such Courts, in all Civil Cases, to appeal, under
the usual Limitations and Restrictions, to Us in our Privy Council.
17. ON THE COPPERMINE RIVER IN JULY (1771).
=Source.=--Samuel Hearne's _A Journey from Prince of Wales Fort in
Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean_. London, 1795.
After a sleep of five or six hours we once more set out, and walked
eighteen or nineteen miles to the South South East, when we arrived
at one of the copper mines, which lies, from the river's mouth
about South South East, distant about twenty-nine or thirty miles.
This mine, if it deserve that appellation, is no more than an
entire jumble of rocks and gravel, which has been rent many ways by
an earthquake. Through these ruins there runs a small river; but no
part of it, at the time I was there, was more than knee-deep.
The Indians who were the occasion of my undertaking this journey,
represented this mine to be so rich and valuable, that if a factory
were built at the river, a ship might be ballasted with the ore,
instead of stone; and that with the same ease and dispatch as is
done with stones at Churchill River. By their account the hills
were entirely composed of that metal, all in handy lumps, like a
heap of pebbles. But their account differed so much from the truth,
that I and almost all my companions expended near four hours in
search of some of this metal, with such poor success, that among
us all only one piece of any size could be found. This, however,
was remarkably good, and weighed above four pounds. I believe
the copper has formerly been in much greater plenty; for in many
places, both on the surface and in the cavities and crevices of the
rocks, the stones are much tinged with verdigris.
It may not be unworthy the notice of the curious, or undeserving a
place in my Journal, to remark that the Indians imagine that every
bit of copper they find resembles some object in nature; but, by
what I saw of the large piece, and some smaller ones which were
found by my companions, it requires a great share of invention to
make this out. I found that different people had different ideas
on the subject, for the large piece of copper above mentioned had
not been found long before it had twenty different names ... at
last it was generally allowed to resemble an Alpine hare couchant:
for my part, I must confess that I could not see it had the least
resemblance to any thing to which they compared it....
Before Churchill River was settled by the Hudson's Bay Company,
which was not more than fifty years previous to this journey being
undertaken, the Northern Indians had no other metal but copper
among them, except a small quantity of iron-work, which a party of
them who visited York Fort about the year 1713 or 1714 purchased;
and a few pieces of old iron found at Churchill River, which had
undoubtedly been left there by Captain Monk. This being the case,
numbers of them from all quarters used every summer to resort to
these hills in search of copper; of which they made hatchets,
ice-chisels, bayonets, knives, awls, arrow-heads, etc. The many
paths that had been beaten by the Indians on these occasions, and
which are yet, in many places, very perfect, especially on the dry
ridges and hills, is surprising; in the valleys and marshy grounds,
however, they are mostly grown over with herbage, so as not to be
discerned.
The Copper Indians set a great value on their native metal even
to this day; and prefer it to iron for almost every use except
that of a hatchet, a knife, and an awl; for these three necessary
implements copper makes but a very poor substitute.
18. THE QUEBEC ACT (1774).
=Source.=--Shortt and Doughty's _Constitutional Documents_ (_cf._
16).
... for the more perfect security and ease of the minds of the
inhabitants of the said province, it is hereby declared, that his
Majesty's subjects professing the religion of the Church of Rome
of and in the said province of Quebec, may have, hold and enjoy
the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome, subject
to the King's supremacy ... and that the clergy of the said Church
may hold, receive and enjoy their accustomed dues and rights, with
respect to such persons only as shall profess the said religion....
... all his Majesty's Canadian subjects within the province of
Quebec, the religious Orders and Communities only excepted, may
also hold and enjoy their property and possessions, together with
all customs and usages relative thereto, and all other their
civil rights, in as large, ample and beneficial manner ... as may
consist with their allegiance to his Majesty, and subjection to
the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; and ... in all matters
of controversy relative to property and civil rights, resort shall
be had to the laws of Canada as the rule for the decision of the
same....
And whereas the certainty and lenity of the Criminal Law of
England, and the benefits and advantages resulting from the use of
it, have been sensibly felt by the inhabitants, from an experience
of more than nine years, during which it has been uniformly
administered; be it therefore further enacted ... that the same
shall continue to be administered, and shall be observed as law in
the province of Quebec....
And whereas it may be necessary to ordain many regulations for
the future welfare and good government of the province of Quebec,
the occasions of which cannot now be foreseen, nor, without much
delay and inconvenience, be provided for, without entrusting that
authority, for a certain time and under proper restrictions, to
persons resident there: And whereas it is at present inexpedient
to call an Assembly ... it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty
... to constitute and appoint a Council for the affairs of the
province of Quebec, to consist of such persons resident there, not
exceeding twenty-three nor less than seventeen, as his Majesty
... shall be pleased to appoint ... which Council, so appointed
and nominated, or the major part thereof, shall have power and
authority to make ordinances for the peace, welfare and good
government of the said province, with the consent of his Majesty's
Governor, or, in his absence, of the Lieutenant-Governor or
Commander-in-Chief for the time being.
19. ONE OF THE LOYALISTS (1783).
=Source.=--A Memoir by his Grand-daughter, Mrs. Sophia Rowe, in the
_Transactions_ for 1899 of The United Empire Loyalists' Association
of Ontario.
The late Captain Samuel Anderson was born of Irish parents near
Boston on 4th of May, 1736. He was a lawyer in good practice and
married Miss Prudentia Deliverance Butts of Boston, who was born
1743 and died 1824. Samuel Anderson went to the West Indies early
in life for the benefit of his health. On his return he joined
the King's forces, probably as one of the contingent furnished by
the New England Provinces after the breaking out of the war with
France in 1756. He served under General Abercrombie in 1758, and
under General Amherst in 1759-60-61.... After the close of the
war, he settled on a farm near Boston, where he resided until the
breaking out of the rebellion in 1775. He was offered a company in
the Continental Service, which he refused. Some time after, he was
offered command of a regiment in the same service, which he also
refused. This caused him to be looked upon as a _King's Man_ and
led to an attempt on the part of some of his neighbours to convert
him from the error of his ways by one or other of the gentle means
of carting, flogging, or tar-and-feathering then in vogue amongst
the revolutionary party. Five or six of them started out to try the
experiment; they found him on his farm splitting rails; he politely
asked them their business, and, on being told they had come to
teach him a lesson, he invited them to "come and try." As he was
a very large and powerful man, they looked at him, then at the axe
in his hand, and moved off, evidently considering "discretion the
better part of valour." Several attempts were made to arrest him,
and he was at one time secreted on his own property, when a party
of Continentals billeted themselves at his house. The sergeant
read a proclamation offering a reward of five hundred pounds for
the body of Samuel Anderson dead or alive, after which the party
conversed in French, not thinking they would be understood by Mrs.
Anderson; but the brave woman, without betraying the slightest fear
or knowledge of what they talked of, heard all they purposed doing
to her husband, should he be found. She directed her servants to
prepare food and beds for all, had their horses stabled and fed,
then, waiting till all was quiet, went in the dark to her husband
and bade him fly for his life.
However, he with many other loyalists were captured and confined
in Litchfield jail, where they suffered all but death until the
beginning of 1777, when, having been told that all the prisoners
were to be shot the next day, Anderson wrenched the bars from a
window, and with his companions escaped to Canada, where he was
appointed a Captain in the 1st Battalion of Sir John Johnston's
corps, the King's Royal Regiment of New York. When General Burgoyne
was preparing to advance from Ticonderoga, Captain Anderson was
placed at the head of the workmen who were employed in making the
roads through the forest from the head of Lake Champlain towards
Fort Edward. He served in the battalion of the Royal Yorkers until
they were disbanded in the spring of 1784. From the time of his
imprisonment in Litchfield jail, his wife saw nothing of him until
late in 1778, when, after suffering terribly from the cruelty of
the Continentals, she abandoned all her property, paid the Yankee
Governor 2s. 6d. for a pass, and with her family made her way to
Sorel, where her husband was then stationed with his company of
the Royal Yorkers, where they remained till the spring of 1783,
when he with his two elder sons who had served under him were
put on half pay when peace was declared; and at the reduction of
the army, Anderson, with his family and the men of his company,
received their allotment of lands in Cornwall, then a wilderness,
the nearest settlement being Montreal distant 68 miles, and
Kingston 105 miles. They came up the St. Lawrence by batteaux, and
lived for some time under shelter of cedar boughs, until able to
erect log houses for themselves. A short time after their arrival
the "Dark Sunday" occurred, when at mid-day total darkness fell
upon all the land, and continued for about two hours. The rain
came down in torrents, flooding their temporary dwelling, causing
great discomfort, while the thunder and lightning were terrific. In
those days there were no merchants, no baker or butcher shops, no
medical men, no ministers to console the sick or dying or bury the
dead, and no means of instruction for the young. The Loyalists were
generally poor, having sacrificed their property to their politics,
and were obliged to work very hard. All was bush, hard labour and
pinching privation for the present and long toil for the rising
generation. The only mail in the early settlement of West Canada
between Kingston and Montreal was in the winter carried three times
by an old French Canadian, Jacques Morriseau, who travelled the
whole distance on snow shoes. His food was sea biscuit and fat
pork which he ate and enjoyed sitting on a snow bank, and would
afterwards puff away dull care in clouds of smoke curling from his
old clay pipe, the stem of which was just long enough to keep the
burning punk with which he lit it about two inches from his nose.
From Lachine to Cornwall, he was obliged to sleep out of doors
three nights--the settlers were then so few and far between, he
could not always reach a house--and the only bed he had on these
occasions was of green boughs under him and a blanket to cover him.
He always rested a night going either way under Captain Anderson's
roof. In 1785, Captain Anderson was appointed a magistrate ... and
drew half pay as a Captain until his death, which occurred in June,
1836 (born 1736), not from any bodily ailment, but accidentally
falling, his hip joint was broken, and from his great age the bones
would not unite.
20. THE DESCENT OF THE MACKENZIE RIVER (1789).
=Source.=--Sir Alexander Mackenzie's _Voyages from Montreal through
the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in
the years 1789 and 1793_. London, 1801.
5 July, 1789.... There were five families, consisting of
twenty-five or thirty persons, and of two different tribes, the
Slave and Dog-rib Indians. We made them smoke, though it was
evident they did not know the use of tobacco; we likewise supplied
them with grog; but I am disposed to think that they accepted our
civilities rather from fear than inclination. We acquired a more
effectual influence over them by the distribution of knives, beads,
awls, rings, gartering, fire-steels, flints and hatchets; so that
they became more familiar even than we expected, for we could not
keep them out of our tents; though I did not observe that they
attempted to purloin anything.
The information which they gave respecting the river had so much
of the fabulous that I shall not detail it: it will be sufficient
just to mention their attempts to persuade us that it would require
several winters to get to the sea, and that old age would come
upon us before the period of our return: we were also to encounter
monsters of such horrid shapes and destructive powers as could only
exist in their wild imaginations. They added, besides, that there
were two impassable falls in the river, the first of which was
about thirty days march from us.
Though I placed no faith in these strange relations, they had a
very different effect upon our Indians, who were already tired
of the voyage. It was their opinion and anxious wish that we
should not hesitate to return. They said that, according to the
information which they had received, there were very few animals
in the country beyond us, and that, as we proceeded, the scarcity
would increase, and we should absolutely perish from hunger, if no
other accident befell us. It was with no small trouble that they
were convinced of the folly of these reasonings; and, by my desire,
they induced one of those Indians to accompany us, in consideration
of a small kettle, an axe, a knife, and some other articles.
Though it was now three o'clock in the afternoon, the canoe was
ordered to be reloaded, and, as we were ready to embark, our new
recruit was desired to prepare himself for his departure, which
he would have declined; but as none of his friends would take
his place, we may be said, after the delay of an hour, to have
compelled him to embark. Previous to his departure a ceremony took
place, of which I could not learn the meaning; he cut off a lock
of his hair, and having divided it into three parts, he fastened
one of them to the hair on the upper part of his wife's head,
blowing on it three times with the utmost violence in his power,
and uttering certain words. The other two he fastened with the same
formalities on the heads of his two children.
During our short stay with these people, they amused us with
dancing, which they accompanied with their voices; but neither
their song or their dance possessed much variety. The men and
women formed a promiscuous ring. The former have a bone dagger or
piece of stick between the fingers of the right hand, which they
keep extended above the head, in continual motion; the left they
seldom raise so high, but work it backwards and forwards in an
horizontal direction; while they leap about and throw themselves
into various antic postures, to the measure of their music, always
bringing their heels close to each other at every pause. The men
occasionally howl in imitation of some animal, and he who continues
this violent exercise for the longest period, appears to be
considered as the best performer.
21. THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791.
=Source.=--Shortt and Doughty's _Documents_. (Cf. 16.)
II. ... whereas his Majesty has been pleased to signify by his
message to both Houses of Parliament, his royal intention to divide
his province of Quebec into two separate provinces, to be called
_The Province of Upper Canada_ and _The Province of Lower Canada_
... there shall be within each of the said provinces respectively a
Legislative Council and an Assembly....
III. ... it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to
authorise and direct the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor ... to
summon to the said Legislative Council ... a sufficient number of
discreet and proper persons, being not fewer than seven to the
Legislative Council for the province of Upper Canada, and not fewer
than fifteen to the Legislative Council for the province of Lower
Canada....
XIV. ... for the purpose of electing the members of such Assemblies
respectively, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to
authorise the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor ... to issue a
proclamation dividing such province into districts or counties or
circles, and towns or townships, and appointing the limits thereof,
and declaring and appointing the number of representatives to be
chosen by each of such districts....
XVII. ... the whole number of members to be chosen in the province
of Upper Canada shall not be less than sixteen, ... in the province
of Lower Canada shall not be less than fifty.
XXVII. ... the said Legislative Council and Assembly, in each of
the said provinces, shall be called together once at the least in
every twelve calendar months, and ... every Assembly shall continue
for four years ... subject nevertheless to be sooner prorogued or
dissolved by the Governor....
XXX. ... whenever any bill which has been passed by the Legislative
Council and by the House of Assembly ... shall be presented, for
his Majesty's assent, to the Governor ... such Governor ...
is hereby authorised and required to declare, according to his
discretion, but subject nevertheless to the provisions contained
in this Act, and to such instructions as may from time to time be
given in that behalf by his Majesty ... that he assents to such
bill in his Majesty's name, or that he withholds his Majesty's
assent from such bill, or that he reserves such bill for the
signification of his Majesty's pleasure thereon.
XXXI. ... whenever any bill ... shall by such Governor ... have
been assented to in his Majesty's name, such Governor ... is hereby
required, by the first convenient opportunity, to transmit to one
of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State an authentic copy
of such bill so assented to; ... it shall and may be lawful, at any
time within two years after such bill shall have been so received
... for his Majesty ... to declare his ... disallowance of such
bill....
XXXVI. ... it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty ... to
authorise the Governor ... to make, from and out of the lands of
the Crown within such provinces, such allotment and appropriation
of lands, for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy
within the same, as may bear a due proportion to the amount of
such lands within the same as have at any time been granted by or
under the authority of his Majesty; ... such lands so allotted and
appropriated shall be, as nearly as the circumstances and nature of
the case will admit, of the like quality as the lands in respect of
which the same are so allotted ... and shall be, as nearly as the
same can be estimated at the time of making such grant, equal in
value to the seventh part of the lands so granted.
XLIII. ... all lands which shall be hereafter granted within
the said province of Upper Canada shall be granted in free and
common soccage, in like manner as lands are now holden in free and
common soccage in that part of Great Britain called England; ...
in every case where lands shall be hereafter granted within the
said province of Lower Canada, and where the grantee thereof shall
desire the same to be granted in free and common soccage, the same
shall be so granted; but subject nevertheless to such alterations,
with respect to the nature and consequences of such tenure of free
and common soccage, as may be established by any law or laws which
may be made by his Majesty ... by and with the advice and consent
of the Legislative Council and Assembly of the province.
XLVI. ... nothing in this Act shall extend ... to prevent or affect
the execution of any law which hath been or shall at any time be
made by his Majesty ... and the Parliament of Great Britain, for
establishing regulations of prohibitions, or for imposing, levying
or collecting duties for the regulation of navigation, or for the
regulation of the commerce to be carried on between the said two
provinces or between either of the said provinces and any foreign
country or state, or for appointing and directing the payment of
drawbacks of such duties so imposed....
22. TO THE PACIFIC OVERLAND. THE FIRST CROSSING OF NORTH AMERICA
NORTH OF MEXICO (1793).
=Source.=--Sir A. Mackenzie's _Voyages_. (Cf. 20.)
Sunday, 21 July, 1793.... We landed, and found the ruins of
a village, in a situation calculated for defence. The place
itself was overgrown with weeds, and in the centre of the houses
there was a temple of the same form and construction as that
which I described at the large village. We were soon followed
by ten canoes, each of which contained from three to six men.
They informed us that we were expected at the village, where we
should see many of them. From their general deportment I was very
apprehensive that some hostile design was meditated against us, and
for the first time I acknowledged my apprehensions to my people. I
accordingly desired them to be very much upon their guard, and to
be prepared if any violence was offered to defend themselves to the
last.
We had no sooner landed than we took possession of a rock, where
there was not space for more than twice our number, and which
admitted of our defending ourselves with advantage, in case we
should be attacked. The people in the three first canoes were the
most troublesome, but, after doing their utmost to irritate us,
they went away. They were, however, no sooner gone than an hat, an
handkerchief and several other articles were missing. The rest of
our visitors continued their pressing invitations to accompany them
to their village, but finding our resolution to decline them was
not to be shaken, they about sunset relieved us from all further
importunities by their departure....
The natives having left us, we made a fire to warm ourselves, and
as for supper there was but little of that, for our whole daily
allowance did not amount to what was sufficient for a single meal.
The weather was clear throughout the day, which was succeeded by a
fine moonlight night. I directed the people to keep watch by two in
turn, and laid myself down in my cloak.
Monday, 22nd. This morning the weather was clear and pleasant;
nor had anything occurred to disturb us throughout the night. One
solitary Indian, indeed, came to us with about half a pound of
boiled seal's flesh and the head of a small salmon, for which he
asked an handkerchief, but afterwards accepted a few beads. As this
man came alone, I concluded that no general plan had been formed
among the natives to annoy us, but this opinion did not altogether
calm the apprehensions of my people....
Two canoes now arrived from the same quarter as the rest with
several men and our young Indian along with them. They brought a
very few small sea-otter skins out of season, with some pieces
of raw seal's flesh. The former were of no value, but hunger
compelled some of my people to take the latter at an extravagant
price. Mr. Mackay lighted a bit of touchwood with a burning-glass
in the cover of his tobacco-box, which so surprised the natives
that they exchanged the best of their otter-skins for it. The
young man was now very anxious to persuade our people to depart,
as the natives, he said, were as numerous as mosquitoes and of
very malignant character. This information produced some very
earnest remonstrances to me to hasten our departure, but, as I
was determined not to leave this place, except I was absolutely
compelled to it, till I had ascertained its situation,[3] these
solicitations were not repeated.
While I was taking a meridian, two canoes of a larger size and
well-manned appeared from the main South-West channel. They seemed
to be the forerunners of others who were coming to co-operate with
the people of the village ... and our young Indian, who understood
them, renewed his entreaties for our departure, as they would soon
come to shoot their arrows and hurl their spears at us. In relating
our danger, his agitation was so violent that he foamed at the
mouth.... The two canoes now approached the shore, and in a short
time five men with their families landed very quietly from them. My
instruments being exposed, they examined them with much apparent
admiration and astonishment....
I now mixed up some vermilion in melted grease, and inscribed in
large characters on the South-East face of the rock on which we
had slept last night this brief memorial: "Alexander Mackenzie
from Canada by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven
hundred and ninety-three."
As I thought that we were too near the village, I consented to
leave the place, and accordingly proceeded North-East three miles,
when we landed on a point in a small cove, where we should not be
readily seen and could not be attacked except in our front.
23. A SERVANT OF THE NORTH-WEST COMPANY (1800).
=Source.=--The Journal of James M'Kenzie in the Athabasca District,
printed in _Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest_, by L. R.
Masson. Quebec, 1890.
16 Jan. This morning, Charles Cadien's comrade arrived and paid 62
skins.... He was so haughty on his arrival on account of his skins
that he threw the tobacco I gave him in my face, saying it was not
good, and that I lied when I said there was none better in the
fort. The men's advice, though not asked, was to pack the piece of
tobacco into the Indian's nose, or give him a kicking for his bad
breeding.... This rough usage I thought bad encouragement for him
to kill more beaver, and a very indifferent recompense for those
he had already brought, which I think made ample amends for his
insults. However, in case he might do the like again, perhaps when
he had no such substantial atonement to offer, I told him to take
care and not behave so impudently in future....
17 Feb. It is unnecessary telling always in the journal that every
Indian who arrives, whether good, bad, or indifferent, gets a bit
of tobacco and a dram; it suffices to tell once that it is the
custom of the place; and any one who reads of an Indian's arrival
may suppose that this custom is followed, and, should he wish to
know how many bits of tobacco and drams were expended, he can
count the Montagners on his fingers as he reads on; the number of
Montagners found will be the number of the bits of tobacco and
drams required. If he wishes to know the real value given, I will
tell him, the tobacco is always rotten and the rum mostly water....
28 March. Sent Marlin 15 measures mixed rum and 3 feet tobacco.
Now, for you, Antitheses Philosophers, who are for ever moved by
the spirit of contradiction and feel an itching to find fault where
there is none, here is a fine occasion to show your wonderful
parts and produce something worthy of your sect. Sending rum to
the Indians, according to you, is an unpardonable error in a poor
fellow's conduct; but may he beg leave, Gentlemen, to ask you a few
plain questions by way of vindication of his supposed error? Pray
then! will 19 packs of fine beaver have no weight in your debates?
If they will not, I am sure they will in the Gentlemen of the
North-West Company's pockets, when reduced into hard cash.
What is the reason you fret so much about sending rum to the
Indians more than other goods? Is it because 7 parts of the 8 of
this rum are pure water, of course, less expensive to the Company
and more pleasing to the Indians than other goods? No, Gentlemen,
I suppose you will say it is because it debauches the Indians and
renders them troublesome....
If the Indians be spoiled, it is the _Bourgeois_ and not the clerks
that do it; the former give the Indians every time they pass large
presents, which the latter are either afraid or forbidden to give;
the one, in consequence, is regarded by the Indians as a superior
being whom they must respect, the other is a mere tool to them whom
they despise and need not mind....
Here again, Gentlemen of the "Critic Class," you will reprimand my
warmth, which in your opinion is impertinence, to presume to speak
against my employers, but be pleased to recollect that, though I
have spoken against some of their actions, yet I have not against
their interests.
24. THE BEAVER (1807).
=Source.=--_Travels through the Canadas_, by George Heriot, Deputy
Postmaster-General of British North America. London, 1807.
The beavers associate in bands to the number of about an hundred
in each, and are supposed, by several who have witnessed their
economy, to possess a certain jargon, by means of which they
communicate their sentiments to each other. Certain it is, that
they have a mode of consulting together respecting the construction
of their cabins, their dykes, their artificial lakes, and many
other things which concern the preservation and safety of their
republic. They are said to station sentinels, whilst they are
occupied in cutting down with their teeth trees as large in
circumference as casks, on the borders of the lakes; and these
sentinels, by a cry or by knocking their tail against the surface
of the water, give warning of the approach of men or animals, when
the others instantly forsake their labours, and, plunging into the
water, save themselves by swimming to their cabins.
When beavers have made choice of a meadow traversed by a rivulet,
they construct, by their joint operation, dams or causeways, which,
impeding the course of the water, produce an inundation over the
whole meadow, sometimes several leagues in circumference. The dam
is composed of trees, which these animals cut down with their
four incisive teeth, drag along through the water, and arrange
across the river in the situation most convenient for stopping its
course. They afterwards bring grass, small wood and clay in their
mouths and on their tails, which they deposit between the wood
with so much industry and art, that a wall of masonry of greater
strength could scarcely be constructed. They labour during the
night with diligence and perseverance. Their tails supply the want
of trowels, their teeth serve them for axes, and their forefeet
for hands. Dykes, two or three hundred feet in length, twenty feet
high, and seven or eight in thickness, are thus completed in the
space of five or six months, although not more than a hundred of
these little animals have assisted each other in the operation.
The savages never destroy these dykes, but, from a principle of
superstition, allow them to remain entire, and are satisfied with
making only a small passage for the draining of the water. Besides
the faculty which the beavers possess of cutting down trees, the
judgment which they have acquired in directing the fall of these
immense masses upon the water, appears still more singular. They
pay attention to the direction of the wind, and carry on the
process in such a manner as to derive aid from thence, and thereby
to ensure the falling of the tree upon a lake or across a rivulet.
The neatness and convenience of their habitations seem to evince
a greater portion of skill and ingenuity than even the dykes,
both strength and address being necessary to enable them to plant
six stakes in the bed of the water. These are arranged exactly
in the centre of the pond, and upon them their house is erected
in the form of an oven, being composed of clay, of grass and of
branches of trees, to the height of three stages, in order to
possess a retreat, by ascending from one to the other when the
waters are increased by inundations, caused by the melting of the
ice and snows. The floors are made of junks of trees, and each
beaver has a distinct apartment. The entrance is from beneath the
water, where a large hole is made in the first floor, surrounded by
tender branches cut into small pieces, that they may be more easily
drawn into the cells when they are inclined to eat; for, as these
constitute their principal food, they have the foresight to lay in
a great store, particularly in autumn, before the frosts congeal
their lake and confine them to their cabins for two or three months.
The precaution which they use to establish and maintain order in
their republic, and to guard against pursuit, is admirable. All
other animals upon earth, however strong, however swift, vigorous
and armed by nature, stand in awe of creatures that are capable of
injuring them. The beaver, however, seems to have no other foe than
man to apprehend. The wolves, the foxes, and the bears, are little
solicitous to attack it in its cabin; had they even the faculty of
diving, they would not find the event greatly to their profit, for
the beaver, with his incisory and penetrating teeth, is capable of
maintaining a formidable defence.
The beavers are seldom taken in snares, unless they are baited with
a species of willow which is rare and of which they are very fond.
The mode of taking them in autumn is by making a hole of three or
four feet in diameter in the foundation of the dyke, to draw off
the water, and the beavers being left dry, the savages find them an
easy prey....
In winter, when the waters are frozen, they make holes in the ice
around the lodges of the beavers, to which nets are fixed from
the one to the other, and when they are properly extended, they
uncover with axes the cabins of these poor animals, which, throwing
themselves into the water and returning to breathe at the holes,
are entangled in the snares, from whence none escape but such as
the savages are inclined to exempt from the general havoc.
25. A RAPID ON THE FRASER RIVER (1808).
=Source.=--Simon Fraser's "Journal" of the First Descent of the
River, printed in Masson's _Bourgeois du Nord-Ouest_. Quebec,
1889-90.
21 June. Soon after we were alarmed by the loud bawling of our
guides whom we saw running full speed towards us and making signs
that our people were lost in the rapid. As we could not account for
this misfortune, we immediately ran over to the baggage where we
found Mr. Quesnel all alone. We inquired of him about the men; at
the same time we discovered that three of the canoes were missing,
but he had seen none of them, nor did he know where they were. On
casting our view across the river, we remarked one of the canoes
and some of the men ashore there. From this incident we had reason
to believe that the others were either ahead or had perished. We
immediately directed our speed to the lower end of the rapid....
We had not proceeded far when we observed one of our men, Dalaire,
walking slowly from the bank with a stick in his hand, and, on
coming up to him, we discovered that he was so wet, so weak and
exhausted that he could scarcely speak. However, after leaning a
little while on his stick and recovering his breath, he informed us
that unfortunately he and the others, finding the carrying place
too long and the canoes too heavy, took it upon themselves to
venture down by water; that the canoe in which he was happened to
be the last in setting out.
"In the first cascade," said he, "our canoe filled and upset; the
foreman and the steersman got on the outside, but I, who was in the
centre, remained a long while underneath upon the bars; the canoe
still drifting was thrown into a smoothy current and the other two
men finding an opportunity sprang from their situation into the
water and swam ashore. The impulse occasioned by their weight in
leaping off raised one side of the canoe above the surface, and,
having still my recollection though I had swallowed a quantity of
water, I seized the critical moment to disentangle myself, and I
gained, though not without a struggle, the top of the canoe. By
this time I found myself again in the middle of the stream; here I
continued astride the canoe, humouring the tide as well as I could
with my body to preserve my balance, and, although I scarcely had
time to look about me, I had the satisfaction to observe the two
other canoes ashore near an eddy and their crews safe among the
rocks.
"In the second or third cascade (for I do not recollect which), the
canoe plunged from a great height into an eddy below, and striking
with great violence against the bottom split in two. Here I lost my
recollection, which, however, I soon recovered, and was surprised
to find myself on a smooth, easy current, with only one half of the
canoe in my arms. In this condition I continued through several
cascades until the stream carried me into an eddy at the foot of a
high and steep rock. Here, my strength being exhausted, I lost my
hold, a large wave washed me from off the wreck among the rocks and
another still larger hoisted me clear on shore, where I remained,
you readily believe, some time motionless. At length, recovering
a little of my strength, I crawled up among the rocks and found
myself once more safe on firm ground, just as you see."
Here he finished his melancholy tale, then pointed to the place of
his landing which we went to see and were lost in astonishment,
not only at his escape from the waves, but also at his courage
and perseverance in effecting a passage up through a place which
appeared to us a perfect precipice. Continuing our course along
the bank, we found that he had drifted three miles among rapids,
cascades, whirlpools, etc., all inconceivably dangerous....
Some time after, upon advancing towards the camp, we picked up
all the men on our side of the river; the men who had been thrown
ashore on the other side joined us in the evening. They informed
us that the Indians assisted greatly in extricating them from
their difficulties; indeed, the Indians showed us every possible
attention during our misfortune on this trying occasion.
26. LAURA SECORD, JUNE, 1813.
=Source.=--Her Own Narrative in the _Anglo-American Magazine_,
Toronto, November, 1853: quoted in _The Documentary History of the
Campaigns upon the Niagara Frontier_, edited for the Lundy's Lane
Historical Society by Lieut.-Col. E. Cruikshank.
I shall commence at the battle of Queenston, where I was at the
time the cannon balls were flying around me in every direction. I
left the place during the engagement. After the battle I returned
to Queenston, and there found that my husband had been wounded,
my house plundered and property destroyed. It was while the
Americans had possession of the frontier that I learned the plans
of the American commander and determined to put the British troops
under FitzGibbon in possession of them, and if possible to save
the British troops from capture or perhaps total destruction. In
doing so I found I should have great difficulty in getting through
the American guards, which were out ten miles in the country.
Determined to persevere, I left early in the morning, walked
nineteen miles in the month of June over a rough and difficult part
of the country, when I came to a field belonging to a Mr. Decamp
in the neighbourhood of the Beaver Dam. By this time daylight
had left me. Here I found all the Indians encamped; by moonlight
the scene was terrifying and to those accustomed to such scenes
might be considered grand. Upon advancing to the Indians they all
rose and with some yells said, "Woman," which made me tremble.
I cannot express the awful feeling it gave me, but I did not
lose my presence of mind. I was determined to persevere. I went
up to one of the chiefs, made him understand that I had great
news for Captain FitzGibbon, and that he must let me pass to his
camp, or that he and his party would all be taken. The chief at
first objected to let me pass, but finally consented, after some
hesitation, to go with me and accompany me to FitzGibbon's station,
which was at the Beaver Dam, where I had an interview with him. I
then told him what I had come for and what I had heard--that the
Americans intended to make an attack upon the troops under his
command and would, from their superior numbers, capture them all.
Benefiting by this information, Captain FitzGibbon formed his plans
accordingly, and captured about five hundred American infantry,
about fifty mounted dragoons; and a field piece or two was taken
from the enemy. I returned home the next day exhausted and
fatigued. I am now advanced in years, and when I look back I wonder
how I could have gone through so much fatigue with the fortitude to
accomplish it.
27. THE BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE, 25 JULY, 1814.
=Source.=--_The Annual Register_ for 1814.
After the action near Chippawa, General Riall retreated to a
position near Fort Niagara, and the American army took post at
Chippawa. The British force in Canada had been at this time
augmented by the arrival at Quebec of some transports from
Bordeaux, conveying veteran troops which had served under Lord
Wellington in Spain. On July 25th, General Drummond, arriving at
Niagara, found that General Riall had moved forward to the Falls
in order to support the advance of his division at that place;
and he despatched Lieut.-Col. Morrison with the 39th regiment and
detachments of two others, in order that he might, if necessary,
act with the united force of the army, against the enemy posted at
Street's creek, with his advance at Chippawa. General Drummond,
proceeding to join General Riall, learned that the Americans were
advancing in great force; and, pushing forwards, he found that
the advance of Riall's division had commenced their retreat. He
immediately drew up his troops in line of battle, when his whole
front was warmly and closely engaged. The Americans gained a
temporary advantage, during which General Riall, having been
severely wounded, was made prisoner. In the centre, the enemy's
repeated and determined attacks were resisted with the greatest
steadiness and intrepidity by the detachments of the Royals and
King's and the light company of the 41st; and so obstinate was
the encounter that the British artillerymen were bayoneted while
in the act of loading, and the muzzles of the enemy's guns were
brought within a few yards of those of their opponents. The action
continued from six in the evening to nine, when there was a short
intermission, during which the Americans were employed in bringing
up the whole of their remaining force, and with this they renewed
their efforts to carry the height on which the British were posted
till about midnight. The gallantry with which they were received
and their severe losses at length obliged them to give up the
contest, and retreat with precipitation beyond the Chippawa. On
the following day they abandoned their camp, threw the greatest
part of their baggage and provisions into the Rapids, and, having
set fire to Street's mills and destroyed the bridge over the
Chippawa, continued their retreat in great disorder to Fort Erie.
General Drummond estimates the enemy's loss at not less than 1500,
including several hundred prisoners; their whole force, rated at
5000, having been engaged. The British force during the first three
hours of the action did not exceed 1600 men, and the additional
troops under Colonel Scott did not augment it beyond 2800 of all
descriptions. Of these, the loss amounted in killed, wounded and
missing to 878. In this manner was defeated another attempt of the
Americans to penetrate into Canada; respecting which, it cannot
escape observation that, although British valour and discipline
were finally triumphant, the improvement of the American troops in
these qualities was eminently conspicuous.
28. THE ATTACK ON THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT (1816).
=Source.=--A Narrative by Mr. Pritchard, one of the principal
settlers, quoted in a _Statement respecting the Earl of Selkirk's
Settlement upon the Red River_, published by the personal friends
of the Earl in London in 1817.
In the course of the winter we were much alarmed by reports that
the Half-breeds were assembling in all parts of the North for the
purpose of driving us away, and that they were expected to arrive
at the settlement early in the spring. The nearer the spring
approached, the more prevalent these reports grew, and letters
received from different posts confirmed the same. Our hunters and
those free Canadians who had supplied us with provisions were much
terrified with the dread of the punishment they might receive for
the support they had given us. My neighbours, the Half-breeds,
began to show a disposition to violence, and threatened to shoot
our hunter Bollenaud's horse and himself too, if he did not desist
from running the buffalo; at the same time they told me that, if
I did not prevent him from so doing, they would go in a body on
horseback, drive the cattle away, and cause my people to starve.
In the month of March, Messrs. Fraser and Hesse arrived at my
neighbour's house, which gave us great uneasiness, as Fraser was
represented as the leader of the Half-breeds, and that he was
a daring and violent man. On his arrival he sent a threatening
message to one of my hunters; and, whenever an opportunity offered,
he was very assiduous in his endeavours to seduce from us our
servants and settlers; likewise a report was very current that a
party of Half-breeds and Cree Indians were expected to arrive from
Fort des Prairies on the Saskatchewan River, as soon as the melting
of the snow would admit of their travelling; and the language of
every free Canadian we saw was "_Méfiez vous bien pour l'amour de
Dieu; méfiez vous bien_." At the same time we were informed that
the Half-breed servants of the North-West Company who were then in
the plains, were ordered home to their house. The assemblage of
those men gave us the most serious apprehensions for the safety
of the settlers and those servants who were employed to bring
provisions from the plains to the fort....
On the afternoon of the 19th of June, a man in the watch-house
called out that the Half-breeds were coming. The governor, some
other gentlemen and myself, looked through spy-glasses, and I
distinctly saw some armed people on horseback passing along the
plains. A man then called out, "They (meaning the Half-breeds), are
making for the settlers"; on which the governor said, "We must go
out and meet these people; let twenty men follow me." We proceeded
by the old road leading down the settlement. As we were going
along, we met many of the settlers running to the fort, crying,
"The Half-breeds, the Half-breeds." ... We had not proceeded far,
before the Half-breeds on horseback, with their faces painted in
the most hideous manner and in the dresses of Indian warriors,
came forward and surrounded us in the form of a half-moon. We
then extended our line and moved more into the open plain; and,
as they advanced, we retreated a few steps backwards, and then
saw a Canadian named Boucher ride up to us waving his hand and
calling out, "What do you want?" The governor replied, "What do
_you_ want?" To which Boucher answered, "We want our fort." The
governor said, "Go to your fort." They were by this time near each
other, and consequently spoke too low for me to hear. Being at some
little distance to the right of the governor, I saw him take hold
of Boucher's gun, and almost immediately a general discharge of
fire-arms took place; but whether it began on our side or that of
the enemy it was impossible to distinguish: my attention was then
directed towards my personal defence. In a few minutes almost all
our people were either killed or wounded.... I was rescued from
death in the most providential manner no less than six different
times on my road to, and at, the Frog Plain (the headquarters of
those cruel murderers).... With the exception of myself, no quarter
was given to any of us.... The amiable and mild Mr. Semple, lying
on his side (his thigh having been broken) and supporting his
head upon his hand, addressed the chief commander of our enemies,
by inquiring if he was Mr. Grant; and, being answered in the
affirmative, "I am not mortally wounded," said Mr. Semple, "and,
if you could get me conveyed to the fort, I think I should live."
Grant promised he would do so; and immediately left him in the
care of a Canadian, who afterwards told that an Indian of their
party came up and shot Mr. Semple in the breast. I entreated Grant
to procure me the watch or even the seals of Mr. Semple for the
purpose of transmitting them to his friends, but I did not succeed.
Our force amounted to twenty-eight persons, of whom twenty-one were
killed and one wounded.... The enemy, I am told, were sixty-two
persons, the greater part of whom were the contracted servants and
clerks of the North-West Company. They had one man killed and one
wounded.
29. PROPOSED UNION OF THE CANADAS (1822).
=Source.=--A Petition from the British Inhabitants of Montreal,
December, 1822: printed in the _Report on the Canadian Archives for
1897_.
It is a consequence of the relative geographical situation of the
Provinces, that Upper Canada is entirely dependent on Lower Canada
for the means of communicating with the parent state and other
countries; it is only through Lower Canada that the Upper Province
can receive its supplies or export its surplus commodities.
The port of Quebec is the entrance common to both. This being
situated in Lower Canada, the inhabitants of Upper Canada can have
neither free ingress into, nor egress from, their country, except
in so far as it may be permitted by the Government of Lower Canada.
This, your Majesty's petitioners humbly represent, is a cause for
the union of the Provinces perpetual in its operation, and which
cannot be counteracted without a long series of inconveniences and
disasters to both. If, while it may still be done, the population
of the two Provinces be not gradually assimilated and identified
in their interests by a union, the differences between them from
the causes now in operation and the collisions to which they will
give rise, must have the effect of rendering the inhabitants of
each a separate and distinct people, with the most hostile feelings
towards each other, requiring only a fit occasion to urge them into
measures of actual violence. In the progress of things towards this
conclusion, the inhabitants of Upper Canada would imperceptibly
be induced to form connections with their American neighbours,
and, being unnaturally disjoined from Lower Canada, would seek to
diminish the inconveniences arising by a more intimate intercourse
with the adjoining states, leading inevitably to a union with
that country. The actual tendency of things to this result, while
the Provinces continue under separate Legislatures, it is to be
observed, is likely to be much promoted by the artificial means of
communication by canals which have been lately formed at immense
expense in the state of New York, affording to Upper Canada, if
the outlet at the port of Quebec should be rendered inconvenient
to her, an easy communication to American seaports; and her
disposition to avail herself of this communication will obviously
be increased while the Lower Province continues in its character to
be French.
Some of the circumstances arising from the division of countries
thus united by nature ... have been practically exhibited in the
disputes respecting revenue between the two Provinces. Upper Canada
relies on the revenue to be derived from import duties for the
payment of her civil expenditure. The nature of her local situation
precludes her from conveniently or effectually levying these duties
within her own limits; it is at the port of Quebec only that she
can levy them: but this is in another Province, and, while she has
a separate Legislature, beyond the authority of her Government....
In adverting to the injurious consequences arising from the
division of the late Province of Quebec, your Majesty's
petitioners cannot omit to notice more particularly the effect
that measure has had in preventing the increase of the British
population in Lower Canada and the development of its resources.
The preponderance of the French population in the Legislature has
occasioned obstacles to the settlement of British emigrants that
have not been surmounted; so that the vast increase of British
population to have been expected from this cause has been, in a
general degree, prevented. The injury sustained in this particular
may be easily appreciated when it is observed that, since the late
American War, upwards of eighty thousand souls (that is, a number
equal to one-fourth of the actual French population) have found
their way to this Province from Great Britain and Ireland, and of
these scarcely one-twentieth part remains within its limits, the
rest, with the exception of a small number who have settled in
Upper Canada, having been induced by the foreign character of the
country in which they had sought an asylum, and the discouragements
they experienced, to try their fortunes in the United States.
The loss thus sustained is not confined to those who left the
country, but comprises their connections and friends who would have
followed them. In the same proportion as the increase of British
population has been prevented, has the agricultural and commercial
prosperity of the country been retarded and obstructed; as it is
to the enterprise, intelligence and persevering industry of that
population that both agriculture and commerce must be principally
indebted for their advancement. On this head it may be fairly
advanced that, had not the impolitic division of the late Province
of Quebec taken place, and had a fit plan of representation been
adopted, the British population would now exceed the French, and
the imports and exports of the country be greatly beyond their
present amount.
30. THE FOUNDING OF GUELPH, ONTARIO (1827).
=Source.=--_The Autobiography of John Galt._ London, 1833.
On the 22nd of April, the day previous to the time appointed for
laying the foundations of my projected polis, I went to Galt, a
town situated on the banks of the Grand River, which my friend,
the Honourable William Dixon, in whose township it is situated,
named after me long before the Canada Company was imagined; it was
arrived at the maturity of having a post office before I heard of
its existence. There I met by appointment, at Mr. Dickson's, Dr.
Dunlop, who held a roving commission in the Canada Company, and was
informed that the requisite woodmen were assembled.
Next morning we walked after breakfast towards the site which had
been selected. The distance was about eighteen miles from Galt,
half of it in the forest, but till we came near the end of the road
no accident happened. Scarcely, however, had we entered the bush,
as the woods are called, when the doctor found he had lost the
way. I was excessively angry, for such an accident is no trifle in
the woods; but after "wandering up and down" like the two babes,
with not even the comfort of a blackberry, the heavens frowning
and the surrounding forest sullenly still, we discovered a hut,
and "tirling at the pin" entered and found it inhabited by a Dutch
shoemaker. We made him understand our lost condition, and induced
him to set us on the right path. He had been in the French army,
and had after the peace emigrated to the United States; thence he
had come into Upper Canada, where he bought a lot of land, which,
after he had made some betterments, he exchanged for the location
in the woods, or as he said himself "Je swapé" the first land for
the lot on which he was now settled.
With his assistance we reached the skirts of the wild to which
we were going, and were informed in the cabin of a squatter that
all our men had gone forward. By this time it began to rain, but
undeterred by that circumstance we resumed our journey in the
pathless wood. About sunset, dripping wet, we arrived near the spot
we were in quest of, a shanty which an Indian who had committed
murder had raised as a refuge for himself....
We found the men under the orders of Mr. Prior, whom I had employed
for the Company, kindling a roaring fire, and after endeavouring to
dry ourselves, and having recourse to the store-basket, I proposed
to go to the spot chosen for the town. By this time the sun was
set, and Dr. Dunlop with his characteristic drollery having doffed
his wet garb and dressed himself Indian fashion in blankets, we
proceeded with Mr. Prior, attended by two woodmen with their axes.
It was consistent with my plan to invest our ceremony with a little
mystery, the better to make it be remembered. So, intimating that
the main body of the men were not to come, we walked to the brow
of the neighbouring rising ground, and, Mr. Prior having shown
the site selected for the town, a large maple tree was chosen, on
which, taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first
stroke. To me at least the moment was impressive--and the silence
of the woods that echoed to the sound was as the sigh of the solemn
genius of the wilderness departing for ever.
The doctor followed me; then, if I recollect correctly, Mr. Prior,
and the woodmen finished the work. The tree fell with a crash
of accumulating thunder, as if ancient Nature were alarmed at
the entrance of social man into her innocent solitudes with his
sorrows, his follies, and his crimes.
I do not suppose that the sublimity of the occasion was unfelt
by the others, for I noticed that after the tree fell there was
a funereal pause, as when the coffin is lowered into the grave;
it was, however, of short duration, for the doctor pulled a flask
of whiskey from his bosom, and we drank prosperity to the City of
Guelph.
The name was chosen in compliment to the royal family, both
because I thought it auspicious in itself, and because I could
not recollect that it had ever been before used in all the King's
dominions.
After the solemnity--for, though the ceremony was simple, it may be
so denominated--we returned to the shanty, and the rain, which had
been suspended during the performance, began again to pour.
It may appear ludicrous to many readers that I look on this
incident with gravity, but in truth I am very serious; for,
although Guelph is not so situated as ever to become celebrated
for foreign commerce, the location possesses many advantages
independent of being situated on a tongue of land surrounded by a
clear and rapid stream. It will be seen by the map of the province
that it stands almost in the centre of the table-land which
separates four of the great lakes, namely, Ontario, Simcoe, Huron
and Erie.
31. SAM SLICK CRITICISES THE "BLUENOSES" OR NOVA SCOTIANS (1836).
=Source.=--_The Clockmaker, or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel
Slick_, by T. C. Haliburton. London, 1838.
As we approached within fifteen or twenty miles of Parrsboro', a
sudden turn of the road brought us directly in front of a large
wooden house, consisting of two stories and an immense roof, the
height of which edifice was much increased by a stone foundation
rising several feet above ground. Now did you ever see, said Mr.
Slick, such a catamaran as that; there's a proper goney for you,
for to go and raise such a building as that are; and he has as
much use for it, I do suppose, as my old waggon here has for a
fifth wheel. Bluenose always takes keer to have a big house,
cause it shows a big man, and one that's considerable forehanded,
and pretty well to do in the world. These Nova Scotians turn up
their blue noses, as a bottle nose porpoise turns up his snout,
and puff and snort exactly like him at a small house. If neighbour
Carrit has a two storey house, all filled with winders like Sandy
Hook lighthouse, neighbour Parsnip must add jist two feet more on
to the post of hisn, and about as much more to the rafter, to go
ahead of him; so all these long sarce gentlemen strive who can
get the furdest in the sky, away from their farms. In New England
our maxim is a small house and amost an everlastin almighty big
barn; but these critters revarse it, they have little hovels for
their cattle, about the bigness of a good sizeable bear trap, and
a house for the humans as grand as Noah's Ark. Well, jist look at
it and see what a figur it does cut. An old hat stuffed into one
pane of glass, and an old flannel petticoat as yaller as jaundice
in another, finish off the front; an old pair of breeches and the
pad of a bran new cart-saddle worn out titivate the eend, while
the back is all closed up on account of the wind. When it rains,
if there aint a pretty how-do-you-do, it's a pity--beds toted out
of this room, and tubs set in tother to catch soft water to wash;
while the clapboards, loose at the eends, go clap, clap, clap, like
gals a hacklin flax, and the winders and doors keep a dancin to the
music. The only dry place in the house is in the chimbley corner,
where the folks all huddle up, as an old hen and her chickens do
under a cart of a wet day. I wish I had the matter of half a dozen
pound of nails (you'll hear the old gentleman in the grand house
say), for if I had, I'd fix them are clapboards; I guess they'll
go for it some o' these days. I wish you had, his wife would say,
for they do make a most particular unhansum clatter, that's a fact;
and so they let it be till the next tempestical time comes, and
then they wish agin. Now this grand house has only two rooms down
stairs, that are altogether slicked up and finished off complete;
the other is jist petitioned off roughlike, one half great dark
entries, and tother half places that look a plaguy sight more like
packin' boxes than rooms. Well, all upstairs is a great onfarnished
place, filled with every sort of good for nothin trumpery in
natur--barrels without eends, corncobs half husked, cast-off
clothes and bits of old harness, sheep skins, hides and wool,
apples, one half rotten and tother half squashed, a thousand or two
of shingles that have bust their withs and broke loose all over the
floor, hay rakes, forks and sickles without handles or teeth, rusty
scythes and odds and eends without number....
Whenever you come to such a grand place as this Squire, depend
on't the farm is all of a piece, great crops of thistles, and an
everlastin yield of weeds, and cattle the best fed of any in the
country, for they are always in the grain fields or mowin lands,
and the pigs a rootin in the potatoe patches....
The last time I came by here, it was a little bit arter daylight
down, rainin cats and dogs and as dark as Egypt; so, thinks I,
I'll jist turn in here for shelter to Squire Bill Blake's. Well,
I knocks away at the front door, till I thought I'd a split it
in; but arter a rappin a while to no purpose and findin no one
come, I gropes my way round to the back door, and opens it, and
feelin all along the partition for the latch of the keepin room
without finding it, I knocks agin, when someone from inside calls
out "Walk." Thinks I, I don't cleverly know whether that indicates
"walk in" or "walk out," it's plaguy short metre, that's a fact;
but I'll see anyhow. Well, arter gropin about a while, at last I
got hold of the string and lifted the latch and walked in, and
there sot old Marm Blake, close into one corner of the chimbley
fire-place, a see-sawin in a rockin-chair, and a half-grown black
house-help, half asleep in tother corner, a scroudgin up over
the embers. Who be you, said Marm Blake, for I can't see you. A
stranger, said I. Beck, says she ... get up this minit and stir
the coals till I see the man. Arter the coals were stirred into a
blaze, the old lady surveyed me from head to foot, then she axed
me my name, and where I came from, where I was agoin, and what my
business was. I guess, said she, you must be reasonable wet, sit to
the fire and dry yourself, or mayhap your health may be endamnified
pr'aps.
So I sot down, and we soon got pretty considerably well acquainted,
and quite sociable like, and her tongue, when it fairly waked up,
began to run like a mill race when the gate's up.... Well, when
all was sot to rights and the fire made up, the old lady began to
apologise for having no candles; she said she'd had a grand tea
party the night afore, and used them all up, and a whole sight of
vittals too; the old man hadn't been well since, and had gone to
bed airly. But, says she, I do wish with all my heart you had a
come last night, for we had a most a special supper--punkin-pies
and dough-nuts and apple-sarce, and a roast goose stuffed with
Indian puddin, and a pig's harslet stewed in molasses and onions,
and I don't know what all; and the fore part of to-day folks called
to finish. I actilly have nothin left to set afore you; for it was
none o' your skim-milk parties, but superfine uppercrust real jam,
and we made clean work of it. But I'll make some tea anyhow for
you, and perhaps after that, said she, alterin of her tone, perhaps
you'll expound the Scriptures, for it's one while since I've heerd
them laid open powerfully.... The tea-kettle was accordingly put
on, and some lard fried into oil and poured into a tumbler; which,
with the aid of an inch of cotton-wick, served as a makeshift for a
candle.
32. A STRUGGLE, NOT OF PRINCIPLES, BUT OF RACES (1838).
=Source.=--Lord Durham's _Report on the Affairs of North America_,
edited by Sir C. P. Lucas. Vol. II. Oxford, 1912.
From the peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, I was
enabled to make such effectual observations as convinced me
that there had existed in the constitution of the Province, in
the balance of political powers, in the spirit and practice of
administration in every department of the Government, defects that
were quite sufficient to account for a great deal of mismanagement
and dissatisfaction. The same observation had also impressed on me
the conviction, that, for the peculiar and disastrous dissensions
of this Province, there existed a far deeper and far more efficient
cause,--a cause which penetrated beneath its political institutions
into its social state,--a cause which no reform of constitution
or laws, that should leave the elements of society unaltered,
could remove; but which must be removed, ere any success could be
expected in any attempt to remedy the many evils of this unhappy
Province. I expected to find a contest between a government and
a people: I found two nations warring in the bosom of a single
state: I found a struggle, not of principles, but of races, and I
perceived that it would be idle to attempt any amelioration of laws
or institutions until we could first succeed in terminating the
deadly animosity that now separates the inhabitants of Lower Canada
into the hostile divisions of French and English....
The grounds of quarrel which are commonly alleged, appear, on
investigation, to have little to do with its real cause; and the
inquirer, who has imagined that the public demonstrations or
professions of the parties have put him in possession of their real
motives and designs, is surprised to find, upon nearer observation,
how much he has been deceived by the false colours under which they
have been in the habit of fighting. It is not, indeed, surprising,
that each party should, in this instance, have practised more than
the usual frauds of language, by which factions, in every country,
seek to secure the sympathy of other communities. A quarrel based
on the mere ground of national animosity, appears so revolting to
the notions of good sense and charity prevalent in the civilised
world, that the parties who feel such a passion the most strongly,
and indulge it the most openly, are at great pains to class
themselves under any denominations but those which would correctly
designate their objects and feelings. The French Canadians have
attempted to shroud their hostility to the influence of English
emigration, and the introduction of British institutions, under
the guise of warfare against the Government and its supporters,
whom they represented to be a small knot of corrupt and insolent
dependents; being a majority, they have invoked the principles of
popular control and democracy, and appealed with no little effect
to the sympathy of liberal politicians in every quarter of the
world. The English, finding their opponents in collision with
the Government, have raised the cry of loyalty and attachment to
British connexion, and denounced the republican designs of the
French, whom they designate by the appellation of Radicals. Thus
the French have been viewed as a democratic party, contending for
reform; and the English as a conservative minority, protecting
the menaced connexion with the British Crown, and the supreme
authority of the Empire. There is truth in this notion in so far
as respects the means by which each party sought to carry its own
views of Government into effect. The French majority asserted the
most democratic doctrines of the rights of a numerical majority.
The English minority availed itself of the protection of the
prerogative, and allied itself with all those of the colonial
institutions which enabled the few to resist the will of the many.
But when we look to the objects of each party, the analogy to
our own politics seems to be lost if not actually reversed; the
French appear to have used their democratic arms for conservative
purposes, rather than those of liberal and enlightened movement;
and the sympathies of the friends of reform are naturally enlisted
on the side of sound amelioration which the English minority
in vain attempted to introduce into the antiquated laws of the
Province.
33. THE FRENCH CANADIANS IN 1838.
=Source.=--Appendix "C" to Lord Durham's _Report_. Lucas. Vol. III.
The _habitants_, or agricultural population of French origin, hold
their lands by feudal tenure, which prevails in the "seignorial"
districts. Though under the sway of England for 75 years, they are
but little changed in usages, and not at all in language. A very
small proportion of them are acquainted with the first rudiments
of education; they use comparatively few imported articles, and
their system of agriculture is generally rude and antiquated.
Owing to the neglect of manure and a proper rotation of crops, the
land in many places has become exhausted, and its cultivators,
year after year, sink deeper in poverty. Scanty harvests during
the last six or eight years, caused mainly by imperfect modes of
culture or injudicious cropping, have reduced considerable numbers
of the _habitants_ in the district of Quebec to a state of extreme
destitution. In the district of Montreal, the farming is better,
and the people more prosperous. The _habitant_ is active, hardy
and intelligent, but excitable, credulous; and, being a stranger
to everything beyond his own contracted sphere, he is peculiarly
liable to be made the dupe of political speculators. His ignorance
of the English language prevents him from acquiring any knowledge
of the sentiments and views of the British Government and people,
except what he may derive from educated persons of his own race,
interested, it may be, in deceiving him. Never having _directly_
experienced the benefits of British rule in local affairs, and
almost as much insulated from British social influences as if the
colony had never changed masters, it is idle to expect that he
should entertain any active feeling of attachment to the Crown.
For opening new settlements the _habitant_ has many useful
qualifications, being usually competent to provide, by his personal
skill, all the essentials requisite for his situation, such as
house, clothing, and the ordinary farming implements. But having
cleared his land, erected a dwelling for himself and a church for
the _curé_, he remains stationary, contented with his lot, and
living and dying as his ancestors lived and died before him. At the
present day, for instance, a traveller may pass through districts
where there is an abundance of excellent milk, and be unable to
procure either butter or cheese with the sour and black-looking
country bread which is served up at his meals; and it is by no
means an uncommon circumstance for a _habitant_ to sell his manure
to a neighbouring farmer, or throw it into the adjoining river,
while every season his crops are deteriorating, in consequence of
the degeneracy of the seed and the exhaustion of the soil.
By the _habitant_ a small gain, or saving of actual coin, is deemed
much more important than a large expenditure of time; and he will
not easily be induced to venture on an immediate pecuniary outlay
to secure a remote advantage, unless indeed the money is to be
devoted to litigation, in which he loves to indulge.
There is no class resembling English "country gentlemen" among the
Canadians; nor do the doctors, notaries and lawyers, who overabound
in the colony, form an efficient substitute for such a class. Needy
and discontented, they are more disposed to attempt an improvement
in their own condition of political agitation, than to labour for
the advancement of their uninstructed neighbours. The only body
of men to whom the _habitants_ can look for aid and direction are
the parochial clergy, who, in the districts where their authority
is unimpaired, act as a vigilant moral police, the efficiency of
which is manifested in established habits of sobriety and order.
Persons acquainted with the province are well aware that, in the
disaffected districts, the influence of the Canadian clergy is much
diminished.
It appears, then, that the mode of village settlement adopted
by the Franco-Canadians is favourable to the establishment of
municipal institutions, and that the obstacles to be encountered
are the absence of education, popular inexperience, blind
repugnance to taxation, and the absence of a wealthy and instructed
class, interested in the prosperity of the many, and desirous of
engaging gratuitously in the administration of local affairs.
34. THE IRRESPONSIBLE OPPOSITION IN LOWER CANADA (1838).
=Source.=--Lord Durham's _Report_. Lucas. Vol II.
It appears, therefore, that the opposition of the Assembly to the
Government was the unavoidable result of a system which stinted the
popular branch of the legislature of the necessary privileges of a
representative body, and produced thereby a long series of attempts
on the part of that body to acquire control over the administration
of the Province. I say all this without reference to the ultimate
aim of the Assembly, which I have before described as being the
maintenance of a Canadian nationality against the progressive
intrusion of the English race. Having no responsible ministers
to deal with, it entered upon that system of long inquiries by
means of its committees, which brought the whole action of the
executive immediately under its purview, and transgressed our
notions of the proper limits of Parliamentary interference. Having
no influence in the choice of any public functionary, no power
to procure the removal of such as were obnoxious to it merely on
political grounds, and seeing almost every office of the Colony
filled by persons in whom it had no confidence, it entered on that
vicious course of assailing its prominent opponents individually,
and disqualifying them for the public service, by making them the
subjects of inquiries and consequent impeachments, not always
conducted with even the appearance of a due regard to justice; and
when nothing else could attain its end of altering the policy or
the composition of the colonial government, it had recourse to that
_ultima ratio_ of representative power to which the more prudent
forbearance of the Crown has never driven the House of Commons in
England, and endeavoured to disable the whole machine of Government
by a general refusal of the supplies.
It was an unhappy consequence of the system which I have been
describing, that it relieved the popular leaders of all the
responsibilities of opposition. A member of opposition in this
country acts and speaks with the contingency of becoming a minister
constantly before his eyes, and he feels, therefore, the necessity
of proposing no course, and of asserting no principles, on which
he would not be prepared to conduct the Government, if he were
immediately offered it. But the colonial demagogue bids high for
popularity without the fear of future exposure. Hopelessly excluded
from power, he expresses the wildest opinion, and appeals to the
most mischievous passions of the people, without any apprehension
of having his sincerity or prudence hereafter tested, by being
placed in a position to carry his views into effect; and thus the
prominent places in the ranks of opposition are occupied for the
most part by men of strong passions, and merely declamatory powers,
who think but little of reforming the abuses which serve them as
topics for exciting discontent.
35. DURHAM'S RECOMMENDATIONS (1838).
=Source.=--Lord Durham's _Report_. Lucas. Vol. II.
It is not by weakening, but strengthening the influence of the
people on its Government; by confining within much narrower
bounds than those hitherto allotted to it, and not by extending
the interference of the imperial authorities in the details of
colonial affairs; that I believe that harmony is to be restored,
where dissension has so long prevailed, and a regularity and vigour
hitherto unknown, introduced into the administration of these
Provinces. It needs no change in the principles of government, no
invention of a new constitutional theory, to supply the remedy
which would, in my opinion, completely remove the existing
political disorders. It needs but to follow out consistently the
principles of the British constitution, and introduce into the
Government of these great Colonies those wise provisions, by which
alone the working of the representative system can in any country
be rendered harmonious and efficient. We are not now to consider
the policy of establishing representative government in the
North American Colonies. That has been irrevocably done; and the
experiment of depriving the people of their present constitutional
power, is not to be thought of. To conduct their government
harmoniously, in accordance with its established principles, is
now the business of its rulers; and I know not how it is possible
to secure that harmony in any other way than by administering the
Government on those principles which have been found perfectly
efficacious in Great Britain. I would not impair a single
prerogative of the Crown; on the contrary, I believe that the
interests of the people of these colonies require the protection
of prerogatives, which have not hitherto been exercised. But the
Crown must, on the other hand, submit to the necessary consequences
of representative institutions; and, if it has to carry on the
Government in unison with a representative body, it must consent to
carry it on by means of those in whom that representative body has
confidence....
These general principles apply, however, only to those changes in
the system of government which are required in order to rectify
disorders common to all the North American Colonies; but they do
not in any degree go to remove those evils in the present state
of Lower Canada which require the most immediate remedy. The
fatal feud of origin, which is the cause of the most extensive
mischief, would be aggravated at the present moment by any
change, which should give the majority more power than they have
hitherto possessed. A plan by which it is proposed to ensure the
tranquil government of Lower Canada, must include in itself the
means of putting an end to the agitation of national disputes in
the legislature, by settling, at once and for ever, the national
character of the Province. I entertain no doubts as to the national
character which must be given to Lower Canada; it must be that
of the British Empire; that of the majority of the population of
British America; that of the great race which must, in the lapse
of no long period of time, be predominant over the whole North
American Continent. Without effecting the change so rapidly or
so roughly as to shock the feelings and trample on the welfare
of the existing generation, it must henceforth be the first and
steady purpose of the British Government to establish an English
population, with English laws and language, in this Province,
and to trust its government to none but a decidedly English
legislature....
It is only ... by a popular government, in which an English
majority shall permanently predominate, that Lower Canada, if a
remedy for its disorders be not too long delayed, can be tranquilly
ruled.
On these grounds, I believe that no permanent or efficient remedy
can be devised for the disorders of Lower Canada, except a fusion
of the Government in that of one or more of the surrounding
Provinces; and, as I am of opinion that the full establishment of
responsible government can only be permanently secured by giving
these Colonies an increased importance in the politics of the
Empire, I find in union the only means of remedying at once and
completely the two prominent causes of their present unsatisfactory
condition.
36. DURHAM RESIGNS AND APPEALS TO PUBLIC OPINION (1838).
=Source.=--Durham's Proclamation of 9th October, 1838, quoted in
_The Report and Despatches of the Earl of Durham_. London, 1839.
... I have also to notify the disallowance by her Majesty of the
Ordinance ... "to provide for the security of the Province of Lower
Canada."
I cannot perform these official duties without at the same time
informing you, the people of British America, of the course which
the measures of the Imperial Government and Legislature make it
incumbent on me to pursue....
I did not accept the Government of British North America without
duly considering the nature of the task which I imposed on myself,
or the sufficiency of my means for performing it. When Parliament
concentrated all legislative and executive power in Lower Canada
in the same hands, it established an authority, which, in the
strictest sense of the word, was despotic. This authority her
Majesty was graciously pleased to delegate to me....
To encourage and stimulate me in my arduous task, I had great and
worthy objects in view. My aim was to elevate the province of Lower
Canada to a thoroughly British character, to link its people to the
sovereignty of Britain, by making them all participators in those
high privileges, conducive at once to freedom and order, which
have long been the glory of Englishmen. I hoped to confer on an
united people, a more extensive enjoyment of free and responsible
government, and to merge the petty jealousies of a small community,
and the odious animosities of origin, in the higher feelings of a
nobler and more comprehensive nationality....
I had reason to believe that I was armed with all the power which
I thought requisite.... I also trusted that I should enjoy,
throughout the course of my administration, all the strength which
the cordial and steadfast support of the authorities at home can
alone give to their distant officers; and that even party feeling
would refrain from molesting me whilst occupied in maintaining the
integrity of the British Empire.
In these just expectations I have been painfully disappointed.
From the very commencement of my task, the minutest details of
my administration have been exposed to incessant criticism, in
a spirit which has evinced an entire ignorance of the state of
this country, and of the only mode in which the supremacy of the
British Crown can here be upheld and exercised. Those who have in
the British Legislature systematically depreciated my powers, and
the ministers of the Crown by their tacit acquiescence therein,
have produced the effect of making it too clear that my authority
is inadequate for the emergency which called it into existence. At
length an act of my Government, the first and most important which
was brought under the notice of the authorities at home, has been
annulled; and the entire policy, of which that act was a small
though essential part, has thus been defeated....
In these conflicting and painful circumstances, it is far better
that I should at once and distinctly announce my intention of
desisting from the vain attempt to carry my policy and system of
administration into effect with such inadequate and restricted
means....
You will easily believe that, after all the exertions which I
have made, it is with feelings of deep disappointment that I find
myself thus suddenly deprived of the power of conferring great
benefit on that province to which I have referred; of reforming the
administrative system there, and eradicating the manifold abuses
which had been engendered by the negligence and corruption of
former times, and so lamentably fostered by civil dissensions. I
cannot but regret being obliged to renounce the still more glorious
hope of employing unusual legislative powers in the endowment of
that province with those free municipal institutions, which are the
only sure basis of local improvement and representative liberty,
of establishing a system of general education, of revising the
defective laws which regulate real property and commerce, and of
introducing a pure and competent administration of justice. Above
all, I grieve to be thus forced to abandon the realisation of such
large and solid schemes of colonisation and internal improvement,
as would connect the distant portions of these extensive colonies,
and lay open the unwrought treasures of the wilderness to the wants
of British industry and the energy of British enterprise.
... Our exertions, however, will not, cannot be thrown away. The
information which we have acquired, although not as yet fit for the
purposes of immediate legislation, will contribute to the creation
of juster views as to the resources, the wants and the interests of
these colonies, than ever yet prevailed in the mother country.
37. THE EVILS OF THE OLD COLONIAL SYSTEM (1839).[4]
=Source.=--The open letters of Joseph Howe of Nova Scotia to the
Colonial Secretary, Lord John Russell, 1839, printed in Howe's
_Speeches and Public Letters_, Vol. II. Boston, 1858.
The city of Liverpool shall again serve us for the purposes of
illustration. Turn back to the passages where I have described a
Mayor, ignorant of everything, surrounded by irresponsible but
cunning advisers; who, for their own advantage, embroil him with a
majority of the citizens, while his countenance, and the patronage
created by the taxes levied upon the city, are monopolised by
a miserable minority of the whole; and insulted and injured
thousands, swelling with indignation, surround him on every side.
After your Lordship has dwelt upon this scene of heartburning and
discontent--of general dissatisfaction among the citizens--of
miserable intrigue and chuckling triumph, indulged by the few who
squander the resources and decide on the interests of the many, but
laugh at their murmurs and never acknowledge their authority--let
me beg of you to reflect whether matters would be made better or
worse, if the Mayor of Liverpool was bound, in every important
act of his administration, to ask the direction of, and throw the
responsibility on, another individual, who never saw the city, who
knows less about it than even himself, and who resides, not in
London, at the distance of a day's coaching from him, but across
the Atlantic, in Halifax, Quebec or Toronto, and with whom it is
impossible to communicate about anything within a less period than
a couple of months. Suppose that this gentleman in the distance
possesses a veto upon every important ordinance by which the city
is to be watched, lighted and improved--by which docks are to be
formed, trade regulated, and one-third of the city revenues (drawn
from sources beyond the control of the popular branch) dispensed.
And suppose that nearly all whose talents or ambition lead them
to aspire to the higher offices of the place, are compelled to
take, once or twice in their lives, a voyage across the Atlantic,
to pay their court to him--to solicit his patronage, and intrigue
for the preferment, which, under a better system, would naturally
result from manly competition and eminent services within the city
itself. Your Lordship is too keen sighted, and I trust too frank,
not to acknowledge that no form of government could well be devised
more ridiculous than this; that under such no British city could
be expected to prosper; and that with it no body of her Majesty's
subjects, within the British islands themselves, would ever be
content. Yet this, my Lord, is an illustration of your own theory;
this is the system propounded by Lord Normanby,[5] as the best the
present cabinet can devise. And may I not respectfully demand,
why British subjects in Nova Scotia any more than their brethren
in Liverpool, should be expected to prosper or be contented under
it; when experience has convinced them that it is miserably
insufficient and deceptive, repugnant to the principles of the
Constitution they revere, and but a poor return for the steady
loyalty which their forefathers and themselves have maintained on
all occasions?
One of the greatest evils of the Colonial Constitution, as
interpreted by Your Lordship, is, that it removes from a Province
every description of responsibility, and leaves all the higher
functionaries at liberty to lay every kind of blame at the door of
the Secretary of State. The Governor, if the Colonists complain,
shrugs his shoulders, and replies that he will explain the
difficulty in his next despatch, but in the meantime his orders
must be obeyed.
38. THE BENEFITS OF RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT (1839).
=Source.=--Howe's _Letters_, as in 37.
You ask me for the remedy. Lord Durham has stated it distinctly:
the Colonial Governors must be commanded to govern by the aid of
those who possess the confidence of the people, and are supported
by a majority of the representative branch. Where is the danger?
Of what consequence is it to the people of England, whether half
a dozen persons, in whom that majority have confidence, but of
whom they know nothing and care less, manage our local affairs; or
the same number, selected from the minority, and whose policy the
bulk of the population distrust?... Would England be weaker, less
prosperous or less respected, because the people of Nova Scotia
were satisfied and happy?
But, it is said, a Colony, being part of a great Empire, must be
governed by different principles from the Metropolitan State. That,
unless it be handed over to the minority, it cannot be governed at
all. That the majority, when they have things their own way, will
be discontented and disloyal.... Let us fancy that this reasoning
were applied to Glasgow or Aberdeen or to any other town in Britain
which you allow to govern itself. And what else is a Province like
Nova Scotia than a small community, too feeble to interfere with
the general commercial and military arrangements of the government;
but deeply interested in a number of minor matters, which only the
people to be affected by them can wisely manage; which the ministry
can never find leisure to attend to, and involve in inextricable
confusion when they meddle with them. You allow a million of people
to govern themselves in the very capital of the kingdom; and yet
her Majesty lives in the midst of them without any apprehension
of danger, and feels the more secure, the more satisfaction and
tranquillity they exhibit. Of course, if the Lord Mayor were to
declare war upon France, or the Board of Aldermen were to resolve
that the duties upon brandy should no longer be collected by the
general revenue officers of the kingdom, everybody would laugh,
but no one would apprehend any great danger. Should we, if Lord
Durham's principles be adopted, do anything equally _outré_,
check us, for you have the power; but until we do, for your own
sakes--for you are as much interested as we are,--for the honour
of the British name, too often tarnished by these squabbles, let
us manage our own affairs, pay our own officers, and distribute a
patronage, altogether beneath your notice, among those who command
our esteem.
39. THE UNION ACT (1840).
=Source.=--_Documents Illustrative of the Canadian Constitution_,
edited by William Houston. Toronto, 1891.
Whereas it is necessary that provision be made for the good
government of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, in such
manner as may secure the rights and liberties and promote the
interests of all classes of her Majesty's subjects within the same:
And whereas to this end it is expedient that the said provinces
be reunited to form one province for the purposes of executive
government and legislation....
III. ... from and after the reunion of the said two provinces there
shall be within the Province of Canada one Legislative Council and
one Assembly....
IV. ... for the purpose of composing the Legislative Council ... it
shall be lawful for her Majesty ... to authorise the Governor in
her Majesty's name, by an instrument under the Great Seal of the
said Province, to summon to the said Legislative Council ... such
persons, being not fewer than twenty, as her Majesty shall think
fit....
V. ... every member of the Legislative Council ... shall hold his
seat therein for the term of his life....
XII. ... in the Legislative Assembly ... the parts of the said
Province which now constitute the provinces of Upper and Lower
Canada respectively, shall ... be represented by an equal number
of representatives to be elected for the places and in the manner
hereinafter mentioned....
XXXI. ... there shall be a session of the Legislative Council and
Assembly ... once at least in every year ... every Legislative
Assembly ... shall continue for four years from the day of the
return of the writs for choosing the same, and no longer, subject
nevertheless to be sooner prorogued or dissolved by the Governor of
the said Province.
(_Compare with IV. the Amendment Act of 1854._)
It shall be lawful for the Legislature of Canada ... to alter the
manner of composing the Legislative Council ... and to make it
consist of such number of members appointed or to be appointed
or elected by such persons and in such manner as to the said
Legislature may seem fit....
(In accordance with this enabling Act of Parliament, a Canadian Act
for making the Council elective was passed in 1856.)
40. EDMONTON IN 1841.
=Source.=--_Narrative of a Journey round the World_, by Sir George
Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Hudson Bay Company's Territories
in North America. London, 1847.
Next morning, being the 22nd of July, we had a sharp frost before
sunrise, and afterwards a heavy dew. The whole country was so
parched up, that no water could be found for breakfast till eleven
o'clock; and again in the afternoon we passed over a perfectly
arid plain of about twenty-five miles in length, encamping for
the night at the commencement of the Chaine des Lacs, a succession
of small lakes stretching over a distance of twenty or thirty
miles. During the afternoon we saw our first raspberries; they
proved to be of large size and fine flavour. Two days previously we
had feasted on the service-berry ... a sort of cross between the
cranberry and the black currant; and, before leaving Red River, we
had found wild strawberries ripe....
Next afternoon we passed over a space of about four miles in
length, where the grass was thoroughly beaten down, apparently
the work of hail. Such storms, which are almost always partial in
their operation, are often remarkably furious in this country.
While travelling from Red River to Canada in the fall of 1837,
I was overtaken near Lac la Pluie by a violent tempest of the
kind, which, if we had not gained the fort in time, might have
proved fatal. As the angular masses of ice rattled on the roof, we
entertained fears for the safety of the building; and, in point of
fact, the lodges of the Indians were thrown down and their canoes
shattered; while their luckless dogs, tumbling about like drunken
men, scrambled away howling in quest of shelter. Some of the pieces
... we found to be fully five inches and a half in circumference.
Throughout this country everything is in extremes--unparalleled
cold and excessive heat; long droughts, balanced by drenching rain
and destructive hail. But it is not in climate only that these
contrarieties prevail; at some seasons both whites and natives are
living, in wasteful abundance, on venison, buffalo, fish, and game
of all kinds; while at other times they are reduced to the last
degree of hunger, often passing several days without food.
In the year 1820, when wintering at Athabasca Lake, our provisions
fell short at the establishment, and on two or three occasions I
went for three whole days and nights without having a single morsel
to swallow; but then again I was one of a party of eleven men and
one woman, which discussed three ducks and twenty-two geese at a
sitting....
The nights were getting chilly; and, whenever the sky was clear,
a heavy dew fell from sunset to sunrise on particular spots, so as
to look, when morning dawned, like large lakes in the distance.
As the power of the sun increased, these mists gradually resolved
themselves into streaks of various shapes and sizes, which, rising
from the ground in the form of clouds, finally disappeared....
The whole plain was covered with a luxuriant crop of the vetch or
wild pea, almost as nutritious a food for cattle and horses as
oats. As we drew near to the Saskatchewan, we had to cross as many
as five creeks with steep and lofty banks, the last in particular
being a stream scarcely twenty feet in span between rugged
declivities about two hundred feet in height....
On arriving in front of Edmonton, which was on the opposite bank of
the Saskatchewan, we notified our approach by a volley of musketry,
which was returned by the cannon of the fort....
Edmonton is a well-built place, something of a hexagon in form.
It is surrounded by high pickets and bastions, which, with the
battlemented gateways, the flagstaffs, etc., give it a good deal
of a martial appearance; and it occupies a commanding situation,
crowning an almost perpendicular part of the bank, about two
hundred feet in height. The river is nearly as wide as at Carlton,
while the immediate banks are well wooded, and the country behind
consists of rolling prairies.
This fort, both inside and outside, is decorated with paintings and
devices to suit the tastes of the savages that frequent it. Over
the gateways are a most fanciful variety of vanes; but the hall, of
which both the ceiling and the walls present the gaudiest colours
and the most fantastic sculptures, absolutely rivets the astonished
natives to the spot with wonder and admiration. The buildings are
smeared with a red earth found in the neighbourhood, which, when
mixed with oil, produces a durable brown.
The vicinity is rich in mineral productions. A seam of coal, about
ten feet in depth, can be traced for a very considerable distance
along both sides of the river....
41. THE MOHAWK INDIANS IN ONTARIO (1842).
=Source.=--_Letters from America_, by John Robert Godley. London,
1844.
Within two miles of Brantford (which is called after Brandt the
Indian chief) is a village which may be termed the headquarters
of the Mohawk tribe of Indians. They lost their possessions in
the States by adhering to Great Britain in the revolutionary war,
and received in compensation a settlement here of 160,000 acres:
since that time they have decreased considerably, and now consist
of not more than 2200 souls. I went over to the Indian village on
Sunday morning, and attended Divine service in their church; it
was performed according to the forms of the English Church, but
in the Mohawk language, with the exception of the sermon, which
the clergyman delivered in English, and which was translated
with wonderful fluency, sentence after sentence, by an Indian
interpreter who stood beside him. It was good, practical, and well
adapted to the audience, who listened with the most unfailing
attention, though the plan of proceeding made it necessarily very
long: the Indian language, too, is far more prolix than ours, at
least the sentences as translated were at least three times as long
as in the original delivery; the singing was particularly good in
point of time and harmony, but the airs were somewhat monotonous.
Two children were baptised during the service, one of them
ensconced in a bark cradle, which fitted it accurately, and was
attached in a curious manner to a board so as to be carried easily
upon the mother's back. There were about 120 Indians present; the
men, with one or two exceptions, dressed like Europeans, but the
women wearing their native costume, which is rather becoming: it
consists of a calico or linen tunic reaching to the knee, below
which appears a petticoat of blue cloth, generally embroidered
with red and white bead-work, the legs are covered with a kind of
buskin of blue cloth, and the feet with mocassins; over all is a
large robe or mantle, of blue cloth also, thrown loosely round the
shoulders; completing a dress which, at this time of year, must be
dreadfully hot and heavy: the head is without any other covering
except very thick black shining hair. Those of the men who have not
adopted the European costume wear instead of trousers a tunic and
leggings which reach half-way up the thigh.
I had some conversation with the clergyman after service: he is
employed by the "New England Society," has been for a long time
among the Indians, and knows them well: he has a better opinion of
them and of their capacity for acquiring domestic and industrious
habits, than most white men to whom I have spoken upon the subject
have expressed. The society support a school in the village, where
about forty children are boarded, educated, and instructed in
trades; and they learn, Mr. N. says, as fast as Europeans: as yet,
however, they are not fit to be trusted in making bargains with
the whites, nor can they at all compete in matters of business
with them: much of their original grant has been trafficked
away to settlers, at prices wholly inadequate; and, though such
transactions are altogether illegal, they have been overlooked so
long that it is now impossible to annul them. A superintendent
lives close to the village, who is paid by Government for the
express purpose of protecting the Indian interests and managing
their affairs; yet encroachments upon their rights are still
perpetually made, which, however advantageous they may appear to
a political economist, are neither reconcilable with equity nor
with the real wishes and intentions of Government. Mr. N. is by no
means without hopes that in a generation or two these Indians may
become quite civilised: they are giving up their wandering habits,
and settling rapidly upon farms throughout their territory; and, in
consequence, probably, of this change in their mode of life, the
decrease in their numbers, which threatened a complete extinction
of the tribe, has ceased of late years: if it turn out as he
expects, this will form the sole exception to the general law which
affects their people. They are very much attached (as well they may
be) to the British Government; and in 1837 turned out under their
chiefs to the number of 500, and offered their services to it: they
wished to attack Navy Island in their canoes, but those who were
in command thought the enterprise too hazardous. The chiefs (whose
office is, as among the ancient Gothic nations, partly hereditary
and partly elective, _i.e._ ordinarily transmitted from father to
son, but liable to be transferred in cases of incapacity) have
still a good deal of authority among them, but, as it is of course
not recognised by law, they are gradually losing it; in fact, the
race is assimilating itself here far more than anywhere else to the
habits and manners of the surrounding Europeans, while at the same
time there is perhaps hardly any settlement where the red blood is
preserved with less mixture.
42. THE POSITION OF THE GOVERNOR (1854).
=Source.=--Lord Elgin to the Colonial Secretary, Sir George Grey,
18th December, 1854: Elgin's _Letters and Journals_. London, 1872.
As the Imperial Government and Parliament gradually withdraw from
legislative interference, and from the exercise of patronage in
Colonial affairs, the office of Governor tends to become, in the
most emphatic sense of the term, the link which connects the
Mother-country and the Colony, and his influence the means by which
harmony of action between the local and imperial authorities is
to be preserved. It is not, however, in my humble judgment, by
evincing an anxious desire to stretch to the utmost constitutional
principles in his favour, but, on the contrary, by the frank
acceptance of the conditions of the Parliamentary system, that
this influence can be most surely extended and confirmed. Placed
by his position above the strife of parties--holding office by a
tenure less precarious than the ministers who surround him--having
no political interests to serve but that of the community whose
affairs he is appointed to administer--his opinion cannot fail,
when all cause for suspicion and jealousy is removed, to have
great weight in the Colonial Councils, while he is set at liberty
to constitute himself in an especial manner the patron of those
larger and higher interests--such interests, for example, as
those of education, and of moral and material progress in all its
branches--which, unlike the contests of party, unite instead of
dividing the members of the body politic.
43. THE CONFEDERATION DEBATES (1865).
(1) _For Confederation_: (a) _J. A. Macdonald_.
=Source.=--_Debates in the Parliament of Canada on the
Confederation of British North America, 1865._
The colonies are now in a transition state. Gradually a different
colonial system is being developed--and it will become year by
year less a case of dependence on our part, and of overruling
protection on the part of the Mother-country, and more a case of
a healthy and cordial alliance. Instead of looking upon us as
a merely dependent colony, England will have in us a friendly
nation--a subordinate but still a powerful people--to stand by her
in North America in peace or in war. The people of Australia will
be such another subordinate nation. And England will have this
advantage, if her colonies progress under the new colonial system,
as I believe they will, that, though at war with all the rest of
the world, she will be able to look to the subordinate nations in
alliance with her, and owning allegiance to the same sovereign,
who will assist in enabling her again to meet the whole world in
arms, as she has done before. And if, in the great Napoleonic war,
with every port in Europe closed against her commerce, she was yet
able to hold her own, how much more will that be the case when she
has a colonial empire rapidly increasing in power, in wealth, in
influence, and in position? It is true that we stand in danger,
as we have stood in danger again and again in Canada, of being
plunged into war and suffering all its dreadful consequences, as
the result of causes over which we have no control, by reason of
this connection. This, however, did not intimidate us. At the
very mention of the prospect of a war some time ago, how were
the feelings of the people aroused from one extremity of British
America to the other, and preparations made for meeting its worst
consequences! Although the people of this country are fully aware
of the horrors of war--should a war arise, unfortunately, between
the United States and England, and we all pray it never may--they
are still ready to encounter all perils of that kind, for the sake
of the connection with England. There is not one adverse voice, not
one adverse opinion on that point. We all feel the advantages we
derive from our connection with England. So long as that alliance
is maintained, we enjoy, under her protection, the privileges
of constitutional liberty according to the British system. We
will enjoy here that which is the great test of constitutional
freedom--we will have the rights of the minority respected. In
all countries the rights of the majority take care of themselves,
but it is only in countries like England, enjoying constitutional
liberty, and safe from the tyranny of a single despot or of an
unbridled democracy, that the rights of minorities are regarded.
So long, too, as we form a portion of the British Empire, we shall
have the example of her free institutions, of the high standard of
the character of her statesmen and public men, of the purity of
her legislation, and the upright administration of her laws. In
this younger country one great advantage of our connection with
Great Britain will be, that, under her auspices, inspired by her
example, a portion of her empire, our public men will be actuated
by principles similar to those which actuate the statesmen at
home. These, although not material, physical benefits, of which
you can make an arithmetical calculation, are of such overwhelming
advantage to our future interests and standing as a nation, that to
obtain them is well worthy of any sacrifices we may be called upon
to make, and the people of this country are ready to make them.
44. _For Confederation_: (b) _George Brown_.
And well, Mr. Speaker, may the work we have unitedly proposed
rouse the ambition and energy of every true man in British
America. Look, sir, at the map of the Continent of America, and
mark that island (Newfoundland) commanding the mouth of the noble
river that almost cuts our Continent in twain. Well, sir, that
island is equal in extent to the kingdom of Portugal. Cross the
straits of the mainland, and you touch the hospitable shores of
Nova Scotia, a country as large as the kingdom of Greece. Then
mark the sister province of New Brunswick--equal in extent to
Denmark and Switzerland combined. Pass up the river St. Lawrence
to Lower Canada--a country as large as France. Pass on to Upper
Canada--twenty thousand square miles larger than Great Britain and
Ireland put together. Cross over the Continent to the shores of
the Pacific, and you are in British Columbia, the land of golden
promise,--equal in extent to the Austrian Empire. I speak not now
of the vast Indian Territories that lie between--greater in extent
than the whole soil of Russia--and that will ere long, I trust,
be opened up to civilisation under the auspices of the British
American Confederation. Well, sir, the bold scheme in your hands
is nothing less than to gather all these countries into one--to
organise them all under one government, with the protection of the
British flag, and in heartiest sympathy and affection with our
fellow-subjects in the land that gave us birth. Our scheme is to
establish a government that will seek to turn the tide of European
emigration into this northern half of the American Continent--that
will strive to develop its great natural resources--and that will
endeavour to maintain liberty, and justice, and Christianity
throughout the land.
45. (2) _Against Confederation: Christopher Dunkin._
We are going to be called upon to spend money for yet another
kindred purpose, and a large amount too--and this, as a part of
this scheme. Our star of empire is to wing its way westward; and
we are to confederate everything in its track, from Newfoundland
to Vancouver's Island, this last included. But, between us and it,
there lies the Hudson Bay territory. So, of course, we must acquire
that for confederation purposes; and the plan is, that before we
get it we shall have to pay for the elephant--though, after we get
him, we may find him costly and hard to keep....
Disguise it how you may, the idea that underlies this plan is this,
and nothing else--that we are to create here a something--kingdom,
viceroyalty or principality--something that will soon stand in the
same position towards the British Crown that Scotland and Ireland
stood in before they were legislatively united with England; a
something having no other tie to the Empire than the one tie of
fealty to the British Crown--a tie which in the cases, first, of
Scotland, and then of Ireland, was found, when the pinch came, to
be no tie at all; which did not restrain either Scotland or Ireland
from courses so inconsistent with that of England as to have made
it necessary that their relations should be radically changed, and
a legislative union formed in place of a merely nominal union.
Suppose you do create here a kingdom or a principality, bound to
the Empire by this shadow of a tie, the day of trial cannot be
far distant, when this common fealty will be found of as little
use in our case as it was in theirs, when, in consequence, the
question will force itself on the Empire and on us, between entire
separation on the one hand, and a legislative union on the other.
But a legislative union of British America with the United Kingdom
must be, in the opinion of, one may say, everybody at home and
here, a sheer utter impossibility; and when the question shall come
to be whether we are so to be merged in the United Kingdom or are
to separate entirely from it, the answer can only be--"At whatever
cost, we separate." Sir, I believe in my conscience that this step
now proposed is one directly and inevitably tending to that other
step; and for that reason--even if I believed, as I do not, that it
bid fair to answer ever so well in the other respects--because I am
an Englishman and hold to the connection with England, I must be
against this scheme....
The real danger is not of war with the United States. It is
from what I may call their pacific hostility--from trouble to
be wrought by them within this country--trouble to arise out of
refusal of reciprocity--repeal of the bonding system--custom-house
annoyances--passport annoyances; from their fomenting difficulties
here, and taking advantage of our local jealousies; from the
multiplied worries they may cause us by a judicious alternation
of bullying and coaxing, the thousand incidents which may easily
be made to happen if things are not going on quite well in this
country, and the people and government of the States are minded to
make us feel the consequences of our not getting on quite so well
as we might. Whether the union of the States is restored or not,
this kind of thing can go on. The danger is, that either the United
States, or those portions of the United States which are near us,
and which are really stronger than we are, and enterprising enough
and ambitious enough, and not very fond of us, and not at all fond
of the Mother-country, not at all unwilling to strike a blow at her
and to make us subservient to their own interest and ambition--the
danger is, I say, that the United States, or those portions of the
United States near us, may avail themselves of every opportunity to
perplex us, to embroil us in trouble, to make us come within the
disturbing influences of their strong local attraction. Now, to
pretend to tell me that the United States or the Northern States,
whichever you please, are going to be frightened from a policy of
that kind by our taking upon ourselves great airs, and forming
ourselves into a grand Confederation, is to tell me that their
people are, like the Chinese, a people to be frightened by loud
noises and ugly grimaces. I do not believe they are.
46. THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT (1867).
Printed in _Federations and Unions within the British Empire_, by
H. E. Egerton. Oxford, 1911.
Whereas the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick
have expressed their desire to be federally united into one
Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, with a Constitution similar in principle to that of the
United Kingdom....
3. ... the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
shall form and be one Dominion under the name of Canada....
17. There shall be one Parliament for Canada, consisting of the
Queen, an Upper House, styled the Senate, and the House of Commons.
21. The Senate shall, subject to the provisions of this Act,
consist of seventy-two members, who shall be styled Senators.
22. ... three divisions shall ... be equally represented in the
Senate as follows: Ontario by twenty-four Senators; Quebec by
twenty-four Senators; and the Maritime Provinces by twenty-four
Senators, twelve thereof representing Nova Scotia, and twelve ...
New Brunswick.
24. The Governor-General shall from time to time, in the Queen's
name, by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon
qualified persons to the Senate....
29. A Senator shall ... hold his place in the Senate for life.
37. The House of Commons shall ... consist of one hundred and
eighty-one Members, of whom eighty-two shall be elected for
Ontario, sixty-five for Quebec, nineteen for Nova Scotia, and
fifteen for New Brunswick.
50. Every House of Commons shall continue for five years from the
day of the return of the Writs for choosing the House (subject to
be sooner dissolved by the Governor-General) and no longer.
51. On the completion of the census in the year one thousand eight
hundred and seventy-one, and of each subsequent decennial census,
the representation of the four Provinces shall be readjusted by
such authority in such manner, and from such time as the Parliament
of Canada from time to time provides, subject and according to the
following rules:
1. Quebec shall have the fixed number of sixty-five members.
2. There shall be assigned to each of the other Provinces such a
number of Members as will bear the same proportion to the number
of its population (ascertained at such census) as the number
sixty-five bears to the number of the population of Quebec (so
ascertained)....
53. Bills for appropriating any part of the Public Revenue, or for
imposing any tax or impost, shall originate in the House of Commons.
54. It shall not be lawful for the House of Commons to adopt or
pass any Vote, Resolution, Address, or Bill for the appropriation
of any part of the Public Revenue, or of any Tax or Impost, to
any purpose, that has not been first recommended to that House by
Message of the Governor-General in the Session in which such Vote,
Resolution, Address, or Bill is proposed.
58. For each Province there shall be an Officer, styled the
Lieutenant-Governor, appointed by the Governor-General in Council
by Instrument under the Great Seal of Canada.
60. The salaries of the Lieutenant-Governors shall be fixed and
provided by the Parliament of Canada.
91. ... the exclusive Legislative Authority of the Parliament of
Canada extends to all matters coming within the classes of subjects
next hereinafter enumerated, that is to say:
(1) The Public Debt and Property; (2) The regulation of Trade
and Commerce; (3) The raising of money by any mode or system
of Taxation; (4) The borrowing of money on the Public Credit;
(5) Postal Service; (6) The Census and Statistics; (7) Militia,
Military and Naval Services, and Defence; (8) The fixing of
and providing for the Salaries and Allowances of Civil and
other Officers of the Government of Canada; (9) Beacons, Buoys,
Lighthouses, and Sable Island; (10) Navigation and Shipping;
(11) Quarantine and the establishment and maintenance of Marine
Hospitals; (12) Sea Coast and Inland Fisheries; (13) Ferries
between a Province and any British or Foreign Country, or
between two Provinces; (14) Currency and Coinage; (15) Banking,
Incorporation of Banks, and the issue of Paper Money; (16) Savings
Banks; (17) Weights and Measures; (18) Bills of Exchange and
Promissory Notes; (19) Interest; (20) Legal Tender; (21) Bankruptcy
and Insolvency; (22) Patents of Invention and Discovery; (23)
Copyrights; (24) Indians and Lands reserved for the Indians; (25)
Naturalisation and Aliens; (26) Marriage and Divorce; (27) The
Criminal Law, except the Constitution of the Courts of Criminal
Jurisdiction, but including the Procedure in Criminal Matters; (28)
The establishment, maintenance, and management of Penitentiaries;
(29) Such Classes of Subjects as are expressly excepted in the
numeration of the Classes of Subjects by this Act assigned
exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces.
92. In each Province the Legislature may exclusively make laws in
relation to matters coming within the classes of subjects next
hereinafter enumerated; that is to say: (1) The amendment ... of
the Constitution of the Province, except as regards the office of
Lieutenant-Governor; (2) Direct taxation within the Province in
order to the raising of a revenue for Provincial purposes; (3) the
borrowing of money on the sole credit of the Province; (4) the
establishment and tenure of Provincial offices, and the appointment
and payment of Provincial officers; (5) the management and sale of
the Public Lands belonging to the Province, and of the timber and
wood thereon; (6) the establishment, maintenance and management of
public and reformatory prisons in and for the Province; (7) the
establishment, maintenance and management of Hospitals, Asylums,
Charities, and Eleemosynary Institutions in and for the Provinces,
other than Marine Hospitals; (8) Municipal Institutions in the
Province; (9) Shop, Saloon, Tavern, Auctioneer, and other licenses,
in order to the raising of a revenue for Provincial, local or
municipal purposes; (10) local works and undertakings [except
steamships, railways, canals, telegraphs and other works for the
general advantage, or for the advantage of more than one Province];
(11) the incorporation of Companies with Provincial objects; (12)
the solemnisation of marriage in the Province; (13) Property and
civil rights in the Province; (14) the administration of justice
in the Province [including the maintenance of Provincial courts,
civil and criminal, and procedure in civil matters]; (15) the
imposition of punishment by fine, penalty, or imprisonment [in
order to enforce a Provincial law on any of the above matters];
(16) generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in
the Province.
133. Either the English or the French language may be used by any
person in the debates of the Houses of the Parliament of Canada
and of the Houses of the Legislature of Quebec; and both those
languages shall be used in the respective Records and Journals of
those Houses; and either of those languages may be used by any
person or in any pleading or process in or issuing from any Court
of Canada established under this Act, and in or from all or any of
the Courts of Quebec.
The Acts of the Parliament of Canada and of the Legislature of
Quebec shall be printed and published in both those languages.
145. Inasmuch as the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick have joined in a declaration that the construction of
the Inter-colonial Railway is essential to the consolidation of
the Union of British North America, and to the assent thereto of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and have consequently agreed that
provision should be made for its immediate construction by the
Government of Canada. Therefore, in order to give effect to that
agreement, it shall be the duty of the Government and Parliament of
Canada to provide for the commencement, within six months after the
Union, of a railway connecting the River St. Lawrence with the City
of Halifax in Nova Scotia, and for the construction thereof without
intermission, and the completion thereof with all practicable speed.
146. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice
of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, on Addresses
from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada, and from the Houses
of the respective Legislatures of the Colonies or Provinces of
Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia, to admit
those Colonies or Provinces, or any of them, into the Union, and
on Address from the Houses of the Parliament of Canada to admit
Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory, or either of them,
into the Union, on such terms and conditions in each case as are
in the Addresses expressed and as the Queen thinks fit to approve,
subject to the provisions of this Act; and the provisions of any
Order in Council in that behalf shall have effect as if they had
been enacted by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland.
47. THE WORK OF THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY (to 1869).
=Source.=--A Paper by Sir Donald Smith (now Lord Strathcona), read
to the Royal Colonial Institute in April, 1897. The Company's
territories were taken over by the Dominion of Canada in 1869.
The principal business of the Hudson's Bay Company was the
purchasing of furs from the Indians, in exchange for arms and
ammunition, clothes, and other commodities imported from the
United Kingdom. Its prosperity depended upon good relations
being maintained with the aborigines. Its officers were able to
travel everywhere with freedom and safety, and could rely upon
the friendliness of the red men. Advances made to the Indians for
their hunting outfits or in times of scarcity were nearly always
repaid. On the other hand, the Indians knew that any notes they
might receive upon the trading posts, from peripatetic officers
a thousand miles away from headquarters, would be honoured on
presentation. The foundation of these friendly relations was
confidence, and the knowledge the Indians acquired of the white man
and his ways during the long administration of the Company made the
transfer of the territory to Canada comparatively easy when the
time for the surrender arrived. Its policy, which has been followed
by successive Governments of Canada, has enabled the country to
avoid those Indian wars which were of frequent occurrence in
the early days of settlement in the western parts of the United
States. Even in the half-breed disturbance in 1869 and 1870 already
referred to, and in that of 1885, none of the Indians, with a few
exceptions, could be induced to take arms against the forces
of law and order. The fur trade over such an immense area was
necessarily important; but at the same time, from natural reasons,
it was bound to diminish in the more accessible parts where
settlement in the future was regarded as possible. There was always
a tendency on the part of the Indians to kill as many animals as
possible, simply for the skins. They held the belief, some people
say, that the more they killed the more rapidly would the animals
multiply. Their motives therefore may have been conscientious, but
I am afraid they were not altogether unconnected with the prospect
of immediate profit. There is not much large game now in the
regions traversed by the Canadian Pacific Railway, except perhaps
in the more inaccessible districts between the Lakes and Hudson's
Bay, and in the territory north and north-west of the river
Saskatchewan. The buffalo, which used to furnish the Indian with
food, shelter, and raiment, is almost extinct, and it is possible
to travel over the prairie for hundreds of miles without seeing any
wild animals larger than coyotes and gophers. Deer of various kinds
are found occasionally, and bears still less frequently, and it may
be said with truth that hunting in Canada, whether for pleasure or
for trade, now entails a good deal of hard work....
In former times for trading purposes the unit of value was the
beaver skin. The price of everything was calculated at so many
skins, and they were the sole medium of exchange. In return for
the skins the Indians received pieces of stick prepared in a
special manner, each representing a beaver skin, and with these
they were able to purchase anything they wanted at the Company's
stores. Later on, about 1825, the Company established a paper
currency. The highest note was for £1, the next for 5s., and the
lowest for 1s. They were known as "Hudson's Bay Blankets," and no
fears were ever entertained as to the soundness of the bank. It
has been urged against the Hudson's Bay Company that it obstructed
the development of the great North-West. On the contrary, it
was engaged for two centuries in important pioneer work. Any
corporation of the kind with exclusive privileges and rights was
bound to make enemies; but no single province of Canada could
have undertaken the administration or development of the country
before confederation, and neither men nor money were available
locally to permit of its blossoming out separately as a Colony or
as a series of provinces. Whatever may have been the faults of the
Company, history will record that its work was for the advantage
of the Empire. The Company explored this vast territory, prepared
the way for settlement and colonisation, fulfilled an important
rôle in the history of Canada, and had not a little to do with the
consolidation of the Dominion, and with the development the western
country has witnessed in the last thirty years.
48. RED RIVER REBELLION (1870): ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH TROOPS.
=Source.=--_The Story of a Soldier's Life_, by Field-Marshal
Viscount Wolseley. Constable, 1903.
We had looked forward to at least a pretty little field day when
our line of skirmishers should enclose Fort Garry and its rebel
garrison as in a net. But by early dawn next morning the whole
country far and near was a sea of deep and clinging mud. There was
then nothing approaching a road in the whole territory, so I had to
forgo all pomp and circumstance of war in my final advance and had
once more to take to our boats and the dreary oar. We were all wet
through, very cold and extremely cross and hungry. A cup of hot tea
and a biscuit swallowed quickly for breakfast, and all were again
at the oar by 6 a.m., August 24, 1870. The rain poured "in buckets"
upon us, and at places the country was under water....
I landed at Point Douglas, only two miles from Fort Garry by road,
but six by the river, which there makes a wide bend. A few carts
were seized, into which tools and ammunition were transferred,
and to two of which the trails of our two small field-pieces were
fastened and thus dragged along. The messengers I had sent the
previous night into the village round Fort Garry met me here with
the assurance that Riel and his gang were still there awaiting
anxiously the arrival of Bishop Taché, who was hourly expected.
It was confidently asserted that he meant to fight. He had just
distributed ammunition--stolen from the Hudson Bay Company's
stores--amongst his followers, had had the fort guns loaded, and
had closed the gates. I subsequently learned that he and his
henchman, a common fellow named Donoghue, had started from Fort
Garry during the night to find out where I was and what I was
about. But the very heavy rain they encountered was too much for
them, and, being afraid of capture by our outposts in the dark,
they had gone back to the fort as wise as they had left it.
Our march, though short, was very trying from the heavy rain and
the deep mud we had to plough through. But, as all the people
we met assured the men we should have a fight, these small and
disagreeable drawbacks were ignored.
Fort Garry stands upon the left bank of the Red River, where the
Assiniboine falls into it. The fort itself is a high stone-walled
square enclosure, with a large circular tower at each of its four
corners. The village of Winnipeg--mostly of wooden houses--was
nearly half a mile to the north of the fort, and south of it, at
about a couple of hundred yards distance, was a boat bridge over
the Assiniboine. My object, therefore, was by circling round west
of the Fort to obtain possession of that bridge, or at least to
command it with my fire. I should then have Riel and company in the
right angle inclosed between the two rivers. Our skirmishers in
their advance captured a few of Riel's so-called councillors, who
were bolting in buggies and other means of conveyance.
As I watched the muzzles of the fort guns, I confess that I hoped
each moment to see a flash and to hear a round shot rush by me. I
knew they had no shells, and that they did not know how to use them
if they had had any. But in the rain, and in the thick atmosphere
when the rain ceased for a little, it was difficult to see, even
through our glasses, if there were men at the guns or not. I sent
a few officers who had obtained ponies round the fort to see what
was going on in rear of it. They soon returned with the news that
Riel had bolted, and that the fort gates were open. It was a sad
disappointment to all ranks.... But, though we did not catch the
fellow, we had successfully carried out the task that was given
us....
We dragged out some of the guns in Fort Garry, upon which Riel had
relied so much, and with them fired a Royal Salute when the Union
Jack was run up the flagstaff. From it had hung for months before
the rebel flag that had been worked by the nuns of the convent
attached to Bishop Taché's cathedral, and presented by them to Riel.
49. ENTERING THE ROCKIES IN 1872.
=Source.=--_Ocean to Ocean_, 1873: the diary kept by the Rev.
George M. Grant, Secretary to the Expedition through Canada of
Sandford Fleming, Engineer-in-Chief of the Canadian Pacific and
Inter-colonial Railways.
September 11th. Away this morning at 6.15 a.m., and halted at 1
p.m., after crossing the Rivière de Violon or Fiddle river, when
fairly inside the first range. It was a grand morning for mountain
scenery. For the first three hours the trail continued at some
distance east from the valley of the Athabasca, among wooded hills,
now ascending, now descending, but on the whole with an upward
slope, across creeks where the ground was invariably boggy, over
fallen timber, where infinite patience was required on the part
of horse and man. Suddenly it opened out on a lakelet, and right
in front a semi-circle of five glorious mountains appeared....
For half a mile down from their summits, no tree, shrub, or plant
covered the nakedness of the three that the old trappers had
thought worthy of names, and a clothing of vegetation would have
marred their massive grandeur. The first three were so near and
towered up so bold that their full forms, even to the long shadows
on them, were reflected clearly in the lakelet, next to the rushes
and spruce of its own shores.... The road now descended rapidly
from the summit of the wooded hill that we had so slowly gained, to
the valley of the Athabasca. As it wound from point to point among
the tall dark green spruces, and over rose bushes and vetches, the
soft blue of the mountains gleamed through everywhere; and, when
the woods parted, the mighty column of Roche à Perdrix towered
above our heads, scuds of clouds kissing its snowy summit.... We
were entering the magnificent Jasper portals of the Rocky Mountains
by a quiet path winding between groves of trees and rich lawns like
an English gentleman's park.
... Soon the Rivière de Violon was heard brawling round the base
of Roche à Perdrix and rushing on like a true mountain torrent to
the Athabasca. We stopped to drink to the Queen out of its clear
ice-cold waters, and halted for dinner in a grove on the other side
of it, thoroughly excited and awed by the grand forms that had
begirt our path for the last three hours. We could now sympathise
with the daft enthusiast, who returned home after years of absence,
and when asked what he had as an equivalent for so much lost
time--answered only "I have seen the Rocky Mountains." ...
There was a delay of three hours at dinner because the horses, as
if allured by the genii of the mountains, had wandered more than a
mile up the valley, but at four o'clock all was in order again and
the march resumed in the same direction. A wooded hill that threw
itself out between Roches à Perdrix and à Myette had first to be
rounded. This hill narrowed the valley, and forced the trail near
the river. When fairly round it, Roche à Myette came full into
view, and the trail now led along its base....
As we passed this old warder of the valley, the sun was setting
behind Roche Suette. A warm south-west wind as it came in contact
with the snowy summit formed heavy clouds, that threw long black
shadows, and threatened rain; but the wind carried them past to
empty their buckets on the woods and prairies.
It was time to camp, but where? The Chief, Beaupré, and Brown rode
ahead to see if the river was fordable. The rest followed, going
down to the bank and crossing to an island formed by a slew of the
river, to avoid a steep rock, the trail along which was fit only
for chamois or bighorn. Here we were soon joined by the three who
had ridden ahead, and who brought back word that the Athabasca
looked ugly, but was still subsiding, and might be fordable in the
morning. It was decided to camp on the spot, and send the horses
back a mile for feed. The resources of the island would not admit
of our light cotton sheet being stretched as an overhead shelter,
so we selected the lee side of a dwarf aspen thicket, and spread
our blankets on the gravel, a good fire being made in front to
cook our supper and keep our feet warm through the night. Some of
us sat up late, watching the play of the moonlight on the black
clouds that drifted about her troubled face, as she hung over Roche
Jacques; and then we stretched ourselves out to sleep on our rough
but truly enviable couch, rejoicing in the open sky for a canopy
and in the circle of great mountains that formed the walls of our
indescribably magnificent bed chamber. It had been a day long to be
remembered.
50. THE DESTINY OF CANADA (1873).
=Source.=--_Ocean to Ocean._ (Cf. 49.)
From the sea-pastures and coal-fields of Nova Scotia and the
forests of New Brunswick, almost from historic Louisbourg up the
St. Lawrence to historic Quebec; through the great province of
Ontario, and on lakes that are really seas; by copper and silver
mines so rich as to recall stories of the Arabian Nights, though
only the rim of the land has been explored; on the chain of lakes,
where the Ojibbeway is at home in his canoe, to the great plains,
where the Cree is equally at home on his horse; through the prairie
Province of Manitoba, and rolling meadows and park-like country,
equally fertile, out of which a dozen Manitobas shall be carved in
the next quarter of a century; along the banks of
A full-fed river winding slow
By herds upon an endless plain,
full-fed from the exhaustless glaciers of the Rocky Mountains, and
watering "the great lone land"; over illimitable coal measures
and deep woods; on to the mountains, which open their gates,
more widely than to our wealthier neighbours, to lead us to the
Pacific; down deep gorges filled with mighty timber, and rivers
whose ancient deposits are gold beds, sands like those of Pactolus
and channels choked with fish; on to the many harbours of mainland
and island, that look right across to the old Eastern Thule "with
its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces," and open their arms
to welcome the swarming millions of Cathay; over all this we had
travelled, and it was all our own.
Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such a land?
Thank God, we have a country. It is not our poverty of land or
sea, of wood or mine, that shall ever urge us to be traitors. But
the destiny of a country depends not on its material resources.
It depends on the character of its people. Here, too, is full
ground for confidence. We in everything "are sprung of earth's
first blood, have titles manifold." We come of a race that never
counted the number of its foes, nor the number of its friends, when
freedom, loyalty or God was concerned.
Two courses are possible, though it is almost an insult to
say there are two, for the one requires us to be false to our
traditions and history, to our future and to ourselves. A third
course has been hinted at; but only dreamers or emasculated
intellects would seriously propose "Independence" to four millions
of people, face to face with thirty-eight millions. Some one may
have even a fourth to propose. The Abbé Sieyès had a cabinet
filled with pigeon-holes, in each of which was a cut-and-dried
Constitution for France. _Doctrinaires_ fancy that at any time they
can say "Go to, let us make a Constitution," and that they can fit
it on a nation as readily as new coats on their backs. There never
was a profounder mistake. A nation grows, and its Constitution
must grow with it. The nation cannot be pulled up by the roots,
cannot be dissociated from its past, without danger to its highest
interests. Loyalty is essential to the fulfilment of a distinctive
mission--essential to its true glory. Only one course, therefore,
is possible for us, consistent with the self-respect that alone
gains the respect of others; to seek, in the consolidation of the
Empire, a common Imperial citizenship, with common responsibilities
and a common inheritance.
51. TARIFF REFORM IN CANADA IN 1876.
=Source.=--A Speech by Sir John A. Macdonald, quoted in the _Life_,
by G. R. Parkin, in "The Makers of Canada" series.
We are in favour of a tariff that will incidentally give protection
to our manufacturers; that will develop our manufacturing
industries. We believe that that can be done, and, if done, it will
give a home market to our farmers. The farmers will be satisfied
when they know that large bodies of operatives are working in the
mills and manufactories in every village and town in the country.
They know that every man of them is a consumer, and that he must
have pork and flour, beef and all that the farmers raise, and
they know that, instead of being obliged to send their grain to
a foreign and uncertain market, they will have a market at their
own door. And the careful housewife, every farmer's wife, will
know that everything that is produced under her care--the poultry,
the eggs, the butter and the garden stuff--will find a ready and
profitable market in the neighbouring town and village.
No country is great with only one industry. Agriculture is our most
important, but it cannot be our only staple. All men are not fit to
be farmers; there are men with mechanical and manufacturing genius
who desire to become operatives or manufacturers of some kind, and
we must have means to employ them; and when there is a large body
of successful and prosperous manufacturers, the farmer will have a
home market for his produce, and the manufacturer a home market
for his goods, and we shall have nothing to fear. And therefore
I have been urging upon my friends that we must lay aside all
old party quarrels about old party doings. Those old matters are
matters before the flood, which have gone by and are settled for
ever, many of them settled by governments of which I was a member.
Why should parties divide on these old quarrels? Let us divide on
questions affecting the present and future interests of the country.
The question of the day is that of the protection of our farmers
from the unfair competition of foreign produce, and the protection
of our manufacturers. I am in favour of reciprocal free trade if it
can be obtained; but, so long as the policy of the United States
closes the markets to our products, we should have a policy of
our own as well, and consult only our own interests. That subject
wisely and vigorously dealt with, you will see confidence restored,
the present depression dispelled, and the country prosperous and
contented.
52. PRAIRIE GREYHOUNDS.
POEM BY E. PAULINE JOHNSON.
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in November, 1885.
(1) _C.P.R. Westbound_.
I swing to the sunset land,
The world of prairie, the world of plain,
The world of promise and hope and gain,
The world of gold and the world of grain,
And the world of the willing hand.
I carry the brave and bold,
The one who works for the nation's bread,
The one whose past is a thing that's dead,
The one who battles and beats ahead,
And the one who goes for gold.
I swing to the land to be:
I am the power that laid its floors,
I am the guide to its western stores,
I am the key to its golden doors,
That open alone to me.
(2) _C.P.R. Eastbound._
I swing to the land of morn,
The grey old east with its grey old seas,
The land of leisure, the land of ease,
The land of flowers and fruits and trees,
And the place where we were born.
Freighted with wealth I come,--
Food and fortune; and fellow that went
Far out west on adventure bent,
With well-worn pick and a folded tent,
Is bringing his bullion home.
I never will be renowned
As my twin that swings to the western marts,
For I am she of the humbler parts;
But I am the joy of the waiting hearts,
For I am the homeward-bound!
53. LAURIER'S TRIBUTE TO MACDONALD (1891).
=Source.=--Sir Wilfred Laurier's Speech in the Canadian House of
Commons on the death of Sir John Macdonald: Canadian Hansard, 8th
June, 1891, quoted in part in J. S. Willison's _Sir Wilfred Laurier
and the Liberal Party_; and in part also in G. R. Parkin's _Sir
John A. Macdonald_.
The place of Sir John Macdonald in this country was so large and
so absorbing that it is almost impossible to conceive that the
political life of this country, the fate of this country, can
continue without him.... I think it can be asserted that, for
the supreme art of governing men, Sir John Macdonald was gifted
as few men in any land or in any age were gifted--gifted with the
highest of all qualities, qualities which would have made him
famous wherever exercised, and which would have shone all the
more conspicuously the larger the theatre. The fact that he could
congregate together elements the most heterogeneous and blend
them into one compact party, and to the end of his life keep them
steadily under his hand, is perhaps altogether unprecedented.
The fact that during all those years he retained unimpaired not
only the confidence, but the devotion--the ardent devotion--and
affection of his party, is evidence that, besides those higher
qualities of statesmanship to which we were daily witnesses, he was
also endowed with those inner, subtle, undefinable graces of soul
which win and keep the hearts of men....
He was fond of power and he never made any secret of it. Many times
we have heard him avow it on the floor of this Parliament, and his
ambition in this respect was gratified as perhaps no other man's
ambition ever was. In my judgment even the career of William Pitt
can hardly compare with that of Sir John Macdonald in this respect;
for although William Pitt, moving in a higher sphere, had to deal
with problems greater than our problems, yet I doubt if in the
intricate management of a party William Pitt had to contend with
difficulties equal to those that Sir John Macdonald had to contend
with.
As to his statesmanship, it is written in the history of Canada.
It may be said without any exaggeration whatever, that the life of
Sir John Macdonald, from the date he entered Parliament, is the
history of Canada: for he was connected and associated with all the
events, all the facts which brought Canada from the position it
then occupied--the position of two small provinces, having nothing
in common but their common allegiance, united by a bond of paper,
and united by nothing else--to the present state of development
which Canada has reached. Although my political views compel me to
say that, in my judgment, his actions were not always the best
that could have been taken in the interest of Canada, although my
conscience compels me to say that of late he has imputed to his
opponents motives which I must say in my heart he has misconceived,
yet I am only too glad here to sink these differences, and
to remember only the great services he has performed for our
country--to remember that his actions always displayed great
originality of view, unbounded fertility of resource, a high level
of intellectual conception, and, above all, a far-reaching vision
beyond the event of the day, and still higher, permeating the
whole, a broad patriotism--a devotion to Canada's welfare, Canada's
advancement, and Canada's glory.
54. THE CANADIAN TROOPS IN THE BOER WAR (1900).
=Source.=--Speech by Sir Wilfred Laurier in the Canadian House of
Commons, 13th March, 1900; quoted in J. S. Willison's _Sir Wilfred
Laurier and the Liberal Party_.
We were not forced by England, we were not forced by Mr.
Chamberlain or by Downing Street, to do what we did, and I cannot
conceive what my honourable friend meant when he said that the
future of this country was not to be pledged by this Government.
When and where did we pledge the future of this country? We acted
in the full independence of our sovereign power. What we did we did
of our own free will, but I am not to answer for the consequences
or for what will take place in the future. My honourable friend
says that the consequence is that we will be called on to take
part in other wars. I have only this to answer to my honourable
friend, that, if it should be the will of the people of Canada at
any future stage to take part in any war of England, the people of
Canada will have to have their way. Let me say to my honourable
friend further, the maxim which he has advocated this afternoon,
and which he took from the despatch of Lord Grey to Lord Elgin,
"It must be remembered that the government of the British Colonies
in North America cannot be carried on in opposition to the will of
the people," was the language in 1847, it holds good in 1900, and
will be the language used so long as we have free parliamentary
institutions in Canada. But I have no hesitation in saying to my
honourable friend that if, as a consequence of our action to-day,
the doctrine were to be admitted that Canada should take part
in all the wars of Great Britain and contribute to the military
expenditure of the Empire, I will agree with him that we should
revise the conditions of things existing between us and Great
Britain. If we were to be compelled to take part in all the wars
of Britain, I have no hesitation in saying that I agree with my
honourable friend that, sharing the burden, we should also share
the responsibility. Under that condition of things, which does not
exist, we should have the right to say to Great Britain "If you
want us to help you, you must call us to your councils; if you want
us to take part in wars, let us share not only the burdens, but the
responsibilities as well." But there is no occasion to say that
to-day....
... We were not compelled to do what we did, but if we chose to
be generous, to do a little more than we were bound to do, where
is a man living who would find fault with us for that action? He
dreads the consequences of this action in sending out a military
contingent to South Africa. Let me tell him from the bottom of
my heart that my heart is full of the hopes I entertain of the
beneficial results which will accrue from that action.... When the
telegraph brought us the news that such was the good impression
made by our volunteers that the Commander-in-Chief had placed them
in the post of honour, in the first rank, to share the danger with
that famous corps, the Gordon Highlanders; when we heard that they
had justified fully the confidence placed in them, that they had
charged like veterans, that their conduct was heroic and had won
for them the encomiums of the Commander-in-Chief and the unstinted
admiration of their comrades, who had faced death upon a hundred
battlefields in all parts of the world, is there a man whose bosom
did not swell with pride, that noblest of all pride, that pride
of pure patriotism, the pride of the consciousness of our rising
strength, the pride of the consciousness that on that day it had
been revealed to the world that a new power had arisen in the West?
Nor is that all. The work of union and harmony between the
chief races of this country is not yet complete. We know by the
unfortunate occurrences that took place only last week that there
is much to do in that way. But there is no bond of union so strong
as the bond created by common dangers faced in common. To-day
there are men in South Africa representing the two branches of the
Canadian family fighting side by side for the honour of Canada.
Already some of them have fallen, giving to the country the last
full measure of devotion. Their remains have been laid in the same
grave, there to remain to the end of time in that last fraternal
embrace. Can we not hope, I ask my honourable friend himself,
that in that grave shall be buried the last vestiges of our
former antagonism? If such shall be the result, if we can indulge
that hope, if we can believe that in that grave shall be buried
contentions, the sending of the contingents would be the greatest
service ever rendered Canada since Confederation.
55. PIONEERS OF THE RAILWAY (1910).
=Source.=--_The Making of a Great Canadian Railway_, by Frederick
A. Talbot. London, 1912. (The story of the Grand Trunk Pacific
Railway.)
The swamp occasioned many anxious nights, and much burning of
midnight oil. At places it appeared to be bottomless. The ballast
locomotive would haul train after train-load of spoil excavated
from the ballast-pit, and push it cautiously along to the end of
the dump, where the trucks would be discharged. The rubble would
rush down the declivity, and as it came into contact with the
surface of the morass there would be a wicked squelch. Then the bog
would open, and slowly, but surely and silently, the discharged
mass would disappear into the viscous mass until the last vestige
had slipped from sight, and the slime had rolled over the spot,
concealing all evidences of the few hundred tons of material
emptied on to the spot but a few minutes before. The engineer would
sound the bog anxiously for signs of the bottom. Yes, he could feel
it all right--10, 15, perhaps 20 feet below the surface. The trains
would continue to rattle up and down with heavily laden trucks,
and send the contents crashing pell-mell into the swamp below. Ten
train-loads of gravel, rock, and what not would disappear from
sight, and the engineer would probe the treacherous sponge once
more. But the soundings did not vary a foot. Where had the dump
gone? The ballast had sunk simply to the bottom of the bog, and had
spread itself out on all sides, finding its own level like water.
The bed of the morass was as broken as the hill-side near by,
and was intersected in all directions by ruts and gullies. Until
these holes were filled, there could be no possible hope of the
embankment appearing above the surface of the bog....
While the upper stretches of New Ontario and Quebec were
occasioning the engineers many anxious moments, owing to the
eccentricities of the muskeg and swamp, the graders advancing
eastwards from Winnipeg were in close grips with rock, which
offered a most stubborn resistance....
For hour after hour, day after day, month after month, nothing was
heard but the chink-chink of drills and the devastating roar of
explosive with its splitting and disintegrating work. Advance was
exceedingly slow, some of the blasts requiring as much as six weeks
or more to prepare, and then only breaking up sufficient of the
granite mass to permit of an advance of about 200 feet....
It was on work of this nature where the greatest number of
accidents occurred, the majority of which might have been avoided
had the men engaged in the operations displayed but ordinary
care.... Dynamite was responsible for more deaths on this
undertaking than any other accident--the collapse of the Quebec
Bridge notwithstanding--and sickness combined....
The slush on the lakes was one of the greatest obstacles which
those in the field were doomed to face. From the bank it looks
safe enough, but to venture upon its surface is to court certain
death. Why? It is very simple to explain. The lakes freeze up under
the advance of winter, but before the encrustation has assumed
a sufficient thickness there is a heavy fall of snow. Under the
weight of the white, fleecy mantle the ice slowly and steadily
sinks below the level of the water, which, pouring over the
mirror-like armour, saturates the snow. Under successive falls of
snow the ice sinks lower and lower, and the slush assumes a greater
and greater thickness, until at last it measures from 4 or 6 to 10
feet in depth. What is more, it persistently refuses to freeze.
The appearance of its smooth surface tempts the daring to advance.
It withstands his weight until he has ventured a fair distance
from the shore; then, without the slightest warning, suddenly it
opens up, drawing the unwary into its icy depths, where he is soon
suffocated. One cannot escape from its embrace, no matter how great
the struggle, and, when the end is reached, the slush gathers over
one, giving no inkling of the ghastly secret beneath....
The greatest summer peril was from bush fires, which rage with
terrific fury and are of frequent occurrence throughout New
Ontario, the spruce, jack-pine and other indigenous resinous trees
providing excellent fuel for the flames. The danger from this
terror of the forest was not so much in regard to human life, as
to the destruction of precious provisions hauled in and cached for
the succeeding winter, the loss of which might have jeopardised
the welfare of a whole survey party. Once this devastating fiend
secures a firm grip it roars viciously. The forest through which
it sweeps with incredible speed becomes a fiendish furnace, which
either has to burn itself out, or to suffer extinction by a
tropical downpour of rain.
56. CANADIAN NAVAL POLICY (1912).
=Source.=--_The Times_ Special Supplement, 31st December, 1912--a
Review of the Year 1912.
Mr. Borden's main proposal was that a sum of £7,000,000 should be
voted at once for the construction of three armoured ships of the
latest and strongest type. These ships were to be built in England
and placed at the disposal of the Admiralty, subject to recall at
a later period should the permanent naval policy of the Dominion
require it. To show their origin they were to bear Canadian names,
and they were to be additional to the programme of construction
already laid down for next year's Navy Estimates by the First Lord
of the Admiralty. In order, meanwhile, that naval shipbuilding
should make a start in Canada, yards were to be established for
the construction of certain cruisers and auxiliary craft which the
Admiralty engaged to order from the Dominion. A very important
step towards closer consultation in matters of policy was,
moreover, announced in the appointment of a Canadian Minister to
the Committee of Defence. This Minister was to have the right of
being present at all meetings of the Committee, which would thus
be brought much more closely in touch with the Dominion Cabinet.
In the course of his speech, Mr. Borden also read out an extremely
lucid and well-worded Memorandum on the growth of foreign navies,
with which he had been supplied at his own especial request by the
Admiralty.
The main effect of the Memorandum was to show the increasing
concentration in home waters demanded of the British Navy by the
swift expansion of the German Fleet and the consequent reduction
of Imperial naval strength in all outlying seas. The statement was
an eloquent corollary to a suggestion thrown out by Mr. Churchill
on May 16 at a banquet of the Shipwrights' Company. The First Lord
then urged that, while Great Britain made herself responsible for
the security of the Empire in the central European theatre, the
Dominions might combine to patrol the outer seas. This argument was
strongly developed by Mr. Borden in the course of his speech; and,
though it has not been repeated by Mr. Churchill, it is likely to
exercise a very important influence on the development of opinion
on the naval question in the Dominions. Mr. Borden's proposals
were received with enthusiasm in this country; but Liberal critics
showed a tendency to question the constitutional propriety of the
addition to the Committee of Defence, and to complain of the
cost of manning and maintaining ships which were to be strictly
additional to those already demanded by the Admiralty. The latter
line of complaint, though never at all widely urged, received some
reinforcement from Sir Wilfred Laurier's speech a week later. The
Leader of the Opposition supported, as we have already said, the
vote of £7,000,000; but he moved an amendment to the Bill proposing
that this sum should be devoted to the construction of a Canadian
Navy, to be manned and maintained entirely by the Dominion. It was
added that the ships proposed should be built in the Dominion and
should form two separate fleet-units, one on the Atlantic and one
on the Pacific Coast. Sir Wilfred Laurier also took occasion to
reiterate a view formerly expressed that Dominion ships should not
take part in any Imperial war except upon a vote of the Canadian
Parliament....
It would, however, be leaving the most significant part of the
event untold not to record the profound impression which it has
created throughout the Empire. The gift of the Malay States had
already roused a strong wave of Imperial sentiment when Mr. Borden
delivered his speech. It is no exaggeration to say that the
Canadian initiative was hailed with fervid enthusiasm everywhere.
Opinions differed in regard to the details of control, but there
was only one voice regarding the main proposal of three first-class
ships. Great attention was, moreover, given to the announcement
that a Canadian Minister should in future be regularly summoned
to the Committee of Defence, and the opinion was freely expressed
that in the proposal lay the germ of a much closer future union in
foreign policy and defence.
57. CANADIAN STREAMS.
By CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS.
O rivers rolling to the sea
From lands that bear the maple tree,
How swell your voices with the strain
Of loyalty and liberty!
A holy music heard in vain
By coward heart and sordid brain,
To whom this strenuous being seems
Naught but a greedy race for gain.
O unsung streams--not splendid themes
You lack to fire your patriot dreams!
Annals of glory gild your waves,
Hope freights your tides, Canadian streams!
St. Lawrence, whose wide water laves
The shores that ne'er have nourished slaves!
Swift Richelieu of lilied fame!
Niagara of glorious graves!
Thy rapids, Ottawa, proclaim
Where Daulac and his heroes came!
Thy tides, St. John, declare La Tour,
And, later, many a loyal name!
Thou inland stream, whose vales, secure
From storm, Tecumseh's death made poor!
And thou, small water, red with war,
'Twixt Beaubassin and Beauséjour!
Dread Saguenay, where eagles soar,
What voice shall from the bastioned shore
The tale of Roberval reveal
Or his mysterious fate deplore?
Annapolis, do thy floods yet feel
Faint memories of Champlain's keel,
Thy pulses yet the deed repeat
Of Poutrincourt and D'Iberville.
And thou far tide, whose plains now beat
With march of myriad westering feet,
Saskatchewan, whose virgin sod
So late Canadian blood made sweet?
Your bulwark hills, your valleys broad,
Streams where De Salaberry trod,
Where Wolfe achieved, where Brock was slain,
Their voices are the voice of God!
O sacred waters! not in vain,
Across Canadian height and plain,
Ye sound us in triumphant tone
The summons of your high refrain.
NOTES
LORD DUFFERIN (Frederick Blackwood), 1826-92: Governor-General
of Canada, 1872-8.
JACQUES CARTIER, 1491-1557: explored the St. Lawrence, 1535-42.
COUNT DE MONTS, 1560-1611: a Huguenot gentleman of the French
Court, had a patent for the colonisation of Acadia (Nova
Scotia) from 1603 to 1607.
SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN, 1567-1635: interested in Canada, 1603-35:
founded Quebec, 1608.
THOMAS JAMES, 1593-1635: a Bristol man.
LUKE FOX, 1586-1635: sailed from London.
SIEUR DE MAISONNEUVE: founder of Montreal and Governor there
for 22 years: died in 1676.
CHARLES DE MONTMAGNY: Governor of Canada, 1636-48, was opposed
to the settlement of Montreal.
COUNT DE FRONTENAC, 1620-98: Governor of Canada, 1672-82 and
1689-98. The strongest Governor during the French period.
FRANCIS PARKMAN, 1823-93: the most picturesque of American
historians: accurate as well as graphic.
MADELAINE VERCHÈRES: born 1678, married a second time in 1722,
date of death unknown.
LOUIS-HECTOR DE CALLIÈRES, 1646-1703: came to Canada as
Governor of Montreal in 1684: Governor-General at Quebec, 1699.
GILLES HOCQUART: Intendant of New France, 1731-48: an energetic
and able official.
SIEUR DE LA VÉRENDRYE, 1685-1749: explored to the west of
Canada, 1731-8. His sons are said to have sighted the Rockies
in 1742.
MAJOR CHARLES LAWRENCE administered the government of Nova
Scotia from 1753, became officially Governor in 1756: died in
1760.
HORACE WALPOLE, 1717-97: son of Sir Robert Walpole: wrote
several books, but is most famous for his letters. Most of
the letters here quoted were written to Sir Horace Mann, the
British envoy at Florence.
HENRY SEYMOUR CONWAY, 1721-95: was a soldier and statesman, who
had been much criticised for his failure in an expedition to
Rochfort in 1757.
LORD HOLDERNESS (Robert D'Arcy), 1718-78: Secretary of State,
1751-61.
JAMES WOLFE, 1727-59: military commander of the Quebec
expedition of 1759. On his death, George Townshend,
1724-1807, succeeded to the command at Quebec. He returned to
England and left the defence to James Murray, 1719-94. The
commander-in-chief in N. America was Jeffrey Amherst, 1717-97.
The Admiral at Quebec was Sir Charles Saunders, 1713-75.
MARQUIS DE MONTCALM, 1712-59: French General in North America,
1756-9.
SAMUEL HEARNE, 1745-92: made the first inland explorations
undertaken by the Hudson Bay Company, 1770-5.
SIR ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, 1755-1820: explored the Mackenzie
river, 1789, and crossed the Rockies to the Pacific in 1793.
Captain George Vancouver, R.N., 1758-98, was exploring the
coast at the same time.
LOUIS RODRIGUE MASSON, 1833-1903: a member of the Canadian
Senate and Lieut.-Governor of Quebec, collected and published
narratives by a number of traders in the service of the
North-West Company.
GEORGE HERIOT, 1766-1844: born in Jersey, became
Postmaster-General of Canada: was second in command at the
battle of Chateauguay in the War of 1812.
SIMON FRASER, 1776-1862: explored the Fraser river in 1808:
declined knighthood in 1811: died poor near Montreal.
JAMES FITZGIBBON, 1780-1863: born in Ireland: won the battle
of Beaver Dam, 1813: helped to put down the rebellion in Upper
Canada, 1837: returned to England later.
SIR PHINEAS RIALL, 1775-1850: commanded at the battle of
Chippawa: Governor of Grenada, 1816: knighted, 1833.
SIR GORDON DRUMMOND, 1771-1854: born at Quebec: fought as
colonel against the French in Egypt, 1801: won the battle of
Lundy's Lane, 1814: administrator of Lower Canada, 1815-6.
LORD SELKIRK (Thomas Douglas), 1771-1820: planted a colony
in Prince Edward Island in 1803: his colonists on the Red
River, 1815-6, twice driven out by the North-West Company, but
restored in 1817.
ROBERT SEMPLE, 1766-1816: born at Boston: travelled widely:
became Governor of the Hudson Bay Company's territories in 1815.
CUTHBERT GRANT, the leader of the attacking party, was a
Scottish half-breed.
JOHN GALT, 1779-1839: best known as a Scots novelist: visited
Canada in the interests of the Canada Company in 1824 and
1826-9.
THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON, 1796-1865: a Nova Scotian: Judge of
the Supreme Court there: in _Sam Slick_ posed as a Connecticut
clockmaker pointing out the foibles and want of initiative of
the Nova Scotians: founded the American school of humour: later
came to England, and was a Member of Parliament, 1859-65.
LORD DURHAM (John George Lambton), 1792-1840: radical member of
Parliament: helped to prepare the Reform Bill: son-in-law of
Earl Grey, who carried the Bill: ambassador to Russia, Prussia,
and Austria: sent as Special Commissioner to Canada after the
rebellion of 1837: his Report is a "State paper on colonial
affairs which will live to all time" (Sir Charles Lucas).
JOSEPH HOWE, 1804-73: a distinguished Nova Scotian statesman,
who led the movement for responsible government in his native
province: became Lieut.-Governor of N.S., 1873.
LORD JOHN RUSSELL, 1792-1878: son of the sixth Duke of Bedford:
whig statesman: Home Secretary, 1835: Colonial Secretary, 1839:
Prime Minister, 1846: Foreign Secretary, 1852: Lord President
of the Council, 1854: Colonial Secretary, 1855: Foreign
Secretary, 1859: Prime Minister, 1865. The most important
period in his career is probably that of his ministry from 1846
to 1852.
SIR GEORGE SIMPSON, 1792-1860: Governor of the Hudson Bay
Company's territories, 1821-60: crossed North America, 1828:
made "overland" journey round the world, 1841-2.
JOHN ROBERT GODLEY, 1814-61: much interested in colonisation:
helped to found the Church of England Colony of Canterbury in
New Zealand, 1850: later became Under Secretary at War.
LORD ELGIN (James Bruce), 1811-63: Governor of Jamaica, 1842:
Governor-General of Canada, 1847-54: carried out Lord Durham's
plan of responsible government--he was Durham's son-in-law:
envoy to China, 1857-8 and 1860-1: Viceroy of India, 1862-3.
SIR GEORGE GREY (1799-1882), who was Colonial Secretary,
1854-5, and several times Home Secretary, was a nephew of the
Earl Grey who carried the Reform Act. He must not be confused
with the more famous Sir George Grey (1812-98), who was
Governor of South Australia, of New Zealand, and of Cape Colony.
SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, 1815-91: born at Kingston, Ontario:
leader of his (Conservative) party, 1856-91: led the federation
movement, and became the first Prime Minister of the Dominion:
politically responsible for the construction of the Canadian
Pacific Railway: Prime Minister, 1878-91.
GEORGE BROWN, 1818-80: founder and editor of the Toronto
_Globe_: leader of the radical party, but formed a coalition
with Macdonald in order to carry Confederation, resigning as
soon as success was assured.
CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN, 1811-81: born in London, England: went to
Canada, 1836: he was at first an opponent, but later a strong
supporter, of Confederation: passed the Canada Temperance Act:
became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Quebec.
LORD STRATHCONA (Donald Smith), born in 1820 in Elginshire:
entered the service of the Hudson Bay Co. in 1838: Governor of
its territories, 1868: on the rebellion at the Red River in
1870, he succeeded in maintaining peace until the arrival of
troops under Lord Wolseley: financially responsible for the
making of the Canadian Pacific Railway: Governor of the Hudson
Bay Co. in London, 1889: raised to the peerage, 1897.
GARNET, LORD WOLSELEY, 1833-1913: Commander-in-Chief of the
British Army, 1895-1900: served in the Crimea and in India and
China: commanded in Ashanti and Egypt as well as in the Red
River expedition.
GEORGE MONRO GRANT, 1835-1902: Principal of Queen's University,
Kingston, 1877: President of the Imperial Federation League,
Ontario, 1889.
MISS E. PAULINE JOHNSON, "Tekahionwake," the descendant of
Indian chiefs, who were the loyal allies of the British, has
published several volumes of Canadian poetry.
SIR WILFRED LAURIER, born 1841, in Quebec: leader of the
Liberal party, 1887: Prime Minister, 1896-1911.
ROBERT LAIRD BORDEN, born 1854, in Nova Scotia: leader of the
Conservative party, 1901: Prime Minister, 1911.
CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS, Canadian poet, historian and novelist,
born in New Brunswick, 1860: has been a Professor in Nova
Scotia and an editor in New York.
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND
CO. LTD.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Written by Mlle. de Verchères at the request of Governor de
Beauharnois.
[2] Cf. Extract 14, pp. 28-30
[3] Mackenzie found his situation to be on an arm of "Vancouver's
Cascade Canal," part of what is now Burke Channel, about 52° 20′ N.
lat.
[4] Representative institutions without responsible government.
[5] Colonial Secretary in the early part of 1839.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. For example:
reunion, re-union; any one, anyone; casque; inconveniency; embogged;
burthen; lenity.
Pg 33, 'an oble' replaced by 'a noble'.
Pg 44, 'he witholds' replaced by 'he withholds'.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Canada (1535-Present Day)" ***
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