A brief account, together with observations, made during a visit in the West Indies, and a tour through the United States of America, in parts of the years 1832-3; together with a statistical account of Upper Canada / by Dr. Thomas Rolph.

Preface

Although I am free to confess that my object, in appending a Statistical account of Upper Canada, to my notes of the West Indies and United States, is to induce that portion of the British population, whose prospects at home are gloomy and indifferent, to examine into the actual resources of a Province, that would prove a blessing to emigrants, and be improved by emigration ; yet I have most carefully endeavored to give only such statements as I can fully and entirely substantiate. The inhabitants of Great Britain have been too apt to consider Canada as merely a region of ice and snow, of pine forests and lakes, of trappers and Indians, with a few forts and villages intermixt, and producing only moccasins, furs and ship timber.

But this is a very imperfect view of that interesting country, which is growing in population and improving in cultivation, more rapidly perhaps than any part of the United States, if we except the territory of Michigan, and which must become, at no very distant period, a wealthy, powerful, and populous Province, especially since the efforts of a few worthless incendiaries striving to kindle civil war, have proved unsuccessful, by the almost unanimous decision of its inhabitants, conveyed in numberless addresses to the present enlightened Lieutenant Governor, expressive of their determination to prevent the dismemberment of the empire, and by the return of a large majority of Constitutional members to represent their feelings in the House of Assembly. The government of Great Britain, and the soundness of the great bulk of the people, will prevent such a calamity from ever taking place.

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41 That the Canadian Provinces will become a rich, powerful, and populous country, is certain. No minister, no policy, can prevent that. But whether that wealth, and population, and power, shall be* British, is for the wisdom of Government and Parliament to determine. May it not be hoped, that the new constituents, and their representatives, who have now succeeded to power, will make it a point of honor and of pride, not to suffer the empire of their country to receive any detriment under their authority, not a single island to be lost, not one Colony to be severed, not an inch of frontier or fishery usurped, nor any source of wealth or industry to decay ; lest it should be written to posterity, that a Reformed Parliament knew not even to sustain and preserve that greatness, which the Boroughmongers had been able to acquire.”

If we look at the map, the truth is apparent to the eye, which is seldom adverted to, when we speak of Canada, that a large portion of the Province lying immediately northward of lake Erie, is situated in a lower latitude than the greater part of Michigan, lower than all that fine and fertile region along the great Canal in the State of New York, very little further north than the Pennsylvania line, and in the same parallel with Massachusetts. But it is well known that the climate is much less severe between the same parallels, as we approach the west, thus Pittsburgh has a softer winter and a shorter one than Philadelphia, and Buffalo than Albany, so Upper Canada is much milder than Massachusetts*

“ The most populous portion of Russia is twenty degrees to the north of the American border of Upper Canada; Montreal lies nearly in the same parallel which cuts through the south of France, the Adriatic, and the Black Sea ! and above all, the Colonists crowding to that country are Britons — a race proverbially successful in all the tasks to be achieved by patient vigor and fearless adventure. Those men require only room ; their native energies will do the rest. The forest will be cleared, the morass drained, the prairie will be a corn-field, the sandy hill will bear the vine, the huge lakes, those mediterraneans of the new world, will be covered with the products of the mineral and agricultural wealth of the country ; coal has been already discovered in great abundance ; iron and the various metals are already worked ;

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the hills abound in every kind of limestone, up to the purest marble. The climate is singularly healthy. The higher latitude repels all the summer epidemics that ravage the United States. Even in the severity of its winters, all that is injurious will yield to the thinning of the forests, the drainings of the swamps, and the other labors of the accumulating population. The temperature of the European climates has gradually given way to the same means. The north of France, at the time of the Roman conquest, was iucapable of rearing the vine. The north of Germany was the habitual seat of winter. Its frosts and damps, more than the sword of Arminius, repelled the Roman soldier, seasoned as he was, beyond all other men, to all vicissitudes of climate. But whatever may be the dreams of England’s supremacy in this quarter of the globe, in one thing she cannot be a dreamer — in the lofty and cheering consciousness that she has laid the foundation of a great society, where all before was a wilderness. Whether the Canadas shall retain their allegiance* or shake it off, there will, at least, be human beings where once was solitude ; law — where once was the license of savage life ; religion, where the Indian once worshipped in brutish ignorance ; and England’s will be the wand that struck the waters from the rock, and filled the desert with fertility and rejoicing.

“ The King of Great Britain, at this houf, commands a more numerous people than that of any other sceptre on the globe. He is monarch over one hundred millions of men ! With him the old Spanish boast is true : “On his dominions the surr never sets.” But the most illustrious attribute of this unexampled empire is, that its principle is benevolence ! that knowledge goes forth with it, that tyranny sinks before it, that in its magnificent progress it abates the calamities of nature, that it plants the desert, that it civilizes the savage, that it strikes off the fetters of the slave, that its spirit is at once, “ Glory to God, and good will to man.”

A great part of Upper Canada is delightfully situated for an agricultural country, free from mountains, it is nevertheless abundantly watered, and almost surrounded and intersected by navigable rivers and lakes, on which its produce is easily transported to various and extensive markets. It possesses a soil as well as climate peculiarly favorable to the growth of wheat, and immense quantities are grown in it. The Welland Canal connects the navigation of lakes Erie and Ontario; the Kidcau Canal,

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constructed round the obstructions in the St. Lawrence, opens a free communication by water from the shores of the Detroit river to Montreal, and thence to the Atlantic ; and it is in contemplation to connect lakes Huron and Simcoe with the long and extensive chain of lakes throughout the Newcastle District, or improving the navigation of the Ottawa river and connecting it with lake Huron, opening a great field for agricultural and commercial enterprize. The advantage of the navigation of these Canals- and the St. Lawrence, are as exclusively British, as the navigation of the Mississippi is American : and the British government in order to augment and foster her immense navigating interests, permits Canadian produce into her ports at a very small duty, and the Provincial legislature has just petitioned for a further remission of the duties on tobacco, the western section of the Province having been discovered to be peculiarly favorable for its growth. It is also ascertained that the climate and soil, especially that of the western part of Upper Canada, are admirably adapted for the growth of the white Mulberry, to the cultivation of which, the attention of our enterprising neighbors in the United States has long been earnestly directed : favored as we are in our

commerce with Great Britain, it would prove a mine of wealth to the Province if entered into with spirit. This country possesses physical capabilities of greatness and of wealth, without limits, and beyond all bounds ; she has a territory which is spread out to an interminable extent, and fertile in every production, conducing to the necessities and the gratification of animal nature ; her navigable rivers, her capacious and convenient ports, and the broad blue bosom of the Atlantic main, which connects her with the Mother country and her other Colonies, and with the kingdoms of Europe, all give to her the means and the

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facility of acquiring the most ample and the most permanent strength.

“ Nature and the arts have conspired to make the Gulph of St. Lawrence the seat of empire in America. Cape Breton is its gate and key ; Quebec, with its silver spires and batteries confronting heaven, is its citadel — and the towers along the steeps of Halifax, and cannon that bristle on the shore, guard the port and arsenal of Marine. Within reach, the commerce of the Atlantic is carried bv, on the stream from the Gulph of Mexico, as on the bosom of a river, as the commerce of the five great lakes will descend the broad St. Lawrence by the gates of Quebec. Cape Breton, Halifax, the islands of Grand Manan and Bermuda, not only secure the navigation of the ocean, but they shut up and form a chain of blockade along the whole American coast. Late be the necessity of exerting such a power again, as its former exercise was brief and successful ; but it is only by such pledges that ihis country includes many people in her empire, and imposes the laws of industry and peace.

With regard to choice between Canada and the United States, particularly Illinois and Michigan, to which the preference has been given by some late British anti-British writorc, two circumstances should be well considered : First, to become a citizen of the United States, a person must serve an apprenticeship of five years, during which period he is considered as an alien ; at least three years before he is deemed worthy of naturalization, he is compelled to appear before a public court, abjure for ever his allegiance to the land of his birth, and the King, and Constitution, which he has ever been accustomed to revere. After this probation, and at the end of five years, he has again to renew his protestations of fidelity to the government of the United States, his abjuration of all Kings, more especially the King of Great Britain and Ireland, After this purification from all monarchial principles, he may possess land and houses, and hold hereditable property, but he may rest assured that he wilUnever obtain any office either of honor or emolument in the state. Second, in addition to the gratification of associating with num-

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bersfrom Great Britain, and seeing the British dag proudly waving in every harbor ,* in Upper Canada, a native of Great Britain can hold property at once, becomes eligible to every office, and is indeed and in fact fully entitled to all the rights and privileges he enjoyed at home, and happily exempt from all the burdens which must necessarily co-exist with a huge national debt. Then with regard to salubrity, Canada must unquestionably take the preference, the cold of winter is divested of more than half of its gloom and misery, by the extreme dryness of the atmosphere ; and the intense heat of summer is attempered by delightful breezes from the lakes. In Illinois the summer is much hotter than in Canada, and the country is indifferently watered : in Michigan the water is extremely bad, and the country abounds in pestilential swamps. It is a very convincing proof of the excellence of the institutions of Canada, and quite demonstrative of the freedom from all oppression on the part of the government, that numbers of respectable citizens from the United States come annually to settle In Canada, and that there is not a Session of the Provincial parliament, in which there are not many applications, by such persons, for the power of naturalization. They are too keen and clear sighted a people to settle and become subjects, in a country, where oppression exists, or where the most ample opportunities are not afforded of acquiring competence.

Taxation can scarcely be said to exist in Canada, it is so trifling, and only for repairing roads, and the expenses of the different districts. Servants and laborers, and mechanics of all descriptions are certain of employment and ample remuneration ; and instances are numerous, of persons of this class having sent home money from their savings, to assist in bringing out their indigent relations. The public works in progress will furnish employment,

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for years to come, to any number of laborers coming from Great Britain, and will continue to sustain the present high wages which they receive for their work. The route by the St. Lawrence, in good ships, is certainly preferable, for persons of small means ; the passage is cheap, the facility of reaching every portion of the Upper Province great, and at small expense ; whilst the establishment throughout the Canadas, of benevolent societies, formed for the purpose of aiding indigent emigrants, must prove a great inducement to those whose helpless condition renders elemosynary assistance indispensable. Thus the poor laborer of Great Britain may come with confidence to this country, and be sure to find a refuge ; his industry encouraged, his piety respected, his ambition animated : with no restraint but those laws which are the same to all, and no distinction but that which his merit may originate. Who can deny that the existence of such a country, in connection with Great Britain, presents a subject for human gratulation 1 Who can deny that its gigantic advancement offers a field for the most rational conjecture ?

I take this opportunity of returning my very sincere thanks and acknowledgements to many kind friends, for the valuable assistance they have afforded me, in the compilation of these Statistics.

To my venerable friend, the Bishop of Kingston, whose long residence in this Province, and whose unquenchable zeal in the promotion of its welfare, has long endeared him to the great bulk of its inhabitants, I am especially obliged. He came into this Province when there were but few houses in it, performing incredible journies by land and by water, wading through rivers, reposing in the forests, or receiving occasional accommodation in the moveable hut of the wandering savage : he has lived to see it the abode of thousands, who, without any other 2

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capital than their personal labor, began to denude the soil of its primeval forests, and are now owners of extensive, well cultivated farms, and surrounded by all the substantial comforts of life. It has been his earnest desire to behold the industrious, but overburdened, classes from Great Britain, receiving the full meed of their laborious exertions here, where property is unencumbered with feudal burdens, undiminished by quit-rents or taxes, guarded by laws equally administered, and sustained by the tutelary arm of Great Britain. Bishops McDonell and McEacheven were amongst the first to induce emigration to Canada and Novascotia, by exerting their influence amongst the brave and hardy Highlanders, when quitting their native mountains, not to desert their ancient banner of St. Andrew, but take up their abode in a Colony of the British Crown. And notwithstanding one of the most abandoned men that ever disgraced the human name or race, has been exerting himself for years, to sever the connection between this Province and the Parent State, yet I believe the great bulk of the people are quite satisfied with the benevolent intentions of the British government towards this Colony ; exemplified, as it is, in every measure that could tend to promote its prosperity, and crowned by the luminous instructions of Lord Glenelg to the present talented Governor of the Province, Sir P. B. Head, in the satisfactory declaration, that her unrivalled Constitution shall be firmly upheld. These base demagogues have fully satisfied the public of their revolutionary views, and are only supported by those whose aim is destruction, anarchy, and rebellion. They have sounded Alecto’s horn in a peaceful and prospering Province, retarded its improvement, and checked emigration for some time, and despoiling and destroying, to the utmost of their power, the fruits of industry, and the hopes of advance-

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ment, of thousands of enterprising, well affected subjects.

“ Thus the pestilent Upas, the hydra of trees,

Its bough o’er the wilderness spreads.

And with livid contagion polluting the breeze.

Its mildewing influence sheds

But now that the knavery and Wicked designs of these men are discovered, who have made “a fraudulent trade of their politics, under the illusive pretext of patriotism,” it is to be hoped that the wise policy of the British government will cause the cessation of political agitation, and induce British subjects to embark their capital in Canada. It is this that will enrich her fields, build up her villages, populate her towns, and add wealth and magnificence to her cities. It is only wicked agitators, and incipient rebellion, that can arrest her, midway in her career. She holds within her own bosom the materials, and occupies the elevated station that qualifies her for the noble grandeur of her destiny. Let her policy of internal improvement, then, be continued — let the mother country receive the grateful homage of loyal subjects, then will the benignant sway of Great Britain be felt, and the benificient effects of her legislation will fall, like the dews of heaven, fertilizing and enriching all within its influence. Steamboats and schooners will more and more crowd the harbors on the lakes — the canals and rail roads will be covered with merchandize — new villages, towns and cities will be constantly springing into existence, realizing the following beautiful and almost prophetic lines of the poet: “ Come, bright Improvement! on the car of Time,

And rule the spacious world from clime to clime \

Thy handmaid arts shall every wild explore,

Trace every wave, and culture every shore.

On Erie’s banks, where tigers steal along,

And the dread Indian chants a dismal song.

Where human fiends on midnight errands walk,

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And bathe in brains the murderous tomahawk : There shall the flocks on thymy pasture stray, And shepherds dance at Summer’s opening day Each wand’ring genius of the lonely glen Shall start to view the glitteringhaunts of men ; And sileht watch, on woodland heights around, The village curfew, as its tolls profound.”

CHAPTER i

The fearful excitement which existed, on the subject of Colonial Slavery, in England in 1832, as it compelled the Government to legislate upon it, with a view to its final extinction, cannot be speedily forgotten. Having determined to change my residence from England, for some of the Colonies of Great Britain, I was most agreeably surprised in meeting with an intelligent and liberal West India Planter, who had resolved on visiting Upper Canada, in order to make it his future residence, if the soil, climate, and other advantages were such as he had been induced to expect from the writings of those individuals who had resided in that country. Until that time. New South Wales had been the object of my choice ; but the kind invitation which I received from my valued and esteemed friend,1 'to visit his property in the West Indies and afterwards accompany him to America, quickly induced me to change my mind. I confess that the lectures which I had heard in England, from the hired agents of the anti-Slavery society, and the natural abhorrence with which Englishmen contemplate a state of bondage, had induced me to form a very strong opinion on that subject, extremely hostile to the West India interest. My friend never obtruded the subject on me, it was one to him of a painful character, as his natural benevolence of disposition, and ardent love of liberty, at once compelled him to admit, and acknowledge that Slavery was theoretically,

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utterly indispensable ; whilst his susceptibility was much affected by the exaggerated and interested accounts given of its pretended manifold horrors and practical mischiefs. In the County of Essex, which I had just left, at the annual meeting of the Maldon Whig Club, Mr. Honeywood, a gentleman of talent and liberality, experienced no inconsiderable portion of disapprobation, for having ventured to interpose a few words in behalf of the slave proprietors. These circumstances produced a powerful impression on my mind, and induced me to take notes of passing occurrences.

We sailed from Gravesend in the brig Retrench, on Saturday morning, Nov. 17th, 1832, and from adverse winds, and fog, were compelled to drop anchor off the Sluice house, Canvey Island. We left anchorage on Sunday morning, at 10 o’clock— kept tacking about —made but little progress, and cast anchor again at four o’clock, off Shoebury Ness. On Monday we sailed at six o’clock, but the fog increased so much, that we wTere compelled to come to anchorage again at ten. On Tuesday we met the ships Talvera, and Calypso, making for Chatham, to be repaired, in consequence of the injury they had sustained during the fog, whilst engaged in watching the coast of Holland. We came to anchor at Deal, which presents a handsome appearance from the sea. Walmer Castle, immediately contiguous to it, is a fine structure, the residence of the Master of the Cinque Ports. We left Deal on Wednesday at two o’clock, and arrived at Portsmouth on the following afternoon. During these few days I had suffered most severely from sickness ; the nervous system was so disturbed as to prevent me from sleeping, and even after landing, the vertiginous afiection arising from the tremulous and undulating rocking of the ship, still for some period remained unabated. We were

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detained some time at anchor, opposite Ryde, from the prevalence of adverse winds ; the motion of the ship, when at anchor, in a rough sea, is extremely disagreeable. From our detention, an opportunity was afforded me of visiting a Convict ship, then taking in stores at Portsmouth. There were arrangements in her, for conveying two hundred and eighty criminals to New South Wales. The manner in which the ship was fitted up, combined security with comfort. The holds, in which the convicts sleep, were commodious : their allowance of food very liberal, and of the best quality, and every indulgence, consistent with their safety, is extended towards them, if their conduct is orderly and well behaved. The unfortunate creatures were taken on board the ship, during our stay at Portsmouth : they gave three hearty cheers as they left the land of their fathers ; most of them for ever. The government, willing to show them every kindness, orders the ship to remain off land for ten or twelve days, in order that they may communicate with their friends. On the 5th of December we weighed anchor, and from that time until the 7th, we were struggling through the channels — at one time in danger of being becalmed, and at others endeavoring to make the best of violent and unfavorable winds, until at length on the 7th we swept past the land’s end, and the famed white cliff’s of England receded from our sight. The deadly and incessant sickness under which I labored, I will not attempt to describe. In another place, I will suggest some remedies for its alleviation. Our voyage was marked by no peculiarity. I was however greatly amused, at a long conversation we sustained, with another ship, the Enchantress, a free trader, carrying out emigrants to New South Wales. The system of interrogation and answer is effected by a species of telegraph, with flags numbered for that purpose;

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the facility with which it is done, must prove of immense utility to mariners. By the 18th of December we were in warm latitudes, and nothing could exceed in beauty the rising and setting sun.

The orb of day,

In Southern climes, o’er ocean’s waveless field,

Sinks sweetly smiling : not the fainted breath Steals o’er the unruffled deep ; the clouds of eve Reflect unmoved the lingering beam of day ;

And vesper’s image on the western main Is beautifully still.

The weather was remarkably calm, and warm ; the grampusses wrere frisking about the ocean, amusing us with their frolicsome gambols, and we also observed during the continuance of this serenity many birds, 'there is something disagreeable in the glare of the sea in a complete calm, the motion of the ship is unpleasant, and the perpetual flapping of the sails annoying from its monotony.

And there the sea I found

Calm as a cradled child in dreamless slumber bound.

Here the ship made a full stop.

4 Day came, and went, and came, and broughtno wind!’

“And there she lay, morning, noon and night, rocking and rolling on the huge, lazy ocean, which, smooth as a polished mirror or a lady’s brow, on the surface, still hove up and down with the ceaseless, majestic, and very uncomfortable underswell of the Atlantic. There is nothing else like that in nature. You that have not seen it, imagine yourselves looking at a boundless and uneven pastoral country, divested of hedge or tree : then imagine the multitudes of meadows beneath your eye rising slowly and gracefully to an equality with the hill-tops, and then declining again into long sweeping valleys or abrupt dells, and you have some slight idea of the Atlantic in a calm. It is unquestionably sublime, (for a little bit,) the image of slumbering’power, etc. ; but I rather think that if Job had been tried upon it for any length of time, there would have been a different version of his history at this day.”

Now this lulling about, as Coleridge says,

‘As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.’

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On Christmas day we came into the trade winds, the breezes were strong, and the ship sailed along majestically with a large press of canvass on her. On the 30th we crossed the line ; the sailors were kind enough to spare me from their customary ablutions, as I had given them wherewith to offer up an atonement to Neptune, in the form of grog. On the 5th of January we saw an eclipse of the moon, from the commencement to its final disappearance ; it was very distinct, and enabled the Captain to test the accuracy of his chronometer, by comparing the beginning and end of the eclipse with the time stated in the Nautical Almanack. He found it perfectly exact, the difference of time in the latitude and longitude we were in, was somewhat more than three hours. On the 7th we dined off a leg of mutton, kept nine days— it was of the last of a sheep we brought from the Isle of Wight, and proved remarkably sweet and tender. We were then in latitude N 15 ° 17’. I mention this, because it is very singular, that if a sheep brought from the West Indies were killed in a still more northern latitude, it could not be preserved untainted for upwards of two days. This has been frequently noticed in the ships homeward bound. On the 13th the Captain calculated on making land, anxious on account of my enfeebled state, I was on deck as early as four o’clock in the morning, and was sorely disappointed at finding that he could not observe the most remote appearance of it. He had put the ship on easy canvass, during the night, from his conviction that we could not be far from land. When broad day light appeared, he ordered all necessary sail to be made, and the lad who was sent up to the mast head to unfurl the sails, suddenly beheld the distant coast, and exclaimed greatly to our joy, that he saw the land a point and a half on the starboard bow. It proved as he said, and we dropped 3

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anchor at one o’clock in Carlisle Bay, Barbados. The first point ofland that we ascertained distinctly, is called Moncrieif, situate in the parish of St. John’s. It is a bold eminence, and has a signal post communicating with Cotton Hill, Granade Hall, and Gun Hill in. St. George’s parish. It is one, of a range of hills, objects of great beauty in St. John’s. The Cocoa nut trees fringing the shores : the splendid breakers, called Bow Bells, extending a considerable distance into the sea, and the dazzling whiteness 1 of the beach, were all objects of delight to eyes accustomed to the sight of nought but sea and water for forty days. nil nisi ponius et aer.

All along the coast, Cocoa nut trees were growing, but much fewer than before the great hurricane, they were still, however, remaining in sufficient numbers to render the shore an object of deep interest and great beauty. Before rounding a point of the Island, called Needham’s Point, we caught a glimpse of Carlisle Bay. It forms both a commodious and safe harbor, there wTere many ships at anchor, waiting the sugar harvest, and being Sunday, they were very gaily decorated with their respective colors, pendants and ensigns, and formed an imposing and beautiful appearance. The bay is not very spacious, but the anchorage is considered good, numbers of ships always laying there in complete safety. The carenage is protected by a fine and very substantial pier. The view of the garrison and naval hospital, the houses and churches of Bridge Town — the bold headlands of the interior of the island — the gaily dressed shipping in the bay, men of war, merchantmen, and coasting schooners — the crowds of negroes — the appearance of the trees, shrubs, and flowers — the highly cultivated fields sloping to the water’s edge, were all alike objects of novelty and gratification to me, to which an additional zest was given