The chronicles of the St. Lawrence

Front matter

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Introduction

It has been a frequent subject of surprise, nay of disappointment, to tourists and strangers visiting each summer the noted spots on the Lower St. Lawrence, that, with abundance of material at command, no history had yet been attempted of the majestic stream which for some thousands of miles winds its course to the ocean.

What, indeed, would be Canada without this main artery of commerce ? For six months, the wilderness of snow, jeered at by the great scoffer, Voltaire, one hundred years ago ; — for the rest of the year a parched-up desert, closed to European shipping, with tropical heats and a stunted vegetation.

Embracing on both banks more than one thousand miles of sea board from Quebec to Cape Gaspe ; lined by innumerable settlements, thriving villages, rising towns ; dotted in its whole length with numberless, fertile and picturesque islands, each having its peculiar history, its wild legend of the forest or the sea, its thrilling incident of naval warfare, possibly its harrowing tale of shipwreck and death.

What a rich harvest here for the antiquarian, the historian or the novelist? Conflicts on sea and on land between the

VI INTRODUCTION.

ferocious aborigines, those mysterious wanderers, some of whom had totally disappeared without the faintest trace, between Cartier's visit, in 1535, and Champlain's day, legends of their ferocity towards the white man, the disturber of their forest home ; scarcely a bay, a cape, a headland without a trace, a souvenir, of the deadly feud, which for centuries arrayed in hostile conflict Old and New England against Old and New France, in 1628-1632; 1690; 1759-1760; 1775-1783.

If the distant past of the great river has so many teeming memories, how much of interest does it not possess in the recent settlements on its banks, for every class of readers ?

What sources of information are now available ? a few common-place guide-books, repeating each year monotonous, stale, scanty, stereotyped bits of gossip.

It is this want I have attempted to supply. Having once spent an entire summer on the Gaspe coast ; made several successive land and sea voyages to the most noted centres on the Lower St. Lawrence, including a visit to the leading cities of the Maritime Provinces ; had the advantage of a study, extending over many years, of the old and modern French and English works on Canada ; communicated freely with the best informed Gaspesians, I have got to believe I possessed some qualifications to perform successfully the task I had laid out. My labor was much facilitated, having at command, in a copious journal I have kept, a daily entry of my peregrinations. It is less fine writing and elaborate sentences, I aim at, than a familiar narrative, a fresh, a spontaneous, (neglig4 at times, perhaps,) statement of daily sights and incidents. To prevent repetitions, each paper covers a portion of the St. Lawrence left out of the others ; the last paper of .all, relating a pleasant excursion, under-

INTRODUCTION. VU

taken with a sporting friend and party in the harbor of Quebec, affords incidents of the three Sieges. I gave it a light, sketchy form as a relief to ennuis after so many historical facts, and closed it with the humorous description of the tribulations which befel my sporting friend, from his having speculated on a dead whale. Special attention has been given to the historical portion of these annals, intended to complete the series of sketches of Canadian History, the Maple Leaves, Album du Touriste, and Quebec Past and Present. The work is specially intended for the information and amusement of summer tourists visiting, either by steamer or by railway, the shores of the Lower St. Lawrence.

J. M. LeMOINE.

Spencer Grange, 17th May, 1878,

Entered in the Office of Ihe Minister of Agriculture, in the year 1878, by J. M. LEMoiNE,in conformity with the law passed by the Parliament of Canada.

PAET I.

1. The Round Trip — Quebec — Gaspe — Dalhousie — St. John,N.B. —

Halifax, N.S. — Prince Edward Island.

2. The Round Trip — Quebec — Murray Bay — Tadousac — Chicoutimi

— Cacouna, &c.

PAET II.

1. Lights and Shadows in Gaspesia.

2. The Cruize of the Dolphin— Glimpses of Three Sieges, 1690,-

1759,-1775.

THE

CHRONICLES OF THE ST. LAWEENCE.