Recreations of a long vacation, or, A visit to Indian missions in Upper Canada

Introduction

When I accepted the appointment which removed me from my native land, I looked forward to the long vacations as seasons in which I might both obtain recreation from sedentary employments, and be made useful to the church, by travelling upon some religious errand in the country to which I was about to expatriate myself ; what that errand was to be, circumstances of course would decide. About the first Christmas I spent in Canada, I received a request from Mr. Mc Murray, rector of Ancaster, to preach at the opening of his new church at Dundas. The visit made me acquainted, not only with himself, whom I found to have been formerly engaged in a successful mission amongst the Chippeway Indians, at the Sault Ste Marie, on the southern extremity of Lake Superior, — but with his amiable and intelligent wife, herself the child of an Indian mother, and retaining many of the characteristics of the

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INTRODUCTION.

race from which she had sprung. From them I learned to feel an interest in the aboriginal races of this country, much stronger than I was likely to entertain from the mere casual sight of them as they ap-^ peared in the streets, or came to the doer with bundles of baskets for sale. It did not, however, occur to me, to think of them otherwise than as objects of interest and curiosity* until six months after, at the Bishop's Visitation at Toronto, Mr. Mc Murray read to me a letter he had received from a member of his former charge, Shinguaconse, or The Little Pine, chief of the small tribe amongst whom he resided as a missionary. It appeared, that on Mr. McMurray's removal from that station, on account of the ill-health of himself arid his wife, to both of whom the severity of the winter in that latitude was becoming more and more dangerous, the mission passed into the hands of Mr.O'Meara; and on his removal to the Manitoulin Islands, the government being desirous of concentrating the Indians in those quarters on the Great Manitoulin, the mission at the south of Lake Superior was discontinued, and the Indians at that point were invited to join their countrymen at Manitoulin. The chief, it seems, complied to a

INTRODUCTION.

certain extent, and spent two summers in that settlement ; but subsequently removed back again to the neighbourhood from which he had migrated. When there, he felt the want of pastoral care, and the means of grace, although he endeavoured to keep the Christians together, by reading the scriptures and prayers with them. But this did not satisfy him. Indeed he felt himself, and still more, the mass of his little tribe, going back to their old evil habits, for want of some one to controul and direct them, and hearing that Mr. O'Meara was going to Toronto, where he was likely to see his old friend and pastor, he wrote this letter to him, to entreat him to endeavour to procure a minister to settle amongst them once more.

The letter was a very touching one, but it did not occur to me at the time, that it was a thing in which I was immediately concerned. It however had sunk into the heart of my wife, and she brought the subject up again ; and then the thought struck me, that amongst the large circle of friends and well-wishers whom I had left behind me in England, I might perhaps have interest enough to raise a sufficient fund for the revival of the mission. I mentioned the thought to Mr. McMurray,

INTRODUCTION.

and he suggested the idea of a visit to the Sault, as the most likely means of giving definiteness to my views. It, however, appeared to me, that it would be much more to the purpose, if I were to visit previously some of the more advanced missions nearer home, and then proceed to the Sault. The result was a month's absence from home, in the course of which other objects attracted my attention, besides the Indians : and thinking that the whole of my impressions might be interesting to those who are personally unacquainted with this new and improving colony, I employed the remainder of the vacation, as I found opportunity and the vein of thought chose to flow, in committing them to paper. I have interspersed a few sketches, by an untaught and hitherto unpractised hand, supposing that they would add life and interest to the narrations and observations, as being faithful though unartist-like pictures of what they profess to represent.

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Chapter I

Having formed the design of visiting various settlements of Indians connected with the Church of England, concluding with the Sault Ste Marie, I quitted Toronto, with my eldest boy, on Thursday, the 8th of August, on board the Hamilton steamer, in company with several clergymen and others, who had been visiting Toronto for the purpose of being present at the recitations and distribution of prizes in Upper Canada College, in which they had sons, — and who were now on their return. The weather was very splendid, and the city appeared to great advantage as we gradually moved out of harbour. We were twelve miles distant, at Port Credit, before we lost sight of it ; and previous to this, and during the whole of our course, the eye was charmed with the varying view of the coast, as one headland after another, and one b2

6 DEPARTURE FROM TORONTO.

knot of houses after another, arose to the view, passed before our eyes and faded in the distance. The coast of the lake is but thinly peopled, and there are only four villages, the Humber Mouth, Port Credit, Oakville and Wellington Square, between Toronto and Hamilton. I had travelled the same route by land in the winter ; and then every thing looked poor and wretched. But now the white or dark-brown wooden dwellings, peeping out from between the trees, or clustered together on level or eminence, looked cheerful and pretty; and the recognition of the church and clergyman's house in two of them, made ns feel that we were united with them in high and sacred interests. Towards seven o'clock we began to enter Hamilton Bay, one of the most beautiful upon the lake. The high land immediately around it on all sides, and the rock and cliff occasionally visible, with the scattered farms along its margin, and the group of pretty white buildings forming the little town, presided over by the graceful spire of the parish church, — give it a character of its own, much surpassing in picturesque beauty the lower and more level view of the bay of Toronto. The only drawback is the bar which obstructs the eritrance of the bay

DEPARTURE FROM TORONTO. 9 a long, narrow line of land, with a few poor trees, and equally poor cottages : but there is no removing it, and therefore we must rest satisfied that it affords a shelter to the bay, and in winter a very useful road, by which sleighs travelling from Queenston to Toronto avoid some six miles of distance. There is a canal cut through it for steamers and schooners, which they were enlarging by means of a steam dredging-machine, when we entered the bay.

My friend Mr. McMurray, to whom I am indebted for the idea of this tour, was ready at the place of embarkation, with his light waggon, and in another hour, rattling along on the excellent macadamized road, we were safe in his hospitable dwelling at Dundas.

Chapter II

And now let me indulge in a little episode on Canadian roads and carriages ; at least Upper Canadian, for I know no other. It is the result of various observations, both before and during this tour.

The most primitive description of road is the bush track through the primeval forest, where the foot traces are scarcely, or not at all discernable ; and where, if unacquainted with the locality, or unpractised in tracking them, the white person traversing them is sure to be lost. Practice indeed enables a person to see where the branches of trees are partially cleared away, where the fallen branches have their bark trodden off by the feet of the passenger, where the grass is slightly marked by an indistinct trace : and some of these are made more certain by the blazed trees (i. e. trees which have a portion

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of the bark struck off by the axe), which appear from distance to distance along them ; but I have not had much experience of the latter. These tracks, however, if formed from settlement to settlement, whether of Indians or of white people, become distinctly marked by the treading and wearing away of the Vegetation ; and are the first that are of any service to a stranger. The Indian, indeed, will find his way without any path, for hundreds of miles through the forest, and travel almost as straight as the bird flies. He is guided in part by observing that the moss always adheres to the north side of the trees* The next kind of path takes its origin from the time that the Indian becomes a farmer, or the white settler takes up his abode in the forest. He soon acquires his waggon, and span ( Anglice, pair) of oxen or horses ; he cuts down the trees which impede his passage to the nearest store, or tavern, or village, or market town, or port ; he clears away the brush-wood, and without waiting to eradicate the stumps, or drain the swamp, or level inequalities, he mounts his waggon and drives off through the track he has made. This track, from the nature of the case, is not remarkably straight. A person who has to chop his way through

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the dense forest cannot be very accurate in his bearings. If the trees are fewer or smaller in one direction than in another, we know which he will prefer. If he finds a bit of swampy ground in his way, he will go about to avoid it. If he meets with a ravine, he will prefer crossing it obliquely. Neither is such a track remarkably even. When trees have been falling and decomposing for centuries, every portion of the surface is rugged in a degree scarcely possible to conceive by a person who has only seen the forests of a long-inhabited country. Then many of the trees have large gnarled roots level with the surface, or rising above it : many of the stumps of the trees which have been cut down it is impossible by any ingenuity to avoid, and they must be driven over. Then again, although a small swamp may be avoided, a swampy tract may have to be crossed. The better portions of it are soft and yielding, and the wheels either come into immediate contact with the crossed and tangled roots, or sink into the holes which lie between them. The wetter parts have to be made passable, by laying trees side by side across them, and thus constructing a rude causeway, the roughness of which has long

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been proverbial under the name of corduroy. Fortunately the whole surface is not entirely covered with heavy timber or intersected by swamps ; and thus there are portions of the bush-road, especially in sandy districts, which are very smooth and even, as soon as ever they become worn by repeated passing.

This kind of road undergoes many changes in the way of improvement and deterioration. Time, which decays all stumps, consumes the stumps from the road ; if not very much travelled, alternate rain and sun reduce it to an even surface ; and if the forest is partially open, and the ground undulating, and the style of timber various, especially if it overlooks ravine, or creek ( Anglice brook), or river or lake, or passes through a country partially cleared and settled, — few things can be conceived more exhilarating or delightful than a drive through a Canadian bushroad. But, if it continues in anything like its primitive state, — or if by being much travelled in the wet weather of spring and autumn, it becomes cut up with ruts and worn out into holes, — especially if they are the peculiar succession of holes met with in some parts, rolling with a slight obliquity across the track, then nothing can well be conceived c

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more painful or laborious to any person, but one of the roughest and most robust frame. No pleasure of companionship or charm of natural beauty can make amends for it.

The next description of road is the cleared concession line, or Queen's highway. To understand this we must bear in mind that the whole country is divided up into square blocks of land, several miles square, called townships; these townships into concessions ; and the concessions again into lots. The concessions are separated from each other by lines of land, 22 yards in breadth, which are not granted to any person, but reserved to form the public roads of the province. Every person is at liberty to cut down the timber on that portion of the concession line which adjoins his lot. Where many settlers lie on a line, they will agree to do it, in order to have a road in common. Sometimes again the government undertakes to open the line, in order to induce persons to settle on land, or to facilitate the advancement of the colony. The opening of the line does not, however, necessarily imply doing anything more than cutting down most of the timber to within a foot or two of the ground, clearing off the under-brush, and making a sufficient width of

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the road as passable as the ordinary bush road. This having to be selected from the whole breadth of the line, is commonly made very meandering (although the line is as straight as an arrow) ; and being left altogether to the choice of the passengers after being once made, varies often with the season, or the caprice of those who travel it. In many parts you find two, or even three tracks on the same line.

The great public roads formed by the government, undergo a further operation called turnpiking. This consists in the eradication of the stumps (which is often accomplished by a machine worked by horses), in digging ditches on each side of the line, and throwing up the soil on the road to form a causeway ; in levelling its whole surface in a rather rude way; in carrying drains across it where swampy, or intersected with streams; in raising it altogether to various heights where it crosses wet or swampy ground, and in building bridges of various descriptions, according to circumstances. These turnpiked roads are commonly carried in a straight line from point to point of the country. Formerly it was done in a rude and imperfect manner ; but in the new lines improved or

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formed in the western portion of Upper Canada no expense appears to be spared. Hills are cut through, or sloped gradually into the valley ; vast embankments are formed to carry the road over lands liable to be overflowed with the melting* snow in the spring, or after heavy rains ; bridges are built, of wood indeed in most cases, but in other respects rivalling or excelling in convenience those of the mother country. In short, the impression on my own mind is, that in some localities the expenditure is unnecessarily large ; and that some of the large embankments and long bridges might have been spared, as they have been in England, until increased traffic both rendered their higher convenience important to the public, and afforded a prospect of the repayment of the expense. And I am the more strongly inclined to this opinion, from knowing that there are many portions of road which must remain destitute of improvement, and which might have been improved to the great convenience of the districts in which they lie, with the remaining three-fourths of the cost incurred in particular spots; leaving the inhabitants of those spots, or the travellers over them, still enough of improvement to make them very thankful

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Still I am told, that in all cases the tolls are expected soon to replace the whole cost.

The next improvement to the road is planking, or macadamizing*. Hitherto, macadamizing has come first in order of time; but in future I imagine the plank road will be the first improvement. I am now speaking of the government roads : for on a few miles of road in some districts, the surface has been improved under other direction, — of trustees or otherwise, — by simply throwing down on the turnpiked road, the gravel or rubbly stone which was procurable in the neighbourhood. But to return to more extensive operations ; we must not understand in all cases by a macadamized road, the beautiful even surface which we generally see in roads in the old country, which have undergone the operation so designated. That may be the case or not, according to circumstances. The only roads I know of, which come up to the English notion of a macadamized road, are those in the neighbourhood of Hamilton. In most cases it simply means a road formed with broken stones, in which there is no care taken to break them very small; the road is not watched to preserve it from being worn into ruts and holes ; when these eye-sores are formed, they are not speedily obliterated ; the stone is not laid of sufficient depth to prevent its becoming very uneven by the operation of the breaking up of the frost in the spring ; so that even the subjacent soil frequently works up to the surface, and forms deep mud holes in the middle of the road* Even King Street, in Toronto, from these causes, is very rough in parts. But every thing must have a beginning; new roads are formed upon better principles than the old ones, and the old ones are daily more or less improved ; so that I do not despair of even passing down the whole of King Street without any danger to the springs of my waggon, or possibly any inconvenience to my rheumatic limbs. There is another peculiarity about the macadamized roads of Upper Canada, arising in part from the imperfect breaking of the stone ; and that is, the custom of laying down a slight covering of sand or gravel over it. A real disciple of McAdam would think he was ruining his road by such an act; but in this country, from the fewness of the passengers, it is necessary, in order to bring the road into use ; and the continuance of wet weather is seldom so great as to render it any essential injury to the road. Of those streets winch I have seen macadam-

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ized in this country, only one was entirely covered with broken stone ; most of them have only a laying of sufficient breadth to allow two carriages to pass. In a few of the most recent in Toronto, the space between the broken stone and the footway is paved or pitched with boulders.

And speaking of boulders, I will observe that one of the greatest inconveniences the cultivator of land has to contend with in some parts of the province, is likely to become a source of profit to him; I allude to the great quantity of boulders of all sizes scattered over the fields. Some of these are small rocks in size, and all I have seen are of the hardest descriptions of stone, particularly granite. In the improvements which are continually going on in districts where there is no subterranean stone, these are bought up in large quantities, for the formation of roads and streets.

From the macadamized road, I pass to the plank. Any one who has read Mr. Dickens' "American Notes," will remember the boarded footways of Toronto; but since his visit, they have undergone a very material improvement* This was the first application of plank on public streets or roads ; and I will give a little account of it. The late Judge Powell was

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the first person who made a boarded footway on the public street. Living in a cross street, he laid down planks, supported by sleepers, from his own door to King Street, the footways of which were then paved with irregular flags, so far as any assistance was afforded to the pedestrian. A year or two before the rebellion, the notorious firebrand, McKenzie, being then mayor, conceived and carried out the project of extending Judge Powell's accommodation to all the thoroughfares of the city. The plank he employed is pinewood, (or, as we say in England, deal,) of about two inches thick, and one foot in breadth, and laid down longitudinally, each causeway being four planks broad, and secured by nails. At the crossings, a thicker description of plank is used, and the edges are taken off, to facilitate the passing of carriages. In the bye streets, however, less care is employed, and the crossings are very awkwardly high. This method of planking is at all times a great improvement upon the bare ground, inasmuch as it is always pretty clean, and soon becomes dry after rain. , In a few years however, it is apt to become broken; and the planks being kept in constant vibration (to some extent) in their length, the ends are liable to become loose, and

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sometimes cause dangerous concussions and falls. The breadth, moreover, is not sufficient for the crowded streets of a populous city. Hence, during the past year much of the old plank and flagging has been removed, and replaced by plank three inches in thickness, placed transversely, sloping gently towards the carriageway, fastened with wooden plugs, and forming a causeway of eleven feet in breadth. The improvement is so manifest, and so highly appreciated, that it appears probable that it will be adopted in all the principal streets.

This transverse planking then, with materials three or four inches in thickness, is that which is adopted on the public roads. It is generally laid down level, and of a sufficient breadth to allow of two carriages passing abreast. Sometimes a sufficient breadth is allowed for three carriages ; and on the Kingston road, 1 notice that a breadth of plank sufficient only for one carriage has been laid down side by side with the broken stone ; no doubt as an experiment. Opinions differ as to the comparative expense of keeping a road in good order with plank or with stone; and still more as to the clurableness of the former. There can be no doubt that a new plank road.

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covered lightly with sand or gravel, (as is the custom), is the pleasantest road for wheels that can well be imagined. You bound along over it with an ease and quietness which is luxury itself, after the noise of one of our ordinary carriages over the macadamized road, to say nothing of the awful jolting and shaking of those in a less advanced state. But then on the other hand, when the plank has been in use six or seven years, it begins to give way in portions. Holes are broken, which are very awkward, and even dangerous to the horse ; and the jolts which the wheels sustain are much worse than those of the worst macadamized road I am acquainted with. When the plank begins to wear out, it appears to be thought inexpedient to attempt to keep it in repair; and thus its evils are endured for another year or two, when it has to be replaced by new. Still the Board of Works is laying down a vast length of it between Brantford and London, and thence on to Oxford, and in other parts of the west; and I suppose where stone is not very accessible, or the situation is low, and the soil damp, it will continue to be employed for many years to come. In some situations, the Board appears to employ stone still ; so that it appears with

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them to be a question of circumstances: but that they are not singular in using plank for carriage roads, appears from the fact, that in several parts of the province, the farmers are making their own roads, by joint contribution, of the same material, and that in parts where stone is far from inaccessible. The same is the case in Toronto, where considerable portions of some of the principal streets have had their carriage ways planked, under the direction of the corporation. In these cases the plank is made to slope from the middle to the sides, and where the work is completed, the space of about ten feet on each side, between the carriage way and the footway, is paved with boulders.

The addition which this improvement is making to the comfort and general prosperity of the city, appears likely to be great.

Chapter III

From Canadian roads, I pass to Canadian carriages. I one day saw, in the streets of Toronto, a very primitive vehicle indeed. It was a cart, with small wheels cut solid from the trunk of some large tree, with a hole through the centre for the axle. The bed of the cart was of small trees, laid side by side; the sides and ends were of still smaller trees, and stakes set upright at certain distances; and it was drawn by a yoke of oxen. I never saw another, and have no reason to think that they are commonly used in any part of the province. The next thing in order is the wood waggon, for the conveyance of firewood; of much the same structure as the cart I have described, excepting that the small trees are squared with the axe, and the wheels and their etceteras are formed in the ordinary manner by the wheelwright. The next step

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is to replace the rough upper fabric I have described, by a long box, formed of four planks, for the sides and ends, and as many more as may be necessary to form the bed of the waggon. When this is painted red or green, and has two seats with backs placed across it, it forms the pleasure waggon, in which the lowest class of farmers and their wives and children take their journeys of business or pleasure. A still further step is to have the same vehicle somewhat more neatly made, and to support the seats on two springs of wood, placed longitudinally inside the waggon, and supported only at the ends. This is the family waggon of a higher class of farmers, and sometimes of the country clergy. The last method of using the wooden spring is with the smaller waggon, generally capable of carrying only two persons ; in which is frequently seen a pair of wooden longitudinal springs supporting the bed of the waggon. All these vehicles are generally made with poles instead of shafts, and drawn by a pair of horses; although in districts where the roads are good, you frequently see the latter drawn only by one. From experience I can testify to the light waggon being by far the

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best vehicle for avoiding or lightening the intolerable jolting of the rough bush roads. - The light waggon is the origin of all the Canadian vehicles of pleasure. Mrs. Jameson has described one of them as "a chair set on a tray;" and her description of them is not a bad one. The next improvement after those I have described is, to adopt steel springs, and a very light carriage and wheels. The spring exclusively in use, is the elliptical, set on over the axle behind and before. This certainly, from its combination of elasticity with strength, is extremely well suited to the Canadian roads, excepting the very worst ; but the alternate motion from side to side, is as disagreeable to some persons as the jolting itself. Above these springs is placed the waggon, with either a single or a double body : the former is that which Mrs. Jameson alludes to. It is frequently less in length by two feet than the distance from axle to axle, about nine inches in depth, and surmounted by the chair portion of a gig, with a low splash board in front. The form of the " tray" portion, is susceptible of great variety; being sometimes pannelled, at other times plain ; sometimes straight in all ifs lines; again, curved beneath, to admit of the fore wheel passing under in turning;

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sometimes rising before and behind, and approximating to the form of a boat : the last however, is old fashioned. All these forms are more or less seen in the double waggon ; but the most common are the plain straight waggon, pannelled ; or a rough imitation (in painted wood, and on high wheels and springs) of the small double-bodied openponey-carriage so common of late years in England. These are all the wheeled carriages which I have seen in the country, which appear to be at all of native growth. Most of the patterns of light waggons are borrowed from the neighbouring States. The other descriptions of carriages for pleasure, kept by the wealthier classes in towns and elsewhere, are likewise evidently copied from models either from the States or from England; the former being invariably lighter, higher on the wheels, and more ornamented than the other.

Chapter IV

I was led into this digression about carriages and roads, by finding myself driven by Mr. McMurray in a carriage such as I had not before entered, over the best road I have seen in Canada: and I must now give a further account of my host and hostess.