The shoe and canoe : or, Pictures of travel in the Canadas, illustrative of their scenery and of colonial life; with facts and opinions on imigration, state policy, and other points of public interest ; with numerous plates and maps

Front matter

LONDON :

Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St. Leicester Sq.

THE SHOE AND CANOE

Preface

Having in comparative leisure, for a period of six happy years, wandered, pencil and pen in hand, over the greater portion of the Canadas, I purpose, in the following pages, to present to the reader a group of popular pictures of their scenery and social condition.

Through the medium of a series of excursions, it is intended to pourtray the objects which fill the traveller's eye, the life he leads, and the company he meets with, in this romantic and fertile part of North America.

A ready opportunity will thus be afforded vi

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of noticing many important topics : such as emigration, colonial policy, Christian missions, the late Boundary Commission, the Hudson's Bay Company, and of placing on record some new topographical details.

My humble but earnest wish is (and most disinterestedly) to show my fellow-countrymen that Western Canada in particular is a pleasant land ; that it presents a variety of enjoyments — sport to the sportsman, inspiration to the poet, excitement to the brave, and health to the delicate ; while, at the same time, it offers unfailing abundance to the destitute, and a haven to the homeless.

Many who go thither for a year choose to stay all their lives ; and not a few, having left it, are sad and ill at ease until they once more stand upon the breezy shores of Lake Ontario.

Like all who possess personal information on the subject, from the late Lord Metcalf

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vii downwards, I beg to recommend and urge a large planned emigration, under the auspices, though not altogether at the expense, of Government.

With the most complete and gratifyingsuccess of previous efforts at colonisation, with the full consciousness of wide-prevailing distress at home, and well aware of the millions of rich acres in our American dependencies ready for occupation, the continued apathy of the British people and their rulers seems to call for the expression of no common indignation.

Let us then leave for a brief space the miseries we do not solace, the tears and crimes of our towns and villages, for the great lakes of Canada, reservoirs of crystal waters and wholesome airs, for the broad forest streams which pour into them, whose banks are peopled and peopling with our own energetic race.

Let us contemplate the diligent stirs and viii

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exhaustless plenty of the new world. We shall find much to interest us in the august and singular features of the country, in its natural history, and in its population ; among whom, besides the solemn Indian, the stereotyped'French Canadian, and the enterprising New Englander, we shall meet with many originals from Europe ; some hiding in woody nooks, others standing openly in the sight of a community too busy to bestow upon them more than a passing glance.

As my pages are meant to chronicle with fidelity actual incidents, feelings, and facts, they will tell of few extraordinary adventures, and of neither miracles nor monsters.

I deal not with the perishing things of the hour — with statistics, which (good in their place) are, in Canada, a kind of " dissolving view/' so fugitive, — that truth to-day is falsehood almost on the morrow. Who can cope with the statistics of a great country like Canada West, whose popula-

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ix tion and capital sometimes double in eight years ? *

My object is, I repeat, to delineate, not the evanescent, but some of the fixed aspects of this noble colony — in its waters and forests, in its red and white inhabitants, their 'manners and prospects ; and this from notes carefully made on the spot, with frequent corrections up to the present day.

Both my duty and my pleasure took me out of the common track, — into Lakes Simcoe Huron, Superior, &c; into a portion of South Hudson's Bay, and up the River Ottawa, into Lake Nipissing, as well as to the rarelyvisited Highlands of the St. Lawrence below Quebec.

Mine is a personal narrative. The reader's indulgence is, therefore, requested for the egotism which is unavoidable. The impersonal is unreadable : it is the current incident of the day which gives transpa-

* As in 1822-28, according to Sir F. Head and others.

X

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rency and life. Some may say, that I gossip a little. This possibly may he so. It has happened to the wisest of men when beguiled by an agreeable theme. The cheerful get-along style which I desire to adopt is now acknowledged to be the true descriptive ; and the stately and sonorous circumlocution of our forefathers is happily out of fashion.

But I must not abuse the great modern privilege of paper and ink in abundance, with the best of pens. A preface should be a title-page developed — a short letter of introduction, prophetic of the coming story, and no more.

Cicero, too, it is well to remember, somewhere lays it down that an auctioneer is to be allowed one puffer ; but he does not say the same of an author.

P. S. — The public may be congratulated on the possession, at a moderate cost, of the

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xi two charming volumes of " Canadian Scenery," by Mr. Bartlett. His views are equally beautiful and true : mine represent places which that gentleman did not visit, and were selected less for the extremely picturesque than for the characteristic.

London, May 1850.

Contents

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

PAGE

Part I. LAKE ERIE AND THE RIVER DETROIT

The Boundary Commission, its officers, objects, and labours, &c. — Lake Erie — Mr. Beaumont — Rev. Mr. Morse — Amberstburgh — Captain Stewart and his Negroes — Chevalier and Madame de Brosse — Rattlesnake hunt — Indian Cure — The Prophet and Kickapoo Indians — Detroit — My Inn and its Guests — The Professor, the Judge, and the Barber — Moy — The Mennonites 242

EXCURSION THE FIFTH.