Part 4 (2/2)
”The largest and most populous of the towns in Upper Canada, and called the key to the Province, is Kingston, advantageously situated at the head of the St. Lawrence, and at the entrance of the great Lake Ontario. Its population is now about 5,500 souls; it is a military post of importance, as well as a naval depot, and from local position and advantages is well susceptible of fortification. It contains n.o.ble dockyards and conveniences for s.h.i.+p-building. Its bay affords, says Howison, so fine a harbour, that a vessel of one hundred and twenty guns can lie close to the quay, and the mercantile importance it has now attained as a commercial entrepot between Montreal below and the western settlements on the lakes above, may be inferred, among other things from the wharfs on the river and the many s.p.a.cious and well-filled warehouses behind them, as well as the numerous stores and mercantile employes within the town. The streets are regularly formed upon the right-angular plan which is the favourite in the new settlements, but they are not paved; and though the houses are mostly built of limestone, inexhaustible quarries of which lie in the immediate vicinity of the town, and are of the greatest importance to it and the surrounding neighbourhood, there is nothing in the least degree remarkable or interesting in the appearance of either the streets or the buildings. The opening of the Rideau Ca.n.a.l there, which, with the intermediate lakes, forms a junction between the Ontario and other lakes above, the St. Lawrence below, and the Ottawa, opposite Hull, in its rear, with all the intervening districts and towns.h.i.+ps, will immensely increase the importance of this place; and its convenient hotels already afford comfortable accommodation to the host of travellers that are continually pa.s.sing between the Upper and Lower Provinces, as well as to and from the States on the opposite side of the river.
”York is well situated on the north side of an excellent harbour on the lake. It contains the public buildings of the Province, viz., the House of a.s.sembly, where the Provincial Parliament generally holds its sittings; the Government House; the Provincial Bank; a College; a Court House; a hall for the Law Society; a gaol; an Episcopal Church; a Baptist Chapel (Methodist); a Scots' Kirk; a Garrison near the town, with barracks for the troops usually stationed here, and a battery which protects the entrance of the harbour. Regularly laid out under survey, as usual, the streets of the town are s.p.a.cious, the houses mostly built of wood, but many of them of brick and stone. The population amounts now to between four and five thousand.
”By-Town, situated on the southern bank of the Ottawa, a little below the Chaudiere Falls, and opposite to the flouris.h.i.+ng Village of Hull, in Lower Canada, stands upon a bold eminence, surrounding the bay of the grand river, and occupies both banks of the ca.n.a.l, which here meets it. Laid out in the usual manner with streets crossing at right angles, the number of houses is already about 150, most of which are wood, and many built with much taste. Three stone barracks and a large and commodious hospital, built also of stone, stand conspicuous on the elevated banks of the bay; and the elegant residence of Colonel By, the commanding Royal Engineer of that station.
”The town-plot of Peterborough is in the northeast angle of the Towns.h.i.+p of Monaghan. It is laid out in half acres, the streets nearly at right angles with the river; park lots of nine acres each are reserved near the town. The patent fee on each is L8, Provincial currency, and office fees and agency will increase it 15s or 20s more.
”The settlement commenced in 1825, at which time it formed a depot of the emigration under Hon. P. Robinson. The situation is most favourable, being an elevated sandy plain, watered by a creek, which discharges into the river below the turn. The country round is fertile, and there is great water-power in the town-plot, on which mills are now being built by Government. These mills are on an extensive scale, being calculated to pack forty barrels of flour, and the saw-mill to cut 3,000 feet of boards per diem.
”The situation of Cobourg is healthy and pleasant. It stands immediately on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Ontario. In 1812, it had only one house; it now contains upwards of forty houses, an Episcopal church, a Methodist chapel, two good inns, four stores, a distillery, an extensive grist mill; and the population may be estimated at about 350 souls.
”The two projected towns of most consideration in this district (London district), however, are London-on-the-Thames, further inland, and G.o.derich, recently founded by the Canada Company, on Lake Huron. London is yet but inconsiderable, but from its position, in the heart of a fertile country, is likely to become of some importance hereafter, when the extreme wilds become more settled. The town is quite new, not containing above forty or fifty houses, all of bright boards and s.h.i.+ngles. The streets and gardens full of black stumps &c. They were building a church, and had finished a handsome Gothic court-house, which must have been a costly work.
”Guelph. Much of this tract belongs to the Canada Company, who have built, nearly in its centre, the town of Guelph, upon a small river, called the Speed, a remote branch of the Ouse, or Grand River. This important and rapidly rising town, which is likely to become the capital of the district, was founded by Mr. Galt, for the Company, on St. George's day, 1827, and already contains between 100 and 200 houses, several shops, a handsome market house near the centre, a schoolhouse, a printing office, and 700 or 800 inhabitants.
”The Bay of Quinte settlement is the oldest in Upper Canada, and was begun at the close of the Revolutionary War. We crossed over the mouth of the River Trent, which flows from the Rice Lake, and it is said can be made practicable for steamboats, though at much expense; thence to Belleville, a neat village of recent date, but evidently addicted too much to lumbering.
”Brockville is a most thriving new town, with several handsome stone houses, churches, court-house, &c., and about 1,500 souls.”
SKETCHES OF EARLY HISTORY.
[Footnote: This paper was read before the Mechanics' Inst.i.tute in Picton, twenty-six years ago. Soon afterwards, the then Superintendent of Education, Dr. Ryerson, requested me to send it to him, which I did, and a copy was taken of it. An extract will be found in his work, ”The Loyalists of America,” Vol. ii; page 219. Subsequently, in 1879, I made up two short papers from it which appeared in The Canadian Methodist Magazine. The paper is now given, with a few exceptions, as it was first written.]
EARLY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS-BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC-LOVE OF COUNTRY-ADVENTURES OF A U. E. LOYALIST FAMILY NINETY YEARS AGO-THE WILDS OF UPPER CANADA-HAY BAY-HARDs.h.i.+PS OF PIONEER LIFE-GROWTH OF POPULATION-DIVISION OF THE CANADIAN PROVINCES-FORT FRONTENAC-THE ”DARK DAYS”-CELESTIAL FIREWORKS-EARLY STEAM NAVIGATION IN CANADA-THE COUNTRY MERCHANT-PROGRESS-THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE.
After having consented to read a paper on the subject which has already been announced, I do not think it would be quite proper for me to begin with apologies. That they are needed I confess at once, but then they should have been thought of before. How often have we heard the expression, ”Circ.u.mstances alter cases,” and this is just why I put in my plea. If I had not been preceded by gentlemen whose ability and attainments are far and away beyond mine, I should not have said a word. But when these persons, some of whom finished their education in British Universities, who have trodden the cla.s.sic sh.o.r.es of Italy and mused over the magnificent monuments of her past greatness, or wandered through old German towns, where Christian liberty was born and cradled; who have ranged the s.p.a.cious halls of Parisian Inst.i.tutes, or sauntered in places where many historic scenes have been enacted in grand old England-when these persons, I repeat, must crave your indulgence, how much more earnestly should I plead, whose travels are bounded in the radius of a few hundred miles; and whose collegiate course began, and I may say ended, in the country school-house with which many of you are familiar. What wonderful scholars those early teachers were.
”Amazed we, gazing rustics, rang'd around; And still we gaz'd, and still our wonder grew That one small head could carry all he knew.”
It is no wonder that we were often awed by their intellectual profundity, nor that they gave our youthful brains an impetus which sent them bounding through the severe curriculum we had to face.
The narrow-minded and unyielding policy of George III., as every one now admits it to have been, brought about the American Revolution, and gave birth to the American Republic. As always happens in every great movement, there were two sides to this question, not only between Great Britain and her colonists, but among the colonists themselves. One side clamoured boldly for their rights, and, if need were, separation. The other side shrank from a contest with the mother land, and preferred a more peaceful solution of their difficulties. A moderate degree of liberality on the part of the British Government would have appeased the demands of the malcontents, and another destiny whether for better or worse, might have been in store for the American people. But those were days when the policy of the nation was stern and uncompromising, when the views of trade were narrow and contracted, when justice was untempered with mercy, and when men were bigoted and pugnacious. Protracted wars consumed the revenues and made many draughts on the national purse, and when the trade of the colonies was laid under contribution, they refused the demand.
The Government, true to the spirit of the age, would not brook refusal on the part of its subjects, and must needs force them to comply. The contest began, and when, after a seven years' struggle, peace was declared, those who had sided with the old land found themselves homeless, and rather than swear allegiance to the new regime, abandoned their adopted country and emigrated to the wilds of Canada and the Eastern Provinces. Two results grew out of this contest: the establishment of a new and powerful nationality, and the settlement of a vast country subject to the British Crown, to the north, then an unbroken wilderness, now the Dominion of Canada, [Footnote: This has been changed. When the paper was written, the Confederation of the Provinces, if it had been thought of, had not a.s.sumed any definite shape. It followed eight years after, in 1867.] whose rapid strides in wealth and power bid fair to rival even those of the great Republic.
The history of our country-I am speaking of Upper Canada-remains to be written. It is true we have numerous works, and valuable ones too, on Canada; but I refer to that part of history which gives a picture of the people, their habits and customs, which takes you into their homes and unfolds their every-day life. This, it seems to me, is the very soul of history, and when the coming Canadian Macaulay shall write ours, he will look in vain for many an argosy, richly freighted with fact and story, which might have been saved if a helping hand had been given, but which now, alas! is lost forever.
It can hardly be expected that I should be as familiar with the early scenes enacted in this part of the Province as those who are very much older. Yet I have known many of the first settlers, and have heard from their lips, in the days of my boyhood, much about the hards.h.i.+ps and severe privations they endured, as well as the story of many a rough and wild adventure. These old veterans have dropped, one by one, into the grave, until they have nearly all pa.s.sed away, and we are left to enjoy many a luxury which their busy hands acc.u.mulated for us.
As a Canadian-and I am sure I am giving expression, not so much to a personal sentiment, as an abiding principle deeply rooted in the heart of every son of this grand country-I feel as much satisfaction and pride in tracing my origin to the pioneers of this Province-nay more- than if my veins throbbed with n.o.ble blood. The picture of the log cabins which my grandfathers erected in the wilderness on the bay sh.o.r.e, where my father and mother first saw the light, are far more inviting to me than h.o.a.ry castle or rocky keep. I know that they were loyal, honest, industrious, and virtuous, and this is a record as much to be prized by their descendants as the mere distinction of n.o.ble birth.
It has been said that love of country is not a characteristic of Canadians; that in consequence of our youth there is but little for affection to cling to; that the traditions that cl.u.s.ter around age and foster these sentiments are wanting. This may be to a certain extent true. But I cannot believe but that Canadians are as loyal to their country as any other people under the sun. The life-long struggle of those men whom the old land was wont ”to put a mark of honour upon,” are too near to us not to warm our hearts with love and veneration; they were too st.u.r.dy a race to be lightly over-looked by their descendants. Their memory is too sacred a trust to be forgotten, and their lives too worthy of our imitation not to bind us together as a people, whose home and country shall ever be first in our thoughts and affection.
”Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said 'This is my own, my native land?'
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his footsteps he hath turned?”
Is there any place in the world where such marvellous changes have taken place as here? Where among the countries of the earth shall we find a more rapid and vigorous growth? Ninety years [Footnote: The reader will bear in mind the date when this was written.] ago this Province was a dense and unknown forest. We can hardly realize the fact that not a century has elapsed since these strong-handed and brave-hearted men pushed their way into the profound wilderness of Upper Canada. Were they not heroes? See that man whose strong arm first uplifts the threatening axe. Fix his image in your mind, and tell me if he is not a subject worthy the genius and chisel of a Chantrey. Mark him as he swings his axe and buries it deep into a giant tree. Hark! how that first blow rings through the wood, and echoes along the sh.o.r.es of the bay. The wild duck starts and flaps her wings; the timid deer bounds away. Yet stroke follows stroke in measured force. The huge tree, whose branches have been fanned and tossed by the breeze of centuries, begins to sway. Another blow, and it falls thundering to the ground. Far and wide does the crash reverberate. It is the first knell of destruction booming through the forest of Canada, and as it flies upon the wings of the wind, from hill-top to hill-top, it proclaims the first welcome sound of a new-born country. And did these men of whom we have been speaking make war alone upon the mighty forest? Did they find their way alone to the wilds of Canada? No: they were accompanied by women as true and brave as themselves; women who unmurmuringly shared their toils and hards.h.i.+ps, who rejoiced in their success, and cheered them when weary and depressed. They left kindred and friends far behind, literally to bury themselves in the deep recesses of a boundless forest. They left comfortable homes to endure hunger and fatigue in log cabins which their own delicate hands helped to rear, far beyond the range of civilization. Let us follow a party of these adventurers to Canada.
In the summer of the year 1795 or thereabouts, a company of six persons, composed of two men and their wives, with two small children, pushed a rough-looking and unwieldy boat away from the sh.o.r.e in the neighbourhood of Poughkeepsie, and turned its prow up the Hudson. A rude sail was hoisted, but it flapped lazily against the slender mast. The two men took up the oars and pulled quietly out into the river. They did not note the morning's sun gradually lifting himself above the eastern level, and scattering his cheerful rays of light across the river, and along its sh.o.r.es. All nature seemed rejoicing over the coming day, but they appeared not to heed it. They pulled on in silence, looking now ahead, and then wistfully back to the place they had left. Their boat was crowded with sundry household necessaries carefully packed up and stowed away. At the stern are the two women; one, ruddy and strong, steers the boat; the other, small and delicate, minds her children. Both are plainly and neatly dressed; and they, too, are taking backward glances through silent tears. Why do they weep, and whither are they bound? Their oars are faithfully plied, and they glide slowly on. And thus; day after day, may we follow them on their voyage. Now and then a gentle breeze fills the sail and wafts them on. When the shades of evening begin to fall around them they pull to sh.o.r.e and rear a temporary tent, after which they partake of the plain fare provided for the evening meal, with a relish which toil alone can give, and then lay them down to rest, and renew their strength for the labours of the morrow.
They reach Albany, then a Dutch town on the verge of civilization. Beyond is a wilderness land but little known. Some necessaries are purchased here, and again our little company launch away. They reach the place where the city of Troy now stands, and turn away to the left into the Mohawk river, and proceed slowly, and often with great difficulty, up the rapids and windings of the stream. This rich and fertile valley of the Mohawk was then the home of the Indian. Here the celebrated Chief Brant had lived but a short time before, but had now withdrawn into the wilds of Western Canada. The voyageurs, after several days of hard labour and difficulty, emerge into the little lake Oneida, lying in the north-western part of the State of New York, through which they pa.s.s with ease and pleasure. The most difficult part of their journey has been overcome. In due time they reach the Onondaga River, and soon pa.s.s down it to Oswego, then an old fort which had been built by the French, when they were masters of the country, as a barrier against the encroachments of the wily Indian. Several b.l.o.o.d.y frays had occurred here, but our friends do not tarry to muse over its battle-ground, or to learn its history.
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