OCR Text |
Show TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA: £trmers arc bound to have their corn ready by a ce rtain day on 1c b8.nks of th St. Lawrence, and bateaux are then fcnt by the mcrchams to re .. ccirc and convey it to th port where it is to be {hipped, All the fc ttlcments in Lower Canada li contiguous to the River St. Lawrence : jn no pla e perhaps do they extend farther back than twelve mite 5 from it, except a1ollg the b:1nks of the River St. Jc.m, the River d s Prairies, and fomc other n~ vigablc ftrcams falling into the St. Lawrence. This is owing to the di(pofition of the 1:. rench Canadians,. "' ho, !1k.._ the Germans, arc fond of living ncar eacl olhcr ~ nay more, as long as the farm o[ the fath 'r will admit of a divifion, a fl1arc of it is given to the fons whc 1 they arc grown up, and it is on1y when the i rm is exceedingly flllall, or the family numc ron s, that th ey ever think of t aking up a piece of frc01 land from the fcignior. ' In this refpecr a wonderful difference appears between their conduCt and that of the young people of the United States, particularly of thol"l: of N ew England, who, a ii on as they arc grown up, immediately emigrate, and bury thcmfdves in the woodf, where, perhaps, th y arc five or fix hundred miles difbnt from every rehtion upon earth : yet a fpirit of enterprize is not wanting amongil: the Canadians ; they eagerly come forwa rd, whetl called upon, to travedc the immcn[e lahs in the wd1ern regions; they laugh at the dreadful fl:orms on thofe prodigious bodies of water; th ey work with ind f~ tigable pcrfev ranee at the oar and the pole in fl:emming the rapid currents of the riYers; nor do they co n pbin, when, on thefc ex1 editi.on , they happen to be cxpoCed to the inclemency of the feafons, or to tl e fe ·ercfi: pangs of hunger. The fpirit of the Canadian is excited by vanity; he deligh ts in talking to his friends and r lativcs of the excurfions he has made to thofc difbnt r egions ; and he glories in the p ril s which he has encountcrc : his vanity would not be gratifi. d by chopping down trees < nd t illi'1'r the earth; he deems this therdorc merely a fecond::~ry purfuit, and be fcts about it with reluClancc: felf intcrcfi:, c;:m the contrary, it is th..tt roufes the citizen of the ftates into aB:ion~ and ac ordingly he hafiily migrates to a diil:ant F rt of the country 1 where he thinks land is in the moil: rifing llatc,. and where TJ OIS RIVIERE". wh re he ho pes to b abl the fooncft to gr.1tifv a j)::!ilion to \'' · 1 1 J . '- ' I 1JC 1 1v wou!n readily m.tke a .!:1 rific of c\·cry foci ·11 r1· ,. "t d f 11 1 1 ' "' " 1 o ::~ t lat anot Jer man waul! hold dear. On the fccond day of our journ .... y front Quell c to 1\!Jontrcal we r~ <'~ hcd Tr~) iS Rivicr ·s, lying neatly midway between t};c two pl.J. ·c 1lus town IS Gtu: t::d on the ln· nl"·s of t'1,'".' St . L :1\'t.e ncc, c.1o 1r ~~ tot 11 mo 1th of tbc River St. Maurie the hr,_,.n.. of ·J f 1 · • , , ,_, ..... tL upw.ll s o t 11rty tl1at fidl mto the t. Lawr 'llCC, on the north-weft fi [e alone, b"- twe ·n uebec :wd Montr..::al. This river, before it unites with th St. Lawrence, is ividcd into three 11rc·m1s bv t<vvo lat·'r"' ·a • · , , ~," 1 aJJ.uI S, !.o t1n t to a pcr[i n f1iling pafi its mouth it n P'"lc~lrs ;-,s if thrc.;c: iO:inCl: rivers c.Jjf. t:mlJogued at the one fpot ; from hence it is th, t th-: town of Trois R. i- . . vtcrcs rece tves its name. The St. Maurice is not navig:-1h lc for brt'C vdLJ:~, nc:thcr i , it f<.>r Jloo•n more tl1r.n a few miles aLovc its mouth . Ill b.1te;..t1!' <"nd c:lnocs, howcvcr, 1 it may be afccnclcd n arly to i s fomcc ; fr m wbcncc, if credit is to be given to the account of the Indians, the di!bncc i not very great to the head of navigable riv 1 s that [;tl] into Hudfon's D.ty ; at a fu~ure ~lay, t~crefor , if ever the dreary and inhofpitable wafl.c through which tt pafics {hall put on a diHcrent afp~Ct fror wl1at it now wear:;, and become the abode of human beings inflcad of wild beafls, the St. 1\lhuricc may be dl.eemed a river of the firfi importa nce in a commerci.1 l point of view ; :1t prcfcnt there arc a few fcattcred fe ttlements on each i1d .of it, fn.~ m its mouth as far as the iron works, which arc about nine mi'c d iO:ant fi-om Trois Riviercs ; beyond that the country i but littk known except to Indians. Trois Rivicres contains abo ut two hundred and fi[ty or three hundred houfcs, and ranks as the third town, in point of .fizc, in the provinces. It is one of the oldcil: fct tlcments in the country, and its i~nmder, it is faid, calculated upon its becoming in a fl1ort time a. city of gr~ .. t c. t nt. It has hitherto, however, increafcd but very !1owly in fizc, ~mel there is 110 reafon to imagine that it will incrcafc tnorc rapiJJy in future, at lcdl unti · the ountry bordering upon the ~t. Maurice becomes fettlcu, a period that may be very diftant. The bank of iron ore in then ighbourhooc.l, by the K k 2 manufacture |