T Uu 0 \ ^ C.r^ ^ / 2 _ A - /Jr 7h^ >> A^y^ i^o u .y .y^x,^^^y'^^ tT f U\^ (P^ ^ f -r ^ ^ -- i K i^-v CiA^ a. ^ '■'■ -.y ^TXJ:i^ ^ 'Z', ^ -4^ A/ ^ 4^ ’ ¥ yt ^ ^ ttZi> ^ ^ y ^ .X. -T7~~. yiyO ■^Z_-- V. VX, ^ T ' "" 1 /-^- Z.-' ' “^z; • 'T-A>> MCGILL UNIVERSITY ZJs,, RECREATIONS OF A LONG V A (’ A T I O N. RECREATIONS OP A LOSS TACATION; a Visit INDIAN MISSIONS IN UPPER CANADA. /■' JAMES BEAVEN, D.D. Professor of Divinity in the University of King's College^ Toronto, LONDON: JAMES BURNS, PORTMAN STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE. TORONTO ; H. AND W. ROWSELL, ^INO STREET. INTRODUCTlONv When I accepted the appointment which 5renioved me from my native land, I looked forward to the long vacations as seasons in which I miy-ht both obtain recreation from O sedentary employments, and be made useful to the church, by travelling upon some religi- ous 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. McMurray, rector of Ancaster, to preach at the opening of his new church at Dundas. 1 he 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 B L 2 INTRODUCTION. race from which she had sprung. hrom 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 other- wise than as objects of interest and curiosity, until six months after, at the Bishop’s Visita- tion at Toronto, Mr. McMurray 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 sta- tion, on account of the ill-health of himself and his wife, to both of wjiom 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 discon- tinued, and the Indians at that point were invited to join their countrymen at Mani- toulin. The chief, it seems, complied to a INTRODUCTION. ‘3 certain extent, and spent two summers in that settlement ; but subsequently removed back again to thje 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 Chris- tians 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 w'asdikely 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 how'ever 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, 4 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, ap- peared 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 unac- quainted 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, sup- posing 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. isit to tke of givinj wever, ap- cliiDoreto previously ons nearei ault. Tie DO liome, b 'tracted my id tlinkiiij s migkt te inally llDa^ t'ingcoloDj, vacation, as of tlou^lt Q to paper ies, by an 1 hand, sup- and interea )s,asbeinj iiresofAl (M CHAPTER I. Having formed the design of visiting vari- ous 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 distribu- tion 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 us 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 charac- ter 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 entrance 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 aifords 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 w^ere 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, w’here 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 CANADIAN ROADS, 11 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 hun- dreds 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 near- est 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 12 CANADIAN ROADS. 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 cen- turies, 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 tan- gled 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 Tude causeway, the roughness of which has long CANADIAN ROADS. 13 curate ii fewer or other, ire Uabit e will JO , a ravine, Neitk iTien trees r for ceil- isrujjed )nceivel)j irests of 8 iDj of tie ?1 with tie ny of tie been cot renuit)’ to er, Thefl ) may ho ave to he t are soft come into 1 and tan* which lie I have to ie by* r a r* 'has loD? 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 tra- velled, 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 over- looks ravine, or creek (Anglice hrool^^ 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 primi- tive 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 14 CANADIAN ROADS. 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 con- cessions 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 ojyen 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 CANADIAN ROADS. 15 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 altoge- ther 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 go- vernment, undergo a further operation called tumpiking. 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, ac- cording to circumstances. These turnpiked roads are commonly carried in a straight line from point to point of the country. For- merly it was done in a rude and imperfect manner ; but in the new lines improved or a 16 CANADIAN ROADS. formed in tlie 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 over- flowed 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 embank- ments 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 des- titute of improvement, and which might have been improved to the great convenience of the districts in which they lie, with the remain- ing three-fourths of the cost incurred in par- ticular spots; leaving the inhabitants of those spots, or the travellers over them, still enough of improvement to make them very thankful. CANADIAN ROADS- 17 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 plank- ing, or macadamizing. Hitherto, macadamiz- ing 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 im- proved 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 becom- ing very uneven by the operation of the break- ing 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 begin- ning; new roads are formed upon better prin- ciples 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 cover- ing 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 passen gel's, 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 which I have seen macadam- CANADIAN ROADS, 19 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 pub- lic streets or roads ; and I will give a little account of it. The late Judge Powell was T 20 CANADIAN ROADS. 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 foot- ways 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 accom- modation 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 cross- ings are very awkwardly high. This method of planking is at all times a great improve- ment 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 CANADIAN ROADS. 21 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 mate- rials 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 allow^ed for three carriages ; and on the King- ston 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 durableness of the former. There can be no doubt that a new plank road, 22 CANADIAN ROADS. 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 Ox- ford, and in other parts of the w^est; 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 CANADIAN HOADS. 23 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 por- tions of some of the principal streets have had their carriage ways planked, under the direc- tion 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. ( 24 ) CHAPTER III. From Canadian roads, I pass to Canadian carriages. I one day saw, in the streets of i Toronto, a very primitive vehicle indeed. It I was a cart, with small wheels cut solid from I 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, jji and stakes set upright at certain distancQS; and I it was drawn by a yoke of oxen. I never saw I another, and have no reason to think that they are commonly used in any part of the pro- vince. The next thing in order is the wood waggon, for the conveyance of firewood; of much the same structure as the cart 1 have described, excepting that the small trees are squared with the axe, and the wheels and their etceteras are formed in the ordinary j manner by the wheelwright. The next step i m mmm CANADIAN CARRIAGES. 25 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 wag- gon, and supported only at the ends. 1 his 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 fre- quently 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 exprience I can testify to the light waggon being by far the 26 CANADIAN CARRIAGES. 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 bas 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 alter- nate 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 fre- quently less in length by two feet than the distance from axle to axle, about nine inches in depth, and surmounted by the chair por- tion 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 its lines; again, curved beneath, to admit of the fore wheel passing under in turning; CANADIAN CARRIAGES. ‘27 sometimes rising before and behind, and ap- proximating 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 open poney-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 neigh- bouring 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. ( 28 ) 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. Some nine years ago, Mr. McMurray, then quite a young man, was employed by the Bishop of Quebec, upon the recommenda- tion, I believe, of the then Archdeacon of York, and now Bishop of Toronto, as a Mis- sionary to the Chippeway Indians, at the Sault Ste Marie, on the waters between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. He was established in the family of an Irish gentleman connected with the fur trade, who had married the eldest daughter of the head chief of that nation; and one of the daughters of this gentleman, who had received her education in the States, became his interpreter. In course of time, he learnt STAY AT DUNDAS. 29 the language himself, and became remarkably successful in the conversion of the Indians to the Christian faith. He had a very flourish- ing school, an attentive and devout congrega- tion, and many communicants. It was not unnatural, that finding in his interpreter a young lady of respectable Irish connexion, of the first rank in her own nation, of pleasing manners, a cultivated mind, and great piety, he should become attached to her and ulti- mately marry her. In course of time, the hardships he had undergone in his missionary life, joined to the coldness of the winters, be- gan seriously to affect his health ; and his wife, who appears to have inherited something of the European constitution from her father, suffering in a similar way, he was compelled to resign his mission, and remove to a more genial part of the country. Some of Mrs. McMurray’s family still live at the Sault ; but that is not the original seat of the family, which belongs to the Pointe du Lac, at the head of Lake Superior. I remained at Mr. McMurray’s for a few days, to talk over my plans, and obtain infor- mation concerning the Indian tribes. On Friday he drove me up the valley to Flam- borough, amidst some of the finest scenery I d2 30 DRIVE TO TUSCARORA. have ever seen in any country. As you rise out of the low ground, and look back, you perceive the valley opening down beyond you, with a woocjed mountain rising to the right and left; the picturesque village of Dundas at your feet; the little town of Hamilton in the distance ; and beyond it the bay opening by degrees out into Lake Ontario: and every step you take, you get little home views, such as you seldom meet with out of England. I am satisfied that when the country has been set- tled fifty years longer, we shall have many parts of Canada equalling^ if not excelling, in beauty, anything in England. On Monday, we took leave of Mrs. McMurray and her engaging little family, and were driven by Mr. McMurray along the macadamized road through Ancaster to Tuscarora, on the Grand lliver, the seat of the mission to the Six Na- tions. The country through which we passed w^as extensively cleared and cultivated, and appeared to be an excellent farming country. As we approached our destination, w^e turned oif the main road into one of the country roads, and soon encountered a stream of water fall- ing into the Grand River. The country was now less cultivated, but more varied and pic- turesque, and from the crops we saw on the land, the soil must be extremely rich. TUSCARORA MISSION. 31 Our arrival was quite unexpected by Mr. Elliott, the resident Missionary. The letter which had been despatched some days before by Mr. McMurray, to apprise him of our in- tention, had not arrived, — as there was no post to the village, and he had not had occa- sion to send into Brantford, the post town. Mr. McMurray’s introduction, however, and a letter from the Bishop, with which he had kindly favoured me, made everything plain, if anything had been wanting to bring into play the hospitality of a Canadian clergyman towards a brother clergyman. Our luggage was brought in, and we were soon engaged in agreeable conversation. The English appear- ance of the sitting room, the prints of home scenes on the walls, the little English knick- knacks on the table, were for a moment rather disappointing. One fancied that there must be a ruder simplicity about the very dwelling and furniture of the Indian Missionary, and that all the ornaments should be Indian curi- osities. To the expatriated Englishman, however, and even to the Canadian, every- thing English is most valued ; and old- fashioned specimens of needlework, set in pic- ture frames, which would have been long ago displaced in the old country, to make room for 32 TUSCARORA MISSION. newer ornaments, are here carefully cherished as mementoes of those whom perhaps we are never destined to see again. A few Indian trifles, however, were on the mantle-piece; and the discovery of an Indian mask cut in wood, which had formerly been worn in their heathen festivities, and which much resembled those used upon the Roman stage, was a suf- ficient recompence for the absence of other things. pyroti^i (35 ) CHAPTER V. Mr. Elliott’s mission is a part of the settle- ment of the Six Nations, for whose benefit the New England Company have established two missions ; the principal one at the Mo- hawk village near Brantford, the other at Tuscarora. This company was originally established for the conversion of the Indians in New England and the parts adjacent, and possesses a considerable portion of landed pro- perty in one of the New England States. Upon the separation of the United States from the mother country, the Indians to whom they had hitherto ministered, having proved loyal to the English crown, were compelled to quit their original settlement, and w'ere mostly removed to Canada. T.his, together with the circumstance that English clergymen could not, of course, be sent to minister in a hostile state, broke up the New England mission. The question then arose. In what 36 INDIAN MISSIONS. manner the funds of the society could be best employed, so as to fulfil the intentions of the founders : and it was determined that the tribes which had been originally bene- fitted, although no longer resident either in New England or in the parts adjacent, were the fittest objects of their bounty. Upon this, missions were established for the Mo- hawks separately, one near Brantford, the other in the Bay of Quinte, on the N. E. shore of Lake Ontario; and more recently a mis- sion for the Six Nations at Tuscarora. I should have visited the Mohawk village first, but for the absence of the missionary. The Six Nations, who form a confederacy under one chief, are the Mohawks, Cayu gas, Tuscaro'ras, Sen'ecas, Onondah'gas and Oni - das. Of these the Mohawks are the most numerous, reaching to nearly 700. Next come the Cayugas, numbering 550 ; then the Tuscaroras, about 360; the Onondahgas, 280; the Senecas and Onidas, about 100 each. The confederacy originally consisted of Jive nations, omitting the Tuscaroras, who were added subsequently. All these speak dia- lects of the Mohawk or Iroquois language. Another nation has since been added, without changing the name; z. e. the Delawares. They INDIAN MISSIONS, 37 are in number about 230, and speak a dialect of Chippeway (or Ojibbeway) language, which is perfectly distinct from the Mohawk. These two languages divide the Indians of this part of North America, — and formerly the races were so hostile, that if they met, they were sure to fight ; but now, as we have seen, the Delawares, of the Chippeway race, are admit- ted into friendship with the six nations of the Iroquois race. For the settlements of this race on the Grand River, the New England Company supports two missionaries, six schoolmasters and a schoolmistress : of these there are a missionary and schoolmaster at Tuscarora, a schoolmaster at the Martin set- tlement, and another for the Delawares. The rest are for the Mohawks. The allow- ance for the missionaries is £200 sterling per annum, with a house and land ; and that for the schoolmaster £50, with a house. The mission at the Mohawk village dates from the American Rebellion ; that at Tuscarora is more recent. The results of both are that the Mohawks, Tuscaroras and Onidas are entirely Christians ; the Onondahgas and Delawares mostly so, the latter being recent converts ; of the Senecas, not so many as half have been baptized ; and the Cayugas hold 38 INDIAN MISSIONS. out obstinately, alleging that they have not been well treated by the British. Tlieir character, from what I could learn, seems to be more haughty than that of the other tribes. I find that the New England Company has expended as much as £300 in providing a house and farm buildings for the mission at Tuscarora; and I imagine double that sum at Mohawk Village : they have likewise spent £400 on the church at Tuscarora, which is a very pretty structure. Their expenses at the Mohawk village must have been much more considerable, as will be seen when I come to speak of it. It so happened that, on the evening of our arrival, there was to be a meeting of chiefs in the Tuscarora mission, at the Onondahga village, which might have terminated in a regular council. The occasion of this meet- ing will be better understood after a little preliminary detail. The Indians who removed to Canada, 'were settled upon certain lands, which were as- signed to them by the government, and which are their own national property. They are treated by the British government as allies; so far as that no step has been taken towards them without the consent of a council of their lot rfr to av 4 on ID) 'Dt la lie re ae ur ffe a it- le re s- i fe Is ir INDIAN LANDS. 39 chiefs. But liaving no ideas of internal government, and no spirit to bear up under the aggression of white people, and not suf- ficient intelligence or self-command to pre- vent them from being the victims of their cupidity and fraud,— the government has found it necessary, with their own consent, to take the management of their lands into its direction, and to appoint superintendents to reside amongst them, to watch over their interests, and to settle all disputes which may arise either between themselves or between them and white settlers : all being under the direction of a chief superintendent, resident in such place as the government may direct, which is at present at Toronto. I have said that the lands are the national property of the Indians; and they are so in the most restricted sense; for no individual has any permanent property in a single acre of them. Individuals who are desirous of cultivating any portion of the land may do so, if they are not already occupied. If they wish to have the possession secured to them, they may have a life interest given them by the superintendent ; and if a sufficient reason appears, the reversion of that interest may be secured to the family of the occupant ; but he 40 INDIAN LANDS* cannot legally sell or alienate it, without the consent of the chiefs. It has however so hap- pened, that individual Indians have for many years past chosen to sell their improvements^ to use the Canadian term, (i. e. portions of land which they have cleared and brought into cultivation,) to white settlers. The late Head Chief, Brant, (from whom Brantford derives its name, and who is the author of a Mohawk version of the gospel of St. Mark) made in his latter years many alienations of that description, and even of uncleared lands: for however intelligent and promising at one time, he became in his latter years the slave of intemperance, and was continually barter- ing away portions of the national lands for barrels of strong liquors. It is true that these sales, and all others of the same kind, made by other Indians, are perfectly invalid in law ; but they were acted upon as though it were otherwise. The super- intendents, whose business we may suppose it to have been to prevent the whites from occupying the Indian lands, did not interfere; possibly, from thinking that it was better for them to be brought into cultivation in any way, than that they should remain unoccu- pied, — and that what was left was far more than INDIAN LANDS. 41 the Indians themselves would ever occupy. At length the settlements of this description became so numerous, particularly in Brant- ford and its neighbourhood, that it was thought advisable by the government to per- suade the Indians to sell a considerable tract to the Crown, in order that they might give legal titles by legitimate sale, both to the present occupants and to future possessors, and apply the proceeds to the benefit of the Indians themselves. This course has been adopted in similar circumstances with regard to more than one Indian settlement; and in most cases the interest of the purchase money has been annually distributed to them : and as the number of Indians is annually dimin- ishing, the remainder often receive very con- siderable sums; which they employ according to their taste and habits, — in the purchase of English finery, in substantial clothing, in seed corn and provisions, in articles of furniture, and perhaps sometimes in the acquisition of private landed property. At least I know that some of the chiefs have landed property of their own, and that to a considerable amount. This has been the usual mode of managing the proceeds of sales of Indian lands, and e2 42 INDIAN LANDS. some of their settlements have made more than one cession of territory under similar circumstances. But in the case of the Six Nations, on the Grand River, the govern- ment has chosen to make another use of their property, not however without having first obtained their own consent. It was considered desirable for the general advancement of that part of the province, that the Grand River should be made navigable for steamers and merchant schooners, to as high a point as w^as practicable; and for this end a company was incorporated by act of provincial parliament. It w'as likewise deemed advisable to embark £10,000 of the proceeds of the Indian sales in the undertaking. Whether the proceeding was wise or not at the time, it may perhaps be difficult to determine. The undertaking will probably be in time a lucrative one; as the company receives 25s, per 1000 cubic feet on squared oak timber, 155. on squared pine, from 5s, to 15s, per 1000 for pipe staves, 55. for every steamboat, 25. 6d, for every 100 bushels of lime and ton of wrought iron or merchandize, and Is. 3d, for unwroujrht iron and stone, at each of its locks on the river, — besides 12Z. IO 5 . annually for every pair of mill stones, and 20/. for every saw in any i ? INDIAN LANDS. 43 mill erected on its banks. At present, how- ever, I believe, it pays no dividend. On several of these points, the Indians had been making representations to the govern- ment. I believe they had got the idea that the management of the Grand River was more expensive than it should be, or at all events they wished to know a little more on the subject. But the principal point was, that they thought their lands not well managed. They observed that, after the repeated pledges given by the government at each new cession of territory, that the whites should be absolutely forbidden to squat (as the term is) on their land, still new squatters con- tinued to occupy the outer line, and to hem them in closer and closer. It is true there was a superintendent residing near them, but he appeared to have no power to prevent it, and they thought that if they could have their lands placed in their own direction, they should be able to prevent it. It was to consider a memorial to the Gover- nor General, in reply to a report which had been sent to them in consequence of a former memorial, that this meeting was called ; and we were invited by Mr. Elliott to go to wit- ness the proceedings. My curiosity was on 44 INDIAN DRESS. the qui vive as I went along, but it was doomed to considerable disappointment. Very few of the Indians we met had anything remark- able in their costume. The men have mostly adopted the dress of the farmers and labourers of the neighbourhood; so that we had Indians in the frock coat of every cut, and the hat of every shape. Here and there one had a handkerchief on his head in place of a hat, or instead of trowsers, wore the Indian legging, reaching half-way up the thigh, and his shirt of whatever material hanging loose over it. Now and then a young man had a ragged red girdle, worked with beads, or a circlet of tin round his hat, or a feather in his hat, or ear- rings in his ears, or his face marked with paint. But amongst all we met on our way there was only one man who wore the full Indian costume. This was an old man be- tween 90 and 100, the oldest chief of the Mohawks, and a warrior. He was dressed correctly from head to foot. On his feet were the mocassin, *a sort of shoe of soft leather with no sole: then came the leggings of light green cloth, with the seams down the front: over them a shirt of figured cotton, fastened down the bosom with three or four pewter broaches: over that a loose short dres- f el ew t tly ?rs ms lat la or '?> irt it el tin ir- :tl ay ill e* le ?d et ft ) T1 ir I* MEETING OF INDIANS. 45 sing gown of showy figured cotton or chintz, fastened with a deerskin belt ; — the whole sur- mounted by a showy handkerchief made into a sort of cap, towering forward. He stopped to speak with Mr. Elliott, and assigned his great age as a reason for not awaiting the issue of the meeting. He had the high cheek bones; the flattened Roman nose; the full firm mouth, which characterized his na- tion ; but if I were to compare him wdth any thing I had ever seen in England, it would be with an old soldier I remember, of the low- est class, lingering out the remnant of his existence in one of the remote villages of the midland counties of England. We proceeded to the place of meeting, which certainly presented nothing very im- posing : there was an open green, with a few log cottages adjoining it, surrounded with gardens; and on one side of this green was a log building, containing only one room, with two chimnies. On entering it we found the walls rude as the axe had left them, no ceil- ing of any kind, nor do I remember any seats. A few women and girls were there, and they appeared to have provisions, of which one of them was cooking a portion. This was all we saw of the council-house of the Onon- 46 MEETING OF INDIANS. dahgas; for there was no regular council. On our return to one of the cottages, we found some old men in conversation near it, some in hats and some in handkerchiefs; to whom I was introduced. The face of one chief was perfectly hideous, but others had handsome features, debased to all appearance by poverty and ignorance ; one or two appeared quiet, intelligent men. I found that the head chief had recently perished by accident in getting in his corn. He indeed was a man of a much higher class ; he was acquainted with English and general history, and was a thoughtful reader of the English reviews and newspapers. The object of my tour was explained to them, and they were invited to attend the church to-morrow morning, to give me an opportu- nity of addressing them. After a time we found that twenty or thirty persons were assembling in the cottage, and we went in amongst them. We sat round the room in no order, and if I were to speak of any assembly which I had seen as most resembling it, I should instance a parish vestry in a rural parish in England, where not a man was present above the lower class of farmers. After a time the principal chief, who might easily liave been taken for a small farmer in England, I ' MEETING OF INDIANS. 4/ rose and addressed himself to the part of the room in which I sat. When he ceased, the interpreter proceeded to explain what he had said, and I perceived that it was addressed to me, expressing their pleasure in my taking an interest in their nation, their intention to be present at service in the morning, and their good wishes for my journey, &c. I made a suitable reply, which was then inter- preted to them. The same speaker then addressed himself to their own business, and after a short speech which was interpreted to Mr. Elliott, requested that gentleman to read the draft of a petition which he had brought. It was read and interpreted sentence by sen- tence; and then one speaker after another expressed his views, until the leading chief informed Mr. Elliott that some of their num- ber thought some mention might be made of sundry other matters, about which they desired redress : and finally it was arranged that a council should be held on the ensuing Tues- day, to come to an ultimate agreement. The next day, at eleven o’clock, we went to church, when Mr. Elliott read the prayers in Mohawk. The prayer-books are printed in Mohawk and English; and I observed that even several of the Indians preferred to join 48 INDIAN CONGREGATION. INDIAN OHUacH OV TUSCARORA. the English present in making the responses in English. The propriety of demeanour, the general responding and sing'ing, were very agreeable. The lessons were read in English, and translated by the interpreter, verse by verse. There were several hymns sung in Mohawk and English at once; with- out any appearance of confusion. The dif- ferent parts of the harmonies were w^ell sus- tained: but the men’s voices were very harsh, and their singing very nasal; the women’s, on the contrary, were very sweet and musical. Nothing can well be imagined more irksome, than preaching by an interpreter; especially in so diffuse a language as both the Mohawk and Chippeway languages are. You feel that in order not to make an outrageously long ser- INDIAN CONGREGATION. 49 mon, it is necessary to compress your thoughts into as few words as possible, — and then you feel that they must be diluted and weakened in the interpretation. You lose the agreeable excitement by which you are carried on in speaking in your own language, and miss the kindling up of your hearer’s looks, and the increased and deepening attention, which accompany your addressing those wlio under- stand you at once. . You feel your own voice and manner become tame and spiritless, and your sermon lose still more by the filtration of interpreting. And then the Mohawk’s manner of speaking is so quiet and unimpas- sioned, that if you had any little warmth of feeling, it quickly cools down ; and you are anxious to be speedily released from a posi- tion which you fancy is agreeable neither to your hearers nor to yourself. And yet I believe my interpreter was heard with atten- tion and feeling, whilst he gave them, sen- tence by sentence, what was mostly an exhor- tation to love and good will and to the use of private devotion, arising out of a portion of the scripture for the day. In the course of the morning I walked out to visit the Indian cottages, and to take a sketch of the old mission house. Mr. Elliott 50 INDIAN CHIEF. took me into the house of the aged chief whom we had met the preceding evening. His Indian name is Oghnahw erea ; his Eng- lish, Daniel Spring. He is a warrior chief, and is the person who taught Mr. Elliott to read the prayers in Mohawk. I saw a staff on the floor, evidently carved by Indian hands. I took it up and admired it, and he subsequently gave it me. It became my companion for the remainder of my tour, and was a kind of passport to the good-will of the Indians whom I afterwards encountered. CHAPTER VL The same afternoon we drove to the Mo- hawk village, at which I was able to spend but a small space of time : I saw, however, the little church, and the school-room. The former, like most of the Canadian churches, is of wood, painted white, with a little bell turret. At the upper end is a sort of pulpit, divided in the middle, one side for the preacher, the other for the interpreter ; be- hind which, on the wall, are the Creed, Lord’s Prayer and Commandments, in the Mohawk language. In front of it is the communion- table, an arrangement derived from the United States; a little further down a sepa- rate pew for the church-wardens. The rest of the church is divided into open seats, one side for the men, the other for the women ; In the church-yard are some tombstones and wooden monuments, some with English, and 52 MOHAWK VILLAGE. Others with Indian inscriptions. I copy one of the latter : — July Nikyenh Staats ethone Yakonakeratonh 31. 1828. Noknehji nonwehnonsaya lAE YE February 25th, 1843. Translation : — Ellen Staats born July 31, 1828, here turned again to earth February 25th, 1843. I w^as shewn the communion plate given by Queen Anne. It was at first a double set, consisting of two flagons, chalices, and patens. At present it is divided, half of it being at the Mohawk settlement on the Bay of Quinte, near Kingston. It is substantial, of good size, but quite plain. Each piece has the following inscription : — The gift of her Majesty Ann, (sic) by the grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and of her Plantations in North America, Queen, to her Indian Chappel of the Mohawks.’’ I need scarcely say that it is most highly valued by them. The school is taught by an intelligent Englishman, and is upon a plan almost exactly the same as that adopted in the MOHAWK SCHOOL. 53 boarding and day schools for farmers’ sons in England. I saw the writing and cipher- ing books of the boys. One wrote a good free hand, and the other quite as good as boys of the same age in similar schools in England. The ciphering, I think, did not generally extend beyond the rules of propor- tion : one boy had been taught a little geometry and surveying. I afterwards saw the girls’ school : they are taught reading, writing, knitting and needlework. Their appearance and behaviour was cleanly and modest, without the extreme shyness of the ordinary Indian children. Besides this there are workshops for various handicrafts, in which the boys are instructed out of school hours: here I saw them employed in car- pentry, smiths’ work, waggon-making, and shoe-making, under the direction of English- men and Canadians. They appeared handy and cheerful, but very shy, or at least silent. This is the only establishn ent in which they are boarded and lodged ; and the only one in which they derive any great or marked ad- vantage from their instruction. The number of boys and girls together is, I believe, about forty. The missionary at this station, Mr. Nelles, has an excellent brick house and 54 INDIAN INTERPRETER. glebe, — in fact, one of the most comfortable appointments in Canada. Mr. Elliott was good enough to send us on in his light waggon, with his interpreter, as far as Oxford, or rather Ingersoll, of which Mr. Rothwell was then the missionary. This interpreter is the son of the (now) principal chief of the Mohawks, and is the occupant of about two hundred acres of land, which at present he sublets : he is likewise heir to the occupation of two hundred more. He continues with Mr. Elliott without any other remuneration than his board and lodging, and such instruction as that gentleman chooses to furnish him. Of the latter he appears to have obtained as much as he contemplated : but he is become so attached to the family, that he stays on without any definite view, beyond that of assisting his pastor and the pleasure he derives from the gradual improve- ment of his own mind by the society of the family and visitors ; for he takes all his meals at the same table with them. I was amused bv the shrewdness and correctness of his observations upon the national habits and character of his employer’s guests. From all I can learn and observe, these Indians ap- pear fully as well gifted with natural talent, f iatile 18 OD jr,as rlicl Ttis icipal iDtoI chat eir to He other ;,an(l «esto aisto lated; iniily, vieW) id the prove- of the ,meak INDIAN CHARACTER. 55 and as capable of cultivation, as the children of our own peasantry : but not a whit higher in any respect. Their moral character like- wise is pretty much on a par with that of Englishmen in country districts ; in chastity, no doubt, much higher. On leaving the Mohawk village, we passed through the town of Brantford, once an In- dian settlement, but now almost entirely in the hands of the whites. Descending to the banks of the river, and crossing a long cov^ered wooden bridge, which reminded me of those I had met with in Switzerland, we came on the lower ground, on which we were to journey to reach our resting place for the night. In taking leave of Mr. Elliott, I must not omit to mention how much I was gratified to observe his peculiar adaptation of character to the simple people amongst whom he dwells, and the entire confidence which subsists be- tween him and his flock. ( 56 ) CHAPTER VII. On this part of our journey we were drawn by a pair of Indian ponies, about fourteen hands high. They are a short stout little animal, of some spirit and great endurance ; and live very cheaply and hardily. They took us along over the good roads above eight miles an hour, from about three to one o’clock in the night : but a large portion of the road was not good, and therefore our pace was slower, although perhaps more fatiguing to the animal. In proceeding on our way we made the discovery that the place to which we were directed, viz., Oxford, had no existence ; that there was a township of Oxford, divided into East and West, but that there was no such place as Oxford. Fortu- nately one of our informants happened to know the clergyman to whose house we were going, and his place of residence, and di- rected us to inquire for Ingersoll. We went on with much misgiving, knowing that if we JOURNEY TO INGERSOLL. 57 got on the wrong road, we might go many a mile before we found any one to repair our error. There were two roads to take, one the ordinary road of the country, the other par- tially planked and macadamised, and we were advised to take the latter. What the former might have proved, we of course do not know ; but the latter proved disagreeable enough. About ten miles of it were in the course of being planked ; and the planking was not carried on uniformly from one point to another, but the worst parts appeared to have been selected : I mean those which were most swampy. The plank, it is true, so far as it was finished, which might be one fourth, was pleasant enough; but it was questionable whether the road on the whole was not in a worse state than if nothing had been done to it. In those parts where the process of lay- ing down the planks was going on, we were often obliged to take the sides of the road, which were of course very rough and uneven, and in parts almost impassable. In other parts the ground was being prepared, by dig- ging out trenches for the long beams to which the plank was to be fastened, and laying down the beams themselves; and we were compelled to flounder along on these as we could. The 58 RaUGH ROADS. tiling became much worse after night fall. We were compelled mostly to proceed at a foot’s pace ; and when we came to one of these spots, we alighted till it was passed. But it w^as still worse, when after trotting along pleasantly on a bit of plank, we suddenly came down on these beams and holes. In short, it must be evident that English horses would have been down a dozen times in the course of an hour ; but our little Indians went through it all most patiently, and were perfectly ready for a merry trot when we came to a bit of plank. Indeed, Canadian horses in general are remarkably sure-footed, and a broken knee I have not yet noticed. The country on the banks of the Grand River was fine and picturesque ; but on leaving Brantford we got into a dead level, from wdiich we did not emerge materially till after night-fall. The country conse- quently became uninteresting, consisting of little but a succession of forest and rough clearings. Here I had an opportunity of witnessing the clearing process in all its stages. In one place might be seen a few trees cut down, and the first rough shanty of boards set up, with which by the bye many of the Irish appear to content themselves ill it a lese it it onj inly In m ie lians irere i we idian )ted, iced, rand t on evel, ■ially )nse Jgof oujii y of II te few IvfS S: PROCESS OF CLEARING. 59 altogether for two or three years together. Then about an acre, with the trees felled, and lying irregularly about ; about a couple of roods cleared in the centre of it, a small log cottage set up, and the rest planted with potatoes. This would be fenced in perhaps with the boards of the original shanty, nailed to a few stumps and small trees, with their tops cut off and left rooted in the ground, as at first I whilst here and there a stump ap- pears in the midst of the vegetation ; and a rough little cow or two might be seen picking about by the road side, or in the still untouched forest. A further step would be, to see some of the tree-trunks laid one on another longitudinally, to form a rude pro- tection to the future field, and the rest cut up in lengths, and drawn together in heaps, and burning with more or less of vigour ; whilst interspersed would be the ashes and black- ened remains of former heaps, and here and there a curling wreath of smoke, telling of smouldering embers still unquenched. The burning of the timber trees, however, is a process resorted to only in those remote parts where timber or fire-wood finds no market, — such as those we passed through to-day. Nearer the towns, (and indeed every where, 60 PROCESS OF CLEARING. when the farms have grown up over the country,) the timber trees are prepared for the market, either by being squared with the axe, or by being sawed up into lengths to make boards, or by being chopped and split into billets of four feet in length for firewood. Much valuable timber, and wood which will one day be prized as ornamental, is now treated in the way last mentioned, owing to the abundance of the supply which nature has provided. In this case only the brushwood is committed to the flames ; whilst the whole of the clearing becomes piled over with stacks of wood, which the woodman has thus cut down and arranged at a given price per acre. This is the plan in the most populous dis- tricts : but in those I was speaking of, tim- ber is at first simply an incumbrance to the earth, or at best a manure to the first crops; and therefore the sooner and the easier it can be applied to its use, the better. But we come to another clearing, which is a year further in advance. Here the space for the garden is augmented, and enclosed with a snake-fence ; a shed or two is erected, or it may be a little outhouse ; the whole of the trees are gone from the first clearing, and perhaps from a second, leaving only ' tlie )rtlie laxe, make tinto wood. hi snow iliwooJ wlole stack ;US cut jracre. lUS fc )f, tini- to tie crops; ‘I it can vbich e space nclosei erected) Aole of learinj) 0- only 0 PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT. G1 the stumps; a crop of grain or of Indian corn covers the ground, and the original pro- cess is extending itself over a further portion of the forest. Further on the process has ad- vanced another step. The original rough fence of trees no longer appears, but is replaced by the snake fence. What was cropped with grain is laid down to grass ; the crops of grain and corn extend on all sides, and the forest recedes into the background : comfortable stables and barns are erected ; an addition is perhaps made to the log hut; the chimney^ which was of wood, filled in and plastered with clay, is replaced by one of brick or stone, built up from the ground : the waggon or sleigh is lying about ; a pair of horses may be seen grazing in the pasture, in addition to the half-dozen of cows and calves ; and if the man is an Englishman or native Canadian, a few flowers make their appearance in the garden. As we approach the older settled country, the rough clearings scarcely appear, such as the first I described : the farm buildings, (all of wood) become capacious, and are kept in good order. There is a good garden with upright paling or boards ; and a substantial frame-house, painted white or rough-cast, o 62 CANADIAN FENCES. withslts neat verandah, and pretty green French blinds, shows that the occupier has triumphed over necessity, and possesses both leisure and ability to think of comfort, even perhaps of elegance. 1 here are multitudes of these dwellings in all parts of the country : they have a lively and elegant appearance ; and though they will no doubt, for comfort sake, in time give way to the dwelling of plain red brick, as they are doing in the neighbourhood of towns, the prospect will then have lost much of its beauty. I mentioned, just now the snake-fence ; and that leads me to make a little digression on the subject of fences. The rudest is that which I mentioned a short time since, formed by piling up trunks of trees longitudinally one upon another, and securing them in their position by various devices; such as stumps re- maining in suitable positions on each side of the line they take, shorter trunks resting against them, small trees driven into the ground, &c. &c. Another kind of rude fence is made of small trees, from four to nine inches in diameter. These are cut into equal lengths, laid longitudinally with their ends resting on each other alternately, and supported on each side by stout stakes driven perpendicularly jreen ‘f k sbotli even ituJes intry: ranee; oinfort linj of In tie ct will -fence; rressioD ; is tkt formeJ idinally intleir imps re Jeofllfi against grounJ) is made icks in lengte sting on on eacl icularl)’ SNAKE FENCE. 63 into the ground. But by far the most popular fence is the snake-fence, which is thus con- structed : a pine, or any other tree which splits readily, is cut into ten-feet lengths, and then cleft with the axe into rails. A set of them are placed on the ground in a zigzag line, with their ends resting on each other ; another and another set are laid upon the others to the requisite height, and the result is that you have a self-supporting fence made in a very few hours. If you add rails resting with one end in the ground, the other on the fence at the corners on either side, and crossing each other at top, and lay another set of rails on the top of these, you have a very efficient and durable mode of enclosure, rather awkward indeed and straggling, but at the same time very picturesque. Its zigzag course gives it its name. When the snake-fence decays, or the farmer gets tired of its appearance, he replaces it in various ways i one of the most favourite seems to be much such a one as I described as made of small trees ; excepting that it is composed of split rails, and the uprights carefully pinned together with wooden pins. Sometimes cedar posts are let into the ground, and rough boards nailed to them j 64 CANADIAN FENCES. sometimes posts and rails of iieat-suwii tim- ber 5 again upright pales of all descriptions. But we rarely indeed see any attempt at a hedge ; and the hawthorn hedge of Old Eng- land is almost unknown; I believe totally un- know'ii except in a few pleasure-grounds, and on a single farm in the township of Etobicoke. There are two in the grounds of the house in which I reside, which was formerly the resi- dence of Bishop Stewart; and strangers fre- quently stop to look at them. T.here are however thorns of the country which . are occasionally eiiiployed in the same way, but very rarely indeed. I may likewise remark, that a ditch is very seldom seen upon a Cana- dian farm ; and I imagine an under-drain is equally rare. To return to our journey : — We stopped to refresh both ourselves and our beasts a little after eight o'clock, and were not enabled to get oif again till ten ; the landlord evi- dently intending that we should stay with him all night. On turning out of the inn yard we found ourselves upon a new mac- adamised road, a great part of which was quite rough with newly-laid stone,’^— not broken quite according to Mr. Me Adam's rules, — and of course very troublesome to our ponies, ARRIVAL AT INGERSOLL. 65 being a thing of which they had no experi- ence : part was spread over lightly with gravel, and in no small portion the heaps of gravel were thrown down, but not yet spread ; perhaps half was well broken. It may be imagined that our progress was not very rapid. When we arrived at Ingersoll, there were but two lights burning in the scattered village, and, instead of making any attempt to discover Mr. Rothwell’s place of residence, we were glad to take refuge in the inn for the night. CHAPTER VIII. Next morning before breakfast 1 found out Mr. Roth well, who lived on his farm about a mile distant. He had come to Canada, from Ireland, some fourteen years before, in the idea that clergymen were in great request, and that he should much benefit himself ulti- mately by the step. When he arrived he found no prospect of employment; and there- fore purchased some wild land, and got up a log house, consisting of tw'o rooms, in which himself and Mrs. Rothwell had to live, and in which she had to prepare single-handed the meals for themselves and their work- people ; for, at first, owing to the antipathy of the neighbouring Wesleyans and Ro- manists to the Church, she could get no servant whatever. It may be supposed that a person of good education and some accom- plishment, would find this a state of great hardship ; but, as she assured me, it turned EMIGRANT CLERGYMAN. €7 out muck less than she had expected. In time they got a frame house erected : Mr. Roth- well was requested by some church-people to officiate, and by degrees made his way amongst tliem. After a while he put himself in communication with the bishop, and went on under his sanction; and, subsequently, was placed on the list of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and had a salary assigneart against them. About half way we passed on our left hand, 88 MORAVIAN INDIANS. across the Thames, the picturesque little vil- lage of MoraviaiiTown, a mission of that body of long standing. I heard high things of its progress before I left home; but the inquiries I made of various persons along the road, did not lead me to think that it was at all in ad- vance of our own Mohawk village. T.hey have however daily prayer, twice a day, and under the former missionary appear to have been in excellent training; but his successor seems to have less influence, and Indians being like children, requiring constant super- vision and discipline, they have fallen off in correctness of habits. One thing, however, seems pretty clear, viz., that the acknowledged superiority of these Moravian Indians over the ordinary run of that nation, arises chiefly from these cir- cumstances, that the Moravians have joined agriculture and handicrafts with religion, have brought the Indians into daily inter- course with themselves in the concerns of common life, and have trained them in the habit of daily joint devotion. We got into Chatham in the evening, and I called on the Rector, Mr. Hobson, who was once a Congregationalist. Being a bachelor, and living in lodgings, he could not offer me little 4' tliatWy ingsofiti Mnqufc !roa(l,i :all inail- ;e. Tlej \ day, and ar tobe s saccesso: id lodiais itaiitsup alien of ii -etty clear, eriority of rdinaiyroo 1 tlesecii- lave joiBed relifioBr laily inter- joncerns of kem in tie ening, nrid n, wlior^o^' I baclicl^^’ t offer me CHATHAM. 89 the hospiUility which a Canadian clergyman generally claims to exercise towards a brother clergyman : so that I staid at the inn, which was not of a very high character. Finding that the steamboat for Detroit would not go till Monday, I tried to obtain a conveyance to Sandwich by land ; but finding that it was rather doubtful, from the state of the roads, whether any pair of horses could get in before a very late hour indeed, and that the expense would be considerable, 1 determined to re- main where 1 was. During the whole of Saturday night 1 suflfered from an attack of cholera, and next day I with great difficulty fulfilled my engagement to Mr. Hobson, to preach twice for him. The Church seems to be prospering in Chatham, and would do so more, were it not that the edifice for divine worship lies quite out of the town. I [ 90 ] CHAPTER XI. On Monday we took the boat for Detroit, down the Thames, and through Lake St Clair, and the river of that name. I was un- well, and saw but little to interest me, except- ing the picturesque little church belonging to the French settlers on the Thames. These are a portion of the remains of the old French colonies, extending from Lower Canada to Lake Superior, and thence down the Ohio and Mississippi, to New Orleans. How strange, that a nation which could found colonies so extensive, should so entirely have lost them; that the revolted British colonies should be permitted to succeed and prosper, whilst France, who aided them in their revolt, was entirely stripped of hers. But perhaps we may perceive how just it was, that a monarch who could aid the colonies of another monarch, in renouncing their allegiance, should be punished by the loss of his own colonies; and that his oifence, being totally without justification of any kind, should be signally avenged ; whilst the rebellious sub- jects of England, (having some sort of r Detroit, Lake St Iwasun- e,eicepi- belonjinj % Tb Id Frencl [lanada to IS. Hof lid y irelybe li colonies d prosper, eir revolt, it perkaps IS, tkata ofanotker illegiance. f his ova ng totally should ke lioussuk- sort of FRENCH CANADIANS, 91 excuse for their fault), should be allowed to work out their national chastisement by their own hands, and at a more distant period, which seems gradually and inevitably ap- proaching. The lands on each side of the Thames, below Chatham, are chiefly settled by persons of French extraction; and though fertile, are not well cultivated, owing to the inherent want of enterprize of the French Canadians. Their cottages are likewise of an inferior cast, compared with those of any other of the settlers, excepting the low Irish. They have a burial ground at Chatham ; but I do not think that their spiritual wants are well provided for, even according to their own system. Indeed, this is generally the case with regard to the Roman Catholics of the Upper Province; — ^which seems the more un- accountable, inasmuch as the rule of celibacy amongst their clergy, and their being mostly taken from the inferior classes, remove the great obstacle felt in the Church of England to the efifectual provision of the ministers of the Church, — viz., the want of adequate funds^ for their maintenance. Amongst Protestants there would not be the slightest difficulty in finding the necessaries of life amongst the people themselves, if a class of men could be t m 92 DETROIT. I introduced into holy orders, who would be willing to live entirely amongst them, and conform to their habits, and to be dependent upon their voluntary aid. The house of the Canadian settler is always gladly open to the minister of religion, with whom he rejoices to share whatever he has, so long as he chooses to stay: the only difficulty is that it appears impossible with us to find men properly qua- lified who would submit permanently to such a life. But with Roman Catholics one should have supposed that the case was different, and therefore it is the more unaccountable that their people should be so slightly provided w ith the ministrations of their clergy. The passage through Lake St. Clair to De- troit is very beautiful, and especially the approach to that city by water. It rises pic- turesquely from the bay, its foreground filled with the gay steamers and rakish looking schooners which distinguish the ports of the States, — and the centre of the town adorned with the towers and spires of a cluster of churches. This last, how^ever, is only a beauty to the eye, and even to that only at a distance. On a nearer approach to the build- ings themselves, their architecture is slight and poor, and full of unreal pretension ; and Z2: depended )use of tk )pentoilit lie rejoices hecliooses tit appeals operly(|iia. fferentjid otable tliat y prorided ^airtoDe- ecially ik [t rises pi(^ 'ouod tlW sli lootin? lortsoffc ifn adorned cluster of is only » tonlyaf* tbebnild* eissligl" lion; and DETROIT. 93 inquiry shews that they are only a symbol of that Babel confusion on religious subjects, which has obliterated the idea of one true church, — which classes all churches alike as pretenders whose claims are unacknowledged except by a portion of the population, — which insults and degrades all alike, by giving them an equal share of some reserved spot of ground on which to erect their edifice and celebrate their worship, — which proclaims to the eye, and we fear largely likewise to the mind, that there is no certainty of religious opinion, and no ascertainable truth. Detroit is the place of residence of the Bishop of Michigan, Dr. Samuel McCoskry. I had an introduction to him from a common friend, which I lost no time in presenting. The bishop received me in that frank and cordial manner with which the clergy of the Church of England are always welcomed by those of the sister church in the United States, — and not only extended to me his kind hos- pitality during my stay in Detroit, but shewed every disposition to forward my wishes in regard to my further progress. I was too unwell to feel much pleasure from anything at the time, but shall always remember his hearty kindness, and that of his estimable 94 CHURCH ARRANGEMENTS. I It lady, — of whom, personally, I should wish to say more, did I not feel that doing so would be an unwarrantable intrusion into domestic privacy. Being detained at Detroit for two days, I had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with some of the church people there, whom I found earnest and intelligent. There appeared a very friendly disposition towards England and her Church, and I was assured that such a feeling was very prevalent amongst well-informed persons. On Wednesday even- ing I preached to a small but attentive con- gregation. The internal arrangements of the church here, like all those which it has been my fortune to see in the States, and several in Canada, were highly objectionable. The object which terminates the view on entering is the organ; immediately in front of it is the pulpit, then the reading desk, and lowest of all the communion table ; and whilst the two former are adorned with hangings, the latter is quite bare, and half overshadowed by the hangings of the desk; and besides this is made to appear as a mere stand for the font, which is placed upon it. On either side of the latter is a chair, of which that on CHURCH ARRANGEMENTS. 95 the right is reserved for the bishop, and that on the left occupied by any clergyman who happens to be assisting in the performance of divine service ; but there was nothing but its place to mark the bishop’s chair; and in offici- ating, he wore the surplice and stole, like any ordinary clergyman. In fact, like most of the bishops in the States, he is the Rector of the parish in which he resides, and performs all the duties of a parish priest. There was another thing which I remarked, viz., that the pews were mostly lined, and many of them cushioned and stuffed in a style we should be ashamed of in England. The con- trast between the luxury of the worshippers, and the slighting treatment of the holy table, and the want of a fitting position for the bishop, was most revolting to my feelings. On the former subject I ventured to express myself to the bishop, (to whom it is due to say, that he neither made this arrangement, nor approves of it,) and prophesied that how- ever earnest he might be in asserting church principles, — which he evidently is, — it would be to little purpose, so long as the arrange- ments of the church threw such contempt on the highest mystery of the Christian religion. No doubt the Church in Detroit, as every m 96 CHURCH ARRANGEMENTS. where on this continent, is increasing rapidly in numbers, chiefly by converts from other bodies; but I can never believe that its ad- herents are true sons of the Church, so long as personal luxury, and the exaltation of preaching, and low estimation of the Holy Communion, are marked characteristics of so many of their houses of worship. I am told indeed that in the east matters are much bet- ter; but I repeat, that in every one of their churches which I have happened to see, the communion table has been totally unadorned, and placed in front or on the side of the desk, which has always been adorned. And in one I remember to have found it all covered on the Sunday with the droppings of candles, whilst in another there were two tables, one on each side of the desk ; one for the Holy Communion, the other “ to correspond”. During my brief visit, I had many opportu- nities of noticing that the Bishop of Michigan is a very popular person, and much respected by all classes of persons. Many persons touched their hats to him as he passed along the street. He associated with his people much as the Vicar of a country towui in England would do, and is in no way distin- guished in dress from an ordinary clergyman. ipily otlei Isa!- )l0Df ion d Holy sot so mtolil cUet- iftlieii DETROIT. 97 I was at first rather puzzled how to address him; — at least I could not get beyond Dr. McCoskry;” and as ^'Doctor” is very cheap in the States, that did not appear sufficient. But I soon found that his own people called him ‘‘Bishop,” — and although that again sounded too familiar, I was obliged to be contented with it. I find since that this is the ordinary compellation in the States. i [ 98 ] CHAPTER XII. The steamer in which I embarked for my northern destination, was the Great Western for Chicago, — passing up Lake Huron and down Lake Michigan, touching at Machinac between the two ; from which point I hoped to get across to the Sault by the packet boat or some other mode of conveyance. The voyage up the River St. Clair, was very agreeable ; but being quite unwell, I was glad to lie down when we came out upon Lake Hu- ron. We stopped three hours to take in wood at Fort Gratiot, opposite the Sarnia Mission, by Sunderland wharf. If I had known that the Rev. Alexander Pyne resided at a short distance on the opposite side, I should have availed myself of the opportunity to present to him my letter of introduction from the Bishop. As it was the time was spent very wearily. This is the more to be regretted, as I afterwards was delayed at Machinac a space of time more than sufficient to have enabled me to see the Walpole Island Mis- sion, to which he was to have introduced me. AMERICAN STEAMER. 99 On the American boat, I found the accom- modations both better and worse than upon the Canadian lake boat. They were inferior, inasmuch as there was nothing in the nature of a couch or even of a chair, to rest one’s self upon; but only cane stools and settees. On the other hand the sleeping accommoda- tion was superior, being berths in convenient state rooms, instead of the curtained berths, open to the cabin. The provision at table was ample and various ; but the prevalence of vinegar in all the made dishes, and of butter every where, rendered it difficult to make a meal. The manner of the ladies struck me as an odd compound of stiffness and freedom ; and the whole of the conversation with most of the men was Clay and Polk, banks and tariff, whigs and loco-focos. There were on board very staunch advocates of both parties; and I certainly agreed with the democratic arguer, that in order to preserve republican- ism, it was desirable to keep all institutions as simple as possible; and therefore that banks and indirect taxation should be avoided. Still as far as the material prosperity of the country is concerned, I imagine that the whigs have the best of it ; — that not only do banks tend to the advancement of enterprize, 100 POLITICS. by facilitating credit; — but that protective tariffs, which foster native industry, and enable a nation to provide most articles of daily use within itself, must add to the wealth of large classes of the community, and gra- dually find a market for the fruits of the earth, much more certain and stable than any foreign one. Whether the nation is, on the whole, happier for being more wealthy, is another question, and one which we are not called on to decide. Certain it is, that Pro- vidence appears to bring forward one nation after anotlier in the career of temporal pros- perity, and that by agencies entirely beyond the controul of any man or body of men; and therefore, for all practical purposes, it is useless to moot the question whether it be advantageous or not. But still I revert to the opinion that the complicated relations which wealth engenders are * inconsistent with the permanent main- tenance of the theory, that government is or should be so simple that every one can under- stand it, — which is the theory of democracy. And the conclusion I draw is, — not that we are to set our faces against those complicated relations (which I regard as nothing short of absolute madness, inasmuch as it is fighting T HIGH-CHURCH DEMOCRATS. 101 against a providential arrangement), — but that democratical theories are totally inapplicable to any state of great extent, and in an ad- vanced condition of civilization ; that, in short, if a state in this kind of progression begins with democracy, it must pass through aristocracy or oligarchy into monarchy or tyranny. I was surprised to discover, both on this and on future occasions, that the democratic arguer was a churchman, and that some, even of the most thorough republicans, were high churchmen. There is, of course, no 'real inconsistency in a person’s believing at the same time that his church is the only true church, and the ministers of it the only true ministers, — and that republicanism is the best form of civil government. The two things are in fact independent of each other ; and it is one advantage resulting from occa- sional association with persons of various views, that we come to find the true princi- ples on which all views must be made to rest. But still I think it must be admitted the or habit of mind which is most likely to adopt high-cliurch views is that which is most likely to tend to a love of monarchy ; and I could never yet understand how a person whose k2 102 FORMS OF GOVERNMENT* mind was formed by the Scriptures could be anything else but a lover of monarchy in the abstract, however much he might feel it his duty to acquiesce in that form of civil polity under which Divine Providence had cast his lot. No doubt every Christian man must believe that the form of government which subsists in any nation at any definite period is providentially ordained for that nation at that period ; but that does not prove, either that all forms of government are indifferent, or that any particular form is absolutely best for that particular nation. Divine Provi- dence does not always provide for nations that which is absolutely best for them; it often gives them that which is worst, as a punishment for their sins. Although, there- fore, if living under a republic, I should feel bound to acquiesce in such a form of govern- ment, I should not feel bound to think that, because providentially ordained, it was best for my country. Independently of every other consideration, I must always think that form of civil, as well as of ecclesiastical polity, to be best, which most directly tends to train the mind to reverence and submit to the one universal moTiarchy of the Supreme Being, and the limited monarchy Vhich he has V PRESBYTERIAN TEACHER. 103 ordained in every family. Nor is it one of the least reproaches of American republi- canism that, by the confessions of those who live under it, it tends most strongly to weaken that authority which God has revealed as placed in the hands of parents. In the boat I likewise had a discussion with a person whom I afterwards discovered to be a Presbyterian teacher. It seems that he had not been baptized in infancy, and had led a very irreligious life : but the truths he heard whilst at school from one of the bishops of the Church in America remained in his mind, and some years after his marriage various circumstances led to his quitting his evil habits, and giving himself in earnest to serve God. Then came the question — what church he was to join ? His wife was a Presbyterian, and his best acquaintance were of that denomination, and so he united him- self with them ; but he confessed that he had never investigated the matters in dispute between them and the Church. He endea- voured however to shew, by a statistical com- parison of the number of churches (i. e. places of worship), and of children under instruction, in New and Old England, that Presbyterianism produced better fruits of p 104 AMERICAN SENSITIVENESS. piety than Episcopacy; and would insist upon my accepting his test. This however I declined; contenting myself with denying in toto that dissent of any kind did on the whole produce higher characters or more piety than the Church; but admitting that individuals and communities of dissenters might under particular circumstances sur- pass in piety individuals and communities of church people. He was however very wroth with me, partly for that cause, and partly because in reply to questions of his, I informed him of the simple fact, that the history of the United States formed no part of my education at the University of Oxford : and he expressed himself violently and rudely, as though I despised his country and her history : for this however he afterwards apologized. This was not the only occasion on which Americans have flown out with me on a suspicion that I was impugning the honour of thesir country. I was one day discussing with a gentleman the merits of a lady singer, and intimated that a more cultivated mind would have made her a performer of a higher order. He overwhelmed me with a list of the languages and sciences she was acquainted POLITICAL CORRUPTION. lUO with; and on my replying with a smile, “ Ah, I see that you do not apprehend what we mean by cultivation ; it would take you ten years’ residence amongst us to under- stand;” he replied with great warmth, and expatiated on the equality, — as observed by bishops and others who had visited Eng- land— between the highest classes of men in the two countries : not at all reflecting that the question was not between the two countries, but between his notion of a culti- vated mind in a lady, and that which 1 knew to prevail in good English society; a know- ■' ledge of which I could not possibly divest myself, and which I could as little avoid perceiving to be at variance with his own ideas on the subject. I found gentlemen of the States very free to acknowledge the great corruption which prevails through all their public men ; and the great deterioration in those who have filled the highest offices in recent years. I found them likewise ready to acknowledge, that the conduct of President Tyler in send- ing troops towards Texas, was unconsti- tutional, although not directly illegal; and that similar acts of various kinds might be committed without the chance of any punish- 106 1 POLITICAL PROSPECTS. meiit. But I could not get any one to agree with me, that this general corruption, with the difficulty of defining what is and is not illegal in cases never contemplated by law, might some day enable a crafty and ambitious president, during his four years of office, to get all power into his hands, and hold it by force and fraud,' so long as assassination spared him. Looking, however, at the his- j tory of ancient Rome and modern France, I | cannot but think it probable that men of ; education and substance will become more and more disgusted with public business; and ’ that a time will arrive, — and that perhaps at no ^ distant period, — when the mass of the intelli- \ gence and property of the Union will rejoice to see some man of vigour and ability take and hold the helm of affairs, and save them from the endless and fruitless turmoil into which the nation will have been plunged, and allow them to go about their business in the full assurance that the enjoyment of life and property will be secure. There was another point which I suggested, in which I could get no one to agree with me. It is notorious that the number of per- sons of the Romish communion is on the increase in the States, chiefly at present POLITICAL PROSPECTS. 107 by emigration from Ireland. It is likewise notorious that in some localities they already influence the elections. Now what is to pre- vent their becoming a majority in some one State ? And when that arrives, what is to pre- vent their appropriating the public funds in support of their views ? And in so corrupt a state of things as at present subsists, there can be but little doubt that some large political party may be found to support them in so doing. To prove that this may be the case, I have only to advert to the fact, that the States are already beginning confessedly to feel (in the case of these very Romanists), the ill effects of the law which admits foreigners easily to naturalization. It is they whose influence has already banished the Bible from many of the common schools, in entire opposition to the views of native Americans. And if you inquire whether it will not be thought necessary to restrict the privilege of naturalization, and grant it only to the second or third generation, — the reply is, that the democrats would oppose such a proposition to a man : the great body of them, as contravening their principles of civil polity ; and the rest partly from fear of their own party, and partly because it would be a 108 LAKE HUnoN. good election cry against the higs, the only party who can be expected to propose it. Indeed it is currently said, that whatever ground either party may take up, the other is sure to occupy the opposite. The voyage up Lake Huron is very unin- teresting; hours upon hours being passed without seeing anything but the water, and a distant indistinct view of shores covered with trees. As we approach its northern extremity, the shores approach, and the pros- pect is varied by islands and promontories; but it is not until we draw near to Machinac, that the view becomes sufficiently distinct and varied to be interesting. It may there- fore be well imagined that it was with great delight that we at length distinguished its dazzling white fort, and the little town nest- ling down on the beach below. [Ill] CHAPTER XIII. We arrived at Machinac on Friday, the 23rd, and 1 found Mr. O’Brien, the chaplain of the States garrison, to whom 1 had a letter of introduction. He was not able to receive me into his house ; but he did his best to find me a convenient lodging. That, however, proved impossible, on account of the number of persons who, from various causes, were congregated there. One was a party con^ nected with a company for working the cop- per mines on Lake Superior ; others, young men travelling west for pleasure or recrea- tion ; and others, whose object did not transpire. Both in this house and on the boats, I found the great inconvenience of travelling in a country where the circumstance of being a clergyman did not at once give me a defined place and station. I do not mean the personal inconvenience ; but the difficulty which arose from the fact that the assumption to perform any religious duty for the whole ' party — such as saying grace at table — might 112 CLERICAL DISCOURAGEMENTS. turn out an infringement of the privileges or rights of some person or another. In England I never experienced any such diffi- culty. It still worse on board the packet vessel in which I had crossed the Atlantic. There I attempted (very quietly, for sea sickness depressed me very much) to act as chaplain of the vessel ; but the rudeness and slight with which the essay was met, was very discouraging. Instead of feeling grati- fied that a clergyman could be found to undertake to conduct Divine service on Sun- day, it was with difficulty that arrangements could be obtained for a single service ; and on no occasion could I succeed in getting a second. I do not mean to say that this feel- ing was universal amongst the passengers ; but it prevailed in a very discouraging degree. The result of this emancipation from all pastoral controul for six weeks together, was seen in the gradual relaxation of feelings of propriety and decency, which prevailed in a very surprising degree ev^en amongst the best conducted of the passengers. And so on board the steamboats on wdiich I had occasion to travel for days together. I entertain no doubt that if they had been English, a clergyman who was known to be CLERICAL DISCOURAGEMENl'S. 113 on board, would have been requested by the captain of the vessel to ask a blessing before and after meat, as a matter of ordinary pro- priety ; but the perfect equality of all religi- ous denominations in the States, prevents any minister of religion from being in that way recognized as the clergyman^ Kar i^oj(fjV\ and the very face of religion was lost tor days together. The only way 1 am aware of in which ministers of religion are recognized, is, that it is very frequent for masters of inns and steam vessels to charge them only half the price required of ordinary travellers; — this occurred to me upon one occasion, and is of course very highly creditable to the parties who show this kindness: but it does not by any means make amends for the other deficiency, arising from the want of anything like a national established church. The same deficiency, I am sorry to say, prevails to a con- siderable extent in Canada from a similar cause. I mentioned that the gentleman to whom I brought a letter of introduction, was the chaplain of the military post established at Machinac ; he was also a clergyman of the reformed church in the States. It is remark- able that most of the military and naval chap- lains in the service of the States are of our L 2 114 ARMY AND NAVY CHAPLAINS. communion. This arises from the rej^ula- tion, that the plurality of voices of the officers in any post shall choose the chaplain : — a cu- rious instance of the working of the demo- cratical principle even in the army, and which goes the length of giving the commanding officer no more w^eight than the youngest lieutenant. It, however, proves one thing; viz., that the majority of the officers of the army and navy are members of the Church ; which is the case likewise witli the more eminent amongst the public men. I fear, however, from what I saw, that the chaplain has not his proper weight in such places, and that there is not that provision made for the suitable performance of divine service which might be made where the church held her place by right, and not merely by the will of the majority. The same idea struck me in other places, which it would be improper for me to particularize, because it would appear to be reflecting upon individuals, which is not my meaning. We are all, more or less, the creatures of circumstances, and if most of us had been circumstanced like those we may be inclined to blame, it is very doubtful whether we should have acted more consist- ently or firmly than they. What I am saying li DELAY AT MACHINAC. 115 I is, that the evil of being more or less depen- dent upon the will of the majority, appears, in the States, even in our sister church, where we should least expect it. When I arrived at Machinac, I was disap- pointed to find that there was no public con- veyance going across to the Sault, until the arrival of a steam vessel from Buffalo, which was not expected until Monday ; and as I could not afford the price I should have to pay for hiring a batteau or canoe, and it would be so long on the way that the steam vessel would be equally expeditious, I deci- ded to wait. The steamboat, however, which was on a special trip, did not arrive until Tuesday, and then would not proceed, being in expectation of a portion of the passengers who had engaged it from Chicago. On Wednesday, in order to pass the time, a fish- ing excursion was planned to the Carp River, in the mainland of Michigan. Desirous of seeingany new portion of country, and having my son among the fishermen, 1 joined the party ; and whilst they were fishing up the stream, I threaded the Indian paths on its banks, enjoying its wild scenery, and examin- ing the natural products of the forest. It was picturesque in its present state, and 116 wasp’s nest. will probably become more so when civiliza- tion has cleared away a portion of the thick forest which hedges it in to the water’s edge. I found the nest of a paper wasp hanging over the stream, and secured it by cutting it off and letting it drop into the water ; which had likewise the effect of dislodging most of its inmates. This led to the discovery that the construction of nests of paper is not pe- culiar to one species of wasp. Those which I had seen in the neighbourhood of Lake Ontario, are made by a wasp of a brown co- lour, a slight body, and a waist nearly a quar- ter of an inch long, and almost as slender as a horse-hair. Indeed up to the period of my visit to Machinac, I had supposed that the beautiful but troublesome insect of the old country did not exist on this continent. My visit to the Carp River undeceived me: for the tenants of my paper nest were precisely of the same colour and proportions as the En- glish wasp, but perhaps a little smaller. Their sting is painful at the time; but the effects of it are very transient. Indeed the bite of the mosquitoes, (which abound- ed) was far more permanently troublesome. I was enabled during this excursion, to satis- fy myself on one point, viz., that the yew is CANADIAN TREES. 117 indigenous to this part of the continent; but that it is not the tree of Europe or Ken- tucky, but a straggling, spreading under- shrub. This, however, satisfies me that the tree might be naturalized here by seed brought from Europe. Whilst I am upon this subject of trees, I will add a few remarks upon those of that part of North America which I have seen. It is remarkable that we have very few of those of the old country. Some of the oaks resemble those of England in growth and foliage ; but the timber is of a totally differ- ent kind, not by any means so firm and tough. • One species is applicable, however, to the making of staves for barrels, and it is in other respects one of the valuable woods of the country. There are, however, many species of oak, some of them with the leaves ex- tremely serrated, so as almost to lose the character of the tree altogether. The ash is a good deal like that cf England, but not really of the same species. The horse-chest- nut is indigenous, I believe ; but the most }>revalent chestnut is that which in England is called the Spanish, The beech exists in many varieties, one of them much like the English, and another, — the blue beech, — 118 CANADIAN TREES. nothing but a bush, or a very small tree. The elm of this country is, no doubt, a species of that tree; but it differs very widely from that of England; the most common has pendu- lous branches. The sycamore prevails in some localities ; a species of the lime tree, under the name of bass^ is occasionally found. The most prevalent tree is the maple^ of various species, differing very much from the English maple, and much more resembling the syca- more, only with much smaller leaves. There is likewise the walnut^ not at all like the Eng- lish, but in leaf resembling the ash ; the hut^ temutj likewise resembling the ash ; and the hickory^ which bears a strong resemblance to our walnut. Birch exists in great variety and beauty ; and then we have the poplars and willows and alders and dogwood. The white willow is a very large, handsome tree, and is one of the chief ornaments of some of the less public streets of Toronto. So much for deciduous trees. The chief evergreen is the pine^-^ the common Scotch : then comes the arhor-vitce^ which is here called the sioamp^ cedar : after that the hemlock^ a sort of spruce fir, with the pendulous growth of deciduous trees ; it is a very fine tree in its prime. We have likewise the silver- fir and common spruce^ CANADIAN TREES. 119 but both of them are rare. The red and white cedar of our shrubberies are found in some localities, but are not very common. All the trees which 1 have mentioned may be found in the country, but they are dis- tributed very variously. In the part of the country about Toronto the pine gives its cha- racter to the great mass of the forest, accom- panied by the oak, the beech and the maple, and occasionally by the elm, ash, birch and alder. Hence the aspect of the woods is very different from anything at home, the oak and beech being the only trees recognis- able as like those the English eye has been accustomed to; and they seldom reaching a handsome size. Near Niagara, and from thence along lake Erie, deciduous timber mostly prevails. The hickory, butternut, and walnut take the place of the pine ; and with Spanish chestnut, elm, bass, and everlasting maple, give a richness and variety to the view : but here, again, the aspect is far from English. In fact, the trees analogous to those of the old country, are in a decided minority. The splendid English elm is never seen ; and although occasionally a dis- tant view may look English, or a clump of trees may look like those in an ornamental 120 CANADIAN TREES. ' pleasure ground, the road side never, for two hundred yards together, looks other than for- eign to an eye accustomed to make friendship with the rural objects in old England. \ M OTTAWA LODGE AND CANOE, CHAPTER XIV. We returned to Machinac, after a Very Successful fishing for the brook trout, which abounds in the rivers of this latitude, and the next night sailed for the Sault. The next morning we found ourselves in the river, passing up its winding channel, with its lands on either hand and before and round about us. The view changed every moment, and every change was beautiful. It is however a scenery peculiar to an uncleared country ; for it consisted of nothing but land and water, and an occasional rock, and varying heights of ground, with perhaps a house and clearing of an acre or two of ground in twenty or thirty miles ; occasionally a single Indian lodge or canoe. When we came within ten miles of the Sault, the river became one channel^ and the scene more uniform.. We- 124 GARDEN RIVER. passed the mouth of what I afterwards found was the Garden River, and a small point of land, on which were six or eight Indian huts and a log house or two; one of the latter not quite finished, and the people working upon its roof. I did not know at the time that these were the Indians I had come so many miles to see, and that the log house was being reared by their chief, Shinguaconse. This, it appears, is the station most com- monly occupied by the Indians of the Sault, amongst whom Mr. McMurray’s mission was so eminently successful : the reason of this is, that the land is better than at the Sault itself; although their burying ground is still at the latter place. As we approached the Sault, we perceived the river to spread out on each side, and then gradually contract; on the left bank was the United States' garrison, all white and bright, and the little village occupied by shop-keepers, publicans, and voyageurs; on the right, the house of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the scattered dwellings inhabited by the voyageurs and half-breeds on the British side; whilst right in front was apparently a precipitous fall of about eight or ten feet in depth, and a quar- ter of a mile across. As we neared it, how^ 8AULT STE. MARIE. 125 ever, the fall increased in apparent height ; and as we came still closer, it appeared that it was a succession of rapids. We landed, and 1 found Mr. Henry School- craft, husband of Mrs. McMurray’s sister, to whom I presented my letter of introduction, and who obtained me a convenient lodging for the night. We walked out, and found that there was a track which would take us to the head of the rapids, which we followed, and discovered that there was a canal broad enough for a single bateau or canoe, by which the inhabitants are accustomed to take up their boats and canoes, whether for voyages in Lake Superior, or in order to fish down the rapids. By following this path we got to the head of the rapids, and were much gratified by the view in that direction ; but a heavy rain coming on, we were glad to return as fast as we could. The remainder of the day was spent either in conversation with Mr. Schoolcraft and his family, or in visiting the British side. I found to my great disappointment, that Mrs. McMurray’s brother, Mr. James John- son, upon whom I had relied as an inter- preter, was gone away up Lake Superior; that there was no probability of his making his m2 126 1 THE SAULT. appearance at the Sault In less than a week, and that the time of his return was entirely uncertain; and consequently that I could not rely upon bein^ able to hold any intercourse with the Indians, even if I should stay and visit them at Garden River. It likewise ap- peared that, in addition to the expense of remaining at the Sault, I might probably be compelled to hire a boat to take me back to Machinac, — the return to which might occu- py a week. I therefore, with great reluc- tance and depression, determined on return- ing by the steamer in which I had arrived; after gaining as much information as the short time allowed me would permit. I learned that the number of Indians was under 100, and that they had mostly, or entirely fallen into habits of intoxication: but that still they refused to put themselves under any other reli- gious denomination, and professed themselves attached to the Church. I likewise learned, that the missionaries of dissenting bodies on the American side, had been singularly un- successful in making any impression what- ever on the Indians on their own side. So that the only religious body which appears to have been successful in attaching the Chip- peway Indians of that portion of the conti- i I T [ 128 ] THE SAULT. 129 nent to Christianity, has been the Church of England. I found that there were on the other side, besides the post of the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany, and a stone dwelling inhabited by the officer of the customs, — nearly forty dwell- ings of French Canadians and half breeds, of whom most remained without any religious instruction whatever ; — and that all they got was from Presbyterians and Romanists. The information I had received from Mr. Mc- Miirray, that there were Indian settlements at intervals of about 50 miles, all along the north coast of Lake Superior, was also con- firmed. I found the little Church, raised by Mr. McMurray, a neat frame structure, with a bell; it had desks all round its sides, being intended for a school-room; but the benches were taken to various houses in order to be guarded from injury or spoliation. In the enclosure wdthin which it stands were a few graves of Indians; one quite recent, marked by a covering of pine logs, laid longitudinal- ly, supported and kept together by six short posts of the same description. It is these graves, as much perhaps as any thing else, which attach this little tribe both to the Sault and to the Church with which their grave--^ ~ I 130 THE SAULT. yard is connected. I had hoped to have guin- 'i ed some information from the resident of the Hudson’s Bay Company ; but 1 found that the gentleman who had long held that position, was gone, and that his successor was quite new to the spot. The Indians of the Sault belong, as I have intimated, to the Chippeways, who are the oldest residents in Canada. Indeed the name itself Ojibheway seems fo imply that they are tlie original stock of many others, ojeehik in their language signifying a rock. They are to be found on the Rice Lake, and to the north of Kingston, on the River Credit, at the Muncey Mission, and on Walpole Island, on the North shores of Lakes Simcoe and Huron, on the north and south shores of Lake Superior, on all the rivers and inland | lakes connected with it, 700 or 800 miles to the west of Lake Superior, and across from Lake Huron to the height of land towards Hudson’s Bay. Their settlements, it is true, are scattered, and the numbers in each settle- I ment few; but from the wide extent of coun- < try they inhabit, they must be numerous in the aggregate; and the only intercourse which at present the white man holds with most of them, is to purchase furs of tliem, iS e i e e i 131 THE SAULT. and to distribute presents of such things as are acceptable to them, to as many as choose to congregate annually at Great Manitoulin Island. And to all those who lie to the west the Sault is the key. Indeed when Mr. Mc- Murray w^as there^ they came from 120 miles distant to connect themselves with him. I had hoped by my visit to the Sault to be able to open a communication with those who are still attached to that spot; but the consi- derations I have already mentioned deter- mined me to content myself with what I had seen, and with such information as I could afterwards collect from and through Mr. Mc- Murray. : C 132] CHAPTER XV. OTTAWA INDIAN CHIEF. Accordingly, the next morning we set out on our return to Macliinac; and as the next day was Sunday, and I did not wish to spend the day on board the boat, I gladly accepted Mr. O’Brien’s invitation to stay with him until Monday. The day- of payment for the Otta- wa Indians was approaching, and the whole of the beach for a mile together was studded with their wigwams, and the shops on the shore crowded with them. As soon as the OTTAHWA INDIANS. 133 boat landed, they were on board, going every where and inspecting every thing, but with- out rudeness. There was now considerable variety in the costume of the men, — in all the combinations of shoes, mocassins, leggings of all colours, trowsers, coloured cotton shirts, and frock coats of all imagina- ble patterns; blankets, belts, sashes, hats of every shape, ornamented with ribbons and cir- clets of white metal or beads, together with heads either en tirely bare, or adorned with plat- ted tresses, with handkerchiefs, bands of bead work or circlets of feathers; not forgetting earrings, either single or set on all round the edge of the ear, and patches of red and dark blue paint, to render their faces more attrac- tive or terrible. All this ornament however, was confined to the men. Perhaps a child here and there might have a few strings of beads; butthe grown up women were, without excep- tion, without ornaments of any kind, except- ing, perhaps, earrings, and the leggings and mocassins. Some of these were richly adorn- ed with bead work: and here and there a wo- man would have a petticoat and mantle of ve- ry respectable dark blue broad-cloth: one or two I saw with scarlet. But in general the 134 INDIAN CHARACIER. appearance of the women was plainness itself^ compared with that of the men. Many of the children had no clothing at all, but a shirt and the invariable worn for decency sake, passing from the waist before to the waist behind. The cradle or tray for infants is the same as that which is found in Switzerland and the north of Italy. It is formed much like the cover of a hat or bonnet box, in which the child is laid and strapped on his back, with a projecting ledge for his feet to rest on, and a semi-circular hoop of 18 inches diame- ter to protect his face, and to contain the little rattling trinkets with which he is amus- ed. This, on a journey, is strapped to the back of the mother, and in the lodge or ca- noe is placed in an inclined position. I did not, however, see many of these. Most of the children appeared to be nursed much as those of the most necessitous classes in Eng- land. It is only necessary to go amongst the In- dians, and witness their habits, — to dissipate the romance which one might feel regarding them. They are, in fact, (those at least whom I have seen,) as a race, much below the lowest of the English country people; — but 'SsU rfany ol itasliit icysate, lie waisi ,inAli Ills tact, to rest on, esdiame- Dtain tkt ! is ami^ ed totk re or ^ n. I dill Mostfll ffloclas liflEii;* it tie In- dissipate ^ egardiD? at • elowfe [e.4iit INDIAN PAYMENTS. 135 free from the total want of decency, which cha- racterizes the lowest of our town population The very highest I have seen do not rise above the rank of intellect and cultivation of an ordinary English farmer. Whatever of high-feeling or character is to be found amongst them, must, I think, be sought amongst those who still form settled na- tions away from civilization. I am told how- ever, that the Chippeways are much supe- rior to the Six Nations and Ottahwas. Those with whom we have intercourse are to be found only in scanty numbers, compared with the extent of country they occupy, and in a very low condition. Whatever therefore, of a mis- sionary character is undertaken with regard to them, must be done, — not from any thing interestintr or magnanimous in their charac- ter, — but from a feeling, that as it has pleased God in his providence to bring us into con- tact with them, we are bound to communicate to them the light we ourselves have ; that as they are brought into the range of the conta- mination of our evil example, we ought to provide them with that safeguard of Christian principle by which alone we ourselves are preserved from its pollution. And then the 136 INDIAN PAYMENTS. question seems to be, not of many or few, but of our means of supplying the want. I have just alluded to the cause which brings together the Indians to Machinac at this particular season, — viz., to receive their payments. Both the government of Canada and that of the United States have been in the habit of purchasing the lands of the In- dians from them, and of paying them by an- nual pensions, or in some other way. In the States the former is the practice; and these payments are made at the rate of so much for the chief of a nation, a smaller proportion for the chief of a tribe or clan, and a general al- lowance of head money for as many of the nation as may come forward to claim it. It is much to be regretted that these pensions ap- pear to be of little benefit to them. They do not calculate the time accurately, and there- fore many of them are on the spot before the time, — and getting into the hands of the tavern and store keepers, run up scores for food and liquor. Not accustomed to self control, too many of them indulge in intoxication to a shocking extent. Persons come from a dis- tance to the place of payment, with all sorts of useless trinkets, which take the eye and fev. tlei INDIAN PAYMENTS. 137 fancy of these poor savages. In short it is generally supposed that very little of the mo- ney they, receive is applied to any useful pur- pose, and that the greater portion depart nearly as poor as they came. The case I think is somewhat better on the British side- There they have presents of articles selected with a view to utility, as a portion of their payment. Still I am told that there are per- sons who make a trade of purchasing their presents from them, and paying them in strong liquors or money; a large portion of which is totally wasted before their return. It is, indeed, difficult to say what could be done better than what we do atpresent. The Indians are not all idle and childish. To some of them both the pensions and the pre- sents are of considerable value; the former providing them with seed corn, and even with a portion of their winter provisions, and the latter furnishing the larger portion of their clothing. And if they are skilful and indus- trious in the manufacture of the mocassins and leggings and boxes of various kinds and toy-canoes, which go under the name of In- dian Curiosities, — the place of distribution of their presents becomes a valuable market in n2 138 INDIAN PAYMENTS. which they can exchange these things for articles of more sterling value. No doubt they are and will be imposed upon, so long as they continue entirely separate from white people in language and modes of life, and so far below them in cultivation; but that will be gradually remedied. INDIAN RUDDER. CHAPTER XVL I remained until Monday, having preached twice; once in the fort, and once in the court house : and I then took my departure on board the Empire, the largest steamer on the lakes. Before I take my leave of Ma- ckinac I must give a little account of it. It is an island of about 9 miles in circumference, of an oval shape. It rises on all sides from the beach in precipitous cliffs of 100 feet in height, excepting on the north, where the little town is built. This consists of two streets, one on the beach, the other running parallel to it for half the distance. It is sur- mounted by the fort, which is built on the heights above the N. W. part of the town. The fort is surrounded partly by a wall, and partly by a palisade, and like all the forts of the United States I have seen, every part of it, and of the houses contained in it, is white- washed. The footway by which you ascend 140 MACHINAC. [ to the ordinary entrance is made of a kind |i of concrete, for which abundant material is produced in the limestone (carbonate of lime), which is the rock of which the island is com- posed, and the fine gravel and sand of which I abundance is to be found upon it. It is kept with extraordinary neatness by the comman- dant of the fort. Captain Scott, who treated ’ me with much attention. He is so careful on ' that head indeed, that he provides spitting boxes all about the court yard and walk, to prevent the men from spitting on the gravely and if a carriage passes through the yard, the tracks of its wheels are effaced by boughs, (which answer the purpose of brooms) as soon as it is gone. The chaplains of these forts are also the schoolmasters; a very admirable regulation, ensuring to the children much better instruc- ; ; . tion than is ordinarily attained. There is ^ 5 ; one great deficiency here, in the want of a I il suitable room for the performance of divine service, — which is consequently conducted in one of the large wards occupied by the men. It certainly looked odd to see their beds all rolled up along one side, and their accoutre- ments suspended all along the other side of A MACHINAC. 141 the apartment. The service is well attended not only by the residents in the garrison, but also by the town’s people. The sing- ing was very well managed by some of the latter; but it detracted much from the beauty and dignity of the service, that the whole w’as performed by the clergyman in his gown^ and at the same desk, and that scarce- ly an individual but himself attempted to kneel, — although the floor was as clean as a drawing room. There is another service vo- luntarily held by the present chaplain in the court house, attended by all classes of per- sons, — who take their proper parts in respond- ing and singing, although many are not mem- bers of the Church. There, liQwever, the further anomaly is committed of using nei- ther gown nor surplice. Such irregularities, I find, are not uncommon in the States, where the gown is reckoned the more necessary part of a clergyman’s habiliments, as the surplice is in England. Besides the town of Machinac, there are two small farms on the island ; but the greater part of it is covered with forest or copse. There are several points of beauty and inter- est about it. The attention of visitors is 142 FORT HOLMES. directed to a few objects of natural or histo- rical interest. First comes Fort Holmes, the site of the ancient fortress of the British, when it bore the name of Fort St. George. It is apparently a better position than that of the present fort of Machinac, and in fact commands the latter. A curious instance is told of this in the late war between this coun- try and the States, — when a British force surprised the Yankees before they were up in the morning. Fwo British officers paid an early visit to the American commanding offi- cer, brought him from his bed, and required him^ to surrender the post; and upon his iW-clining to do so, quietly pointed out to him that there were five hundred troops on the heights of Fort St. George, which had landed in the night, and that a battery was planted on it, and another on a lower eminence about half a mile from the post. The result was that the American fumed and talked a little, but saw it more prudent to come to terms, upon condition of being permitted to march out with his army. He did so accordingly, and left the island; but upon landing at De- troit, found it also in possession of the Bri^ tUh, and himself and his men prisoners. An MACHINAC, 143 attempt was afterwards made, under General Holmes, to recover the Island, — but he him- self fell, and the attempt was frustrated. In memory of him, when we resigned the island at the close of the war, the fort was called Fort Holmes. There are one or two objects of natural interest; the Arched Rock and the Sugar-loaf Hill; neither of which, however, would attract very much attention, were not this part of the world so destitute of objects of that descrip- tion. The Lover’s Leap is one amongst the many jutting cliffs which are to be found on the west of the island,— distinguished from the rest more by its freedom from timber on the top, and its therefore affording a good look-out on all sides, than by any other cir- cumstance. The British landing is also shown on the S. E. of the island. To me a ramble in the bush and along the beach, — and the discovery of flowers and trees and stones I had never seen before, — some of the former of great elegance of form and beauty of co- lour, — with the birds fluttering in and out of the bushes, and the clearness of the water as it rolled up and broke on the beach, — was worth a hundred times over, all the objects 144 MACHINAC. ■which visitors arespecially expected to notice. A ramble is a pleasure which may be enjoy- ed at Machinac to perfection, and in consi- derable variety; nor did it detract from the pleasure to gather the hazel nuts, and wild raspberries, and gooseberries and currants. The former are not so good as the English, and the husk is very prickly; but we were glad to accept it as a substitute. The rasp- berries and the red gooseberries were small, but excellent in flavour; but the little black gooseberry was quite bitter. The beauties of Machinac itself are not all it has to boast. The views from it in every direction are extensive and (for distant views) varied, taking in the main-land of Michigan, and the islands and main-land between itself and lake Superior, Its climate is unusually healthy, and it would be a delightful place for a family to spend a month or six weeks in the summer, if they could put up with the poor accommodation to be found in the little town, and had their own occupations for a rainy day. Indeed I understand that there IS some intention of occupying the building formerly belonging to the Presbyterian mis- sion, and fitting it up as a lodging house. p MACHINAC. 145 But whoever ^oes to Machinac should carry all articles of diet but bread, meat, milk, and butter, that he cares to have for daily use, — if he is at all particular about having them good. L 146 1 CHAPTER XVII. I returned from Machinac on board the splendid steam-boat the Empire, the largest on the lakes. She is 270 feet from stem to stern ; and her saloon and ladies’ and gen- tlemen’s cabins form one great apartment, capable of being divided by folding doors, — 230 feet long. The fittings-up are very handsome, and the painting tasteful in out- line and very gay in colour. The state-rooms are all fitted up with white dimity, ensuring either cleanness or a quick detection of the contrary. The ladies’ or family state-rooms are upon a scale which I never saw before in a steam-boat, with sofas and chairs, and some with little dressing closets ; and there are two sets of two rooms each, a bed-room and sitting-room. Unfortunately the gentle- men who travel singly are not so well accom- YANKEE STEAMERS. 147 modated, being compelled to go to a common washing-room, and to make use of public towels or none. They have, however, the accommodation of a barber’s shop, the only fault of which is, the extreme slowness with which the operation is performed. There were likewise couches in the gentlemen’s saloon, a very special article of comfort in this hot climate — and which I did not see provided in the other Yankee steam-boats in which I travelled. And whilst upon the subject of couches, I must protest against the censured so liberally bestowed upon the in- habitants of the States, for their habit of taking their legs off the ground, and sus- pending them in various awkward positions whilst sitting. I must aver that to most per- sons a reclining posture, or at least, the rais- ing of the legs from the ground is, in the summer, positively as essential to comfort, as having a chair to sit upon is to a European : and if one has not a couch or sofa, it is neces- sary to provide for it in some other way. As an Englishman, and for two-thirds of my life not accustomed to trouble either sofa or easy chair, I think it but justice to say, that I feel for any person in this climate, especially one of sedentary habits, who has not a couch to 148 LAKE ERIE. recline upon for some portion of every day in summer, and especially after walking. The legs absolutely become painful, and feel like lumps of lead, if there is no way of relieving them by raising them from the ground. I have myself been so circum- stanced, that I was glad to lie down on the floor for want of any other means of attaining a horizontal position. I again passed Detroit on my return, and went down Lake Erie to Cleveland and Buffalo. The situation of the former is rather pictu- resque; and the end of the town farthest from the water is laid out in villas and pleasure grounds, along the sides of four parallel drives. The eflfect, though rather formal, is still plea- sant in a country where green and shade are so grateful to the strained eye and the scorched head, — and would be much more so if the occupants kept their green-sward as neatly as would be done in England. BuffFalo is a very large place, full two miles square, and built very substantially of brick. The quantity of shipping and steamboats, both there and at Cleveland, is very great. From Buffalo I crossed by a Canadian steamer to the Chippeway railroad, and by it proceeded to Queenston. We had on board LAKE ERIE. i49 the Cliippeway Indian, who had married an English woman in London, whilst over in Eng- land exhibiting himself for the amusement of the public, — together with the lady herself. They sat together the greater part of the time ; but I pitied her, knowing how soon she was destined to open her eyes to the terrible change from the decencies and comforts of civilized life, to the wretchedness of daily intercourse with those to whom both comfort and decency are ideas almost entirely un- known. It is true that she might have abun- dance of food and clothing, and might be able to introduce little English proprieties into her own dwelling; but she could never exempt herself from the society of the Indians amongst whom she had to live; for they come in at all times, without any reserve. Nothing but a strong desire of benefitting them can ever reconcile her to the change. I thought I saw that she shrunk from the few Indians who were on board the steamer, and felt the degradation of being mixed up with them. We went by the famous Navy Island, the spot from whence the Caroline was cut out by the British party in order to her being drifted over the Falls. The latter we passed o2 150 HOME. at a little distance on the railroad, and on their grandeur I need not expatiate. From Queenston we proceeded homewards by the Toronto steamer, the Transit; and whether owing to the smallness of the boat, or to the unusual roughness of the lake, I was very sea-sick; as was my son, who had crossed the Atlantic without suiOfering from that cause for more than a couple of days. We got home most gladly, after an absence of four weeks, and were thankful to find all our dear rela- tives well. [ 151 ] CHAPTER XVIII. And now I will return to the subject upon which I omitted to dwell when at the Sault, but which was the impelling cause of my undertaking the long journey I have now recorded. I think it right to say, that I was disap- pointed to find a flourishing mission, as it certainly was in Mr. McMurray’s time, so entirely broken up, that of all the Indians who then made the place their ordinary resi- dence, not one now resides there. The Church I found still upon the top of the high ground surmounting the river ; the tombs of the former worshippers in the churchyard ; one or two Indian graves apparently recent : but only two solitary lodges on the shore, and those evidently of persons who did not intend to stay. I was moreover disappointed to learn 152 OBJECTIONS TO A that of the Settlement only eight or ten fami- lies remained together, making less than one hundred persons ; and still more, that all these, who had received Christian baptism, had re- lapsed more or less into their old evil habits, and that not even those who were anxious to have a pastor again amongst them, were ex- empt from the sin of drunkenness. And when we know the difficulty of supplying funds for maintaining the ministrations of the Church even amongst those of our own blood in this colony, I am not surprised that the Indians should be told, that if they wish for Christian instruction they must migrate to some other settlement, where there is a Christian minister who is both able and willing to instruct them. No doubt it would be much best for the poor people themselves, if they could be persuaded to coalesce with some other tribe, and thus form one settlement. No doubt the place pointed out, the Great Manitoulin Island, would be a very suitable position. But on the other hand, every person acquainted with the Indian mind with whom I have conversed, (and especially those who have acted as missionaries, and persons of Indian extraction,) has assured me that there is no probability whatever that this remnant MISSION AT THE SAULT, 153 of a considerable tribe will remove from the neighbourhood of the graves of their fathers. They own that they may make their chief resi- dence twenty miles this way, or twenty miles that way, according to varying circumstances, but that no motive can be found, short of compulsion, sufficiently strong to induce their untaught minds to make a permanent change. The question then arises, shall we endeavour to provide pastoral care for them, or shall we leave them to their fate? For the latter alternative I can see nothing but the small- ness of their number, and the circumstance that they have profited so imperfectly by former care as to relapse so soon into evil habits. It is indeed said that to keep up a mission at the Sault, is but tempting them to stay in a neighbourhood where, from the nearness to the American side, which swarms with low public-houses, their besetting sin is likely to find but too great a stimulus. This latter statement is to a certain extent true ; and if we could remove them, it would be desira- ble so to do. But as I have said, those best acquainted with them are unanimously of opinion that they will not permanently quit the neighbourhood of their fathers’ graves; and whilst in that neighbourhood they will 154 REPLY TO visit the public-houses of the Sault whenever they feel inclined. It remains then, I think, that if our means would allow it, we should not renounce the mission. Moreover it is to be borne in mind, that they do now obtain strong liquors in quantity sufficient to give most of them a habit of intoxication. The only means then of reclaim- ing them appears to be, to endeavour to give them such principles as will be sufficiently strong to counteract the temptation whenever It may occur; and it is almost needless to say, that the only effectual principles are those of the gospel. Nor is it imparting the knowledge of principles that will suffice ; the Indian is a child in mind, and like all children requires to be trained by superior controul, and kept in the right way by superintendence. In short, he requires a pastor. Not only that, but the Indian, like the white man, requires the means of grace, the communion of saints, to keep alive the fire of religion in his heart. Is it wonderful that without them he should relapse ? Still I grant that with the many pressing wants of this colony in other parts, it would be difficult to make a sufficiently urgent case for this small remnant of the ancient race; OBJECTIONS. 155 and did it stand alone, one would be almost disposed to say — It was a mistake to attempt a mission at that point, and it is best to re- nounce it, until the place shall assume suf- ficient importance in some other way to justify our returning to it; and I myself should agree to this mode of reasoning but for these considerations : 1st. There is on the spot a population of French Canadians and half-breeds, amounting to about forty families, besides the station of of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and a custom- house. The French Canadians, it is true, are professedly Romanists, but they are left without instruction or care for the greater part of the year. 2nd. There is another Indian settlement about forty-five miles off, on Lake Superior, which was formerly included in Mr. McMur- ray’s mission, containing about forty or fifty. These are now totally neglected. 3rd. There are other Indian settlements all along the shores of Lake Superior, of easy access, which might by degrees be brought in, from a mission stationed at the Sault. 4th. The Sault is the key of communi- cation between the upper and lower lakes. 154 REPLY TO visit the public-houses of the Sault whenever they feel inclined. It remains then, I think, that if our means would allow it, we should not renounce the mission. Moreover it is to be borne in mind, that they do now obtain strong liquors in quantity sufficient to give most of them a habit of intoxication. The only means then of reclaim- ing them appears to be, to endeavour to give them such principles as will be sufficiently strong to counteract the temptation whenever it may occur; and it is almost needless to say, that the only effectual principles are those of the gospel. Nor is it imparting the knowledge of principles that will suffice ; the Indian is a child in mind, and like all children requires to be trained by superior controul, and kept in the right way by superintendence. In short, he requires a pastor. Not only that, but the Indian, like the white man, requires the means of grace, the communion of saints, to keep alive the fire of religion in his heart. Is it wonderful that without them he should relapse ? Still I grant that with the many pressing wants of this colony in other parts, it would be difficult to make a sufficiently urgent case for this small remnant of the ancient race; a OBJECTIONS. 155 and did it stand alone, one would be almost disposed to say — It was a mistake to attempt a mission at that point, and it is best to re- nounce it, until the place shall assume suf- ficient importance in some other way to justify our returning to it; and I myself should agree to this mode of reasoning but for these considerations : 1st. There is on the spot a population of French Canadians and half-breeds, amounting to about forty families, besides the station of of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and a custom- house. The French Canadians, it is true, are professedly Romanists, but they are left without instruction or care for the greater part of the year. 2nd. There is another Indian settlement about forty-five miles off, on Lake Superior, which was formerly included in Mr. McMur- ray’s mission, containing about forty or fifty. These are now totally neglected. 3rd. There are other Indian settlements all along the shores of Lake Superior, of easy access, which might by degrees be brought in, from a mission stationed at the Sault. 4th. The Sault is the key of communi- cation between the upper and lower lakes. 156 REASONS FOR REVIVAL. and the way by which the Indians from above come down annually to receive their payments and presents ; so that it is the best spot on which to establish a settlement, with a view to ulterior operations. And to see the importance of this argu- ment more completely, it must be borne in mind, first, that the Chippeways, of whom the Sault St. Marie Indians are a small tribe, extend not only along Lake Superior, but westward by Lake La Pluie and the Lake of the Woods, to the country beyond Lake M^anitobaj that is, a distance of 900 miles i and secondly, that the Cree Indians (whose language is a dialect of the Chippeway) inhabit the vast tract of country extending from Lake La Croix in the west to Labrador in the east, and from Lake Nipissingin Upper Canada on the south to Hudson’s Bay on the north. 5th. There are posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company all along Lake Superior, which ought to be visited, periodically at least, for the purpose of administering the Sacraments, but which are now totally neglected. 6th. The Indians who bury at the Sault profess themselves of the Church of England, OF THE MISSION. 157 and have resisted the endeavours of others to take charge of them. Indeed, the only missions which appear to take hold on the minds of the Indians permanently, are those of our own Church and that of Rome, and perhaps the Moravians ; all other bodies want those elements of stability which are essentially necessary to a permanent hold on the minds of any, and especially of the uneducated. 7th. The copper mines, which have been recently discovered on the British side of Lake Superior, are found in the tract of country lying north-west of the Sault. Their discovery will necessarily cause a consider- able and daily augmenting increase of traffic by way of the Sault, and of population near the copper mines, and render it of importance that a clergyman of the Church of England I should reside there, — to watch over the spiritual interests of those churchmen who may be drawn thither. 8th. There is a church already existing there, and suitable premises which might be readily obtained for the purposes of a mission. On all these accounts it appears to me, that it would be much to be regretted that the mission should be abandoned ; nay, if p 160 MISSIONARY PLANS. it is to little purpose to attempt anything for the Indians, unless by means of a settled establishment ; that that establishment should make it a primary object to obtain whatever Indian children it can, and train them up as Christians; that it should seek every means of bringing the Indians into daily intercourse with religious and intelligent white people; that in fact it should carry on civilization co-ordinately with conversion, and as a means to it : and that it should provide opportunities of joint daily devotion for both adults and children. I learn indeed from the missionaries, as I have said already, that the Indians are perfect children ; that they require the con- stant direction and superintendence which children require. To make a perfect establishment of the kind I suggest, we should require a mis- sionary, a schoolmaster, a schoolmistress, a farming man, a carpenter, a smith, a shoe- maker, besides domestics. The missionary and schoolmaster might be the same person : or rather, (as it becomes every day more evident that the Moravian system, by which the missionaries are sent two and two, is almost necessary in remote situations) there should be two missionaries, both school- MISSIONARY PLANS. 161 masters. For a beginning, we might dis- pense with the schoolmistress, the shoemaker, the carpenter and the smith ; but the farming man, and one too who understood the Canadian style of farming, would be indispensable; for one of the prime objects should be to induce the Indian to cultivate, and for that purpose to teach him. In order to do this, he must be got to work with the European, to mould himself after him, to learn by imitation his habits of mind and action. This is the kind of establishment we want; and we need that all these should begin and end every day, publicly and openly, with holy prayers and hymns and the reading of God’s word ; and that they should do this, partially at least, in the languages of those amongst whom they should minister, and invite — nay, beguile and bribe — them to unite with them. ^ All this requires first, the land, which, as it is under the controul of the government (although belonging to the Indians), and of small value, might be had for little or nothing, with the consent of the government and the Indians themselves. Then it requires the men, and the means of their support, until 162 MISSIONARY PLANS. the land itself can be made to support them ; and it requires men who would be content with a bare support, and that in the plainest way. It would ultimately require the means of raising or purchasing suitable buildings. The last, if done in the rude manner of the country, would not be an article of great expense. £300 would cover the first cost ; indeed, if we employed our own people, probably even half would suffice. But the thing we want most is, that which is so rare in these days, men who would enter such an establishment, to work in it according to their ability, not as masters or servants, but for love to their fellow-men, and a desire to spend and be spent for Christ’s sake. In short, whenever I reflect upon the subject, my mind recurs to the Christian establishments by which England was origi- nally brought within the pale of the Church. They comprised all the elements which have hitherto been most successful, and they com- prised them more perfectly and systemati- cally than any of modern days. They had the missionaries and the school- master, and the artizan, and the farming man; all intelligent for their day, all devout, all self-denying ; not desiring to heap riches for MISSIONARY PLANS. 163 1 themselves, but devoting themselves to the t good of others. These were the men who t civilized England whilst they christianized i I it. Oh ! that we had something of this spirit . again ! t But that can scarcely be, whilst the clergy f are only men educated as gentlemen ; whilst their mental condition and ordinary habits keep them involuntarily from familiar inter- course with the lower classes ; whilst the gradations of clergy extend themselves to all the upper classes of society, but do not ramify r 1 through the lower. I know that there is a t dread of lowering the clergy as a class, by ) taking any of them from the imperfectly edu- cated or uneducated ; and I am far from wish- ing to have a coarse, vulgar set of people bearing the name of clergymen. But it is not all low that lies in the lower ranks. There are many men in the lowest grades whose minds are essentially of a high cast; whose characters are noble, and who shew that they are not vulgar, by catching refinement when- ever they are brought into connexion with it. These are the men we want to find out amongst the schoolmasters and artizans and farming labourers ; not to make them all cler- gymen, but to bring tliem into connexion 164 MISSIONARY PLANS. with US, especially the younger men, and train them up for the service of God in his Church. These are the men, if we can find them, whom we must attach to our missionary stations. And perhaps the training schools of the old country, especially those in which the pupils are encouraged to cultivate handi- crafts, or to practice agriculture, may be the source from which we are to derive our most efficient missionary labourers. 1 hese are the views to which I have been led by the conversations I have had with Mr. McMurray and other persons interested in the Indians, by the visits and inquiries 1 have been able to make during my vacation, and by the reflection by which I have endeavoured to digest all that I have seen and heard, in conjunction with the thoughts I have long had in regard to missions to the heathen. I have taken this mode of making known what appear to me to be the exigencies of the case, and my own views of the best means of meet- ing them ; and I am glad to know, that there are those in England at present who are pre- pared to entertain similar views. I shall be gra- tified to find that thislittlepublieation awakens an interest in the minds of others on a subject upon which I myself, and the friends I have MISSIONARY PLANS. 165 mentioned, take so deep an interest, and that it prepares the minds of any to co-operate with me in carrying out the measures I have at heart. This is not the place to say more on the subject; but I hope to find encourage- ment to lay my plans more at length before the public, through some other channel, when further acquaintance with practical details enables me so to do. INDIAN ANCHOR. I 166 ] CHAPTER XIX. The interest I was led to take in the Indians of the Sault St. Marie, and in the Chippeway race to the west of the Sault, has had the natural result of leading my inquiries towards the Indian races still farther to the west and north, inhabiting for the most part the tract of country called Rupert’s land. My informants have been principally a gen- tleman formerly engaged in the fur business, as a member of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and an officer of artillery, who had traversed those countries for the purpose of conducting a chain of magnetical observations. From them I was surprised to learn, that the number of Indians inhabiting the British territories to the north and west of Canada is much greater than that of those in the settled provinces, amounting in short to nearly 40,000 souls. This amount was gained by the military officer above men- WILD INDIAN TRIBES. tioned, by actual inquiry at the various posts of the Hudson’s Bay Company which he visited. At these places he ascertained the exact number of Indians who personally visit those posts for the purpose of selling furs : and as the personal observation of the officers of the Company (who are continually living about in the forest amongst them), enables them to know in many cases the proportion borne by the Indians visiting their ports to tJie families of which they are the repre- sentatives, he had it in his power to make much more accurate approximation to the real number than could have been supposed possible. From these inquiries he concluded that tlie number of Indians in these terri- tories, to the east of the Rocky Mountains and north of the lakes, was as many as 18,000. Of these I have already stated that the Crees occupy the vast extent of country north of Canada, between it and Hudson’s Bay. But the most numerous race seems to be the Chippew yans, who (strange as it may seem) are a totally different race from the Chippeways and speak a different language.. They extend from English River northerly to the Esquimaux inhabiting the Polar se^, and are in number about 9,000 : their most. 168 WILD INDIAN TRIBES. numerous tribes being the Chippewyans Proper, the Hare Indians, and the Dog-rib Indians. These have shown a much greater disposition to embrace Christianity than any other of the northern nations on this conti- nent to whom it has been offered. T,he whole of the Indians, I have already mentioned, are scattered about in numerous small communities, and live almost entirely by the chase. But there is another collec- tion of tribes lying to the south-west of the lakes, and between them and the Rocky Mountains, the chief of whom are the Assini- boins, who appear much more likely ulti- mately to come within the pale of the Church than even those I have already mentioned. In the first place they are far less scattered, occupying a space of eight or nine hundred miles by about three hundred, and amounting to sixteen or seventeen thousand at the lowest computation. One of the great ob- stacles at all times encountered in chris- tianizing the Indians arises from the diffi- culty of finding a sufficient number together in any one place to form a permanent con- gregation. This results in part from their being compelled to separate into small parties in order to find a sufficiency of PASTORAL INDIANS. 169 subsistence, and in part from their being engaged in the pursuit of wild animals, for the sake of their furs. But the Indians I am speaking of, inhabit a country to a great degree pastoral, having large possessions of buffaloes, and consequently being under less inducement to wander and become scattered. The circumstance of their being collected in larger communities, has likewise caused them to be a few degrees further advanced in civi- lization, and consequently more capable of comprehending and appreciating the doc- trines of the gospel; for all experience teaches that, however the corruptions of civilized countries may hinder the full effect of Chris- tian principles, a state of degraded barbarism is an almost total bar to their reception. For these reasons it seems probable, that a much fuller measure of success would attend the efforts of the Christian missionary, if stationed amongst those of whom I am speaking, than is to be expected in any other of the aborigi- nal tribes under British protection. The whole of these Indians, I have already said, trade with the Hudsons’ Bay Company, who it would seem are actual owners, under the British government, of the greater por- tion of the territory inhabited by them; having Q 170 RUPERT S LAND. had conveyed to them, at a very early period, a charter granted by king Charles I. to prince Rupert, from whom this tract of country derives the name of Prince Rupert’s Land. For a long time it was a source of great emolument to the Company ; but the animals producing furs having been gradually extirpated, and the supply of furs having thus become gradually less and less, the revenues of the Company are so inconsider- able, that parents who have themselves been members of it, do not care to place their sous in the position they themselves occupied. 1 he result will probably be, in no long course of years, that the Company will be disposed to encourage emigration to their territory. Meanwhile, being absolute masters of the soil, they exercise an entire controul over the inhabitants, so far as they judge it expeilientj and consequently no Christian minister can officiate there without their consent, or in any other place or manner than as they per- mit. 1 here is rather a curious consequence of this state of things. The Company, being themselves of various denominations, have agreed to permit missions of various Christian bodies, viz., the Church, Romanists, and the VVesleyans; no other than these will they INDIAN CONVERTS. 171 permit to enter the country, except perhaps the Presbyterians. But this is not all ; they actually so thoroughly restrict them as to the place of their ministrations, that they will not permit the ministers of two different Christian bodies to oflSciate in the same place. The Church, the Roman Catholics, and the Methodists, each have their allotted district, within which they may minister either to those of European descent, or to the Indians and half-breeds ; but they dare not venture into each other’s territory. It is the condition, wliich if they transgress, they would be removed altogether from the Company’s ter- ritories. This of course has the effect of producing religious peace. But there is another result, which may or may not have been contemplated. By this means the effect of the religious system of the different Christian bodies has been tested j and my informant tells me that the members and servants of the Company have come to a conclusion decidedly in favour of the Church of England. They find that the Indian con- verts, made either by the Roman missionaries or by the Wesley ans, lose the virtues of their heathen state, and become indolent and un- trustworthy. This is attributed to their 17‘2 INDIAN CONVERTS. having resigned the principles and motives which formerly swayed them, and replaced them by a very distorted view of Christianity. The Roman Catholic missionaries are charged with baptizing converts in the most careless and hasty manner, without instruction or any other kind of trial ; and when they are chris- tened, the whole of the religion they learn is said to consist in the repetition of a few prayers and other external acts of devotion ; but the necessity of a change of heart, purity, uprightness, conscientious discharge of rela- tive duty, are affirmed to be ideas with which they are wholly unconversant. The Wes- leyans seem to err in a manner much more similar than would have been expected by persons who know the great antipathy with which they regard Papists. Their great characteristic on this continent seems to be, the love of excitement. They, it is true, teach their disciples to look for a new birth, but it seems to consist practically in being wrought up to a great pitch of terror and agitation, and being subsequently brought to feel great joy and transport. The ground for this transport seems not to be a matter of inquiry ; the very existence of it, if preceded by violent alarm, is too hastily taken for a INDIAN CONVERTS. 173 pledge of the divine favour. The next token of grace is the power of extemporary prayer; and when this is obtained, the convert is sup- posed to be confirmed in the good way. Prayer meetings are the great business of the religious Indian, and private prayer seems not to be much understood, much less the controul of the appetites and passions, except in their grosser manifestations; still less the observance of diligence in any calling, and integrity in dealing with mankind. Of course I do not undertake to pledge myself to anything but the fact that I am told there is such an impression on the minds of well informed persons as to the defects of these converts and their causes. The same prejudice does not exist against converts made by the Church. They are not so numerous as those of other bodies, because our clergy look to some moral proof of earnestness and understanding of the nature of religion ; and because our system has but little attraction for either the senses or the natural feelings ; but our Indians are more to be depended on in transactions of various kinds, and attend much better to their busi- ness and relative duties. They learn to pray even in solitude ; and can practice their q2 174 BISHOP OF religion without the excitement of social meetings; whilst the Wesleyan Indian fancies that he cannot pray in the retirement of the forest, whilst he is separated from other men in hunting the wild animals for the sake of their fur. He thus learns to neglect that which is the ordinary calling of his race, and adopts no other in its place; but becomes idle and dishonest. The way therefore seems to be prepared for a larger extension of the ministry of the Church in those countries : and it is perhaps this state of things which has in part induced the Hudson’s Bay Company to agree to assist in supporting a bishop for that territory, if one should be appointed. I do not mean to say that the benefit of the Indians is the only or principal motive ; but that the practical experience of the higher moral efficiency of the Church of Hngland, both upon Indians and upon white people, has induced them to incline latterly to the Church. Their promise of support to a bishop is, I believe, at present clogged with the condition that he shall take charge of a definite district at the Red River, as a parochial clergyman, and that of course principally with a view to the white settlers and half breeds : but althouo-h Rupert's land. 175 a bishop in a new country would of course of his own accord, when at home, be disposed to devote himself to the spiritual interests of those of the same blood living around him, and would desire to teach his clergy by example what he desires to see in them, — no one, I should think, who looks either to the number of scattered posts of the Com- pany, or to the large population of Indians under British rule, would desire to see the bishop become little more than a settled pastor and overseer to the few clergy at pre- sent ministering to the white settlers near the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. The supply of one ordinance of the Church, viz. con- firmation, even to white people, will require that the bishop should be a very considerable traveller, owing to the vast breadth of coun- try over which the posts of the Company are extended. But independently of this, are the Indians to be neglected ? And if they are not, will it not require a considerable portion both of the time and of the attention of the bishop to make suitable provision for their conversion and instruction. Granted that he must of necessity depute the actual work of labouring amongst them to others, can it be carried on effectually without his T7 176 PROBABLE DUTIES personally visiting, as chief pastor, the scenes of their labours. In a settled country, where duty is a matter of course, where there is a well-instructed clergy, where a regular post and rapid travelling make intercourse easy, a bishop may perhaps superintend his diocese effectually without personally visiting every congregation or parish. But the case is very different where circumstances are continually arising for which the Church has no provi- sion, — where the people have no traditionary observances kept up all around them, — where the clergy themselves, in the multiplied discouragements and temptations by which they are surrounded, find it almost as much as they can do to keep up Christian faith at all, and are apt to allow the accessories of religion to sink into neglect. Under such circumstances, it requires the bishop’s occa* sional personal presence at the scene of his brother’s labours, — to witness with his own eyes his difficulties and temptations, — to cheer him with personal converse, to en- courage with the results of an experience he has himself been all his life accumulating, and to which he adds continually by this very act of personal visitation. Q OF THE NEW BISHOP. 177 Nor is this all. Man is but man ; and left to struggle on alone, he is apt unawares himself to fall into neglects, which become serious when it is perhaps too late to remedy them. The bishop by personal visits might become aware of these involuntary lapses, — might kindly point them out, — might guard against others which had not yet developed themselves. This is but a specimen of the kind of causes which would require from the bishop a personal periodical visitation of his diocese, however extensive, — and consequently make his being personally responsible for the sole care of a parochial district out of the question as a permanent arrangement. There is moreover another kind of busi- ness, connected with the Indian population, which would demand much of the bishop’s thought and time, and that is the promotion of Christian instruction and education. There are at least three chief Indian languages to be mastered — ^the Chippeway, the Chippe- wyan and the Assiniboin: there is the pre- paration of translations of the Prayer Book and Bible, with elementary educational books, to be accomplished altogether in the two latter, and to be completed in the former ; 178 DUTIES OF THE BISHOP. and if this is to be done effectually under the superintendence of the bishop, he must make himself so far acquainted with the languages as to be in some degree a judge of the qualifications of those who prepare these translations. And, indeed, if he is to minis- ter as he ought to the Indian converts themselves, — he should be to some extent acquainted with their language. This it is clear will require time and labour, and per- sonal association with the Indians, — in what- ever way it is to be attained. And it is another portion of the argument to prove, that (however grateful we may be that the Hudson’s Bay Company are disposed to assist in supporting a Bishop, even on con- dition of his undertaking a pastoral charge, and however glad we may be to accept such a proposal, as a beginning of the Episco- pate,) yet some arrangement must ultimately be made which shall give the Bishop an adequate income, independent of the neces- sity of parochial duties; otherwise it will be impossible for him to fulfil in any sufficient degree the duty which rests upon our branch of the Church Catholic towards the Indian natives who are providentially brought under our influence. RECENT DISCOURAGEMENTS. 179 It IS true that these repeated calls upon the purses of churchmen, from all quar- ters, domestic as well as foreign, may for a while tend to paralyze exertion, by mak- ing persons sensible of the immensity of the work, and of the apparent hopelessness of seeing anything done adequate to the exigency. It is still more discouraging that so many of the very school of men in the church, who were beginning to shew signs of a desire to revive those habits of simplicity and self denial, which are essential to the missionary life, have (from whatever cause) withdrawn the benefit of their example and precept from the church of their fathers. But the instances of serious loss to the church are, I hope, not proportionally so many as they at first sight appear. Some of them are cases not of a habit of self-denial, but of the oppo- site habit of self-will. In others again, where the self-denial was undoubted, there are marks of a want of sound practical judgment in matters between man and man, which makes the loss to the church much less than it at first sight appeared ; for whatever some may imagine, the absence of sound judgment is one of the most serious of all defects in a Christian minister, and will mar the effect of 180 MISSIONARY WANTS. much zeal, and of other more brilliant virtues. So that I still return to the sentiments I expressed in the foregoing chapter. We want well informed churchmen, of simple habits, devoted to the cause of Christ and the wel- fare of mankind, not romantic, but earnestly persevering, — capable of turning their hands to anything and willing so to do, but still well qualified in some particular branch. A society of such men, clergyman, schoolmaster, farming labourers, artizans, we want planted here and there over any new country, keep- up daily instruction and labour and prayer; and I do not despair of seeing such societies brought into operation in our day. The most effectual missions have ever approxi- mated to this character ; and I am persuaded that one such mission, under a bishop who understands its real merits, who lives in or near it, and will work it effectually, must be the parent of many more. It was the interest in the Indians of the Sault Ste. Marie, which first drew my atten- tion to this subject, wdth a view to any defi- nite practical result ; but acquainted, as I am now, with the condition of so many tens of thousands of that race, under British influ- ence, the interests of such a handful of men 181 SAULT STE MARIE, appear to sink into utter insignificance. And yet the interests of that handful of men, and the importance of that station, on other grounds, remain just as I have stated them. They are not changed in a single point; they would be but little changed, if a bishop were appointed to Prince Rupert’s Land; only that if that station became the south-eastern ex- tremity of his diocese, although it could not assume to his mind the importance it pos- sesses when viewed as a single case, he would still be more likely than any other bishop to appreciate its value; — for it would be the spot which would unite him to the civilized world. Although, therefore, the actual importance of the Sault rests as it was, it may be desirable to wait until the appointment of a bishop to that intended diocese, before pressing any further upon British churchmen the interests of that particular place. Meanwhile, it may not be uninteresting to those friends, who have already felt a concern in it from my representations, to know that it is not alto- gether forgotten : for at one of the sittings of the Church Society in Toronto, which took place within the past year, there was an allow- ance voted to pay the expenses incurred by the missionary at the Great Manitoulin Island R SAULT STE MARIE. 182 in visiting the Sault. Such an annual visit serves to keep up the connexion between the Indians and the Church, and that is all. It does not answer the various important ends to be attained by a mission actually on the spot. [ 1 ^^] CHAPTER XX. Ever since I came to this country and >bserved the un ecclesiastical character of nost of our sacred edifices, I have felt an xnxiety that some remedy might be found for it. With regard to those which are con- structed of brick and stone^ there seems to be a fair prospect of the evil being abated ; for in their construction the aid of the archw tect is called in, and it is easy to see that there is a gradual approximation to a truer taste; and that professional emulation will render that approximation every day more near. But with regard to wooden build- ings, of which kind most must be for many years to come, the case is different; no architect is consulted, and the clergyman and the building committee, with the builder, settle the style of the erection. Appeals have been made to the Oxford and Cambridge Architectural Societies, but as yet little has emanated from their members, and nothing r*2 186 WOODEN CHURCHES. has reached us ; and that, perhaps, from this reason, that they do not know what is the actual construction of our wooden churches, and consequently do not know in what way their advice is needed. In order then to aid our friends at home, I will give a brief account, so far as an amateur can do, of the actual construction and necessary features of our wooden fabrics, and suggest some principles which appear to me desirable to keep in mind in improving them. The most simple kind of wooden church is formed of trees, laid horizontally one on another, like the log-houses; the consequence is, that all the main lines are horizontal, with the exception of those of the roof. In a building of brick or stone, the arch would be naturally introduced, from the want of a piece of either, sufficient in length and strength, to sustain the portion of wall over a door or window ; but in the log building there is no difficulty of the kind, and con- sequently the square door-way and window are the natural attendants upon that species of building. The next question is as to the size and number, proportions, position, &c. of the windows. The great point in Canada is not WOODEN CHURCHES. 187 SO much to admit light, as to exclude it ; or rather to admit as little as can possibly be wanted : for the sun in summer, and the snow in winter, produce a glare which is all but intolerable. I have therefore thought it a great mistake in most of our Canadian churches that they were too light. It is evi- dent, then, that the windows should be small and few; or if that is not the case, that recourse should be had to the external French blinds so constantly adopted in the houses of this country. That feature however is never seen in the log-house, because it is generally speak- ing an expense inconsistent with the re- sources of those who build it. The next point is the proportions. And here I think it will be agreed that a church window should, if possible, have height; partly that there may be something about it tending upwards, to compensate for the pre- valence of horizontal lines. And if they are to be high, they must likewise be narrow, in order to be small. The position of the windows I shall regard under two aspects, viz., in what walls of the building they should be placed, and at what height from the ground. I imagine that any log building would be adequately lighted by 188 WOODEN CHURCHES. windows on the sides, and one, two, or three lights at the east end, according to the size of the building. In order to prevent the attention of the congregation from being distracted by external objects, they should be at least seven or eight feet from the ground ; and to prevent an unpleasant glare from be* hind the clergyman, when standing at or near the altar, the chancel windows should be very high indeed. There would then be ample room for the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and Commandments, which are too often omitted. A word or two on the style of the win- dows, and I have done with this part of the subject. The windows and doors being square in their outline, and the surface of the build- ing being rough and uneven, anything which is to give them an ecclesiastical cliaracter must come within that outline. A label, therefore, in the ordinary position would be unsuitable, as it could not advantageously be fixed to the rough logs of the exterior : it requires a smooth and firm surface to set it against. But any kind of label or moulding which could be placed on the ac- tual window frame, so as to throw the snow out from the window, would be advantageous. The arch, though inadmissible in the outline WOODEN CHURCHES. 189 of the window frame, might very well be introduced within it, by way of ornament, and as furnishing an apparent strength to the beam of wood which passes over the win- dow. This would still be more proper in the door- ways, as being wider; and again in that * portion of the interior where the body of the building and the chancel connect together. The glazing of the windows might likewise be so managed as to have an ecclesiastical appearance ; alw^ays remembering that a por- tion of them should open, to cause ventilation in the summer. And that again gives an addi- tional reason for their being at a distance from the ground, that the heated air may rise and escape through them, w^hilst the cool air comes in through the door or any other open- ings which may be devised for that purpose. < A corresponding reason applies in the winter; for it is inconvenient to be compelled to stand near to a window at that season, as the cold pours in readily through the thin glass. There is nothing in the climate of Canada which requires a high pitched roof. The snow is not liable in general to injure the roof by lodging on it ; indeed it adds to the comfort of the place, by excluding the cold ; accordingly, the roofs are almost always p 190 WOODEN CHURCHES. equilateral, or even lower. The roof itself would be covered with shingles; and, although not usual, it would be an advantage that the roof should project, to carry oiF from the foun- dation whatever droppings of melted snow or rain there might be, and to assist in keeping the building cool in summer and warm in winter. It is customary to carry a flat ceiling across these buildings; but that is not neces- ®^ry, provided the roof be made thoroughly air-tight, to keep in the heat in the winter. I ought likewise to mention, that in Canada there are two essentials in every building of any size, viz., a porch or vestibule with an ex- ternal door as well as an internal one, to keep out the cold in winter, — and a stove to heat the interior. The latter is not a mere comfort or convenience, but a necessity. It is likewise necessary in wooden buildings that the pipe of that stove should not be carried immedi-^ ately out of the building, but rather brought up through it; or even that it should traverse it horizontally, in order to economize heat. In the smaller buildings it is sufficient that the pipe should pass out to the roof through the apartment; but in larger ones the pipes must pass from end to end. This is far from ornamental, but it cannot be dispensed with. G I WOODEN CHURCHES. I9l and therefore must be provided for in the construction of the building. Then again, to avoid currents of cold air, the stove must be near the entrance of the church. A necessary consequence of all this is, a chimney or chimneys of brick or stone, for no other will answer; unless indeed the iron pipe be carried out, and then it must be taken through an opening of brick or stone, other- wise the security of the building is endan- gered. The ordinary practice, therefore, in the smaller buildings is to have a chimney of brick, with a cap to it, on the ridge of the roof of a church or school-house; or, if the building is larger, to have two or more of these, half on each side. I have hitherto spoken only of log build- ings ; another and a more frequent kind for churches are frame buildings. These are raised by erecting a jfraTweiee/rA of pine, cover- ing the inside with lath and plaster, and the outside with weather-boards placed hori- zontally, and lapping one over the other. In some cases the building is rough-cast on the outside. Now in regard to the windows and door-ways of the ortlinary frame build- ing, the same remarks apply, as in the case of the log building ; and for the same rea- 192 WOODEN CHURCHES. son, — that all the main lines are horizontal, and the surface of the wall not smooth. But a much neater and closer finish is required in the frame building, and allowance must be made for the fact that the walls are thinner than in the log house. There is likewise a peculiarity in the finish of the corners of the building, viz., that it is made by vertical boards about three or four inches wide, on each side of the corner. These angular boards, it is plain, might be made ornamental, if worked with mouldings. It is evident that anything like battlements would be unsuitable in these buildings; but buttresses may possibly be required, or some- thing at least to answer the same purpose, when we raise our buildings high enough to aflford a sufficient height of window above the heads of the congregation. Still I think it would be much better to accomplish the same end by the internal strength of the frame- work of the walls. I have omitted to mention, that frame buildings, of whatever kind, are erected upon foundations of stone where it can be pro- cured; and where that is not the case, it is considered expedient to raise them on piles two or three feet above the ground. A few W 1 liereffl stotk iKMiei (isYei Rile Kima ,115011 9jK)b jiliiYes m mi IMtl) 'A ho: >?ile ispli iorc 'iaf ^la M WCXODEN CHURCHES. 193 steps therefore on the outside are required leading to the doorways. In connexion with this remark, I will add, that it is very customary in dwelling houses to have the basement story sunk two-thirds in the ground, and constructed of stone. This plan is sometimes adopted with churches, and then the space thus acquired is employed for schoolrooms. In that case, likewise, the main stoves are below*, and dumh-stoves^ a sort of retainer and receptacle of heat, are placed in the upper apartment. Althouorh it is undoubted, that frame build- o ings are more commonly erected for churches, I cannot but think that the log might still be used with advantage. They are warmer and much more durable ; and if carving were adopted as a mode of ornamenting them externally, they might be made much more agreeable to the eye than at present. It is plain from what I have said, that many of the ordinary rules of Gothic architecture are inapplicable to such buildings. The horizontal lines exclude the ordinary pointed arch, and the thinness of the walls precludes, the beautiful succession of mouldings with which the windows and door-ways should retire from the surface of the wall. But with s ^^4 WOODEN CHURCHES. these exceptions, there appears no reason why Gothic architecture may not furnish all the details of the edifice, under new combi- nations, to suit new exigencies. This appears so much the more reasonable, as most of the details of the pointed style give an impres- sion of having been originally worked out in wood : and of course the cheapness of timber in this country gives a great facility for the construction of wooden ceilings, where the design does not require so much labour, as to render it in that way too expensive in a country which, unlike ancient England, finds the cost of labour the most burdensome of all its expenses. If these details should enable any architec- tural friend to the colonial church better to understand our requirements, and to furnish us with corresponding working designs, I shall be amply repaid. I have said that our buildings of brick or stone bid fair to approach gradually to a truer taste, by the competition of architects : but there is one difficulty, wliich it will take long to surmount, and that is the small and uncer- tain remuneration to the architect himself, which prevents him from furnishing* himself with adequate information, and the necessity !«le fii im wi ik d Hi ntoi m ali ’IS: Si* Hfe iek Jik uto (tti itsli WOODEN CHURCHES. 195 he is under of studying in some degree the taste of the people, who for the most part have no adequate perception of beauty and fitness in church architecture. The latter evil can be surmounted only by the gradual acquirement of information by the clergy and influential laity; and this must necessarily go on slowly, from the confined means of both, and from the fact that there are ex- tremely few persons of any class who have leisure for voluntary studies. But something might be done, if from any quarter a good collection of practical works could be sent out, and placed in the library of any public institution where they would be open to general inspection. But to be really useful, they must be essentially practical. This would meet the case of architects, and other persons engaged in the practical part of the business, as well as of the clergy and laity resident on the spot : but it is important that the clergy generally should acquire a more correct taste, and more accurate know- ledge, to be a check upon the practical persons, and taguide and temper their views ; and that can only be done by the distribution of books on the subject amongst them: but whence such distribution can arise it is difficult to say. L 196 WOODEN CHURCHES. There is however an institution amongst them, including I think all their members, which might advantageously be employed to disseminate the requisite information ; I mean that of Clerical Societies, which brings the clergy together periodically at each other’s residences. The secretary of each of these societies might be made the depository of such practical works as any friend to the Canadian Church might be disposed to supply ; and from what I have seen of the Canadian clergy, I am sure that nothing of the kind would be lost upon them. Their means are for the most part limited, but they are intelligent churchmen ; zealous in pursuit of everything, internal and external, by which the honour of the Church can be upheld, and supported most cordially in their views and wishes by their brethren of the laity. I feel confident, therefore, that what- ever means of information they acquire will be turned to account, and that speedily. FINIS. ROWSELLS AND THOUPgON, PRINTERS, TORONTO. ^ ^ — I Cl La f\JO£ ^19 noD