Flint's Letters from America, 1818-1820

by active 19th century James Flint

The Lake St. Peter’s is another expansion of the river, about twenty miles long and fifteen broad. The great lakes in the upper country, and the smaller ones in the course of the St. Lawrence, have the effect of equalizing the stream, and prevent {302} inundations, which are very injurious to the neighbourhood of most large rivers.

In the afternoon, the vessel was anchored in consequence of a contrary wind, which was accompanied with a fall of snow, the first that had occurred during the season. The town Trois Rivieres, (Three Rivers,) then in our sight, is a large place, and is the seat of justice for one of the three districts of Lower Canada. Most of the inhabitants here, as in the other parts of the lower province, are Canadian French. The houses are covered with tinned iron.

On both sides of the river, a row of farm houses, placed at very short intervals, stretches along almost without interruption. These houses are white-washed, and have throughout a degree of similarity in size and appearance which I have not observed in any other part except the banks of the St. Lawrence. These houses are white-washed, and have each a barn and other inferior houses attached. As the grain is housed, and the barns seem to be of no great dimensions, it is a proof that the crops are certainly small. In viewing these ranges of farming establishments obliquely, the whole has the aspect of a continued village on both sides, with churches at very short distances from one another. Were it not for seeing the uncleared woods, which are in most parts only about a mile from the river, and for recollecting that the number of white people in Lower Canada was, a few years ago, estimated at only 200,000, I should have been induced to believe that this is a populous country.

On the 26th we proceeded downwards with a fair wind. The tide reaches to the distance of about sixty miles above Quebec. We descended the Falls of Richlieu, by the joint action of wind, tide, steam, and the stream, at the rate of fifteen {303} miles an hour. These falls are furious rapids at low stages of the tide, but in times of high water they are covered up and smooth. The banks are of a dark coloured schistous substance, very steep, and about a hundred feet high, and the soil inferior to that farther up the river.

On approaching Quebec, I was shown the steep recess of the rock through which General Wolf conducted his army on the night previous to his memorable victory.—This narrow defile retains the name of Wolfe’s Cove.

The first sight of Quebec that is obtained in descending the river, is imposing; the shipping viewed in the direction of the line that it forms along the wharfs, has something like the appearance of a thick forest of deadened pine-trees, and the dark-coloured rock, which rises almost from the water’s edge, towers high in air. An angle of the fort that stands on the edge of the precipice, and a stone tower and a signal-post that occupy a still higher summit in the rear, are the most prominent objects. On advancing farther, it is discovered that the low ground below widens to the westward, and is occupied by a part of the lower town, and a considerable extent of the circumvallation that occupies the top of the cleft, and incloses the castle of St. Louis, and some other high buildings. The situation and aspect of the castle of St. Louis, (the residence of the governor,) reminds me of the barracks on the west side of the castle of Edinburgh. Indeed the whole of the northern front of Quebec has a general resemblance to the ancient Scottish fortress.

Quebec stands on a point of land formed by the junction of the rivers St. Lawrence, and is divided by the cliffs into two parts, the Lower and the Upper town. The Lower town, adjoining to the wharfs, is narrow and dirty, and the wharfs are {304} disconnected from one another by the intervention of houses. The Upper town is inclosed within the fort, and is much better built and more clean than the lower division of the city. The whole of the works occupy ground of the most commanding description, and are well furnished with the apparatus necessary for defence.

On the Heights of Abraham, the place is shown where Wolfe fell, and, till lately, the granite block remained on which the hero expired. There are some fragments still to be found, lying at a small wooden house adjoining, which will probably be soon broken into smaller pieces and carried off by strangers.

To the west of Quebec is Lorete, an Indian town, which is built of stone; and the neighbouring fields seem to be well cultivated. At Point Levi, on the opposite bank of the St. Lawrence, a tribe of Indians encamp occasionally for the purpose of trading. It is curious that the aborigines remain so long amongst the thickest settlements in Lower Canada, while in other parts of the continent they disappear before a very thin population of whites. This must have been occasioned by the French, who have at all times ingratiated themselves with the natives, and even intermarried with them, and by the Indians becoming proselytes to the Roman Catholic religion.

The Canadian French are universally acknowledged to be true Roman Catholics, strict in their observance of holidays, submissive to the exactions of their priesthood, and the loyal subjects of Britain. They seem to retain the depressed characters of a conquered people. Their bow is low, and apparently obsequious, and they are usually ready to make out of the way of any one who walks rapidly along the streets. Many of {305} them are dirty and coarsely clothed, and instead of buttoning their coats, they tie them with a sort of sash that is wrapped round their middle. At meals each produces his pocket knife, the same, perhaps, with which he cuts his tobacco, and spits on the blade, and then rubs it on his clothes previous to eating. They are slovenly agriculturists, and use the most wretched implements, and yoke their oxen by the horns. A gentleman told me that he lately asked one of them, why they did not yoke these animals by the shoulders as other people do? The other replied—because the strength of the head would be lost. It is not uncommon to see the Canadian coming into market with only one or two bushels of wheat. Here, as at Montreal, the cruel practice of causing dogs to draw carts, prevails. On seeing a young man riding in one of these little vehicles, and whipping the docile creature till it lay down and turned up its feet, I was much shocked at the conduct of the wretch; and, though you may not altogether approve of the principle, I felt considerable satisfaction from the circumstance, that the profane imprecations which he with great fluency uttered, were not pronounced in the English language.