The scenery of this place, which does not seem to possess a name, is most agreeable, but its attractive features are of an architectural nature. The first is a block-house, and the second a Catholic church.
The block-house occupies the summit of a commanding and rocky knoll, and was built at a cost of nearly five thousand dollars, for the purpose of defending this portion of New Brunswick, during the existence of the late Boundary difficulty. The edifice is built of stone and timber, and may be described as a square box, placed upon another and a larger one, in a triangular fashion; the width may be thirty feet, and height one hundred and fifty. It is well supplied with port-holes; entered by a wooden flight of stairs, and covered with a tin roof. It contains two stories, besides a well-filled magazine. It is abundantly supplied with guns and cannon, and almost every variety of shot, shells, and balls. It was once occupied by three military companies, (about all that it could possibly hold) but the only human being who now has anything to do with it is a worthy man who officiates as keeper.
The panorama which this fortress overlooks is exceedingly picturesque, embracing both the valley of the Madawaska and that of St. John, which fade away amid a multitude of wild and uncultivated mountains. When first I looked upon this block-house, it struck me as being a most ridiculous affair; but, on further examination, I became convinced that it could not be taken without the shedding of much blood.
Of the church to which I alluded, I have only to remark that it is a very small, and apparently a venerable structure, built of wood, painted yellow, with a red steeple. It is pleasantly situated amid a cluster of rude cabins, on the margin of the St. John, and in the immediate vicinity of a racecourse. It was my fate to spend a Sabbath in this Madawaska settlement. As a matter of course, I attended church. The congregation was large, and composed entirely of Acadians, decked out in the most ridiculous gew-gawish dresses imaginable. I noticed nothing extraordinary on the occasion, only that at the threshold of the church was a kind of stand, where a woman was selling sausages and small beer. The services were read in Latin, and a sermon preached in French, which contained nothing but the most common-place advice, and that all of a secular character. At the conclusion of the service the male portion of the congregation gradually collected together on the neighbouring green, and the afternoon was devoted to horse-racing, the swiftest horse belonging to the loudest talker and heaviest stake-planter, and that man was—a disciple of the Pope, and the identical priest whom I had heard preach in the morning. It will be hard for you to believe this; but I have written the truth, as well as my last line, about the Acadian Settlement on the Madawaska.
CHAPTER XX.
Sail down the Madawaska—The Falls of the St. John.
Falls of the St. John. July.
In coming to this place from the north, the traveller finds it necessary to descend the river St. John in a canoe. The distance from Madawaska is thirty-six miles, and the day that I passed down was delightful in the extreme. My canoe was only about fifteen feet long, but my voyageur was an expert and faithful man, and we performed the trip without the slightest accident.
The valley of this portion of the river is mountainous, and its immediate banks vary from fifteen to thirty feet in height. The water is very clear and rapid, but of a brownish colour, and quite warm, varying in depth from three to thirty feet, and the width is about a quarter of a mile. That portion of the stream (say some seventy miles of its source) which belongs exclusively to the United States, runs through a fertile and beautiful country, abounds in waterfalls and rapids, and is yet a wilderness. That portion which divides the United States from New Brunswick, is somewhat cultivated, but principally by a French population. Owing to the fact that the farms all face the river, and are very narrow, (but extend back to the distance of two and three miles) the houses have all been erected immediately on the river, so that, to the casual observer, the country might appear to be thickly inhabited, which is far from being the case. The principal business done on the river is the driving of logs and timber for the market of St. John; and, excepting the worthy and hard working lumbermen who toil in the forests, the people are devoted to the tilling of their land, and are precisely similar to the Acadians in their manners and customs, and probably from the same stock. There is a miniature steam-boat on the river, but as the unnumbered canoes of the inhabitants are engaged in a kind of opposition line, the fiery little craft would seem to have a hard time. In navigating the river, the voyageurs paddle down stream, but use a pole in ascending; and two smart men, gracefully swinging their poles, and sending their little vessel rapidly against the current, taken in connection with the pleasant scenery of the river, present an agreeable and novel sight.
We started from Madawaska at four o’clock in the morning, and having travelled some twenty miles, we thought we would stop at the first nice-looking tavern on the shore, (for about every other dwelling is well supplied with liquor, and consequently considered a tavern) for the purpose of obtaining breakfast. Carefully did we haul up our canoe, and having knocked at the cabin-door, were warmly welcomed by a savage-looking man, whose face was completely besmeared with milk, and also by a dirty-looking woman, a couple of dirty legged girls, and a young boy. The only furniture in the room was a bed and a small cupboard, while the fire-place was without a particle of fire. In one corner of the room was a kind of bar, where the boy was in attendance, and seemed to be the spokesman of the dwelling. We asked him if we could have some breakfast, and he promptly replied that we could.