Diary in America, Series Two

by Frederick Marryat

In looking out for a property in Canada, always try to obtain a water-power, or the means of erecting one, by damming up any swift stream; its value will, in a few years, be very great; and never consider a few dollars an acre more, if you have transport by water, or are close to a good market. You must look forward to what the country will be, not to what it is at present.

Half-pay officers settle in Upper Canada with great advantages, arising from the circumstance, that their annual pay is always a resource to fill back upon. A very small capital is sufficient in this case; and, if prudent, they gradually rise to independence, if not to wealth. There are, however, one or two cautions to be given to these gentlemen. Never go into the bush if you can help it: accustomed to society, you will find the total loss of it too serious. If you have a wife and large family, they may partially compensate for the loss, but even then it is better to locate yourself near a small town. If you are a single man and sit down in the bush, you are lost. Hundreds have done so, and the result has been, that they have resorted to intemperance, and have died ruined men.

But the settlers most required in Upper Canada, and those who would reap the most golden harvest, are men of capital; when I say capital, I mean those who possess a sum of four or five thousand pounds—a sum very inadequate to support a person in England who has been born and bred as a gentleman; but in Canada, with such a sum, he can not only farm, but speculate to great advantage. At present the Americans go over there every year, and realise large sums of money. Indeed, capital is so much required in Upper Canada, and may be employed to such advantage, that I wonder people, with what may be considered as small capitals here, do not go over. The only caution to give them is, not to be in a hurry; in the course of a year or two they will understand what they are about, and then they will soon become wealthy.

When I arrived at Toronto, I was called upon by an old friend who had often shot with me in Norfolk. His father had once set him up in business, but the house failed. He resolved to go out to Canada, and his father gave him a thousand pounds as a start, and allowed him two hundred pounds a year afterwards. He had been in the country seven years when we met again. I accepted his invitation to dine and sleep at his house, which was about seven miles from the town. He sent handsome saddle horses over for three of us. I found him located on a beautiful farm of about four hundred acres, the major portion of it cleared; his house was a very elegantly built cottage ornée, every thing had the appearance of a handsome English country residence; he had married a beautiful woman of one of the first families. We sat down to an excellent dinner, and, in every respect, the whole set-out was equal to what you generally meet with in good society in England. He was really living in luxury. We returned the next day, in a handsome carriage and as fine a pair of horses as one would wish to see.

I could hardly credit that all this could have been accumulated in seven years—yet such was the case, and it was not a singular one; for the whole road from his farm to Toronto was lined with similar farms and handsome houses, belonging to gentlemen who had emigrated, forming among themselves, a very extensive and most delightful society.

Although they do not go ahead as fast as some of the American cities, (for instance, Buffalo,) still Upper Canada has, within the last ten or fifteen years, taken a surprising start, and will now, if judiciously governed, increase in wealth almost as fast as any of the American States. About Toronto, most of the gentlemen have incomes of from seven hundred to fifteen hundred pounds per annum, and keep handsome equipages; but there are many other towns which have lately risen up very rapidly. Peterborough is an instance of this. “Peterborough in 1825 contained but one miserable dwelling; now, in 1838, may be seen nearly four hundred houses, many of them large and handsome, inhabited by about fifteen hundred persons; a very neat stone church, capable of accommodating eight hundred or nine hundred persons, (see Note 1) a Presbyterian church of stone, two dissenting places of worship, and a Roman Catholic church in progress. The town has in or near it, two grist, and seven saw-mills, five distilleries, two breweries, two tanneries, eighteen or twenty shops (called stores), carriage, sleigh, wagon, chair, harness, and cabinet-makers and most other useful trades. Stages run all the year, bringing mails five times a week and steamboats whilst the navigation is open; there is one good tavern (White’s), and two inferior ones. Families may now find houses of any sizes to suit them, at moderate rents. The roads in this neighbourhood are being greatly improved. The towns of Cobourg, Port Hope, Colborne, Grafton, Brighton, River Trent, and Beaumont in the Newcastle district, are all equally prosperous, and, like Peterborough, are surrounded by genteel families from the United Kingdom; in short, the advancement of this district is almost incredible.”

But there is one important subject relative to emigration which must be considered; if it be, as I trust my readers will be inclined to think with me, a national question, it is highly expedient that it should be not only assisted, but controlled by government. At present the mortality is tremendous; and I very much question whether there are not more lives sacrificed in the transport of the emigrants, than subsequently fall a prey to disease in the western States, bordering on the Mississippi. With those who would emigrate to the United States, we have nothing to do, neither do they so much require our sympathy. The American packets are good vessels, and they suffer little; and when they land at New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia, the charity of the Americans is always ready for their relief. But with the poor emigrants who would settle in Canada, the case is very different. It must be understood, that the Quebec trade is chiefly composed of worn-out and unseaworthy vessels, which cannot find employment elsewhere; for a vessel which is in such a state that a cargo of dry goods could not be entrusted to her, is still sufficiently serviceable for the timber trade—as, ‘allowing her bottom to be out’ with a cargo of timber she of course cannot founder. But if these vessels are sufficiently safe to bring timber home, they are not sufficiently good vessels to receive three or four hundred emigrants on board. Leaky, bad sailers, ill-found, the voyage is often protracted, and the sufferings of the poor people on board are dreadful. Fever and other diseases break out among them, and they often arrive at Quebec with sixty or seventy people who are carried to the hospital independently of those who have died and been thrown overboard.

Sometimes their provisions do not last out the voyage, and they are obliged to purchase of the captain or others on board, (who have prepared for the exigence,) and thus their little savings to recommence life with, are all swallowed up to support existence. I believe that what they suffer is dreadful; and if ever there was a case which would call forth patriotism and sympathy, it is the hardships of these poor people. Allowing emigration not to be a national question, still it is a question for national humanity, and all this suffering might be alleviated at comparatively a very trifling expense.

If two or three of our smaller line-of-battle ships now lying at their moorings, were to be jury-rigged, without any guns on board, and manned with a sloop’s ship’s company, they would not decay faster by running between Quebec and this country than if they remained in harbour. One of those vessels would carry out 2,500 men, women, and children. Let the emigrants take their provisions on board, and should their provisions fail them, let there be a surplus for their supply at the cost price. Under this arrangement, you would have that order, cleanliness, and ventilation which would insure them against disease, and proper medical attendance if it should be required; you would save thousands of lives, and the emigrant, as he left the ship, would feel grateful for the benefit conferred. But the assistance of government must not end here: the emigrant, on his arrival, is adrift; he knows not where to go; he has no resting-place; he is a perfect stranger to the country and to every thing; he exhausts his means before he can find employment or settle: other arrangements are therefore necessary, if the work of charity is to be completed. Indeed, the want of these arrangements is the cause of a very large proportion of the Canadian emigrants leaving our provinces and settling in the United States, where they can immediately find employment; and Americans, agents of the land speculators, are continually on the look-out in Canada, persuading the emigrants, by all sorts of promises and inducements, to leave the provinces and to take lands in the States, belonging to their employers. Every emigrant lost to us is a gain to America; and upon the increase of the English population depends the prosperity of the Canadas, and our best chance of retaining them in our possession.

Both Upper and Lower Canada have one great advantage over most of the other territories of the United States, which is, that they are so very healthy; the winters in both provinces are dry, and, in Upper Canada, they are not severe; and the summers are cool, compared with those of the United States. Indeed, in point of climate, they cannot be surpassed; and I rather think, independently of its fine soil, which enables it to grow every thing (for even tobacco grows well in Upper Canada), that in mineral richness it is not to be exceeded. It abounds in water-power, and has several splendid rivers. As soon as the roads are made (for that is the present desideratum in the Upper Province), I have no hesitation in asserting, that it will be, of all others, the most favourable spot for emigration. It is a man’s own fault if, with common industry, he does not, in a few years, secure competence and the happiness arising from independence, when it is accompanied by that greatest of all blessings—health.