Amongst the scattered houses at the lower end of the district of Malden, there are several of a respectable appearance, and the farms adjoining to them are very considerable. The farm belonging to our friend, Captain E——, under whose roof we tarry, contains no less than two thousand acres. A very large part of it is cleared, and it is cultivated in a style which would not be thought meanly of even in England. His house, which is the best in the whole district, is agreeably situated, at the distance of about two hundred yards from the river; there is a full view of the river, and of the island of Bois Blanc, from the parlour windows, and the scene is continually enlivened by the number of Indian canoes that pass and repass before it. In front of the house there is a neat little lawn, paled in, and ornamented with clumps of trees, at the bottom of which, not far from the water, stands a large Indian wigwam, called the council house, in which the Indians are assembled whenever there are any affairs of importance to be transacted between them and the officers in the Indian department. Great numbers of these people come from the island of Bois Blanc, where no less than five hundred families of them are encamped, to visit us daily; and we in our turn go frequently to the island, to have an opportunity of observing their native manners and customs.
Our friend has told them, that we have crossed the big lake, the Atlantic, on purpose to come and see them. This circumstance has given them a very favourable opinion of us; they approve highly of the undertaking, and say that we have employed our time to a good purpose. No people on earth have a higher opinion of their own consequence; indeed, they esteem themselves superior to every other race of men.
We remained for a short time in Malden, and then set off for Detroit in a neat little pleasure boat, which one of the traders obligingly lent to us. The river between the two places varies in breadth from two miles to half a mile. The banks are mostly very low, and in some places large marshes extend along the shores, and far up into the country. The shores are adorned with rich timber of various kinds, and bordering upon the marshes, where the trees have full scope to extend their branches, the woodland scenery is very fine. Amidst the marshes, the river takes some very considerable bends, and it is diversified at the same time with several large islands, which occasion a great diversity of prospect.
FRUITS.
Beyond Malden no houses are to be seen on either side of the river, except indeed the few miserable little huts in the Indian villages, until you come within four miles or thereabouts of Detroit. Here the settlements are very numerous on both sides, but particularly on that belonging to the British. The country abounds with peach, apple, and cherry orchards, the richest I ever beheld; in many of them the trees, loaded with large apples of various dyes, appeared bent down into the very water. They have many different sorts of excellent apples in this part of the country, but there is one far superior to all the rest, and which is held in great estimation, called the pomme caille. I do not recollect to have seen it in any other part of the world, though doubtless it is not peculiar to this neighbourhood. It is of an extraordinary large size, and deep red colour; not confined merely to the skin, but extending to the very core of the apple: if the skin be taken off delicately, the fruit appears nearly as red as when entire. We could not resist the temptation of stopping at the first of these orchards we came to, and for a few pence we were allowed to lade our boat with as much fruit as we could well carry away. The peaches were nearly out of season now, but from the few I tasted, I should suppose that they were of a good kind, far superior in flavour, size, and juiciness to those commonly met with in the orchards of the middle states.
The houses in this part of the country are all built in a similar style to those in Lower Canada; the lands are laid out and cultivated also similarly to those in the lower province; the manners and persons of the inhabitants are the same; French is the predominant language, and the traveller may fancy for a moment, if he pleases, that he has been wafted by enchantment back again into the neighbourhood of Montreal or Three Rivers. All the principal posts throughout the western country, along the lakes, the Ohio, the Illinois, &c. were established by the French; but, except at Detroit and in the neighbourhood, and in the Illinois country, the French settlers have become so blended with the greater number who spoke English, that their language has every where died away.
DETROIT.
Detroit contains about three hundred houses, and is the largest town in the western country. It stands contiguous to the river, on the top of the banks, which are here about twenty feet high. At the bottom of them there are very extensive wharfs for the accommodation of the shipping, built of wood, similar to those in the Atlantic sea-ports. The town consists of several streets that run parallel to the river, which are intersected by others at right angles. They are all very narrow, and not being paved, dirty in the extreme whenever it happens to rain: for the accommodation of passengers, however, there are footways in most of them, formed of square logs, laid transversely close to each other. The town is surrounded by a strong stockade, through which there are four gates; two of them open to the wharfs, and the two others to the north and south side of the town respectively. The gates are defended by strong block houses, and on the west side of the town is a small fort in form of a square, with bastions at the angles. At each of the corners of this fort is planted a small field-piece; and these constitute the whole of the ordnance at present in the place. The British kept a considerable train of artillery here, but the place was never capable of holding out for any length of time against a regular force: the fortifications, indeed, were constructed chiefly as a defence against the Indians.
Detroit is at present the head-quarters of the western army of the States; the garrison consists of three hundred men, who are quartered in barracks. Very little attention is paid by the officers to the minutiæ of discipline, so that however well the men may have acquitted themselves in the field, they make but a poor appearance on parade. The belles of the town are quite au desespoir at the late departure of the British troops; though the American officers tell them they have no reason to be so, as they will find them much more sensible agreeable men than the British officers when they know them; a style of conversation, which, strange as it may appear to us, is yet not at all uncommon amongst them. Three months, however, have not altered the first opinion of the ladies. I cannot better give you an idea of the unpolished, coarse, discordant manners of the generality of the officers of the western army of the States, than by telling you, that they cannot agree sufficiently amongst themselves to form a regimental mess; repeated attempts have been made since their arrival at Detroit to establish one, but their frequent quarrels would never suffer it to remain permanent. A duellist and an officer of the western army were nearly synonimous terms, at one period, in the United States, owing to the very great number of duels that took place amongst them when cantoned at Grenville.
DETROIT.