No people in the world live better than the inhabitants of Upper Canada. The abundance of produce, and the low price at which it can be sold, naturally inclines them to take the full use of it. Three copious meals, often of twelve or fourteen dishes each, are daily served up, called breakfast, dinner, and supper, but consisting generally of the same component parts; among which are specially enumerated green tea, fried pork, honeycomb, salted salmon, pound-cake, pickled cucumbers, stewed chickens, apple tarts, maple-molasses, pease-pudding, gingerbread, and sour crout. They are not very social in their daily habits, to which, indeed, the almost impassable state of the roads opposes great obstacles; but they are fond of large parties, and, in a favourable season, five or six families often unite, and, without any notice, drive to visit another at the distance of ten or twelve miles. Such an arrival would not always be very opportune in an English household; but, “in this land of plenty,” the flour-barrel, the pork-tub, and the fowl house, afford at all times materials for meeting such an emergency, and the board is soon spread with a plentiful meal. The dance is an amusement of which they are passionately fond. No inn is considered worthy of the name, unless it be provided with a spacious ballroom, which is called into requisition as often as convenience will permit. Intellectual recreations have not hitherto attracted all the attention which they merit. Mr. Talbot, during a residence of five years, never saw above two individuals with books in their hands; and, in one case, it was a medical treatise consulted for health. The sources of improvement already enumerated, however, have already made a great impression, and will, we doubt not, ere long wipe off this reproach from the Canadian people.
There remains yet undescribed a small but interesting portion—the remnant of the Indian nations. It has appeared mysterious how tribes, once so powerful, without war or bloodshed should have silently disappeared, and only a handful survive. The occupation of their hunting grounds by European settlers, the introduction of destructive diseases, particularly small-pox, and the free use of intoxicating liquors, have no doubt materially thinned their numbers. Our researches, however, have led us to suspect that the diminution has not been nearly so great as is supposed; in other words, that the original numbers were much exaggerated. We have had occasion to observe, that the Iroquois, the most powerful people in America, and occupying a territory extending several hundred miles in every direction, were not estimated by the French to include more than 3,000 warriors. Yet they enjoyed a better climate, and were not so entirely ignorant of cultivation as the tribes northward of the St. Lawrence.
The Indians, under British protection, are dispersed in small villages and settlements in different parts of Upper and Lower Canada. The charge made by Mr. McGregor, that they have not been kindly treated by our government, seems scarcely well founded, for not only do they remain peaceably under her sway, but they have repeatedly taken up arms in her cause against the “Big Knives,” as they term the Americans. In consideration of their services, and in compensation for the encroachments made on their domain, each individual, on repairing to a fixed station, receives a certain amount of goods as an annual present; and this grant affords the means of estimating the number residing within the provinces. In Lower Canada, in 1828, it amounted to 2,922, exclusive of about 450 Micmacs, or wandering tribes, from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The number in Upper Canada to whom, about the same time, donations were made, was 12,919; making in the two provinces 15,841. The estimate thus obtained, however, is not quite so accurate as could be wished. Several thousands came from beyond the western frontier, a distance in some cases of four or five hundred miles, and even from the territory of the United States; but in consequence of the signal services rendered by them during the last war, pledges had been given, which Britain must now fulfil. On the other hand, in the immense forest territory which the hand of cultivation has not yet approached, there are doubtless very considerable numbers who retain their wild independence, and hold no relation whatever with Europeans. We may notice, in particular, the vast tracts to the east and north of Quebec, whence no mention is made of any resort to the stations of distribution.
The Indians of Lower Canada have been converted to the catholic religion, and their spiritual concerns are superintended by five missionaries, who receive salaries of from 40l. to 70l. per annum. They appear much attached to these instructors, and show a deep sense of their religious duties; yet they have admitted scarcely any change in their original habits, or made any progress in industry. Their husbandry, as formerly, is on a small scale, of the rudest description, and carried on entirely by women and old men. “The Indian tribes,” said the late Lord Dalhousie, “continue to be warlike in their ideas and recollections. Insignificant as are some of the tribes now in Lower Canada, civilized and accustomed to social life, there is not one of them that does not boast of the warlike days of their chiefs and warriors; even now, the word warrior is assumed by every young man; he is trained up to it, and has a higher idea of the approbation of his chief, or the consideration of white men in that character of an active hunter or warrior, than he has of any other object or use of his existence.” The missionaries, though they execute their spiritual functions with zeal and diligence, not only take no pains to instruct them in reading or writing, but effectually oppose any efforts for that purpose, at least when made by protestant teachers. We even suspect that they indulge rather than check the warlike spirit of their flocks; since it appears, that, on the annual religious festival called the grand fête de Dieu, the Indians are in the habit of marching to church in military order, headed by their chiefs, bearing arms, and amid the music of drums and fifes.
Village of Lorette, near Quebec.
(Church of the Annunciation.)
Junction of the St. Francis and Magog Rivers
(Sherbrooke.)
A few miles northward from Quebec is the Huron settlement of Loretto, consisting of sixty-seven men, sixty-five women, and forty-seven children. This poor remnant of a race once so powerful, holding only forty acres of land, derive a precarious subsistence from hunting, fishing, and some trifling articles made by their females. They recently preferred a claim to the fief of Sillery, a fine tract extending a league along the St. Lawrence, near Quebec, in virtue of a grant made to their ancestors in 1651. The case being brought before the courts, it was argued by the crown lawyers that the grant had been made to the Jesuits in general terms, for the purpose “of assembling the wandering nations of New France, and instructing them in the christian religion;” that, in 1699, these missionaries, representing that the Indians had quitted the spot on account of the soil being exhausted, requested and obtained a grant of it for themselves; and that it remained in their possession till the extinction of their order in 1800, when it devolved on the British government. On these grounds the judges decided against the Hurons. We cannot help referring, however, to certain facts in our historical narrative, founded on authorities which we incline to believe were unknown to either party in this contest. It there appears that the grant immediately followed the destruction of the Huron nation by the Iroquois, when the Jesuits, as the only means of saving the remnant of the tribe, removed to Quebec. The date, and the name of the principal settlement, seem to show, that, however general the terms may have been, the grant was made virtually for the benefit of these unfortunate fugitives, and to the Jesuits only as their trustees. If this be admitted, we know not how far their quitting it at one time for another spot, without any formal relinquishment, could be considered as vacating their title. On the loss of their cause, they sent two deputies to London, who very earnestly solicited an interview with their great father. Sir George Murray evaded this demand, but received them kindly; and though he could not reopen a legal decision, offered them grants of crown lands in other quarters; but they replied, that an arrangement which would separate them, and require a complete change in their mode of life, could not be felt by them as any real advantage.