The recollets are the third class of clergymen in Canada. They have a fine large dwelling house here, and a fine church, where they officiate. Near it is a large and fine garden, which they cultivate with great application. In Montreal, and Trois Rivieres, they are lodged almost in the same manner as here. They do not endeavour to choose cunning fellows amongst them, but take all they can get. They do not torment their brains with much learning; and I have been assured, that after they have put on their monastic habit, [[148]]they do not study to increase their knowledge, but forget even what little they knew before. At night they generally ly on mats, or some other hard matrasses; however, I have sometimes seen good beds in the cells of some of them. They have no possessions here, having made vows of poverty, and live chiefly on the alms which people give them. To this purpose, the young monks, or brothers, go into the houses with a bag, and beg what they want. They have no congregations in the country, but sometimes they go among the Indians as missionaries. In each fort, which contains forty men, the king keeps one of these monks, instead of a priest, who officiates there. The king gives him lodging, provisions, servants, and all he wants; besides two hundred livres a year. Half of it he sends to the community he belongs to; the other half he reserves for his own use. On board the king’s ships are generally no other priests than these friars, who are therefore looked upon as people belonging to the king. When one of the chief priests[47] in the country dies, and his place cannot immediately be filled up, they send one of these friars there, to officiate whilst the place is [[149]]vacant. Part of these monks come over from France, and part are natives of Canada. There are no other monks in Canada besides these, except now and then one of the order of St. Austin or some other, who comes with one of the king’s ships, but goes off with it again.
August the 11th. This morning I took a walk out of town, with the royal physician M. Gaulthier, in order to collect plants, and to see a nunnery at some distance from Quebec. This monastery which is built very magnificently of stone, lies in a pleasant spot, surrounded with corn-fields, meadows, and woods, from whence Quebec and the river St. Lawrence may be seen; a hospital for poor old people, cripples, &c. makes part of the monastery, and is divided into two halls, one for men, the other for women. The nuns attend both sexes, with this difference however, that they only prepare the meal for the men and bring it in to them, give them physick, and take the cloth away when they have eaten, leaving the rest for male servants. But in the hall where the women are, they do all the work that is to be done. The regulation in the hospital was the same as in that at Quebec. To shew me a particular favour, the bishop, at the desire of the Marquis [[150]]la Galissonniere, governor-general of Canada, granted me leave to see this nunnery likewise, where no man is allowed to enter, without his leave, which is an honour he seldom confers on any body. The abbess led me and M. Gaulthier through all the apartments, accompanied by a great number of nuns. Most of the nuns here are of noble families and one was the daughter of a governor. Many of them are old, but there are likewise some very young ones among them, who looked very well. They seemed all to be more polite than those in the other nunnery. Their rooms are the same as in the last place, except some additional furniture in their cells; the beds are hung with blue curtains; there are a couple of small bureaux, a table between them and some pictures on the walls. There are however no stoves in any cell. But those halls and rooms, in which they are assembled together, and in which the sick ones ly, are supplied with an iron stove. The number of nuns is indeterminate here, and I saw a great number of them. Here are likewise some probationers preparing for their reception among the nuns. A number of little girls are sent hither by their parents, to be instructed by the nuns in the principles of the christian religion, and in [[151]]all sorts of ladies work. The convent at a distance looks like a palace, and, as I am told, was founded by a bishop, who they say is buried in a part of the church.
We botanized till dinner-time in the neighbouring meadows, and then returned to the convent to dine with a venerable old father recollets, who officiated here as a priest. The dishes were all prepared by nuns, and as numerous and various as on the tables of great men. There were likewise several sorts of wine, and many preserves. The revenues of this monastery are said to be considerable. At the top of the building is a small steeple with a bell. Considering the large tracts of land which the king has given in Canada to convents, Jesuits, priests, and several families of rank, it seems he has very little left for himself.
Our common rasp-berries, are so plentiful here on the hills, near corn-fields, rivers and brooks, that the branches look quite red on account of the number of berries on them. They are ripe about this time, and eaten as a desert after dinner, both fresh and preserved.
The Mountain Ash, or Sorb-tree[48] is pretty common in the woods hereabouts. [[152]]
They reckon the north-east wind the most piercing of all, here. Many of the best people here, assured me, that this wind when it is very violent in winter, pierces through walls of a moderate thickness, so that the whole wall on the inside of the house is covered with snow, or a thick hoar frost; and that a candle placed near a thinner wall is almost blown out by the wind which continually comes through. This wind damages the houses which are built of stone, and forces the owners to repair them very frequently on the north-east side. The north and north-east winds are likewise reckoned very cold here. In summer the north wind is generally attended with rain.
The difference of climate between Quebec and Montreal is on all hands allowed to be very great. The wind and weather of Montreal are often entirely different from what they are at Quebec. The winter there is not near so cold as in the last place. Several sorts of fine pears will grow near Montreal; but are far from succeeding at Quebec, where the frost frequently kills them. Quebec has generally more rainy weather, spring begins later, and winter sooner than at Montreal, where all sorts of fruits ripen a week or two earlier than at Quebec. [[153]]
August the 12th. This afternoon I and my servant went out of town, to stay in the country for a couple of days that I might have more leisure to examine the plants which grow in the woods here, and the state of the country. In order to proceed the better, the governor-general had sent for an Indian from Lorette to shew us the way, and teach us what use they make of the spontaneous plants hereabouts. This Indian was an Englishman by birth, taken by the Indians thirty years ago, when he was a boy, and adopted by them, according to their custom, instead of a relation of theirs killed by the enemy. Since that time he constantly stayed with them, became a Roman Catholic and married an Indian woman; he dresses like an Indian, speaks English and French, and many of the Indian languages. In the wars between the French and English, in this country, the French Indians have made many prisoners of both sexes in the English plantations, adopted them afterwards, and they married with people of the Indian nations. From hence the Indian blood in Canada is very much mixed with European blood, and a great part of the Indians now living, owe their origin to Europe. It is likewise remarkable, that a great part of the people they had [[154]]taken during the war and incorporated with their nations, especially the young people, did not choose to return to their native country, though their parents and nearest relations came to them and endeavoured to persuade them to it, and though it was in their power to do it. The licentious life led by the Indians, pleased them better than that of their European relations; they dressed like the Indians, and regulated all their affairs in their way. It is therefore difficult to distinguish them, except by their colour, which is somewhat whiter than that of the Indians. There are likewise examples of some Frenchmen going amongst the Indians and following their way of life. There is on the contrary scarce one instance of an Indian’s adopting the European customs; but those who were taken prisoners in the war, have always endeavoured to come to their own people again, even after several years of captivity, and though they enjoyed all the privileges that were ever possessed by the Europeans in America.
The lands, which we passed over, were every where laid out into corn-fields, meadows, or pastures. Almost all round us the prospect presented to our view farms and farm-houses, and excellent fields and meadows. Near the town the land is [[155]]pretty flat, and intersected now and then by a clear rivulet. The roads are very good, broad, and lined with ditches on each side, in low grounds. Further from the town, the land rises higher and higher, and consists as it were of terraces, one above another. This rising ground is, however, pretty smooth, chiefly without stones, and covered with rich mould. Under that is the black lime-slate, which is so common hereabouts, and is divided into small shivers, and corroded by the air. Some of the strata were horizontal, others perpendicular; I have likewise found such perpendicular strata of lime-states in other places, in the neighbourhood of Quebec. All the hills are cultivated; and some are adorned with fine churches, houses, and corn-fields. The meadows are commonly in the vallies, though some were likewise on eminencies. Soon after we had a fine prospect from one of these hills. Quebec appeared very plain to the eastward, and the river St. Lawrence could likewise be seen; further distant, on the south-east side of that river, appears a long chain of high mountains, running generally parallel to if, though many miles distant from it. To the west again, at some distance from the rising lands where we were, the hills changed [[156]]into a long chain of very high mountains, lying very close to each other, and running parallel likewise to the river, that is nearly from south to north. These high mountains consist of a grey rock-stone, composed of several kinds of stone, which I shall mention in the sequel. These mountains seem to prove, that the lime-slates are of as antient a date as the grey rock-stone, and not formed in later times; for the amazing large grey rocks ly on the top of the mountains, which consist of black lime-slates.
The high meadows in Canada are excellent, and by far preferable to the meadows round Philadelphia, and in the other English colonies. The further I advanced northward here, the finer were the meadows, and the turf upon them was better and closer. Almost all the grass here is of two kinds, viz. a species of the narrow leaved meadow grass[49]; for its spikes[50] contain either three or four flowers; which are so exceedingly small, that the plant might easily be taken for a bent grass[51]; and its seeds have several small downy hairs at the bottom. The other plant, which grows [[157]]grows in the meadows, is the white clover[52]. These two plants form the hay in the meadows; they stand close and thick together, and the meadow grass (poa) is pretty tall, but has very thin stalks. At the root of the meadow grass, the ground was quite covered with clover, so that one cannot wish for finer meadows, than are found here. Almost all the meadows have been formerly corn-fields, as appears from the furrows on the ground, which still remained. They can be mown but once every summer, as spring commences very late.