August the 14th. Lorette is a village, three French miles to the westward of Quebec. Inhabited chiefly by Indians of the Huron nation, converted to the Roman catholic religion. The village lies near a little river, which falls over a rock there, with a great noise, and turns a saw-mill, and a flour-mill. When the Jesuit, who is now with them, arrived among them, they lived in their usual huts, which are made like those of the Laplanders. They [[163]]have since laid aside this custom, and built all their houses after the French fashion. In each house are two rooms, viz. their bed-room, and the kitchen on the outside before it. In the room is a small oven of stone, covered at top with an iron plate. Their beds are near the wall, and they put no other clothes on them, than those which they are dressed in. Their other furniture and utensils, look equally wretched. Here is a fine little church, with a steeple and bell. The steeple is raised pretty high, and covered with white tin plates. They pretend, that there is some similarity between this church in its figure and disposition, and the Santa Casa at Loretto in Italy, from whence this village has got its name. Close to the church is a house built of stone, for the clergymen, who are two Jesuits, that constantly live here. The divine service is as regularly attended here, as in any other Roman catholic church; and I was pleased with seeing the alacrity of the Indians, especially of the women, and hearing their good voices, when they sing all sorts of hymns in their own language. The Indians dress chiefly like the other adjacent Indian nations; the men, however, like to wear waistcoats, or jackets, like the French. The women keep exactly [[164]]to the Indian dress. It is certain, that these Indians and their ancestors, long since, on being converted to the Christian religion, have made a vow to God, never to drink strong liquors. This vow they have kept pretty inviolable hitherto, so that one seldom sees one of them drunk, though brandy and other strong liquors are goods, which other Indians would sooner be killed for, than part with them.
These Indians have made the French their patterns in several things, besides the houses. They all plant maize; and some have small fields of wheat, and rye. Many of them keep cows. They plant our common sun-flower[60] in their maize-fields, and mix the seeds of it into their sagamite, or maize-soup. The maize, which they plant here, is of the small sort, which ripens sooner than the other: its grains are smaller, but give more and better flour in proportion. It commonly ripens here at the middle, sometimes however, at the end of August.
The Swedish winter-wheat, and winter-rye, has been tried in Canada, to see how well it would succeed; for they employ nothing but summer-corn here, it having [[165]]been found, that the French wheat and rye dies here in winter, if it be sown in autumn. Dr. Sarrazin has therefore (as I was told by the eldest of the two Jesuits here) got a small quantity of wheat and rye, of the winter-corn sort from Sweden. It was sown in autumn, not hurt by the winter, and bore fine corn. The ears were not so large as those of the Canada corn, but weighed near twice as much, and gave a greater quantity of finer flour, than that summer-corn. Nobody could tell me, why the experiments have not been continued. They cannot, I am told, bake such white bread here, of the summer-corn, as they can in France, of their winter-wheat. Many people have assured me, that all the summer-corn, now employed here, came from Sweden, or Norway: for the French, on their arrival, found the winters in Canada too severe for the French winter-corn, and their summer-corn did not always ripen, on account of the shortness of summer. Therefore they began to look upon Canada, as little better than an useless country, where nobody could live; till they fell upon the expedient of getting their summer-corn from the most northern parts of Europe, which has succeeded very well. [[166]]
This day I returned to Quebec, making botanical observations by the way.
August the 15th. The new governor-general of all Canada, the marquis de la Jonquiere, arrived last night in the river before Quebec; but it being late, he reserved his public entrance for to-day. He had left France on the second of June, but could not reach Quebec before this time, on account of the difficulty which great ships find in passing the sands in the river St. Lawrence. The ships cannot venture to go up, without a fair wind, being forced to run in many bendings, and frequently in a very narrow channel. To-day was another great feast, on account of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary, which is very highly celebrated in Roman catholic countries. This day was accordingly doubly remarkable, both on account of the holiday, and of the arrival of the new governor-general, who is always received with great pomp, as he represents a vice-roy here.
About eight o’clock the chief people in town assembled at the house of Mr. de Vaudreuil, who had lately been nominated governor of Trois Rivieres, and lived in the lower town, and whose father had likewise been governor-general of Canada. Thither came likewise the marquis de la [[167]]Galissonniere, who had till now been governor-general, and was to sail for France, with the first opportunity. He was accompanied by all the people belonging to the government. I was likewise invited to see this festivity. At half an hour after eight the new governor-general went from the ship into a barge, covered with red cloth, upon which a signal with cannons was given from the ramparts, for all the bells in the town to be set a-ringing. All the people of distinction went down to the shore to salute the governor, who, on alighting from the barge, was received by the marquis la Galissonniere. After they had saluted each other, the commandant of the town addressed the new governor-general in a very elegant speech, which he answered very concisely; after which all the cannon on the ramparts gave a general salute. The whole street, up to the cathedral, was lined with men in arms, chiefly drawn out from among the burghesses. The governor-general then walked towards the cathedral, dressed in a suit of red, with abundance of gold lace. His servants went before him in green, carrying fire-arms on their shoulders. On his arrival at the cathedral, he was received by the bishop of Canada, and the whole clergy assembled. The bishop was arrayed [[168]]in his pontifical robes, and had a long gilt tiara on his head, and a great crozier of massy silver in his hand. After the bishop had addressed a short speech to the governor-general, a priest brought a silver crucifix on a long stick, (two priests with lighted tapers in their hands, going on each side of it) to be kissed by the governor. The bishop and the priests then went through the long walk, up to the choir. The servants of the governor-general followed with their hats on, and arms on their shoulders. At last came the governor-general and his suite, and after them a crowd of people. At the beginning of the choir the governor-general, and the general de la Galissonniere, stopt before a chair covered with red cloth, and stood there during the whole time of the celebration of the mass, which was celebrated by the bishop himself. From the church he went to the palace, when the gentlemen of note in the town, afterwards went to pay their respects to him. The religious of the different orders, with their respective superiors, likewise came to him, to testify their joy on account of his happy arrival. Among the numbers that came to visit him, none staid to dine, but those that were invited beforehand, among which I had the honour [[169]]to be. The entertainment lasted very long, and was as elegant as the occasion required.
The governor-general, marquis de la Jonquiere, was very tall, and at that time something above sixty years old. He had fought a desperate naval battle with the English in the last war, but had been obliged to surrender, the English being, as it was told, vastly superior in the number of ships and men. On this occasion he was wounded by a ball, which entered one side of his shoulder, and came out at the other. He was very complaisant, but knew how to preserve his dignity, when he distributed favours.
Many of the gentlemen, present at this entertainment, asserted that the following expedient had been successfully employed to keep wine, beer, or water, cool during summer. The wine, or other liquor, is bottled; the bottles are well corked, hung up into the air, and wrapped in wet clouts. This cools the wine in the bottles, notwithstanding it was quite warm before. After a little while the clouts are again made wet, with the coldest water that is to be had, and this is always continued. The wine, or other liquor, in the bottles is then always colder, than the water with [[170]]which the clouts are made wet. And though the bottles should be hung up in the sunshine, the above way of proceeding will always have the same effect[61].
August the 16th. The occidental Arbor vitæ[62], is a tree which grows very plentiful in Canada, but not much further south. The most southerly place I have seen it in, is a place a little on the south side of Saratoga, in the province of New-York, and likewise near Casses, in the same province, which places are in forty-two degrees and ten minutes north latitude.
Mr. Bartram, however, informed me, that he had found a single tree of this kind in Virginia, near the falls in the river James. Doctor Colden likewise asserted, that he had seen it in many places round his seat Coldingham, [[171]]which lies between New-York, and Albany, about forty-one degrees thirty minutes north latitude. The French, all over Canada, call it Cedre blanc. The English and Dutch in Albany, likewise call it the white Cedar. The English in Virginia, have called a Thuya, which grows with them, a Juniper.