Wild vines are abundant in the woods hereabouts, climbing up very high trees.
I have made enquiry among the French, who travel far into the country, concerning the food of the Indians. Those who live far north, I am told, cannot plant any thing, on account of the great degree of cold. They have, therefore, no bread, and do not live on vegetables; flesh and fish is their only food, and chiefly the flesh of beavers, bears, rein-deer, elks, hares, and several kinds of birds. Those Indians who live far southward, eat the following things. Of vegetables they plant maize, wild kidney beans[121] of several kinds, pumpions of different sorts, squashes, a kind of gourds, watermelons and melons[122]. All these plants have been cultivated by the Indians, long before the arrival of the Europeans. They likewise eat various fruits which grow in their woods. Fish and flesh make a very great part of their food. And they chiefly like the flesh of wild cattle, roe-bucks, stags, bears, beavers, and some other quadrupeds. Among their dainty dishes, they reckon the water-taregrass[123], which the French call [[296]]folle avoine, and which grows in plenty in their lakes, in stagnant waters, and sometimes in rivers which flow slowly. They gather its seeds in October, and prepare them in different ways, and chiefly as groats, which taste almost as well as rice. They make likewise many a delicious meal of the several kinds of walnuts, chesnuts, mulberries, acimine[124], chinquapins[125], hazel-nuts, peaches, wild prunes, grapes, whortle-berries of several sorts, various kinds of medlars, black-berries, and other fruit and roots. But the species of corn so common in what is called the old world, were entirely unknown here before the arrival of the Europeans; nor do the Indians at present ever attempt to cultivate them, though they see the use which the Europeans make of the culture of them, and though they are fond of eating the dishes which are prepared of them.
September the 27th. Beavers are abundant all over North-America, and they are one of the chief articles of the trade in Canada. The Indians live upon their flesh during a great part of the year. It is certain that these animals multiply very fast; but it is no less so, that [[297]]vast numbers of them are annually killed, and that the Indians are obliged at present to undertake distant journies, in order to catch or shoot them. Their decreasing in number is very easily accounted for; because the Indians, before the arrival of the Europeans, only caught as many as they found necessary to clothe themselves with, there being then no trade with the skins. At present a number of ships go annually to Europe, laden chiefly with beavers skins; the English and French endeavour to outdo each other, by paying the Indians well for them, and this encourages the latter to extirpate these animals. All the people in Canada told me, that when they were young, all the rivers in the neighbourhood of Montreal, the river St. Lawrence not excepted, were full of beavers and their dykes; but at present they are so far extirpated, that one is obliged to go several miles up the country before one can meet with one. I have already remarked above, that the beaver skins from the north, are better than those from the south.
Beaver-flesh is eaten not only by the Indians, but likewise by the Europeans, and especially the French, on their fasting days; for his holiness, in his system, has ranged the beaver among the fish. The [[298]]flesh is reckoned best, if the beaver has lived upon vegetables, such as the asp, and the beaver-tree[126]; but when he has eaten fish, it does not taste well, To-day I tasted this flesh boiled, for the first time; and though every body present, besides myself, thought it a delicious dish, yet I could not agree with them. I think it is eatable, but has nothing delicious. It looks black when boiled, and has a peculiar taste. In order to prepare it well, it must be boiled in several waters from morning till noon, that it may lose the bad taste it has. The tail is likewise eaten, after it has been boiled in the same manner, and roasted afterwards; but it consists of fat only, though they would not call it so; and cannot be swallowed by one who is not used to eat it.
Much has already been written concerning the dykes, or houses of the beavers; it is therefore unnecessary to repeat it. Sometimes, though but seldom, they catch beavers with white hair.
Wine is almost the only liquor which people above the vulgar are used to drink. They make a kind of spruce beer of the top of the white fir[127], which they drink [[299]]in summer; but the use of it is not general; and it is seldom drank by people of quality. Thus great sums go annually out of the country for wine; as they have no vines here, of which they could make a liquor that is fit to be drank. The common people drink water; for it is not yet customary here to brew beer of malt; and there are no orchards large enough to supply the people with apples for making cyder. Some of the people of rank, who possess large orchards, sometimes, out of curiosity, get a small quantity of cyder made. The great people here, who are used from their youth to drink nothing but wine, are greatly at a loss in time of war; when all the ships which brought wine are intercepted by the English privateers. Towards the end of the last war, they gave two hundred and fifty Francs, and even one hundred Ecus, for a barrique, or hogshead, of wine.
The present price of several things, I have been told by some of the greatest merchants here, is as follows. A middling horse costs forty Francs[128] and upwards; a good horse is valued at an hundred Francs, [[300]]or more. A cow is now sold for fifty Francs; but people can remember the time when they were sold for ten Ecus[129]. A sheep costs five or six livres at present; but last year, when every thing was dear, it cost eight or ten Francs. A hog of one year old, and two hundred, or an hundred and fifty pound weight, is sold at fifteen Francs. M. Couagne, the merchant, told me, that he had seen a hog of four hundred weight among the Indians. A chicken is sold for ten or twelve Sols[130]; and a turkey for twenty sols. A Minot[131] of wheat sold for an Ecu last year; but at present it cost forty Sols. Maize is always of the same price with wheat, because here is but little of it; and it is all made use of by those who go to trade with the Indians. A Minot of oats costs sometimes from fifteen to twenty Sols; but of late years it has been sold for twenty-six, or thirty Sols. Pease bear always the same price with wheat. A pound of butter costs commonly about eight or ten Sols; but last year it rose up to sixteen Sols. A dozen of eggs used to cost but three Sols; however, now are [[301]]sold for five. They make no cheese at Montreal; nor is there any to be had, except what is got from abroad. A water-melon generally costs five or six Sols; but if of a large size, from fifteen to twenty.
There are as yet no manufactures established in Canada; probably, because France will not lose the advantage of selling off its own goods here. However, both the inhabitants of Canada, and the Indians, are very ill off for want of them, in times of war.
Those persons who want to be married, must have the consent of their parents. However, the judge may give them leave to marry, if the parents oppose their union, without any valid reason. Likewise, if the man be thirty years of age, and the woman twenty-six, they may marry, without farther waiting for their parents consent.
September the 29th. This afternoon I went out of town, to the south-west part of the isle, in order to view the country, and the œconomy of the people, and to collect several seeds. Just before the town are some fine fields, which were formerly cultivated, but now serve as pastures. To the north-west appears the high mountain, which lies westward of Montreal, and is very fertile, and covered with fields and [[302]]gardens from the bottom to the summit. On the south-east side is the river St. Lawrence, which is very broad here; and on its sides are extensive corn-fields and meadows, and fine houses of stone, which look white at a distance. At a great distance south-eastward, appear the two high mountains near fort Chamblais, and some others near lake Champlain, raising their tops above the woods. All the fields hereabouts are filled with stones of different sizes; and among them, there is now and then a black lime-stone. About a French mile from the town, the high road goes along the river, which is on the left-hand; and on the right-hand all the country is cultivated and inhabited. The farm-houses are three, four, or five arpens distant from each other. The hills near the river are generally high and pretty steep; they consist of earth; and the fields below them are filled with pieces of rock-stone, and of black lime-slate. About two French miles from Montreal, the river runs very rapidly, and is full of stones; in some places there are some waves. However, those who go in boats into the southern parts of Canada, are obliged to work through such places.