We now perceived houses on the shore again. The captain had otter-skins in the cabin, which were perfectly the same, in [[43]]colour and species, with the European ones. Otters are said to be very abundant in Canada.
Seal-skins are here made use of to cover boxes and trunks, and they often make portmantles of them in Canada. The common people had their tobacco-pouches made of the same skins. The seals here are entirely the same with the Swedish or European one, which are grey with black spots. They are said to be plentiful in the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, below Quebec, and go up that river as far as its water is salt. They have not been found in any of the great lakes of Canada. The French call them Loups marins.[13]
The French, in their colonies, spend much more time in prayer and external worship, than the English, and Dutch settlers in the British colonies. The latter have neither morning nor evening prayer in their ships and yachts, and no difference is made between Sunday and other days. They never, or very seldom, say grace at dinner. On the contrary, the French here have prayers every morning and night on board their shipping, and on Sundays they pray more than commonly: they regularly say grace at their meals; and every one of [[44]]them says prayers in private as soon as he gets up. At fort St. Frederic all the soldiers assembled together for morning and evening prayers. The only fault was, that most of the prayers were read in Latin, which a great part of the people do not understand. Below the aforementioned wind-mill, the breadth of the lake is about a musket-shot, and it looks more like a river than a lake. The country on both sides is low and flat, and covered with woods. We saw at first a few scattered cottages along the shore; but a little further, the country is inhabited without interruption. The lake is here from six to ten foot deep, and forms several islands. During the whole course of this voyage, the situation of the lake was always directly from S. S. W. to N. N. E.
In some parts of Canada are great tracts of land belonging to single persons; from these lands, pieces, of forty Arpens long, and four wide, are allotted to each discharged soldier, who intends to settle here; but after his household is established, he is obliged to pay the owner of the lands six French Francs annually.
The lake was now so shallow in several places, that we were obliged to trace the way for the yacht, by sounding the depth [[45]]with branches of trees. In other places opposite, it was sometimes two fathom deep.
In the evening, about sun set, we arrived at fort St. Jean, or St. John, having had a continual change of rain, sun-shine, wind, and calm, all the afternoon.
July the 21st. St. John is a wooden fort, which the French built in 1748, on the western shore of the mouth of lake Champlain, close to the water-side. It was intended to cover the country round about it, which they were then going to people, and to serve as a magazine for provisions and ammunition, which were usually sent from Montreal to fort St. Frederic; because they may go in yachts from hence to the last mentioned place, which is impossible lower down, as about two gun-shot further, there is a shallow full of stones, and very rapid water in the river, over which they can only pass in bateaux, or flat vessels. Formerly fort Chamblan, which lies four French miles lower, was the magazine of provisions; but as they were forced first to send them hither in bateaux, and then from hence in yachts, and the road to fort Chamblan from Montreal being by land, and much round about, this fort was erected. It has a low situation, and lies [[46]]in a sandy soil, and the country about it is likewise low, flat; and covered with woods. The fort is quadrangular, and includes the space of one arpent square. In each of the two corners which look towards the lake is a wooden building, four stories high, the lower part of which is of stone to the height of about a fathom and a half. In these buildings which are polyangular, are holes for cannon and lesser fire-arms. In each of the two other corners towards the country, is only a little wooden house, two stories high. These buildings are intended for the habitations of the soldiers, and for the better defence of the place; between these houses, there are poles, two fathoms and a half high, sharpened at the top, and driven into the ground close to one another. They are made of the Thuya tree, which is here reckoned the best wood for keeping from putrefaction, and is much preferable to fir in that point. Lower down the palisades were double, one row within the other. For the convenience of the soldiers, a broad elevated pavement, of more than two yards in height, is made in the inside of the fort all along the palisades, with a balustrade. On this pavement the soldiers stand and fire through the holes upon the enemy, without being exposed to [[47]]their fire. In the last year, 1748, two hundred men were in garrison here; but at this time there were only a governor, a commissary, a baker, and six soldiers to take care of the fort and buildings, and to superintend the provisions which are carried to this place. The person who now commanded at the fort, was the Chevalier de Gannes, a very agreeable gentleman, and brother-in-law to Mr. Lusignan, the governor of fort St. Frederic. The ground about the fort, on both sides of the water, is rich and has a very good soil; but it is still without inhabitants, though it is talked of, that it should get some as soon as possible.
The French in all Canada call the gnats Marangoins, which name, it is said, they have borrowed from the Indians. These insects are in such prodigious numbers in the woods round fort St. John, that it would have been more properly called fort de Marangoins. The marshes and the low situation of the country, together with the extent of the woods, contribute greatly to their multiplying so much; and when the woods will be cut down, the water drained, and the country cultivated, they probably will decrease in number, and vanish at last, as they have done in other places. [[48]]
The Rattle Snake, according to the unanimous accounts of the French, is never seen in this neighbourhood, nor further north near Montreal and Quebec; and the mountains which surround fort St. Frederic, are the most northerly part on this side, where they have been seen. Of all the snakes which are found in Canada to the north of these mountains, none is poisonous enough to do any great harm to a man; and all without exception run away when they see a man. My remarks on the nature and properties of the rattle-snake, I have communicated to the royal Swedish academy of sciences,[14] and thither I refer my readers.
July the 22d. This evening some people arrived with horses from Prairie, in order to fetch us. The governor had sent for them at my desire, because there were not yet any horses near fort St. John, the place being only a year old, and the people had not had time to settle near it. Those who led the horses, brought letters to the governor from the governor-general of Canada, the Marquis la Galissonniere, dated at Quebec the fifteenth of this month, and from the vice-governor of Montreal, the Baron [[49]]de Longueil, dated the twenty-first of the same month. They mentioned that I had been particularly recommended by the French court, and that the governor should supply me with every thing I wanted, and forward my journey; and at the same time the governor received two little casks of wine for me, which they thought would relieve me on my journey. At night we drank the kings of France and Sweden’s health, under a salute from the cannon of the fort, and the health of the governor-general and others.