[CHAPTER XXI.]
The King proclaimed in the Bush.—Fete and Ball in the Evening.—My Yankee Fellow-traveller.—Awful Storm.—My lonely Journey.—Magical Effect of a Name
[CHAPTER XXII.]
Visit of the Passenger-pigeon to the Canadas.—Canadian Blackbirds.—Breeding-places of the Passenger-pigeons.—Squirrels
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
The Rebel, Von Egmond, the first agricultural Settler on the Huron.—Cutting the first Sheaf
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN CANADA WEST.
CHAPTER I.
EMBARKATION FOR CANADA.—VOYAGE OUT.—SEA-LIFE.—ICEBERGS.—PASSAGE UP THE ST. LAWRENCE.—QUEBEC.—MEMORIALS OF GENERAL WOLFE.—CATHEDRAL.—HOSPITALITY.—EARTHQUAKES.—NUNS.—MONTREAL.—PROGRESS UP THE COUNTRY.—MY ROMAN CATHOLIC FELLOW-TRAVELLER.—ATTEMPT AT CONVERSION.—THE TOWNSHIP OF WHITBY.
A preference for an active, rather than a professional life, induced me to accept the offer made by an old friend, of joining him at Darlington, in Upper Canada, in the year 1825. I therefore took leave of my family and pleasant home, in Suffolk, and engaged a passage in the brig “William M’Gilevray,” commanded by William Stoddart, an experienced American seaman.
On the 28th of March we left the London Docks, and dropped down the river to Gravesend, and on the following day put our pilot ashore off Deal, and reached down as far as the coast of Sussex, where we were becalmed for two days. Here one of our cabin-boys, a German, met with a very serious accident by falling down the after hatchway, and fracturing several of his ribs. On this occasion I officiated as a surgeon, and bled him twice, with excellent effect, for he quickly recovered from the severe injury he had received. Before quitting Suffolk I had learned the art of blood-letting from our own medical attendant. Every person intending to settle in a distant colony ought to acquire this simple branch of surgery: I have often exercised it myself for the benefit of my fellow-creatures when no medical assistance could be procured.
It blew so fresh for two or three days, that we made up for our lost time, and were soon out of sight of Scilly: then I bade a long farewell to old England. I had often been on the sea before, but this was my first long voyage; every object, therefore, was new to me. I caught some birds in the rigging they were of a species unknown to me, but very beautiful. Being in want, too, of something to do, I amused myself with cleaning the captain’s guns, which I hoped to use for our joint benefit before the end of the voyage.