SIDELIGHTS OF CIVIC PROGRESS
III
PETER KALM—THE FIRST SWEDES IN MONTREAL—THE FRENCH WOMEN CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES—DOMESTIC ECONOMY—THE MEN EXTREMELY CIVIL—MECHANICAL TRADES BACKWARD—WATCHMAKERS—THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE CELEBRATED—PAPER MONEY—WAGES—PEN PICTURE OF MONTREAL IN 1749—ITS BUILDINGS AND THEIR PURPOSES—FRIDAY, MARKET DAY—THERMOMETRICAL AND CLIMATIC OBSERVATIONS—NATURAL HISTORY CULTIVATED—MONTREAL THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE INDIAN TRADE—THE GOODS FOR BARTER—THE LADIES MORE POLISHED AND VOLATILE AT QUEBEC BUT MORE MODEST AND INDUSTRIOUS AT MONTREAL—ECONOMIC FACTS—WINE AND SPRUCE BEER—PRICES AND COST OF LIVING—CONSENTS TO MARRIAGE—SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC CUSTOMS—FRANQUET'S JOURNEY FROM QUEBEC TO MONTREAL BY RIVER, FIVE DAYS—POUCHOT'S APPRECIATIONS OF CANADIANS—THE TRADE SYSTEM OF THE COUNTRY—GOVERNMENTAL MAGAZINES AND UP-COUNTRY FORTS—PRIVATE TRADE AT THE POSTS—ITINERANT PEDDLERS. NOTE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARISH CHURCH.
For a final picture of Montreal life in the closing years before the Seven Years' War, which ended in the capitulation of the city, we may rely on a visitor's account.
In the year 1749 Peter Kalm, a professor of economy in the University of Aobo in Swedish Finland, and a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, was in Canada and visited Montreal. He had also in the preceding years been in the English states, and he afterwards published his "Travels into North America," containing its natural history, with the civil, ecclesiastical and commercial state of the country, the manners of the inhabitants and several curious and important remarks on various subjects. This work was translated into English by John Reinhold Forster, F. A. S., and printed in 1771, from which little known work we quote.
On July 24th on his arrival at Montreal he was met at the gate of the town by a great crowd of people, anxious to see the Swedes. "We were assured we were the first Swedes that ever came to Montreal." He was most courteously received by Baron de Longueuil, then vice governor, but daily expecting his promotion from France. [181]
"The difference," he remarks, "between the manner and customs of the French in Montreal and Canada, and those of the English in the American Colonies, is as great as that between the manners of those two nations in Europe. The women in general are handsome here; they are well bred, and virtuous with an innocent and becoming freedom. They dress out very fine on Sundays, and though on the other days they do not take much pains with other parts of their dress, yet they are very fond of adorning their heads, the hair of which is always curled and powdered, and ornamented with glittering bodkins and aigrettes. Every day but Sunday they wear a little neat jacket, and a short petticoat which hardly reaches half the leg, and in this particular they seem to imitate the Indian women. The heels of their shoes are high, and very narrow, and it is surprising how they walk on them.
"In their knowledge of economy, they greatly surpass the English women in the plantations, who indeed have taken the liberty of throwing all the burthen of housekeeping upon their husbands and sit in their chairs all day with folded arms. The women in Canada on the contrary do not spare themselves, especially among the common people, where they are always in the fields, meadows, stables, etc., and do not dislike any work whatsoever. However, they seem rather remiss in regard to the cleaning of the utensils and apartments; for sometimes the floors, both in the town and country, were hardly cleaned once in six months, which is a disagreeable sight to one who comes from amongst the Dutch and English, where the constant scouring and scrubbing of the floors is reckoned as important as the exercise of religion itself. To prevent the thick dust which is thus left on the floor, from being noxious to the health, the women wet it several times a day, which renders it more consistent; repeating the aspersion as often as the dust is dry and rises again. Upon the whole, however, they are not averse to the taking a part in all the business of housekeeping; and I have with pleasure seen the daughters of the better sort of people, and of the governor himself, not too finely dressed, and going into kitchens and cellars, to look that everything be done as it ought.
"The men are extremely civil and take their hats off to every person indifferently whom they meet on the streets. It is customary to return a visit the day after you have received one; though one should have some scores to pay in one day." After some digressions on the natural history of the country, he continues: "Mechanics, such as architecture, cabinet making, turning and the like, were not as yet so forward here as this ought to be; and the English in that respect outdo the French. The chief cause of this is that scarce any other people than dismissed soldiers come to settle here, who have not had any opportunity of learning a mechanical trade but have sometimes accidentally and through necessity been obliged to turn to it. There are, however, some who have a good notion of mechanics, and I saw a person here who made very good clocks, and watches, though he had but very little instruction."