woods, to find their way through the forests, and to acquire many wonderful secrets which were denied to white men. I inquired of him,' says the author, whether the Missionaries had come among his tribe, and converted any of them to the Christian religion. He replied that Missionaries had once visited the chiefs of his nation, but no one would listen to them; for, though they talked much about the superiority of their faith and its beneficial influence among men, every one knew that they said what was not true; and, as long as the white people got drunk, told lies, and cheated Indians, his nation would doubt the goodness of their religion, and prefer that which the Great Spirit had given to them before it.'

Of the tract of country named Long Point, Mr. H. speaks as being one of the most alluring and desirable; the land is tolerably free from timber, and well supplied with water; the air is mild and salubrious; the roads are good; and the country abounds with pigeons, wild fowl, and game of every description, while Lake Erie presents a convenient water-communication with the other parts of the Province. This projection of land, from which the adjacent country derives its name, extends twenty-five miles into the Lake, and vessels bound westward often find difficulty in weathering it: but there is a good harbour on its eastern side. The base of Long Point abounds with rich iron ore, and a foundery has recently been erected, which cannot fail to become a most useful establishment.

The settlement, however, which from its various local advantages, and the superior excellence of its soil, climate, and natural productions, is represented as better suited to the lower orders of Europeans than any other part of the Province, and to which likewise native Americans and Canadians are daily flocking in vast numbers, commences about thirty miles beyond Long Point; lying parallel to the shore of Lake Erie, and consisting of two great roads extending from seventy to eighty miles. It owes its origin and present magnitude to the exertions of Colonel Talbot, from whom it is called "the Talbot Settlement." This gentleman, a person of birth and fortune, took up his residence here in the year 1802, for the sole purpose of forming in this wilderness a colony around him: he was opposed (Mr. Howison says) by some minions of the provincial government, but he bravely and successfully encountered every obstacle thrown in his way; and a country which, ten or twelve years ago, hardly knew the foot of man, now swarms with thousands of active settlers. This tract having been placed by government under the superintendance of the Colonel, no body can obtain land

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without

without applying to him. At first, emigrants had lots of two hundred acres of land given to them: but, when both the roads were planted through their whole extent, the quantity was reduced to one hundred; and the settler is obliged to clear ten acres, to build a house of certain dimensions, and to open one half of the road in front of his farm within the space of three years. After a residence here of several months, Mr. Howison thus describes it:

The Talbot Settlement exhibits more visibly than any other part of the Province these (those) advantages, and that amelioration of circumstances, which Upper Canada affords to the peasantry who emigrate from Europe. Nine-tenths of the inhabitants were extremely poor when they commenced their labours, but a few years' toil and perseverance has placed them beyond the reach of want. All of them have rude houses and barns, also cows and oxen, and innumerable hogs. Some of the wealthier settlers feed sheep, but on most lots the quantity of cleared land is so small, that they cannot afford to lay much of it out on pasture. Most of the settlers might live much more comfortably than they do at present, if they exerted themselves, or had any ideas of neatness and propriety; but they follow the habits and customs of the peasantry of the United States, and of Scotland, and, consequently, are offensively dirty, gross, and indolent, in all their domestic arrangements. However, these, it is to be hoped, are temporary evils, and do not at all affect the conclusions that a view of this settlement must force upon every unprejudiced mind. It is evident, that the advantages to be derived from emigration to Upper Canada are not altogether chimerical, as has been too generally supposed; but that, in so far as concerns the lower classes of Europeans, they are equally numerous and important, as some of our most sanguine speculators have represented them to be. No person, indeed, will pretend to say, that the settlers, whose condition I have described, are in a way to grow rich; but most of them even now enjoy abundant means of subsistence, with the earnest of increasing comforts; and what state of things can be more alluring and desirable than this to the unhappy peasantry of Europe ?'

Many emigrants from the Highlands of Scotland have taken up their residence here; preserving as much of the spirit of clanship as circumstances will allow, and shewing no great partiality to their American or Canadian neighbours. Mr. H. sarcastically remarks that they now begin to consider themselves as gentlemen, and become independent; which, in North America, means to sit at meals with one's hat on; never to submit to be treated as an inferior; and to use the same kind of manners towards all men.' Having just seen his theory concerning the conduct of new settlers, it is

very amusing to read a description, but a few pages farther, of that which prevails in the democracy of Talbot.

The difference in point of wealth, which exists among them, is as yet too trifling to create any distinctions of rank, or to give one man more influence than another; therefore, the utmost harmony prevails in the colony, and the intercourse of its people is characterised by politeness, respect, and even ceremony. They are hospitable, and, upon the whole, extremely willing to assist each other in cases of difficulty. But the most extraordinary thing of all is, the liberality which they exercise towards emigrants, in immediately admitting them to live on an equality with themselves; for any poor starving peasant, who comes into the settlement, will meet with nearly the same respect as the wealthiest person in it, captains of militia excepted. The Scotch and English emigrants are frequently, at first, a good deal puzzled with the consideration with which they are treated, and, when they hear themselves addressed by the titles Sir, Master, or Gentleman, a variety of new ideas begin to illuminate their minds. I have often observed some old Highland crone apparently revolving these things within himself, twitching his bonnet from one side of his weather-beaten brow to the other, and looking curiously round, as if suspicious that the people were quizzing him. However, those who are at first most sceptical about the reality of their newly acquired importance, generally become most obtrusive and assuming in the end; and it is a remarkable circumstance, that, in Upper Canada, the ne plus ultra of vanity, impudence, and rascality, is thought to be comprised under the epithet Scotch Yankey.'

Mr. H. is too honest to suppress facts because they happen to contradict his opinions, as we must say they very often do: but, immediately at the close of a description of the settlers at Talbot, which of itself shivers his hypothesis into fragments, he resumes his piteous moanings over the degraded state of man in new settlements, where human beings are seen in a state of natural and inexcusable depravity,' &c. &c.

As we proceed westward, the traces of civilization become fainter and fainter. The tract of country called the Long Woods comprehends about a hundred and ninety thousand acres of land: which is at present a wilderness, an uninterrupted forest of thirty-seven miles in length: but it will soon be divided into townships, and many hundreds of persons are now waiting for allotments; and, in a few years, Mr. H. thinks, this may become one of the most populous and best cultivated tracts in the western part of the Province. Some villages now present themselves to the traveller: Sandwich, about twenty miles down the Detroit river, contains thirty or forty houses and a neat church; and Amherstburgh, near the head of Lake Erie, and fifteen hundred miles distant from the mouth

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mouth of the St. Laurence, contains above a thousand inhabitants, many of them persons of respectability and opu lence. In surveying embryo towns, the author was frequently shewn spots of ground reserved for universities, hospitals, churches, and other public buildings, to be erected!

These chimeras and erroneous conceptions have been introduced by people from the United States. There, villages and towns start into existence almost instantaneously; and when any place is peculiarly calculated by nature to be a theatre for the energies, enterprise, and associated labours of man, it is immediately occupied by an active and industrious population, and soon attains that degree of importance to which its advantages entitle it. But in Upper Canada things are very different; for the Province at present affords so few excitements to individual exertion, and such unpromising prospects, that all plans to promote its aggrandisement and prosperity, whether rational or chimerical, are alike doomed to languish for want of supporters.'.

A defect must prevail somewhere, as we before observed, if all be activity and enterprize on one side of the boundaryline, and all lethargy and despondence on the other.

Amherstburgh is the most western settlement in the Province; and having reached it Mr. Howison retraced his steps. With that inconsistency which we have already noticed, he takes a parting leave of it in these words: I have always observed, that the new settlers in Upper Canada are perfectly happy and contented in the midst of their severest hardships; and with reason; for a moment's observation must convince them that prosperity and abundance will, sooner or later, be the result of their labours and exertions.' (P. 219.)

The climate of Upper Canada is healthy, notwithstanding that the thermometer occasionally stands below zero for three or four days together, and that the changes of temperature are inconceivably sudden; and in the western parts of the province it is even agreeable. The Spring commences in March, and is usually tempestuous and rainy. Verdure covers the earth in May; and orchards are in full bloom in June. During July and August, the sky is cloudless and the heat intense; Fahrenheit's thermometer sometimes exceeding 100° in the shade, and averaging 82° to 90°. The Autumn is particularly fine and dry: its days are mild, and its nights frosty, with very little wind. If the climate be healthy now, its salubrity will be much improved as the forests are felled and the marshes drained. Waste land varies very much in value, from a few shillings per acre in large tracts, to seven or eight pounds in populous districts. Cultivated land sometimes is sold for twenty pounds or even thirty pounds per acre.

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Waste

Waste land may be cleared and fenced at three or four pounds per acre: farm-laborers, hired by the day, receive from three shillings to four shillings and sixpence without board; and a man's wages are three pounds per month with board. Womenservants have a pound or a guinea per month. The cost of a good horse is from twenty to twenty-five pounds; of a yoke of oxen, the same; of a cow, six or seven pounds; of a sheep, four to five shillings. Wheat averages thirty-six shillings per quarter. The taxes are very trifling: all rateable property, such as horses, live-stock, &c., is subject to a tax of one penny in the pound, ad valorem: cultivated land pays a penny per acre, and waste land one farthing. There is a statute-duty to keep the roads in due repair, but they are in a very bad state. The want of specie, and the miserable necessity resulting from it of bartering goods against labor and commodities, give a great advantage to any man who has a little money at command: for he gets his work done cheaper, and obtains a large discount in his purchases. One cause of high wages here is the exorbitant price at which all merchandise of British manufacture is sold in Upper Canada: the retail prices, Mr. H. says, being a hundred and fifty per cent. higher than they are in England. The poorest individual, if he be industrious, may obtain an independence, plenty to eat and drink, and a warm house, without any taxes to pay, in the space of four or five years:

• Those who have been accustomed to a country life, and to country labour, are, of course, more fitted to cultivate land, and endure the hardships at first attendant upon a residence in the woods, than artisans or manufacturers, whose constitutions and habits of life are somewhat unfavourable to the successful pursuit of agriculture. But every individual who, to youth and health, joins perseverance and industry, will eventually prosper. Mechanics cannot fail to do well in Upper Canada; for, when not employed in clearing lands, they will find it easy to gain a little money by working at their professions; and they likewise have the advantage of being able to improve their dwelling-houses and repair their farming utensils, at no expense. Weavers, being ignorant of country affairs, and unaccustomed to bodily exertion, make but indifferent settlers at first, and their trade is of no use to them whatever in the woods. Married persons are always more comfortable, and succeed sooner, in Canada, than single men ; for a wife and family, so far from being a burden there, always prove sources of wealth. The wife of a new settler has many domestic duties to perform; and children, if at all grown up, are useful in various ways.

Emigrants ought to embark in vessels bound for Quebec or Montreal. If they sail for New York they will have to pay a duty of 30 per cent. upon their luggage when they arrive at that port;

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and,