Canadian Scenery, Volume 2 (of 2)Willis, Nathaniel Parker
History
Canadian Scenery, Volume 2 (of 2)
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History
We continued encamped in the woods from the 26th of October until the
1st of December. During this period, we laid the foundation of a house
46 feet long, and 21 feet wide; one half of which we finished first, for
the accommodation of the family, who removed into it on the 2d of
December—five months and nineteen days after our embarkation for
America. During the thirty-five days which we spent in the woods,
previous to the arrival of the family, our only lodging was the
miserable wigwam, which had a hundred holes in its roof, through which,
when lying awake at night, we could easily note every remarkable star
that passed the meridian. Our only bed was composed of withered leaves,
while
“A log contriv’d a double debt to pay—
By night a pillow, and a seat by day.”
These are only slight specimens of the hardships which must be
encountered by those who settle in a wilderness; and yet, no small
degree of fortitude is requisite to support the mind of him who is
obliged to submit to them. It is a grievance of no inconsiderable
magnitude to be compelled, after a day of severe labour, to stretch
one’s weary limbs on the bare ground in the cold month of November, and
to be protected from the fierce north wind, and from the chilling frost,
only by a miserable hut, with a fire sufficiently near it to counteract,
in some degree, their benumbing effects.
But the hope of independence is sufficient to sustain the mind under
privations still greater than these; and he who can bring himself to
think, when lying down to rest on the bare earth, that the day is not
far distant when he may happily repose on a more inviting couch, without
one anxious thought respecting the future prospects of himself and his
family, regards these transient sufferings with a kind of feeling nearly
allied to actual pleasure. He sees the time fast approaching when the
wilderness to him shall be ‘a fruitful field, and the desert shall
blossom as the rose;’ when the productive soil shall gratefully yield an
ample reward to his toils; and when the hardships of his situation
shall, by the blessing of Heaven on his exertions, gradually disappear,
and leave him in possession of health, plenty, and independence. While
indulging in such joyful and ecstatic visions, the wooden pillow of a
new and industrious settler becomes softer than bolsters of down, and
his solitary blanket feels more comfortable than sheets of Holland.
* * * * *
We have presented the views of almost every class of observers on this
interesting country; but there yet remains unquoted an observer of the
difficulties, toils, and trials to which woman is subjected in Canada;
and from her admirable, graphic, and womanly record we make large
extracts. The book is the “Backwoods of Canada,” and the authoress the
wife of an emigrant officer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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