FRENCH SETTLEMENT OF BARACHOIS. G3 



Oct. 24. An interesting red land district, peopled 

 chiefly by French, forms the south-eastern promontory of 

 New Brunswick where it approaches nearest to Prince 

 Edward s Island, and touches the north-western border 

 of Nova Scotia. For a tour round this promontory, we 

 left Shediac early in the morning. 



Crossing the river Scadook, we passed through a 

 small village clustered around a saw-mill at its mouth, 

 and the farms of a few English settlers, and entered the 

 French settlement of Barachois. The good report we 

 had heard of this fine settlement was borne out by its 

 appearance. The land is good lightish red land, dry, 

 and easily worked. About the church there is quite the 

 air of an old place. The houses are good ; the forest has 

 retired from the road ; orchard and other trees, planted 

 by the hand of man, here and there cover the ground ; 

 and though signs of indolence appear now and then, and 

 badly ploughed land which my companion, the legisla 

 tor, was always sharp to see among the French yet, 

 on the whole, signs of plenty, and of easy circumstances, 

 were also generally visible. 



The morning was cloudy when we started, gradually 

 began to rain, arid at last poured so heavily that we 

 were glad to take shelter in the house of a M. Robichout, 

 whose farm lay on the eastern side of the Aboushagan 

 River a small stream about twelve miles from Shediac. 



The old Frenchman had nothing very favourable to 

 say of his countrymen. Many of them, he said, were 

 indolent, did nothing, got into debt, and were obliged to 

 sell their farms. The custom of dividing farms among 

 the several children of a family prevails here to some 

 extent, for want of energy among those children to go 

 into the wilderness to clear new ones for themselves. 

 But this evil is not seen as yet so visibly as in Lower 

 Canada. 



One of this old Frenchman s remarks, when speaking 



