THE KExMPT ROAD. 353 



Eestlgoiiche with those of the St Lawrence. Along 

 this road there are as yet scarcely any settlements, the 

 population of the Lower St Lawrence being chiefly con- 

 fined as yet to a stripe of a few miles broad along the 

 river. The extra produce in grain, &c., is shipped to 

 Quebec, from whence all necessary supplies are obtained 

 in return. A merchant located at Mitis, and with whom 

 I took up my quarters, serves as the medium of com- 

 munication between the farmers of the district and the 

 importers of Quebec. In autumn he gathers in his debts, 

 in the form of produce, from his neighbours; and in 

 return for these, obtains his winter's supply of tea, 

 coffee, and clothing from the capital of the province. 



These supplies, during the winter and spring, he again 

 sells chiefly on credit, and waits for his payment till 

 harvest comes. The system is worse for the farmer than 

 the merchant, whose profits are large. 



I found it necessary here to engage a horse and light 

 waggon to take me all the way across the peninsula 

 traversed by the Kempt Road, a distance of eighty miles, 

 as neither horse nor conveyance were likely to be obtamed 

 by the way. I was glad to find that nothing was said 

 as to the practicability of conveying myself and my port- 

 manteau along this route, which my friends in New 

 Brunswick had assured me I should find next to impos- 

 sible. But difliculties always lessen when you look them 

 fairly in the face ; and I had afterwards occasion to find 

 that, in regard to many other things having a relation to 

 their own country, the New Bruns wickers knew quite as 

 little as I did myself. 



I found it impossible, however, to arrange for proceed- 

 ing further to-day, and was therefore obliged to postpone 

 my departure from Mitis to an early hour to-morrovv^ 



VOL. I. 



