214 DETROIT. [1763, Mat. 



Both above and below the fort, the banks of the 

 stream were lined on both sides with small Cana- 

 dian dwellings, extending at various intervals for 

 nearly eight miles. Each had its garden and its 

 orchard, and each was enclosed by a fence of 

 rounded pickets. To the soldier or the trader, 

 fresh from the harsh scenery and ambushed perils 

 of the surrounding wilds, the secluded settlement 

 was welcome as an oasis in the desert. 



The Canadian is usually a happy man. Life 

 sits lightly upon him ; he laughs at its hardships, 

 and soon forgets its sorrows. A lover of roving 

 and adventure, of the frolic and the dance, he is 

 little troubled with thoughts of the past or the 

 future, and little plagued with avarice or ambition. 

 At Detroit, all his propensities found ample scope. 

 Aloof from the world, the simple colonists shared 

 none of its pleasures and excitements, and were 

 free from many of its cares. Nor were luxuries 

 wanting which civilization might have envied them. 

 The forests teemed with game, the marshes with 

 wild fowl, and the rivers with fish. The apples 

 and pears of the old Canadian orchards are even to 

 this day held in esteem. The poorer inhabitants 

 made wine from the fruit of the wild grape, which 

 grew profusely in the woods, while the wealthier 

 class procured a better quality from Montreal, in 

 exchange for the canoe loads of furs which they 

 sent down with every year. Here, as elsewhere in 

 Canada, the long winter was a season of social 

 enjoyment ; and when, in summer and autumn, the 

 traders and voyageurs, the coureurs de hois, and 



