C 194 ) 



The plane-tree, the cherry-tree, the afh, and 

 walnut-trees of feveral kinds, alio yield a liquor 

 from which fugar is made - but there is a lefs quan- 

 tity of it, and the fugar made from it, is not fo 

 good. Some, however, prefer that made from the 

 afn, but there is very little of it made. Would 

 your Grace have thought that there mould be found 

 in Canada what Virgil mentions, whilft he is pre- 

 dicting the golden age, Et dura quencus fudabunt 

 rofcida Mella, That honey fhould diftil from the 

 oak ? 



This whole country has long been the fcene of 

 many a bloody battle, as, during the war with the 

 Iroquois, it was mod expofed to the incurfions of 

 thole barbarians. They ufually came down by way 

 of a river, which falls into the St. Lawrence, a lit- 

 tle above lake St. Peter, and on the fame fide with 

 St. Francis, and which for this reafon bore their 

 name 5 it has fince gone by the name of la Riviere 

 de SoreL The iflands of Richelieu which they firfl 

 met with, ferved both for a retreat and place of 

 ambufh ; but after this pafs was Ihut up to them 

 by a fort, built at the mouth of the river, they 

 came down by land both above and below, and 

 efpecially made their inroads on the fide of St. 

 Francis, where they found the fame conveniencies 

 for pillaging, and where they committed cruelties 

 horrible to relate. 



Thence they fpread themfelves over all the colo- 

 ny, fo that in order to defend the inhabitants from 

 their fury, there was a neceffity of building in every 

 parifh a kind of fort, where the planters and other 

 perfons might take iandhiary on the firfl: alarm.- In 

 thefe there were two centinels kept night and day, 

 and in every one of them fome field-pieces, or at 

 8 leaft 



