CHARACTERS. 
9 
hundred miles distant from every relation upon 
earth; yet a spirit of enterprizc is not want¬ 
ing amongst the Canadians ; they eagerly come 
forward, when called upon,, to traverse the 
immense lakes in the western regions; they 
laugh at the dreadful storms on those prodigi¬ 
ous bodies of water; they work with indefa¬ 
tigable perseverance at the oar and the pole in 
stemming the rapid currents of the rivers; 
nor do they complain, when, on these expedi¬ 
tions, they happen to be exposed to the incle¬ 
mency of the seasons, or to the severest pangs 
of hunger. The spirit of the Canadian is 
-excited by vanity: he delights in talking to 
his friends and relatives of the excursions he 
has made to those distant regions; and he 
glories in the perils which he has encountered; 
his vanity would not be gratified by chopping 
down trees and tilling the earth: he deems 
this therefore merely a secondary pursuit, and 
he sets about it with reluctance: self-interest, 
on the contrary, it is that rouses the citizen of 
the states into action, and accordingly he 
hastily emigrates to a distant part of the coun¬ 
try, where he thinks land is in the most rising 
state, and where he hopes to be able the 
soonest to gratify a passion to which he would 
readily make a sacrifice of every social tie, and 
of all that another man would hold dear. 
