Mrs. Wright's Travels in the United States. 621 
First comes the horrors of the voyage; 
ill-fed, ill-clothed, and not unfre¬ 
quently crowded together as if on board 
a prison-ship, it is not uncommon for a 
fourth, and even a third of the live 
cargo to be swept off by disease during 
this mid-passage. You will conceive 
the sufferings of a troop of half-clad 
paupers, turned adrift in this Siberia, 
as it often happens, at the close of au¬ 
tumn ; the delays, perhaps unavoidable, 
which occur after their landing, before 
they are sent to their station in the 
howling wilderness, kills some, and 
breaks the spirit of others. Many are 
humanely sheltered by Canadian pro¬ 
prietors, not a few find their way to the 
United States, and are thrown upon 
the charity of the city of New York. 
After fearful hardships, some rear at 
last their cabin of logs in the savage 
forest; polar winds and snows, dreary 
solitudes, agues, and all the train of 
evils and privations which must be 
found in a Canadian desert. 
How strangely do statesmen employ 
money ! Hundreds and thousands lodg¬ 
ed in frigates larger than ever fought 
at Trafalgar,—in naval and military 
stores, batteries, martello towers. — 
Where? Upon the shores of the Cana¬ 
dian Siberia. To do what? To pro¬ 
tect wolves and bears from a more speedy 
dislodgement from frozen deserts, which 
would little repay the trouble of in¬ 
vading ; and some few thousands of a 
people, scattered along an endless line 
of forest, from the infection of repub¬ 
lican principles. What a magnificent 
idea does this convey of the wealth of 
that country which could thus ship 
treasures across the Atlantic to be flung 
into the wilderness! 
Lieutenant Hall states the disburse¬ 
ments at Kingston during the war at 
44 10001. per diem the expense of the 
frigate St. Lawrence at 300,0001. I 
was informed by a gentleman long re¬ 
sident in Canada, that the ships of war 
sent from England in frame to be em¬ 
ployed on lake Ontario were all sup¬ 
plied with stills. 44 Do the people of 
London take this lake for a strip of the 
ocean,” exclaimed the Canadians, 44 that 
they send us a machine to freshen its 
waters ?” 
STEAM BOATS. 
Two immense steam-boats, from four 
to five hundred tons’ burden, now na¬ 
vigate Ontario, in lieu of the mighty 
ships of war that sleep peacefully in 
their harbours on either shore. The 
Ainerican has every possible conve¬ 
nience, as is common with all tiiese 
floating hotels, found on the waters of 
the United States ; the Canadian (pro¬ 
bably from having been established for 
the transportation of soldiers, stores 
and goods of various kinds, rather than 
for the service of passengers) is dirty 
and ill attended. There is now also a 
fine steam-boat, of a smaller size, ply¬ 
ing between Kingston and Prescott, a 
flourishing village in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the rapids; and another will 
soon be launched upon Lake St. Fran¬ 
cis, when the navigation of the liver 
will be yet farther facilitated. 
LOWER CANADA. 
It is a pleasant relief to the eye, tired 
with the contemplation of dreary forests, 
and wide watery wastes, when the fair 
seignory of Montreal suddenly opens 
before you. Rich and undulating lands 
sprinkled with villas, and bounded on 
one hand by wooded heights, and on 
the other by the grey city ; its tin roofs 
and spires then blazing in the setting 
sun : the vast river, chafed by hidden 
rocks into sounding and foaming ra¬ 
pids, and anon spreading his waters 
into a broad sheet of molten gold, 
speckled with islands, balteaux and 
shipping: the distant shore with its 
dark line of forest, broken by little 
villages, penciled on the glowing sky 
and far off, two solitary mountains, 
raising their blue heads in the vermil 
glories of the horizon, like sapphires 
chased in rubies. Along the road, 
French faces, with all the harshness of 
feature and good-humour of expression 
peculiar to the national physiognomy, 
looked and gossiped from door and 
window, orchard and meadow; a pass¬ 
ing salutation easily winning a smile 
and courteous obeisance. We were for 
some miles escorted on our way by the 
good-humoured and loquacious pilot, 
whose songs had for so many days mea¬ 
sured time to the stroke of his paddle. 
I yet hear his reiterated parting bene¬ 
dictions, and see the wild grimaces 
with which they were accompanied. 
The population of Lower is strangely 
contrasted with that of Upper Canada; 
nor do they appear to know much con¬ 
cerning each other. In one thing only 
are they said to be agreed,—in a 
thorough detestation of their republi¬ 
can neighbours. In Upper Canada, 
however, so far as my observations 
went, I did not find that this hostile 
feeling was much shared by the poorer 
settlers. In either colony where the 
hostility exists, it is very easily ac¬ 
counted for : in one, by the jealousy of 
the power and wealth of the republic ; 
and 
