American Notes for General Circulation

by Dickens, Chales

  leap, and roar and tumble, all day long; still are the rainbows

  spanning them, a hundred feet below. Still, when the sun is on

  them, do they shine and glow like molten gold. Still, when the day

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  is gloomy, do they fall like snow, or seem to crumble away like the

  front of a great chalk cliff, or roll down the rock like dense

  white smoke. But always does the mighty stream appear to die as it

  comes down, and always from its unfathomable grave arises that

  tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is never laid: which has

  haunted this place with the same dread solemnity since Darkness

  brooded on the deep, and that first flood before the Deluge - Light

  - came rushing on Creation at the word of God.

  CHAPTER XV - IN CANADA; TORONTO; KINGSTON; MONTREAL; QUEBEC; ST.

  JOHN'S. IN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN; LEBANON; THE SHAKER VILLAGE;

  WEST POINT

  I wish to abstain from instituting any comparison, or drawing any

  parallel whatever, between the social features of the United States

  and those of the British Possessions in Canada. For this reason, I

  shall confine myself to a very brief account of our journeyings in

  the latter territory.

  But before I leave Niagara, I must advert to one disgusting

  circumstance which can hardly have escaped the observation of any

  decent traveller who has visited the Falls.

  On Table Rock, there is a cottage belonging to a Guide, where

  little relics of the place are sold, and where visitors register

  their names in a book kept for the purpose. On the wall of the

  room in which a great many of these volumes are preserved, the

  following request is posted: 'Visitors will please not copy nor

  extract the remarks and poetical effusions from the registers and

  albums kept here.'

  But for this intimation, I should have let them lie upon the tables

  on which they were strewn with careful negligence, like books in a

  drawing-room: being quite satisfied with the stupendous silliness

  of certain stanzas with an anti-climax at the end of each, which

  were framed and hung up on the wall. Curious, however, after

  reading this announcement, to see what kind of morsels were so

  carefully preserved, I turned a few leaves, and found them scrawled

  all over with the vilest and the filthiest ribaldry that ever human

  hogs delighted in.

  It is humiliating enough to know that there are among men brutes so

  obscene and worthless, that they can delight in laying their

  miserable profanations upon the very steps of Nature's greatest

  altar. But that these should be hoarded up for the delight of

  their fellow-swine, and kept in a public place where any eyes may

  see them, is a disgrace to the English language in which they are

  written (though I hope few of these entries have been made by

  Englishmen), and a reproach to the English side, on which they are

  preserved.

  The quarters of our soldiers at Niagara, are finely and airily

  situated. Some of them are large detached houses on the plain

  above the Falls, which were originally designed for hotels; and in

  the evening time, when the women and children were leaning over the

  balconies watching the men as they played at ball and other games

  upon the grass before the door, they often presented a little

  picture of cheerfulness and animation which made it quite a

  pleasure to pass that way.

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  At any garrisoned point where the line of demarcation between one

  country and another is so very narrow as at Niagara, desertion from

  the ranks can scarcely fail to be of frequent occurrence: and it

  may be reasonably supposed that when the soldiers entertain the

  wildest and maddest hopes of the fortune and independence that

  await them on the other side, the impulse to play traitor, which

  such a place suggests to dishonest minds, is not weakened. But it

  very rarely happens that the men who do desert, are happy or

  contented afterwards; and many instances have been known in which

  they have confessed their grievous disappointment, and their

  earnest desire to return to their old service if they could but be

  assured of pardon, or lenient treatment. Many of their comrades,

  notwithstanding, do the like, from time to time; and instances of

  loss of life in the effort to cross the river with this object, are

  far from being uncommon. Several men were drowned in the attempt

  to swim across, not long ago; and one, who had the madness to trust

  himself upon a table as a raft, was swept down to the whirlpool,

  where his mangled body eddied round and round some days.

  I am inclined to think that the noise of the Falls is very much

  exaggerated; and this will appear the more probable when the depth

  of the great basin in which the water is received, is taken into

  account. At no time during our stay there, was the wind at all

  high or boisterous, but we never heard them, three miles off, even

  at the very quiet time of sunset, though we often tried.

  Queenston, at which place the steamboats start for Toronto (or I

  should rather say at which place they call, for their wharf is at

  Lewiston, on the opposite shore), is situated in a delicious

  valley, through which the Niagara river, in colour a very deep

  green, pursues its course. It is approached by a road that takes

  its winding way among the heights by which the town is sheltered;

  and seen from this point is extremely beautiful and picturesque.

  On the most conspicuous of these heights stood a monument erected

  by the Provincial Legislature in memory of General Brock, who was

  slain in a battle with the American forces, after having won the

  victory. Some vagabond, supposed to be a fellow of the name of

  Lett, who is now, or who lately was, in prison as a felon, blew up

  this monument two years ago, and it is now a melancholy ruin, with

  a long fragment of iron railing hanging dejectedly from its top,

  and waving to and fro like a wild ivy branch or broken vine stem.

  It is of much higher importance than it may seem, that this statue

  should be repaired at the public cost, as it ought to have been

  long ago. Firstly, because it is beneath the dignity of England to

  allow a memorial raised in honour of one of her defenders, to

  remain in this condition, on the very spot where he died.

  Secondly, because the sight of it in its present state, and the

  recollection of the unpunished outrage which brought it to this

  pass, is not very likely to soothe down border feelings among

  English subjects here, or compose their border quarrels and

  dislikes.

  I was standing on the wharf at this place, watching the passengers

  embarking in a steamboat which preceded that whose coming we

  awaited, and participating in the anxiety with which a sergeant's

  wife was collecting her few goods together - keeping one distracted

  eye hard upon the porters, who were hurrying them on board, and the

  other on a hoopl
ess washing-tub for which, as being the most

  utterly worthless of all her movables, she seemed to entertain

  particular affection - when three or four soldiers with a recruit

  came up and went on board.

  The recruit was a likely young fellow enough, strongly built and

  well made, but by no means sober: indeed he had all the air of a

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  man who had been more or less drunk for some days. He carried a

  small bundle over his shoulder, slung at the end of a walkingstick,

  and had a short pipe in his mouth. He was as dusty and

  dirty as recruits usually are, and his shoes betokened that he had

  travelled on foot some distance, but he was in a very jocose state,

  and shook hands with this soldier, and clapped that one on the

  back, and talked and laughed continually, like a roaring idle dog

  as he was.

  The soldiers rather laughed at this blade than with him: seeming

  to say, as they stood straightening their canes in their hands, and

  looking coolly at him over their glazed stocks, 'Go on, my boy,

  while you may! you'll know better by-and-by:' when suddenly the

  novice, who had been backing towards the gangway in his noisy

  merriment, fell overboard before their eyes, and splashed heavily

  down into the river between the vessel and the dock.

  I never saw such a good thing as the change that came over these

  soldiers in an instant. Almost before the man was down, their

  professional manner, their stiffness and constraint, were gone, and

  they were filled with the most violent energy. In less time than

  is required to tell it, they had him out again, feet first, with

  the tails of his coat flapping over his eyes, everything about him

  hanging the wrong way, and the water streaming off at every thread

  in his threadbare dress. But the moment they set him upright and

  found that he was none the worse, they were soldiers again, looking

  over their glazed stocks more composedly than ever.

  The half-sobered recruit glanced round for a moment, as if his

  first impulse were to express some gratitude for his preservation,

  but seeing them with this air of total unconcern, and having his

  wet pipe presented to him with an oath by the soldier who had been

  by far the most anxious of the party, he stuck it in his mouth,

  thrust his hands into his moist pockets, and without even shaking

  the water off his clothes, walked on board whistling; not to say as

  if nothing had happened, but as if he had meant to do it, and it

  had been a perfect success.

  Our steamboat came up directly this had left the wharf, and soon

  bore us to the mouth of the Niagara; where the stars and stripes of

  America flutter on one side and the Union Jack of England on the

  other: and so narrow is the space between them that the sentinels

  in either fort can often hear the watchword of the other country

  given. Thence we emerged on Lake Ontario, an inland sea; and by

  half-past six o'clock were at Toronto.

  The country round this town being very flat, is bare of scenic

  interest; but the town itself is full of life and motion, bustle,

  business, and improvement. The streets are well paved, and lighted

  with gas; the houses are large and good; the shops excellent. Many

  of them have a display of goods in their windows, such as may be

  seen in thriving county towns in England; and there are some which

  would do no discredit to the metropolis itself. There is a good

  stone prison here; and there are, besides, a handsome church, a

  court-house, public offices, many commodious private residences,

  and a government observatory for noting and recording the magnetic

  variations. In the College of Upper Canada, which is one of the

  public establishments of the city, a sound education in every

  department of polite learning can be had, at a very moderate

  expense: the annual charge for the instruction of each pupil, not

  exceeding nine pounds sterling. It has pretty good endowments in

  the way of land, and is a valuable and useful institution.

  The first stone of a new college had been laid but a few days

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  before, by the Governor General. It will be a handsome, spacious

  edifice, approached by a long avenue, which is already planted and

  made available as a public walk. The town is well adapted for

  wholesome exercise at all seasons, for the footways in the

  thoroughfares which lie beyond the principal street, are planked

  like floors, and kept in very good and clean repair.

  It is a matter of deep regret that political differences should

  have run high in this place, and led to most discreditable and

  disgraceful results. It is not long since guns were discharged

  from a window in this town at the successful candidates in an

  election, and the coachman of one of them was actually shot in the

  body, though not dangerously wounded. But one man was killed on

  the same occasion; and from the very window whence he received his

  death, the very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the

  commission of his crime, but from its consequences), was displayed

  again on the occasion of the public ceremony performed by the

  Governor General, to which I have just adverted. Of all the

  colours in the rainbow, there is but one which could be so

  employed: I need not say that flag was orange.

  The time of leaving Toronto for Kingston is noon. By eight o'clock

  next morning, the traveller is at the end of his journey, which is

  performed by steamboat upon Lake Ontario, calling at Port Hope and

  Coburg, the latter a cheerful, thriving little town. Vast

  quantities of flour form the chief item in the freight of these

  vessels. We had no fewer than one thousand and eighty barrels on

  board, between Coburg and Kingston.

  The latter place, which is now the seat of government in Canada, is

  a very poor town, rendered still poorer in the appearance of its

  market-place by the ravages of a recent fire. Indeed, it may be

  said of Kingston, that one half of it appears to be burnt down, and

  the other half not to be built up. The Government House is neither

  elegant nor commodious, yet it is almost the only house of any

  importance in the neighbourhood.

  There is an admirable jail here, well and wisely governed, and

  excellently regulated, in every respect. The men were employed as

  shoemakers, ropemakers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and

  stonecutters; and in building a new prison, which was pretty far

  advanced towards completion. The female prisoners were occupied in

  needlework. Among them was a beautiful girl of twenty, who had

  been there nearly three years. She acted as bearer of secret

  despatches for the self-styled Patriots on Navy Island, during the

  Canadian Insurrection: sometimes dressing as a girl, and carrying

  them in her stays; sometimes attiring herself as a boy, and

  secreting them in the lining of her hat. In the latter character

  she always rode as a boy would, which was
nothing to her, for she

  could govern any horse that any man could ride, and could drive

  four-in-hand with the best whip in those parts. Setting forth on

  one of her patriotic missions, she appropriated to herself the

  first horse she could lay her hands on; and this offence had

  brought her where I saw her. She had quite a lovely face, though,

  as the reader may suppose from this sketch of her history, there

  was a lurking devil in her bright eye, which looked out pretty

  sharply from between her prison bars.

  There is a bomb-proof fort here of great strength, which occupies a

  bold position, and is capable, doubtless, of doing good service;

  though the town is much too close upon the frontier to be long

  held, I should imagine, for its present purpose in troubled times.

  There is also a small navy-yard, where a couple of Government

  steamboats were building, and getting on vigorously.

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  We left Kingston for Montreal on the tenth of May, at half-past

  nine in the morning, and proceeded in a steamboat down the St.

  Lawrence river. The beauty of this noble stream at almost any

  point, but especially in the commencement of this journey when it

  winds its way among the thousand Islands, can hardly be imagined.

  The number and constant successions of these islands, all green and

  richly wooded; their fluctuating sizes, some so large that for half

  an hour together one among them will appear as the opposite bank of

  the river, and some so small that they are mere dimples on its

  broad bosom; their infinite variety of shapes; and the numberless

  combinations of beautiful forms which the trees growing on them

  present: all form a picture fraught with uncommon interest and

  pleasure.

  In the afternoon we shot down some rapids where the river boiled

  and bubbled strangely, and where the force and headlong violence of

  the current were tremendous. At seven o'clock we reached

  Dickenson's Landing, whence travellers proceed for two or three

  hours by stage-coach: the navigation of the river being rendered

  so dangerous and difficult in the interval, by rapids, that

  steamboats do not make the passage. The number and length of those

  PORTAGES, over which the roads are bad, and the travelling slow,

  render the way between the towns of Montreal and Kingston, somewhat