Pehr Kalm

“ They pick up or examine every thing that falls accidentally from the ship, or is thrown over board: little fish seem to be their chief food; in day time they are silent, in the dark clamorous; they are reputed to forebode a storm, for which reason the sailors disliking their company, complimented them with the name of witches; but they are as frequent in fair weather, without a storm following their appearance. To me it appeared as if they stayed sometimes half an hour and longer under the waves, and the sailors assured me they did. ”

“ The Frenchmen, who considered things in their true light, complained very much that a great part of the ladies in Canada had got into the pernicious custom of taking too much care of their dress, and squandering all their fortunes, and more, upon it, instead of sparing something for future times. They are no less attentive to have the newest fashions; and they laugh at each other, when they are not dressed to each other’s fancy. But what they get as new fashions, are grown old, and laid aside in France ”

“ The hogs greedily dig up its roots with their noses in such places; and the Indians in Carolina likewise gather them in their rambles in the woods, dry them in the sun shine, grind them and bake bread of them. Whilst the root is fresh it is harsh and acrid, but being dried it loses the greatest part of its acrimony. ”

“ These Indians have therefore lived in the greatest ignorance and darkness, during some centuries, and are totally unacquainted with the state of their country before the arrival of the Europeans, and all their knowledge of it consists in vague traditions, and mere fables. It is not certain whether any other nations possessed America, before the present Indian inhabitants came into it, or whether any other nations visited this part of the globe, before Columbus discovered it. ”

“ I have sometimes walked with several other people in small gardens, and these birds have on all sides fluttered about us, without appearing very shy. They are so small that one would easily mistake them for great humming-bees or butterflies, and their flight resembles that of the former, and is incredibly swift. They have never been observed to feed on insects or fruit; the nectar of flowers, seems therefore to be their only food. Several people have caught some humming birds on account of their singular beauty, and have put them into cages, where they died for want of a proper food. ”

“ On our return to Philadelphia we saw one of these animals not far from town near a farmer’s house, killed by dogs. And afterwards I had during my stay in these parts several opportunities of seeing it and of hearing its qualities. It keeps its young ones in holes in the ground and in hollow trees; for it does not confine itself to the ground, but climbs up trees with the greatest agility: it is a great enemy to birds; for it breaks their eggs and devours their young ones; and if it can get into a hen roost it soon destroys all its inhabitants. ”

“ The ladies in Canada, and especially at Montreal, are very ready to laugh at any blunders strangers make in speaking; but they are very excusable. People laugh at what appears uncommon and ridiculous. In Canada nobody ever hears the French language spoken by any but Frenchmen; for strangers seldom come thither; and the Indians are naturally too proud to learn French, but oblige the French to learn their language. ”

“ About the month of May they begin to flower in these parts, and then their beauty rivals that of most of the known trees in nature: the flowers are innumerable, and sit in great bunches. Before they open, they have a fine red colour, but as they are expanded, the sun bleaches them, so that some are quite white; many preserve the colour of roses. ”

“ Whilst we were at dinner, we several times heard a repeated disagreeable outcry, at some distance from the fort, in the river Woodcreek: Mr. Lusignan, the governor, told us this cry was no good omen, because he could conclude from it that the Indians, whom we escaped near fort Anne, had completed their design of revenging the death of one of their brethren upon the English, and that their shouts shewed that they had killed an Englishman. As soon as I came to the window, I saw their boat, with a long pole at one end, on the extremity of which they had put a bloody skull. ”

“ At Philadelphia I once saw a great number of people on a market day throwing at a dog that was so unfortunate as to have been engaged with a polecat just before, and to carry about him the tokens of its displeasure. Persons when travelling through a forest are often troubled with the stink which this creature makes; and sometimes the air is so much infected that it is necessary to hold ones nose. If the wind blows from the place where the polecat has been, or if it be quite calm, as at night, the smell is more strong and disagreeable. ”

“ I have been told by Englishmen, and not only by such as were born in America, but even by such as came from Europe, that the English colonies in North-America, in the space of thirty or fifty years, would be able to form a state by themselves, entirely independent on Old England. But as the whole country which lies along the sea shore, is unguarded, and on the land side is harrassed by the French, in times of war these dangerous neighbours are sufficient to prevent the connection of the colonies with their mother country from being quite broken off. ”

“ Paul, we passed a neck of land, which consists entirely of a grey, pretty compact lime-stone, lying in dipping, and almost perpendicular strata. It seems to be merely a variety of the black lime-slates. The strata dip to the south-east, and basset out to the north-west. The thickness of each is from ten to fifteen inches. When the stone is broken, it has a strong smell, like stink-stone. We kept, as before, to the western shore of the river, which consists of nothing but steep mountains and rocks. The river is not above three French miles broad here. ”

“ The ore is here commonly infinitely easier got in the mines, than our Swedish ore. For in many places with a pick ax, a crow-foot and a wooden club, it is got with the same ease with which a hole can be made in a hard soil: in many places the people know nothing of boring, blasting and firing; and the ore is likewise very fusible. Of this iron they get such quantities, that not only the numerous inhabitants of the colonies themselves have enough of it, but great quantities, are sent to the West Indies, and they have lately began even to trade to Europe with it. ”

“ It is a great building of stone, three stories high, divided in the inside into long galleries, on both sides of which are cells, halls, and rooms. The cells of the nuns are in the highest story, on both sides of the gallery; they are but small; not painted in the inside, but hung with paper pictures of saints, and of our Saviour on the cross. A bed with curtains, and good bed-clothes, a little narrow desk, and a chair or two, is the whole furniture of a cell. They have no fires in winter, and the nuns are forced to ly in the cold cells. ”

“ Kalm’s long preface, to shew the reader with what public spirit this journey has been supported in a country where money is so scarce, and what a patriotic and laudable ardor for the promotion of sciences in general, and especially of natural history and husbandry animates the universities, the public boards, and even the private persons, in this cold climate, which goes so far, that they chuse rather to spend their own private fortunes, than to give up so beneficial and useful a scheme. ”

“ The Europeans, therefore, do not venture to let a greater number of Esquimaux come on board their ships than they can easily master. If they are ship-wrecked on the Esquimaux coasts, they may as well be drowned in the sea as come safe to the shore: this many Europeans have experienced. The European boats and ships which the Esquimaux get into their power, are immediately cut in pieces and robbed of all their nails and other iron, which they work into knives, needles, arrow-heads, &c. They make use of fire for no other purposes but working of iron, and preparing the skins of animals. ”

“ This is done in the following manner: when a gentleman has a faithful Negro who has done him great services, he sometimes declares him independent at his death. This is however very expensive; for they are obliged to make a provision for the Negro thus set at liberty, to afford him subsistence when he is grown old, that he may not be driven by necessity to wicked actions, or that he may be at any body’s charge, for these free Negroes become very lazy and indolent afterwards. But the children which the free Negro has begot during his servitude are all slaves, though their father be free. ”

“ I conversed with several Jesuits, who undertook long journies in this extensive country, and asked them, whether they had met with any marks that there had formerly been some Christians among the Indians which lived here? but they all answered, they had not found any. The Indians have ever been as ignorant of architecture and manual labour, as of science and writing. In vain does one seek for well built towns and houses, artificial [122] fortifications, high towers and pillars, and such like, among them, which the old world can shew, from the most antient times. ”

“ On a careful consideration of what I have already said, it will be easy to conceive how this city should rise so suddenly from nothing, into such grandeur and perfection, without supposing any powerful monarch’s contributing to it, either by punishing the wicked, or by giving great supplies in money. ”

“ It is inconceivable what hardships the people in Canada must undergo on their journies. Sometimes they must carry their goods a great way by land; frequently they are abused by the Indians, and sometimes they are killed by them. They often suffer hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, and are bit by gnats, and exposed to the bites of poisonous [276] snakes, and other dangerous animals and insects. These destroy a great part of the youth in Canada, and prevent the people from growing old. ”

“ For the savages, or first inhabitants, frequently attained a great age, though at present such examples are uncommon, which is chiefly attributed to the great use of brandy, which the savages have learnt of the Europeans. Those who are born in Europe attain a greater age here, [104] than those who are born here, of European parents. In the last war, it plainly appeared that these new Americans were by far less hardy than the Europeans in expeditions, sieges, and long sea voyages, and died in numbers. It is very difficult for them to use themselves to a climate different from their own. ”

“ This inhuman proceeding of the Esquimaux against all strangers, is the reason why none of the Indians of North America ever give quarter to the Esquimaux if they meet with them, but kill them on the spot; though they frequently pardon their other enemies, and incorporate the prisoners into their nation. ”

“ It is already known from several accounts of voyages, that to the northward neither trees nor bushes, nor any ligneous plants are to be met with, fit for burning. But is it not probable that the inhabitants of so desolate a country, like other northern nations which we know, burn the train oil of fishes, and the fat of animals in lamps, in order to boil their meat, to warm their subterraneous caves in winter, and to light them in the darkest season of the year? ”

“ If the Europeans should now refuse to supply the Indians with muskets, they would be starved to death; [270] as almost all their food consists of the flesh of the animals, which they hunt; or they would be irritated to such a degree as to attack the Europeans. The Indians have hitherto never tried to make muskets or similar fire-arms; and their great indolence does not even allow them to mend those muskets which they have got. They leave this entirely to the Europeans. As the Europeans came into North-America, they were very careful not to give the Indians any fire-arms. ”

“ The first colonists in New York were Dutchmen: when the town and its territories were taken by the English, and left them by the next peace in exchange for Surinam, the old inhabitants were allowed either to remain at New York, and to enjoy all the privileges and immunities which they were possessed of before, or to leave the place with all their goods: most of them chose the former; and therefore the inhabitants both of the town and of the province belonging to it, are yet for the greatest part Dutchmen; who still, especially the old people, speak their mother tongue. ”

“ At Montreal they have likewise a fine church, and a little neat house, with a small but pretty garden within. They do not care to become preachers to a congregation in the town and country; but leave these places, together with the emoluments arising from them, to the priests. All their business here is to convert the heathens; and with that view their missionaries are scattered over every part of this country. Near every town and village, peopled by converted Indians, are one or two Jesuits, who take great care that they may not return to paganism, but live as Christians ought to do. ”

“ Those who have been employed in sowing and planting kitchen herbs in Canada, and have had some experience in gardening, told me that they were obliged to send for fresh seeds from France every year, because they commonly loose their strength here in the third generation, and do not produce such plants as would equal the original ones in taste and goodness. [121]
The Europeans have never been able to find any characters, much less writings, of books, among the Indians, who have inhabited North-America since time immemorial, and seem to be all of one nation, and speak the same language. ”

“ This is likewise the reason why travellers in New Jersey, Pensylvania, and Maryland, find many difficulties, especially in winter, to get forwards with their own horses, for the grass in these provinces is not very abundant, because the cattle eat it before it can bring seeds: but more to the north, as in Canada, are a sufficient quantity of perennial grasses; so wisely has the Creator regulated every thing. The cold parts of the earth, naturally bring forth a more durable grass, because the inhabitants want more hay to feed their cattle with, on account of the length of the winter. ”

“ In other provinces every body that kills squirrels, received twopence a piece for them from the public, on delivering the heads. Their flesh is eaten and reckoned a dainty. The skins are sold, but are not much esteemed. Squirrels are the chief food of the rattle-snake and other snakes, and it was a common fancy with the people hereabouts, that when the rattle snake lay on the ground, and fixed its eyes upon a squirrel, the latter would be as it were fascinated, and that though it were on the uppermost branches of a tree, yet it would come down by degrees, till it leaped into the snake’s mouth. ”

“ In the great heat of the summer, the cattle like to stand in the shade of these trees, preferably to that of the oak, hiccory, walnut, water-beech and other trees of this kind, whose foliage is very thick; and when the cattle find the latter with the former, they always choose to stand under the firs and pines, though the other trees with annually deciduous leaves could afford a better shade: and if there be but a single pine in a wood, as many cattle from the herd as can stand under it, throng to it. ”

“ Pease are not much cultivated in Pensylvania at present, though formerly, according to the accounts of some old Swedes, every farmer had a little field with pease. In New Jersey and the southern parts of New York, pease are likewise not so much cultivated as they used to be. But in the northern parts of New York, or about Albany, and in all the parts of Canada which are inhabited by the French, the people sow great quantities, and have a plentiful crop. In the former colonies, a little despicable insect has obliged the people to give up so useful a part of agriculture. ”

“ But the summer in Pensylvania is very hot; and the sun often burns the grass so much, that it dries up entirely. The husbandmen therefore have been very attentive to prevent this in their meadows: to that purpose they look for all the springs in the neighbourhood of a meadow; and as the rivulets flowed before by the shortest way into the vallies, they raise the water as much as possible and necessary, to the higher part of the meadow, and make several narrow channels from the brook, down into the plain, so that it is entirely watered by it. ”