Peter Fisher

“ Instead of seeing towns built, farms improved, and the country cleared and stocked with the reasonable returns of so great a trade; the forests are stripped and nothing left in prospect, but the gloomy apprehension when the timber is gone, of sinking into insignificance and poverty. Formerly the woods swarmed with American adventurers who cut as they pleased. ”

“ In New-Brunswick, a man with his axe and a few other simple tools, provides himself with a house and most of his implements of husbandry,—and while a European would consider himself as an outcast, he feels perfectly at home in the depth of the forest. In new countries likewise the mind acquires those ideas of self-importance and independence so peculier to Americans. ”

“ When a Settler goes, singly, to encounter the difficulties and the labour of a solitary Location in an unsettled District, and with the sweat of his own brow to shelter his family, and to clear space to receive the seeds which are to yield his immediate subsistence, we all know what fortitude, power and time are required to accomplish such beginnings. ”

“ They are then precipitated down perpendicular cliffs of about forty-five feet in height, into an abyss studded with rocks, which nearly choke the passage, leaving only a small opening in the centre, through which the water, after whirling for some time in the bason, rushes with tremendous impetuosity, sweeping through a broken rocky channel and a succession of falls for more than half a mile, being closely pent up with rocks, which in some places overhang the river so as to hide most part of it from the view of the observer. ”

“ It is so with a person who being settled at the seaboard goes but seldom out of sight of the harbor, but from what is passing before his eyes, concludes his town is the only place of consequence in the country; and as nature has made it the great mart for the imports and exports of the interior, it must of course be likewise the only place fit for the Seat of Government, and every thing else of consequence in the Province. ”

“ Their children, raised on the soil, from the strong principles of early association, will feel that interest in the welfare of the country, that no transient advantage can produce; and grow up an ornament and strength to the Province. On the contrary, if the lumber is cut off by mere speculators, the land will be left in an impoverished state, much valuable timber will be wantonly destroyed, and the places from whence the timber is taken will be left an uncultivated waste; settlers will neither have the inclination or ability to occupy them. ”

“ The several purposes contemplated by those Institutions call upon us to promote habits of frugality, domestic economy, and useful industry, as training a rural population to settle and labour on the soil, and to assist them so to exert themselves in the modes and means of culture as to improve our Agricultural condition; to make us more independent at least for our food; and subsequently to set free other branches of industry, which are now under great disability. The foundation of systems which may produce such benefits has now been laid. ”

“ The method of laying out lots in this Province, of a narrow front and extending a great distance back, is very inconvenient to the settler. Being confined to a narrow front when he commences, clearing, supposing, (which is often the case,) the land adjoining to be unoccupied, he merely makes a lane through the wilderness, not half of which will produce a crop, on account of its being shaded by the adjoining woods: which not only exclude the sun, but impoverish the land by drawing the nourishment from the plants to the adjoining trees. ”

“ Our path is in the west—the war shall brighten there—the sky begins to clear—the light falls on our lands, and soon again shall our women and children be on them. You Saulks—you Chippeways, and all you of different nations, we are all one. We will fight them with our father, and never cease to fight while we have life, or until we have got back our lands."
The names of twelve Indian chiefs, inhabiting the coast of Acadia at the time the French peasants submitted to the British Government, will be found in the appendix to this work. ”

“ For the man who spends the greater part of his time alone in the forest, as free as the beasts that range it without controul, his wants but simple and those supplied from day to day by his own exertions, acquires totally different habits of acting and thinking, from the great mass of the people in crowded cities, who finding themselves pressed on all sides, and depending on others from day to day for precarious support, are confirmed in habits of dependence.
Hence the inhabitants of this Province are men who possess much native freedom in their manners. ”

“ The rapidity of the rivers, swoln by the melting of the snow in the spring, tears away the soil in some parts, and deposits it in others; by which means their courses are gradually altered; new Islands are formed, and alluvial soil accumulated in some parts of the rivers, while it is washed away in others; and this is more or less the case according to the looseness of the soil, and the bends of the river: so that a man may have a growing estate, or he may see his land diminishing from year to year without the power to remedy it. ”

“ There are abundant materials to form a good effective Militia in this Province. The youth are in general docile and orderly, and have a great aptitude to attain the requisite discipline; there are also a number of disbanded soldiers and other persons acquainted with discipline, scattered through the country; so that there are few districts, but where there are persons qualified to act as drills. The want of arms is indeed a great check to the military spirit, as nothing is more taking to boys when first put to drill, than to have arms ”

“ I feel confident, that whenever Societies shall be so organized in any County, they will meet the provision which I trust will be made by the liberality of the Country for their support and efficiency: and I perceive with much satisfaction that the public spirit of the Country is in many parts exhibiting itself in the form, and for the purpose which we contemplate for general adoption. ”

“ By this means many poor districts of sterile land may be reclaimed, and improved by the wealth of the city; to the great advantage of individuals, and benefit of the settlement where such improvements are made: as the citizen will lay out from year to year, no more than he can spare from his other pursuits, and this when the land is once brought to a good state of cultivation will richly repay him: while the indigent settler will have labour brought home to his own door to enable him to subsist while he improves a small spot for himself, which without such a resource he could not attempt. ”

“ Other channels for commercial operations of very advantageous natures invite us to cultivate with increased activity, that rich source of wealth (one of our natural advantages) which our Fisheries present! These, if rendered more productive, will afford us great additional facilities in trade with the new States of South America: and there are favourable openings in the liberal policy of the present times, which should encourage us to cultivate, by every means, commercial intercourse with those States. ”

“ From the foregoing statement it plainly appears that chief of the export trade of this Province consists of timber, which is its natural stock or capital; and as there are many articles taken in exchange from the mother country, which are indispensably necessary to the inhabitants of this Province; it points out the necessity of paying strict attention to its preservation. In this Country there is no article, or articles, that can in any degree furnish exports equal to the pine, which is manufactured in the simplest manner, and got to market with but little trouble. ”

“ The purpose for which we are met is, to enquire whether some encouragement and excitement may not be applied to Agricultural pursuits, to operate, discreetly and gradually, in a manner to relieve the country from the great difficulty and disability under which it is laid by the vast sums which we pay for our food, and from the very disadvantageous effects which this produces on the cost of labour, and consequently in all branches of our industry. ”

“ Some of our men had to go down the river with hand-sleds or toboggans to get food for their famishing families. A full supply of provisions was looked for in the Spring, but the people were betrayed by those they depended upon to supply them. All the settlers were reduced to great straits and had to live after the Indian fashion. A party of Loyalists who came before us late in the spring, had gone up the river further, but they were no better off than those at St. Ann's. The men caught fish and hunted moose when they could. ”

“ Frequently after the roads are considerably improved, and much money expended, better routes are discovered and most parts of the old road are abandoned. To remedy this where the road runs along the course of a river it would be advisible to explore the country some distance back, for as the banks of the rivers are in many places very high the streams that run into them indent the country and form hollows and hills near their exit that are nearly impassable; when by going a little back the land falls and their banks have a gradual slope over which a good road may be made with ease. ”

“ I shall now proceed to notice the principal grains, roots, and grasses cultivated in the Province, and give as correct an account of their produce, &c. as the imperfect state of the agriculture of the country will allow.
Wheat is sown from five pecks to two bushels to an acre, and yields from twelve to twenty-four bushels per acre. Twenty bushels is a good crop, on new land, although it sometimes produces more, when the soil is very rich and the season favourable. On old land the return is from ten to fifteen bushels per acre, the mean is about twelve. Rye is grown on inferior lands. ”

“ The genius of these people differ greatly from Europeans—the human mind in new countries left to itself exerts its full energy; hence in America where man has in most cases to look to himself for the supply of his wants, his mind expands, and possesses resources within itself unknown to the inhabitants of old settled countries, or populous cities. ”

“ The land along the margin of the river is in general good, level, and unbroken; but owing to its northern situation it is unfavourable to Indian corn; but wheat, oats, grass, &c. flourish there in great perfection. The inhabitants are all farmers, and generally raise more than they can consume, having a surplus of grain to sell to traders in the settlement or to take to Fredericton. Their manners and habits being simple, they expend but little on luxuries. Their women manufacture a coarse cloth and kerseys sufficient for their own consumption. ”

“ As the country descends to the Jemseg, the rich sediment deposited by the annual overflowing of the river, produces the most luxuriant vegetation, and although the farmer can seldom commence his labours till June, yet so productive is the soil, that in a few weeks the county exhibits the most exuberant vegetation. Indian corn flourishes in this Parish in the highest perfection: the soil being a light rich loam and the country level so as to receive the full effect of the sun. Small grain, grass, and roots are also produced here in the greatest abundance. ”

“ Father—Listen.—The Americans are taking our lands from us every day, they have no hearts, Father, they have no pity for us. They want to drive us beyond the setting sun. But Father, we hope, although we are few, and are here as it were upon a little Island, our Great and Mighty Father, who lives beyond the Great Lake, will not forsake us in our distress, but will continue to remember his faithful red children. ”

“ Up the River Saint John the country appeared better, and a few cultivated spots were found occupied by old settlers. At St. Ann's, where Fredericton was afterwards built, a few scattered huts of French were found; the country all around being a continued wilderness—uninhabited and untrodden, except by the savage and wild animals; and scarcely had these firm friends of their country began to construct their cabins, when they were surprised by the rigors of an untried climate: their habitations being enveloped in snow before they were tenantable. ”

“ The last class that I shall notice are the people of Colour, or Negroes.—These are found in considerable numbers in different parts of the Province. In some parts a number of families are settled together as farmers; but they do not make good settlers, being of a volatile disposition, much addicted to dissipation; they are impatient of labour, and in general fitter for performing menial offices about houses as domestics, than the more important, but laborious duties of farmers.—In their persons, the inhabitants of New-Brunswick are well made, tall and athletic. ”

“ Indian corn is but little cultivated in this county, the climate being too cool and temperate for that plant to thrive well; but wheat, oats, potatoes, &c. flourish here in great perfection. This is the finest part of the Province for stock; from the extensive tracts of salt marsh which lie in this county, many thousand acres of which are dyked and produce abundant crops. Butter and cheese are made and exported from this county in large quantities. The cattle are superior to any in the country from the great attention that has been paid by the inhabitants to crossing and improving the breed. ”

“ The wilderness has been converted into cultivated fields, covered with habitations; and the district formed into a Parish, and named after his Royal Highness the late Duke of Kent.—It extends on both sides of the river from the Grand Falls to the Parish of Wakefield. The land is of a superior quality, covered with a variety of timber of the tallest growth, and unincumbered with much undergrowth; the trees standing in most places so far apart, that a man on horse-back would be but seldom incommoded by them. ”