The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1

"Mountainous woods in Tartary are mentioned as the place where the ginseng is produced in the greatest abundance. In 1709, the emperor ordered an army of ten thousand men to collect all the ginseng they could find, and each person was to give him two ounces of the best, while for the remainder payment was to be made in silver, weight for weight. It was in the same year that Father Jartoux, a Jesuit missionary in China, prepared a figure and accurate description of the plant, in which he bears testimony to the beneficial effects of the root. He tried it in many instances himself, and always with the same result, especially when exhausted with fatigue. His pulse was increased, his appetite improved, and his whole frame invigorated. Judging from the accounts before us, we should say that the Chinese were extravagant in their ideas of the virtues of this herb; but that it is undoubtedly a cordial stimulant, to be compared, perhaps, in some degree, with the aromatic root of Meum athamanticum, so much esteemed by the Scottish Highlanders. It has nevertheless disappeared from our Materia Medica."—Murray's Canada, vol. iii., p. 308. Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 24.

"Ginseng a véritablement la vertu de soutenir, de fortifier, et de rappeller les forces épuisées."—Lafitau, tom. ii., p. 142.

165

In La Hontan's time (1683), he speaks of "maiden-hair" being as common in the forests of Canada as fern in those of France, and is esteemed beyond that of other countries, insomuch that the inhabitants of Quebec prepare great quantities of its syrup, which they send to Paris, Nantes, Rouen, and several other cities of France. Charlevoix gives a figure of the maiden-hair (tom. iv., p. 301), under the name of Adiantum Americanum.—"Cette plante a la racine fort petite, et enveloppée de fibres noires, fort déliées; sa tige est d'un pourpre foncé, et s'élève en quelques endroits à trois ou quatre pieds de haut; il en sort des branches, qui se courbent en tous sens. Les feuilles sont plus larges que celles de notre Capillaire de France, d'un beau verd d'un côté, et de l'autre, semées de petits points obscurs; nulle part ailleurs cette plante n'est si haute ni si vive, qu'en Canada. Elle n'a aucune odeur tandis qu'elle est sur pied, mais quand elle a été renfermée, elle répand une odeur de violette, qui embaume. Sa qualité est aussi beaucoup au-dessus de tous les autres capillaires."

The Herba capillaris is the Adiantum pedatum of Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 1557). Cornutus, in his Canadens. Plant. Historia, p. 7, calls it Adiantum Americanum, and gives a figure of it, p. 6. Kalm says that "it grows in all the British colonies of America, and likewise in the southern parts of Canada, but I never found it near Quebec. It grows in the woods in shady places, and in a good soil. Several people in Albany and Canada assured me that its leaves were very much used instead of tea in consumptions, coughs, and all kinds of pectoral diseases. This they have learned from the Indians, who have made use of it for these purposes from time immemorial. This American maiden-hair is reckoned preferable in surgery to that which we have in Europe, and therefore they send a great quantity of it to France every year. Commonly the price at Quebec is between five and fifteen sols a pound. The Indians went into the woods about this time (August), and traveled far above Montreal in quest of this plant."—Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 641.

166

"This moss is called by the Canadian voyageurs, Tripe de Roche; it belongs to the order Gyrophara. They who have perused the affecting narrative of the sufferings of Captain Franklin and his gallant party, on their return from their first journey to the Arctic Sea, will remember that it was on Tripe de Roche that they depended, under God, for their very existence. 'We looked,' says Captain Franklin, 'with humble confidence to the Great Author and giver of all good, for a continuance of the support which had been hitherto always supplied to us at our greatest need,' and he was not disappointed."—Murray's Canada, vol. iii., p. 330. "Parmi les sauvages errans, et qui ne cultivent point du tout la terre, lorsque la chasse et la pêche leur manquent, leur unique ressource est une espèce de mousse, qui croît sur certains rochers, et que nos Français ont nommée Tripe de Roche; rien n'est plus insipide que ce mets, lequel n'a pas même beaucoup de substance, c'est bien là être réduit au pur nécessaire pour ne pas mourir de faim."—Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 24.

167

See Appendix, No. XXX. (vol. II.)

168

See Appendix, No. XXXI. (vol. II.)

169

"The Swedes gave the name of Indian hemp to Apocynum cannabinum, because the Indians apply it to the same purposes as the Europeans do hemp; for the stalk may be divided into filaments, and is easily prepared. This plant grows in abundance in old corn grounds, in woods, on hills, and on high glades. The Indians make ropes of this Apocynum, which the Swedes buy, and employ them as bridles, and for nets. These ropes are stronger, and kept longer in water than such as were made of common hemp. The Swedes commonly got fourteen yards of these ropes for one piece of bread. On my journey through the country of the Iroquois, I saw the women employed in manufacturing this hemp. The plant is perennial, which renders the annual planting of it altogether unnecessary. Out of the root and stalk of this plant, when it is fresh, comes a white, milky juice, which is somewhat poisonous. Sometimes the fishing tackle of the Indian consists entirely of this hemp."—Kalm, in Pinkerton, vol xiii., p. 544.

170

See Appendix, No. XXXII. (vol. II.)

171

Buffon, Hist. Nat., tom. ix., p. 13, 203; Acosta, Hist., lib. iv., cap. xxxiv.; Pisonis Hist., p. 6; Herrera, Dec. IV., lib. iv., cap. i.; lib. x., cap. xiii.

172

Canada has not the fine natural pastures of Ireland, England, Holland, and other countries enjoying a cool, moist, and equable climate. Artificial grasses, now a most valuable branch of British husbandry, are peculiarly important in Canada, where so large a quantity of hay should be stored for winter use. They are also most useful in preparing the soil for grain crops, but have the disadvantage of requiring to stand the severe winter, so trying to all except annual plants. Clover, which is supposed to yield three times the produce of natural grass, grows luxuriantly; but in the second year its roots are often found to have been destroyed by frost. For this reason, it is necessary to have recourse to the species named Timothy, which is extremely hardy, and will set at defiance even a Canadian winter.—Talbot, vol. i., p. 301, Gould, p. 67.

173

"In the western parts of Lower Canada, and throughout Upper Canada, where it is customary for travelers to carry their own bedding with them, these skins are very generally made use of for the purpose of sleeping upon. For upward of two months we scarcely ever had any other bed than one of the skins spread on the floor and a blanket to each person. The skins are dressed by the Indians with the hair on, and they are rendered by a peculiar process as pliable as cloth. When the buffalo is killed in the beginning of the winter, at which time he is fenced against the cold, the hair resembles very much that of a black bear; it is then long, straight, and of a blackish color; but when the animal is killed in the summer, the hair is short and curly, and of a light brown color, owing to its being scorched by the rays of the sun."—Weld, p. 313.

174

Charlevoix says, "que la peau, quoique très forte, devient souple et moëlleuse comme le meilleur chamois. Les sauvages en font des boucliers, qui sont très légers, et que les bals de fusil ne perçent pas aisément."—Tom. v., p. 193.

175

The height of the domesticated reindeer is about three feet; of the wild ones, four. It lives to the age of sixteen years. The reindeer is a native of the northern regions only. In America it does not extend further south than Canada. The Indians often kill numbers for the sake of their tongue only; at other times they separate the flesh from the bones, and preserve it by drying it in the smoke. The fat they sell to the English, who use it for frying instead of butter. The skins, also, are an article of extensive commerce with the English.—Rees's Cyclopædia, art. Cervus Tarandus.

Charlevoix says that the Canadian caribou differs in nothing from the Renne of Buffon except in the color of its skin, which is brown or reddish.—Tom. v., p. 191. La Hontan calls the caribou a species of wild ass; and Charlevoix says that its form resembles that of the ass, but that it at least equals the stag in agility.

176

Pennant is persuaded that the stag is not a native of America, and considers the deer known in that country by the name of stag as a distinct species. The American stag is the Cervus Canadensis of Erxleben. The Americans hunt and shoot those animals not so much for the sake of the flesh as of the fat, which serves as tallow in making candles, and the skins, which they dispose of to the Hudson's Bay Company. They are caught principally in the inland parts, near the vicinity of the lakes.—Rees's Cyclopædia, art. Cervus Elaphus.

Charlevoix says that "le Cerf en Canada est absolument le même qu'en France, peut être communément un peu plus grand."—Tom. v., p. 189.

177

The fallow deer in America have been introduced there from Europe; for the animal called the American fallow is of a very different kind, and is peculiar to the New Continent. This, the Cervus Virginianus, inhabits all the provinces south of Canada.—Rees's Cyclopædia, art. Cervus Virginianus.

178

See Appendix, No. XXXIII. (vol. II.)

179

See Appendix, No. XXXIV. (vol. II.)

180

See Appendix, No. XXXV. (vol. II.)

181

See Appendix, No. XXXVI. (vol. II.)

182

See Appendix, No. XXXVII. (vol. II.)

183

See Appendix, No. XXXVIII. (vol. II.)

184

See Appendix, No. XXXIX. (vol. II.)

185

See Appendix, No. XL. (vol. II.)

186

"While we were roaming along the shore of Lake Ontario we caught a species of tortoise (testudo picta), which was a gayly-colored shell, and I carried it a day's journey in the carriage, and then turned it out, to see whether, as I was told, it would know its way back to Lake Ontario. I am bound to admit that its instinct on this occasion did not fail, for it made directly for a ravine, in the bottom of which was a stream that would lead it in time to the Genesee River, and this would carry it to its native lake if it escaped destruction at the Falls below Rochester, where the celebrated diver, Sam Patch, perished, after he had succeeded in throwing himself with impunity down several other great waterfalls. There is a fresh-water tortoise in Europe (Terrapena Europea) found in Hungary, Prussia, and Silesia, as far north as latitude 50° to 52°. It also occurs near Bordeaux, and in the north of Italy, 44° and 45° north latitude, which precisely corresponds with the latitude of Lake Ontario."—Lyell's Travels in North America, vol. i., p. 25.

187

"To the Malacodermous division belongs the remarkable genus Lampyris, which contains the insects commonly called glow-worms. The substance from which the luminous property results has been the subject of frequent experiment and observation. It is obviously under the control of the animal, which, when approached, may frequently be observed to diminish or put out its light. The only species with which we are acquainted in British America is Lampyris corusca. It occurs in Canada, and has been taken at least as far north as latitude 54°. It was originally described by Simmons as a native of Finland and Russia, on the authority of Uddman, but has not since been found there."—Murray, vol. iii., p. 277.

"We saw numerous yellow butterflies, very like a British species. Sometimes forty of them clustering on a small spot resembled a plot of primroses, and as they rose altogether, and flew off slowly on every side, it was like the play of a beautiful fountain."—Lyell's America, vol. i., p. 25.

188

"Driven by the European populations toward the northwest of North America,[De Tocqueville calculated that along the borders of the United States, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, extending a distance of more than 1200 miles, as the bird flies, the whites advance every year at a mean rate of seventeen miles; and he truly observes that there is a grandeur and solemnity in this gradual and continuous march of the European race toward the Rocky Mountains. He compares it to "a deluge of men rising, unabatedly, and daily driven onward by the hand of God."—Democracy in America, vol. ii., cap. x., §4; Lyell, vol. ii., p. 77] the savage tribes are returning, by a singular destiny, to expire on the same shore where they landed, in unknown ages, to take possession of America. In the Iroquois language, the Indians gave themselves the appellation of Men of Always (Ongoueonoue); these men of always have passed away, and the stranger will soon have left to the lawful heirs of a whole world nothing but the mold of their graves."—Chateaubriand's Travels in America (Eng. trans.), vol. ii., p. 93.

189

See Appendix, No. XLI. (vol. II.)

190

See Appendix, No. XLII. (vol. II.)

191

"Generally speaking, the American races of mankind were characterized by a want of domestic animals, and this had considerable influence on their domestic life." (Cosmos, note, vol. ii., p. 481.) Contrasting the Bedouin with the Red Indian, Volney observes, "the American savage is, on the contrary, a hunter and a butcher, who has had daily occasion to kill and slay, and in every animal has beheld nothing but a fugitive prey, which he must be quick to seize. He has thus acquired a roaming, wasteful, and ferocious disposition; has become an animal of the same kind with the wolf and tiger; has united in bands or troops, but not into organized societies."

192

On ne prit pas d'abord les Américains pour des hommes, mais pour des orang-otangs, pour des grands singes, qu'on pouvoit détruire sans remords et sans reproche. Un pape fit une Bulle originale dans laquelle il déclara qu' ayant envie de fonder des Evêchés dans les plus riches contrées de l'Amérique, il plaisoit à lui et au Saint Esprit de reconnoitre les Américains pour des hommes véritables; de sorte que, sans cette décision d'une Italien, les habitans du Nouveau Monde seroient encore maintenant, aux yeux des fidèles, une race d'animaux équivoques.... Qui auroit cru que malgré cette sentence de Rome, on eut agité violemment au conseil de Lima, 1583, si les Américains avoient assez d'esprit pour être admis aux sacrements de l'Eglise. Plusieurs évêques persistèrent à les leur refuser pendant que les Jésuites faisoient communier tous les jours leurs Indiens esclaves au Paraquai, afin de les accoûtumer, disoient-ils, à la discipline, et pour les détourner de l'horrible coutume de se nourrir de chair humain.—Récherches Philosophiques sur les Américains, De Pauw, tom. i., p. 35.