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NEW BRUNSWICK.

CHAPTER I.

REMARKS ON BRITISH AMERICA.

BRITISH AMERICA comprises a part of the vast continent situated between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The discovery of a number of the West India Islands was made by Columbus in 1492; but the great continent itself was unknown to Europeans until 1497, when it was visited by Cabot, a British navigator, while seeking a Western passage to India. Although Columbus was the first to discover land upon the coast of America, the name of the continent was given by Americus Vespucius, who succeeded the first Western navigator, and, by his address, obtained an honour which was justly due to his predecessor.

At a period when the nations of Europe had greatly enriched themselves by their industry and commerce, and the ambition of their sovereigns could scarcely be gratified except by encroachments made upon the dominions of each other, the discovery of America was to them the discovery of a New World, and England, France, and Spain began to vie with each other in taking possession of and colonising the newlyfound continent.

The discovery of land in the Northern Hemisphere seemed like a new creation. The animals and plants, the climates, the oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes, were found to be different from those of civilised Europe. The heavens displayed new wonders to the astronomer, and

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all nature presented itself under forms with which the early voyagers were unacquainted. Gold and silver had been brought from the mountains; while the size and strength of the timber, the fertility of the soil, and the abundance of fish in the waters, filled the minds of the first adventurers with wonder and delight.

The whole of the immense continent, wherever it was explored, was found to be occupied by numerous tribes of human beings, who were also unlike the inhabitants of Europe. The title of these tribes to the soil had never been disputed; but they were now to be driven back, step by step, until their names and places of abode should nowhere be known. The treachery, injustice, and cruelty with which these simple aborigines were treated by the early Colonists, forms some of the darkest pages in the history of the world; and although their final release of the lands of their forefathers, and their almost utter annihilation, are among those momentous events permitted by Providence for the extension of human industry and happiness, and for the worship of the true God, it is the bounden duty of every civilised nation to lessen their pains, and to bring into peace and contentment the remnants of the tribes they have dispossessed of their unalienable rights, and to whom, in return, they have conveyed the poison of disease and the evils of intemperance.

The spirit of colonisation had prevailed nearly three centuries, in which period there were numerous conflicts between England and France for territory, which each power claimed as its own. In the same time, British and other European emigrants and their descendants. had established themselves along an extensive line of the Atlantic coast, until they gained a power that refused to be restrained by the laws and usages of their forefathers. Revolt from the European Governments commenced. The British Colonists took up arms against the mother-country, and won their independence. Their example has since been imitated by the inhabitants of South America, where the struggles to throw off the control of foreign sovereignty have scarcely terminated. The Revolutionary War in the British Colonies reflects but little credit upon the British Parliament or the Colonists in America; it has, nevertheless, rendered that part of the continent which still belongs to Great Britain more secure than it would have been if

such a revolution had not taken place; for the great number of loyalists that removed from the revolted States to Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, have been succeeded by a population that is firmly attached to the Crown and laws of the Empire.

British America includes all that part of the Northern Continent which was not given up by treaty to the Republic of the United States at the close of the Revolutionary War, and also all the territory discovered and occupied by British subjects since that period. This region embraces more than one-third of the entire continent. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, and extends westward to the 141st degree of longitude, where it meets the territory of Russia, as settled by treaty in 1825. Its northern limits approach nearly the 70th parallel of latitude, and all the islands in the Arctic Sea belong to England by right of discovery. The Atlantic Ocean forms its eastern limits, from the Straits of Fury and Hecla, in latitude 70° North, to the mouth of the St. Croix, in latitude 45° 5' North. The islands along the coast also belong to Great Britain. The southern boundary of this immense territory runs along an irregular line from the St. Croix to the St. Regis on the St. Lawrence, sixty miles above Montreal. From thence the river and the great chain of Canadian lakes separate the British from the American Possessions. From the head of Lake Superior, the line runs to the north-western angle of the Lake of the Woods, in latitude 49° 20" North, and thence across the continent to the Rocky Mountains, beyond which it has not been certainly determined. The British Possessions in North America are therefore situated between the parallels of 41° 47′′ and 78° North latitude, and between the 52nd and 141st of West longitude, and include an area of 4,000,000 square miles. They embrace the Provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the regions of Hudson's Bay and Labrador, and the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward's Island, and Anticosti.*

The claims of Great Britain to certain parts of this region have recently been disputed by the American Government. The contention

• "An Historical and Descriptive Account of British America," by Hugh Murray, 3 vols. 16mo, Edinburgh 1839, vol. i. pp. 18, 19.

that existed with reference to a tract of wilderness country situated between New Brunswick and the State of Maine, and which was likely to result in a war between the two nations, was settled by treaty, through the mediation of Lord Ashburton, at Washington, on the 9th of August, 1842. This subject will again be adverted to in another chapter.

The claims of the Americans to a part of the Oregon Territory, situated west of the Rocky Mountains, still remain unsettled; and the longer they continue unadjusted, the greater will be the difficulties in establishing a boundary between the two nations. An example of this kind has been afforded in the delay of fixing the line between the State of Maine and the British Provinces, by which the Americans have gained a large tract of excellent land upon a comparatively recent claim.

The climates of the northern parts of British America are too severe for agriculture, and vast tracts are buried beneath perpetual snows. These northern regions are nevertheless valuable for the furs they produce, and the excellent fisheries along their coasts. In the southern districts of this great territory, the climates are mild and the soil fertile. Almost the entire surface of the earth is still covered with dense forests, which often reach to the tops of the mountains, and exhibit all their primeval features, except where fires have swept over the surface; and even there, the soil is soon replenished with a new growth of forest trees.

Along the coasts, rivers, and lakes, the hand of industry has cleared the timber from large tracts of the virgin soil; and there are wide savannahs, prairies, and bogs, which produce chiefly the grasses, ferns, and sphagneous plants, that supply food for herds of elk, reindeer, and other wild animals still thriving unmolested in their native deserts. But these tracts are very limited in comparison with the immense districts still covered with wood of gigantic growth. On this wide area civilisation advances but slowly, and century after century will pass away before it will reach the limits of the productive soil.

The light bark-canoe of the Indian is the only vessel that navigates many a noble stream; and, even in the Province of New Brunswick, steamboats of considerable burden may ply upon rivers, the shores of which have never been granted by the Government, but still display

the wild and unchanged scenery of a country where the sounds of a European language are never heard, nor the soil disturbed by the labour of man.

Although the mountains of North America are much inferior in altitude to those of the South, there is no part of the world where nature presents more sublime and beautiful scenery. The mighty St. Lawrence, with a chain of inland seas-the St. John, that nearly crosses the peninsula between the Bay of Fundy and Quebec, and other rivers of the inhabited parts of British America, whether considered as channels of navigation or as objects of beauty, always call forth the admiration of strangers, and the scenery along their banks is peculiarly rich and imposing. The Canadian lakes are the largest and deepest in the world. Lake Superior is 360 miles in length, 140 miles at its greatest breadth, and 1500 miles in circumference; and it has been estimated by Capt. Bayfield, that its surface is 627 feet above the level of the Atlantic Ocean. The smallest lakes of the great chain are capable of affording space for the movements of large fleets; and, like the ocean, they are tossed into lofty waves, that never cease to roll upon their fertile borders.

Then there is the great Cataract of Niagara, where the surplus waters of the great inland basins are poured over a stupendous precipice, producing a fall that far surpasses any other on the face of the globe. Next in magnitude is the great fall of the St. John. The Falls of Montmorenci, near Quebec, and those of the Nepisiquit, in New Brunswick, although inferior in magnitude, are sublime and beautiful objects. The tides of the Bay of Fundy, which at one place rise no less than 78 feet, are also remarkable. The Grand Banks of Newfoundland, which have evidently been produced by the gulf-stream that runs along the Atlantic coast, and affords the most extensive fishery ever known, may also be reckoned among the wonders of the New World.

The accounts given by the native savages and early voyagers of the numerous and valuable productions of the country, and its great natural curiosities, were well calculated to infuse a spirit of enterprise in the European nations, who all seemed eager to reap the advantages offered by the discovery of a new continent. But the ambition of these powers

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