and in which the French were defeated with the loss of the town and colony.
General Wolfe took possession of the Isle d’Orleans, and made himself master of Point Levi. The Marquis de Montcalm, upon the heights by the falls of Montmorency, with his army in a fortified position, heroically received the attack of General Wolfe and drove him back, with great loss to the English army. On this occasion, General Wolfe embarked his men in the night, took advantage of the darkness to pass the town, sailed up the St. Lawrence, and disembarked at the place that is now called Wolfe’s cove. He mounted the rock with a great deal of difficulty, and then put his army at the break of day in order of battle on the Heights of Abraham. To assist the town, and drive the English from the heights of Abraham, the Marquis de Montcalm found it necessary to leave his impregnable position at Montmorency, and to cross, by a bridge secured by double piers, over the river St. Charles. He now, with Quebec in his rear, drew up his army upon the heights in good order and gave battle, the result of which was unfortunate to him and his government.
The English engineers make use of bricks which are burned in England, for building the casemates of the fortification. A thousand of these bricks cost the government, including transportation, two pounds ten shillings! The reason they give is, that the bricks burned here, crack in the winter. I rather believe that the preference of these foreign bricks has some other reason.
The arsenal is a large, yet not bomb-proof building, in which there are more than twenty thousand muskets, and some useful pistols. We also saw here several very handsomely ornamented single and double-barrel guns, which are kept for the purpose of making presents to Indian chiefs.
The upper part of the town is very old and angular, the streets are muddy, and many not paved. Both towns contain about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The Catholic cathedral is quite a handsome building; it has three altars, and paintings of but little value. On account of the coldness of the climate the church is floored. The inside of the church is divided like English churches, into aisles. It is near the seminary, an old French building, with massive walls, having four corners like a bastion. In this seminary resides the Bishop of Quebec. We had already been introduced to Bishop Plessis, in the house of Sir Francis Burton, and found him a very agreeable and well-informed man. He is the son of a butcher of Montreal, and has elevated himself by his own merit. A few years ago he travelled through England, France, and Italy, where he received the title of Archbishop of Canada, from the pope. The English government in the mean time, took into consideration, whether they would recognise his title, because he would, as archbishop, rank in the Canadian parliament before the English episcopal bishop. We paid our respects to this worthy man. He received us kindly, surrounded by many young priests. His secretary showed us the building and the garden. The scholars had a vacation, and the house was deserted. They are not all destined for the priesthood; the most respectable people of this country have their sons brought up in this institution, in which they receive a very good education. The Catholic clergy are very much respected here, and they are said to deserve it, on account of the information they possess, and the benefactions they bestow. The English government left them all the emoluments and prerogatives which they possessed before the colony was conquered. On this account, the clergy are obedient to the government, and exert their best influence over the people in favour of the government. In the seminary is a small philosophical apparatus. The natural history cabinet is not very rich; the best part of it is a collection of East India shells. The garden of the seminary is rather large, and serves as a fruit and vegetable garden, &c.
Nine miles from Quebec is the waterfall of Montmorency, to which we travelled, escorted by Colonel Duchesnay. The road passed through the palace gate. This is the gate where General Arnold made his attack, when he stormed the place in December, 1775, and was wounded in the leg. His column had already pressed into the city, and would certainly have taken the town, if General Montgomery, who attacked the lower town from the side of the St. Lawrence, had met him at the same time. This, however, was impossible, as General Montgomery fell, and after his death his division fell into confusion, and retreated. An English artillerist, returning to the only cannon placed there, which had already been deserted, set a match to it, killed this hero with twelve men, and thus saved the town.
We crossed the river St. Charles over a long well built wooden bridge, and continued our journey partly on a road cut through the rock, having the St. Lawrence always in view. The neighbourhood is well cultivated; several farm-houses have a very ancient appearance. The handsomest of them belongs to the seminary at Quebec, and serves the priests as a pleasure ground. About the middle of the road is the village Beaufort, where one has a very good prospect of the city, the right bank of the St. Lawrence, the Isle d’Orleans, and down the stream. We left the carriage at the river Montmorency, over which a wooden bridge is thrown, and walked nearly to where the Montmorency empties itself into the St. Lawrence. At that place are the falls, two hundred and seventy-five feet high. The surrounding country is extraordinarily beautiful. Near the waterfall is a cave, where the soil is either sunk, or washed away by the water; it is a narrow deep crack in the earth, which you cannot behold without shuddering. When the water is high, there are three falls. The middle one precipitates directly down, the two others cross over the middle one. The drought, however, of the summer of 1825, and a canal, which drains the water from the river to drive saw and other mills, has lessened the quantity of water in the river, so that only one of the three falls has water, and instead of seeing the other two, you perceive the bare rock. This rock is slate. At Quebec and Point Levi, it is limestone; in Quebec it is interspersed with silicious crystals, hence its name Cape Diamond. The stones of Point Levi are used for building houses and fortifications; all copings are made of this stone. Most of the trees in this neighbourhood are cedar. Below the falls of St. Lawrence they have constructed a little harbour by means of two piers, whence they trade in boards on account of its nearness to the sawmills. About a mile and a half above the great falls, in the same river, are others. The channel at these falls is very narrow between the rocks, and formed like stairs; on this account, they are called the natural stairs; resembling very much, though in miniature, the falls of Trenton, near Utica, and are situated in a thick forest of fir, pine, and cedar trees. The road from the bridge to this place, and hence to the turnpike, is a very obscure footpath through the woods.
On the second and last day of my sojourn at Quebec, I went to the parade, escorted by Colonels Durnford and Duchesnay. I was pleasantly taken by surprise, when I found the whole garrison under arms. The commanding officers wished to show me their corps. On the right wing stood two companies of artillery, then a company of sappers and miners, after this, the sixty-eighth, and lastly, the seventy-first regiment of infantry. The last is a light regiment, and consists of Scotch Highlanders; it appeared to be in particularly good condition. This regiment is not dressed in the Highland uniform, which was only worn by some of the buglemen. It has a very good band of buglemen, who wear curious caps, made of blue woollen, bordered below with red and white stripes. The troops defiled twice before me.
On the 6th of September we sat out in the steam-boat for Montreal. Sir Francis sent us his carriage, which was very useful to the ladies. On the dock stood a company of the sixty-eighth regiment, with their flag displayed as a guard of honour, which I immediately dismissed. The fortification saluted us with twenty-one guns; this caused a very fine echo from the mountains. Night soon set in, but we had sufficient light to take leave of the magnificent vicinity of Quebec.
The journey, of course, was more tedious in ascending than in descending the river. Fortunately the tide was in our favour during the night, until we passed the rapids of Richelieu. In the morning we stopt at Trois Rivières to take in wood; we then went slowly on. I employed this leisure in writing, but was often interrupted. In this boat they have four meals daily, and at every repast they drove me from my writing place. In the morning at seven o’clock, they ring the bell for the passengers to rise and dress; at eight o’clock breakfast is served, which consists of tea, coffee, sausages, ham, beefsteak, and eggs; at twelve, they take luncheon; at four, dine; at eight, take tea; and an hour before every meal they set the table. The weather was cloudy nearly the whole day; it began to rain towards evening, and continued raining through the night.
At Sorel, or William Henry, we came
