The Backwoods of Canada | Page 2

there
are few, if any, that give information regarding the domestic economy

of a settler's life, sufficiently minute to prove a faithful guide to the
person on whose responsibility the whole comfort of a family
depends-- the mistress, whose department it is "to haud the house in
order."
Dr. Dunlop, it is true, has published a witty and spirited pamphlet, "The
Backwoodsman," but it does not enter into the routine of feminine
duties and employment, in a state of emigration. Indeed, a woman's pen
alone can describe half that is requisite to be told of the internal
management of a domicile in the backwoods, in order to enable the
outcoming female emigrant to form a proper judgment of the trials and
arduous duties she has to encounter.
"Forewarned, forearmed," is a maxim of our forefathers, containing
much matter in its pithy brevity; and, following its spirit, the writer of
the following pages has endeavoured to afford every possible
information to the wives and daughters of emigrants of the higher class
who contemplate seeking a home amid our Canadian wilds.
[Illustration: Peter, the Chief] Truth has been conscientiously her object
in the work, for it were cruel to write in flattering terms calculated to
deceive emigrants into the belief that the land to which they are
transferring their families, their capital, and their hopes, a land flowing
with milk and honey, where comforts and affluence may be obtained
with little exertion. She prefers honestly representing facts in their real
and true light, that the female part of the emigrant's family may be
enabled to look them firmly in the face; to find a remedy in female
ingenuity and expediency for some difficulties; and, by being properly
prepared, encounter the rest with that high-spirited cheerfulness of
which well- educated females often give extraordinary proofs. She
likewise wishes to teach them to discard every thing exclusively
pertaining to the artificial refinement of fashionable life in England;
and to point out that, by devoting the money consumed in these
incumbrances to articles of real use, which cannot be readily obtained
in Canada, they may enjoy the pleasure of superintending a pleasant,
well-ordered home. She is desirous of giving them the advantage of her
three years' experience, that they may properly apply every part of their
time, and learn to consider that every pound or pound's worth
belonging to any member of an out-coming emigrant's family, ought to
be sacredly considered as _capital_, which must make proper returns

either as the means of bringing increase in the shape of income, or,
what is still better, in healthful domestic comfort.
These exhalations in behalf of utility in preference to artificial personal
refinement, are not so needless as the English public may consider. The
emigrants to British America are no longer of the rank of life that
formerly left the shores of the British Isles. It is not only the poor
husbandmen and artisans, that move in vast bodies to the west, but it is
the enterprising English capitalist, and the once affluent landholder,
alarmed at the difficulties of establishing numerous families in
independence, in a country where every profession is overstocked, that
join the bands that Great Britain is pouring forth into these colonies! Of
what vital importance is it that the female members of these most
valuable colonists should obtain proper information regarding the
important duties they are undertaking; that they should learn
beforehand to brace their minds to the task, and thus avoid the
repinings and discontent that is apt to follow unfounded expectations
and fallacious hopes!
It is a fact not universally known to the public, that British officers and
their families are usually denizens of the backwoods; and as great
numbers of unattached officers of every rank have accepted grants of
land in Canada, they are the pioneers of civilization in the wilderness,
and their families, often of delicate nurture and honourable descent, are
at once plunged into all the hardships attendant on the rough life of a
bush-settler. The laws that regulate the grants of lands, which enforce a
certain time of residence, and certain settlement duties to be performed,
allow no claims to absentees when once the land is drawn. These laws
wisely force a superiorly-educated man with resources of both property
and intellect, to devote all his energies to a certain spot of uncleared
land. It may easily be supposed that no persons would encounter these
hardships who have not a young family to establish in the healthful
ways of independence. This family renders the residence of such a head
still more valuable to the colony; and the half-pay officer, by thus
leading the advanced guard of civilization, and bringing into these
rough districts gentle and well-educated females, who soften and
improve all around them by mental refinements, is serving his