Wacousta | Page 6

country we have selected for the theatre of our labours, the
garrisons are both few in number and weak in strength, and evidence of
cultivation is seldom to be found at any distance in the interior; so that
all beyond a certain extent of clearing, continued along the banks of the
lakes and rivers, is thick, impervious, rayless forest, the limits of which
have never yet been explored, perhaps, by the natives themselves.
Such being the general features of the country even at the present day,
it will readily be comprehended how much more wild and desolate was
the character they exhibited as far back as the middle of the last century,
about which period our story commences. At that epoch, it will be
borne in mind, what we have described as being the United States were
then the British colonies of America dependent on the mother-country;
while the Canadas, on the contrary, were, or had very recently been,
under the dominion of France, from whom they had been wrested after
a long struggle, greatly advanced in favour of England by the glorious
battle fought on the plains of Abraham, near Quebec, and celebrated for
the defeat of Montcalm and the death of Wolfe.
The several attempts made to repossess themselves of the strong hold
of Quebec having, in every instance, been met by discomfiture and

disappointment, the French, in despair, relinquished the contest, and, by
treaty, ceded their claims to the Canadas,--an event that was hastened
by the capitulation of the garrison of Montreal, commanded by the
Marquis de Vaudreuil, to the victorious arms of General Amherst. Still,
though conquered as a people, many of the leading men in the country,
actuated by that jealousy for which they were remarkable, contrived to
oppose obstacles to the quiet possession of a conquest by those whom
they seemed to look upon as their hereditary enemies; and in
furtherance of this object, paid agents, men of artful and intriguing
character, were dispersed among the numerous tribes of savages, with a
view of exciting them to acts of hostility against their conquerors. The
long and uninterrupted possession, by the French, of those countries
immediately bordering on the hunting grounds and haunts of the
natives, with whom they carried on an extensive traffic in furs, had
established a communionship of interest between themselves and those
savage and warlike people, which failed not to turn to account the
vindictive views of the former. The whole of the province of Upper
Canada at that time possessed but a scanty population, protected in its
most flourishing and defensive points by stockade forts; the chief
object of which was to secure the garrisons, consisting each of a few
companies, from any sudden surprise on the part of the natives, who,
although apparently inclining to acknowledge the change of neighbours,
and professing amity, were, it was well known, too much in the interest
of their old friends the French, and even the French Canadians
themselves, not to be regarded with the most cautious distrust.
These stockade forts were never, at any one period, nearer to each other
than from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles, so that, in the
event of surprise or alarm, there was little prospect of obtaining
assistance from without. Each garrison, therefore, was almost wholly
dependent on its own resources; and, when surrounded unexpectedly by
numerous bands of hostile Indians, had no other alternative than to hold
out to the death. Capitulation was out of the question; for, although the
wile and artifice of the natives might induce them to promise mercy,
the moment their enemies were in their power promises and treaties
were alike broken, and indiscriminate massacre ensued.
Communication by water was, except during a period of profound

peace, almost impracticable; for, although of late years the lakes of
Canada have been covered with vessels of war, many of them, as we
have already remarked, of vast magnitude, and been the theatres of
conflicts that would not have disgraced the salt waters of ocean itself, at
the period to which our story refers the flag of England was seen to
wave only on the solitary mast of some ill-armed and ill-manned
gunboat, employed rather for the purpose of conveying despatches
from fort to fort, than with any serious view to acts either of aggression
or defence.
In proportion as the colonies of America, now the United States,
pushed their course of civilisation westward, in the same degree did the
numerous tribes of Indians, who had hitherto dwelt more seaward,
retire upon those of their own countrymen, who, buried in vast and
impenetrable forests, had seldom yet seen the face of the European
stranger; so that, in the end, all the more central parts of those
stupendous wilds became doubly peopled. Hitherto, however, that