liant, and I was forcibly impressed with a sense of God's providence, for the benefit of his creature man, especially when travelling upon the waters, when his journeys must be pursued by night as well as by day. And here let me observe, that, during travel, the spirits are renewed, as well as the body invigorated. The energies of the mind, so often latent, through inactivity, are called into action, by dangers and difficulties, which it requires unremitting watchfulness to steer through or to shun; and the habitual inattention under which, safe within the walls of cities, an accustomed face is beheld without notice, and a next-door neighbour passes by unknown, is necessarily exchanged for the active exercise of observation and inquiry. In another point of view too, occasional journey, especially into foreign countries, creating a total change of scene and habits, may be said to lengthen the sense of existence, if they do not actually prolong life. So many changes of habit occur, and such a variety of unusual circumstances takes place, that the recollection of a few months, passed abroad, seems equal, in the memory, to the lapse of years spent in the unvarying monotony of home. The sublime operations of nature, which are rarely attended to amidst the incessant occupations of domestic care, force themselves upon a traveller's observation, disengaged as he is from the daily concerns of common life. He now feels his dependance upon the varying atmosphere, and remarks, perbaps for the first time, the subservience of the celestial luminaries to the occasions of life. When the moon rises to illuminate his path, as the sun sets in the west, which it does with such evident co-operation, whenever the moon is at full, he can hardly fail to be touched with admiration and gratitude at the splendid provision of which he stands so much in need.-He can but feel, with conscious elevation, the dignity of his being, as a creature of God, when Seas roll to waft him, suns to light him rise; Yet is there ample occasion, on the face of nature, for humbling considerations of the littleness of man, and all his works, in comparison of the wide spread surface of the planet we inhabit. Inadequate must needs be the ideas of a man who, confined for life within the streets of cities, has never seen an extensive horizon, or beheld those majestic features of the earth, a mountain, or a lake-no man that has not travelled a day's journey on foot, nor ever lost his way in track less wilds, when spent with hunger and fatigue, can have a competent idea of the spaces that intervene between town and town, sometimes between one human habitation aud another. We must have seen a good deal of the globe we inhabit to form a just notion of the overwhelming extent of its surface, in proportion to the pigmy race, to whom animal nature has been subjected, by the Creator of all things. And, after all, the imagination is unavoidably confounded, amidst the boundless sands which occupy the internal parts of Africa and Asia. It has often revived my own humility to span their extent upon the maps in my study. And when I compare the desert of Zaarah, for instance, with the island of Great Britain, and perceive that in its vacant spaces there would be room for ten such islands, with all its millions of civilized inhabitants, I am ready to exclaim, with Job Lord! what is man, that thou shouldest set thine heart upon hith! And try him every moment? Having passed Burlington, the capital of Vermont, in the night, next morning, after breakfast, we were called up to see the British flag flying at Illinois (Isle aux Noix as the French call it) and his majesty's crown over the gate-way, at the stairs leading to the officers' house, a handsome building, with rather a fantastic air, from being built of squared logs painted in alternate stripes of white and grey; green varandas, as light as gossamer, in the centre and at each end; the whole surmounted with a heavy pediment, and a tinned cupola, the openings of which are glazed, to make it a comfortable look out. I observed nothing particular in the fortifications at Illinois; but a sweet little cottage struck my eye, as we passed, connected with a string of convenient out-houses, a little garden before them, running to the water's edge, with covered seats, of elegant simplicity, in which, in all probability, some British officer, and the fair companion of his voluntary exile, indulge their recollection of happier auspices and a forsaken home. As we ran by the place, a boat put off to exchange papers, with three young marines, in Scotch bonnets and trim uniforms, to whom our captain threw a rope; but so little dexterous were they in managing it, that they had like to have overset the boat before they reached us. They were, however, insensible of their danger, and I remember one of them showed a very fine set of teeth, as he laughed with the byestanders at his own absurdity. Enough-perhaps too much of Illinois. By noon we reached St. John's, of which still less may serve, and we did but drive through it for La Prairie-a considerable town on the St. Lawrence, nine miles above Montreal. The rest of the company, among whom were several ladies from Carolina, crossed directly over, in a drizzling rain; but I, being no longer impatient of delay, as this is a considerable town of long standing, with a large French church, and other public establishments, stayed over night, and slept, though it was midsummer, under I know not how many blankets, in a bed close hung with worsted curtains, in flaming red. I was now ready to doubt whether it ever was what we call hot, in Canada; but I had occasion afterward to change my mind upon that score, as well as some others, as will be seen in due time. Rapid travellers are apt to be hasty in forming their conclusions, of which, in course, plodding critics take notice at their leisure, without making one grain of allowance for the innumerable perplexities and contrarieties through which we have to pick our way in the research of truth. Next morning the sun glittered upon the tinned spires and plated roofs of Montreal, many of them being sheathed with sheet-iron. I was told that the passage by water was tedious, and that a waggon would convey me much quicker to the ferry opposite the town. I went on accordingly to Longeuil, and crossed over from thence, in a canoe, which was managed by two diminutive Canadians, with Indian paddles. MONTREAL shows from the water like an old country sea-port, with long ranges of high walls and stone houses, overstopped here and there by churches and convents, with something that resembles a continued quay, though it is nothing more than a high bank, to which large vessels can lie close enough for the purposes of loading and unloading, in consequence of the unusual depth of water at the very edge of the current, which sets close inshore from an opposite island, and a string of rocks and shoals, which obstruct it on the opposite side. I took a hasty dinner, glanced at the public buildings which I had seen before, and walked the streets till night, when the principal avenue, in which is the cathedral, was lighted up, before dark, in the English manner, the twilight being almost as long here as it is there. I then took up my lodging onboard the steam-boat, for Quebec, which was to sail next morning at three o'clock; for I had now a mind to see in how short a time one might make a total change of religion, language, Voyage down the St. Lawrence. 13 government, and climate, in quitting the metropolis of the United States for that of the British provinces. It was now but the eighth day from my leaving Philadelphia, and there was a chance that I might reach Quebec on the ninth (July 8th,) the current of the St. Lawrence being often so powerful, that, when the wind favours, this passage of 170 miles is sometimes made in seventeen hours, in sea-phrase ten knots an hour, arriving at Quebec, in summer-time, by sunset the same day, VOYAGE DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE. I was not now in luck, if I may be allowed the phrase, or to speak with becoming dignity of a voyage upon the St. Lawrence, the wind was right a-head, and blew strong from the north-east, with occasional squalls of rain through the day and the following night; and I was glad to come off with two tedious and wearisome nights, spent at sea, to all usual intents and purpose, of seafaring life, such as incommodities of every kind, apprehension of danger, disinclination to stir hand or foot, and irremediable delay. But I am anticipating events, and ought, perhaps, to have kept the reader in that happy state of suspense under which we usually advance to the most dangerous or disagreeable adventures, without apprehension or reluctance. First, then, of the first. After passing the night under an incessant trampling and rummaging overhead, the boatmen being at work all night, stowing away heavy freight, and clearing the decks of luggage, for the steam-boats of the St. Lawrence are as much used for the conveyance of freight as of passengers, I awoke an hour or two after day-light, some leagues below Montreal. The great church of Varennes, with its two steeples, was distinctly visible, together with the isolated mountain which rises near Boucherville, in the midst of surrounding plains: but every other object was at such an immeasurable distance, for river scenery, that I was much disappointed of the boasted appearance of towns, and villages, and scattered hamlets, upon the banks of the St. Lawrence-said to exceed so far, in use and beauty, the scanty improvements upon the North River. It is true the occasional spires of the parish-churches would be necessarily beautiful, if, as they are described by fanciful travellers, (fatigued by the repetition of substantial mills and meeting-houses in the United States,) they were actually seen peeping over trees and woods: but the trees are all cut away round Canadian settlements, and the unvarying habitations, stand in endless rows, at equal distances, like so many sentry boxes or soldier's tents, without a tree, or even a fence of any kind, to shelter them; instead of being irregularly interspersed, as with us, among fields and woods, surrounded with every variety of domestic accommodation, and collected every ten or twelve miles into hamlets, or trading towns, of which there are fifteen or twenty upon the North River, whilst there are but four in the like space upon the River St. Lawrence, including Quebec and Montreal. These circumstances admit of no comparison between the two rivers, and the improvements on their banks, in point of interest or effect. Still less with those of the Delaware, from Trenton to New Castle, where, in less than half the distance, beside innumerable farm-houses and country-seats, we have the cities of Trenton, Burlington, Philadelphia, and Wilmington; and the beautiful towns of Bordentown, Bristol, Chester, and New Castle; together with a like number of inland villages, in distant' perspective, literally surrounded with orchards and gardens, and frequently ornamented with modest spires, or rather cupolas; which are not to be sure so favourable to display, half concealed as they are by neighbouring woods. Yet this is the only point of view in which any comparison at all can be supported between the two countries: for it is only on the banks of its rivers that Canada pretends to any population, or improvement, whatever; whereas with us the cheering Tract and blest abode of man is scattered, more or less, over the whole surface of the soil, by hardy adventurers, who are not afraid to quit their native hearths in quest of the most distant establishments, And we have inland-towns little inferior in population to the capital of Canada. It is but fair to observe, however, that the mode of settling upon the River St. Lawrence seems pointed out by nature in this region of perennial snow. It would have been difficult for inhabitants, far removed from each other, to have kept their roads open in winter; and they must have passed the season, like so many bears sucking their paws, if they had been separated from each other by hills and hollows; but, in many places, the banks of this mighty stream would seem to have been formed, by its waters, into different levels, running parallel with its course. Upon these levels the first settlers found it convenient to establish themselves in lines, whose communication could be readily preserved. At the island of Kamouraska, some distance below that of |