Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century.
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Preparation were immediately made for detaching a portion; but,
as the road to St. Anne's, if road it could be called, lay along a
beach, passable only at low water, and obstructed, here and there
by broken masses of rocks, it was found necessary to sent the
greater part of the detachment, with the baggage, &c., by water.
The next moderate day, accordingly, the grenadier company, and the
band, under Captain D. and two other officers, sailed for St.
Anne's with a fleet of fishing-boats, and soon established
themselves in more comfortable quarters. Mrs. B. likewise flitted
from her crowded and comfortless domicile at Cape Chatte, and took
up her quarters in the neat and nicely-furnished house of M.
Sasseville at St. Anne's. The bay to Cape Chatte is a small semicircular bay, with a smooth gravelly beach, lying between two rocky points that terminate in low reefs stretching out to seaward, and situated about two miles east of the bold rocky headland from which it derives its name. Into its western end runs a small river, from which the inhabitants of this peaceful village procure a considerable quantity of fine salmon. This, with the abundant supply of other fish taken in the bay, a few potatoes, and an odd barrel of flour procured from St. Anne's, form almost the whole subsistence of these simple people, who, to use a Yankee phrase, are "as healthy as fishes," having no doctor amongst them, "barrin" the mother of all the Roys, who practises the "healing art" with considerable skill and success. Having been laid up myself during the greater part of my sojourn at Cape Chatte with severe pain of my chest, the old lady, who compassionated my sufferings excessively, insisted one night on prescribing for me a very soothing and palatable potion, which I discovered, after I had drank it (by a long wick in the bottom of the bowl), to have been the liquefaction of a dipped candle in boiling milk, suitable sweetened with maple sugar. The settlement is composed of eight or ten families, whose shanties and barns are scattered along the low bank above the beach. To the rear is a dense Tamarack swamp, skirting the unexplored forest, which is bounded to the southward by a chain of lofty hills, from which descend the Cape Chatte, St. Anne'e and other small rivers. The woods and hills abound in game, and the moose, caribou (or rein-deer), bears, wolves and other wild animals, are more numerous, from the paucity of settlers and hunters, than in most other parts of the county. St. Anne's is the only settlement with which, as Paddy would say, they have any "correspondence." The other nearest village is Grand Metis, about fifty miles to the westward; and there is no road of any kind, in any direction, from Cape Chatte, except the beach, which in some places is wholly impassable except for persons on foot. As may be supposed, the majority of these poor people vegetate from year to year, and from generation to generation, without ever wandering beyond the adjoining village of St. Anne's, the fishing-banks in their front, or the forests in their rear. They have neither chapel nor priest, but on Sunday, and days of fêtes-d'obligation, the old patriarch assembles his own numerous progeny, and some of the other villagers, in his house, where they repeat their Aves and Paters with fervour and devotion (as we had an opportunity to witnessing), winding up the service with a simple and not unpleasing hymn, chanted by the females of the family. Some idea may be formed of the seclusion in which these people live from the fact, that when the Negro cook of the Premier first showed his black face, and white teeth and eye-balls, at the door of Roy's house, the women and children shrieked and screamed violently, and fled with precipitation and alarm to the loft above, to escape from the "old gentleman in black," as they fully believed him to be. It may be mentioned that runaway Negroes are found in great numbers in all parts of Canada, but never before had one of this hitherto even unheard-of race been seen at Cape Chatte. The day after our landing from the wreck, despatches were sent off to the General Officer commanding at Quebec, Major-General Sir James Hope, announcing the disaster that had befallen the Premier. These despatches were entrusted to Lieutenant (now Captain) Lysons, of the regiment, whose gallantry and activity on the morning of the shipwreck have already been alluded to. He started about ten o'clock A.M., in company with two French Canadian guides. The first night he bivouacked in the woods, the second day brought him to Grand Metis. This first fifty miles he travelled on foot, sometimes along a gravelly beach, sometimes over masses of rocks and ice, precipitous hills, and deep ravines, or through half-frozen rivers and deep drifts of snow. At Metis, he procured a horse and sleigh, and by a conveyance of this kind he travelled the remainder of the way to Quebec. Having been assured by the Canadians that the journey from Cape Chatte to Quebec could not be accomplished, under any circumstances or at any season of the year, in a shorter time than eight days, what was our joy and surprise at seeing the steam-ship Unicorn making her appearance in the offing on the morning of the eight day from Mr. Lysons' departure, the day on which we calculated only on his reaching the end of his journey. On his arrival at Quebec on the sixth day, the promptest measures were taken by the Major-General and heads of the military departments for the speedy relief of the sufferers, and the royal mail steamer Unicorn was instantly despatched with an abundant supply of provisions, blankets &c., and with orders to convey back, without delay, officers, men, women and children, and as much of the baggage as could be collected and stowed away on board. |
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| G. R. Bossé©2001-03 | Page 26 | Chapter 1843 |
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