Читать книгу The Canadian Settler's Guide - Catharine Parr Traill - Страница 23

As respects extra provisions, as great a quantity as heretofore will probably not be required, if the ship's provisions are issued according to law, cooked.

In my recent voyage in the Washington from Liverpool to New-York, which voyage occupied thirty-seven days, I took out the following extras, which I found quite sufficient. 1½ stone wheaten flour; 6 lbs bacon; 2½ lbs butter; a 4-lb loaf, hard baked; ¼ lb tea; 2 lbs brown sugar; salt, soap, and bread soda for raising cakes. These extras cost 10s. 6d. I also took the following articles—the prices as follows:—

	s.	d.
Tin water-can holding six quarts..............		8
Large tin hooked-saucepan.....................		6
Frying pan..............................................		8
Tin wash-basin.......................................		6
Tin tea-pot.............................................		4
Tin kettle................................................		9
Two deep tin-plates................................		3
Two pint-mugs.......................................		3
Two knives, forks and spoons................		9
Barrel and padlock for holding provisions	1	0
Straw mattress.......................................	1	0
Blanket, single........................................	2	0
Rugs......................................................	1	3
Sheets, each...........................................		10½

The handles and spouts of the tin-ware should be rivetted as well as soldered. Families would do well to take out a covered slop-pail and a broom. The bottoms of the chests and trunks should have two strips of wood nailed to them to keep them from the damp floor. In addition to the extra stores, a cheese, a few herrings, with some potatoes and onions may be added. [The eyes or shoots can be destroyed by drying the roots in an oven after the baking heat is off, for a few minutes; or they may be rubbed off with a coarse cloth from time to time.] Preserved milk is also a good thing; it can be kept good for some time.[6]

As little luggage as possible should be taken, as the carriage often comes to as much as the first cost: woollen, and shoes, however, are cheaper at home, and therefore it is advisable to bring a good supply.

Fruits and green vegetables should be eaten very sparingly at first: the free indulgence in fresh meat is also apt to bring on diarrhœa.—Many deaths happen in consequence of want of prudent attention to temperance in meats and drinks on first coming ashore.

Emigrants on Landing, should not linger about the suburbs of the ports and large towns, but go at once into the interior, for it is one hundred chances to one against their getting employment at these seaports. There is a great propensity in the poorer sort of emigrants to linger idling about the cities, spending their time and their little means, often refusing work when it is offered them, till their last penny is spent, when the trunks and other property are seized to pay for lodging. It is best to get work as fast as possible, and it is unreasonable to look for the highest rate of wages till a little experience in the work of the country has made them expert in the handling of the tools, which are often very different to those with which they have been used to labour.

Intoxicating drinks are unfortunately very cheap in America and Canada. They are a great curse to the emigrant, and the main obstacle to his bettering his condition. Emigrants would do well to take the temperance pledge before sailing; as no liquors are allowed on board ship, they will have a beautiful opportunity of breaking themselves in to total abstinence of a practice which is injurious to health, expensive and selfish, as it robs them of the power of maintaining their families and adding to their, comforts.—Abridged from "Emigration to America" by Vere Foster, Esq.

[6] Fresh milk put into a close jar and set in a pot of water, kept boiling for six or eight hours, and when cool bottled and corked with waxed corks, will keep some time. An ounce of white sugar boiled with the milk or cream will help to preserve it; and just before bottling, a small quantity—half a teaspoonful—of carbonate of soda, may be added.

I have given you the substance of this valuable advice to emigrants, with here and there a few words added or omitted as the case might be.

I have omitted saying that the most eligible part of Canada for emigrants desiring to buy wild land, is the western portion of the Upper Province, or that peninsula that lies between the great waters of Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and the smaller lake Simcoe. Railroads and public works are being carried on in this part of the country; the land is of the richest and most fertile description, and the climate is less severe. The new townships afford excellent chances for mechanics settling in small villages, where such trades as the shoemaker, blacksmith, carpenter, wheelwright and others, are much needed, and in these new settlements labour of this kind pays well, because there is less competition to regulate the prices. It is a good thing for those who grow up with a new place; they are sure to become rich men.

I will also add a piece of additional advice. Let the immigrant on landing at any of the frontier towns ask for the Government agent; but if none be resident in the place, and he is at a loss for advice as to the best mode of proceeding, let him then enquire for the clergyman, the mayor or one of the head gentlemen or merchants of the town. These persons have no interest to deceive or mislead in any way, and will give you all the information that you may need as to the best way of lodging and disposing of your family, and also the most likely persons to afford you employment.

In Toronto Mr. Hawke, the Crown Agent, will give all attention to you: he is a man whose knowledge is only surpassed by his uprightness and benevolence. You have only to ask his address; any one will direct you to his office.

One more piece of advice I would give to mothers who have young girls whom they may think proper to put to service; or to servant girls who come out without parents to act for them. Be careful how you enter into low families such as the keepers of low boarding houses or taverns, without endeavouring to learn something of the character of the parties, and by no means let relations or friends separate in a strange place without making some written note of their place of abode or future destination: by such carelessness many young people have lost all trace of their fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, or of the friend under whose care they were placed by their relatives, and have suffered the most painful anxiety. Negligence of this kind is very much to be condemned and should be avoided. This is an error that often arises from ignorance and want of proper consideration. Perhaps you who read this book may deem such advice uncalled for, and so it may be in the case of all careful and thoughtful persons; but these may come, out in the same vessel with others who are of a reckless, improvident nature, on whom they may impress the value of the advice here given. Among the Irish and even more cautious Scotch emigrants I have met with many many instances of children being left in a strange land without a trace of their place of residence being preserved,—the children in their turn having no clue by which to discover their parents.