STRUGGLES OF A CANADIAN SETTLER.

Auckland Chronicle and New Zealand Colonist, Volume 1, Issue 7, 21 December 1842, Page 3

STRUGGLES OF A CANADIAN SETTLER.

(CONTINUATION.)

.Tames had now a piece of land, but he had nothing e’se a'most in the world. His family were nearly naked, an coffins wife had just presented him with another child. A forest stood before him on his little property, his single arm must level to the ground, before he could make the land available. His active spirit was not how-

ever daunted, he commenced chopping and soon made a sufficient clearing for the erection of a log house. Having made this as comfortable as he could, he continued his labours with the axe incessantly, and before it was too late in the season, he cleared a good piece of land by casting down and burning the trees. By planting, he says, four bushels and a half of potatoes, I raised 150 bushels; a little Indian corn raised me 20 bushels in return ; so that I was now able to repay the person who had generously lent me the seed. We had besides crops of melons, water melons, and cucumbers, and a fruit called pomkin, which grew among the corn, and weighed from 30 to 1001 bs. We had about 500 of them, and they made a delicions sauce, helping over the dry bread or potatoes very well. We found also that good molasses might be made from them.

The raising of these crops was not all the toil our settler had to undergo. There was no mill within twelve miles of him, and often he had to travel to and from it, a burden on his back of 50 or *6011)8. weight. This was a hardship under which many men would have sunk, but though his body was often on the brink of exhaustion, his untired spirit bore him through all. His family though almost naked, and only half housed, had now plenty of food of one sort or another, and were all we I and healthy. At the end of two years he thus writes, “I have now six acres of land cleared, and the other six have the timber lying on it, cut down. The want of implements and oxen has kept me a good deal back, but I have cut and cleared the land almost without the assistance of men or oxen. We have very large timber here; the maple we make most use of, out of it we can make sugar enough to last tlie whole year. I made last spring,in a common cooking pot and oven of the same kind, 1501bs. weight, and we have little more than two weeks in the year, in which it can be made. If I had larger pots, I could make a great deal of it, and I might besides, make a great deal of potash. I thank God we can now raise abundance of good provisions; long were we naked and hungry; naked we remain, but not hungry ;—and naked we must be, till I can buy a few sheep.” He speaks gratefully in one of his letters, of his labours being lessened by the erection of a mid within five miles of him, so that he had only ten miles now to carry his burdens. He concludes thi9 letter by saying : “If I had only fifty guineas to clothe my family and work out my improvements, I would think myself a king.” It is to be regretted that this wish could not be granted; but the thought that every thing in his career, was the doirg of his own hands, is one that must now be pleasing to him beyond expression. After three years our settler thus writes: “ I have now, my dear friend,” says he, “ got eight children ; James and William are smart young men, and Elizabeth, the eldest girl, is a stout, well-grown woman. The other five are ruddy, healthy creatures. They have all their several occupations. Elizabeth looks after the dairy; William and James are the ploughmen, and manage all the concerns of the farm. I, for my own part, have been on the weaving loom for two or three years back, and had I not been a weaver, I really do not know if I could have weathered through with the farm. When on the lo >m, I generally earn from a dollar and a half to two dollars a day, and were it all paid in cash, I should soon be very rich, but it is paid for the most part in produce the sale of which is uncertain. I believe we have given out fifty bushels, chiefly of corn, to our pigs this season, and I am certain we have the finest pork in the world, Working men’s wages are often paid in grain, and the day’s wages is a bushel of wheat, about 60lbs. weight. Beef is three cents a pound here, and cautton rather lower. (To be concluded in our next.)