Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/337

 even intermarried with them, and by the Indians becoming proselytes to the Roman Catholic religion.

The Canadian French are universally acknowledged to be true Roman Catholics, strict in their observance of holidays, submissive to the exactions of their priesthood, and the loyal subjects of Britain. They seem to retain the depressed characters of a conquered people. Their bow is low, and apparently obsequious, and they are usually ready to make out of the way of any one who walks rapidly along the streets. Many of {305} them are dirty and coarsely clothed, and instead of buttoning their coats, they tie them with a sort of sash that is wrapped round their middle. At meals each produces his pocket knife, the same, perhaps, with which he cuts his tobacco, and spits on the blade, and then rubs it on his clothes previous to eating. They are slovenly agriculturists, and use the most wretched implements, and yoke their oxen by the horns. A gentleman told me that he lately asked one of them, why they did not yoke these animals by the shoulders as other people do? The other replied—because the strength of the head would be lost. It is not uncommon to see the Canadian coming into market with only one or two bushels of wheat. Here, as at Montreal, the cruel practice of causing dogs to draw carts, prevails. On seeing a young man riding in one of these little vehicles, and whipping the docile creature till it lay down and turned up its feet, I was much shocked at the conduct of the wretch; and, though you may not altogether approve of the principle, I felt considerable satisfaction from the circumstance, that the profane imprecations which he with great fluency uttered, were not pronounced in the English language.

Timber is the principal article exported here. The