The History of Emily Montague Read online

  Adieu! my dear! Yours, Ed. Rivers.

  LETTER 7.

  To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

  Montreal, August 15.

  By Heavens, Lucy, this is more than man can bear; I was mad to stayso long at Melmoth's; there is no resisting this little seducer: 'tisshameful in such a lovely woman to have understanding too; yet eventhis I could forgive, had she not that enchanting softness in hermanner, which steals upon the soul, and would almost make uglinessitself charm; were she but vain, one had some chance, but she will takeupon her to have no consciousness, at least no apparent consciousness,of her perfections, which is really intolerable. I told her so lastnight, when she put on such a malicious smile--I believe the littletyrant wants to add me to the list of her slaves; but I was not form'dto fill up a train. The woman I love must be so far from givinganother the preference, that she must have no soul but for me; I am oneof the most unreasonable men in the world on this head; she may fancywhat she pleases, but I set her and all her attractions at defiance: Ihave made my escape, and shall set off for Quebec in an hour. Flyingis, I must acknowledge, a little out of character, and unbecoming asoldier; but in these cases, it is the very best thing man or womaneither can do, when they doubt their powers of resistance.

  I intend to be ten days going to Quebec. I propose visiting thepriests at every village, and endeavouring to get some knowledge of thenature of the country, in order to my intended settlement. Idlenessbeing the root of all evil, and the nurse of love, I am determin'd tokeep myself employed; nothing can be better suited to my temper thanmy present design; the pleasure of cultivating lands here is as muchsuperior to what can be found in the same employment in England, aswatching the expanding rose, and beholding the falling leaves: Americais in infancy, Europe in old age. Nor am I very ill qualified for thisagreable task: I have studied the Georgicks, and am a pretty enoughkind of a husbandman as far as theory goes; nay, I am not sure I shallnot be, even in practice, the best _gentleman_ farmer in theprovince.

  You may expect soon to hear of me in the _Museum Rusticum_; Iintend to make amazing discoveries in the rural way: I have alreadyfound out, by the force of my own genius, two very uncommoncircumstances; that in Canada, contrary to what we see every whereelse, the country is rich, the capital poor; the hills fruitful, thevallies barren. You see what excellent dispositions I have to be anuseful member of society: I had always a strong biass to the study ofnatural philosophy.

  Tell my mother how well I am employ'd, and she cannot but approve myvoyage: assure her, my dear, of my tenderest regard.

  The chaise is at the door.

  Adieu! Ed. Rivers.

  The lover is every hour expected; I am not quite sure I should havelik'd to see him arrive: a third person, you know, on such an occasion,sinks into nothing; and I love, wherever I am, to be one of the figureswhich strike the eye; I hate to appear on the back ground of thepicture.

  LETTER 8.

  To Miss Rivers.

  Quebec, Aug. 24.

  You can't think, my dear, what a fund of useful knowledge I havetreasur'd up during my journey from Montreal. This colony is a richmine yet unopen'd; I do not mean of gold and silver, but of what areof much more real value, corn and cattle. Nothing is wanting butencouragement and cultivation; the Canadians are at their ease evenwithout labor; nature is here a bounteous mother, who pours forth hergifts almost unsolicited: bigotry, stupidity, and laziness, united,have not been able to keep the peasantry poor. I rejoice to find suchadmirable capabilities where I propose to fix my dominion.

  I was hospitably entertained by the cures all the way down, tho'they are in general but ill provided for: the parochial clergy areuseful every where, but I have a great aversion to monks, those dronesin the political hive, whose whole study seems to be to make themselvesas useless to the world as possible. Think too of the shockingindelicacy of many of them, who make it a point of religion to abjurelinen, and wear their habits till they drop off. How astonishing thatany mind should suppose the Deity an enemy to cleanliness! the Jewishreligion was hardly any thing else.

  I paid my respects wherever I stopped, to the _seigneuress_ ofthe village; for as to the seigneurs, except two or three, if they hadnot wives, they would not be worth visiting.

  I am every day more pleased with the women here; and, if I wasgallant, should be in danger of being a convert to the French stile ofgallantry; which certainly debases the mind much less than ours.

  But what is all this to my Emily? How I envy Sir George! whathappiness has Heaven prepared for him, if he has a soul to taste it!

  I really must not think of her; I found so much delight in herconversation, it was quite time to come away; I am almost ashamed toown how much difficulty I found in leaving her: do you know I havescarce slept since? This is absurd, but I cannot help it; which by theway is an admirable excuse for any thing.

  I have been come but two hours, and am going to Silleri, to pay mycompliments to your friend Miss Fermor, who arrived with her father,who comes to join his regiment, since I left Quebec. I hear there hasbeen a very fine importation of English ladies during my absence. I amsorry I have not time to visit the rest, but I go to-morrow morning tothe Indian village for a fortnight, and have several letters to writeto-night.

  Adieu! I am interrupted, Yours, Ed. Rivers.

  LETTER 9.

  To Mrs. Melmoth, at Montreal.

  Quebec, August 24.

  I cannot, Madam, express my obligation to you for having added apostscript to Major Melmoth's letter: I am sure he will excuse myanswering the whole to you; if not, I beg he may know that I shall bevery pert about it, being much more solicitous to please you than him,for a thousand reasons too tedious to mention.

  I thought you had more penetration than to suppose me indifferent:on the contrary, sensibility is my fault; though it is not your littleevery-day beauties who can excite it: I have admirable dispositions tolove, though I am hard to please: in short, _I am not cruel, I amonly nice_: do but you, or your divine friend, give me leave to wearyour chains, and you shall soon be convinced I can love _like anangel_, when I set in earnest about it. But, alas! you are married,and in love with your husband; and your friend is in a situation stillmore unfavorable to a lover's hopes. This is particularly unfortunate,as you are the only two of your bewitching sex in Canada, for whom myheart feels the least sympathy. To be plain, but don't tell the littleMajor, I am more than half in love with you both, and, if I was thegrand Turk, should certainly fit out a fleet, to seize, and bring youto my seraglio.

  There is one virtue I admire extremely in you both; I mean, thathumane and tender compassion for the poor men, which prompts you to bealways seen together; if you appeared separate, where is the hero whocould resist either of you?

  You ask me how I like the French ladies at Montreal: I think themextremely pleasing; and many of them handsome; I thought MadameL---- so, even near you and Miss Montague; which is, I think, saying asmuch as can be said on the subject.

  I have just heard by accident that Sir George is arrived atMontreal. Assure Miss Montague, no one can be more warmly interested inher happiness than I am: she is the most perfect work of Heaven; mayshe be the happiest! I feel much more on this occasion than I canexpress: a mind like hers must, in marriage, be exquisitely happy ormiserable: my friendship makes me tremble for her, notwithstanding theworthy character I have heard of Sir George.

  I will defer till another time what I had to say to Major Melmoth.

  I have the honour to be, Madam, Yours &c. Ed. Rivers.

  LETTER 10.

  Silleri, August 24.

  I have been a month arrived, my dear, without having seen yourbrother, who is at Montreal, but I am told is expected to-day. I havespent my time however very agreably. I know not what the winter may be,but I am enchanted with the beauty of this country in summer; bold,picturesque, romantic, nature reigns here in all her wantonluxuriance, adorned by a thousand wild grac
es which mock the cultivatedbeauties of Europe. The scenery about the town is infinitely lovely;the prospect extensive, and diversified by a variety of hills, woods,rivers, cascades, intermingled with smiling farms and cottages, andbounded by distant mountains which seem to scale the very Heavens.

  The days are much hotter here than in England, but the heat is moresupportable from the breezes which always spring up about noon; and theevenings are charming beyond expression. We have much thunder andlightening, but very few instances of their being fatal: the thunder ismore magnificent and aweful than in Europe, and the lightening brighterand more beautiful; I have even seen it of a clear pale purple,resembling the gay tints of the morning.

  The verdure is equal to that of England, and in the evening acquiresan unspeakable beauty from the lucid splendor of the fire-fliessparkling like a thousand little stars on the trees and on the grass.

  There are two very noble falls of water near Quebec, la Chaudiereand Montmorenci: the former is a prodigious sheet of water, rushingover the wildest rocks, and forming a scene grotesque, irregular,astonishing: the latter, less wild, less irregular, but more pleasingand more majestic, falls from an immense height, down the side of aromantic mountain, into the river St. Lawrence, opposite the mostsmiling part of the island of Orleans, to the cultivated charms ofwhich it forms the most striking and agreeable contrast.

  The river of the same name, which supplies the cascade ofMontmorenci, is the most lovely of all inanimate objects: but why doI call it inanimate? It almost breathes; I no longer wonder at theenthusiasm of Greece and Rome; 'twas from objects resembling this theirmythology took its rise; it seems the residence of a thousand deities.

  Paint to yourself a stupendous rock burst as it were in sunder bythe hands of nature, to give passage to a small, but very deep andbeautiful river; and forming on each side a regular and magnificentwall, crowned with the noblest woods that can be imagined; the sides ofthese romantic walls adorned with a variety of the gayest flowers, andin many places little streams of the purest water gushing through, andlosing themselves in the river below: a thousand natural grottoes inthe rock make you suppose yourself in the abode of the Nereids; as alittle island, covered with flowering shrubs, about a mile above thefalls, where the river enlarges itself as if to give it room, seemsintended for the throne of the river goddess. Beyond this, the rapids,formed by the irregular projections of the rock, which in some placesseem almost to meet, rival in beauty, as they excel in variety, thecascade itself, and close this little world of enchantment.

  In short, the loveliness of this fairy scene alone more than paysthe fatigues of my voyage; and, if I ever murmur at having crossed theAtlantic, remind me that I have seen the river Montmorenci.

  I can give you a very imperfect account of the people here; I haveonly examined the landscape about Quebec, and have given very littleattention to the figures; the French ladies are handsome, but as to thebeaux, they appear to me not at all dangerous, and one might safelywalk in a wood by moonlight with the most agreeable Frenchman here. Iam not surprized the Canadian ladies take such pains to seduce our menfrom us; but I think it a little hard we have no temptation to makereprisals.

  I am at present at an extreme pretty farm on the banks of the riverSt. Lawrence; the house stands at the foot of a steep mountain coveredwith a variety of trees, forming a verdant sloping wall, which rises ina kind of regular confusion, "Shade above shade, a woody theatre," andhas in front this noble river, on which the ships continually passingpresent to the delighted eye the most charming moving pictureimaginable; I never saw a place so formed to inspire that pleasinglassitude, that divine inclination to saunter, which may not improperlybe called, the luxurious indolence of the country. I intend to build atemple here to the charming goddess of laziness.

  A gentleman is just coming down the winding path on the side of thehill, whom by his air I take to be your brother. Adieu! I must receivehim: my father is at Quebec.

  Yours, Arabella Fermor.

  Your brother has given me a very pleasing piece of intelligence: myfriend Emily Montague is at Montreal, and is going to be married togreat advantage; I must write to her immediately, and insist on hermaking me a visit before she marries. She came to America two yearsago, with her uncle Colonel Montague, who died here, and I imagined wasgone back to England; she is however at Montreal with Mrs. Melmoth, adistant relation of her mother's. Adieu! _ma tres chere!_

  LETTER 11.

  To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

  Quebec, Sept. 10.

  I find, my dear, that absence and amusement are the best remediesfor a beginning passion; I have passed a fortnight at the Indianvillage of Lorette, where the novelty of the scene, and the enquiries Ihave been led to make into their antient religion and manners, havebeen of a thousand times more service to me than all the reflection inthe world would have been.

  I will own to you that I staid too long at Montreal, or rather atMajor Melmoth's; to be six weeks in the same house with one of themost amiable, most pleasing of women, was a trying situation to a heartfull of sensibility, and of a sensibility which has been hitherto,from a variety of causes, a good deal restrained. I should have avoidedthe danger from the first, had it appeared to me what it really was;but I thought myself secure in the consideration of her engagements, adefence however which I found grow weaker every day.

  But to my savages: other nations talk of liberty, they possess it;nothing can be more astonishing than to see a little village of aboutthirty or forty families, the small remains of the Hurons, almostexterminated by long and continual war with the Iroquoise, preservetheir independence in the midst of an European colony consisting ofseventy thousand inhabitants; yet the fact is true of the savages ofLorette; they assert and they maintain that independence with a spirittruly noble. One of our company having said something which an Indianunderstood as a supposition that they had been _subjects_ ofFrance, his eyes struck fire, he stop'd him abruptly, contrary totheir respectful and sensible custom of never interrupting the personwho speaks, "You mistake, brother," said he; "we are subjects to noprince; a savage is free all over the world." And he spoke only truth;they are not only free as a people, but every individual is perfectlyso. Lord of himself, at once subject and master, a savage knows nosuperior, a circumstance which has a striking effect on his behaviour;unawed by rank or riches, distinctions unknown amongst his own nation,he would enter as unconcerned, would possess all his powers as freelyin the palace of an oriental monarch, as in the cottage of the meanestpeasant: 'tis the species, 'tis man, 'tis his equal he respects,without regarding the gaudy trappings, the accidental advantages, towhich polished nations pay homage.

  I have taken some pains to develop their present, as well as past,religious sentiments, because the Jesuit missionaries have boasted somuch of their conversion; and find they have rather engrafted a few ofthe most plain and simple truths of Christianity on their ancientsuperstitions, than exchanged one faith for another; they are baptized,and even submit to what they themselves call the _yoke_ ofconfession, and worship according to the outward forms of the Romishchurch, the drapery of which cannot but strike minds unused tosplendor; but their belief is very little changed, except that thewomen seem to pay great reverence to the Virgin, perhaps becauseflattering to the sex. They anciently believed in one God, the rulerand creator of the universe, whom they called _the Great Spirit_and the _Master of Life_; in the sun as his image and representative;in a multitude of inferior spirits and demons; and in a futurestate of rewards and punishments, or, to use their own phrase,in _a country of souls_. They reverenced the spirits of theirdeparted heroes, but it does not appear that they paid them anyreligious adoration. Their morals were more pure, their manners moresimple, than those of polished nations, except in what regarded theintercourse of the sexes: the young women before marriage were indulgedin great libertinism, hid however under the most reserved and decentexterior. They held adultery in abhorrence, and with the more reasonas their marriages were dissolva
ble at pleasure. The missionaries aresaid to have found no difficulty so great in gaining them toChristianity, as that of persuading them to marry for life: theyregarded the Christian system of marriage as contrary to the laws ofnature and reason; and asserted that, as the _Great Spirit_ formedus to be happy, it was opposing his will, to continue together whenotherwise.

  The sex we have so unjustly excluded from power in Europe have agreat share in the Huron government; the chief is chose by the matronsfrom amongst the nearest male relations, by the female line, of him heis to succeed; and is generally an aunt's or sister's son; a customwhich, if we examine strictly into the principle on which it isfounded, seems a little to contradict what we are told of the extremechastity of the married ladies.

  The power of the chief is extremely limited; he seems rather toadvise his people as a father than command them as a master: yet, ashis commands are always reasonable, and for the general good, no princein the world is so well obeyed. They have a supreme council ofancients, into which every man enters of course at an age fixed, andanother of assistants to the chief on common occasions, the members ofwhich are like him elected by the matrons: I am pleased with this lastregulation, as women are, beyond all doubt, the best judges of themerit of men; and I should be extremely pleased to see it adopted inEngland: canvassing for elections would then be the most agreeablething in the world, and I am sure the ladies would give their votes onmuch more generous principles than we do. In the true sense of theword, _we_ are the savages, who so impolitely deprive you of thecommon rights of citizenship, and leave you no power but that of whichwe cannot deprive you, the resistless power of your charms. By the way,I don't think you are obliged in conscience to obey laws you have hadno share in making; your plea would certainly be at least as good asthat of the Americans, about which we every day hear so much.