chapter ii.
the white chief.
1800.
the hero of our sketch, philemon wright, was a man forty years of age. in appearance he was of a strong, broad build, and stood six feet in his stockings. a wealth of flaxen hair was brushed straight back from a high and noble brow. his face was profoundly meditative. thick eyebrows shaded the eyes, which were wonderfully quick, observant and penetrating. his features indicated goodness and energy, strength of will and determination. his muscles were the envy of all who felt them.
like all superior men, philemon wright nourished long his projects, but decision once made he set himself to realize them with ardor, obstacles only serving to intensify his energy, for he employed all the resources of his spirit and inflexible will to triumph over them. he was a worthy descendant of the men of kent who followed harold to victory through difficulties which to others would have been insurmountable.
his father, thomas wright, having sold his estates in kent, settled in woburn, twenty miles from boston, in 1760, where philemon, the fifth and youngest son, was born shortly afterwards. while a mere lad of fifteen he saw active service in the revolutionary war, in the vicinity of boston and new york, taking up arms as a british subject against the short-sighted rulers of the motherland in the vain hope of wresting from them the rights which the revolutionists considered were their due.
philemon married, at twenty-two, a miss wyman, of irish descent, whose grand-nephews, rufus and joseph choate, have since played so conspicuous a place in the drama of american history, and had seven promising children, who were known familiarly as phil, bearie, chrissy, abbie, christie, mary and rug.
philemon wright was a man of indomitable courage, enterprise, industry and perseverance, and had acquired considerable property in the neighborhood of boston. finding a better market in canada for farm produce, he went every fall to montreal, and in 1796 determined to go on a tour of exploration on the grand river, or the utawas, as the ottawa was then called.
a few settlements then existed for the first forty-five miles, up to the long sault rapids, but beyond this point the seventy-five or eighty miles was a complete wilderness. he found that this part of the country was entirely unknown to the inhabitants of montreal, excepting, of course, to the employees of the two great fur-trading companies, though its immense resources of fine timber were, he said, "sufficient to furnish supplies for any foreign market, even to load one thousand vessels."
prominent members of the fur companies in montreal drew his attention to their printed report, which stated that there was not five hundred acres of arable land on the extensive banks of the whole river.
"it may be to your interests to keep the grand river from becoming settled," he said, "but you may bet your best beaver-skin on this, that there is at least five hundred thousand acres of uncleared land fit for cultivation on the banks of the grand river."
in 1797 he again visited canada, and examined the country from quebec to montreal, on both sides of the st. lawrence, and then up the ottawa as far as the chaudiere falls, studying carefully the navigation of the ottawa, and its fitness for settlement.
in 1798 this enterprising but cautious man paid his third visit to his future home, and returned to massachusetts with a full determination to commence a settlement. he failed, however, to inspire his neighbors with his own confidence in the scheme, and he therefore selected two respectable men from among them, and hired them to go with him the following summer to examine and report on what they saw. their report, which was afterwards published in the canadian magazine of september, 1824, is as follows:
"we spent twenty days in october in exploring the township of hull. we climbed to the top of one hundred or more trees to view the situation of the country, which we accomplished in the following manner: we cut smaller trees in such a way as to fall slanting and to lodge in the branches of the larger ones, which we ascended until we arrived at the top. by this means we were enabled to view the country and also the timber, and by the timber we could judge the nature of the soil, which we found to answer our expectations. after having examined well the nature of the township, we descended the river and arrived, after much fatigue, at montreal."
the report was so satisfactory to the people of woburn that mr. wright was able to hire as many as he wished for the new settlement.
it was fully five hundred miles from woburn to the chaudiere, but the nineteenth century was hardly a month old when the little band braved the journey. their leader assumed all risks himself, and with twenty-five men, five families, having a membership of thirty, fourteen horses, eight oxen, and seven sleighs loaded with mill irons, agricultural implements, carpenters' tools, household effects, provisions, left the quiet new england village. the route taken was the old stage road from boston to montreal, which passed through woburn to haverhill, thence to concord, thence north-westward along the shore of lake memphremagog to montreal, which was reached on the ninth day.
montreal at that time was a very gloomy-looking little town, with a population of about seven thousand. it was surrounded by an old wall about fifteen feet high, with battlements and other fortifications. the houses were mostly built of grey stone, with sheet-iron roofs and iron window shutters, which gave them a prison-like appearance. the streets were narrow and crooked. traineaux drawn by french ponies, and toboggans loaded with furs and drawn by several dogs in tandem, were frequently seen in the streets when this brave little band of new englanders gazed in wonder upon the old historic french town.
the caravan then wended its way towards the north shore of the ottawa. its progress at first was slow, making only fifteen miles a day for the first three days, owing to the sleighs being wider than those used in canada. on the third day they had reached the foot of the long sault and the terminus of the road. they were eighty miles from their destination, in a wilderness of snow and ice, and with no trace of a road.
"we proceeded to the head of the sault," said mr. wright, in relating their experiences in the house of assembly in 1820, "observing before night came on to fix upon some spot near water to encamp for the night, where there were no dry trees to fall upon us or our cattle. then we cleared away the snow and cut down trees for fire for the night, the women and children sleeping in covered sleighs, the men with blankets around the fire, and the cattle made fast to the standing trees; and i never saw men more cheerful and happy, having no landlord to call upon them for expenses and no unclean floors to sleep upon, but the sweet ground which belongs to our sovereign. we always prepared sufficient refreshment for the following day, so as to lose no time on our journey when daylight appeared. we kept our axemen forward cutting the road, and our foraging team next, and the families in the rear. in this way we proceeded on for three or four days, observing to look out for a good place for our camp, until we arrived at the head of the long sault, from whence we travelled the whole distance upon the ice until we reached our destination. my guide was unacquainted with the ice, as our former journeys were by water. we went very slowly lest we might lose our cattle, keeping the axemen forward trying every rod of the ice, which was covered with snow.
"i cannot pass over this account," continued mr. wright, "without referring to a sauvage, from whom we received great kindness. we met him with his wife drawing a child upon a bark sleigh. they looked at us with astonishment. they viewed us as though we had come from the clouds, walking around our teams and trying to talk with us concerning the ice, but not a word could we understand. we then observed him giving directions to his squaw, who immediately left him and went to the woods, while he proceeded to the head of our company, without promise of fee or reward, with his small axe trying the ice at almost every step. we proceeded in this way without meeting with any accident for about six days, when we arrived safely at the township of hull. we had some trouble in cutting the brush and ascending the height, which is about twenty feet from the water. our sauvage, after seeing us safely up the bank, spent the night with us and made us to understand that he must return to his squaw and child, and after receiving presents for his great services, took his departure."
what must have been the feelings of the pioneer settlers when they beheld for the first time the magnificent scenery of the chaudiere, before its wild beauty was defaced by the woodman's axe or its sparkling waters used in slides and mill-races?
three openings loomed up before them—the most distant one, to the left, a broad half-rapid, half-cascade, sweeping down among islands of pines; the middle passage seemed very narrow and carried away in a sort of creamy foam the waters of the chaudiere proper; while the nearer or right passage led by a winding route to a rocky cove at the beginning of the portage road. surely never had they beheld anything so picturesque, so indescribably grand, as it appeared to them on that bright and frosty evening! the precipices and rocky gorge of the opposite shore, green with pine and cedar to the river's brink, and covered with a mantle of beautiful snow; the volume of water, tossed, broken, dashed into foam, which floated down like miniature icebergs on the mighty rushing current till the natural ice-bridge was reached, made a scene not soon to be forgotten. the turrets, domes and battlements of the dominion house of parliament, which in a few short years was destined to crown the opposite cliffs, were a dream beyond the wildest imagination of our pioneer.
