Observations on Emigration.

47 and fishing, as much as the independence and novelty of the life, have turned their swords into Canadian ploughshares. The first, I opine, will find their prospects poorly realized; and to the second, I would be very much inclined to say, "Don't! Do not reverse your social position and aspirations for the doubtful chance of bettering your circumstances at the expense of undoing all that education and refinement your parents may have even stinted their purses to provide for you !"

No doubt the war one has to wage against nature on the one hand and climate on the other is, as regards New Brunswick and like countries, best suited to such as have never been accustomed to a much better state of existence, and whose inclinations are in keeping with the society with which they are destined to associate. I speak entirely of the wilderness districts and their reclamation. In the numerous towns and cities of Canada there is ample room for the exercise of the best intelligence and enterprise, but there, as everywhere else, one must know how to proceed.*

An example of the evils of intermarriage in combination with unsanitary modes of living, such as have been detailed, is shown among the French settlers on the north-eastern frontier of the province. Descended from the early Norman colonists, they speak their mother-tongue and maintain the old religious faith; indeed, so exclusive are they, that it is rare to hear of any one marrying out of his own sect. Moreover, so closely are they bound by family ties, that in one district (Carraquette)

* During my peregrinations in New Brunswick I was frequently struck by observing how the national characters of the settlers are displayed in the appearance and management of their farms, even in the second and third generations born in the country. The tidy, well-kept, well-fenced farm of the Englishman and thrifty and canny Scot, and the wretched cabin, the slatternly and dilapidated precincts of the Irish, with the eternal pig roaming about wherever it listed, are so conspicuous that in travelling through forest clearings I could generally guess the nationality of the

owners.

it is a usual occurrence to give marriage dispensations. Thus hereditary diseases are common, and of all others that terrible Scourge Elephantiasis, or Greek Leprosy, has maintained a prominent position among the maladies of these poor creatures for many years. Indeed so frightful have been its ravages, that

the Government was obliged to build a hospital in the district for the especial treatment of such cases. This very wise measure has had the good effect of isolating the disease, but sometimes the wretched victim, rather than undergo forced detention in the dismal lazaretto, betakes himself to the woods, and is

Difficulties of Forest Travelling.

49

there surreptitiously maintained by friends. No doubt the dietary contributes towards developing the inherent predisposition indeed many of the afflicted attribute their conditions to feeding on salted fish for lengthened periods, and in consequence of the prevalence of the disease in families, there grew a belief that it was communicable by touch. This, however, has been clearly proved not to be the case, whilst on the other hand the hereditary transmission is indisputable, as shown by careful observations made by Drs. Bayard and Wilson of St. John. Considering the scientific interest connected with the natural history of this formidable malady, I have made an abstract in the Appendix from the report of these gentlemen, showing the consanguinity of the inmates of the lazaretto at the time of their inspection. The repulsive aspects of many of the unfortunate beings are too shocking to relate, and although a good deal has been done to ameliorate their conditions, still, from all I could learn, there are few public charities in the province more deserving general support than the leper hospital of Tracadie.

I made an ineffectual attempt to visit these poor outcasts, but at a season of the year when travelling is very difficult in consequence of thaws; indeed I got as far as the mouth of the Mirimachi River, and was within forty miles of the lazaretto, when a continuance of May floods carried away bridges and destroyed the usual route along the north-east coast. Never shall I forget the four days spent in traversing these sixty miles of New Brunswick forest in a wretched waggon yclept the "Royal Mail," when after twenty-four hours' struggling over the most villanous of roads, we halted at midnight at a country inn, where I slept on the floor, with the mail-bags for a pillow. How the driver of the diligence fell asleep as we were rattling down a steep hill, and by way of bringing the negligent whip to a sense of duty, his neighbour, a Presbyterian parson, nudged him so violently as to knock the culprit from his box; the meeting with the skipper of a German vessel in

E

a farmhouse, where we stopped to dine and change horses; and the story of a pursuit after his crew who had deserted him. in Miramichi Bay a few days previously, together with many other incidents of travel which occurred under anything but pleasant circumstances, are all duly chronicled in my remembrance; alloyed with the kindness and hospitality of my friend Dr. Benson, of Chatham, to whom I am further indebted for his able report on the lepers, and much valued information in connection with the interior economy and condition of the Tracadie asylum. Although prevented from making a personal inspection of the hospital, I must not leave the subject without some further notice of the establishment, and therefore transcribe the following excellent description by the late Governor, the Hon. Sir Arthur Gordon, already published in "Vacation Tourists" for 1863. Talking of the origin of the leprosy, Sir Arthur says :—

"There is an obscure and doubtful story that, some eighty or a hundred years ago, a French ship was wrecked on the shore of the county of Gloucester or Northumberland, and that some of those who escaped from the crew were sailors of Marseilles, who had caught in the Levant the true eastern leprosy, the terrible Elephantiasis Græcorum. However this may be, there is no doubt that for many years past a portion of the French population of these counties has been afflicted with this fearful malady, or one closely allied to it-probably that form of leprosy which is known to prevail upon the coast of Norway. About twenty years ago the disease seemed to be on the increase, and so great an alarm was created by this fact, and by the allegation (the truth or falsehood of which I have never been able satisfactorily to ascertain) that settlers of English descent had caught and died of the disease, that a very stringent law was passed, directing the seclusion of the lepers, and authorizing any member of a local Board of Health constituted by the Act, to commit to the Lazaretto any person afflicted with the disorder. After being for a time established

Leprosy among the French Settlers of Tracadie. 51

at Sheldrake Island, in the Miramichi River, the hospital was removed to Tracadie, in the county of Gloucester, where it continues to remain.

"The situation of the Lazaretto is dreary in the extreme, and the view which it commands embraces no object calculated to please, or indeed to arrest, the eye. On the one side is a shallow, turbid sea, which at the time of my visit was unenlivened by a single sail; on the other lies a monotonous stretch of bare, cleared land, only relieved by the ugly church and mean wooden houses of a North American village.

"The outer enclosure of the Lazaretto consists of a grass field, containing some three or four acres of land. Within these limits the lepers are now allowed to roam at will. Until lately, however, they were confined to the much narrower bounds of a small enclosure in the centre of the large one, and containing the buildings of the hospital itself.

"Into these dismal precincts I entered, accompanied by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Chatham, the Secretary to the Board of Health, the Resident Physician, and the Roman Catholic priest of the village, who acts as Chaplain to the hospital.

"Within the inner enclosure are several small wooden buildings, detached from each other, and comprising the kitchen, laundry, etc., of the establishment; one of these edifices, but newly completed, is furnished with a bath-a great addition to the comfort of the unhappy inmates. The hospital itself is a building containing two large rooms, the one devoted to the male, and the other to the female, patients. In the centre of each room is a stove and table, with a few benches and stools, whilst the beds of the patients are ranged along the walls. These rooms are sufficiently light and well-ventilated, and at the time of my visit were perfectly clean and neat. In the rear of these rooms is a small chapel, so arranged that a window obliquely traversing the wall on each side of the partition, which divides the two rooms, enables the patient of either sex to witness the celebration of Mass without meeting.