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The Invention of Custom
 T H E H I S T O RY A N D T H E O RY O F
I N T E R NAT IO NA L L AW
General Editors

NE HAL BH U TA
Chair in International Law, University of Edinburgh

ANTHONY PAG DEN

Distinguished Professor, University of California Los Angeles

BE NJAMI N STR AUMAN N

ERC Professor of History, University of Zurich

In the past few decades the understanding of the relationship between nations has undergone a
radical transformation. The role of the traditional nation-​state is diminishing, along with many
of the traditional vocabularies which were once used to describe what has been called, ever since
Jeremy Bentham coined the phrase in 1780, ‘international law’. The older boundaries between states
are growing ever more fluid, new conceptions and new languages have emerged which are slowly
coming to replace the image of a world of sovereign independent nation states which has dominated
the study of international relations since the early 19th century. This redefinition of the international
arena demands a new understanding of classical and contemporary questions in international and
legal theory. It is the editors’ conviction that the best way to achieve this is by bridging the traditional
divide between international legal theory, intellectual history, and legal and political history. The aim
of the series, therefore, is to provide a forum for historical studies, from classical antiquity to the 21st
century, that are theoretically informed and for philosophical work that is historically conscious, in the
hope that a new vision of the rapidly evolving international world, its past and its possible future, may
emerge.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THIS SERIES

The Right of Sovereignty
Jean Bodin on the Sovereign State and the Law of Nations
Daniel Lee
Jews, Sovereignty, and International Law
Ideology and Ambivalence in Early Israeli Legal Diplomacy
Rotem Giladi
The Invention of Custom
Natural Law and the Law of Nations,
ca.1550–​1750

FRANCESCA IURLARO

1
 3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Francesca Iurlaro 2021
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2021
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Public sector information reproduced under Open Government Licence v3.0
(http://​www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/​doc/​open-​government-​licence/​open-​government-​licence.htm)
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021942611
ISBN 978–​0–​19–​289795–​4
DOI: 10.1093/​oso/​9780192897954.001.0001
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CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
 Series Editors’ Preface

The Law of Nations –​the ius gentium –​had originally been merely the law which
the Romans had applied to their –​predominantly commercial –​relations with non-​
Romans. It took on a wholly new significance, however, after the ‘discovery’ of the
Americas, which had in effect brought into existence what the German jurist Carl
Schmitt in 1951 described as ‘the traditional Eurocentric order of international
law’. In this book Francesca Iurlaro offers a broad-​ranging and powerfully compel-
ling new account of just how this new ‘order of international law’ transformed what
had once been a form of law based upon a voluntary agreement between peoples,
into one which was supposed to be binding on all peoples across the globe –​and
might thus be imposed by one people upon another. She charts the evolving strat-
egies by which a succession of jurists, theologians, and humanists from Francisco
de Vitoria in the 16th century until Emer de Vattel in the eighteenth, sought to
create a ‘new law which was universally applicable to the global community (orbis),
regardless of the specific cultural and historical contexts of local political commu-
nities’. This tied the Law of Nations to the Law of Nature (the ius naturae) –​the
Thomist and neo-​Thomist elaboration of the claim that there existed in nature it-
self a single basic form of knowledge for all humankind, which was discoverable
through the use of human reason. The Law of Nature, however, was in effect a piece
of cognitive machinery capable only of generating a universal order of justice. The
jurists who contributed to the creation of Schmitt’s ‘traditional Eurocentric order
of international law’ required something more precise –​and ultimately enforce-
able –​something capable, in effect, of creating a true positive law. To do this they
turned to custom to provide the normative foundation for a universal legal code.
In so doing, however, they transformed what was understood to be ‘custom’ from
a collection of exemplary regulations –​which inevitably varied greatly from one
people to another –​into ‘an unwritten norm that the jurist could unravel from the
diverse manifestations of human history.’ Out of this emerged a new genre: the
‘Law of Nature and Nations’ which dominated the thinking about the relationship
between peoples and states from the mid sixteenth until the end of the eighteenth
centuries. Custom was now cast, not as the accumulated practices of individual
societies but as the collective expression of the consensus of all peoples (consensus
omnium gentium). It was, as Francesca Iurlaro explains, interpreted ‘as being both
temporally situated –​an institution whose foundations resided in Roman law,
Christian religion [and] European classical antiquity –​and universal at the same
time.’ Although there were recognized to exist customs that were restricted to in-
dividual communities, and which were, where possible, accepted as valid by the
vi Series Editors’ Preface

European colonizing powers, the kind of custom capable of sustaining an inter-​na-

tional law could only, as Francesca Iurlaro explains, be arrived at through sustained
inquiries into a history which was believed to provide secure evidence of univer-
sality. ‘Authors of the natural law tradition’, as she puts it, ‘invented customary rules
of ius gentium precisely in an open dialogue with the past.’ The customs of the an-
cient –​European –​world, ‘constructed and fictionalized as universal’ –​came to
stand in for those of the orbis terrarum in its entirety. Custom, it was believed was
ultimately ‘capable of transitioning the naturalness of reason into the historicity of
specific political and cultural context.’
For all that the creators of the Law of Nature and Nations struggled to find in
history and literature –​rather than in anthropology –​a universal customary law,
custom remained, of course, stubbornly specific to individual societies, and even if
a ‘consensus of all peoples’ were to exist it would, as the 16th-​century Saxon jurist
Samuel Pufendorf complained, be impossible to find just what it was. Universal
consensus could only, that is, ever really be a legal fiction, a counterfactual, a device
as Francesca Iurlaro describes it, intended to ‘imagine concepts which are unavail-
able, or even impossible, in reality.’ What the Law of Nations had in fact become by
the time Pufendorf was writing was not so much the assembled wisdom offered by
the customary practices of the peoples of the whole world, so much as what Hugo
Grotius described as the record of ‘the continual experience and testimony of the
Sages of the Law’ –​in other words, not so much a consensus of custom as what
Francesca Iurlaro calls a ‘mere agreement among arguments’. It also, of course,
meant that only those peoples who had recognized ‘sages of the law’ –​and thus a
recognizable legal culture –​could ever plausibly be part of the “Law of Nations”.
It was, as many have subsequently complained, but a short step from this to ar-
guing that the Law of Nations was in effect only the law of ‘civilized’ nations, or as
the English legal historian Robert Ward declared in 1795, that ‘what is commonly
called the Law of Nations . . . is not the Law of all Nations, but only of particular
classes of them; and thus there may be a different Law of Nations for different parts
of the globe.’ And if that were the case, then the entire universalizing purpose of
the project would seem to have collapsed altogether. As many more recent critics,
in particular those from the Global South, have protested, what the Law of Nature
and Nations in effect did was to divide the world not, as Ward had argued, into
many, but only into two: the ‘civilized’ nations of the globe who were bound by the
Law of Nature and Nations, and the non-​civilized who, like pirates, would remain
the ‘perpetual enemies of mankind’ –​until they were gathered into the folds of the
‘civilized’.
By the time Ward was writing, however, the direction of the argument, as
Francesca Iurlaro explains, had changed entirely. For the Prussian polymath
Christian Wolff –​known to his contemporaries as ‘our German Newton,’ –​and the
diplomat Emer de Vattel, the last and the most lastingly influential of the writers
in the tradition of the ‘Law of Nature and Nations’, custom could no longer be
 Series Editors’ Preface vii

constructed, on the basis of supposedly universal history and literary tradition, by

‘the mass of jurists’ who, in Wolff ’s view, only ever worked backward from ‘their
preconceived opinions’. What Vattel called the ‘customary law of nations’, had, in-
stead, if it were to possess any lasting authority, to be ‘founded on a tacit consent,
or, if you please, on a tacit convention of the nations that observe it towards each
other’. It had, that is, to be discoverable in some real historical past, and recognized
as local positive law.
The Invention of Custom offers an historical account based both on the wider
theoretical issues involved in the attempts to construct a persuasively universal
‘Law of Nature and Nations’ as well as of attempts by the very many jurists involved
to apply this to specific cases of inter-​state relationships from how to deal with
cannibalism to such perennial questions as the rights of prisoners of war, and the
status of ambassadors. In the end as Francesca Iurlaro writes: ‘Looking at the past is
a value-​making activity; it relies on a certain, culturally loaded, idea of temporality.’
This book offers what she describes as a ‘history of custom as an episode in the his-
tory of historiography’. But although modern international law may claim to have
entirely shed its ties to the natural law tradition, and thus to any reliance upon any
specific historical past, it is still the case, she argues, that it remains ‘to some extent,
a means of ordering the world through histories’. Until the story she has to tell in
this book has been fully understood, modern international lawyers run the risk of
being condemned, in her own words, to ‘replace old fabrications of the legal im-
agination with new founding fathers, new fictions, and new myths.’

Anthony Pagden
 Acknowledgments

It is incredibly hard to do justice to all the people and institutions that supported
the publication of this book. It took way more than the proverbial village. However,
I will try, while I take full responsibility for any errors or mistakes it may contain.
This book is a revised version of my PhD dissertation, which I defended in
September 2018 at the European University Institute (EUI), under the supervi-
sion of professor Nehal Bhuta. Nehal Bhuta deserves a special place in this thankful
note. Over the past years, he has always supported and challenged me with his bril-
liant mind and enthusiasm, and always encouraged me to see the theoretical forest
whenever I was getting too lost in my textual trees. I am grateful that I had the
chance to meet him, and to have been exposed to his intellectual generosity.
The openness of the EUI academic environment made this journey even more
engaging. Thanks are due to all the people I met there, professors, fellow re-
searchers, and friends, who have supported me over these years in various and
often unconscious ways. Special thanks are due to the members of my PhD com-
mittee, Benedict Kingsbury, Martti Koskenniemi, and Ann Thomson, who offered
stimulating feedback, guidance, and support to help me turn this thesis into a book
for publication. To achieve this goal, I have benefited from the support of various
institutions which provided me with all the time, financial support, and intellec-
tual excitement I needed to finish it. I am grateful to Anne Peters and Armin von
Bogdandy for their hospitality at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public
Law and International Law (MPIL) in Heidelberg back in 2018, where I spent the
summer as a visiting scholar; and for welcoming me again in 2020 as an Alexander
von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow. Thanks are due to the Alexander von
Humboldt Stiftung for granting me such fellowship, time, and freedom to think,
and financial support to work with ease. I am immensely grateful to Benedict
Kingsbury, my supervisor at New York University School of Law, where I spent the
academic year 2019–​20 as a Global Postdoctoral Fellow, as well as to the Hauser
Global Law School Program for sponsoring the fellowship; and to Marco Geuna
(Università degli Studi di Milano), with whom I had the privilege to work as a re-
search fellow in the first months of 2019.
Thanks are also due to Daniel Allemann, Stefano Bacin, Alessandro Barchiesi,
Erica Benner, Tommaso Braccini, Annabel Brett, Hans Blom, Maria Adele Carrai,
Paolo Carta, Gianmario Cattaneo, Bhupinder S Chimni, Janet Coleman, Emanuele
Conte, Jean D’Aspremont, Grainne de Burca, Wim Decock, Stefano di Bella, Paul
J du Plessis, Vanda Fiorillo, Alberto Frigo, Marco Geuna, Frank Grunert, Pablo
Kalmanovitz, Claus Kreß, Matthias Kumm, Randall Lesaffer, Karin Loevy, Ian
x Acknowledgments

Maclean, Loris Marotti, Panos Merkouris, Christoph Möllers, Luigi Nuzzo, Paolo
Palchetti, Pasquale Pasquino, Anne Peters, Marie Petersmann, Andrea A Robiglio,
Merio Scattola, Florian Schaffenrath, Peter Schröder, Luca Scuccimarra, Luigi
Silvano, Gabriella Silvestrini, Koen Stapelbroek, Benjamin Straumann, Laura
Viidebaum, Armin von Bogdandy, Christopher Warren, Jan Waszink, Joseph H
Weiler, Tleuzhan Zhunussova, and Simone Zurbuchen, who provided valuable
comments on single chapters or on the project itself, and have all definitely helped
me get this book in a better shape. My conversations with Martti Koskenniemi
offered precious intellectual stimulation throughout the process of writing and
thinking about history and international law; I am deeply grateful for his gener-
osity and support. Anthony Pagden provided essential feedbacks to an early draft
of my chapter on Vitoria, and to the project in general. I am grateful for his encour-
agement. Thanks are due to Thomas Duve, who kindly agreed to let me workshop
the first part of the book at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in
September 2020. I owe much gratitude to him and the Salamanca Team. Christiane
Birr, Andreas Wagner, José Luis Egío García, Matthias Lutz-​Bachmann, Manuela
Bragagnolo, Stephan Vogenauer, and Alexandra Woods all helped me think
through the book, and about its weaknesses and its strengths. I also would like to
thank the amazing editors at OUP Law, Jack McNichols and Merel Alstein, for their
valuable support during the publication process, and the anonymous reviewers for
their precious comments to the book manuscript.
My fellow EUI friends Rían Derrig and Dimitri van den Meerschen, as well as
Mark Somos and Edward Jones Corredera, have read various drafts and sections
of this book and considerably improved its shape: a big, heartfelt thank you to all
of them for their friendship and collegiality, which made me feel less isolated in
this strange world named academia. My discussions with Ed were immensely in-
spiring and helped me look at the main narratives of this book with more clarity
and boldness; his intellectual generosity and support have been essential in the last
weeks prior to submission, and nurtured many of the reflections I discuss in the
introduction and conclusion to this book. I am really grateful that Grotius made
us colleagues. A similar huge thank you to Raphael Schäfer, Silvia Steininger, Julia
Emtseva, Erin Pobjie, and Tom Sparks, for helping me feel at home in Heidelberg
with the kindness of their friendship; and to all the participants of the ‘Tuesday
Round’, our weekly meetings at MPIL, for providing essential feedback to the final
drafts of the book.
My family has always been there for me and I cannot thank enough my father
Benedetto, my mother Maria, and my sister Alessandra for their unconditional
love. A big chunk of this book was revised during our first Covid lockdown to-
gether, while cooking, baking nervously, and occasionally yelling at each other.
I am grateful I could spend that particularly unsettling time, and explore what
it meant existentially, with all of them. Giuliano Graziani, Noemi Macerola, and
Antonella Patrizi have provided essential, both personal and professional, support
 Acknowledgments xi

in the final stages of revision of the manuscript. Grazie davvero. Claire Vergerio
would deserve a whole book of thank yous, one that would stretch way beyond
the scope of this one. Most of the thoughts I explore in this book were nurtured by
our conversations, while skinning bellpeppers on a kitchen counter, eating burrata,
dancing in the streets of Brooklyn, or recording endless voice notes for each other.
Merci, my dear friend.
I am also extremely grateful to Luca Bombardieri, whose love and amazing
support have accompanied me throughout the process of thinking of and writing
this book. Finally, I am grateful to Alessio and Leo, two little men with blue eyes
and an unquenchable thirst for pasta whom I was lucky enough to meet while
I was working on this book. They taught me a thing or two about love and light-​
heartedness. In the perhaps futile attempt to freeze in time the memories of all the
pasta dishes we had together, and to prevent these moments from vanishing com-
pletely as time goes by, I dedicate this book to them.
 Contents

Introduction: the ‘Problematic’ of Custom in the Natural Law and

ius gentium Tradition  1
i. The problematic of custom  1
ii. Custom and natural law  3
iii. Custom and history  7
iv. Ius gentium as customary vs. custom as a source of the law of nations  8
v. Methodology: custom as historiographic practice  13
vi. Enters Venus: custom, authority, and civilization  16

PA RT I C U S T OM , C O N S C I E N C E , A N D NAT U R A L L AW
1. The Problematic of Custom in Roman and Canon Law  21
1.1 Custom in Roman law  21
1.2 Custom in the Middle Ages  23
1.3 Custom and empire: how natural law and ius gentium became
customary  28
1.4 Possession, prescription, custom: the problem of time  29
1.5 Local customs and universalizing the native past: law and
historiography as imperial projects  34
1.6 Custom as a case of conscience: natural law, moral persuasion, and
the power of confession  37
2. ‘Like Beginners in Arabic’. Custom and Reason in Francisco de
Vitoria’s Doctrine of ius gentium  43
2.1 A clarification on Vitoria’s texts  43
2.2 Vitoria reads Aquinas (1): on reason and consensus  46
2.3 Vitoria reads Aquinas (2): on natural law and habitus  49
2.4 Consensual ius gentium: a counterfactual proof  51
2.5 A custom under the law of nations: slavery in Vitoria, de Soto,
and Báñez  55
3. Obligation through Agreement, Agreement on Obligation: Ius
gentium as custom in Francisco Suárez  63
3.1 Conscience and habitus: custom in Suárez  63
3.2 Is the ‘international’ community perfect? Ius gentium as custom, and
its source of obligation  66
3.3 The naturalism of habitus and the self-​legitimizing role of the will  70
3.4 How to do things with custom: ius gentium and change  71
xiv Contents

PA RT I I R H E T O R IC A N D
H UM A N I SM : H I S T O R IC I Z I N G C U S T OM
4. Custom as Historiography: Alberico Gentili  77
4.1 Custom and the historical exemplarity of humanism  77
4.2 Historiographic pragmatism and ‘the others’: Alberico Gentili on
custom  89
4.3 Gentili’s ius gentium: justice, empire, and humanitas  95
4.4 Gentili’s custom  101
5. A Literary History of Custom: Hugo Grotius  105
5.1 Consuetudo, mos, consensus: custom as a distinctive feature of the law
of nations  105
5.2 Grotius, Dio Chrysostom, and the ‘invention’ of custom  108
5.3 The ‘poetic’ of natural custom vs the conjectural assessment of the
voluntary customary law of nations: two examples from Grotius’ De
iure belli ac pacis  115

PA RT I I I T H E ‘B I RT H’ O F C U S T OM A RY I U S G E N T I UM A S
AN INDEPENDENT LEGAL REGIME
6. A Turn Inward: the Europeanization of Customary ius gentium  127
6.1 Custom as a social construct: reputation, official historiography, and
the birth of state practice  127
6.2 Custom, love, and perfection: the problem of obligation  134
6.3 Against stylistic dryness: how custom freed itself from antiquity  136
7. Custom in Concentric Circles: Samuel Pufendorf ’s Customary ius
gentium Between Glory and State Interests  141
7.1 Pufendorf ’s main conceptual innovations  141
7.2 Natural law as the science of morality  142
7.3 Law of nations in times of peace: international agreements and
reason of state  146
7.4 The problem of consensus: Pufendorf ’s method  151
7.5 Law of nations in times of war: customary ius gentium and social
reputation  156
8. Christian Wolff and His ius gentium consuetudinarium  162
8.1 Wolff ’s philosophization of customary ius gentium  162
8.2 Wolff ’s system: the psychological foundations of natural law  164
8.2.1 Consensus  168
8.2.2 Perfectio  169
8.2.3 Concursus  170
8.3 Laws of nature, natural law, and ius gentium: the perfection of civitas
maxima  172
Other documents randomly have
different content
effect on the petrefactions, which lay elevated above, and in a
manner glued on the stones. [32]

The mountains near the shore are amazingly high and large,
consisting of a compact grey rock-stone, which does not ly in strata
as the lime-stone, and the chief of whose constituent parts are a
grey quartz, and a dark glimmer. This rock-stone reached down to
the water, in places where the mountains flood close to the shore;
but where they were at some distance from it, they were supplied by
strata of grey and black lime-stone, which reached to the water side,
and which I never have seen covered with the grey rocks.

The Zizania aquatica grows in mud, and in the most rapid parts of
brooks, and is in full bloom about this time.

July the 17th. The distempers which rage among the Indians are
rheumatisms and pleurisies, which arise from their being obliged
frequently to ly in moist parts of the woods at night; from the
sudden changes of heat and cold, to which the air is exposed here;
and from their being frequently loaded with too great a quantity of
strong liquor, in which case they commonly ly down naked in the
open air, without any regard to the season, or the weather. These
distempers, especially the pleurisies, are likewise very common
among the French here; and the governor told me [33]he had once
had a very violent fit of the latter, and that Dr. Sarrasin had cured
him in the following manner, which has been found to succeed best
here. He gave him sudorifics, which were to operate between eight
and ten hours; he was then bled, and the sudorifics repeated; he
was bled again, and that effectually cured him.

Dr. Sarrasin was the royal physician at Quebec, and a correspondent

of the royal academy of sciences at Paris. He was possessed of great
knowledge in the practice of physic, anatomy, and other sciences,
and very agreeable in his behaviour. He died at Quebec, of a
malignant fever, which had been brought to that place by a ship, and
with which he was infected at an hospital, where he visited the sick.
He left a son, who likewise studied physic, and went to France to
make himself more perfect in the practical part of it, but he died
there.

The intermitting fevers sometimes come amongst the people here,

and the venereal disease is common here. The Indians are likewise
infected with it; and many of them have had it, and some still have
it; but they likewise are perfectly possessed of the art of curing it.
There are examples of Frenchmen and Indians, infected all over the
body with this disease, who have been radically [34]and perfectly
cured by the Indians, within five or six months. The French have not
been able to find this remedy out; though they know that the
Indians employ no mercury, but that their chief remedies are roots,
which are unknown to the French. I have afterwards heard what
these plants were, and given an account of them at large to the
royal Swedish academy of sciences 11.

We are very well acquainted in Sweden with the pain caused by the
Tæniæ, or a kind of worms. They are less abundant in the British
North-American colonies; but in Canada they are very frequent.
Some of these worms, which have been evacuated by a person,
have been several yards long. It is not known, whether the Indians
are afflicted with them, or not. No particular remedies against them
are known here, and no one can give an account from whence they
come, though the eating of some fruits contributes, as is
conjectured, to create them.

July the 19th. Fort St. Frederic is a fortification, on the southern

extremity of lake Champlain, situated on a neck of land, between
that lake and the river, which arises [35]from the union of the river
Woodcreek, and lake St. Sacrement. The breadth of this river is here
about a good musket shot. The English call this fortress Crownpoint,
but its French name is derived from the French secretary of state,
Frederic Maurepas, in whose hands the direction and management
of the French court of admiralty was, at the time of the erection of
this fort: for it is to be observed, that the government of Canada is
subject to the court of admiralty in France, and the governor-general
is always chosen out of that court. As most of the places in Canada
bear the names of saints, custom has made it necessary to prefix
the word Saint to the name of the fortress. The fort is built on a
rock, consisting of black lime-slates, as aforesaid; it is nearly
quadrangular, has high and thick walls, made of the same lime-
stone, of which there is a quarry about half a mile from the fort. On
the eastern part of the fort, is a high tower, which is proof against
bombshells, provided with very thick and substantial walls, and well
stored with cannon, from the bottom almost to the very top; and the
governor lives in the tower. In the terre-plein of the fort is a well
built little church, and houses of stone for the officers and soldiers.
There are sharp rocks [36]on all sides towards the land, beyond a
cannon-shot from the fort, but among them are some which are as
high as the walls of the fort, and very near them.

The soil about fort St. Frederic is said to be very fertile, on both
sides of the river; and before the last war a great many French
families, especially old soldiers, have settled there; but the king
obliged them to go into Canada, or to settle close to the fort, and to
ly in it at night. A great number of them returned at this time, and it
was thought that about forty or fifty families would go to settle here
this autumn. Within one or two musket-shots to the east of the fort,
is a wind-mill, built of stone with very thick walls, and most of the
flour which is wanted to supply the fort is ground here. This wind-
mill is so contrived, as to serve the purpose of a redoubt, and at the
top of it are five or six small pieces of cannon. During the last war,
there was a number of soldiers quartered in this mill, because they
could from thence look a great way up the river, and observe
whether the English boats approached; which could not be done
from the fort itself, and which was a matter of great consequence,
as the English might (if this guard had not been placed here) have
gone in their little [37]boats close under the western shore of the
river, and then the hills would have prevented their being seen from
the fort. Therefore the fort ought to have been built on the spot
where the mill stands, and all those who come to see it, are
immediately struck with the absurdity of its situation. If it had been
erected in the place of the mill, it would have commanded the river,
and prevented the approach of the enemy; and a small ditch cut
through the loose limestone, from the river (which comes out of the
lake St. Sacrement) to lake Champlain, would have surrounded the
fort with flowing water, because it would have been situated on the
extremity of the neck of land. In that case the fort would always
have been sufficiently supplied with fresh water, and at a distance
from the high rocks, which surround it in its present situation. We
prepared to-day to leave this place, having waited during some days
for the arrival of the yacht, which plies constantly all summer
between the forts St. John 12 and St. Frederic: during our stay here,
we had received many favours. The governor of the fort, Mr.
Lusignan, a man of learning and of great [38]politeness, heaped
obligations upon us, and treated us with as much civility as if we had
been his relations. I had the honor of eating at his table during my
stay here, and my servant was allowed to eat with his. We had our
rooms, &c. to ourselves, and at our departure the governor supplied
us with ample provisions for our journey to fort St. John. In short,
he did us more favours than we could have expected from our own
countrymen, and the officers were likewise particularly obliging to
us.

About eleven o’clock in the morning we set out, with a fair wind. On
both sides of the lake are high chains of mountains; with the
difference which I have before observed, that on the eastern shore,
is a low piece of ground covered with a forest, extending between
twelve and eighteen English miles, after which the mountains begin;
and the country behind them belongs to New England. This chain
consists of high mountains, which are to be considered as the
boundaries between the French and English possessions in these
parts of North America. On the western shore of the lake, the
mountains reach quite to the water side. The lake at first is but a
French mile broad, but always encreases afterwards. The country is
inhabited [39]within a French mile of the fort, but after that, it is
covered with a thick forest. At the distance of about ten French miles
from fort St. Frederic, the lake is four such miles broad, and we
perceive some islands in it. The captain of the yacht said there were
about sixty islands in that lake, of which some were of a
considerable size. He assured me that the lake was in most parts so
deep, that a line of two hundred yards could not fathom it; and close
to the shore, where a chain of mountains generally runs across the
country, it frequently has a depth of eighty fathoms. Fourteen French
miles from fort St. Frederic we saw four large islands in the lake,
which is here about six French miles broad. This day the sky was
cloudy, and the clouds, which were very low, seemed to surround
several high mountains, near the lake, with a fog; and from many
mountains the fog rose, as the smoke of a charcoal-kiln. Now and
then we saw a little river which fell into the lake: the country behind
the high mountains, on the western side of the lake, is, as I am told,
covered for many miles together with a tall forest, intersected by
many rivers and brooks, with marshes and small lakes, and very fit
to be inhabited. The shores are [40]sometimes rocky, and sometimes
sandy here. Towards night the mountains decreased gradually; the
lake is very clear, and we observed neither rocks nor shallows in it.
Late at night the wind abated, and we anchored close to the shore,
and spent one night here.
July the 20th. This morning we proceeded with a fair wind. The
place where we passed the night, was above half way to fort St.
John; for the distance of that place from fort St. Frederic, across lake
Champlain is computed to be forty-one French miles; that lake is
here about six English miles in breadth. The mountains were now
out of sight, and the country low, plain, and covered with trees. The
shores were sandy, and the lake appeared now from four to six miles
broad. It was really broader, but the islands made it appear
narrower.

We often saw Indians in bark-boats, close to the shore, which was

however not inhabited; for the Indians came here only to catch
sturgeons, wherewith this lake abounds, and which we often saw
leaping up into the air. These Indians lead a very singular life: At one
time of the year they live upon the small store of maize, beans, and
melons, which they have planted; during another period, or about
this time, [41]their food is fish, without bread or any other meat; and
another season, they eat nothing but stags, roes, beavers, &c. which
they shoot in the woods, and rivers. They, however, enjoy long life,
perfect health, and are more able to undergo hardships than other
people. They sing and dance, are joyful, and always content; and
would not, for a great deal, exchange their manner of life for that
which is preferred in Europe.

When we were yet ten French miles from fort St. John, we law some
houses on the western side of the lake, in which the French had
lived before the last war, and which they then abandoned, as it was
by no means safe: they now returned to them again. These were the
first houses and settlements which we saw after we had left those
about fort St. Frederic.

There formerly was a wooden fort, or redoubt, on the eastern side

of the lake, near the water-side; and the place where it stood was
shewn me, which at present is quite overgrown with trees. The
French built it to prevent the incursions of the Indians, over this
lake; and I was assured that many Frenchmen had been slain in
these places. At the same time they told me, that they reckon four
women to one [42]man in Canada, because annually several
Frenchmen are killed on their expeditions, which they undertake for
the sake of trading with the Indians.

A windmill, built of stone, stands on the east side of the lake on a

projecting piece of ground. Some Frenchmen have lived near it; but
they left it when the war broke out, and are not yet come back to it.
From this mill to fort St. John they reckon eight French miles. The
English, with their Indians, have burnt the houses here several
times, but the mill remained unhurt.

The yacht which we went in to St. John was the first that was built
here, and employed on lake Champlain, for formerly they made use
of bateaux to send provisions over the lake. The Captain of the yacht
was a Frenchman, born in this country; he had built it, and taken the
soundings of the lake, in order to find out the true road, between
fort St. John and fort St. Frederic. Opposite the windmill the lake is
about three fathoms deep, but it grows more and more shallow, the
nearer it comes to fort St. John.

We now perceived houses on the shore again. The captain had

otter-skins in the cabin, which were perfectly the same, in [43]colour
and species, with the European ones. Otters are said to be very
abundant in Canada.

Seal-skins are here made use of to cover boxes and trunks, and they
often make portmantles of them in Canada. The common people
had their tobacco-pouches made of the same skins. The seals here
are entirely the same with the Swedish or European one, which are
grey with black spots. They are said to be plentiful in the mouth of
the river St. Lawrence, below Quebec, and go up that river as far as
its water is salt. They have not been found in any of the great lakes
of Canada. The French call them Loups marins. 13

The French, in their colonies, spend much more time in prayer and
external worship, than the English, and Dutch settlers in the British
colonies. The latter have neither morning nor evening prayer in their
ships and yachts, and no difference is made between Sunday and
other days. They never, or very seldom, say grace at dinner. On the
contrary, the French here have prayers every morning and night on
board their shipping, and on Sundays they pray more than
commonly: they regularly say grace at their meals; and every one of
[44]them says prayers in private as soon as he gets up. At fort St.
Frederic all the soldiers assembled together for morning and evening
prayers. The only fault was, that most of the prayers were read in
Latin, which a great part of the people do not understand. Below the
aforementioned wind-mill, the breadth of the lake is about a musket-
shot, and it looks more like a river than a lake. The country on both
sides is low and flat, and covered with woods. We saw at first a few
scattered cottages along the shore; but a little further, the country is
inhabited without interruption. The lake is here from six to ten foot
deep, and forms several islands. During the whole course of this
voyage, the situation of the lake was always directly from S. S. W. to
N. N. E.

In some parts of Canada are great tracts of land belonging to single

persons; from these lands, pieces, of forty Arpens long, and four
wide, are allotted to each discharged soldier, who intends to settle
here; but after his household is established, he is obliged to pay the
owner of the lands six French Francs annually.

The lake was now so shallow in several places, that we were obliged
to trace the way for the yacht, by sounding the depth [45]with
branches of trees. In other places opposite, it was sometimes two
fathom deep.

In the evening, about sun set, we arrived at fort St. Jean, or St.
John, having had a continual change of rain, sun-shine, wind, and
calm, all the afternoon.

July the 21st. St. John is a wooden fort, which the French built in
1748, on the western shore of the mouth of lake Champlain, close to
the water-side. It was intended to cover the country round about it,
which they were then going to people, and to serve as a magazine
for provisions and ammunition, which were usually sent from
Montreal to fort St. Frederic; because they may go in yachts from
hence to the last mentioned place, which is impossible lower down,
as about two gun-shot further, there is a shallow full of stones, and
very rapid water in the river, over which they can only pass in
bateaux, or flat vessels. Formerly fort Chamblan, which lies four
French miles lower, was the magazine of provisions; but as they
were forced first to send them hither in bateaux, and then from
hence in yachts, and the road to fort Chamblan from Montreal being
by land, and much round about, this fort was erected. It has a low
situation, and lies [46]in a sandy soil, and the country about it is
likewise low, flat; and covered with woods. The fort is quadrangular,
and includes the space of one arpent square. In each of the two
corners which look towards the lake is a wooden building, four
stories high, the lower part of which is of stone to the height of
about a fathom and a half. In these buildings which are polyangular,
are holes for cannon and lesser fire-arms. In each of the two other
corners towards the country, is only a little wooden house, two
stories high. These buildings are intended for the habitations of the
soldiers, and for the better defence of the place; between these
houses, there are poles, two fathoms and a half high, sharpened at
the top, and driven into the ground close to one another. They are
made of the Thuya tree, which is here reckoned the best wood for
keeping from putrefaction, and is much preferable to fir in that point.
Lower down the palisades were double, one row within the other.
For the convenience of the soldiers, a broad elevated pavement, of
more than two yards in height, is made in the inside of the fort all
along the palisades, with a balustrade. On this pavement the soldiers
stand and fire through the holes upon the enemy, without being
exposed to [47]their fire. In the last year, 1748, two hundred men
were in garrison here; but at this time there were only a governor, a
commissary, a baker, and six soldiers to take care of the fort and
buildings, and to superintend the provisions which are carried to this
place. The person who now commanded at the fort, was the
Chevalier de Gannes, a very agreeable gentleman, and brother-in-
law to Mr. Lusignan, the governor of fort St. Frederic. The ground
about the fort, on both sides of the water, is rich and has a very
good soil; but it is still without inhabitants, though it is talked of, that
it should get some as soon as possible.

The French in all Canada call the gnats Marangoins, which name, it
is said, they have borrowed from the Indians. These insects are in
such prodigious numbers in the woods round fort St. John, that it
would have been more properly called fort de Marangoins. The
marshes and the low situation of the country, together with the
extent of the woods, contribute greatly to their multiplying so much;
and when the woods will be cut down, the water drained, and the
country cultivated, they probably will decrease in number, and vanish
at last, as they have done in other places. [48]

The Rattle Snake, according to the unanimous accounts of the

French, is never seen in this neighbourhood, nor further north near
Montreal and Quebec; and the mountains which surround fort St.
Frederic, are the most northerly part on this side, where they have
been seen. Of all the snakes which are found in Canada to the north
of these mountains, none is poisonous enough to do any great harm
to a man; and all without exception run away when they see a man.
My remarks on the nature and properties of the rattle-snake, I have
communicated to the royal Swedish academy of sciences, 14 and
thither I refer my readers.

July the 22d. This evening some people arrived with horses from
Prairie, in order to fetch us. The governor had sent for them at my
desire, because there were not yet any horses near fort St. John, the
place being only a year old, and the people had not had time to
settle near it. Those who led the horses, brought letters to the
governor from the governor-general of Canada, the Marquis la
Galissonniere, dated at Quebec the fifteenth of this month, and from
the vice-governor of Montreal, the Baron [49]de Longueil, dated the
twenty-first of the same month. They mentioned that I had been
particularly recommended by the French court, and that the
governor should supply me with every thing I wanted, and forward
my journey; and at the same time the governor received two little
casks of wine for me, which they thought would relieve me on my
journey. At night we drank the kings of France and Sweden’s health,
under a salute from the cannon of the fort, and the health of the
governor-general and others.

July the 23d. This morning we set out on our journey to Prairie, from
whence we intended to proceed to Montreal; the distance of Prairie
from fort St. John, by land, is reckoned six French miles, and from
thence to Montreal two lieues (leagues) and a half, by the river St.
Lawrence. At first we kept along the shore, so that we had on our
right the Riviere de St. Jean (St. John’s river). This is the name of
the mouth of the lake Champlain, which falls into the river St.
Lawrence, and is sometimes called Riviere de Champlain (Champlain
river.) After we had travelled about a French mile, we turned to the
left from the shore. The country was always low, woody, and pretty
wet, though it was [50]in the midst of summer; so that we found it
difficult to get forward. But it is to be observed that fort St. John was
only built last summer, when this road was first made, and
consequently it could not yet have acquired a proper degree of
solidity. Two hundred and sixty men were three months at work, in
making this road; for which they were fed at the expence of the
government, and each received thirty sols every day; and I was told
that they would again resume the work next autumn. The country
hereabouts is low and woody, and of course the residence of millions
of gnats and flies, which were very troublesome to us. After we had
gone about three French miles, we came out of the woods, and the
ground seemed to have been formerly a marsh, which was now
dried up. From hence we had a pretty good prospect on all sides. On
our right hand at a great distance we saw two high mountains, rising
remarkably above the rest; and they were not far from fort
Champlain. We could likewise from hence see the high mountain
which lies near Montreal; and our road went on nearly in a straight
line. Soon after, we got again upon wet and low grounds, and after
that into a wood which consisted chiefly of [51]the fir with leaves
which have a silvery underside. 15 We found the soil which we passed
over to-day, very fine and rich, and when the woods will be cleared
and the ground cultivated, it will probably prove very fertile. There
are no rocks, and hardly any stones near the road.

About four French miles from fort St. John, the country makes quite
another appearance. It is all cultivated, and a continual variety of
fields with excellent wheat, pease, and oats, presented itself to our
view; but we saw no other kinds of corn. The farms stood scattered,
and each of them was surrounded by its corn fields, and meadows;
the houses are built of wood and very small. Instead of moss, which
cannot be got here, they employ clay for stopping up the crevices in
the walls. The roofs are made very much sloping, and covered with
straw. The soil is good, flat, and divided by several rivulets; and only
in a few places there are some little hills. The prospect is very fine
from this part of the road, and as far as I could see the country, it
was cultivated; all the fields were covered with corn, and they
generally use summer-wheat here. The ground is [52]still very fertile,
so that there is no occasion for leaving it ly as fallow. The forests are
pretty much cleared, and it is to be feared that there will be a time,
when wood will become very scarce. Such was the appearance of
the country quite up to Prairie, and the river St. Lawrence, which last
we had now always in sight; and, in a word this country was, in my
opinion the finest of North-America, which I had hitherto seen.

About dinner-time we arrived at Prairie, which is situated on a little

rising ground near the river St. Lawrence. We staid here this day,
because I intended to visit the places in this neighbourhood, before I
went on.

Prairie de la Magdelene is a small village on the eastern side of the

river St. Lawrence, about two French miles and a half from Montreal,
which place lies N. W. from hence, on the other side of the river. All
the country round Prairie is quite flat, and has hardly any risings. On
all sides are large corn-fields, meadows, and pastures. On the
western side, the river St. Lawrence passes by, and has here a
breadth of a French mile and a half, if not more. Most of the houses
in Prairie are built of timber, with sloping wooden roofs, and the
crevices in [53]the walls are stopped up with clay. There are some
little buildings of stone, chiefly of the black lime-stone, or of pieces
of rock-stone, in which latter the enchasement of the doors and
windows was made of the black lime-stone. In the midst of the
village is a pretty church of stone, with a steeple at the west end of
it, furnished with bells. Before the door is a cross, together with
ladders, tongs, hammers, nails, &c. which are to represent all the
instruments made use of at the crucifixion of our Saviour, and
perhaps many others besides them. The village is surrounded with
palisades, from four yards to five high, put up formerly as a barrier
against the incursions of the Indians. Without these palisades are
several little kitchen and pleasure gardens, but very few fruit-trees in
them. The rising grounds along the river, are very inconsiderable
here. In this place there was a priest, and a captain, who assumed
the name of governor. The corn-fields round the place are extensive,
and sown with summer-wheat; but rye, barley and maize are never
seen. To the south-west of this place is a great fall in the river St.
Lawrence, and the noise which it causes, may be plainly heard here.
When the water in spring encreases in the river, [54]on account of
the ice which then begins to dissolve, it sometimes happens to rise
so high as to overflow a great part of the fields, and, instead of
fertilizing them as the river Nile fertilizes the Egyptian fields by its
inundations, it does them much damage, by carrying a number of
grasses and plants on them, the seeds of which spread the worst
kind of weeds, and ruin the fields. These inundations oblige the
people to take their cattle a great way off, because the water covers
a great tract of land; but happily it never stays on it above two or
three days. The cause of these inundations is generally owing to the
stopping of ice in some part of the river.

The Zizania aquatica, or Folle Avoine grows plentiful in the rivulet, or

brook, which flows somewhat below Prairie.

July the 24th. This morning I went from Prairie in a bateau to

Montreal, upon the river St. Lawrence. The river is very rapid, but
not very deep near Prairie, so that the yacht cannot go higher than
Montreal, except in spring with the high water, when they can come
up to Prairie, but no further. The town of Montreal may be seen at
Prairie, and all the way down to it. On our arrival, there we found a
crowd of people at that gate of the town, where we [55]were to pass
through. They were very desirous of seeing us, because they were
informed that some Swedes were to come to town; people of whom
they had heard something, but whom they had never seen; and we
were assured by every body, that we were the first Swedes that ever
came to Montreal. As soon as we were landed, the governor of the
town sent a captain to me, who desired I would follow him to the
governor’s house, where he introduced me to him. The Baron
Longueuil was as yet vice-governor, but he daily expected his
promotion from France. He received me more civilly and generously
than I can well describe, and shewed me letters from the governor-
general at Quebec, the Marquis de la Galissonniere, which
mentioned that he had received orders from the French court to
supply me with whatever I should want, as I was to travel in this
country at the expence of his most Christian majesty. In short
governor Longueuil loaded me with greater favours than I could
expect or even imagine, both during my present stay and on my
return from Quebec.

The difference between the manners and customs of the French in

Montreal and Canada, and those of the English in the American
colonies, is as great as that between [56]the manners of those two
nations in Europe. The women in general are handsome here; they
are well bred, and virtuous with an innocent and becoming freedom.
They dress out very fine on Sundays; and though on the other days
they do not take much pains with other parts of their dress, yet they
are very fond of adorning their heads, the hair of which is always
curled and powdered, and ornamented with glittering bodkins and
aigrettes. Every day but Sunday, they wear a little neat jacket, and a
short petticoat which hardly reaches half the leg, and in this
particular they seem to imitate the Indian women. The heels of their
shoes are high, and very narrow, and it is surprizing how they walk
on them. In their knowledge of œconomy, they greatly surpass the
English women in the plantations, who indeed have taken the liberty
of throwing all the burthen of housekeeping upon their husbands,
and sit in their chairs all day with folded arms. 16 The women in
Canada on the contrary do not spare themselves, especially among
the common [57]people, where they are always in the fields,
meadows, stables, &c. and do not dislike any work whatsoever.
However, they seem rather remiss in regard to the cleaning of the
utensils, and apartments; for sometimes the floors, both in the town
and country, were hardly cleaned once in six months, which is a
disagreeable sight to one who comes from amongst the Dutch and
English, where the constant scouring and scrubbing of the floors, is
reckoned as important as the exercise of religion itself. To prevent
the thick dust, which is thus left on the floor, from being noxious to
the health, the women wet it several times a day, which renders it
more consistent; repeating the aspersion as often as the dust is dry
and rises again. Upon the whole, however, they are not averse to
the taking a part in all the business of housekeeping; and I have
with pleasure seen the daughters of the better sort of people, and of
the governor himself, not too finely dressed, and going into kitchens
and cellars, to look that every thing be done as it ought.

The men are extremely civil, and take their hats off to every person
indifferently whom they meet in the streets. It is customary to return
a visit the day after you have received one; though one should have
some scores to pay in one day. [58]

I have been told by some among the French, who had gone a
beaver-hunting with the Indians to the northern parts of Canada,
that the animals, whose skins they endeavour to get, and which are
there in great plenty, are beavers, wild cats, or lynxs, and martens.
These animals are the more valued, the further they are caught to
the north, for their skins have better hair, and look better than those
which are taken more southward, and they became gradually better
or worse, the more they are northward or southward.
White Patridges 17 is the name which the French in Canada give to a
kind of birds, abounding during winter near Hudson’s Bay, and which
are undoubtedly our Ptarmigans, or Snow-hens (Tetrao Lagopus).
They are very plentiful at the time of a great frost, and when a
considerable quantity of snow happens to fall. They are described to
me as having rough white feet, and being white all over, except
three or four black feathers in the tail; and they are reckoned very
fine eating. From Edward’s Natural History of Birds (pag. 72.) it
appears, that the ptarmigans are common about Hudson’s Bay 18. [59]

Hares are likewise said to be plentiful near Hudson’s Bay, and they
are abundant even in Canada, where I have often seen, and found
them perfectly corresponding with our Swedish hares. In summer
they have a brownish grey, and in winter a snowy white colour, as
with us 19.

Mechanics, such as architecture, cabinet-work, turning, and the like,

were not yet so forward here as they ought to be; and the English,
in that particular, out do the French. The chief cause of this is, that
scarce any other people than dismissed soldiers come to settle here,
who have not had any opportunity of learning a mechanical trade,
but have sometimes accidentally, and through necessity been
obliged to it. There are however some, who have a good notion of
mechanics, and I saw a person here, who made very good clocks,
and watches, though he had had but very little instruction.

July the 27th. The common house-flies have but been observed in
this country about one hundred and fifty years ago, as I have been
assured by several persons in this town, and in Quebec. All the
Indians assert the same thing, and are of opinion that the
[60]common flies first came over here, with the Europeans and their
ships, which were stranded on this coast. I shall not dispute this;
however, I know, that whilst I was in the desarts between Saratoga
and Crownpoint, or fort St. Frederic, and sat down to rest or to eat,
a number of our common flies always came, and settled on me. It is
therefore dubious, whether they have not been longer in America
than the term above mentioned, or whether they have been
imported from Europe. On the other hand, it may be urged that the
flies were left in those desarts at the time when fort Anne was yet in
a good condition, and when the English often travelled there and
back again; not to mention that several Europeans, both before and
after that time, had travelled through those places, and carried the
flies with them, which were attracted by their provisions.

Wild Cattle are abundant in the southern parts of Canada, and have
been there since times immemorial. They are plentiful in those parts,
particularly where the Illinois Indians live, which are nearly in the
same latitude with Philadelphia; but further to the north they are
seldom observed. I saw the skin of a wild ox to-day; it was as big as
one of the largest ox hides in Europe, [61]but had better hair. The
hair is dark brown, like that on a brown bear-skin. That which is
close to the skin, is as soft as wool. This hide was not very thick;
and in general they do not reckon them so valuable as bear-skins in
France. In winter they are spread on the floors, to keep the feet
warm. Some of these wild cattle, as I am told, have a long and fine
wool, as good, if not better, than sheep wool. They make stockings,
cloth, gloves, and other pieces of worsted work of it, which look as
well as if they were made of the best sheep wool; and the Indians
employ it for several uses. The flesh equals the best beef in
goodness and fatness. Sometimes the hides are thick, and may be
made use of as cow-hides are in Europe. The wild cattle in general
are said to be stronger and bigger, than European cattle, and of a
brown red colour. Their horns are but short, though very thick close
to the head. These and several other qualities, which they have in
common with, and in greater perfection than the tame cattle, have
induced some to endeavour to tame them; by which means they
would obtain the advantages arising from their goodness of hair,
and, on account of their great strength, be able to employ them
[62]successfully in agriculture. With this view some have repeatedly
got young wild calves, and brought them up in Quebec, and other
places, among the tame cattle; but they commonly died in three or
four years time; and though they have seen people every day, yet
they have always retained a natural ferocity. They have constantly
been very shy, pricked up their ears at the sight of a man, and
trembled, or run about; so that the art of taming them has not
hitherto been found out. Some have been of opinion, that these
cattle cannot well bear the cold; as they never go north of the place
I mentioned, though the summers be very hot, even in those
northern parts. They think that, when the country about the Illinois
will be better peopled, it will be more easy to tame these cattle, and
that afterwards they might more easily be used to the northerly
climates 20. The Indians and French in Canada, make use of the
horns of these creatures to put gun-powder in. I have briefly
mentioned the wild cattle in the former parts of this journey 21. [63]

The peace, which was concluded between France and England, was
proclaimed this day. The soldiers were under arms; the artillery on
the walls was fired off, and some salutes were given by the small
fire-arms. All night some fireworks were exhibited, and the whole
town was illuminated. All the streets were crowded with people, till
late at night. The governor invited me to supper, and to partake of
the joy of the inhabitants. There were present a number of officers,
and persons of distinction; and the festival concluded with the
greatest joy.

July the 28th. This morning I accompanied the governor, baron

Longueuil, and his family, to a little island called Magdelene, which is
his own property. It lies in the river St. Lawrence, directly opposite
to the town, on the eastern side. The governor had here a very neat
house, though it was not very large, a fine extensive garden, and a
court-yard. The river passes between the town and this island, and is
very rapid. Near the town it is deep enough for yachts; but towards
the island it grows more shallow, so that they are obliged to push
the boats forwards with poles. There was a mill on the island, turned
by the mere force of the stream, without an additional mill-dam. [64]

The smooth sumach, or Rhus glabra, grows in great plenty here. I

have no where seen it so tall as in this place, where it had
sometimes the height of eight yards, and a proportionable thickness.

Sassafras is planted here; for it is never found wild in these parts,

fort Anne being the most northerly place where I have found it wild.
Those shrubs which were on the island, had been planted many
years ago; however, they were but small shrubs, from two to three
feet high, and scarce so much. The reason is, because the stem is
killed every winter, almost down to the very root, and must produce
new shoots every spring, as I have found from my own observations
here; and so it appeared to be near the forts Anne, Nicholson, and
Oswego. It will therefore be in vain to attempt to plant sassafras in a
very cold climate.

The red Mulberry-trees (Morus rubra, Linn.) are likewise planted

here. I saw four or five of them about five yards high, which the
governor told me, had been twenty years in this place, and were
brought from more southerly parts, since they do not grow wild near
Montreal. The most northerly place, where I have found it growing
spontaneously, is about twenty English miles north of Albany, as I
have [65]been assured by the country people, who live in that place,
and who at the same time informed me, that it was very scarce in
the woods. When I came to Saratoga, I enquired whether any of
these mulberry-trees had been found in that neighbourhood? but
every body told me, that they were never seen in those parts, but
that the before mentioned place, twenty miles above Albany, is the
most northern one where they grow. Those mulberry-trees, which
were planted on this island, succeed very well, though they are
placed in a poor soil. Their foliage is large and thick, but they did not
bear any fruits this year. However, I was informed that they can bear
a considerable degree of cold.

The Waterbeech was planted here in a shady place, and was grown
to a great height. All the French hereabouts call it Cotonier 22. It is
never found wild near the river St. Lawrence; nor north of fort St.
Frederic, where it is now very scarce.

The red Cedar is called Cedre rouge by the French, and it was
likewise planted in the governor’s garden, whither it had been
brought from more southern parts, for it is not to be met with in the
forests hereabouts. [66]However, it came on very well here.

About half an hour after seven in the evening we left this pleasant
island, and an hour after our return the baron de Longueuil received
two agreeable pieces of news at once. The first was, that his son,
who had been two years in France, was returned; and the second,
that he had brought with him the royal patents for his father, by
which he was appointed governor of Montreal, and the country
belonging to it.

They make use of fans here, which are made of the tails of the wild
turkeys. As soon as the birds are shot, their tails are spread like
fans, and dried, by which means they keep their figure. The ladies
and the men of distinction in town wear these fans, when they walk
in the streets, during the intenseness of the heat.

All the grass on the meadows round Montreal, consists chiefly of a

species of Meadow-grass, or the Poa capillaris, Linn. 23 This is a very
slender grass, which grows very close, and succeeds even on the
driest hills. It is however not rich in foliage; and the slender stalk is
chiefly used for hay. [67]We have numerous kinds of grasses in
Sweden, which make infinitely finer meadows than this.

July the 30th. The wild Plumb-trees grow in great abundance on the
hills, along the rivulets about the town. They were so loaded with
fruit, that the boughs were quite bent downwards by the weight.
The fruit was not yet ripe, but when it comes to that perfection, it
has a red colour and a fine taste, and preserves are sometimes
made of it.

Black Currants (Ribes nigrum, Linn.) are plentiful in the same places,
and its berries were ripe at this time. They are very small, and not
by far so agreeable as those in Sweden.

Parsneps grow in great abundance on the rising banks of rivers,

along the corn-fields, and in other places. This led me to think, that
they were original natives of America, and not first brought over by
the Europeans. But on my journey into the country of the Iroquois,
where no European ever had a settlement, I never once saw it,
though the soil was excellent; and from hence it appears plain
enough, that it was transported hither from Europe, and is not
originally an American plant; and therefore it is in vain sought for in
any part of this continent [68]except among the European
settlements.

August the 1st. The governor-general of Canada commonly resides

at Quebec; but he frequently goes to Montreal, and generally spends
the winter there. In summer he chiefly resides at Quebec, on
account of the king’s ships, which arrive there during that season,
and bring him letters, which he must answer; besides other business
which comes in about that time. During his residence in Montreal he
lives in the castle, as it is called, which is a large house of stone,
built by governor-general Vaudreuil, and still belonging to his family,
who hire it to the king. The governor-general de la Galissonniere is
said to like Montreal better than Quebec, and indeed the situation of
the former is by far the more agreeable one.

They have in Canada scarce any other but paper-currency. I hardly

ever saw any coin, except French sols, consisting of brass, with a
very small mixture of silver; they were quite thin by constant
circulation, and were valued at a sol and a half. The bills are not
printed, but written. Their origin is as follows. The French king
having found it very dangerous to send money [69]for the pay of the
troops, and other purposes, over to Canada, on account of
privateers, shipwrecks, and other accidents; he ordered that instead
of it the intendant, or king’s steward, at Quebec, or the commissary
at Montreal, is to write bills for the value of the sums which are due
to the troops, and which he distributes to each soldier. On these bills
is inscribed, that they bear the value of such or such a sum, till next
October; and they are signed by the intendant, or the commissary;
and in the interval they bear the value of money. In the month of
October, at a certain stated time, every one brings the bills in his
possession to the intendant at Quebec, or the commissary at
Montreal, who exchanges them for bills of exchange upon France,
which are paid there in lawful money, at the king’s exchequer, as
soon as they are presented. If the money is not yet wanted, the bill
may be kept till next October, when it may be exchanged by one of
those gentlemen, for a bill upon France. The paper money can only
be delivered in October, and exchanged for bills upon France. They
are of different values, and some do not exceed a livre, and perhaps
some are still less. Towards autumn when the merchants ships come
in from France, the merchants endeavour [70]to get as many bills as
they can, and change them for bills upon the French treasury. These
bills are partly printed, spaces being left for the name, sum, &c. But
the first bill, or paper currency is all wrote, and is therefore subject
to be counterfeited, which has sometimes been done; but the great
punishments, which have been inflicted upon the authors of these
forged bills, and which generally are capital, have deterred people
from attempting it again; so that examples of this kind are very
scarce at present. As there is a great want of small coin here, the
buyers, or sellers, were frequently obliged to suffer a small loss, and
could pay no intermediate prices between one livre and two 24.

They commonly give one hundred and fifty livres a year to a faithful
and diligent footman, and to a maid-servant of the same character
one hundred livres. A journeymen to an artist gets three or four
livres a day, and a common labouring man gets thirty or forty sols a
day. The scarcity of labouring people occasions the wages to be so
high; for almost every body finds [71]it so easy to set up as a farmer
in this uncultivated country, where he can live well, and at a small
expence, that he does not care to serve and work for others.

Montreal is the second town in Canada, in regard to size and wealth;

but it is the first on account of its fine situation, and mild climate.
Somewhat above the town, the river St. Lawrence divides into
several branches, and by that means forms several islands, among
which the isle of Montreal is the greatest. It is ten French miles long,
and near four broad, in its broadest part. The town of Montreal is
built on the eastern side of the island, and close to one of the most
considerable branches of the river St. Lawrence; and thus it receives
a very pleasant, and advantageous situation. The town has a
quadrangular form, or rather it is a rectangular parallelogram, the
long and eastern side of which extends along the great branch of
the river. On the other side it is surrounded with excellent corn-
fields, charming meadows, and delightful woods. It has got the
name of Montreal from a great mountain, about half a mile
westwards of the town, and lifting its head far above the woods.
Mons. Cartier, one of the first Frenchmen who surveyed Canada
more accurately, called this [72]mountain so, on his arrival in this
island, in the year 1535, when he visited the mountain, and the
Indian town Hoshelaga near it. The priests who, according to the
Roman catholic way, would call every place in this country after
some saint or other, called Montreal, Ville Marie, but they have not
been able to make this name general, for it has always kept its first
name. It is pretty well fortified, and surrounded with a high and
thick wall. On the east side it has the river St. Lawrence, and on all
the other sides a deep ditch filled with water, which secures the
inhabitants against all danger from the sudden incursions of the
enemy’s troops. However, it cannot long stand a regular siege,
because it requires a great garrison, on account of its extent; and
because it consists chiefly of wooden houses. Here are several
churches, of which I shall only mention that belonging to the friars
of the order of St. Sulpitius, that of the Jesuits, that of the
Franciscan friars, that belonging to the nunnery, and that of the
hospital; of which the first is however by far the finest, both in
regard to its outward and inward ornaments, not only in this place,
but in all Canada. The priests of the seminary of St. Sulpitius have a
fine large house, where [73]they live together. The college of the
Franciscan friars is likewise spacious, and has good walls, but it is
not so magnificent as the former. The college of the Jesuits is small,
but well built. To each of these three buildings are annexed fine
large gardens, for the amusement, health, and use of the
communities to which they belong. Same of the houses in the town
are built of stone, but most of them are of timber, though very
neatly built. Each of the better sort of houses has a door towards
the street, with a seat on each side of it, for amusement and
recreation in the morning and evening. The long streets are broad
and strait, and divided at right angles by the short ones: some are
paved, but most of them very uneven. The gates of the town are
numerous; on the east side of the town towards the river are five,
two great and three lesser ones; and on the other side are likewise
several. The governor-general of Canada, when he is at Montreal,
resides in the castle, which the government hires for that purpose of
the family of Vaudreuil; but the governor of Montreal is obliged to
buy or hire a house in town; though I was told, that the government
contributed towards paying the rents.

In the town is a Nunnery, and without [74]its walls half a one; for
though the last was quite ready, however, it had not yet been
confirmed by the pope. In the first they do not receive every girl that
offers herself; for their parents must pay about five hundred ecus, or
crowns, for them. Some indeed are admitted for three hundred ecus,
but they are obliged to serve those who pay more than they. No
poor girls are taken in.

The king has erected a hospital for sick soldiers here. The sick
person there is provided with every thing he wants, and the king
pays twelve sols every day for his stay, attendance, &c. The
surgeons are paid by the king. When an officer is brought to this
hospital, who is fallen sick in the service of the crown, he receives
victuals and attendance gratis: but if he has got a sickness in the
execution of his private concerns, and comes to be cured here, he
must pay it out of his own purse. When there is room enough in the
hospital, they likewise take in some of the sick inhabitants of the
town and country. They have the medicines, and the attendance of
the surgeons, gratis, but must pay twelve sols per day for meat, &c.

Every Friday is a market-day, when the country people come to the

town with provisions, and those who want them must [75]supply
themselves on that day, because it is the only market-day in the
whole week. On that day likewise a number of Indians come to
town, to sell their goods, and buy others.

The declination of the magnetic needle was here ten degrees and
thirty-eight minutes, west. Mr. Gillion, one of the priests here, who
had a particular taste for mathematicks and astronomy, had drawn a
meridian in the garden of the seminary, which he said he had
examined repeatedly by the sun and stars, and found to be very
exact. I compared my compass with it, taking care, that no iron was
near it, and found its declination just the same, as that which I have
before mentioned.

According to Mons. Gillion’s observations, the latitude of Montreal is

forty-five degrees and twenty-seven minutes.

Monsr. Pontarion, another priest, had made thermometrical

observations in Montreal, from the beginning of this year 1749. He
made use of Reaumur’s thermometer, which he placed sometimes in
a window half open, and sometimes in one quite open, and
accordingly it will seldom mark the greatest degree of cold in the air.
However, I shall give a short abstract of his observations for the
winter months. In January [76]the greatest cold was on the 18th day
of the month, when the Reaumurian thermometer was twenty-three
degrees below the freezing point. The least degree of cold was on
the 31st of the same month, when it was just at the freezing point,
but most of the days of this month it was from twelve to fifteen
degrees below the freezing point. In February the greatest cold was
on the 19th, and 25th, when the thermometer was fourteen degrees
below the freezing point; and the least was on the 3d day of that
month, when it rose eight degrees above the freezing point; but it
was generally eleven degrees below it. In March the greatest cold
was on the 3d, when it was ten degrees below the freezing point,
and on the 22d, 23d, and 24th, it was mildest, being fifteen degrees
above it: in general it was four degrees below it. In April the
greatest degree of cold happened on the 7th, the thermometer
being five degrees below the freezing point; the 25th was the
mildest day, it being twenty degrees above the freezing point; but in
general it was twelve degrees above it. These are the contents
chiefly of Mons. Pontarion’s observations during those months; but I
found, by the manner he made his observations, that the cold had
every day been [77]from four to six degrees greater, than he had
marked it. He had likewise marked in his journal, that the ice in the
river St. Lawrence broke on the 3d of April at Montreal, and only on
the 20th day of that month at Quebec. On the 3d of May some trees
began to flower at Montreal, and on the 12th the hoary frost was so
great, that the trees were quite covered with it, as with snow. The
ice in the river close to this town is every winter above a French foot
thick, and sometimes it is two of such feet, as I was informed by all
whom I consulted on that head.

Several of the friars here told me, that the summers were
remarkably longer in Canada, since its cultivation, than they used to
be before; it begins earlier, and ends later. The winters on the other
hand are much shorter; but the friars were of opinion, that they
were as hard as formerly, though they were not of the same
duration; and likewise, that the summer at present was no hotter,
than it used to be. The coldest winds at Montreal are those from the
north and north-west.

August the 2d. Early this morning we left Montreal, and went in a
bateau on our journey to Quebec, in company with the second major
of Montreal, M. de Sermonvile. [78]We fell down the river St.
Lawrence, which was here pretty broad on our left; on the north-
west side was the isle of Montreal, and on the right a number of
other isles, and the shore. The isle of Montreal was closely inhabited
along the river; and it was very plain, and the rising land near the
shore consisted of pure mould, and was between three or four yards
high. The woods were cut down along the river-side, for the distance
of an English mile. The dwelling-houses were built of wood, or
stone, indiscriminately, and white-washed on the outside. The other
buildings, such as barns, stables, &c. were all of wood. The ground
next to the river was turned either into corn-fields, or meadows.
Now and then we perceived churches on both sides of the river, the
steeples of which were generally on that side of the church, which
looked towards the river, because they are not obliged here to put
the steeples on the west end of the churches. Within six French
miles of Montreal we saw several islands of different sizes on the
river, and most of them were inhabited; and if some of them were
without houses on them, they were sometimes turned into corn-
fields, but generally into meadows. We saw no mountains, hills,
rocks, or stones to-day, the [79]country being flat throughout, and
consisting of pure mould.

All the farms in Canada stand separate from each other, so that each
farmer has his possessions entirely distinct from those of his
neighbour. Each church, it is true, has a little village near it; but that
consists chiefly of the parsonage, a school for the boys and girls of
the place, and of the houses of tradesmen, but rarely of farm-
houses; and if that was the case, yet their fields were separated.
The farm-houses hereabouts are generally built all along the rising
banks of the river, either close to the water or at some distance from
it, and about three or four arpens from each other. To some farms
are annexed small orchards; but they are in general without them;
however, almost every farmer has a kitchen-garden.

I have been told by all those who have made journies to the
southern parts of Canada, and to the river Mississippi, that the
woods there abound with peach-trees, which bear excellent fruit,
and that the Indians of those parts say, that those trees have been
there since times immemorial.

The farm-houses are generally built of stone, but sometimes of

timber, and have three or four rooms. The windows are [80]seldom of
glass, but most frequently of paper. They have iron stoves in one of
the rooms, and chimnies in the rest. The roofs are covered with
boards. The crevices and chinks are filled up with clay. The other
buildings are covered with straw.

There are several Crosses put up with the road side, which is parallel
to the shores of the river. These crosses are very common in
Canada, and are put up to excite devotion in the travellers. They are
made of wood, five or six yards high, and proportionally broad. In
that side which looks towards the road is a square hole, in which
they place an image of our Saviour, the cross, or of the holy Virgin,
with the child in her arms; and before that they put a piece of glass,
to prevent its being spoiled by the weather. Those crosses which are
not far from churches, are very much adorned, and they put up
about them all the instruments which they think the Jews employed
in crucifying our Saviour, such as a hammer, tongs, nails, a flask of
vinegar, and perhaps many more than were really made use of. A
figure of the cock, which crowed when St. Peter denied our Lord, is
commonly put at the top of the cross.

The country on both sides was very delightful [81]to-day, and the fine
state of its cultivation, added greatly to the beauty of the scene. It
could really be called a village, beginning at Montreal, and ending at
Quebec, which is a distance of more than one hundred and eighty
miles; for the farm-houses are never above five arpens, and
sometimes but three, asunder, a few places excepted. The prospect
is exceedingly beautiful, when the river goes on for some miles
together in a strait line, because it then shortens the distances
between the houses, and makes them form exactly one continued
village.

All the women in the country, without exception, wear caps of some
kind or other. Their jackets are short, and so are their petticoats,
which scarce reach down to the middle of their legs; and they have
a silver cross hanging down on the breast. In general they are very
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