KOHL, J[ean]-G[eorges], Travels in Canada and through the States

KOHL, J[ean]-G[eorges], Travels in Canada and through the States of New York and
Pennsylvania, trans. by Mrs. Percy Sinnett, London, George Manwaring, l861, 2 vol., x-345 p. +
iv-357 p.
Écrivain et voyageur allemand, Jean-Georges Kohl est né à Brême en 1808. Il fait des études de droit
et, en 1832, il devient précepteur des enfants du baron de Manteuffel puis de ceux du comte Medem.
Il fait plusieurs voyages qui lui donnent le goût de publier ses aventures dans des ouvrages qui ont
beaucoup de succès auprès du public. Son goût pour les voyages n'en est que ravivé. Comme il s'est
déjà occupé de recueillir des documents sur l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique, il part pour les
États-Unis en 1854. Là-bas, il travaille de concert avec des historiens et des géographes américains.
On le charge d'écrire une histoire de la découverte des côtes des États-Unis et une histoire des
recherches faites dans le Gulf Stream.
Les passages qui suivent proviennent de la traduction anglaise de Travels in Canada... qui a été
réalisée par Percy Sinnett, une amie de Kohl. Cependant, Kohl a revu le texte anglais afin de vérifier
si tout ce qu'il avait écrit en allemand était bien rendu.1
« CHAPTER X.
THE "ROYAL MOUNTAIN."
THE long and finely-wooded hill, which is, as I have said, the only elevation to be seen for
far and wide upon the flat island between the Ottawa and the St Lawrence, was called by Cartier
the "Royal Mountain" long before a town existed here, and the first little settlement was called
"Ville Marie," a name which is still retained for the Episcopal See.
name of the hill was transferred to the town.
Gradually, however, the
Why the Spanish termination "real" should have
been adopted instead of "Royal," I do not know, but some Canadians have informed me that that
and not "royal" is the old form of the word in Normandy and Canada. The French peasants here
corrupt the name still further and call it "Morreal."
Since the name has been adopted for the
town, the mountain has lost its royalty, and is called not "Montreal," but simply the mountain,
and the city has already began to include it whithin her territory.
The villas and the reservoir
already touch its foot and its lowest spurs in the plain, and about half-way up there is a broad
platform, or natural terrace, passing a considerable way round it, which it is proposed to make
into a public walk, and it will certainly be one of the finest in the world. Another part has been
taken possession of for the dead, and an extensive churchyard laid out, where the monuments are
1
Larousse 1866; KOHL, Travels in Canada..., pp. iii-viii.
grouped in the most picturesque manner, though they are at present far less numerous than the
trees.
[...]
We descended the mountain on its north-western side, which is probably much exposed to
snowstorms, as the little French village lying there at its foot is called the Côte de Neige, its
principal chapel, Chapelle de Notre Dame de Neige, and its chief hotel, Hotel de Neige. This was
the first French, or rather Canadian, village I had seen. The people never call themselves French,
and seem desirous of being regarded as aborigines of the St Lawrence.
A stranger is often
inclined to say, "You are a Frenchman, Sir, are you not?" and will then receive for answer,
"Monsieur, je suis Canadien;" and throughout America, a "Canadian" means a person of French
descent in the colony. Their English fellow-subjects are called "British Canadians."
The French Canadians have almost taken the place of the Indians, from whom they have
derived many traditions and customs, and they speak of themselves as the original inhabitants.
They are mostly regarded by us as horribly stupid, idle, superstitious people – several centuries
behind the rest of the world – a dead weight upon the march of progress, a black spot on the
splendour of intelligence by which they are surrounded.
The traveller is therefore agreeably
surprised when he enters one of those "seats of darkness," a Canadian village.
It was Sunday when we descended into the Côte de Neige. The road was enlivened by
gay promenaders, and pretty little one-horse chaises, in which some inhabitants of the village
were returning from visits that they had been paying to relations and friends – for in their
celebration of the day the French Canadians take the continental view, and consider that it was
given for recreation as well as for prayer. In the pretty quiet cottages, and before the doors, we
saw groups of the villagers engaged in friendly talk, and we ventured to enter one of the most
humble looking, and were immediately understood and welcomed.
The ancient mother, or
grandmother, of the house set a chair for me by the fire, and turned to the other members of the
family as if explaining, "Eh bien, je comprends2 . Monsieur est voyageur, et il veut voir comme on
vit en Conodó." The French of these good people would have been very agreeable if they would
not have called voir, savoir, and croire – vóar, savóar, and cróare, &c. A broad o is constantly
substituted for a – Canada is Conodo, chats are chots, and les basses classes, les bosses closses.
This not very pleasing change proceeds, I understand, from Normandy, whence most of the
2
On lit comprend dans le texte.
Canadians are descended; and other peculiarities of the Canadian dialect are traced to that
province and to Britany and La Vendée, the difference being that here that dialect is spoken by all
classes, and there only by the most uncultivated.
Even well-educated Canadians are quite
unconscious of the difference, and a pretty young Canadian lady once informed me, as of
something quite comic, that the Parisians pretented the Canadians did not speak the purest
French.
She told me this in the most regular Conodo dialect, and then appealed to me as to
whether she had the slightest provincial accent. She said she had once made a tour in France, and
found that the peasantry spoke a much coarser and less intelligible dialect than any in Canada,
and this I could confirm, but I really could not reconcile my conscience to telling her she had no
provincial accent.
In most colonial countries it may be noticed that the language of the higher classes, when
they do not keep up any communication with the refined society and the literature of the old
country, tends to degenerate, while the peasantry, who lead a less narrow and stagnant life than in
their original homes, lose something of their coarseness.
The present Canadian peasants are descended from soldiers, fur hunters, travellers,
squatters, and all sorts of miscellaneous adventurers; and that such simple, honest, well-behaved
people should be the offspring of such parents is a proof that human nature is just as prone, under
certain circumstances, to improve and refine itself, as under others to grow degenerate and
depraved.
As Romulus and his robbers became honourable Quirites, the progeny of voyageurs and
scamps of various species has produced as primitive and innocent a people as Virgil could have
desired for his Idyllic inspirations.
I found myself quite at my ease in this cottage. Besides the old woman who understood
me so immediately, there was a man of middle age, a few boys, a very pleasing, neatly and even
tastefully dressed young girl, and a bunch of little things of various sizes, but all clean and merry.
You never forget for a moment the French descent of these people. Their features, their manners,
their taste in dress, remind you continually of it.
The lively, saucy boys, and the naïve and
amiable little coquette of a girl, were genuinely French, and probably if we had had more time for
observation we should have perceived the same or other traits of character, but all were
considerably softened; the boys were not quite so saucy as the true gamins, the coquetry was not
quite so gross; and all these qualities were mingled and blended in one tone of bonhommie and
hospitality which is by no means characteristic of France. The cottage was in the most exquisite
order, and its inhabitants were quite dazzling in the cleanliness of their snow-white linen. It was
Sunday to be sure, but the every-day costumes that I afterwards saw did no discredit to the
holiday one, in the Côte de Neige -- and I could not help expressing to my old woman the
pleasure their neatness gave me. "Vous êtes bien bon, Monsieur," she replied, "mais l'ordre et la
propreté ce sont des qualités trés3 naturelles.
Une famille malpropre!
Ah Dieu préserve, une
famille malpropre serait bien remarquée dans notre village. Et je croäi c'est le cas dans tout 4 le
Conodó!"
We were driven out of the cottage by the heat of the stove, the only thing in it that we did
not find agreeable.
The Canadians are noted in this country for the high temperature at which
they keep their abodes.
They have great Dutch-tile stoves, in which they keep up the fire the
whole winter, and then enjoy themselves with heat and tobacco to such an extent, that when they
come out in the spring they look quite pale, yellow, and withered.
Now, in the autumn, their
appearance was quite fresh and healthy. » (vol. 1, pp. 96-103)
« Of course we found establishments of the Soeurs de Charité, and the equally selfdevoted Soeurs Grises; and the same cheerfulness, the same bright activity in works of charity,
the same fresh, blooming, joy-beaming faces that I have seen on sisters of charity all over the
world, also met me here. One of them, a handsome young sister, dressed like a Parisian, who
showed us through a range of classrooms and sick wards, I shall never forget.
She was so
zealous that we should see everything quite exactly – all the departments of the bótiment – the
rooms for the aged and infirm – for the young children, et ceteró, et ceteró – that I became quite
charmed with the coarse dialect in which so much piety goodness were expressed. » (vol. 1, p.
110)
[A Beauport] «We found the cottage small but very neat and clean, the windows adorned
with flowers, and a pretty little flower-garden outside. This love of flowers is almost universal
amongst the French settlers, but much less so amongst those of British origin.
Some little
coloured prints of Catholic saints hung on the walls, and some large shells lay as ornaments on
the press. It seemed to me as if I were entering a cottage at Ostend or Boulogne, I had never seen
3
Cette orthographe est bien attestée anciennement (notamment dans le Dictionnaire de l'Académie de 1718 à
1740).
4
On lit tous dans le texte.
in America anything in such old European style.
Three plump, almost too plump, women –
mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law – were seated round a large rough wooden table with two
female neighbours, and all industriously at work, making a holiday gown for one of the party.
Some nice healthy-looking children were also engaged in stuffing something with large needles.
The company were all very friendly and polite, and did not appear in the least disturbed by our
visit. We told them we intended to visit also one of their neighbours, named Bienville. "Ah v'là
Monsieur Bienville! Oh oui, Messieurs, là vous verrez quelque chose – chez nous ça ne vaut pas
la peine. Nous n'avons que de petits emplacemens. Mais Monsieur Bienville c'est un gros
habitant! un des plus gros messieurs dans le village!"
The word paysan appears to be scarcely ever used here. Habitant has quite taken its
place, and has spread over the whole of what was formerly French America. In Louisiana, and
on the lower Mississippi, the French colonists are also called habitant, and their settlements
habitations.
We found the gros habitant busy at a lime-kiln situate on the side of his house near the
river, and we noticed these lime-kilns scattered about everywhere among the houses of the
district.
Monsieur Bienville brushed the lime-dust from his clothes as soon as he learned our
wishes, and accompanied us to his abode, where we found everything very nice, neat, and
pleasant.
We were introduced to the madame and mademoiselles habitantes, charming French
women, who, by their simple, unpretending, and amiable manners, made a very favourable
impression on us.
They entertained us with milk and excellent snow-white bread, which had
been "blessed by the priest," and was specially intented to be given to strangers.
During the
conversation we certainly perceived that these people were deficient in knowledge and education,
but not in natural intelligence or good will. [...] » (vol. 1, pp. 161-162)
« At the western extremity of Canada, on Lake Superior, and near the source of the
Mississippi, and on the Upper Ottawa, the Canadians are also at home. Where steamers and stage
coaches cease, Canadian Voyageurs and Coureurs des Bois supply their place, and undertake the
post and carrying-trade over this fine wilderness. In general the British are more at home in the
fertile and cultivated districts – the French Canadians in the wilder and more remote.
After being further entertained by our friendly host with some "gòteaux" and gossip, and
some stories of the Bótoilles que Napoléon avait gógnées, we took leave of him, and continued
our excursion to the Montmorency Falls. [...] » (vol. 1, pp. 168-169)
« Exactly opposite the fall in the bay, lies a great black mass of rock, which has been
thrown down in some convulsion, and round this the gorgeously-coloured clouds were forming a
rainbow with most picturesque effect.
In winter the spray settles as ice upon it, and then the
block grows into a huge lofty glacier, and is sometimes turned to account by a gay party from
Quebec, as a montagne Russe, or we might say Canadian – for this pleasure is just as much in
vogue on the St Lawrence as at Moscow. The name it bears here is Toboggening, from an old
Indian word, for the practice is also probably an Indian one. Small sledges made in the Indian
fashion are called a Toboggen; they are made like their canoes, out of one piece, and barely
afford room for a lady and gentleman. » (vol. 1, pp. 171-172)
« The class of Canadians most devoted to poetry and song are the Voyageurs – hunters
and furtraders, who pass the greater part of their lives in wandering through the most distant
regions of Canada; and I found in my collections that the songs distinguished as "Chant de
Voyageur Canadien," had more originality and a more popular character than the rest. They are
easily recognised, and almost all begin with the idea of a return to their father's farm-yard, their
sister's flower-garden, or their mother's room. I have, for example, three now lying before me,
one of which begins :
"Par derrière, chez mon père,
Vole mon coeur, vole, vole, vole,
Par derrière, chez mon père,
Il y a un pommier doux, &c."
The second :
"Par derrière, chez ma tante,
Il y a un bois joli,
Le rossignol y chante,
Et le jour et la nuit, &c. "
And the third in the same fashion :
"Derrière, chez nous y a un étang,
Derrière, chez nous y a un étang,
Trois beaux canards s'en vont baignant
Legèrement -- legèrement, &c."
This Derrière chez nous does not mean, I presume, "behind our house," but rather "down there in
our country;" a Voyageur of the North-West might be supposed to look back fondly to his far-off
Canadian home.
When we parted for the night I had almost a quarrel with my good Canadian priest
because I could not understand his last remark. He said, "Lo nuict ä bien noaere – which phrase,
though he repeated it several times, I could by no means make out.
At last he naturally got
impatient, and could not see why his pronunciation made the darkness of his remark equal to that
of the night; to which, as the reader will perceive, he meant to point my attention.
The morning that followed too, though certainly not black or noaere, was at least dark
grey. A thick mist had settled on the river, so that we had to come to anchor in the middle of it,
near the town of Trois[-]Rivières, which lies exactly midway between Quebec and Montreal, at
the entrance to Lake St Peter's, and at the mouth of the great St Maurice river, and is in
population and general importance the third town of Lower Canada. [...] » (vol. 1, pp. 203-205)
« CHAPTER XXVII.
HOAR- FROST.
At midnight, on the evening when I proposed leaving Bytown, I had gone on board the
steamer, and betaken myself quietly to bed in the hope of making, during the night, a
considerable portion of my journey; and late the next morning when the breakfast bell raised its
accustomed clamour through every corner of the vessel, I awoke, wondering not a little that I
should have slept so well in the usually noisy steamer, and found that we were still quietly at
anchor, and the same shore and the same Bytown lay before the windows as the night before.
"What's the matter," I asked of the Canadian steward, for, to the joy of the traveller, the servants
on the Ottawa, as well as the St Lawrence, are French or Canadians, that is to say, cheerful,
polite, and complaisant, in fact, perfect. "Nous nous sommes arrêtés toute la nuit, Monsieur, il
fait un temps boucaneux, ce que nous appelons5 la brâme. Voilà Bytown, voilà les Chaudieres6 ,
et tout ce que vous avez quitté hier soir."
Although I did not know before what a "temps boucaneux," and "ce que nous appelons7
la brâme," signified, for the words are not to be found in the Dictionary of the French Academy, I
soon found it out, for, as I went on deck to see what I could see, I saw nothing, or at least only a
thick fog, which did not disperse before the sun till ten in the morning. I did not regret the delay,
for when at last we got into motion, I was enabled to see many parts of the river that we had
passed in the night when I came. I thought I could distinguish through the still-hovering mist, the
renowned Rideau Fall. » (vol. 1, pp. 286-287)
5
appellons dans le texte.
6
On lit Chandieres dans le texte. Sur ce toponyme, lire la note 2 du document 26 (L'Amérique telle qu'elle est...).
7
L'auteur avait, ici également, noté appellons.