opposite to the settlement of Three Rivers, midway between
Montreal and Quebec. From thence she pursues her course
unfed, except by a few inferior streams, and gradually
widens as she rolls past the capital of the Canadas,
whose tall and precipitous battlements, bristled with
cannon, and frowning defiance from the clouds in which
they appear half imbedded, might be taken by the imaginative
enthusiast for the strong tower of the Spirit of those
stupendous scenes. From this point the St. Lawrence
increases in expanse, until, at length, after traversing
a country where the traces of civilisation become gradually
less and less visible, she finally merges in the gulf,
from the centre of which the shores on either hand are
often invisible to the naked eye; and in this manner is
it imperceptibly lost in that misty ocean, so dangerous
to mariners from its deceptive and almost perpetual fogs.

In following the links of this extensive chain of lakes
and rivers, it must be borne in recollection, that,
proceeding seaward from Michilimackinac and its contiguous
district, all that tract of country which lies to the
right constitutes what is now known as the United States
of America, and all on the left the two provinces of
Upper and Lower Canada, tributary to the English government,
subject to the English laws, and garrisoned by English
troops. The several forts and harbours established along
the left bank of the St. Lawrence, and throughout that
portion of our possessions which is known as Lower Canada,
are necessarily, from the improved condition and more
numerous population of that province, on a larger scale