and of better appointment; but in Upper Canada, where
the traces of civilisation are less evident throughout,
and become gradually more faint as we advance westward,
the fortresses and harbours bear the same proportion In
strength and extent to the scantiness of the population
they are erected to protect. Even at the present day,
along that line of remote country we have selected for
the theatre of our labours, the garrisons are both few
in number and weak in strength, and evidence of cultivation
is seldom to be found at any distance in the interior;
so that all beyond a certain extent of clearing, continued
along the banks of the lakes and rivers, is thick,
impervious, rayless forest, the limits of which have
never yet been explored, perhaps, by the natives themselves.

Such being the general features of the country even at
the present day, it will readily be comprehended how much
more wild and desolate was the character they exhibited
as far back as the middle of the last century, about
which period our story commences. At that epoch, it will
be borne in mind, what we have described as being the
United States were then the British colonies of America
dependent on the mother-country; while the Canadas, on
the contrary, were, or had very recently been, under the
dominion of France, from whom they had been wrested after
a long struggle, greatly advanced in favour of England
by the glorious battle fought on the plains of Abraham,
near Quebec, and celebrated for the defeat of Montcalm
and the death of Wolfe.