Bible needed--Arrogance of American politicians--Trent
Port--Brighton--Murray Canal in embryo--Trent River--Percy and Percy
Landing--Forest Road--A Neck or nothing Leap--Another perilous leap,
and advice about leaping--Life in the Bush exemplified in the History
of a Settler--Seymour West--Prices of Land near the Trent--System of
Barter--Crow Bay--Wild Rice--Healy's Falls--Forsaken Dwellings.

"A truant disposition" took me into another district on my return to
Kingston, as I was thoroughly determined to see a thoroughly new
Canadian settlement, and therefore prepared, by purchasing a new
waggon and a new pair of horses, to start for Seymour West, in the
Newcastle district, some 120 miles north-west, and upwards of twenty
miles in the Bush from the main stream of settlement, where a young
friend was beginning life, for whom the horses, waggon, and sundry
conveniences for farming and a few little luxuries were intended.

A waggon, dear settling reader, in Canada, is not a great lumbering
wooden edifice upon four wheels, whose broad circumferences occupy
about four feet of the road, and contain some ton or two of iron, as
our dear Kentish hop-waggons are wont to show in the Borough of
Southwark, or throughout lordly London, those carrying coals. No, it
is a long box, painted green or red, a perfect parallelogram, with two
seats in it, composed of single boards, and occasionally the luxury of
an open-work back to lean against; which boards are fastened to an ash
frame on each side, thus affording an apology for a spring seat. This
is the body; the soul, or carriage, by which said body is moved,
consists of four narrow wheels, the fore pair traversing by a
primitive pin under the body, the hind pair attached to the vehicle
itself. A pole, or, as it is called, a tongue, projects from the
front, and can be easily detached; _et voila tout_! The expense is
sixteen pounds currency, or about twelve sterling for a first-rate
article, with swingle bars, or, as they are always called here,
"whipple-trees," to attach the traces to. A set of double harness is
six pounds, and two very good horses may be obtained for thirty more,
making in all fifty-two pounds Canada money, or a little more than
forty sterling, for an equipage fit for a gentleman farmer's all work,
namely, to carry a field, or to ride to church and market in.

There are two or three other things requisite, and among the foremost
a first-rate axe. No man sh