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Title: Canoeing in Kanuckia Or Haps and Mishaps Afloat and Ashore of the Statesman, the Editor, the Artist, and the Scribbler Author: Charles Ledyard Norton John Habberton Release Date: June 15, 2016 [EBook #52338] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANOEING IN KANUCKIA *** Produced by David Edwards, Brian Wilsden and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) The cover was produced by the Transciber and is placed in the public domain. Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Accentuation and spelling in French quotations has not been corrected. Page 11: '10. The local Small-boy'. Caption reads '10. The Local Small Boy'. Not changed. Page 11: '32. Wahu ei'. This illustration has been moved from Page 104 to Page 103. Page 11: '50. Down the Rapids 171'. Should read 174. Repaired. Page 11: '51. No Ruins in America (Ruskin) 174'. Should read 170. Page 11: '52. Canadian Loaf, etc 171'. Illustration title reads: 'Two Loaves—a Contrast'. Not changed. Page 11: '57. and 58.' These two entries reversed in original. Repaired. Page 25: 'modern canoeing dates'. Double quotation mark added. '"modern canoeing dates'. Page 87: [Footnote 3:] The author has crossed out "Cook", "Cherub" and "Becky Sharp" and added above "Commodore", "Becky Sharp" and "Cherub" respectively. By JOHN HABBERTON. I. OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN. By the author of "Helen's Babies," $1 25 II. BUDGE AND TODDIE. An Illustrated Edition of "Other People's Children," 1 75 III. THE SCRIPTURE CLUB OF VALLEY REST; or, Sketches of Everybody's Neighbors, 1 00 IV. THE BARTON EXPERIMENT, 1 00 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, New York. [Pg 1] The Cook Jibes. [Pg 2] CANOEING IN KANUCKIA OR HAPS AND MISHAPS A F L O AT A N D A S H O R E OF THE STATESMAN, THE EDITOR, THE ARTIST, AND THE SCRIBBLER RECORDED BY THE COMMODORE AND THE COOK (C. L. NORTON AND JOHN HABBERTON) ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 182 Fifth Avenue 1878. [Pg 5] Copyright by G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1873. [Pg 6] DEDICATION. THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO THE MEMORY OF KING CANUTE, WHO TOOK A ROYAL DUCKING WITH AN EQUANIMITY WHICH FAIRLY ENTITLES HIM TO RECOGNITION BY THE CANOE CLUB. [Pg 7] M PREFACE. ELANCHOLY as the admission must necessarily be to persons with aspirations toward literary Art, the authors are forced to acknowledge that most of the incidents recounted therein actually occurred during a canoeing cruise to the Northward, in which they were participants; that the localities described have a geographical existence, and that the persons introduced and the experiences recorded are, with trifling exceptions, true to the life. They frankly admit that they might not have been so truthful had they suffered from lack of incident, but their perplexities have arisen from too much good material instead of too little. Departures from strict veracity have been made solely on the ground of good fellowship. The authors being blessed with ordinary human perception, it is not strange that they fully realize their own superiority to their companions in point of virtue, manliness, good-seamanship, personal appearance, adaptability, etc., etc. They have thought it simply honorable, therefore, to separate individual traits and experiences, each by themselves, and redistribute them without prejudice or partiality among the entire quartette. As the effect of this generosity has been to cause some doubt on the part of each member of the expedition as to his own personal identity, it is certain that no one of them can be successfully reconstructed by any outsider. How unalloyed a blessing the public thus enjoys, is not for the self-renouncing authors to point out in detail. P. S. by the Cook. It has been found impracticable to prevent the Commodore from causing to be inserted in the following pages certain efforts of his own which he is pleased to denominate "Sketches." He is apparently actuated by the hope that they will pass for professional work. The real Artist of the expedition, however, being solicitous regarding his own reputation, wishes it distinctly understood that he is responsible only for those illustrations which are signed by him in full, and has deputed the Cook to warn the public to this effect. [Pg 8] CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 15 I. Getting under way 21 II. Cooks and Coffee Pots and Seamanship 38 III. The Cook studies Navigation 49 IV. The Wreck of the Rochefort 68 V. Sunshine and Shadow 80 VI. My Native Land Farewell 88 VII. Garrison Life 111 VIII. The Beginning of Acadia 129 IX. Areas of Rain 145 X. Acadia 166 XI. Several Other Days 181 XII. A Change of Scene 206 XIII. Swift Water 212 XIV. More Rapids 223 XV. The Beginning of the End 229 Appendix 249 [Pg 9] [Pg 10] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 1. The Cook Jibes 2 2. The Authors 20 3. Mlle. Rochefort at home 22 4. Chrysalis and Chrysalid 23 5. The Twins 24 6. Kayak Birch, Rob Roy 26 7. Under full sail—Chrysalid 28 8. Close hauled. Red Laker 30 9. The Quartette 32 10. The local Small-boy 33 11. Coffee Pot before 43 12. Coffee Pot after 44 13. A Sporhungan 46 14. The Sanctuary 48 15. The Cook selects a Boom 50 16. Gosh 57 17. The Vice's Boom toggle 58 18. The Commodore's Sprit 59 19. Island Camp 61 20. A Vigorous Pull 63 21. A little too vigorous 65 22. Aquatic Leap frog 66 23. "His ship she was a wrack" 69 24. The Cook's Tent 77, 78 25. Green grow the rushes 83 26. "But the Consul's brow was sad" 89 27. The United States Garrison 93 28. The Purser on British Soil 94 29. A Canoe Seat 99 30. The Picturesque afar 101 31. The Picturesque anear 102 32. Wahu ei 103 33. Supper Table 107 34. An unknown Fortress 112 35. The British Garrison 115 36. The Sally Port 116 37. The Vampire Bat 118 38. The Commandant 120 39. The Commandant's Lady 122 40. The Dock 133 41. Under the Elms 139 42. The Enchantress 142 43. Boat, Aristocratic 146 44. Boat, Plebeian 146 45. The Commodore Weather-bound 147 46. Aux Armes Citoyennes 153 47. Alone with his Conscience 159 48. The Typical Church 161 49. Water Front 168 50. Down the Rapids 174 51. No Ruins in America (Ruskin) 170 [Pg 11] [Pg 12-14] 52. Canadian Loaf, etc. 171 53. A Quiet Cove 177 54. A Charming Landscape 186 55. A shock to the Commodore's Nerves 188 56. Use Laundry Soap and be Happy 205 57. In the Second Rapids 208 58. Down the Race 210 59. The Vice sits for his Portrait 218 60. Comparative Coffee Cups 226 "G INTRODUCTORY. O see her?—certainly I will!" said the Artist. "So will I!" exclaimed the Scribbler, jumping to his feet and rearranging his neck-tie; "if she is half as beautiful as you say, I'd go every day to see her, even were the trip twice the score of miles that it is." "And I," said the Editor, replacing in his vest-pocket the folding-scissors which he nervously fingered by force of professional habit. "'Tis done, then," said the Statesman, "she will be at my house to-morrow evening and the winter through, but she is particularly handsome and graceful just now, and there's no time like the present, you know. Dine with me to-morrow evening: I'll give you a tip-top spread, but when you see her you'll forget it all." "We will come!" shouted the Artist, the Scribbler and the Editor in chorus, and when twenty-four hours later the trio fulfilled their promise, they admitted that the half had not been told them. They exhibited however, none of that unseemly jealousy which would naturally be expected from a trio of admirers at sight of an almost phenomenal beauty, for the object of their admiration was a canoe, and accepted their attentions with an impartiality which would have been the envy of any society queen. She occupied the study of the Statesman, and covered almost as much space as if she were a lady with a train of the first magnitude; she was in every line the embodiment of grace, and her beauty was not entirely independent of paint and other cosmetics. But here the parallel ceased. In visiting a canoe the visitor enjoys certain liberties which are not admissible during an ordinary evening call. A gentleman may speak in most enthusiastic praise of a canoe, and right to her face, without being suspected of a desire to flirt; he may criticise freely without seeming unmannerly; he may even talk admiringly of other canoes without disturbing the outward or inward complacency of his fair entertainer. He may even unlock his wits with a good cigar without provoking a cough from the fair being, and without compelling her to send her finer adornments to the bleachery next day, or expose them on the family clothes-line, to the purifying breezes of heaven. One may look fixedly by the hour at a beautiful canoe without being guilty of ungentlemanly staring, and may thus call up all those finer sentiments which far transcend the powers of expression, and may thus elevate his own nature to a degree which is unattainable under the restrictions of a fashionable call. He may without offence or even discourtesy, touch her, though if he be a man of true character he can not do so without a struggle with natural timidity, and without a new sense of his own awkwardness. The quartette gazed, and smoked, until the fair outline before them became veiled in the soft haze which so enhances the glories of a perfect form and a rich complexion. They talked, they mused, they talked again; the Artist, the Scribbler and the Editor talked of their own special darlings of the same genus. They mused again, then they fell once more to admiring. The one blot upon the perfection of the being before them was that her sole guardian had christened her "Rochefort," but the Statesman, like statesmen in general, had his weaknesses, and if men cannot be tenderly enduring of the weaknesses of their friends, what statesman can live? At length the Rochefort's protector broke silence by saying, "Can you fellows gaze upon her, and talk of her rivals, and then refuse to go on a cruise this summer?" "Not I!" exclaimed the Editor. "Refuse?" exclaimed the Scribbler, and then he betrayed his Hibernian ancestry by adding, "I'd go alone, for the sake of having her with me." "And I know just where to go," said the Artist. "I know of a picturesque lake whose outlet is a placid river flowing through an Acadia like that which Longfellow has pictured, and breaking at last into wild rapids down which we can run like salmon in the fall." "Is Evangeline still there?" asked the Statesman, with symptoms of lively interest. "She is every where," replied the Artist. "Why," said the Statesman, examining his mental memoranda, "she died two centuries ago." "She is perennial," answered the Artist, and the Statesman inwardly cursed his own literal perceptives. "Let's take our sentiment when we are there," suggested the Editor; "this is the hour for action." The conversation which ensued need not be detailed here. It would consume so much ink and paper as materially to raise the price of these staples. It is sufficient to say that the quartette silenced forever the calumnious statement that only ladies talk two or three at a time, and that the necessary supplies decided upon for the trip exceeded in bulk the cargo of that most capacious vessel, the Mayflower. [Pg 15] [Pg 16] [Pg 17] [Pg 18] The Authors. [Pg 19]