The weekly Anglo-African., 1860-04-07

/
er Canada to the Detroit River, the dis
lance by an air line is about five hundred
miles. Canada is often described as fat,
marshy country, and is therefore thought
to be very unhealthy and unproductive;
but this can only be said by persons who
have never travelled over and who know
but little of the country This is proven
by the correspondent of the Herald" in
his argument and description of the coun-
try. Those who travel along the railroad
or regular stage routes, which are always
carried over as much level ground as pos
sible, have but little chance to know any
thing of the interior of the country The
surface of by far the major portion of Up
per Canada, or Canada West, is rolling,
and there are many portions that are very
billy. A range of hills, or ridges, that
may almost be termed mountains, extends
through the townships of Albion and Gale
don, and on to Lake Huron, terminating
in the Blue Mountains on the Georgian
Bay. One of these mountains is said to
be over two thousand feet above the level
of the lake. By looking at the map of the
country-which our people ought always
TO do before deciding upon any of these
great questions-and noticing the courses
and the sources of the streams, it is easy
to form tolerably correct Judgment of the
relative height of the land, and of the igno-
rant and absurd idea that because of the
fatness of the country Canada is the hot
bed Of contagious diseases and ague
reigning king.
By this mode of comparison, it will be
observed that the ridge running through
the townships north of Toronto must be
considerably above Lake Ontario, as the
rivers taking their rise in it, and which
flow into Lake Simcoe, after passing down
the falls of the Severn, through the Geor-
gian Bay and Lake Huron, the rapids of
the River St. Clair, Lake ST. Clair, Lake
Erie, and the rapids and falls of Niagara
Dive, e.Atar 7 Ohio Ontario and after ner-
forming circuit of nearly if not quite
eight hundred miles, pass down within
twenty or thirty miles of their source.
Where now. with these geographic facts
before their eyes, does the 'Herald's' cor
respondent and others Of the Satanic
press find evidence for the assertion that
the marshy fairness of the country is so pro-
ductive of ill-health, and therefore that the
physically suffering condition of the col
ored people is deserving of sympathy and
pity? l might ask them what protects the
Yankee refugees from the same regions
that the colored people emigrate from
against this unhealthy condition of the
country?
By this description / have endeavored
to show that the premises on which this ar
gument of physical suffering pretends to
be based is glazing falsehood, which it
needs only man with one eye or one ear,
and an ordinary reasoning power, to dis
Germ; and the statement of the physically
suffering condition of the colored people of
| Canada is about as truthful as the cause
represented as producing it. In that re-
spect think black and white Yankees are
| about "cO,17317,22ibls Cy1727isr
The country lying within the area of
the foregoing described boundary is divid-
ed into twenty districts, which are again
subdivided into counties, rulings, and town
ships. l shall only speak of the principal
or most prominent districts, by which we
may form correct opinion of those of less
Importance, because of their being less
thickly settled. The Western district is
the extreme west point of the province, and
comprises the counties of Essex and Kent
In this district, in 1914, the population
numbered 1858 The number of acres
under cultivation at the same time was 80 ;
726, and there were 1913 common schools
in the district, only FIVE of which were col
ored Since that time the population has
more than tripled itself; there is now as
much land under cultivation in one of the
counties as was at that time cultivated in
the whole district; and there are now sew
enty colored schools, most of which are
well regulated and conducted by colored
teachers More than two-thirds of this in
crease of population since 1874 has been
the product of the Fugitive Slave law and
other tyrannies in the States, which have
driven colored people, bond and free, to
strengthen the bonds of Canadian power.
In evidence of this | will cite one fact, and
l choose the very township spoken of by
the Satanic press as being at the lowest
ebb of moral degradation. e., the town.
ship of Anderdon, in this district. In 1914