The Emigrant's Guide to North America

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

By the 19th century, in the wake of failed Jacobite rebellions against
the English, the Highland clearances, and grinding poverty, many Scots
were seeking a new life in Canada, settling in places as far apart as
Glengarry county in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Many works have been
written about these political refugees and commercial adventurers, none
more interesting than Robert MacDougall’s The Emigrant’s Guide to
North America, originally published in Gaelic for future Highland
colonists.

MacDougall (1813–1887) spent three years in Canada (1836–39),
pioneering the land in the Huron Tract, Goderich Township, before
returning to Scotland. From there he departed for Australia (1841), but
not before publishing his Guide, a mixture of tourist observations and
practical advice for the prospective emigrant. Divided into 20 brief
chapters, the Guide quotes the Bible, Scottish proverbs, and well-known
Gaelic poems as part of its attempt to persuade MacDougall’s kinsmen
of the benefits—for willing workers—of life in the New World.

In a style that is both personal and declamatory, the eyewitness
narrator discusses many matters: preparations, fares, land-clearing,
crops, grass, sugar-making, horses, cattle, wild animals (bears, wolves,
foxes), flies, and other points of information useful to the potential
emigrant; as well as the interesting literary sketches of places he
visited (Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton) before
settling at Goderich.

The text of the Guide, a restructured version of the 1997 translation
from the Gaelic by David Livingston-Lowe, is preceded by a 22-page
introduction by the editor, Elizabeth Thompson. In addition to notes, a
bibliography, and an index, there are maps, illustrations, photographs,
and three appendixes, including MacDougall’s diary of his voyage to
Australia.

Robert MacDougall may not have the fine touch of such pioneers as
Susanna Moodie or Catharine Parr Traill, but his strong opinions,
commonsense advice and Gaelic-inspired style shine through in this
useful vade mecum, written for another era in Canadian history.