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When Peter Kalm, the famous Scandinavian naturalist and traveller, paid his visit to the colony in 1748 he found 'white wheat most commonly in the fields. But oats, rye, and barley were also grown. Some of the habitants grew maize in great quantities, while nearly all raised vegetables of various sorts, chiefly cabbages, pumpkins, and coarse melons.
The Count grew great while speaking: his listeners were carried away by the magic of his voice and the clearness of his intellect. He was very happy this morning by the side of his old friend, Peter Kalm, who was paying him a most welcome visit in New France.
Tea soothes the nerves; it clears the blood, expels vapors from the brain, and restores the fountain of life to pristine activity. Ergo, it prolongs the existence of both men and nations, and has made China the most antique nation in the world." Herr Kalm was a devotee to the tea-cup; he drank it strong to excite his flagging spirits, weak to quiet them down.
So Esbern, who, though a lover, was a manly-hearted youth, and thought it shame to be mocked by a girl's light tongue, left her there and went away, not angry, but very sorrowful. Little Resa came to summon her sister. But Hyldreda trembled before the gathering storm, for widow Kalm, though a tender mother, was one who well knew how to rule.
Kalm has much that is good in his travels in North America, and often cites Franklin, but did not altogether understand what he said, and Franklin never saw Kalm's book until he came across a German translation in Hanover.
This process was especially rapid during the French wars, when the assemblies were enabled to exact tremendous concessions in return for indispensable aid against the common enemy. "The New York Assembly," said Peter Kalm about 1750, "may be looked upon as a Parliament or Diet in miniature. Everything relating to the good of the province is here debated."
"Your friend, Herr Kalm, has left us, fortunately, before he could record in his book, for all Europe to read, that men are murdered in New France to sate the vengeance of a Royal Intendant and fill the purses of the greatest company of thieves that ever plundered a nation."
Babet Le Nocher, in a new gown, short enough to reveal a pair of shapely ankles in clocked stockings and well-clad feet that would have been the envy of many a duchess, sat on the thwart of the boat knitting. Her black hair was in the fashion recorded by the grave Peter Kalm, who, in his account of New France, says, "The peasant women all wear their hair in ringlets, and nice they look!"
Herr Kalm was enthusiastic in his admiration, moonlight over Drachenfels on the Rhine, or the midnight sun peering over the Gulf of Bothnia, reminded him of something similar, but of nothing so grand on the whole as the matchless scene visible from Cape Diamond worthy of its name. Lady de Tilly received her visitors with the gracious courtesy habitual to her.
"Till men see Quebec," replied Kalm, "they will not fully realize the meaning of the term, 'God's footstool. It is a land worth living for!" "Not only a land to live for, but a land to die for, and happy the man who dies for it! Confess, Kalm, thou who hast travelled in all lands, think'st thou not it is indeed worthy of its proud title of New France?"
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