As early as A. D. 1700 a boat canal was constructed by the Sulpicians to connect Lachine with Montreal _via_ the Little St. Pierre River. The depth of water was only two and a half feet. About the year 1780 certain short cuttings with locks available for canoes and bateaux were made at a few points on the St. Lawrence where the rapids were wholly impassable. About the beginning of the century the Government of Lower Canada, appreciating the advantages of improved navigation, made liberal appropriations to that end, resulting in the completion, in 1804, of a channel three feet in depth along the shore line of the Lachine Rapids connected with short canals at the Cascades, Split Rock, and Coteau du Lac, which were provided with locks eighty-eight feet long and sixteen feet wide—small dimensions, perhaps, but at the time regarded as a vast improvement, admitting of the passage of “Durham boats,” which then took the place of bateaux, with ten times their capacity. Two small locks had also been built at the Long Sault rapids, above Cornwall. But at many points the aid of oxen and horses was required, and for many years, up to the opening of the St. Lawrence canals, indeed, the chief cash revenues of the farmers along the river front were derived from the towage of barges up the swift water, in many cases to the serious neglect of their farms. In the spirit of the religion of the early voyageurs and boatmen, crosses were erected at the head of the rapids, suggesting to those who had successfully surmounted them to rest and be thankful; hence the name, still applied to the district immediately above the Long Sault rapids, “Santa Cruz.” Here, no doubt, stood for many years one of the holy crosses before which, on bended knee, thanks would often be given for a safe ascent of the rapids.
The mail service in these days between Montreal and Kingston was in keeping with the times. It was undertaken by a walking contractor, who with the mail on his back took up his line of march from Montreal, gauging his speed to accomplish the walk to Kingston and return in fourteen days.[43]
A good many years later it was a four days’ journey from Montreal to New York by the most expeditious route then existing. Thus it was advertised in the Montreal _Gazette_, November 25th, 1827: