The story begins in England with a reasonably well-off family who have inherited the family estate. Their eldest son has gone to college and the second son is in the navy. One day a claimant to the estate appears. His claim proves to be true and the Campbells must give up the estate. Mr. Campbell had given up his business to take over the estate and with the legal costs as well they have very little money left. They just have enough to journey to emigrate to Canada, and take up a settlement near Lake Ontario. The family is united in their troubles and they pull together to make their farm a success, in the process, dealing with the weather, hostile natives and forest fires. They are aided by an eccentric but helpful hunter Malachi Bone, and they rescue young Percival from hostile Indians and welcome new immigrants to their farm. Eventually a letter arrives to say that the relative who had taken the estate, has died, and it is now theirs once again. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell travel home and the rest of the family go their separate ways.
Writing and publication
Marrayat wrote the novel following the success of his first children's novel, Masterman Ready. Marryat had visited Canada in 1837, and had acquired several hundred acres of land on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes where he set his work. The novel was published in 1844 and was his twenty-first book.
Themes
The novel is set in the wilderness of Upper Canada in the 1790s, and follows the fortunes of the Campbell family who settle near Lake Ontario. The theme of the work probably owes something to the historical romances of James Fenimore Cooper which dealt with frontier and Indian life in the early American days. Marryat's story similarly combines adventure with colonial pastoral. The rigors of pioneering and combating the native threat shape the Campbell family into successful immigrants, in part by teaching them the ways of the indigenous natives. The novel is often cited for containing the first known use of the phrase "paddle your own canoe". The phrase appears in the eighth chapter when an indigenous chief reflects on the differences between the European and native religions:
