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Digital file copyright by Cornell University
Library 1994.BUFFALO
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PUBLICATIONS
VOLUME FIFTEEN
Edited by Frank H. Severance(Cornell IWveMitg Jitatg
BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
FROM THE ,
SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND
THE GIFT OF
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1891

Union soft QRwm |lre«o
HttffoloSTUDIES OF
THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
By FRANK H. SEVERANCE
BUFFALO, NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1911
*CONTENTS
PAGE
A FAMILIAR FOREWORD ......................... i
EARLY LITERATURE OF THE NIAGARA REGION ...	9
NINETEENTH CENTURY VISITORS WHO WROTE
BOOKS.....................................25
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION................  77
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA:	CHATEAUBRIAND IN
AMERICA . . ..............................97
THE NIAGARA IN ART............................113
JOHN VANDERLYN’S VISIT TO NIAGARA IN 1802 .. . 159
THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE........................175
TWO EARLY VISITORS............................217
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO............237
FROM INDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE...............253
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS...................261
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER WITH HARRIET MAR-
TINEAU................................. .277
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.........................291
NARRATIVES OF EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS
TO NIAGARA ..............................313
From the “Four Kings of Canada/' 1710...... . 316
The “Borassaw” Narration of 1721...........318
Pierre F. X. de Charlevoix, S. J., 1721....319
Father Bonnecamps' Description, 1749.......323
Peter Kalm's Account, 1750.................324
The Abbe Piquet in 1751....................334
Adventures of M. Bonnefons, 1753 ......... 334
Diary of Ralph Izard, 1765.................339
Jonathan Carver, 1766......................346
St. John de Crevecoeur, 1785...............34^
Capt. Enys' Visit in 1787..................363
James Sharan in 1787.......................378
Andrew Ellicott, 1789......................384CONTENTS.
PAGE
Patrick Campbell, 1791.............................386
Duncan Ingraham, 1792..............................387
Benjamin Smith Barton, 1798........................393
Charles Williamson, 1799...........................399
APPENDIX
OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY . ................403
LIST OF PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY.........404
PROCEEDINGS, FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING . 405
IN MEMORIAM, WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH . 423
INDEX . . . ............................. 425
MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
DIAGRAM OF NINETEENTH CENTURY TRAVEL ... 70
CREVECOEUR’S MAP OF THE NIAGARA ....... 360
CAPT. ENYS* SKETCH OF THE FALLS.........36sA FAMILIAR FOREWORD
TT is now a good many years since I sat, one summer day,
on the river bank at Niagara-on-the-Lake, and looked
across at Fort Niagara on the opposite shore. I had never
been there, and knew nothing about it.
“It’s worth seeing,” said a friend at my side. “Queer
old place. They say Louis the Fourteenth built it.”
I was skeptical. It struck me as absurd that the French
monarch should be concerned with anything away in the
interior of America. I had everything to learn. But that
chance remark of an idle hour gave spur to my curiosity. I
soon found my way to Parkman, and his pages opened the
door to many other sources of light. He gave me the
general story of the French in America, and I was no
longer skeptical as to the building of Fort Niagara by
Louis XIV. But neither Parkman nor any other printed
source afforded the details I sought to know regarding the
early history of our Niagara region. Indeed, Parkman was
always an aggravation with his innumerable footnote ref-
erences to manuscript authorities and sources. I wanted to
read the documents he cited; and soon learned, as any
student of our history learns, that if one seeks to know
what has happened hereabouts—seeks to know who have
been the moving spirits on the Niagara since its discovery,
to know what they did and when, and what their influence
has been—one must go to the manuscript sources.2
A FAMILIAR FOREWORD.
Old manuscripts are not infallible, but they afford the
nearest approach to a true record that we can have. Al-
though they present many difficulties to the student, they
also offer him many pleasures impossible to the printed
page. It is with somewhat the feeling of an explorer that
one opens, let us say, a bundle of old documents that have
lain hidden away and forgotten for many years. He soon
learns to detect the grain of worth in a mass of the worth-
less. If the student has gained access to Government
archives, he can pursue his especial theme as a hunter pur-
sues his game, through mazes of correspondence, memoirs
and official reports. Presently he finds that by putting this
and that isolated fact together, with regard to other data
of time, place and men, the little page of history which he
seeks to know is somewhat brightened, the always dim past
is made by his research a little clearer.
Thus it comes about that in trying to ascertain the facts
of the early history of the Niagara region, I was led from
books to documents, to Government depositories and
archives. Fort Niagara continued to be the inspiration of
my quest; for it is soon apparent to any student of the
region, that the somnolent, half-forgotten old fort at the
mouth of the Niagara is, historically, the one paramount
spot in this part of the world. So it came to pass that on
occasion I found myself in Paris, hunting for the early
history of Fort Niagara. Official letters of introduction
had opened the way; and I was cordially received at a
certain office in the old Pavilion du Flores, on the Seine
side of the Louvre. It was with uncommon satisfaction
that here, one morning, as I turned over the contents of a
carton of old papers, I came upon an ancient, well-preserved
map of the mouth of the Niagara river, “at the foot of Lake
Ontario, on which is shown the machicolated house and theA FAMILIAR FOREWORD.
3
proposed fort (Niagara),” drawn at Niagara by Chausse-
gros de Lery, June 21, 1726. Of even greater interest were
De Lery’s own drawings, the original elevations and floor
plans of the fort, signed by him and dated at Quebec,
January 19, 1727. The fort was being built then, and here
were the plans, by the man who built it. These ought at
least to settle some questions, to clear away some misinfor-
mation long current regarding the age and original appear-
ance of Fort Niagara. That these old drawings and reports,
made by a French military engineer in America almost two
hundred years ago, should have escaped the vicissitudes of
Paris—the Revolution, the Commune, the destruction of
palaces and all they contained, the rage of mobs and the
perpetual obliteration of old things, is matter for marvel.
But here they were; and since the originals could not be
carried off to the banks of the Niagara, the securing of
copies was a simple detail in the work of collecting our
regional records, for the Buffalo Historical Society.
I may as well confess that I have long been a book-
hunter, and have pursued my obscure game, as opportunity
offered, in divers queer corners of the world. I have tasted
the pleasure of loitering, in quest of Niagarana, on the Quai
Voltaire and among the stalls of St. Paul’s Churchyard.
As for the Paris quais I agree with the expert—I. forget
which one—who long ago declared that nothing was to be
found in their boxes but Voltaire’s “Charles Douse ”
Something else, of course, even less to be desired than
Voltaire; but as for Americana, the collector wastes his
time on the Paris quais. I suspect that they are regularly
gleaned in the interests of dealers, whose shops in the
near-by Quarter are apt to have all the rarities there are
except a few—offered for all the money there is!
The always dreamed-of achievement, a book of great4
A FAMILIAR FOREWORD.
value for an inconsiderable price, is of course never possible
when the said book is in the hands of a very wise dealer.
Only once or twice has it fallen to me to be able to make the
usual book-hunter’s boast. Years ago I did find, in Bristol,
England, a perfect, clean copy of Hennepin’s “Louisiane”
with the original map, but with no covers. It was a curious
discovery. I know not what power hypnotized the dealer
into letting me carry it off for two pounds! A suitable
binding added by a London expert made an altogether
desirable treasure of it, such as a dealer would offer today
for perhaps $150. All of which is related with due apology,
merely by way of assuring the student and would-be col-
lector that although the booksellers have of late grown
discouragingly wise as to values, bargains in Americana
may still be found. Even without them, there is pleasure
in the pursuit.
For the source books relating to the Niagara region
London is, I think, the best hunting-ground, though the
continental dealers are sometimes eccentric in their valua-
tion, and occasionally offer rare works at lower prices than
the leading dealers of London would consider just. The
New York market is at times good, but never cheap; and
always the book-auction is the collector’s opportunity.
Several of the earliest authors who mention the Niagara,
such as Champlain, Sagard, Le Clercq, Lescarbot and
Hennepin in his first work, are among the great rarities in
the field of Americana. In twenty years I have had but
one opportunity to buy an original Le Clercq. Champlain’s
“Des Sauvages” which is really the beginning book of a
collection of Niagara literature, is one of the rarest of
books, but five perfect copies being known. The only copy
that has come to sale in recent years, so far as I am aware,
was in the Robert Hoe library, sold at auction in NewA FAMILIAR FOREWORD.
5
York in April, 1911; on which historic occasion it brought
the considerable figure of $3825. The collector of Niagara
literature need not grieve, however, either at its rarity or its
costliness. Although it is the first book in the literature of
the Niagara, it tells us very little; and the price of it,
judiciously expended, would buy nearly all that has been
published since Champlain’s day, of essential value relating
to the Niagara. I am discoursing on these things because
they are aspects of our regional—our home—history worthy
of some record; and I am minded to discourse at some
length in pages following, on what may be called the literary
aspects of our local history, regarding which from time to
time, numerous inquiries reach me. A recent visitor at the
Historical Building, a school-teacher from Boston, after
making many intelligent inquiries about the Niagara region,
observed reflectively: “But you’re so new here, you can’t
have much history!” I might have replied that white man’s
history on the Niagara runs back as far as it does on the
Massachusetts coast; but she had gone back to Boston
before I thought of it. It is just as well—she might have
challenged the statement; some of these New Englanders
take their Norumbega very seriously; though if it be a mere
matter of conjecture and plausible theory, there is on our
side Etienne Brule, forerunner of Champlain, and not
unlikely the white discoverer of Niagara Falls and Chau-
tauqua Lake and many other places between Lake Huron
and the Susquehanna river. But leaving that shadowy
figure out of consideration, there remains a century of
history hereabouts, under the French, still waiting to be
written, from the documents; followed by a third of a
century of British domination on both sides of the Niagara;
also as yet for the most part unwritten; and finally, for the
American side, considerably more than a century of events6
A FAMILIAR FOREWORD.
—of war and peace and progress. Surely all this does not
leave us of the present generation exactly impoverished as
to local history.
In two or three papers following, I shall try to make
some review of the literature of the Niagara region, and
especially of what has been said of it by travelers, the for-
gotten pages of whose books, if brought together, would
afford us glimpses of our region and our city of Buffalo,
year by year from the days of the beginnings hereabouts.
Something may be said of the Niagara region in Fiction, in
Science, even in Art; by way of demonstration, possibly,
that there is something in our local history (I am now
replying to another critic) besides the Burning of Buffalo
and the Hanging of the Three Thayers.
I should like to include, too, in this volume, along with
miscellaneous papers of local bearing, a few of the many
addresses which have been given of late years before the
Historical Society or other organizations, especially at the
four o’clock Sunday afternoon “Talks” which for a time
were a feature of the Society’s activities. These talks,
when given by the Secretary, were usually on historical
subjects, often suggested by a passing anniversary or local
event. Many speakers, including the most talented men and
women of Buffalo, and an occasional celebrity from abroad,
addressed these meetings. As a rule these addresses were
not written, and are not preserved; but two or three of
the papers which I propose to include in the present volume
have been elaborated from notes made for these Talks, it
being deemed well to preserve in the Society’s Publications
some record of this feature of its work.
As this volume is destined primarily for members of the
Buffalo Historical Society, and for other students and insti-
tutions with which I have been brought into some measureA FAMILIAR FOREWORD.
7
of pleasant acquaintance, I venture upon a certain famili-
arity of discourse, which it is hoped will not lessen the
value of what is offered. I feel that I am addressing my
friends.EARLY LITERATURE OF THE
NIAGARA REGION
COME time ago I was asked to point out, to a club en-
^ gaged in literary study, what was the essential litera-
ture of the Niagara region. Possibly my notes, made in re-
sponse to that request, may here be of service.
By “Niagara region” we mean not merely the immediate
vicinity of the Falls, or of the river, but the whole mid-lake
region, through which the Niagara runs. It is an excep-
tionally important region, in several ways.
The great cataract has made it a point of pilgrimage for
nature lovers and travelers of all the earth, for more than
two and a half centuries.
It has been the scene of important events, of trade, of
strategy and of war, in the history of three nations.
And it has been, now for more than a century, a frontier,
a boundary between two great powers, not always at peace.
These, and other aspects of it that might be named—
especially the modern industrial—give it exceptional interest
to the student. By way of reminder, of showing how rich
our regional history is, I propose here something of a
review of it, in some aspects that may prove helpful to the
student. And first, as to its written records.
If by “literature of the Niagara region” we mean what
has been written about it, we are confronted by a vast mass
of material; for remember that from the era of discovery
to the present day this frontier has played an important part10
EARLY LITERATURE OF
in history; and that for 150 years at least it has been a
Mecca of travelers who have thronged, pencil in hand, to
gaze and to record their emotions. All of this descriptive
writing—both objective and subjective—is undoubtedly
literature of the Niagara region; but happily much of it
need not detain us.
At the outset of our survey, we must consider the narra-
tives of mission work, of exploration, and those wilderness
campaigns inspired by the ministers of Louis XIV., the
record of which is perhaps the most romantic page in
American history. I find it difficult, as I study this early
period, to dissociate the history of our region from the
literature of that history. All we know of what took place
here, say prior to the middle of the Eighteenth century, we
glean from very few books. Much more is still to be
gleaned from manuscript records, which abound; but the
printed sources are few. It is not so with recent history,
where we have all the corroborative evidence of many wit-
nesses, participants in events described—a vast array of
contemporary chronicle. But the student of the early
Franciscan and Jesuit missions in this field; of the explora-
tory expeditions of La Salle, and of de Celoron; even of
the early military campaigns hereabouts, can draw his infor-
mation from but a very few printed sources.
Our Niagara literature begins with Champlain. In his
very rare book, “Des Sauvages” (1604), there are allusions
to the Great Lakes and a cataract—statements based on
reports made by the Indians to him in 1603. These state-
ments are virtually repeated in Lescarbot’s “Histoire de la
Nouvelle France ” published in 1609.
The next references to our region are in the narratives
of the Franciscan missionaries among the Hurons. In
1626 one of these missionaries, Joseph de la Roche Dallion,THE NIAGARA REGION.
11
appears to have reached the Niagara, though that name does
not occur in the narrative. The record of that visit is to be
found in Sagard’s “Histoire du Canada” (1636) and Le
Clercq’s “Premier Etablissement de la Foy” (1690).
Next in chronological order are the visits of the Jesuit
missionaries Brebeuf and Chaumonot, in the winter of
1640-41. These are reported in the very rare “Relations”
of the order, now made readily accessible in a well-edited
reprint. The Jesuit Relations as a whole offer surprisingly
little regarding our region. Le Jeune’s narrative of 1635
relates to the Neutrals; and Father Jerome Lalemant’s
relation of 1641 has the first mention of our river by name.
Writing from the missjpn at St. Mary’s in the Huron
country, May 19, 1641, to the Rev. Father Jacques Dinet,
Provincial of the Society of Jesus in France, he gives the
following account:
“From the first village of the Neutral Nation which one
finds on arriving there from this place, and continuing to
travel to the south or southeast, it is about four days’
journey to the mouth of the celebrated river of that nation
into the Ontario or lake of St. Louys. On this side of that
river, and not beyond it, as a certain map shows—are the
greater part of the villages of the Neuter Nation. There
are three or four beyond, ranging from east to west, to-
wards the Nation of the Cat, or Erieehronons.
“This river or stream is that by which our great Lake of
the Hurons, or fresh-water sea, discharges itself; it flows
first into the lake of Erie, or of the nation of the Cat; and
there it enters into the lands of the Neuter Nation, and
takes the name of Onguiaahra, until it discharges itself into
the Ontario or lake of Saint Louys, from which finally
flows the river that passes before Quebec, called the St.
Lawrence. So that, if once we were master of the seacoast
nearest to the dwelling of the Iroquois, we could ascend by
the river St. Lawrence without danger, as far as the Neuter12
EARLY LITERATURE OF
nation, and a good deal beyond that, with much saving of
trouble and time.”
There is no known earlier reference to the Niagara, by
name. Half a dozen years later another Jesuit makes an
interesting allusion to the cataract, without using the name.
This is Father Paul Ragueneau, who writes in the “Rela-
tion” of 1647-48:
“Almost due south from the country of the same Neutral
Nation, we find a great lake nearly two hundred leagues in
circumference, called Erie; it is formed by the discharge
of the fresh-water sea, and throws itself over a waterfall
of frightful height, into a third lake, named Ontario, which
we call Lake Saint Louys.”
The next reference to Niagara that I am able to note is
contained in Galinee’s narrative.
Three famous men came to the Niagara in September,
1669: the Sulpitian missionaries, Rene de Brehant de
Galinee and Dollier de Casson; and with them, La Salle—
but this was not the latter’s great adventure; that awaited
him nine years later. The narrative of this visit of 1669 is
Galinee’s. Here is what he says regarding our river:
“We discovered a river one eighth of a league wide and
extremely rapid, which is the outlet or communication from
Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. The depth of this stream (for
it is properly the River St. Lawrence) is prodigious at this
spot; for at the very shore there are fifteen or sixteen
fathoms of water, which fact we proved by dropping our
line. This outlet may be forty leagues in length, and
contains, at a distance of ten or twelve leagues from its
mouth in Lake Ontario, one of the finest cataracts or water-
falls in the world; for all the Indians to whom I have
spoken about it said the river fell in that place from a rock
higher than the tallest pine trees; that is, about two hundred
feet. In fact, we heard it from where we were. But thisTHE NIAGARA REGION.
13
fall gives such an impulse to the water that, although we
were ten or twelve leagues away, the water is so rapid that
one can with great difficulty row up against it. At a
quarter of a league from the mouth, where we were, it
begins to contract and to* continue its channel between two
steep and very high rocks, which makes me think it would
be navigable with difficulty as far as the neighborhood of
the falls. As to the part above the falls, the water draws
from a considerable distance into that precipice, and very
often stags and hinds, elks and roebucks, suffer themselves
to be drawn along so far in crossing this river that they
find themselves compelled to take the leap and to see them-
selves swallowed up in that horrible gulf.
“Our desire to go on to our little village called Gan-
astogue Sonontoua Outinaouatoua prevented our going to
see that wonder, which I regarded as so much the greater,
as the River St. Lawrence is one of the largest in the world.
I leave you to imagine if it is not a beautiful cascade, to
see all the water in this great river, which at its mouth is
three leagues in width, precipitate itself from a height of
two hundred feet with a roar that is heard not only from
the place where we were, ten or twelve leagues distant, but
actually from the other side of Lake Ontario, opposite this
mouth, from which M. Trouve told me he had heard it.
We passed this river, accordingly, and at last, after five
days’ voyage, arrived at the end of Lake Ontario.”
Incurious man, to have come within sound of the Falls,
and not go to see them! Were the conditions of wilderness
travel so exacting and peremptory, that one might not turn
aside to behold the greatest wonder in the world? Was it
eagerness to be on his missionary way, or fear of the
Iroquois, that kept Galinee from being the discoverer of our
cataract? His hearsay account is good. Although his
distances on the river are wrong, his report of the height
of the fall is much nearer right than that of Hennepin, who
came nine years later.14
EARLY LITERATURE OF
Galinee’s narrative, by the way, has only recently had its
first complete publication in English (with French text,
map and notes), thanks to the scholarship of Mr. James H.
Coyne, and the enterprise of the Ontario Historical Society,
in whose ‘Tapers and Records’’ for 1903 it is to be found.
From the date of this visit to the coming of Hennepin
there is no literature of the Niagara region. With the
exception of the passing of Galinee there was none for more
than forty years. This was due in part to the interruption
of missionary work, for reasons which need not be entered
upon here; but it may be noted that the work of the French
missionary priests among the Indians in what is now New
York State covers only the years 165510 1658, and a second
brief period, 1667 to 1685—in all, about twenty years.
There were a few visits outside of those dates, but by 1690
there was no missionary in this State save Father Milet,
and he had just been carried captive to Oneida from Fort
Frontenac. The early knowledge of our region was given
to the world, not by missionaries who pushed their way
westward through Western New York, for they did not do
that, but by those who came south and east from the Huron
missions. When those missions ceased, literary darkness
resumed its sway over the Niagara. In 1664 the Jesuit
historian, Father Francisco Creuxio, published his ponder-
ous Latin “Historiae Canadensis ” The map in this work
is dated 1660, and indicates the Niagara Falls as “Ongiara
catarractes ” The author was never in America, and got
his data from the missionary relations and from Champlain.
It added nothing to the world’s knowledge of our region;
nor was anything added, that I know of, until one day in the
year 1683, when there was issued from the printing-shop
of the Widow Hure, in Paris, the first and most valuable of
Father Hennepin’s books, entitled “Description de laTHE NIAGARA REGION.
15
Louisiane ” etc. This contained an account of La Salle's
expedition of 1678, and the first detailed description of the
Niagara in literature.
In the years that followed we have other works by
Hennepin, more or less trustworthy—there is reason to
believe that he had little or nothing to do with the latest
work bearing his name, entitled 'Nouveau Voyage ” etc.
But of his “Louisiane” and a second book, the “Nouvelle
Decouverte” there were many editions'in many languages.
The narrative of the building of La Salle's vessel, the
Griffon, above the Falls, and of the voyage up the Lakes
and down the Mississippi, was probably more widely read—
if we may judge from the many editions of Hennepin—
than anything else relating to America that had appeared
up to that time.
Next to Hennepin, chronologically, is I think the Baron
La Hontan, an officer in the expedition of Denonville, that
came to the Niagara in 1687. A very unpriestly man was
the Baron; evidently a devil-may-care sort of fellow; an
adventurous soldier, an easy and voluminous writer, whose
pages, even thus long after, provoke many a smile for their
satire and cleverness. He was the first visitor, not a priest,
to write of the Niagara, and he did it with a degree of
license which might well make him the patron saint of a
certain sort of modern newspaper reporter. La Hontan
had an eye to a “good story.” As was usually the case with
the early visitors, a good many years elapsed between La
Hontan’s visit to the Niagara, in 1687, and the publication
of his “Voyages dans TAmerique Septentrionale” etc., the
first edition of which bears date 1703, and is followed by
well nigh as many others, as is the case with Hennepin.
Belonging to the great La Salle episode are the narratives
of Tonty, and Joutel, and the documents of La Salle him-16
EARLY LITERATURE OF
self, which as published by Margry are source material,
although modern in date of printing. There is much else of
this class—material relating to the early days, but of recent
issuance. This is not the literature that I seek now
especially to designate, but rather the little list of books, the
first issues of the first narratives relating to our region.
To the Jesuit “Relations,” and to the narratives of La Salle,
Hennepin, Tonty and Joutel, we might add the earliest
Canadian histories—Champlain, Lescarbot, Sagard, and of
a later period, La Potherie and Charlevoix. Something of
all these the student should know, who would claim
familiarity with the literature of our region say prior to the
middle of the eighteenth century.
It is a great pleasure, to one who would know the historic
background of his home region, to read these old books.
I confess a fondness for the original editions; the same
information, in modern printing and fresh binding, does not
make the same appeal to the mind, to the imagination. I
like the tough, hand-made paper of the ancient books, I
like their leather and parchment bindings; and I like to
pore over their quaint old French. These things bring one
nearer to the old days; and presently, out of the yellow
pages, there step forth a procession of worthies—brave
men and holy men; priests with their portable altars on
their backs, strange-clad soldiers, explorers, voyageurs and
coureurs-de-bois, even the red Indian himself. They play
their varied parts, in this early Niagara drama, and pass
each to his place, along the horizon of the imagination.
They and their deeds are our early history, and we come
to know them only through these rare and ancient volumes.
A well-defined period in the history of our region is that
of the Old French War, which ended in 1760, or on our
frontier, with the surrender of Fort Niagara in 1759. ThereTHE NIAGARA REGION.
17
is an abundance of contemporary and of modern literature
relating thereto, but usually a lack of local detail. Park-
man, who is easily first among historians of that subject,
reviews it in due proportion to his general narrative. His
ken is continental, whereas we are particularly concerned
with events on or relating to the Niagara. Two or three
of the earlier books, by participants in the conflict, the
student should know. For the British side, there is the
history of the war published in 1772 by Thomas Mante;
there is Knox’s “Journal”; and there is the journal of Sir
William Johnson, who conducted the siege and achieved the
capture of Fort Niagara. For the French side, we have the
“Memoires sar la derniere guerre de VAmerique septen-
trional e entre La France et l’Angleterre,” by Frangois
Pouchot, who fortified and defended Fort Niagara, and
finally handed it over to Sir William Johnson. He was the
last official representative of French dominion on the
Niagara. His narrative, published in 1781 at Yverdon in
Switzerland, is one of our most precious “sources.” The
original edition, like most of the books I am mentioning, is
hard to find, and costly to buy when found. An excellent
translation was published in this country in 1866, but even
that is not easy to procure.
Unique as a record of travel for mere sight-seeing, in
the early years of British occupancy of this region, and a
vivid narrative of genuine adventure in the Niagara gorge,
is a rare old journal, printed in New York sixty-five years
ago, entitled “An Account of a Journey to Niagara,
Montreal and Quebec, in 1765; or, ’tis eighty years since,”
This is said to be the diary of Ralph Izard of South
Carolina, Representative and later United States Senator,
1789-1795. The journal was published anonymously by his
grand-daughter, Anna Izard Deal.18
EARLY LITERATURE OF
The literature of the Revolutionary War, so far as it
relates to the Niagara, is largely incidental and fragmentary.
One of the books which ought to be written and no doubt
will be, some day, will give the history of the Niagara region,
or of the Lower Lakes, under the British, say from 1760
to 1796, when the frontier posts were relinquished to the
Americans. Much has been written of this time. Much
more remains, in documents, in Government archives, wait-
ing the coming of some student with taste and leisure to
construct a narrative for the general reader. As Sir
William Johnson was in a sense the most important per-
sonage hereabouts, or exercising authority here, from 1759
till his death in 1774, so everything relating to his official
conduct and especially William L. Stone’s “Life” of him,
belongs to our literature of that period, as, for later periods,
do Stone’s books about Brant and Red Jacket.
The many works relating to the Indians of Western New
York need not detain us for specification. Most of them
are of general scope; others are narratives of Government
embassies, or of missionary ministrations. Especially good,
in the historic sense, are the several narratives of early
philanthropic visits by members of the Society of Friends.
The reader has no doubt observed, in his own thought,
that every phase of life in the region since its discovery,
may have its literature. This is true. It is also true that
events so overlap and run together; causes are so far-
reaching in effect, that it is quite impossible to differentiate
the literature of one region, however well defined. To
illustrate: the student of the Revolutionary period on the
Niagara soon finds his interest drawn to the migration of
Loyalists from the United States into Canada. Much of the
Niagara district of what is now Ontario, was settled by this
class. Canada may well be proud of them, as they, today,THE NIAGARA REGION.
19
are proud of their ancestors. The “First Families of
Virginia’" are not a truer aristocracy. The books that record
their history, and the whole Loyalist or “United Empire”
movement, may well have a place in our review, yet this
subject in many of its relations takes us far afield from the
Niagara. So again, if we consider the Civil War period,
we find one of its most important antecedent phases to
have been in connection with the “Underground Railroad”
and the helping of runaway slaves into Canada. An ample
and romantic literature on that subject awaits the inquirer.
The literature of the War of 1812, even of that part of
it which belongs to the Niagara, runs into hundreds of
volumes. So too of the Canadian political outbreak of
1837-38 known as Mackenzie’s Rebellion, or better, as the
“Patriot War.” The catalogue of the library of the Buffalo
Historical Society—an unpretentious collection—contains
nearly four hundred titles of books or parts of books and
other references relating to this particular subject. Even
of. the little comic opera war known as the Fenian Raid of
1866, there is a considerable literature, including some
fiction, and some history so belligerently serious that it is
vastly amusing.
So I might go on, specifying every phase of life, be it
military, political or economic, and finding a considerable
literature for every phase. The development of commerce
on the lakes, the evolution of the canals and railroads, the
very recent industrial development based on the utilization
of Niagara power—all of these and other subjects have each
a literature. Especially the last-mentioned subject has a
large and constantly-growing literature, but it is chiefly to
be found in the reports of scientific societies and in the
pages of electrical, chemical, railway and other trade or
technical journals.20
EARLY LITERATURE OF
The earlier years of the eighteenth century brought few
professional writers to the banks of the Niagara. The
earlier descriptions are to be found in the reports or letters
of French officers who came to Fort Niagara, or passed
through the Lakes in the course of duty. Of this sort was
the visit of the Baron de Longueuil and other officers in
1721. Two of his companions, the Marquis de la Cavagnal
and Captain de Senneville “had undertaken that voyage
only out of curiosity of seeing the fall of the water at
Niagara,” according to the report of Chaplain Durant. The
tourist procession began with them. The Rev. Father
Bonnecamps, of De Celoron’s expedition of 1749, has left a
short description; and Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanist
who reached the Niagara in 1750, has left a long one. After
Kalm, I know of no visitor to our region who recorded his
impressions until 1753, when there came to Niagara a
soldier serving under Pouchot who had the enterprise to
keep a journal. This was J. C. Bonnefons. Many years
after the campaign in which he served had passed into
history, his journal came to light and was published in
Paris. It contains details of value. He records incidents
of his sojourn at Fort Niagara in April of the year named,
and gives a picturesque account of his adventures at the
Falls, describing at length how, alone, he descended by
means of roots and trees to the bottom of the chasm and
after hours of fatigue climbed out again. So far as I am
aware, Bonnefons’ account of Niagara has never been pub-
lished in English.
During the years of British control of this region and
through the Revolutionary war, there was a growing litera-
ture of our region, but it was almost wholly embodied in
the narratives of soldiers who shared in the campaigns or
in the journals or official reports of men who, like SirTHE NIAGARA REGION.
21
William Johnson, bore a large part in the history of the
region at that period. A notable exception is the journal
of General Izard. To this period belongs the narrative of
Jean Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, French consul at New
York, 1783-93. In his “Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie '
he gives a pleasant narrative of a visit to Niagara. It is
without dates but the visit, as we learn from a letter to his
son, was in July 1, 1785.
Toward the close of the century we find numerous works
offering to the reading public better information regarding
the Niagara than had hitherto been available. Not only in
English, but in other European languages appear general
compilations of travel in which the Niagara region received
more and more attention. A notable work of this character,
was a three-volume account of America, both descriptive
and historical, by Christof Daniel Ebelings, professor of
history and Greek in the gymnasium of Hamburg. This
work, prepared with characteristic German thoroughness,
appeared in 1793, antedating by a year or so the far more
valuable accounts of enterprising travellers who are of real
importance in the annals of our region.
Before noting them, however, mention should be made
of a rare little book, entitled “Tour through Upper and
Lower Canada by a Citizen of the United States.” This
was the Rev. John Cosens Ogden, who came in 1794 by
schooner across Lake Ontario to Fort Niagara. He makes
a good report of what he saw, paying especial attention to
the transportation of merchandise over the Niagara portage.
In a list of books which includes many rarities, his is one
of the rarest. The author was a son-in-law of General
David Wooster of Colonial and Revolutionary fame; he
resided in New Haven, 1771-1785, and was afterwards an
Episcopal minister at Portsmouth, N. Y. His long account22
EARLY LITERATURE OF
of Upper Canada shows rather marked Loyalist sym-
pathies.
Nearly a year after Ogden, in June, 1795, came the Due
de la Rochefoucault Liancourt. His elaborate “Travels
through the United States of North America, the Country
of the Iroquois and Upper Canada,” is probably one of the
best known books relating to the close of the eighteenth
century. In spite of many errors, some of which, no doubt,
in the English editions, are attributable to the translator,
this work is one of the most valuable that we have for
details of conditions hereabouts as they were at the close
of the eighteenth century.
A year later, September, 1796, came Isaac Weld, Jr., a
British writer and artist, whose handsome quarto volume
is prized not merely for its record of early American con-
ditions, but for its engravings from Weld’s own drawings.
He is, I think, the first writer of books who sojourned at
Fort Niagara after it passed into the control of the Ameri-
cans. He writes at some length of the conditions of the
garrison and of all that he saw and experienced in a leisurely
visit on the Niagara. Subsequent visitors found some
things to criticise and to correct in Weld’s pages, but on
the whole he has given us a picture of conditions which is
not surpassed in value in all our records of that period.
In this same year we have the visit to Niagara of a
French savant, Charles F. Volney, member of the National
Institute of France and of many learned societies. In the
days of our grandfathers Volney’s work was still read. Al-
though looked upon in his day as an eminent scientist, I
doubt if his work could be rated to-day as worthy of study.
He came to America in 1795 and in October of the follow-
ing year visited the Niagara. He travelled indeed for a
time with Weld, but they do not appear to have been to-THE NIAGARA REGION.
23
gether in our region. His work, “Tableau du Climat et du
sol des Etats-Unis d’Amerique” is chiefly concerned with
the geological or rather physical aspects of the lower lake
region. Of popular description, his pages contain little. It
is worth noting that Volney’s memory is still cherished in
his own country. Dying in Paris, in 1820, he left an en-
dowment, so that there still is an annual Volney prize given
by the French Institute for proficiency in camparative phil-
ology.
Alexander Henry in 1764, Jonathan Carver in 1766,
James Sharan in 1787, and P. Campbell in 1793, visited the
Niagara and wrote of it in their books; all now rare,
especially so in the case of Campbell’s “Travels in the In-
terior inhabited parts of North America/’ one of the
scarcest of books relating to the Niagara. “The Adven-
tures of James Sharan, compiled from the Journal written
during his Voyages and Travels,” etc., was published in
Baltimore in 1808, and contains an account of his visit to
Niagara Falls in 1787.
In the last year of the 18th century, came an English
artist, John Maude, whose visit to the Falls of Niagara in
1800, published in London in 1826, is a book of undoubted
value. Its illustrations from the artist’s drawings are among
the most interesting of our early views of Niagara. His
journal records many matters of local interest relating to
Buffalo and the Niagara frontier. It is from such pages
as his that we come to know in some measure the conditions
of our region at that remote time.19TH CENTURY VISITORS WHO
WROTE ROOKS
HE 19th century opened appropriately with the visit to
the Niagara region of a British official, George Heriot,
Deputy Postmaster-General of British North America. His
quarto volume, “Travels through the Canadas,” etc., pub-
lished in London six years later, is a matter-of-fact, sensible
account of conditions at the opening of the century. Statis-
tician though he was, in contemplation of Niagara he be-
came a sentimentalist: “The Falls of Niagara surpass in
sublimity every description which the powers of language
can afford of that celebrated scene, the most wonderful and
aweful which the habitable world presents.” So unqualified
a statement to-day would provoke challenge, but we know
the world and its wonders now better than they did in
Heriot’s time. His exuberant description of Niagara was
first published in the London Sun in 1801; translated and
published in Le Moniteur of Paris, it had a wide currency
throughout Europe. Few writers have contributed more to
the spread of information regarding Niagara than this
British official.
Three years after him came Tom Moore, whose letters
to his mother from Niagara, and whose poems written there
have been much copied. As I have written elsewhere of the
poets, in relation to Niagara, I am ignoring them in the
present review. Of more value to the student of local con-
ditions are the grave, precise observations of Dr. Timothy
2S26
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Dwight, President of Yale College, whose “Travels in New
England and New York,” published in four volumes, record
what he saw on the Niagara in October, 1804. Dwight must
rate among the best of our early authorities. Here is a por-
tion of his account of Buffalo as he saw it in 1804:
“Buffaloe Creek, otherwise called New-Amsterdam, is
built on the north-eastern border of a considerable mill-
stream, which bears the same name. A bar, at the mouth,
prevents all vessels larger than boats, from ascending its
waters. For boats it is navigable about eight miles. Its
appearance is more sprightly than that of some others in
this region. The south-western bank is, here, a peninsula,
covered with a handsome grove. Through it several vistas
might be cut with advantage; as they would open fine
views of the lake; a beautiful object. The prospect, which
they would furnish towards the west and south-west, would
be boundless.
“The village is built half a mile from the mouth of the
creek; and consists of about twenty indifferent houses.
The Holland company owns the soil. Hitherto they have
declined to sell it; and, until very lately, to lease it. Most
of the settlers have, therefore, taken up their ground with-
out any title. The terms, on which it is leased, are, that the
lessee shall within nine months build a house, thirty feet in
front, and two stories in height; and shall pay, if I mistake
not, two dollars, annually, for each lot of half an acre.
The streets are straight, and cross each other at right
angles, but are only forty feet wide. What could have
induced this wretched limitation in a mere wilderness I am
unable to conceive. The spot is unhealthy, though of suffi-
cient elevation, and, so far as I have been informed, free
from the vicinity of any stagnant waters. The diseases
prevailing here, are those, which are common to all this
country. The inhabitants are^a casual collection of adven-
turers; and have the usual character of such adventurers,
thus collected, when remote from regular society; retaining
but little sense of Government, or Religion. We saw aboutVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
27
as many Indians in this village as white people The super-
intendent of Indian affairs for the Six Nations resides
here/’
The next year came Timothy Bigelow, whose “Journal,”
privately printed many years afterward, is hard to find now-
adays. In 1805 also dame Robert Sutcliff, the first of sev-
eral members of tfie; Society of Friends who, visiting this
region on missions of philanthropy and devotion to the In-
dian, have left exceedingly interesting narratives of what
they saw and experienced hereabouts. Sutcliff’s book,
“Travels in Some Parts of North America,” was not pub-
lished until 1812, but it was in November, 1805, that he
reached Buffalo on horseback and put up at Crow’s tavern.
Later he was a guest of Joseph Ellicott and his valuable
narrative records many names of settlers, taverns, etc.,
which, perhaps, would be sought for without finding in other
records.
The first decade of the century brought hither at least
one other book-writing traveller, Christian Schultz, Jr.,
whose “Travels,” etc., in the years 1807-8, record American
wanderings of some six thousand miles. He came to Fort
Niagara in August, 1807, by boat on Lake Ontario. He
writes at length of the cataract and of all that he saw
throughout the length of the Niagara. Coming to the little
town at the foot of Lake Erie, he rested here for a time and
recorded his impressions as follows:
“Buffaloe is a small village situated on Buffaloe Creek
about three miles after you pass the outlet of Lake Erie, on
your left hand side. I was present at the annual distribu-
tion of the presents to the six nations of Indians, most of
whom now live within the British territories. There were
about five hundred assembled together on this occasion,
some of whom were painted and feathered off fine enough.
They had likewise a council meeting, for the purpose of28
NINETEENTH CENTURY
receiving arid considering certain overtures that had been
made to them by some hostile Indians, ‘to take up the toma-
hawk against the United States’; but they wisely deter-
mined to remain neuter in case of hostilities between
America and England.
“After their business was settled, they formed them-
selves into parties at ball-playing, and running races for
prizes given by the State. Their manner of ball-playing is
very similar to what you have seen by the name of hurley;
but, instead of the curved hickory used on that occasion,
they have a long curved racket, strung with deer sinews,
with which they can strike the ball to an astonishing dis-
tance. Whenever the ball lodged among the crowd of
players, you would have supposed there was a bloody
battle going on, as every one struck pell-mell together with
their rackets not in the least heeding whom he knocked on
the head; but, whenever a lucky stroke drove the ball near
to the goal, you would have thought hell itself had broke
loose, for such a hideous yell and screaming was instantly
set up as baffles all my attempts at a description.
“I was much amused by the pride and gallantry displayed
by one of the victors on receiving, as a prize, a light calico
shirt. As soon as he received it he put it on, and, after
viewing himself for a moment, strutted through the crowd
to display his finery. In a few minutes he returned to a
circle of women, when he pulled off his prize and put it
upon one of the lady squaws, who soon experienced the
value of this mark of distinction, by attracting the admira-
tion of some, and exciting the envy of more, among the
crowd of females around her.”
The succeeding decade, i8ii-’20, brought into our region
thrice as many book-writing travelers as had the first ten
years. They included British tourists, missionaries, one
French artist, one or two wandering Americans, and the
President of the United States.
In i8.ii our literary visitor was John Melish, whose
portly volume of “Travels through the United States ofVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
29
America,” published in London in 1818, was for many years
a standard and authoritative work. He reached Buffalo in
October of the year named and reported that the village
was “now computed at 500.” His pages are very good for
miscellaneous data, especially in regard to the Indians and
conditions up and down the river.
We now come to the period of warfare, during which
there were practically no tourist visitors to the region. One
devoted missionary, the Rev. Charles Giles, came in 1812,
although it was not until 1844 that the record of his visit
was published. By no means should the narrative of Levi
Beardsley’s visit—visits, rather—be overlooked. He was a
man of note in New York State in his day, a member of the
Senate for eight years, and its President in 1838. His first
visit to Buffalo and Niagara was in 1815. Buffalo “had
scarcely begun to build up; .	.	. in fact it was nothing.”
On Chippewa battle-field he was sickened by the stench
from mounds where the dead had been deposited. He
wrote well of the Falls, but with particular interest of
Grand Island where in 1825 he made large purchase of
lands. His “Reminiscences,” published in New York in
1852 contain much of history, description and anecdote re-
lating to our region.
Omitting the war literature I discover no other traveler
who wrote books until 1816, in which year Lieutenant
Francis Hall of the 14th Light Dragoons, visited Niagara
Falls and Buffalo. I find him an agreeable, sensible writer.
He notes that “the name of the Horseshoe, hitherto given
to the larger fall, is no longer applicable: it has become an
acute angle.” It undoubtedly had been angular for many
years before Hall, though long after him many visitors were
unable to see it that way. Buffalo he found “not merely a
flourishing village, but a considerable towrn, with shops and30
NINETEENTH CENTURY
hotels which might anywhere be called handsome, and in
this part of the country, astonishing.” This, it will be re-
marked, was but three years after the destruction of the
town.
A visiting author of 1817 was Joseph Sanson, a distin-
guished member of the American Philosophical Society who
toured through the region and wrote his “Sketches of Lower
Canada,” etc., dedicated to DeWitt Clinton.
A more notable visitor in that year was President Mon-
roe, who arrived at Fort Niagara early in August and pro-
ceeded up the river to Buffalo in the course of an extended
tour through the country, the record of which was written
by S. Putnam Waldo, his secretary. There is nothing in
the record of President Monroe’s visit to the Niagara re-
gion that need detain us. He was received in Buffalo by a
deputation of citizens, to whom he made a speech; but that
speech is not preserved in Waldo’s pages.
This same year, too, brought hither a wandering French-
man, Monsieur E. Montule, whose narrative in English was
published in 1821, under the title of “Journey to North
America and the West Indies.” It contains a letter, dated
“Buffaloe 31st July, 1817,” in which the author sets forth
his experiences in visiting the nearby Indians with a resi-
dent Frenchman named “Despares.” This I take it was
John Despard, whose name is usually recorded as that of
Buffalo’s pioneer baker; he was by no means an unknown
character in the early years of Buffalo. Montule adds a
graphic account of his adventures at Niagara Falls.
A far more valuable work is the “Sketches of Upper
Canada,” etc., by John Howison, a British subject resident
for some years in Canada. His visit was in 1818. Traces
of warfare were still fresh on the banks of the Niagara and
he naturally devotes a portion of his pages to them. NoteVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
31
should be made of the “Journal” of Sarah Howland, who
with her husband drove to the Niagara from New York and
back in a carriage in the summer of this year, the tour oc-
cupying some two months. Mrs. Howland’s journal re-
cords little regarding our region which is of consequence.
A singular book is the “Pedestrious Tour of 4000 Miles,”
etc., by Estwick Evans. This eccentric but enterprising
New Englander walked from Concord, N. H., to Niagara
and so on over a long route. His narrative is clumsily writ-
ten, with some evidence of conceit and occasional display of
ignorance; but he was a fair observer and saw many things
especially among the Indians which could not be seen later,
and is entitled to a place among the authors of 1818.
In marked contrast with the unlettered Evans is William
Darby, an accomplished member of the New York His-
torical Society, who, in this same year of 1818, journeyed
from New York to Detroit, making a considerable sojourn
cn the Niagara. His “Tour,” etc., is one of the best ac-
counts we have of Buffalo and vicinity at that time. At
Niagara he notes that a “marked annual increase in visitors
is to be observed”; the tourist procession had fairly begun
in 1818. Still another author of this same year was John
M. Duncan, a Scotchman, author of “Travels through part
of the United States and Canada in 1818-19.” His two-
volume work published in Glasgow in 1823 is still good
reading. He seems to have made at least two visits to Buf-
falo, which he reports as a “busy little town of 600 inhabi-
tants.” His pages on Niagara, the Indians and the mission
work among them are very full and valuable.
The year 1819 brought to the banks of our river two
authors of considerable note in their day. One, Miss
Frances Wright, is well known even now by students of so-
cial reform for her devotion to what she regarded as human32
NINETEENTH CENTURY
betterment in her day. Her book, “Views of Society and
Manners in America/’ was long the subject of heated criti-
cism and discussion on both sides of the Atlantic. She was
one of the earliest of many distinguished travelers who were
entertained at the hospitable home of the Wadsworth fam-
ily in the Genesee Valley. She has left us a graphic picture
of Niagara and vicinity. The other literary visitor of this
year was a member of the Society of Friends, E. Howitt,
who toured into the region to visit the Indians and to report
on the work which was being done among them by the
Quakers. In a letter dated “Buffalo, 8th month, 9th, 1819,”
he records many things now of interest to the student of
history regarding our region. In May, 1819, came also
William Tell Harris, author of a “Tour” published in 1821.
In 1820, came Adam Hodgson, author of “Letters from
North America,” published in two volumes, 1824. He was
a good, sensible observer; and in a chapter, dated Niagara,
2d August, 1820, he has given us one of the best early ac-
counts of conditions at the great cataract. William Dalton’s
“Travels,” and James Flint’s “Letters from America,” both
record visits to the Niagara in 1820. Flint came to Buffalo
from the West on the pioneer steamboat, “Walk-in-the-
Water.”
Still more literary visitors came in the decade ending
1830, but most of them fortunately need not detain us. In
1821 P. Stansbury, in the course of a walk of 2300 miles,
reached Niagara Falls. He was, perhaps, willing to rest;
at any rate, he lingered in the vicinity long enough to make
minute record of many things now of interest. His little
book, “A Pedestrian Tour of 2300 Miles in North America,”
devotes fifty pages to the Niagara region, not the least feat-
ure of it being the crude woodcuts, one of Niagara fort by
A. Anderson, said to be the first American wood engraver—VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
33
a claim also made for Peter Maverick, among whose pic-
tures, on wood, is a Niagara Falls.
Catherine M. Sedgwick, who made the “grand tour” in
1821,	wrote graphically from Buffalo, June 29th, on what
she discerned as the homesickness of settlers from New
England. In a long Niagara letter she reports her interview
with a Yorkshireman, a Niagara settler, who had a real
complaint:
“When he laid in his bed he could never tell when it
rained nor when it thundered, for there was always a
dripping from the dampness, and the deafening roar of the
fall; and then his poor cattle, in winter, were always covered
with icicles. It was a mighty fine thing to come and see,
but we should be sick enough of it if we had as much of it
as he had. ‘II n’y a rien de beau que rutile.’ ”
An anonymous work, “A Summer Month, or Recollec-
tions of a visit to the Falls of Niagara and the Lakes in
1822,	” is understood to have been written by a Mr. Mat-
thews. He had scholarly accomplishments and a poetic
temperament; adorns his account of Niagara with quota-
tions in Greek and from the Scriptures; and on the whole
has given us a fine and useful picture of what he saw. An-
other anonymous work, “Excursion through the United
States and Canada,” by “An English Gentleman,” also re-
cords a visit to Buffalo and Niagara in this same year.
Its author was Captain William Newnham Blaney. The
“Memoirs of William Forster,” published in two volumes in
London in 1865, contain the narrative of this Quaker’s visit
to Niagara in 1823. Edward Allen Talbot’s “Five Years’
Residence in the Canadas,” etc., has a long Niagara chapter,
of date 1823.
An English naturalist and traveler whose works were
esteemed, was Charles Waterton. His name would hardly
be associated with the Niagara to judge from the title of34
NINETEENTH CENTURY
his book, ‘‘Wanderings in South America,” etc., yet his wan-
derings brought him here in 1824. Perhaps because of his
wide experience as a traveler, he did not take his scenery
very seriously. He was much more interested in people.
“Words,” he says, “can hardly do justice to the unaffected
ease and elegance of the American ladies who visit the Falls
of Niagara,” and he laments with some humor the fact that
a sore toe prevented him from dancing with them.
I must be content with merely mentioning an attractive
little volume published in Aarau, entitled “Mein Besuch
Amerika’s in Sommer 1824 . . . ein Flug, . . . zum
Niagarafall” in which the practically anonymous author,
“Von C. v. R.,” tells of his visit to the Niagara in 1824.
Another German tourist, by no means anonymous, came
the next year. This was Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar
Eisenach. The original German edition of his book of
American travels appeared at Weimar in 1828; there are
several editions in German and English. The author came
by canal to Black Rock in 1825, and proceeded thence by
stage to Buffalo. At the Falls, of which he gives elaborate
description, he took special note of the phenomenon of the
burning spring. He was entertained with his suite by Sir
Perigrine Maitland at his once famous country seat at Stam-
ford, near the Whirlpool.
We now come to an important year in the chronology of
our region—1825. Throughout the years of the construc-
tion of the Erie Canal public attention had been more and
more directed towards Western New York, its attractions
and opportunities. It was natural that with the opening of
this new highway of travel visitors should flock to see Niag-
ara, Buffalo, and the West, much no doubt as visitors will
flock to the Panama Canal to take note of that new and ex-
traordinary highway of travel.VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.	35
The most distinguished visitor to our region in this year
of travel was Lafayette. The record of his visit was made
by his secretary, A. Lavasseur, in whose volumes, entitled
“Lafayette en Amerique” is to be found one of the best
chapters we have for intimate detail of conditions in Buf-
falo at the time. During his sojourn at Niagara, Lafayette
was the guest of General Porter, and received hereabouts,
as everywhere on his tour, many testimonials of the great
affection which America had for him. At least two edi-
tions of Lavasseur’s narrative have been published: the
original one in Paris, in 1829, with an English translation
published in Philadelphia in the same year. I note one other
distinguished visitor in 1825. This was Joseph Story, As-
sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,
Professor of Law at Harvard, etc. Story came to the Ni-
agara in July of 1825. He was entertained by General
Porter, who escorted him to Fort Erie and to other battle-
fields of the vicinity. In the excellent “Life and Letters of
Joseph Story,” edited by his son, published in London in
1851, the student will find many graphic pages setting forth
this early visit to our region.
The year 1826 gives us the visit of an officer of the Royal
British Navy, the Honorable Fitzgerald de Roos, whose
“Personal Narrative of Travels in the United States and
Canada in 1826,” was dedicated to the Duke of Clarence
and ran through several editions. Like most other visitors,
this author felt called upon to analyze his emotions when
contemplating the cataract. He records that he experienced
a depression of spirits by the magic influence of this stu-
pendous fall. Others, it will be noted, experienced exhilara-
tion. Indeed, these book-writing visitors have run the
gamut of emotional experience. De Roos was also a guest
of Sir Perigrine Maitland. Another visitor of 1826 was36
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Carl August Gosselman, in whose two-volume work, “Resa,
i Norra Amerika,” published at Nykoping in 1835, the
reader of Scandinavian will rejoice to find a long Niagara
chapter.
Comparatively few of our British visitors have taken the
trouble to preserve their anonymity, but in 1827 there came
to us a vigorous writer content to style himself merely “A
British Subject,” whose book, “Tour through United States
and Canada,” published in London, in 1828, is well worth
reading today. As other British writers have done, he
found many opportunities to ridicule the Americans, and
professed to be shocked at finding an hotel at Niagara con-
ducted by a General. Frontier conditions of travel dis-
pleased him: “The 23 miles from thence to Buffalo is a
long and truly infamous road, made of trunks of trees and
not in sight of the river, but through a thick wilderness in
which black bears, wolves and rattlesnakes are not infre-
quent.” Of Buffalo, however, as he saw it in 1827, he had a
good word, predicting that the place “will certainly become
one of the most important towns in America.” At Niagara,
too, he struck the right reflection when he perceived that the
“grandeur of the scene before me becomes more perceptible
to my senses the longer I am acquainted with it.” A better
known writer visiting us in the same year, was Captain
Basil Hall of the Royal Navy, author of “Travels in North
America,” in three volumes. Captain Hall, though in his
day subject to much criticism, was a thoroughly good writer,
frank, full, honest in statement, clear-sighted, a good ob-
server, and, I should judge from a careful reading of his
pages, a thoroughly sensible and honest man. I count his
book one of the most valuable as a record of that time.
In 1828, James Stuart, a conscientious, scrupulous
Scotchman, came to Buffalo in the course of a three-years’VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
37
sojourn in North America. His three-volume work, pub-
lished in Edinburgh in 1833, was one of the most full and
trustworthy reports of American conditions in the early
years of the century.
The year 1830 sent to us at least three English authors,
each of whom published a more or less readable account of
his American wanderings. One of these was C. Colton, who
wrote a long Niagara chapter and a most remarkable one on
the Whirlpool. Another was S. A. Farrall, author of “A
Ramble of 6000 Miles through the United States and Can-
ada,” and a third was John Fowler, a specialist on agricul-
ture, whose “Journal of a Tour in the State of New York”
in 1830, brought him to Buffalo, where he says:
“I was diverted in passing along Main-street at observing
the extreme singularity of the names over the shop doors,
&c.; a circumstance, indeed, I have often noticed else-
where; and, in addition, you will mostly see portrayed
upon a sign suspended over, or at the side of the door, some
touch of the profession practised within; for instance, at
a doctor’s, I saw a mortar and pestle; at a bookseller’s,
two large folio volumes; at a Miss Jeremiah’s, a most
exquisitely trimmed bonnet; and at a fancy dyer’s, a board,
upon which was announced the character of their establish-
ment, had every letter painted with different coloured
paint;—so much for customs.”
A thought must be given to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who
was one of the earliest Americans of genius to write sedately
and with insight of the Falls. His visit was in the early
30’s, when the tourist approach was by stage via Lewiston.
“Never,” he says, “did a pilgrim approach Niagara with
deeper enthusiasm than mine.
“I had lingered away from it, and wandered to other
scenes, because my treasury of anticipated enjoyments,
comprising all the wonders of the world, had nothing else38	NINETEENTH CENTURY
so magnificent, and I was loth to exchange the pleasures of
hope for those of memory so soon. At length the day
came. The stage-coach, with a Frenchman and myself on
the back seat, had already left Lewiston, and in less than
an hour would set us down in Manchester [Niagara Falls
village]. I began to listen for the roar of the cataract, and
trembled with a sensation like dread, as the moment drew
nigh when its voice of ages must roll, for the first time, on
my ear. The French gentleman stretched himself from
the window, and expressed loud admiration, while, by a
sudden impulse, I threw myself back and closed my eyes.”
He tells at length how he arrived at the hotel, dined,
smoked, loitered over this and that inconsequential thing,
illogically postponing the moment of actually beholding the
scene. Finally he strolls about Goat Island, comes upon the
great spectacle, views it from different points, and then,
asking himself, “Were my long desires fulfilled?” analyzes
his emotions as follows:
“Oh, that I had never heard of Niagara till I beheld it!
Blessed were the wanderers of old, who heard its deep roar
sounding through the woods, as the summons to an un-
known wonder, and approached its awful brink, in all the
freshness of native feeling. Had its own mysterious voice
been the first to warn me of its existence then indeed I
might have knelt down and worshiped. But I had come
thither, haunted with a vision of foam and fury, and dizzy
cliffs, and an ocean tumbling down out of the sky—a scene,
in short, which Nature had too much good taste and calm
simplicity to realize. My mind had struggled to adapt
these false conceptions to the reality, and finding the effort
vain, a wretched sense of disappointment weighed me down.
I climbed the precipice, and threw myself on the earth,
feeling that I was unworthy to look at the Great Falls, and
careless about beholding them again.”
He did, however, behold them again and studied them
to good purpose. Besides his essay, “My Visit to Niagara,”VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
he weaves Niagara episodes into the “Journal of a Solitary
Man/’ and perhaps into other sketches, to be found in his
collected works.
One of the earliest Spanish tourists to visit our region
was Don Lorenzo de Zavala, whose “Viage a los Estados-
Unidos del Norte de America ” published in Paris in 1834,
records the author’s impressions of Buffalo—he was here
in July, 1830—Black Rock, Waterloo (Fort Erie), Chip-
pewa, Niagara Falls, etc., down to Fort Niagara.
We now come to the decade which produced more books
about Niagara than any other of the century. From 1831
to 1840 I note forty-three works of American travel, touch-
ing our region, thirty-one of which were first published in
London. Could anything more forcibly illustrate, by con-
trast, the paucity of American literary production—at any
rate of the descriptive sort—at that period! I could dwell
at length and with pleasure on many of these books, for the
list includes several extraordinary productions; but my re-
view shall be of the briefest.
Mrs. Frances Trollope came to see us in 1831. Her
“Domestic Manners of the Americans” set this country by
the ears for more than one decade. Although the dear lady
was a very shrew in her treatment of Americans, at Niagara
she was for the most part sweetly feminine and appreciative.
I know of no more striking proof of the majesty of Niagara
than that it tamed Mrs. Trollope. In Buffalo she was more
her usual self:
“Of all the thousand and one towns I saw in America,
I think Buffalo is the queerest looking; it is not quite so
wild as Lockport, but all the buildings have the appearance
of having been run up in a hurry, though everything has an
air of great pretension; there are porticos, columns, domes,
and colonnades, but all in wood. Everybody tells you there,
as in all their new-born towns, and everybody believes, that40
NINETEENTH CENTURY
their improvement, and their progression are more rapid,
more wonderful, than the earth ever before witnessed;
while to me, the only wonder is, how so many thousands,
nay millions of persons, can be found, in the nineteenth
century, who can be content so to live. Surely this country
may be said to spread rather than to rise.
“The Eagle Hotel, an immense wooden fabric, has all
the pretension of a splendid establishment, but its monstrous
corridors, low ceilings, and intricate chambers, gave me
the feeling of a catacomb rather than a house. We arrived
after the table d'hote tea-drinking was over, and supped
comfortably enough with a gentleman, who accompanied
us from the Falls; but the next morning we breakfasted in
a long, narrow room, with a hundred persons, and any
thing less like comfort can hardly be imagined.”
There is no better book for a bumptious American to
read, even today, than Mrs. Trollope’s. If he can peruse it
and keep a serene temper, he is fit for the kingdom of
heaven. Mrs. Trollope gave us a dose of bad medicine, but
it was good for us.
Her fame rather overshadows that of Captain J. E. Alex-
ander of the 42d Royal Highlanders, F. R. G. S., and much
else besides, whose “Trans-Atlantic Sketches” (London,
i833) belongs to Niagara letters. He gives a long, graphic
account of Francis Abbott, the hermit of Niagara; as also
does F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D., in whose “Miscellaneous
Writings” (Boston, 1846) will be found a long account of a
visit to Niagara in July, 1831.
In 1832, I note the following visitors to our region, who
wrote books about us: Rev. Isaac Fidler (“Observations,”
etc.), a missionary, resident for a time at “Thornhill, Yonge
Street, near Toronto”; Godfrey T. Vigne (“Six months in
America”), who contributes his quota to the cheerful non-
sense of Niagara, with a really fine frontispiece of the Falls,
from his own drawing; E. T. Coke (“A Subaltern’s Fur-VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS..
41
lough”), a lieutenant of the 45th Regiment who came to
Buffalo in August of this year by canal, and studied the
‘bustling” town, Indian reservations, battlefields, etc., in
several excellent chapters; Joseph Bouchette (“The British
Dominions in North America”), whose two-volume quarto
work, dedicated to William IV., contains a careful topo-
graphical description of the region; and John Eyre, whose
“Beauties of American Travel,” are strongly evangelical.
Of about this period was the visit of Prince Maximilien von
Wied-Neuwied, whose elaborate “Voyage” contains a Ni-
agara chapter; it is, in the original edition, a very scarce
book.
In the next year—1833—*at least eight bookwriters ar-
rived: C. D. Arfwedson (“The United States and Can-
ada”) came by canal to Buffalo; experienced the pleasures
of stage travel on the Niagara frontier, and wrote at length
of what he saw-—fortunately so, for he was a good ob-
server; so, in a way, was E. S. Abdy (“Journal”) who
visited General Wadsworth at Geneseo and Red Jacket’s
widow on the Buffalo Reservation; and who, at the Falls,
objected strongly to the work of one who had built “a
wooden bridge and a circular building, like a shot tower,
directly over one of the falls. . . . The name of this Van-
dal is I believe, Porter”! Captain Hamilton, author of
“Cyril Thornton,” notes in his “Men and Manners in Amer-
ica,” that the epithet of “Horseshoe” as applied to one of
the Niagara cataracts, is no longer applicable, as it is a semi-
hexagon—yet other people have persisted in seeing it as a
horseshoe, for years after! Hamilton’s pages are useful to
the student of anti-Masonry in Western New York. A
bright chapter on Niagara is contained in the “Impressions
of America” of Tyrone Power, a gifted, popular actor, who
found himself in Buffalo on the Fourth of July, 1833, when42
NINETEENTH CENTURY
the streets were full of tipsy Indians. In this year N. P.
Willis paid one of his visits to Niagara in the interests of
American scenery; and Patrick Sherriff, a literary farmer,
making his “Tour through North America,” wrote that “the
banks of the Niagara from the Ferry to the Pavilion is the
loveliest and most interesting portion of the globe”! John
Neal, a poet of the Niagara, tells in his “Wandering Recol-
lections” of his Niagara experiences in 1833.
The “Journal” of Frances Anne Butler—the lovely
Fanny Kemble, adored by an earlier generation—is by no
means least among the books of this year, 1833. Approach-
ing Buffalo in July, by canal, she tells us how, near Lock-
port, “I saw a meek-eyed, yellowish-white cart-horse, stand-
ing with a man's saddle on his back. The opportunity was
irresistible, and the desire too—I had not backed a horse
for so long. So I got up upon the amazed quadruped,
woman’s fashion, and took a gallop through the fields, with
infinite risk of falling off, and proportionate satisfaction.”
Her journal continues:
“We reached Lewistown about noon, and anxious
enquiries were instituted as to how our luggage was to be
forwarded, when on the other side; for we were exclusive
extras; and for creatures so above common fellowship
there is no accommodation in this levelling land. A ferry
and a ferry-boat, however, it appeared, there were, and
thither we made our way. While we were waiting for the
boat, I climbed out on the branches of a huge oak, which
grew over the banks of the river, which here rise nearly a
hundred feet high. Thus comfortably perched, like a bird,
‘twixt heaven and earth/ I copied off some verses which I
had scrawled just before leaving Lockport. The ferry-
boat being at length procured, we got into it. The day was
sultry; the heat intolerable. The water of this said river
Niagara is of a most peculiar colour, like a turquoise when
it turns green. It was like a thick stream of verdigris, fullVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
43
of pale, milky streaks, whirls, eddies, and counter-currents,
and looked as if it were running up by one bank, and down
by the other. I sat in the sun, on the floor of the boat,
revising my verses. .	.	. Arrived on the other side,
i. e., Canada, there was a second pause, as to how we were
to get conveyed to the Falls. .	.	. An uneasy-looking,
rickety cart without springs was the sole conveyance we
could obtain, and into this we packed ourselves. .	.	.
The sound of the cataract is, they say, heard within fifteen
miles when the wind sets favourably; today, however,
there was no wind; the whole air was breathless with the
heat of midsummer, and, though we stopped our waggon
once or twice to listen as we approached, all was profound
silence. There was no motion in the leaves of the trees,
not a cloud sailing in the sky; everything was as though
in a bright, warm death. When we were within about
three miles of the Falls, just before entering the village of
Niagara, ------- stopped the waggon; and then we heard
distinctly, though far off, the voice of the mighty cataract.
Looking over the woods, which appeared to overhang the
course of the river, we beheld one silver cloud rising slowly
into the sky,—the everlasting incense of the waters. A
perfect frenzy of impatience seized upon me: I could have
set off and run the whole way; and when at length the
carriage stopped at the door of the Niagara house, waiting
neither for my father, D-----------, nor -------, I rushed
through the hall, and the garden, down the steep footpath
cut in the rocks. I heard steps behind me; ----------- was
following me; down, down I sprang, and along the narrow
footpath, divided only by a thicket from the tumultuous
rapids. I saw through the boughs the white glimmer of
that sea of foam. ‘Go on, go on; don’t stop/ shouted
-------; and in another minute the thicket was passed; I
stood upon Table Rock. ---------seized me by the arm, and,
without speaking a word, dragged me to the edge of the
rapids, to the brink of the abyss. I saw Niagara. Oh,
God! who can describe that sight?”44
NINETEENTH CENTURY
And thus, breathless as it were, at the brink of the chasm,
the dramatic Fanny leaves us—and drops the subject.
Dr. Walter Henry, a British military surgeon, tells in
his most readable volumes (“Events of a Military Life”)
something of his experiences at Niagara in 1834. I quote a
few lines to show his estimate of the emotional effect of the
scene:
“I have visited the Falls of Niagara four times; and on
three of these occasions in company with ladies—for the
view of any thing grand or sublime in nature or art is not
worth two pence in selfish solitude, or rude male companion-
ship, unembellished by the sex; and I have noticed that the
predominant feeling at first is the inadequacy of language
to express the strength of the emotion. One of the ladies
alluded to, of a refined mind and ingenuous nature, after
gazing for the first time, with a long and fixed expression,
on the sublime object before her, looked for an instant in
my face and burst into tears. There are others so consti-
tuted as to be fascinated by the spectacle to such a danger-
ous and overpowering extent, as to feel a strong desire to
throw themselves into the abyss. A lady of good sense and
mature age assured me, that as she stood on the edge of
the Table Rock, this impulse became so strong and over-
mastering, that she was obliged to recede rapidly from the
brink, for fear of the consequences. Here the mind must
have been momentarily deranged by the awful grandeur
of the scene. I am now of a calm and subdued tempera-
ment, the result of long effort and much reflection on the
silliness of giving rein to strong feelings and emotions. But
when, on my first visit, I proceeded through the Pavilion
garden towards the Table Rock, and beheld an ocean
moving over the precipice, and flashing and gliding into the
enormous milk-white pool below, without any apparent
effort, and with all the ease of a quiet rivulet stealing
through a meadow, all mental restraint gave way, and my
inmost spirit burst out in loud and enthusiastic admiration.”VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
45
The year 1834 brought several other book-writing trav-
elers, among them two Doctors of Divinity, the Rev. An-
drew Reed and the Rev. James Matheson, who collaborated
on a “Narrative of the visit to the American churches . . .
from the Congregational Union of England and Wales.”
Their studied, precise volumes contain conscientious de-
scriptions of the Niagara scene—written, too, with genuine
intensity of feeling. These clergymen were among the first
of our visitors to protest against the ruin of Niagara by
vandal money-seekers: “Niagara does not belong to them.
Niagara does not belong to Canada or America. Such spots
should be deemed the property of civilized mankind; and
nothing should be allowed to weaken their efficacy on the
tastes, the morals and the enjoyments of all men.”
The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, whose “Travels in
North America,” were dedicated to Queen Victoria; and the
somewhat scholarly and too pedantic Francis Lieber, author
of “Letters to a Gentleman in Germany, written after a trip
from Philadelphia to Niagara,” visited our region in 1834.
Greece he compares to a great epic, “while Niagara is a
powerful ode, a rhapsody in which Nature herself has seized
the mighty harp and plays a rapturous tune. .	.	. There
is not once, in Dante’s whole poem, even an allusion to
watery torment and horror, and yet how would he have
seized upon the sight [of Niagara] and wrought it into
poetry.” A more eminent visitor of that year was Harriet
Martineau, who found much to comment on in “lawless”
Buffalo, where women were subject to insult. She gives us
a long chapter on Fort Erie, and records the impressions of
two visits at the Falls.
I must be content with mere mention of these writers of
the next year: Michel Chevalier (“Lettres sur I’Amerique
du Nord”), who writes a chapter dated “Buffalo, 9 July,46
NINETEENTH CENTURY
1835,” and affords us not merely description, but some study
of economic conditions: the Rev. F. A. Cox, and the Rev.
J. Hoby, two “D. D.’s” who attended a camp-meeting near
Niagara Falls, as described in their “Baptists in America”;
and Don Ramon de la Sagra, author of “Cinco Meses en los
Estados-Unidos” There also came in that year Dr. William
Fleming, whose “Four Days at the Falls of Niagara,”
privately printed at Manchester, Eng., is a dainty and
attractive little book, illustrated with exquisite copper-
plates. There are at least two editions of it.
The year 1836 sent hither a learned German, Dr. J. G.
Biittner, who discourses much about the Seneca Indians in
his two-volume “Briefe aus und uber Nordamerika” A
notable Englishman, Sir Francis Bond Head, lieutenant
governor of Upper Canada, who was sent out to Canada to
struggle with the Mackenzie upheaval, found his pleasure
in letters; and in several of his books, his “Narrative/’
“The Emigrant,” etc., offers his quota of Niagara literature.
Two literary Americans—rare birds at that day—came
to Niagara this year: Willis Gaylord Clark, whose “Liter-
ary Remains” contain an anecdotal account of his journey
by stage through Western New York, and experiences at
Buffalo and the Falls ; and Caroline Gilman, who writes of
our region at length in her “Poetry of Traveling.” Pretty
nearly forgotten now, those long-gone devotees of belles-
lettres; yet it is not unprofitable to peruse their pages, if
only to realize the improvement in our standards of taste
and literary expression.
The year 1837, marked by business disturbance and po-
litical excitement, sent at least five British book-writers to
the banks of the long-suffering Niagara. D. Wilkie, a Scot,
records in his “Sketches of a Summer Trip to New York
and the Canadas,” his experiences by canal to Buffalo. AtVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
47
Niagara he indulges in a romance, with some matter-of-fact
reporting. T. R. Preston, a Government office-holder at
Toronto, tells in his “Three Years’ Residence in Canada”
how Niagara should properly be studied:
“The way in which I found that I could best compre-
hend the magnitude and character of the stupendous
cataract, was by lying flat upon the ground in its near
vicinity, mentally dissecting as it were while so recumbent,
and then forming combinations of the particles ad infinitum.
I know not if this suggestion be, or not, a novel one; but
in my own case, its adoption was the result of accident, as
I found that, when close upon them, I could not regard the
Falls for many minutes together in an erect posture, with-
out succumbing to an attracting influence, which I can
compare only to the fascination exercised by the loadstone
or the eye of the rattlesnake. I, therefore, adopted the
alternative of prostrating myself (which answered the two-
fold purpose of reverence and convenience), and was in
such wise enabled to contemplate, for hours together,
without apprehension for my personal safety, the stupend-
ous monument of ages that stood reared before me.”
No advice of this kind is found in the interesting pages
of Mrs. Jameson’s “Winter Studies and Summer Rambles,”
but her Niagara chapters are important for the history of
the period. Useful, too, are the scientific observations of
Charles Daubeny, M. D., F. R. S., etc., professor of chem-
istry and botany at Oxford, who tells in his “Journal of a
Tour,” etc., how he studied mineral springs two miles below
the cataract, and the burning spring above. His report on
the geology of the Falls region is contained in the Transac-
tions of the Ashmolean Society of Oxford.
More to the popular taste were the pages of Captain
Marryat, whose three-volume “Diary in America” is to be
found in various editions, English and American. Captain
Marryat thought that “perhaps the wisest if not the best48
NINETEENTH CENTURY
description of the Falls of Niagara is in the simple ejacula-
tion of Mrs. Butler/’ but he indulged in much whimsical
writing, of which the following is an amusing sample:
“As I stood on the brink above the falls, continuing for
a considerable time to watch the great mass of water
tumbling, dancing, capering, and rushing wildly along, as
if in a hurry to take the leap and delighted in it, I could not
help wishing that I too had been made of such stuff as
would have enabled me to have joined it; with it to have
rushed innocuously down the precipice; to have rolled
uninjured into the deep unfathomable gulf below, or to
have gamboled in the atmosphere of spray, which rose in
a dense cloud from its recesses. For about half an hour
more I continued to watch the rolling waters, and then I
felt a slight dizziness and a creeping sensation come over
me—that sensation arising from strong excitement, and
the same, probably, that occasions the bird to fall into the
jaws of the snake. This is a feeling, which, if too long
indulged in, becomes irresistible, and occasions a craving
desire to leap into the flood of rushing waters. It increased
upon me every minute; and retreating from the brink, I
turned my eyes to the surrounding foliage, until the effect
of the excitement had passed away. I looked upon the
waters a second time, and then my thoughts were directed
in a very different channel. I wished myself a magician,
that I might transport the falls to Italy, and pour their
whole volume of waters into the crater of Mount Vesuvius;
witness the terrible conflict between the contending ele-
ments, and create the largest steam-boiler that ever entered
into the imagination of man.”
In 1838 I note but one book:	“A Journey in North
America described in familiar letters to Amelia Opie,” by
Joseph John Gurney, a Quaker, who writes that in Buffalo
“we were received in the hospitable house of the only
Friend’s family resident there.” In 1839 came George
Combe, one-time phrenological expert, whose two-volumeVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.	49
account of his American travels devotes the usual pages to
our region, with more than the usual errors of description.
He found Navy Island the largest in the river; was de-
lighted to find a phrenological society in Buffalo, and while
here helped a doctor dissect a brain. “I was told that the
phrenologists were so numerous and influential, that they
would experience little difficulty in getting phrenology in-
troduced into the public schools as a philosophy of mind, if
they had a work suitable for the purpose. They have only
one zealous opponent, a Presbyterian clergyman who
preached against the science.” The chief value of Combed
book, in its local aspect, is found in his study of the Indians
near Buffalo. With the briefest mention of J. S. Bucking-
ham’s comprehensive “Eastern and Western States of
America,” which gives an especially good account of Buf-
falo, hotels, steamboats, etc., and which has several philoso-
phizing, poetizing pages on Niagara, and Lt. Col. A. M.
Maxwell’s “Run through the United States during the
autumn of 1840,” I end my notes on this most prolific of
decades.
Why so many authors should have visited the Niagara
region in the decade of the 30’s, and why, in succeeding
decades they came in diminishing numbers, I leave (for the
moment) to the discerning reader. Although there were
fewer, from ’40 to ’50, there were several of distinction.
There was Sir Richard H. Bonnycastle, Lieutenant Colonel
of Royal Engineers, and of the Militia of Upper Canada,
who was long in the Niagara district as engineer and road-
maker, and whose two volumes (“The Canadas in 1841”)
are pleasant reading. There was Joseph Sturge, Quaker of
Birmingham, whose “Visit to the United States in 1841,”
though largely devoted to problems of international peace,
emancipation of the negro, and kindred matters, has some50
NINETEENTH CENTURY
appreciative pages on Niagara. There was the Earl of Car-
lisle, a guest of the hospitable Wadsworths, as he was of
Mr. Van Buren and other eminent citizens. His imagina-
tive temperament found expression not merely in verse, but
in discourse of which the following is characteristic: “Liv-
ing at Niagara was not like ordinary life. Its not overloud
but constant solemn roar, has in itself a mysterious sound:
is not the highest voice to which the Universe can ever listen,
compared by inspiration to the sound of many waters ? The
whole of existence there has a dreamy but not a frivolous
impress; you feel that you are not in the common world,
but in the sublimest temple.,,
Mrs. Eliza A. Steele’s “A Summer Journey in the West”
(New York, 1841), contains a short chapter on Buffalo and
a long one on Niagara Falls.
Very many visitors at Niagara have been put into a seri-
ous, often a deeply devotional frame of mind, by contempla-
tion of the cataract. Not so Augustus E. Silliman (a
brother of the distinguished Benjamin D. Silliman), whose
“Gallop among American Scenery” is a marvel of bad style
—interjectional, exclamatory, a literary curio. The author
visited, apparently in 1842, Fort Erie, Lundy’s Lane and
Niagara, of which he writes at length. In that year came
John Robert Godley, whose two volumes of “Letters from
America” are by no means free from the superior, conde-
scending tone often employed by British writers on America.
Most notable of all Niagara writers at this period—perhaps
most quoted of them all after Hennepin—was Charles
Dickens, whose sojourn in Buffalo and at the Falls is the
theme of many pages in the “American Notes.” A much-
admired description of the cataract includes the following
paragraphs:VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
51
“Between five and six next morning, we arrived at
Buffalo, where we breakfasted; and being too near the
Great Falls to wait patiently anywhere else, we set off by
train, the same morning at nine o’clock, to Niagara.
“It was a miserable day; chilly and raw; a damp mist
falling; and the trees in that northern region quite bare
and wintry. Whenever the train halted, I listened for the
roar; and was constantly straining my eyes in the direction
where I knew the Falls must be, from seeing the river
rolling on towards them; every moment expecting to behold
the spray. Within a few minutes of our stopping, not
before, I saw two great white clouds rising up slowly and
majestically from the depths of the earth. That was all.
At length we alighted: and then for the first time, I heard
the mighty rush of water, and felt the ground tremble
underneath my feet.
“The bank is very steep, and was slippery with rain, and
half-melted ice. I hardly know how I got down, but I was
soon at the bottom, and climbing, with two English officers
who were crossing and had joined me, over some broken
rocks, deafened by the noise, half-blinded by the spray, and
wet to the skin. We were at the foot of the American Fall.
I could see an immense torrent of water tearing headlong
down from some great height, but had no idea of shape, or
situation, or anything but vague immensity.
“When we were seated in the little ferry-boat, and were
crossing the swoln river immediately before both cataracts,
I began to feel what it was; but I was in a manner stunned,
and unable to comprehend the vastness of the scene. It
was not until I came on Table Rock, and looked—Great
Heaven, on what a fall of bright-green water!—that it
came upon me in its full might and majesty.
“Then, when I felt how near to my Creator I was
standing, the first effect, and the enduring one—instant and
lasting—of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace. Peace
of Mind: Tranquility: Calm recollections of the Dead:
Great Thoughts of Eternal Rest and Happiness: nothing
of Gloom or Terror. Niagara was at once stamped upon52
NINETEENTH CENTURY
my heart, an Image of Beauty; to remain there, changeless
and indelible, until its pulses cease to beat, for ever.
“Oh, how the strife and trouble of our daily life receded
from my view, and lessened in the distance, during the ten
memorable days we passed on that Enchanted Ground!
What voices spoke from out the thundering water; what
faces, faded from the earth, looked out upon me from its
gleaming depths; what Heavenly promise glistened in those
angels’ tears, the drops of many hues, that showered
around, and twined themselves about the gorgeous arches
which the changing rainbows made!
“I never stirred in all that time from the Canadian side,
whither I had gone at first. I never crossed the river
again; for I knew there were people on the other shore,
and in such a place it is natural to shun strange company.
To wander to and fro all day, and see the cataracts from
all points of view; to stand upon the edge of the Great
Horse Shoe Fall, marking the hurried water gathering
strength as it approached the verge, yet seeming, too, to
pause before it shot into the gulf below; to gaze from the
river’s level up at the torrent as it came streaming down;
to climb the neighbouring heights and watch it through the
trees, and see the wreathing water in the rapids hurrying
on to take its fearful plunge; to linger in the shadow of the
solemn rocks three miles below; watching the river as,
stirred by no visible cause, it heaved and eddied and awoke
the echoes, being troubled yet, far down beneath the
surface, by its giant leap; to have Niagara before me,
lighted by the sun and by the moon, red in the day’s decline,
and grey as evening slowly fell upon it; to look upon it
every day, and wake up in the night and hear its ceaseless
voice: this was enough.
“I think in every quiet season now, still do those waters
roll and leap, and roar and tumble, all day long; still are
the rainbows spanning them, a hundred feet below. Still,
when the sun is on them, do they shine and glow like
molten gold. Still, when the day is gloomy, do they fall
like snow, or seem to crumble away like the front of aVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
53
great chalk cliff, or roll adown the rock like dense white
smoke. But always does the mighty stream appear to die
as it comes down, and always from its unfathomable grave
arises that tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is
never laid: which has haunted this place with the same
dread solemnity since Darkness brooded on the deep, and
that first flood before the Deluge—Light—came rushing on
Creation at the word of God.,,
Susan Margaret Fuller’s “Summer on the Lakes” begins
at “Niagara, June io, 1843,” but this gifted woman has con-
tributed but slightly to our local literature. A visitor of
1844	was Eliot Warburton, author of numerous works,
among them “Hochelaga, or England in the New World,”
in which he dismisses Niagara with this summing up: “See
it from Table Rock, gaze thence upon it for hours—days if
you like—and then go home. As for the Rapids, Cave of
the Winds, Burning Spring, etc., you might as well enter
into an examination of the gilt figures on the picture-frame,
as waste your time on them.”
Contrast with this the careful study made of our river in
1845	by Francis Parkman; to what good use, every reader
of his histories knows.
George Moore’s “Journal .	.	. with Notes on Can-
ada and the United States ... in 1844” devotes sev-
eral pages to Buffalo and the Falls, which he visited in
October, 1843. In the next year came Frederick Von
Raumer, whose work I know only in Turner’s translation,
“America and the American People” (New York, 1846).
The author, professor of history in the University of Berlin,
was at Niagara Falls in July, 1844. The Rev. Edward
Waylen’s “Ecclesiastical Reminiscences of the United
States” (London, 1846) has a Niagara chapter of about
this date.54
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Something of our region, in varying quantity and quality,
will be found in the Rev. G. Lewis’ “Impressions of America
and the American Churches” (1844) > *n William Savery’s
“Journal” of that year—another of the useful records by
members of the Society of Friends; in Alexander Mackay’s
“The Western World” (1846) in three volumes, dedicated
to Richard Cobden; and in William Cullen Bryant’s “Let-
ters of a Traveler,” the poet’s visit being in the last named
year. I have not noted anything for 1847, but in 1848 there
came at least two writers: the Rev. James Dixon, D. D.,
whose “Personal Narrative of a Tour,” etc., is chiefly an ex-
position of the state of Methodism in America at that time;
and Archibald Prentice, editor of the Manchester (Eng.)
Times, member of literary and philosophical societies, and a
clear, sensible writer. He found himself interested in Buf-
falo, then with 35,000 inhabitants; and of Niagara, he ex-
pressed himself as follows:
“A short ride on the railway brought us from Buffalo
to the village of Niagara and the Cataract Hotel, close to
the back of which are the great falls. I was soon on the
point of rock on the American side, where they are in full
view. It takes some boldness to avow that I was less awe-
struck than tourists generally profess to be; but I was
delighted with the exceeding beauty of the scene. Close
at hand the falling river was broken into millions of
resplendent diamonds; farther off it was a perpendicular
fall of snow; in the middle it was the rush of the green
ocean wave into a chasm opened in the great deep; and
again in the distance was the gentle snow-fall; all illumin-
ated by a brilliant sun, and all gentle and lovely. There
was no rage, no discord, no tumultuous chafings of the
immense flood. There was the quietness as of the con-
scious possession of power; perfect harmony; perfect
beauty. I saw no death of the stream as it fell—no tre-
mendous ‘ghost of spray and mist.’ No voices spoke to meVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
55
from out the thundering water. There was the majestic,
softened by the beautiful;—calm, gentle, tranquil, exceed-
ing loveliness.”
A literary visitor of 1849 was Major John Thornton,
author of a “Diary of a Tour through the Northern States
of the Union and Canada.” What Buffalonian today can
recognize his city in the following picture: “Buffalo has a
most imposing appearance as viewed from the lake. The
practice of roofing the cupolas, domes, roofs, etc., with
bright tin, has a most dazzling effect when the sun’s rays
are reflected from them”! Robert Baird’s “Impressions
and Experiences of the West Indies and North America”
is not without local interest. The author spent a week at
the Falls in 1849, and although he records that the distance
to Buffalo is eleven miles, he gets most of his facts straight
and gives a full> leisurely account of his experiences and
reflections. Much relating to Buffalo and Niagara is to be
found in “Minnen fran en sjuttonarig vistelse i Nordvestra
Amerika ” by the Rev. Gustav Unonius; his book, published
at Upsala, Sweden, in 1862, records events of a tour in
1849.
A gifted English woman, Mrs. Houston, author of
“Hesperos, or Travels in the West/’ thought Buffalo in
1849 “showy” but not substantial. At Niagara she resented
the presence of the town, as too near the scenery. In
September, 1849, James F. W. Johnston looked us over.
His two-volume work, “Notes on North America,” dis-
cusses the causes of Buffalo’s growth, and the regional
geology.
I note but one foreign visitor in 1850, but that one most
welcome. Then it was that Frederika Bremer came, I
believe with James Russell Lowell and his wife. In Buffalo
she was asked: “ 'Does Buffalo look according to your ex-56
NINETEENTH CENTURY
pectations ?’ To which I replied that I had not expected any-
thing from Buffalo.” She wrote delightfully of Niagara,
as the reader will find, who, if not able to enjoy Miss
Bremer in the Swedish, can not fail to do so in Mary
Howitt’s admirable translation of “The Homes of the New
World.” Were I writing a book on my present subject
instead of trying to compress it into as few pages as
possible, I should dwell at length on the poetic prose of this
gifted writer.
George Francis Train gives us a Niagara incident unique,
as might be expected, and altogether romantic. In 1850,
when an ardent youth, he saw at Syracuse a beautiful girl,
a stranger. Train gazed, and vowed to a friend: “I never
saw her before but she shall be my wife.” With supreme
impudence, and in the spirit that perhaps wins battles, he
follows the maiden and her elderly escort. They take train,
he does the same, heedless of destination. He seats himself
near the goddess; a refractory window (herein may lie a
reason why they always are refractory) furnishes an excuse
for gallant assistance. The ice is broken, introductions
follow. At Oswego, the young lady embarks for Niagara.
Train takes the same boat. Let him continue:
“And so we arrived at Niagara together. Dr. Wallace
was kind enough to permit me to escort his charge about
the Falls, and I was foolish enough to do several risky
things in a sort of half-conscious desire to appear brave—
the last infirmity of the mind of a lover. I went under the
Falls and clambered about in all sorts of dangerous places,
in an intoxication of love. It was the same old story, only
with the difference that our love was mutually discovered
and confessed amid the roaring accompaniment of the great
cataract. We were at the Falls forty-eight hours, and before
we left we were betrothed.”VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
57
When they were married, the next year, “my wife,” says
Train, “was only seventeen. She was very beautiful,” as
indeed we may well believe from her published portraits.
His experience (“My Life in many States and in Foreign
Lands”) is unique so far as the chronicles of literature
record, but nothing is clearer in the history of Niagara than
that it has always been a favored resort of Dan Cupid as
well as the shrine of Hymen.
The decade of the ’50% like that just reviewed, brought
us a score and more of authors. In 1851, we have J. J.
Ampere of the French Academy, whose “Promenade en
Amerique” devotes poetical pages to Niagara, with some
graphic paragraphs on Buffalo; and Moritz Busch, author
of “Wanderungen zwischen Hudson und Mississippi ” pub-
lirhed some years later in Stuttgart.
George William Curtis visited Niagara in the summer
of 1851, writing from there a series of letters to the New
York Sun, which afterwards were embodied in his delight-
ful volume, “Lotus Eating.” The clearness of his percep-
tion may be shown by one brief quotation: “Disappoint-
ment in Niagara must be affected, or childish.” The next
year came Alexander Marjoribanks, gathering material for
his “Travels in South and North America.” While at
Niagara he marvels as much at the suspension bridge as at
the Falls. The “Autobiography” of the Rev. Abel C.
Thomas, printed in Boston in 1852, has an account of the
author’s preaching on Table Rock.
Another world-wide tourist, William Parish Robertson,
author of a “Visit to Mexico and the United States,” in
two volumes, records at Niagara: “I came too late to say
anything which could be new or interesting, 'Tout est dit, et
Ton vient trop tard/ as La Bruyere pathetically complains
when he commences his ‘Caracteres.’ ” Still another58
NINETEENTH CENTURY
visitor of this summer of 1852 was Edmund Patten, author
of “Glimpse at the United States,” etc. And not to be over-
looked is Mrs. Susanna Moodie’s “Life in the Clearings,”
etc. (London, 1853), with its good account of the Niagara
neighborhood.
The year of 1853 brought to our shores William H. H.
Kingston, in whose “Western Wanderings,” in two volumes,
may be found abundant and good writing descriptive of our
region. W. E. Baxter, Member of Parliament, made one
of his numerous tours through the United States in this
same year. A series of lectures given by him on his return
to England was published under the title “America and the
Americans.” He has pleasant things to say of Buffalo, and
of Niagara one very good thing: “Niagara must be visited
in silence and alone.” William Chambers, author of
“Things as they are in America,” was especially interested
in the summer of ’53 in the geology of the Niagara region.
His analytical mind experienced a sentiment of disappoint-
ment which “I think,” he says, “may be mainly traced to
the ranting and exaggerated descriptions which have de-
ceived the imagination and led to undue expectations.” It
is interesting to note that in this year there came to Niagara
Charles Weld, a half-brother of the Isaac Weld who 55
years before had been one of the earliest to visit and
describe our region. The younger brother, at the time of
his American tour vice president of the Royal Dublin
Society, writes with much discernment and intelligence of
the phenomena of Niagara. About the time of his visit
came also two other notable Britons: the Hon. Amelia M.
Murray, who, in her “Letters from the United States, Cuba
and Canada,” tells of her visit to Niagara in October,
though her pages are chiefly devoted to an analysis of
American social customs. In this year also came the Rev.VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
59
John Sinclair, Vicar of Kensington and much else; his
“Sketches of Old Times and Distant Places,” printed in
London as late as 1875, has a readable account of a Niagara
sojourn in 1853.
The Rev. Robert Everest, chaplain to the East India
Company, records in his “Journey through the United
States and part of Canada” that as he was on the street in
Buffalo, then a town of 60,000, “a plain man passed alone
with an umbrella in his hand—Millard Fillmore.”
I note three wandering authors in 1855, whose works
relate to this region: William Ferguson, in whose big book,
“America by River and Rail,” will be found his description
of sight-seeing on board the first Maid of the Mist and his
sage reflection regarding the cataract: “Many say you can’t
describe it, then do very well”; and Ivan Golovin, the
object of whose “Stars and Stripes,” published in London
the next year, was “to show that the United States are
pursuing a wrong way in their politics and morals.” This
reforming Russian paused long enough in his career of
national correction to declare that the period spent at
Niagara embraced the most happy moments of his life. A
third traveller of this year was J. G. Kohl, whose impres-
sions are to be found in his “Reisen in Canada u. durch die
Staaten von New York & Pensylvanien.”
A trifling reporter was Thomas Wilson, author of
“Trans-Atlantic Sketches,” his visit hereabout being in 1859.
Of slight importance is the “Sketches of the South and
West, or Ten Months Residence in the United States,” by
Henry Deedes, also of this year. Far worthier our atten-
tion is the volume of still another traveling Quaker, William
Tallack, who writes pleasantly of the Niagara in his
“Friendly Sketches of America.” Here, too, may be men-
tioned John White’s “Sketches from America,” the visit60
NINETEENTH CENTURY
being about this time, though the book was published in
London in 1870.
The one most notable visit of the decade ending with
i860, was that of the young Prince of Wales. Several
books record his American travels. Among those most
worthy the attention of the curious reader is “The Prince
of Wales in Canada and the United States,” by Nicholas
Augustus Woods, special correspondent of the London
Times. This work contains a long, picturesque account of
the Prince's visit to Niagara, the exhibitions of Blondin,
etc. A briefer account of the royal tour, by Gardner D.
Engleheart, private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle,
was privately printed in i860, with- a few exquisite illustra-
tions from the author's drawings.
The Earl of Southesk (K. T., F. R. G. S.), in his
“Saskatchewan” (Edinburgh, 1875), makes record of his
visit to Niagara in May, 1859. He was little pleased with
the scene. “It is too huge,” he says, “and the disgustingly
obtrusive civilization that crawls over its sides turns my
very heart sick. ... A narrower, higher cataract
would strike more sharply on the mental vision, than low-
statured, wide-spreading Niagara. .	.	. The Canadian
side is not strikingly offensive, but the American side teems
with glaring wooden structures hanging over the very preci-
pice. .	.	. Some wretched person has built a mock ruin
on a little island that actually overhangs the Fall”—and
more in the same strain.
A war-time visitor was Anthony Trollope, who in 1858-
1861 made several stops at Niagara. The last visit, thirty
years after his mother's famous sojourn, gave us a very
good chapter in his “North America.” The attitude of his
mind is shown by the following excerpt:VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
61
“Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tourists
travel to see,—at least of all those which I have seen,—I
am inclined to give the palm to the Falls of Niagara. In
the catalogue of such sights I intend to include all buildings,
pictures, statues and wonders of art made by men’s hands,
and also all beauties of nature prepared by the Creator for
the delight of His creatures. This is a long word; but as
far as my taste and judgment go, it is justified. I know no
other one thing so beautiful, so glorious and so powerful.”
One of our visitors, in 1854, was a truly remarkable
traveler, the Viennese scholar, Ida Meyer Pfeiffer, who
spent most of her life in roaming the world. She had been
twice around the globe—not the trifling jaunt then that it is
now—when she came to the Niagara in August, 1854.
Though she had seen so much she seems to have saved her
superlative emotions for these falls. August 10th she
writes:
“This was a day never to be forgotten in the annals of
my life—one of those which brilliantly rewarded me for
all the toils and hardships by which they were purchased;
for on this day I beheld one of the most sublime and won-
derful scenes of God’s beautiful world—the falls of
Niagara! What the eye sees, what the soul feels, at this
spectacle, can never be described: painter and poet would
despair of success in such an attempt. Did a man meet his
mortal enemy on this spot, he must at once forgive him;
and should one who has doubted of the existence of God
come to this, one of the noblest of His altars, he must, I
think, return converted and tranquilized. Oh! that I could
have shared with all my friends, with all mankind, the
emotions awakened by this wonder of creation.”
Another great traveler who first saw Niagara in that
year was Bayard Taylor. His volume entitled “Home and
Abroad,” tells of his visits, especially of one in i860; and
touches well upon an affectation of tourists: “I read last62
NINETEENTH CENTURY
winter in one of the papers a most admirable description of
the falling of the water, entitled ‘Niagara, but Not de-
scribed/ The writer knew all the time he was describing it.”
In 1862 our Niagara author is Samuel Phillips Day
(“English America”). The next year apparently brought
but one, Lucien Biart, whose book, “A travers l’ Amerique,”
was “crowned” by the French Academy and has had several
editions. The author writes lightly and brightly of Niagara
in winter. The next year came another Frenchman, Auguste
Laugel, author of “Les fttats-Unis pendant la Guerre”
The French never fail to write attractively of Niagara, and
Laugel is no exception, though he declares that he has never
seen a good picture of it. Another French author, Jules
Marcou, made five visits to Niagara, i848-,50. In Septem-
ber, 1863, he came again, and wrote agreeably of his experi-
ences under the title “Le Niagara quinze ans apres.” Late
in the war—1865—a distinguished English writer who had
been war correspondent in America, W. Howard Russell,
visited Niagara, in the preparation of his “Canada, its
Defences, Condition and Resources.” He was an enter-
taining writer. In an earlier book, “My Diary North and
South” (1863), he devotes a whole chapter to Niagara,
which he first visited in 1862. With him I close the meagre
list of author travelers in our region during the Civil War.
The reasons for this meagreness are too obvious to call for
comment. Nor is the rest of the decade of the ’fio’s any
richer in production. We have Oscar Comettant’s “Voyage
Pittoresque et Anecdotique” etc.; and F. Barham Zincke’s
“Last Winter in the United States,” in which he tells how
he was snowbound at Niagara in the winter of ’67-8.
Captain W. F. Butler was at Niagara in September, 1867.
In his “Great Lone Land” he writes that “Niagara was a
place to be instinctively shunned,” and unfolds an enter-VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
63
prising Yankee’s plan for drying up the Falls! F. French
Townshend’s “Ten Thousand Miles of Travel, Sport and
Adventure” (London, 1869), contains an account of his
visit to Niagara in 1868.
Belonging by association and American interest to the
Civil War period is Thomas Hughes—the beloved “Tom”
of Rugby—who came to America for the first time in 1870,
and saw Niagara in September of that year. One reads of
it in his “Vacation Rambles,” chattiest, most genial of books.
His principal impression—at least his principal Niagara rec-
ord—was of the current baths: “We had a bath in the rush
just above the Falls; you have a little room through which
a slice some four feet wide of the water is allowed to rush ;
you get in at the side, in the back water, and then take hold
cf a short rope fixed close above the rush, and let the water
seize and tear at you, which it does with a vengeance, tug-
ging as if it would carry off your legs and pull you in two
in the middle. You can get out of it in a moment by just
slewing yourself round, and the sensation is marvelously
delicious.”
In the decade of the 70’s—I think as early as 1871—
came Henry James; not then so distinguished as now, but
master (as he does not always clearly demonstrate) of
an incomparable style. Of all the writers who have
seriously addressed themselves to the task of describing
Niagara Falls, Henry James is, in my judgment, easily
first. He is among writers what Church is among painters—
thoroughly poetic and thoroughly sincere. He saw Niagara
when it was yet in the hands of the Philistines, and in elab-
orated sentences he called for its rescue. Then, goaded by
“the importunities from hackmen and photographers and
vendors of jim-cracks,” he passes into a holy rage, declares
them all “simply hideous and infamous,” and calls on the64
NINETEENTH CENTURY
State to buy the landscape. Few voices were raised for this
redemption, earlier than his. And when he does gain soli-
tude and silence, how he adores it! Always an analyst, he
goes like the great artist, at once to its heart. We may smile
a little at his phrases, with just a hint of bestowing approval
on the Creator as well as on His works: “The perfect taste
of it is the great characteristic. It is not in the least mon-
strous ; it is thoroughly artistic and, as the phrase is, thought
out. In the matter of line it beats Michael Angelo.,, The
more he studies, the more he approves, and presently—he
cannot conceal it—the poet-soul of him is in love with it:
“Nothing was ever more successfully executed”—this he
says, of the crest of the fall; “it is as gentle as the pouring
of wine from a flagon—of melody from the lips of a singer.
... If the line of beauty had vanished from the earth
elsewhere, it would survive on the brow of Niagara.” He
even approved of the Terrapin tower, still standing at the
date of his visit, and which to many visitors was an offense;
but this critic thought its builder “deserves a compliment,”
for he had set up a little but useful standard for comparison.
Henry James at Niagara was as far from the hysterical
panegyrist as a Tyndall, let us say, is far from the welling
emotions of a Mrs. Sigourney, or the emotional attitudiniz-
ing of a Dickens; but his study of it (to be found in “Por-
traits of Places”) sets the high-water mark, I think, in all
the flood of descriptive writing on this subject.
Speaking generally, from the Civil War to the end of the
century, the literature of travel touching our region is well-
nigh negligible in value. Some notable visitors have come,
some pleasant pages have been written; but more and more
there is a disposition to treat Niagara as a twice-told tale.
In 1872, I note the visit of Lady Dufferin, who has left a
pleasant record in “My Canadian Journal” of her visit toVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
65
Niagara with General Sir C. Hastings Doyle, Lieutenant
Governor of Nova Scotia, and Sir Edward Thornton, then
British Minister at Washington. With Colonel Sir Cassimir
S. Gzowski—the distinguished engineer of the International
Bridge—Lady Dufferin visited Buffalo, where, she writes,
“one gets such an impression of wealth and comfort that
one is astonished.” Another visitor of that year was Julius
George Medley, Lieutenant Colonel of Royal Engineers,
Fellow of the University of Calcutta, etc., from whose “Au-
tumn Tour in the United States and Canada” one gets the
impression that he thought it something of a bore to write
of Niagara and hardly worth while to trouble either himself
or his readers with serious description.
A picturesque wanderer of 1874 was Henri Rochefort,
returning to France from his political exile—he had escaped
from the penal colony of New Caledonia. No livelier
book was ever written than his “Story of My Life,” in
which he tells characteristically of his brief sojourn at Ni-
agara in May of the year named. “All around the Falls,”
he says, “which are really majestic, though one feels inclined
to believe that they have been put there to attract foreigners
of every nationality—is a perpetual sort of St. Cloud fete.
The banks on the sides of the rapids are crowded with ped-
lars and even fair-stalls. Everything is on sale, especially
bracelets of German lapis-lazuli and Vesuvian lava; that is
to say, the products of numerous industries that have noth-
ing to do with Niagara and its Falls. ... A wild-beast
showman absolutely insisted on my purchasing a bear, which
turned sadly about in its cage just as I had done in mine
only a few months earlier”! Rochefort viewed “the grand
cascade” from the middle of the suspension bridge; it fin-
ishes, he says, “by giving you the impression of being an
immense stick of marsh mallow or barley sugar twisting66
NINETEENTH CENTURY
round a bobbin of an Algerian stall at a suburban fair”—
about the most extraordinary impression in our whole cate-
gory. He lodged at the Clifton House, and when the man-
ager brought the visitors’ book, “I contented myself with
tracing this burlesque phrase: This fall is profound, but
my own is still greater! (Signed) The Shadow of Napo-
leon III.’ ”
The “Western Wanderings” of J. W. Bodham-Whetham,
though touching our region, is of no special value; nor is
the jaunty and journalistic “Letters sent Home” by William
Morris (author of “France and the French,” etc.). Mu-
sicians are seldom authors, but Jacques Offenbach, who
came to Niagara in 1875, wrote lightly, somewhat ecsta-
tically, of what he saw, in “America and the Americans.”
A poetical gentleman of Spanish blood, Guillermo Prieto,
wrote poetically of us in 1877, his book, “Viaje d los Esta-
dos-Unidos” being published in Mexico. In that year came
also William Saunders (“Through the Light Continent”),
and H. Hussey Vivian, M. P., F. G. S., in whose “Notes of a
Tour in America” I am struck by the following passage:
“It (the fall) impressed me with a sense of its own gran-
deur, and the impotence of man, more than anything I ever
saw, more than the eruption of Vesuvius, the crashings of a
continental thunder-storm, or an ocean gale.” And after all
that, he was disappointed in the Great Lakes. In our list
should be included Charles Marshall’s “The Canadian
Dominion,” and Willis Nash’s “Oregon,” and William
Morris’s “Letters sent Home,” all of which have chapters
on Niagara as seen in the ’70’s.
Walt Whitman, in his “November Boughs” tells of his
first visit to Niagara in 1848. It is just about the tersest
Niagara chapter I have come upon:VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
67
“Got in the cars and went to Niagara. Went under the
Falls—saw the whirlpool and all the other sights.”
Many years after, in June, 1880, he saw Niagara again
and wrote of it in characteristic fashion:
“For really seizing a great picture or book, or piece of
music, or architecture, or grand scenery—or perhaps for
the first time even the common sunshine, or landscape, or
may-be even the mystery of identity, most curious mystery
of all—there comes some lucky five minutes of a man’s life,
set amid a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, and
bringing in a brief flash the culmination of years of reading
and travel and thought. The present case about two o’clock
this afternoon gave me Niagara, its superb severity of
action and color and majestic grouping, in one short, indes-
cribable show. We were very slowly crossing the Sus-
pension bridge—not a full stop anywhere, but next to it—
the day clear, sunny, still—and I out on the platform. The
falls were in plain view about a mile off, but very distinct,
and no roar—hardly a murmur. The river tumbling green
and white, far below me; the dark high banks, the plentiful
umbrage, many bronze cedars, in shadow; and tempering
and arching all the immense materiality, a clear sky over-
head, with a few white clouds, limpid, spiritual, silent.
Brief, and as quiet as brief, that picture—a remembrance
always afterwards.”
Mere mention may suffice for W. G. Marshall’s hand-
somely illustrated “Through America” (1878); Lady Duf-
fus Hardy’s “Through Cities and Prairie Lands” and “Be-
tween Two Oceans”—her Niagara visit being about 1880;
David Pidgeon’s “An Engineer’s Holiday,” of the same
year; T. S. Hudson’s “Scamper through America” (1882);
Alberto Lombardo’s “Los Estados-Unidos” (1882); and
the work of still another Mexican, Don Juan Bustamante y
Campuzano, secretary of legation at Washington, who in
his “Del Atlantico al Pacifico” tells of his visit to Niagara68
NINETEENTH CENTURY
in August, 1882. In 1883 came Thomas Greenwood (“A
Tour in the States and Canada—Out and Home in Six
Weeks”) ; in 1884, the Marquis of Lome (“Memories of
Canada and Scotland”) ; in 1885, Alberto G. Bianchi, who
in “Los Estados-Unidos” describes the tour of a party of
Mexicans; and in 1886, Charles Bigot, whose little book,
“De Paris au Niagara” has the good French gift of pic-
turesqueness. At Niagara the author regrets that he is not
a word painter like Zola or Loti. Loti indeed would give us
a Niagara page or two worth while. Sir Henry Irving’s
“Impressions of America” (1884), written by Joseph
Hatton, has a pleasant Niagara chapter. Frederic Daly’s
“Irving” also touches our region.
Most of these recent books offer little of value, especially
in comparison with the elaborate chapters of earlier decades.
Sir Edwin Arnold tarried at Niagara in the autumn of
1889, and in “Seas and Lands” writes of it in poetical vein.
B. Kroupa, author of “An Artist’s Tour” (1890), is content
at Niagara to complain of excessive fees. C. L. Johnstone’s
“Winter and Summer Excursions in Canada” (1894) de-
votes but a few paragraphs to our region, and those not ac-
curate. A notable visitor of 1894 was S. Reynolds Hole,
Dean of Rochester, who in his “Little Tour in America”
is clerically discursive and anecdotal, and calls Niagara
“the most wonderful place in the world.” Most matter-of-
fact was Lady Theodora Guest, whose “Round Trip in
North America” brought her to Niagara in 1894; she wrote
that it was “a marvelous mass of water, but that it has no
other advantage—no fine scenery, no weather and no fine
flowers.” The last decade of the Nineteenth Century may
close, so far as our review is concerned, with Mrs. Schuyler
Van Rensselaer, whose study of Niagara is found in the
Century Magazine, June, 1899; with Dr. Auguste LutaudVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
(“Aux Etats-Unis”) ; and with Rudyard Kipling, who in
his “American Notes” (1899) takes no heed of Niagara,
but pays his respects to Buffalo in a—for him—most gra-
cious fashion.
The foregoing perhaps tedious record takes on an aspect
of interest when considered as a whole. Let us consider
for a moment these travel-books, relating in part to the
Niagara. The list could be extended, but we lose little by
shortening it. Ignoring a few of the least value, we have
about 190 books of travel, written in the Nineteenth Cen-
tury, which record, often at great length, the writers’ im-
pressions of Niagara Falls, Buffalo and the adjacent region.
By far the largest part of these books are by English men
and women. There is a fair sprinkling of Scots, a few
French, Germans, Mexicans; but probably 90 per cent, of
the lot were English. Most of the descriptive literature of
Niagara, in the Nineteenth Century, was published in Lon-
don. Some of the authors were officials in Canada, some
were specially interested in emigration, or slavery, or other
phase of American life; some were correspondents for
British journals; and some were tourists—early specimens
of the genus globe-trotter, with the book-writing habit.
Good and bad, take them through the century, their pages
give us data not elsewhere recorded, from which we get a
fuller knowledge and a clearer idea of conditions here-
abouts, during the century, than from any other source.
The production of travelers’ books relating to the Niag-
ara during the Nineteenth Century could be very simply
shown in diagram, after the edifying fashion of the zigzag
dotted line which in Government weather charts expresses
the variation of temperature, or which is often used to in-
dicate the fluctuation of the stock market. Let a base line
say of ten inches represent the century—a decade to an70
NINETEENTH CENTURY
inch. Starting with one author in 1800, a gradually
ascending line indicates the half dozen or so who had ap-
peared by 1810. By 1820, with 17 more books, the line
reaches twice as high. It climbs but little, prior to 1830;
but from 1830 to 1840 it jumps to twice its former height;
a veritable little alp of literature. In the next ten years it
falls almost to the point of 1830; and with some variations
it gradually declines, until, at 1900, we have no more litera-
Diagram illustrating the distribution by decades of 187 authors who visited and
wrote of Niagara Falls, 1800 to 1900. The bottom figures indicate the decade ; those
at the top the number of visiting authors for each decade. It strikingly shows the
effect of increased facilities of travel, in the ’3o’s, and the restrictive effect of the
Civil War.
ture descriptive of Niagara in the new books of travel than
we had in the first ten years of the century. Travel books
are still being written; but the tourist—especially the
Briton—no longer makes the Niagara his chief objective in
America. Nowadays he is usually hurrying across the con-
tinent to the far Northwest or Japan, and is content to see
Niagara from a car window, or ignore it altogether.
The literature of travel afifords not merely an array ofVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
71
facts, but illustrates the singular behavior of the human
mind in contemplating the superlative in Nature. About
one-half of the literary visitors at Niagara record that at
first sight they were deeply disappointed. The other half
declare that the falls quite came up to expectations. Very
many visitors feel under obligations to the occasion, and in-
dulge in affectedly fine writing. They become studiedly
sentimental. This is strikingly true of writers from say
1830 to i860. It was not merely the women, whose natures
lead us to expect emotional expression, but often the men
as well, who indulged in apostrophe and exclamation, in
posing and phrasing, as silly as anything in the literature of
our language. After a time affectation ceased to be good
form and literary hysteria went out of fashion. I have
sometimes wondered whether the experiences of the Civil
War did not have a chastening and elevating effect on our
national literature. But the simpler, sincerer expression
which present taste prefers is by no means confined to
American writers, although in our present study it is most
evident in American books, because from about i860 there
was a marked falling off in books descriptive of this region,
by foreign authors; whereas much of the best that had been
written about it is by Americans of our own generation.
When we recall that the Niagara panorama, scenic and
human, has employed the pens of James Fenimore Cooper,
of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bayard Taylor, George William
Curtis, Charles Dudley Warner, Henry James, and William
Dean Howells (I am not forgetting many others of varying
quality, from N. P. Willis to Mark Twain), it becomes
plain that although probably the greater bulk of descriptive
literature has been furnished by British commentators, yet
the essential and worthiest literature of the region has of
late years been penned by Americans.72
NINETEENTH CENTURY
The memoirs or biographies of celebrities contain many
an interesting allusion to or account of their visits to
Buffalo and Niagara Falls, which are not to be found in
their books, published during their life-time. Fitz-Greene
Halleck in 1820, Catherine M. Sedgwick in 1821, John Neal
in 1833, Harriet Beecher in 1834, Ralph Waldo Emerson in
1849 or 5°—and so on down the decades. Charles A. Dana
came to Buffalo, a little boy, in 1812. Here he learned to
speak the Seneca; and his biographer, James H. Wilson,
says that when he first saw Niagara Falls he was so im-
pressed by them that “he composed an ode on their grandeur
which had considerable merit but as it has long been lost
this statement must be taken on faith.,, Annie Fields, in
her “Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe,” gives
“Hattie” Beecher’s impressions of Niagara, which she
visited in 1834: “I felt as if I could have gone over with
the waters; it would have been so beautiful a death, there
would be no fear in it,” etc. This was two years before she
married Professor Stowe, and eighteen years before “Uncle
Tom’s Cabin” made her the most famous of American
women authors. George Ticknor was at Niagara in 1827
and again in 1845, when he wrote a long description to
G. T. Curtis in Boston:
“The finest thing we have seen yet, and one of the
grandest I ever saw, was a thunder-storm among the waters,
as it seemed to be, the other night, which lighted up the two
cascades, as seen from our piazzas, with most magnificent
effect. They had a spectral look, as they came out of the
darkness, and were again swallowed up in it, that defies
all description and all imagination.”
Theodore Winthrop visited Niagara in August, 1851,
and wrote (to friends) amusingly of his experiences. He
lost his luggage and had to borrow a shirt!VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
73
Henry David Thoreau was at Niagara in the spring of
1861, on his way to Minnesota. It is incredible that he did
not write of the Falls; he probably did, but if the letter
has been published I have overlooked it. He died in less
than a year after this first and only tour to the West. His
health was failing before he saw this region.
Edmund Clarence Stedman came to Niagara in the sum-
mer of 1865, anc* while there wrote characteristic letters to
his mother, and to his close friend, Bayard Taylor. The
following extract from a letter to Taylor shows that even
poets, if in poor health and “out of sorts,” may find even
Niagara tiresome and tame:
Cataract House, Niagara, July 16, 1865.
.	.	. Well, here we are, on our way to Sault Ste.
Marie, for which we start tomorrow, and go, as it seems
to a sick man, in his “moods,” out of sight and sound of
humanity. .	.	. These Falls of Niagara improve on
acquaintance, but still, I feel nothing of the awe in their
presence which greater minds profess to have felt. The
fact is, one can pour over a so much loftier and louder-
sounding torrent in his soul, that these seem rather lathery
and tame. I catch myself wondering whether all these
rascally hackmen and publicans, who talk so loudly of
them, don’t, in their heart of hearts, think them a humbug
—a sort of springe to catch woodcocks. If this is the larg-
est thing of the sort in the world, what a little Peddlington
sort of a ball this world is, anyhow! Probably, though, I
see them too late in life—(saw them some years ago, for
an hour only). When quite young, the first sight of the
ocean impressed me beyond measure. For years I dreamed
of that white surf—the infinite laughters—the unended
gloom behind. Even now I am lost, and lifted, by the sea-
shore. There is nothing like it. Niagara is measurable.
The roar of the cataract is that of a great mill-dam. But
the ocean makes you think it has no limit. .	.	.74
NINETEENTH CENTURY
Here at Niagara the best thing in my mind is my
mother’s quatrain to the eagle—you might have written it—
Where the great Cataract sends up to Heaven
Its spraying incense of perpetual cloud,
Thy wings in twain the sacred bow have riven,
And onward sailed, irreverently proud!
There is a fine swoop and curve to that last line. .	.	.
Temperament accounts for much, in the impressions
made by Niagara upon visitors. Goldwin Smith, who must
often have viewed the Falls, says nothing of them in his
“Reminiscences,” save to quote (twice, in varying lan-
guage) a remark by Richard Cobden to a friend about to
visit America, and who asked if Niagara was worth a
special journey. Cobden’s reply was:	“There are two
sublimities in Nature: one of rest, the other of motion;
the sublimity in rest is the distant Alps, the sublimity of
motion is Niagara.” Cobden’s journal of his first American
visit, quoted from in Morley’s “Life of Cobden,” has a long
account of his visit to Niagara in June, 1835. “Thank
God,” he exclaims, “that has bestowed on me health, time
and means for reaching this spot, and the spirit to kindle at
the spectacle before me!” His enthusiasm does not dis-
turb his judgment, and he is nicely critical in a rather
amusing fashion:
“	.	.	. The view from the platform overhanging
the Horseshoe Fall, when you look right down into the
abyss, and are standing immediately over the descending
water, is horrible. I do not think people would take any
pleasure in being placed in this fearful position, unless
others were looking on, or unless for the vain gratification
of talking about it. ... We crossed to the American
side and took a bath, for there is not one on the Canada
side. The ferryman told us of a gentleman who swam
over three times. I felt less disposed than ever to quit thisVISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
75
spot, so full of ever-increasing attraction. Were I an
American, I would here strive to build me a summer resi-
dence. ...
Timothy Flint, pioneer, missionary, author and editor,
wrote at some length of Niagara Falls before he had seen
them, in his “Geography and History,” etc., and at length
in various of his works after his visit in 1828. His
biographer, John E. Kirkpatrick, says of that visit:
“He arrived at Niagara Falls at half past one at night.
Instead of going to bed as his fellow passengers did, he
spent the remainder of the clear moon-lit night viewing
the Falls, a spectacle which it had been almost the first
remembered wish of his heart to see. He saw it ‘in a tem-
perament, at a time and under circumstances just such’ as
he would have chosen. .	.	. He says:
“ ‘He must have been obtuse of brain and of heart
who could have thus contemplated this spectacle alone in
this repose of nature, under the light of the moon, and the
blue stars twinkling in the cloudless dome of the firmament,
and not have thoughts which the poverty of language can
never clothe in words/ ”
The reader who seeks a detailed account of our region
as it was in 1828, can hardly do better than to consult
Flint’s account of his visit, contained in his “Tour,” first
printed in the Western Monthly Review (Cincinnati, 1828),
of which he was editor.
James T. Fields, in 1875, lectured in St. James Hall,
Buffalo—where, by the way, Dickens read—and had a
winter view of Niagara in a gale. In October, 1876, he
was here again. “The scene at the Falls,” he writes, “was
never more impressive.” On this visit, he sprained his
ankle in Buffalo, and lectured sitting down. Samuel
Bowles, for many years editor of the Springfield (Mass.)
Republican, visited the Falls in 1854; the descriptive letters76
VISITORS WHO WROTE BOOKS.
which he then wrote are to be found in his “Life and
Times,” by George S. Merriam. Chancellor James Kent
visited the Falls as early as 1802; his “Memoirs and Let-
ters,” edited by his great-grandson, William Kent, contains
the great jurist’s impressions of Niagara. William Dean
Howells has written much of Niagara, nowhere better than
in “Niagara Revisited,” first published in the Atlantic
Monthly, May, 1883. It was reissued in Chicago the next
year as an illustrated book, but owing to business compli-
cations the work was suppressed, very few copies ever
getting into circulation, the result being that this little book
is not only one of the rarest of Mr. Howells’ works, but one
of the rarest—and best—of Niagarana.
Notes of this sort could no doubt be much extended, but
1 forbear. Our review is far from exhaustive, and therein
illustrates the observation that nothing bibliographical is,
ever was or ever will be, complete. My object has been to
show what attention the Niagara region has received from
authors who have visited it. Numerous other authors I
leave for mention in considering other aspects of our
subject.
It should be noted, however, that our best modern writers
of Niagara are no longer content merely to describe the
scenery. That is used as the background against which are
studied the fashions and foibles—the spirit—of the passing
young man and woman. And this brings me to a considera-
tion of our home region and its literature as utilized by the
writers of fiction.THE NIAGARA REGION IN
FICTION
T HAVE sometimes thought it might not be wholly un-
profitable to make a study of the fiction of our country,
in its relation to history. From the earliest development
of American literature, we have had the historical novel; not
always so called, but still a thing easily recognized, in spite
of its manifold1 forms. Cooper’s tales, whatever else they
may be as literature, are indubitably historical novels, for
they present a fabric of fiction along with an attempt to
portray, with some degree of fidelity, conditions and types
which somewhere existed, and which characterized some
period of American history.
Once, under a rash impulse, I undertook to compile a
list of all novels that could be grouped according to definite
periods in American history. My zeal soon abated, for I
found, not only that the task, in its main outlines, had al-
ready been accomplished by expert library-workers, far
better than I could hope to do it; but that there were
serious difficulties in assigning certain works to any particu-
lar period. In the hands of the romancer, history ceases to
be history.
My slight study of the subj ect discovered, among other
things, that there is a tendency on the part of the story-
tellers to pick out the war periods for their fiction. Long
lists may be made of novels dealing with the French and
7778
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
Indian wars, the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil
War; and in between these great epochs, lesser periods
have their quota of fiction; for example, Shea’s Rebellion
in Massachusetts, the Patriot war on the New York and
Canada border; the Fenian invasion, and many another
episode. Every armed conflict in our history is made to
figure in some work of fiction; for the story-teller—the
soft-handed man of the pen—dearly loves (at his desk) the
clash of steel and the smell of powder. The periods of
peace have made little appeal to him. In a few instances,
notably in the fiction of recent years, we have political strife
substituted for warfare, or the strain and rivalry of athletic
contest. There is significance, too, in the fact that many
modern novels deal with attempts to get rich quickly, with
financial and speculative adventures. Even the trashiest of
these tales is historical in the sense that it reflects a taste and
characteristic of the present day; but speaking broadly, if
the mise-en-scene must be peaceful, the story-teller gener-
ally drops all attempt at an avowed historical setting, and is
wholly occupied with a romance of his own devising.
The Niagara region, rich in its history, is by no means
correspondingly rich in historical fiction. It would be
strange indeed if the romantic actualities of this unique
river had not appealed to those who invent romance; but
the inadequacy of the fiction, in proportion to the fact, be-
comes more and more apparent as one studies it. It is true
of fiction, as of poetry, that its quality is independent of the
sublimity or beauty of natural scenery, or of the human
crisis, which may have inspired it. As I have attempted to
show in another study (“Niagara and the Poets”) it is in
the nature of things that a nameless brook should have its
Tennyson, and a Niagara go unsung. As long as fiction is
fiction, its highest quality must depend on the subjectiveTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
79
treatment of human character. The physical setting is
secondary.
Regarding as “Niagara region” the territory through
v/hich our river runs, and the adjacent regions which under
historical or present conditions have become associated with
it, we ask, How have the writers of romance enriched its
literature ?
The first period in our history—that of the occupancy of
these lands by aborigines prior to the sway of the Iroquois,
has been utilized by George Alfred Stringer in his tale “The
King and the Cross,” wherein conflicts between peoples
more or less legendary—the so-called Eries or Neuters or
Kah-quahs of whom history really knows nothing—are set
down with the circumstantiality of yesterday's ball game.
The Indian and the missionary figure in countless tales.
The earliest published romance of which I have knowledge
relating to the Niagara region, deals with the period of
French occupancy and may therefore stand next to “The
King and the Cross" in our chronology. This is the “Aven-
tures du Sieur C. Le Beau, avocat en parlement, ou voyage
curieux et nouveau, parmi les Sauvages de VAmerique Sep-
tentrionale” etc., published in Amsterdam in 1738. So far
as I am aware, this curious book has never been published
in English. Under the guise of his own adventures, Le
Beau indulges in extraordinary romancing. According to
his own testimony this youth, a native of Rochelle, went to
Paris in 1729, and in the same year was tempted from his
legal studies into a voyage to Canada. Shipwrecked in the
St. Lawrence, he reached Quebec in sad plight, June 18,
1729. Finding employment in the bureau du castor he made
his home with the Recollect Fathers for more than a year,
then ran away from sober pursuits, and with two Indians
took to the woods. His narrative puts the time of his80
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
arrival at Niagara in June, 1731, and under sufficiently fan-
tastic conditions. He was accompanied by his mistress, an
Abenaki maiden, with whom he had exchanged clothes,
resorting to this and other disguise to avoid arrest as a
deserter by the French. He makes a long story of his en-
counter with soldiers at Fort Niagara, and of his final
sanctuary in Seneca villages. Le Beau’s book, despite its
veracious air and accuracy on some points, is not history.
It is therefore fiction. The author apparently came to
Canada and had some experience among the Indians ; and
when he wrote his book, chose so to enlarge upon what he
had really seen and experienced, still holding to a thread of
fact, that the result has little interest as fiction, and no value
whatever as history. Travelers who will write have been
doing the same thing, from Le Beau’s day to this.
There are many romances that deal with La Salle—all
wretchedly cheap and tawdry in comparison with the actual
romance of his life. William Dana Orcutt’s book, “Robert
Cavelier,” is perhaps the latest attempt to utilize La Salle
in fiction; but we can hardly rate it as a successful one.
And how ignorant—or incompetent—the story-writers
are! They seek a picturesque, striking, gallant figure. La
Salle is all that. They invent scenes and incidents utterly
out of keeping with his character. And they one and all
seem oblivious to the extraordinary fact, which history
shows, that for some four years, in the very midst of his
ardent and brilliant exploits, La Salle disappears, and of his
whereabouts and his deeds in that time practically nothing
is known. In September, 1669, La Salle parted from his
companions, between the head of Lake Ontario—present
Hamilton—and the Grand river. Their understanding was,
that he would return to Montreal. But if he did, no record
of it is known. He disappears ; nor does he reappear, soTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
81
far as trustworthy records show, until the autumn of 1674,
when we find him reembarking for France. To be sure,
Perrot’s “Journal” says he was met, with a company of
Indians, hunting far up the Ottawa. Others claim that he
descended the Ohio, that he discovered the Mississippi, thus
forestalling the claims of Joliet and Marquette. These con-
flicting claims, unsupported by credible documents, leave
the matter wholly a mystery. For at least two of the four
years which form a so strange hiatus in an otherwise glar-
ingly-conspicuous career, there is a complete blank. What
a splendid opportunity for invention—what a challenge to
the romancer! Can it be that the story-tellers acknowledge
their inability to invent a career for La Salle in 1670-71
which shall be consistent with the probabilities, and in keep-
ing with his character? For the present we must leave it
as one of the neglected opportunities in American fiction.
A rather recent book (1901), dealing cleverly with an
early period, is Samuel Merwin’s tale, “The Road to Fron-
tenac.” It weaves a romance into the known history of the
Lake Ontario region in the time of Denonville, and touches
upon that soldier’s exploits among the Senecas and on the
Niagara in 1687. But the interest centers at the other end
of the lake, at old' Fort Frontenac, now Kingston.
Of like character is Wm. R. A. Wilson’s story, “A Rose
of Normandy” (1903), in which he strives, not very suc-
cessfully, to add to the romance with which history endows
La Salle, Tonty, and their comrades. “A Daughter of New
France,” by Mary C. Crowley (1901), deals chiefly with
Cadillac and the founding of Detroit, but relates somewhat
to our region, and is written with most admirable knowledge
of the history of the period. Here perhaps may be men-
tioned Mary Hartwell Catherwood’s “The Story of Tonty,”
and William O. Stoddard’s “On the Old Frontier.”82
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
A fair maid, a rough soldier, a few bloody deeds and
tense adventures, and the inevitable outcome of a much-dis-
turbed wooing—all told with singular affectation of sup-
posed archaic speech—these are the essential and unvarying
materials from which this kind of fiction is concocted.
James Fenimore Cooper must have recognition in our
local fiction. ‘The Pathfinder,” the sub-title of which is
“The Inland Sea,” is a tale of Lake Ontario during the old
French war, with Niagara episodes. “The Spy,” a part of
which was written at Lewiston, is a tale of the Revolution,
the scene of action being principally in Westchester county,
but it includes an episode of the War of 1812 on the
Niagara. In much the same way a very different sort of
Niagara episode during the War of 1812 is introduced in
Charles Lever’s rollicking “Confessions of Harry Lor-
requer.”
The historical novels of Major John Richardson relate
chiefly to the region of the Lakes, the Detroit, and, in less
degree, to the Niagara. Born at Queenston in 1796, Rich-
ardson was truly a son of the Niagara region, though most
of his life was spent away from it. In his “Eight Years in
Canada” he gives us a touching account of his experiences
and emotions on revisiting his old home on the Niagara, in
1838. His most famous novel, “Wacousta,” is a tale of
Pontiac’s War. The Niagara region figures more in “The
Canadian Brothers,” first published in Montreal in 1840.
One episode in it gives us the story of the battle of Queens-
ton, and, naturally enough, there is a glorification of
British arms. Seeking a wider market, Richardson repub-
lished this story in New York, changing the title to
“Matilda Montgomerie,” and leaving out the Queenston
episode—a pitiable subversion of the dignity of authorship
to the needs of the author. The theory of course was thatTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
citizens of the United States would not buy a story that
sympathized with the triumph of the British at Queenston.
We are all quite as absurd in some of our “theories” and
prejudices, today.
In “Matilda Montgomerie” a chapter or so is devoted to
adventures in the vicinity of Buffalo—which Sambo, one
of the characters, calls “Bubbalo town.” Although Rich-
ardson is praised for the excellence of his style, no one not
imbued with the antiquarian taste, is likely to be attracted
to his pages.
Our region has not been wholly overlooked by the dra-
matists. The old French tragedy of “ Hirza” opens at
Niagara Falls. I regret that I cannot name the author, nor,
with precision, the date of production. Written in the
stately verse of Racine, it belongs alike to the fiction and
the poetry of our region:
“ Triste Niagara, sejour craint de nos Dieux;
Rocs mena$ants, et vous, 6 torrents furieux,
Qui, des monts inegaux couvrant les vastes cimes,
Tombez en mugissant d’abimes en abimes,
Devant vous fut brise le calumet, de paix”; etc.
It deals with the wars of the Iroquois and the Illinois,
and with the armed encroachments of the French and
English ; and in its heroics and grandiloquence is about as
far as possible from a true depiction of the American
aborigine.
More than one drama has been written—and acted—the
scene of which was at least in part at Niagara. Of this
class was “The Battle of Chippewa,” which a traveling
Buffalonian saw enacted at New Orleans in 1822. Still
another, “A Trip to Niagara,” etc., a three-act farce, was
written in 1830 for the Bowery Theater, New York, by
William Dunlap, dramatist, lecturer, historian, portrait84
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
painter and founder of the National Academy of Design.
“A Trip to Niagara” brings the characters to Buffalo,
where one of them, an Englishman, exclaims: “So, this is
Buffalo! And Fm on the shores of Lake Erie! And what
do I see after all: A town like other towns, water like other
water, and people like other people—only made worse by
democracy. I have not seen a well-behaved man since I
came into the country, only a wild half Indian.” There is
a scene at a Buffalo hotel, and another at the Falls, where
Cooper’s Leather-Stocking soliloquizes: “This looks as it
used to do, they can’t spoil this, yet a while.” To judge
from the printed play, “A Trip to Niagara,” was a tame
entertainment, even when helped out, as it no doubt was,
with as effective a display of scenery as the artist-author
could devise.
Here, too, should have mention “La Catarata del Ni-
agara” a three-act drama, in verse, by Don Vicente Riva
Palacio, perhaps in collaboration with Don Juan A. Mateos.
It is contained in the joint publication of their dramatic
works, issued in Mexico City, 1871. The first and second
acts are set in Mexico, in the house of one Dona Rosa; the
third act shifts to Niagara, the time being 1847.
A considerable shelf, perhaps five feet long, could be
filled with stories of the War of 1812. My studies of
American history have well nigh convinced me that that
war was fought, not to maintain our rights on the high seas,
but to stimulate the development of American letters by
supplying picturesque material for budding romancers. The
only drawback to that theory is that the straightforward
unadorned record of the old sea duels, like that of the Con-
stitution1 and the Guerriere, has more thrills in it than the
romancers can invent. But for well-nigh a century, the
novelists have hovered about this period, like bumble-beesTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
in a field of clover. The war on the Lakes and the Niagara
frontier has had a share of their attention. There are boys’
books with Perry for hero—always with the introduction
of things more or less impossible to the character. The
events of i8i2-’i4 on the Niagara have been much used by
Canadian story-writers. There is “Hemlock/’ by Robert
Sellars (Montreal, 1890), which follows many of the events
of the war in our district, and is none the less worthy
because its point of view and sympathies are so notably
Canadian. A work of greater merit is “Neville Trueman,
the Pioneer Preacher, a Tale of 1812/’ by W. H. Withrow,
published in Toronto in 1886. The fictitious characters
mingle with the real, at Queenston Heights, Fort George,
the burning of Niagara, Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane. It
is a simple tale, with no affectations; and it makes a record
which we are glad to have of high character and worthy
impulses. There were true patriots in Canada in those days,
and it is wholesome to read of them, no matter on which
side of the river one may live. In this class belongs Amy E.
Blanchard’s tale, “A Loyal Lass, a Story of the Niagara
Campaign of 1814*” The list might be much extended.
There is a considerable group of books, mostly by British
writers, which should have place in our review. In the
guise of fiction, they chronicle the condition of things in
Upper Canada and the Niagara District, during the early
years of settlement. Such a work is John Galt’s three-vol-
ume novel, “Bogle Corbet, or the Emigrants,” published in
London in 1831. I believe too that “Laurie Todd,” Galt’s
most famous novel, touches more or less the Niagara
neighborhood.
The exploits of the Patriot War on this border, as told
by most historians, certainly contain much fiction, for no
two chroniclers agree. I recall however but one avowed86
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
romance with that affair as its theme—“The Prisoner of the
Border, a Tale of 1838,” by P. Hamilton Myers. Half a
century ago, when this story was published, Myers had
great vogue and his stories were popular*
There are many novels which touch this region in some
degree. H. A. Stanley's stirring tale, “The Backwoods-
man,” is a pretty successful treatment of the old New York
frontier during the Revolution, and deals with Indians and
white men who belong to our local history. Judge Tour-
gee's “Button's Inn" is a tale of the old Chautauqua portage.
C. R. Edwards' “Story of Niagara," published nearly forty
years ago, is an attempt to put into fiction some of the fron-
tier smuggling experiences; and “Where Waters Beckon,"
by Joanna E. Wood (1902), is a sickly sentimental offering,
dealing with so-called love, soul-affinities, a retreat in the
woods of Foster's Flats, otherwise Niagara Glen, and a few
suicides. It is a story of Buffalo as well as of Niagara, but
we can make no boast on that. The tragic story of Francis
Abbott, a recluse who lived for a time on one of the islands
above the Falls, and was drowned in 1829, has been written,
not only by James Bird, in a trustworthy narrative, but also
by “the author of ‘Mettallak/ as a work of fiction founded
on fact," entitled “Francis Abbott, or the Hermit of Ni-
agara, a Tale of the Old and New World." (Boston, 1846.)
Even the Erie Canal has its romances. If I remember
aright, some of J. T. Trowbridge's juvenile tales deal with
his own youthful experiences on the canal in Western New
York. But the classic in this field is perhaps “Marco Paul's
voyages and travels on the Erie Canal" (New York, 1852),
one of Jacob Abbott’s once popular series of juveniles, of a
sort long out of favor; yet it would be hard to find a more
vivid account of packet-boat travel on the Erie canal than is
given in this quaint little volume.THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
87
A noteworthy romance of our region is “La Virgen del
Niagara ” by Jose Rivera y Rio, published, an octavo of
592 pages!—in Mexico in 1871. Well known are Mrs.
Julia Ditto Young’s tale, “Adrift, a story of Niagara,” pub-
lished in 1889; and Mrs. Linda de K. Fulton’s “Nadia, the
Maid of the Mist,” also a story of Niagara published in
1901. Israel Zangwill’s volume of “Ghetto Tragedies,”
“They that Walk in Darkness,” contains “Noah’s Ark” (first
published in Lippineotfs), a story into which are woven,
for the most part with a fair degree of accuracy, the prin-
cipal facts regarding Major Mordecai Manuel Noah’s pro-
posed City of Refuge for Jews on Grand Island. E. W.
Thomson’s “John Bedell, U. E. Loyalist,” is a slight story,
the scene being laid on the Niagara.
Of juveniles which touch our region, or have their scenes
largely laid hereabouts, there are many. There is “Emily
and Clara’s Trip to Niagara Falls,” by the editor of “The
Youth's Casket ” the story being published in Buffalo in
1864. Of wider fame was “The Rapids of Niagara,” a
duodecimo of 436 pages, by Susan Warner, author of “The
Wide Wide World,” a famous old story in its day. “The
Rapids of Niagara,” of the goody-goody variety, is volume
six in Miss Warner’s “Say and Do series.” She brings her
characters to Niagara, and embellishes the highly moral
tale with a full-page view of the falls.
Of a more virile sort are several boys’ books of recent
years. I note Edward Stratemeyer’s “Marching on Ni-
agara, or the Soldier Boys of the Old Frontier”; several of
the books in Everett T. Tomlinson’s “War of 1812” series;
“Oliver Optic’s” “Out West, or Roughing it on the Great
Lakes,” “Through by Daylight, or the Young Engineer of
the Lake Shore Railroad,” etc., etc. Some of the old-time
“yellow-covered literature”—the dime novels of our boy-THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
hood—were of this class. In later years the limit was per-
haps reached in “The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and
Family at the Pan-American Exposition,” by “Paul Pry,
Jr.,” which delectable creation of the literary art opens with
the cheerful slogan, “Put me off at Buffalo!”
Of short stories, with the scene laid at the Falls or on
Lake Erie, there are so many that I make no attempt to
enumerate them. I must, too, ignore in this review the con-
siderable number of “Indian legends,” mostly invented by
writers of Caucasian blood, who have thought the great
cataract a fit place for “legends,” and have concocted them
to meet the supposed demand. One of the latest and best
productions of this character is a dainty little volume by
Paul Carus: “The Chief’s Daughter, a legend of Niagara”
(Chicago, 1901).
One of the most extraordinary works of fiction I have
ever seen, “The Canadian Girl, or the Pirate of the Lakes,
a Story of the Affections, by the Authoress of ‘The Jew’s
Daughter,’ ” was published in London, with steel-plate
engravings, in 1838. In its pages may be found all the
emotions, all the virtues, and especially all the vices, iniqui-
ties and atrocities of evil, known to man. The Pirate was
a bad man, as no doubt a good pirate should be, but he
always talked—I mean, conversed—in the polished English
of Pope and Addison. I despair of giving any idea of the
plot, short of quoting the whole book, and as it has 716
pages, that might disturb my own book-making plans. I
can merely call attention to certain passages which make
“The Canadian Girl” a part of our local literature.
It is edifying to read, of the Niagara, that “the country
through which the river flows is more populous, and in a
higher state of cultivation, than any other part of North
America. Its wild fruits are abundant, and of the rarestTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
89
and finest sorts, and the salubrious nature of the climate
is seen in the healthy countenances of the inhabitants.”
This is truly gratifying to local pride, though we remember
that Audubon thought the people hereabouts “lank and
sallow.” Some pages of scenic description are offered,
punctuated with the emotions of the characters in the story.
Of Lady Hester, for example, we are assured that at
Niagara Falls,
“her eye scarce knew where to rest—she was astounded.
The gigantic liquid sheet of emerald and of silver, ‘horribly
beautiful V—its semicircular front, nearly three-quarters of
a mile broad, grandly shrouded by revolving columns of
mist that rose perpetually from the thundering gulf—in-
spired her with sublime admiration.”
Lady Hester spreads her surprise and admiration over
several pages; while Letitia, the fair and tender Letitia,
“after the first surprise and enchantment had a little sub-
sided in her youthful breast, was eminently pleased with the
sight of thousands of water-fowl, who, coming from north-
ern lands in search of a milder climate, swam, or flew on
whistling wings a little over, the Niagara river to the brink
of the Falls, there advancing in the air about the mists
fronting the stupendous sheet of water, and lingering in the
neighborhood with evident joy and wonder; ducks of many
species, the teal, the widgeon, the shallard, and the swan,
were among these migratory birds. .	.	. Frequently
were some of the interesting creatures borne down by the
glassy current into the gulf and drowned. Letitia particu-
larly grieved for two noble swans, which came on boldly
past Goat Island, then became entangled in the confused
and dashing waves of the rapids, and were presently pre-
cipitated together over the precipice. She was in tears, but
a fresh succession of novel objects rendered her regret no
more than momentary.”90
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
“The Earl, who had little relish for the sublimities of
nature, had chiefly interested himself with calculating the
altitude of the two cataracts and their curvilinear length,
and coming to the conclusion that these great falls were not
so large as many others in different parts of the world, he
decided that they had no particular claim to praise”—a
highly original conclusion. The geographical knowledge
shown by our author is full of surprising revelations. For
example, note this passage:
“The strong steamer, in which were the pursuers of the
Pirate, had been all this time beating about Lake Erie, it
having been supposed that he was hiding about some of
the promontories on the coast, which indeed was really the
case. The Fearless [the pirate craft] moved only by night
on the lake. .	.	. But now the hunted vessel had been
driven near the mouth of the lake, where the American
beach was extremely wild, presenting a dark and gloomy
picture; huge black rocks, like the shattered ruins of a
sterile world, lay scattered in naked majesty many suc-
cessive miles along the side of the lake, whose waters
rushed in between them, and lashed their barren sides with
furious and unceasing roar. Behind, was spread a country
no less wild and stern.”
This, the reader is reminded, is a description of the
shore in the vicinity of Buffalo; dost recognize the portrait?
Not long ago, on a book-hunting excursion, I lighted on
what I am inclined to hold as the gem of all Niagara region
fiction—a trim little book of the old-fashioned demi-octavo
size—just right for the coat pocket—bound in shabby
leather, and printed at Exeter—I don’t know what Exeter—
in 1831, with this title: “Tonnewonte, or The Adopted Son
of America. A tale, containing scenes from Real Life, by
an American.” Soon after, I ran across an earlier, very
likely the original, edition, printed at Watertown, N. Y., inTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
91
1825. Here is one of the very rare local Americana, which,
for many years, I had never so much as heard of; then, in
widely different places, within a few months of each other,
I find two different editions! So it goes in this sport of
book-hunting.
Would that I knew the identity of “An American/’ that
I might hang a lasting wreath on her—I’m sure it’s her—
tombstone. The English is of the dear old style, in which
all the characters converse under all circumstances in
finished phrases of perfect propriety. In these pages the
sun never sets; but frequently “the fiery luminary sinks
beneath the western horizon.” A character is introduced,
not after drinking tea, but “after partaking the refreshing
beverage imported through such perils from the East, that
herb so famous in the annals of American independence.”
There you have a fine literary way of saying tea.
The story opens in New York City in the autumn of
1776 with an incident of the yellow fever scourge of that
year. A French child, bereft and abandoned, becomes the
protege of an American family who, after various domestic
adventures of no consequence, migrate, in 1807 into the
valley of the Tonawanda in Western New York. There is
something of worth in the story of this migration; the
author evidently follows in some essentials the actual experi-
ences of families known to him—or her. Beyond Utica—
“an inconsiderable village”—“the road began to grow wild
indeed! It was cut through the wilderness, while on each
side of them arose in sombre majesty the immense trees of
the forest, some of which had probably been growing since
the first subsiding of the deluge.” They fall in with an Irish
pedlar—or, to be more faithful to our author’s style, “a
pedlar whose brogue declared him a native of Hibernia”—
who being on his way to Buffalo, undertakes to help them92
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
on their road to Tonnewante. In the new home, crude
frontier conditions become well nigh idyllic. The hero, the
French foundling of early years, Theodore de Clermont
(there’s a Tonawanda name for you!) just naturally falls
in love with the forest flower, Evelina. Although the au-
thor does not speak of her as a young woman, but as an
amiable female or lovely being, she was, I think, the bona-
fide “Sweet Evelina” for whom in youthful days we have
all declared, in more or less mellifluous accents, that our
love would never-never-die. But alas ! just as the love of
Theodore and Evelina seeems about to be consummated,
Theo’s long-lost father arrives, en tour to Niagara, and the
young man is taken back to France. There he struggles on
through a hundred pages all cluttered up with marquises,
counts and viscounts, estates lost and regained, and especially
tangled with the ensnaring wiles of Mademoiselle Sophia
des Abbayes. It does look for a few chapters as though
this lovely female would make a Tonawanda old maid out
of Evelina; but the author knew all along that the noble
Theodore de Clermont would renounce lands and ladies,
and returning to Tonawanda, after a few adventures, say
to Evelina, as he takes her hand: “Could I but be assured
of possessing this, with the approbation and blessing of our
indulgent father, earth, I would not envy thee, all thou
hadst else to bestow.” He says a page or two more in the
same pure Tonawanda dialect, and Evelina melts into his
embrace. The historical character of the romance is main-
tained, in the last chapter, by the statement that “the execu-
tion of the proposed canal has greatly enhanced the value of
their property, and Mr. de Clermont is not only one of the
happiest men in the State of New York, but bids fair also
to be one of the wealthiest landholders in the Union.” A
beautiful touch appears on the last page, where we read thatTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
93
“Col. de Clermont is thought of as a candidate for Con*
gress.” Could anything, in history or fiction, be more
American!
It was Frank Norris, you may remember, who in the
opening paragraph of his story, “The House with the
Blinds,” wrote that some cities were places where things
could happen—“cities that have come to be picturesque—
that offer opportunities in the matter of background and
local color.” In his view, “there are just three big cities in
the United States that are story cities”—New York, of
course, New Orleans, and, best of the lot, San Francisco.
“Fancy a novel,” he adds, “about Chicago, or Buffalo, let
us say, or Nashville, Tennessee.” And do you remember
how “O. Henry,” happiest of modern short story-writers,
“took him up,” and wrote a splendid story of Nashville,
exclaiming at the end of it, as by way of challenge: “Has
anything happened at Buffalo?” Oh, for an “O. Henry,”
or a Frank Norris, to make them happen. That Norris
later wrote a very famous novel—“The Pit”—about
Chicago, is ground for encouragement that even Buffalo
may yet inspire the romancer—or rather, let us say, may
furnish the not wholly unromantic setting for the story-
teller who brings his inspiration to bear upon Buffalo.
This city is indeed not wholly barren in romance. If I
remember rightly, Elbert Hubbard made it the scene of his
early story, “The Man,” and made Police Justice King,
under thin disguise, a character in it. Robert Barr’s story
of the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866, “In the Midst of
Alarms,” opens “in the marble-floored vestibule of the Met-
ropolitan Grand Hotel in Buffalo.” An early novel on the
same theme, and one of some historical value, is “Ridgway,”
by “Scian Dubh” the nom-de-plume I believe of a Buffalo
Irishman named McCarroll. “Ridgway,” which was pub-94
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
lished in this city in 1868, is genuinely a Buffalo book; and
although no high quality can be claimed for it as a romance,
it has the great excellence of fidelity to the spirit and temper
of the time with which it is concerned.
Were I asked to give precedence to any one work of
fiction dealing with the Niagara region I should think first
of Chateaubriand’s “Atala” Artificial to the last degree,
opposed to every tenet of the realistic school, no more
resembling fact than moonlight resembles the day, it is none
the less a vivid poetic masterpiece. But with “Atala” aside,
I should come down to very modern days, and hesitate
between “Their Pilgrimage,” by Charles Dudley Warner,
and “Their Wedding Journey,” by William Dean Howells.
Mark Twain’s remarkable contribution to Niagara litera-
ture—the “First Authentic Mention of Niagara Falls,” being
extracts from Adam’s Diary—I am not forgetting, but I
am willing to. But both Warner and Howells are a delight*
Both employ the same method—they use the Niagara set-
ting as a background upon which they study the foibles and
characteristics of everyday people. And see how Warner
vividly pictures the scene, but all incidentally, as a back-
ground for the romance of his lovers:
“When they returned the moon was coming up, rising
and struggling and making its way slowly through ragged
masses of colored clouds. The river could be plainly seen
now, smooth, deep, treacherous; the falls on the American
side showed fitfully like patches of light and foam; the
Horseshoe, mostly hidden by a cold silver mist, occasion-
ally loomed up a white and ghostly mass. They stood for
a long time looking down at the foot of the American Fall,
the moon now showing clearly the plunge of the heavy
column—a column as stiff as if it were melted silver—
hushed and frightened by the weird and appalling scene.
They did not know at that moment that there where theirTHE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
95
eyes were riveted, there at the base of the fall, a man’s
body was churning about, plunged down and cast up, and
beaten and whirled, imprisoned in the refluent eddy. But a
body was there. In the morning a man’s overcoat was found
on the parapet at the angle of the fall. Some of them re-
membered that in the evening, just before the park gate
closed, he had seen a man approach the angle of the wall
wrhere the overcoat was found. The man was never seen
after that. Night first, and then the hungry water, swal-
lowed him. One pictures the fearful leap into the dark,
the midway repentance, perhaps, the despair of the plunge.
A body cast in here is likely to tarry for days, eddying round
and round, and tossed in that terrible maelstrom, before a
chance current ejects it, and sends it down the fierce rapids
below.
“The walk around Goat Island is probably unsurpassed
in the world for wonder and beauty. The Americans have
every reason to be satisfied with their share of the fall;
they get nowhere one single grand view like that from the
Canada side, but infinitely the deepest impression of
majesty and power is obtained on Goat Island. There the
spectator is in the midst of the war of nature. From the
point over the Horseshoe Fall our friends, speaking not
much, but more and more deeply moved, strolled along in
the lovely forest, in a rural solemnity, in a local calm,
almost a seclusion, except for the ever-present shuddering
roar in the air. On the shore above the Horseshoe they
first comprehended the breadth, the great sweep, of the
rapids. The white crests of the waves in the west were
coming out from under a black, lowering sky; all the fore-
ground was in bright sunlight, dancing, sparkling, leaping,
hurrying on, converging to the angle where the water be-
comes a deep emerald at the break and plunge. The rapids
above are a series of shelves, bristling with jutting rocks
and lodged trunks of trees, and the wildness of the scene
is intensified by the ragged fringe of evergreens on the
opposite shore. Over the whole island the mist, rising from
the caldron, drifts in spray when the wind is favorable; but96
THE NIAGARA REGION IN FICTION.
on this day the forest was bright and cheerful, and as the
strollers went farther away from the Great Fall, the beauty
of the scene began to steal away its terror. The roar was
still dominant, but far off and softened, and did not crush
the ear. The triple islands, the Three Sisters, in their pic-
turesque wildness appeared like playful freaks of nature
in a momentary relaxation of the savage mood. Here is
the finest view of the river; to one standing on the outer-
most island the great flood seems tumbling out of the sky.
They continued along the bank of the river. The shallow
stream races by headlong, but close to the edge are numerous
eddies, and places where one might step in and not be swept
away. At length they reached the point where the river
divides, and the water stands for an instant almost still,
hesitating whether to take the Canadian or American
plunge. Out a little way from the shore the waves leap and
tumble, and the two currents are like race-horses parted on
two ways to the goal. Just at this point the water swirls
and lingers, having lost all its fierceness and haste, and
spreads itself out placidly, dimpling in the sun. It may be
a treacherous pause, this water may be as cruel as that
which rages below and exults in catching a boat or a man
and bounding with the victim over the cataract; but the
calm was very grateful to the stunned and buffeted visitors;
upon their jarred nerves it was like the peace of God.”
In the work of both Howells and Warner, the poet, the
artist and the humorist always contend, and the outcome is
not merely vivid word-painting, but a just and genial
philosophy. I find nothing worthier in the fiction of our
region.A DREAMER AT NIAGARA
TN 1791 a young Frenchman landed at Baltimore, hastened
•*" by stage over a bad, newly-made road to Philadelphia,
and sojourned a week at an inn, awaiting the return to the
capital of General Washington. The President returned.
“I saw him go past in a carriage drawn by four prancing
horses, driven four-in-hand. Washington, according to my
then ideas, was necessarily Cincinnatus; Cincinnatus in a
chariot somewhat upset my republic of 296 B. C. Could
Washington the Dictator be anything save a boor, driving
his oxen with a goad, and holding the tail of his plough?
But when I went to carry my letter of recommendation to
him, I found once more the simplicity of the ancient Roman.
“A small house, resembling the neighboring houses, was
the palace of the President of the United States; no sen-
tries, no footmen even. I knocked, and a young maid-
servant opened the door. I asked if the general was at
home; she replied that he was in. The servant asked my
name, which is difficult to pronounce in English, and which
she could not remember. She then said softly, ‘Walk in„
sir/ and led the way down one of those narrow passages
which serve as an entrance hall to English houses; she
showed me into a parlor where she asked me to wait until
the general came.
“I felt no agitation; greatness of mind or fortune in no
way overawe me; I admire the first without being crushed
by it; the second calls forth my pity rather than my respect;
no man’s countenance will ever disconcert me.
“After a few minutes the general entered the room; tall
in stature, of a calm and cold rather than a noble bearing,
9798
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
he resembled his engraved portraits. I handed him my
letter in silence; he opened it and glanced at the signature
which he read aloud, exclaiming:
“ ‘Colonel Armand F
“This was the name by which he knew the Marquis de
La Rouerie and by which the latter had signed himself.
“We sat down. I explained to him as best I could the
object of my journey. He replied in monosyllables in
English and French, and listened to me with a sort of aston-
ishment. I remarked this, and said to him, with some little
animation:
“ ‘But it is less difficult to discover the Northwest Passage
than to create a people, as you have done/
“ ‘Well, well, young man F he exclaimed, giving me his
hand.
“He invited me to dinner for the next day, and we
parted.”
This youth was Frangois Auguste, vicomte de Chateau-
briand, scion of an old family in decadence. The French
Revolution completed the wreck. Chateaubriand, who had
held a commission in the French army since 1788, found
himself in the spring of 1791, ready for any adventure that
would take him out of France. Being of a poetic mind, he
decided to discover the Northwest Passage. Nothing could
be more delightful than the naivete with which he planned
to accomplish the impossible: “I proposed to travel west-
ward, so as to strike the northwest coast of America above
the Gulf of California; from there, following the outline
of the continent, and always keeping the sea in sight, I
intended to explore Behring’s Straits, double the northern-
most cape of America, descend on the east along the shores
of the Arctic Ocean, and return to the United States by way
of Hudson’s Bay, Labrador and Canada.” From this it
will be seen that Chateaubriand was not only the Prince of
Dreamers, but still very young. What wonder that Wash-A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
99
ington, remembering his own frontier campaigns of forty
years before, should have looked upon this youth of 21,
innocent of any knowledge whatever of America, with
amazement.
Our hero ate his dinner, as appointed, with the Presi-
dent; and a few days later journeyed up to Albany, still
thinking of the Northwest Passage. “What means had I,”
he afterwards wrote, “to carry out this prodigious peregri-
nation? None at all. Most of the French travellers have
been isolated men, left entirely to their own resources; it
is but rarely that the Government or any company has
employed them. Mackenzie and many others after him
have to the profit of the United States and Great Britain,
made conquests upon the immensity of America, with
which I had dreamed1 of aggrandizing my native land. In
case of success, I should have had the honor of bestowing
French names upon unknown regions, of endowing my
country with a colony upon the Pacific Ocean, of taking
away the rich fur-trade from a rival Power, and of pre-
venting that Power from- opening out a shorter road to the
Indies, by placing France herself in possession of that
road.”
He was still dreaming of the Northwest Passage when
the Hudson-river packet finally set him down at Albany.
There he hunted up a veteran fur-trader, Swift by name;
to whom, as to Washington, the scheme of conquest was
explained. Mr. Swift, as gently as a trader could, mean-
while thinking no doubt that the youth was a crazy fool,
made what Chateaubriand calls “some very reasonable
objections.” “He told me that I could not undertake a jour-
ney of this importance at first sight alone, without assist-
ance, without support, without letters of recommendation
to the English, American and Spanish stations by which I100
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
should be obliged to pass; that if I had the good fortune to
cross so many solitary tracts of country, I should arrive at
frozen regions where I should perish of hunger. He
advised me to begin by acclimatizing myself, suggested that
I should learn the Sioux, Iroquois and Esquimaux lan-
guages, and live among the coureurs and the agents of the
Hudson's Bay Company. Having gained this preliminary
experience, I might then, in four or five years, with the
assistance of the French Government, proceed on my haz-
ardous mission.”
This advice, which we must admit seems sound, Cha-
teaubriand says annoyed him. “Had I trusted to my own
judgment, I should have set out then and there to go to the
Pole, as I might go from Paris to Pointoise.” He con-
cealed his vexation, hired a Dutch guide and two horses,
and still nursing a secret purpose to arrive at the Pole and
amaze the world, he set out for Niagara Falls.
In a general survey of the tourist literature of our
region, and of the travellers who have made it, I have
yielded to the temptation to linger a little over this journey
of Chateaubriand. He saw things none saw before, nor
have they been recorded since. In the Onondaga country
he saw “false ebony-trees” and heard the “cuckoo of the
Carolinas”—this was perhaps the catbird. It is related of
him that on one occasion he landed from a boat on Lake
Ontario, and ran into the woods to enjoy the luxury of the
wild unstinted freedom of Nature in all her glory of forest
and flowers; and in the ecstacy of excitement, he was
hugging the trees, he tells us, when he heard a loud and
rumbling roar, which alarmed and brought his mind back
to earth from elysium, and caused him to run to his com-
rades in the boat to see what was the matter; but the alarm,
he said, had been causeless; “it was only the tide coming in!”A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
101
In his romance of “Atala” Chateaubriand introduces an
episode at the Falls of Niagara, in which one reads: 'Tines,
wild walnut trees, rocks of the most fantastic shapes, adorn
the scene; eagles, borne away by the current of air, descend
whirling round to the bottom of the gulf; and carcajous,
suspended by their long tails from the extremities of the
declining branches, watch to seize on the bodies of elks and
bears floating in the abyss/’ Who among us has seen the
carcajou—elsewhere we learn it is the "spotted carcajou”—
hanging by his tail among the other wonders of Niagara?
The whole of bis narrative of the visit to Niagara is too
long to introduce here. The following extracts will afford
some idea of his adventures, of the poesy with which his
mind endowed even commonplace things, and of the
rhythmic charm of his diction, which survives a translation
into English:
"We rode towards Niagara. When we had come a dis-
tance of eight or nine leagues of our destination, we per-
ceived, in an oak grove, the camp-fire of some savages, who
had settled down on the bank of a stream where we our-
selves were thinking of bivouacking. We took advantage
of their preparations: after grooming our horses and dress-
ing ourselves for the night, we accosted the band. With
legs crossed tailor-wise, we sat down among the Indians
around the blazing pile, and began to roast our maize cakes.
"The family consisted of two women, two infants at the
breast, and three braves. The conversation became general,
that is to say, interspersed with a few words on my 'side,
and many gestures; after that, each fell asleep in the place
where he sat. I alone remained awake, and went to sit by
myself on a root trailing by the bank of the stream.
"The moon showed above the tops of the trees; a balmy
breeze, which the Queen of the Night brought with her from
the East, seemed to go before her through the forests, as
though it were her cool breath. The solitary luminary102
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
climbed higher and higher in the sky, now pursuing her even
way, again surmounting clusters of clouds, which resembled
the summits of a snow-clad mountain chain. All would
have been silence and repose, but for the fall of a few
leaves, the passing of a sudden gust of wind, the hooting
of the wood-owl; in the distance was heard the dull roar
of the Falls of Niagara, which, in the calm of night, ex-
tended from waste to waste and expired in the lonely
forests. It was during those nights that an unknown muse
appeared to me; I gathered some of her accents; I marked
them on my tables, by the light of the stars, as a vulgar
musician might write down the notes dictated to him by
some great master of harmony.
“The next day, the Indians armed themselves, the women
collected the baggage. I distributed a little gunpowder and
vermillion among my hosts. We parted, touching our fore-
heads and breasts; the braves shouted the order to march,
and walked in front; the women went behind, carrying the
children, who, slung in furs on their mothers’ backs, turned
their heads to look at us. I followed this progress with my
eyes until the whole band had disappeared among the trees
of the forest.
“The savages of the Falls of Niagara in the English
dominion were entrusted with the police service of the
frontier on that side. This outlandish constabulary, armed
with bows and arrows, prevented our passage. I was
obliged to send the Dutchman to the fort of Niagara for a
permit to enter the territory of the British government.
This saddened my heart a little, for I remembered that
formerly France had ruled in both Upper and Lower
Canada. My guide returned with the permit: I still have it;
it is signed, ‘Captain Gordan.’ .	.	.
“I stayed two days in the Indian village. .	.	. The
Indian women busied themselves with different occupations ;
their nurslings were slung in nets from the branches of a
tall purple beech. The grass was covered with dew, the
wind issued all perfumed from the woods, and the cotton-
plants of the country, throwing back their capsules, lookedA DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
103
like white rose-trees. The breeze rocked the cradles in
mid-air with an almost imperceptible movement; the
mothers stood up from time to time to see if their children
were asleep and had not been awakened by the birds.
“From the Indian village to the cataract was some three
or four leagues: it took my guide and me as many hours to
reach it. Already at six miles distance, a column of vapour
indicated the situation of the weir to my eyes. My heart
beat with joy mingled with terror, as I entered the wood
that concealed from my view one of the grandest spectacles
which nature has offered to mankind. .	.	.
“We dismounted. Leading our horses by the bridle, we
passed through heaths and thickets until we came to the
bank of the Niagara river, seven or eight hundred paces
above the falls. As I never ceased going forward, the
guide caught me by the arm; he stopped me on the very
edge of the water, which passed with the swiftness of an
arrow. It did not seethe, but glided in one sole mass to the
slope of the rock; its silence before its fall contrasted with
the uproar of the fall itself. The Scriptures often compare
a people to the mighty waters; here it was a dying people
wThich, deprived of its voice by the agony of death, went to
hurl itself into the abyss of eternity.
“The guide continued to hold me back, for I felt, so to
speak, drawn on by the stream, and I had an involuntary
longing to fling myself in. At one time, I would turn my
eyes up the river, to the banks; at another, down to the
island which divided the waters. Here the waters suddenly
failed, as though cut off in the sky.
“After a quarter of an hour of vague and perplexed
admiration, I went on to the falls. The reader will find in
the ‘Essai sur les revolutions’ and in ‘Atala,’ the two descrip-
tions which I have written of the scene. Today, high-roads
run to the cataract; there are inns on the American side,
and mills and factories overhang the chasm.
“I was unable to utter the thoughts that stirred me at the
sight of so sublime a disorder. In the desert of my early
life, I was obliged to invent persons to adorn it; I drew104
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
from my own substance beings whom I did not find else-
where, and whom I carried within myself. In the same
way, I have placed memories of At ala and Rene on the edge
of the cataract of Niagara, as the expression of its sadness.
What meaning has a cascade which falls eternally in the
unfeeling sight of heaven and earth, if human nature be not
there, with its destinies and its misfortunes? To be steeped
in this solitude of water and mountains and not to know
with whom to speak of that great spectacle! To have the
waves, the rocks, the woods, the torrents to one’s self alone!
Give the soul a companion, and the smiling verdure of the
hill-slopes, the cool breath of the water, will all turn into
charm: the journey by day, the sweetest repose at the end
of the day’s march, the gliding over the billows, the sleeping
upon the moss, will call forth from the heart its deepest ten-
derness. I have seated Velleda upon the shores of Ar-
morica, Cymodocea beneath the porticos of Athens, Blanca
in the halls of the Alhambra. Alexander created towns
wherever he hastened: I have left dreams behind me wher-
ever I have dragged my life.
“I have seen the cascades of the Alps with their chamois
and those of the Pyrenees with their lizards; I did not go
sufficiently high up the Nile to meet its cataracts, which
are reduced to rapids; I will not speak of the azure zones
of Terni or of Tivoli, graceful fragments of ruins or sub-
jects for the poet’s song:
‘ Et praeceps Anio ac Tiburni lucus.’
“Niagara eclipses everything. I gazed upon the cataract
the existence of which was revealed to the old world, not. by
puny travelers like myself, but by missionaries who, seeking
solitude for the love of God, flung themselves upon their
knees at the sight of some marvel of nature and received
martyrdom while completing their hymn of admiration.
Our priests greeted the fine sights of America and conse-
crated them with their blood; our soldiers clapped their
hands at the ruins of Thebes and presented arms to Anda-
lusia: the whole genius of France lies in the double army
of our camps and our altars.A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
105
“I was holding my horse’s bridle twisted round my arm;
a rattlesnake came and rustled in the bushes. The startled
horse reared and backed towards the falls. I was unable
to release my arm from the reins; the horse, still more
terrified, was dragging me after it. Already its fore-feet
were off the ground; cowering over the edge of the abyss,
it maintained its position only by the strength of its loins.
It was all up with me, when the animal, itself astonished at
its fresh peril, gave a sudden turn and vaulted inwards.
Had my soul left my body amidst the Canadian woods,
would it have carried to the Supreme Tribunal the sacrifices,
the good works, the virtues of the Peres Jogues and Lalle-
mant, or empty days and wretched idle fancies?
‘This was not the only danger I encountered at Niagara.
A ladder of creepers was used by the savages to climb down
to the lower basin; it was at that time broken. Wishing to
see the falls from below, I ventured, in the face of my
guide’s representations, down the side of an almost per-
pendicular rock. In spite of the roar of the water which
seethed below me, I kept my head and climbed down to
within forty feet of the bottom. When I had reached so
far, the bare and vertical rock gave me nothing to lay hold
of; I was left hanging by one hand to the last root, feeling
my fingers open beneath the weight of my body; few men
have spent two such minutes, as I counted them. My tired
hand let go; I fell. By an unparalleled stroke of good
fortune, I found myself upon the pointed back of a rock
upon which I ought to have been smashed into a thousand
pieces, and yet I felt no great hurt; I was at half a foot
from the abyss and had not rolled into it; but when the
cold and the damp began to penetrate me, I saw that I had
not come off so cheaply; my left arm was broken above the
elbow. The guide, who was watching me from above and
saw my signals of distress, ran off to fetch some savages.
They hoisted me with ropes along an otter’s path, and
carried me to their village. I had only a simple fracture:
two splints, a bandage and a sling were enough to effect my
cure. I stayed twelve days with my surgeons, the Niagara106
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
Indians. I saw tribes pass which had come down from
Detroit or from the districts lying south and east of Lake
Erie. I enquired into their usages. ... I wished to
hear my hosts’ songs. A little Indian girl of fourteen, called
Mila, and very pretty (the Indian women are pretty only
at that age), sang something very pleasant. .	.	.
“The tribe of the little girl with the bead departed; my
guide, the Dutchman, refused to accompany me beyond the
cataract; I paid him and joined a party of traders who were
leaving to go down the Ohio; before setting out, I took a
glance at the Canadian lakes.”
It is not my present purpose to touch upon Chateau-
briand’s subsequent adventures in America. According to
his own account—repeated with some variation in his
various works—he traveled from Niagara to Pittsburgh,
thence went down the Ohio and Mississippi to Natchez,
with more or less vague wanderings into Florida. Return-
ing north by way of Knoxville, he sailed the ioth of
December, arriving again in France January 2, 1792.
Do you ask: “What of it?” Merely this: That there
now has come along one of these mousing, burrowing, in-
sistent literary gentlemen, who has scheduled Chateau-
briand’s dates, mapped his alleged route, hunted out the
circumstances of his interviews and visits and adventures,
and finally through the respectable medium of the Revue
d’Histoire litteraire de la France, declares with convincing
circumstantiality that the distinguished author of “Atala”
and “Rene” and “Memoires d’Outre-Tombe” and above all
of the “Voyage en Amerique ” could not by any possibility
have made the American travels he claims to have made.
This merciless searcher after facts, M. Joseph Bedier,
shows that it is extremely doubtful if Chateaubriand ever
was received by Washington, and that it is quite certain
that he did not make the travels in the South which he hasA DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
107
so poetically described. M. Bedier does indeed leave us the
Niagara episode; though he is much troubled to make
Chateaubriand’s description agree with the facts.
The facts undoubtedly are, that Chateaubriand came to
America, and to Niagara. He may have visited Pittsburgh,
but he certainly did not travel as widely as he claims to have
done. He supplemented his own observations and experi-
ences by drawing on the writings of others. M. Bedier
devotes many pages to parallel publication of passages from
Chateaubriand and from many authors and early travellers
in America on whom he drew. He seldom appropriated
their language, but he stole their ideas, and set them forth
more beautifully, more poetically, than the first writers
could.
After all, it is Chateaubriand the poet that we are thank-
ful for, for he has endowed the literature descriptive of
American scenery and aborigines with a charm and grace
which no other writer gives.
In after years, he loved to identify himself with America,
in whimsical, poet’s fashion. Soon after his return to
France, serving under arms with his brother, the latter was
asked,
“ ‘Where does your brother the chevalier come from ?’
“I was still bronzed by the American sun and sea air,”
he tells us. “I wore my hair uncurled and unpowdered”;
and to the question which had' been put to his brother, the
poet replied, “From Niagara.”
“ ‘From the cataract!’
“I was silent.
“ ‘Monsieur is going— ?’
“ ‘Where there is fighting.’ ”
The days that followed were evil ones. Many of the
poet’s relatives went to the guillotine; four of them, includ-108
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
ing his brother, were “all immolated together, on the same
day, at the same hour, on the same scaffold.”
I have referred to “Atala,” which he tells us was written
wholly in America, “in the huts of the savages,” and for
which, by the way, Gustave Dore has drawn the most
impressive picture of Niagara Falls in existence—the
artist never having seen them! How narrowly that ro-
mance escaped destruction, Chateaubriand records in the
“ Memoir es”:
At Treves, “I sat down, with my musket, among the
ruins; I took from my knapsack the manuscript of my
travels in America; I arranged the separate sheets on the
grass around me; I read over and corrected a description
of a forest, a passage of (At ala/ in the fragments of a
Roman amphitheatre, preparing in this way to make the
conquest of France. Then I put away my treasure, the
weight of which, combined with that of my shirts, my cloak,
my tin can, my wicker bottle, and my little Homer, made
me throw up blood.
“I tried to stuff eAtalaf into my cartridge-box with my
useless ammunition; my comrades made fun of me, and
pulled at the sheets which stuck out on either side of the
leather cover. Providence came to my rescue; one night,
after sleeping in a hayloft, I found when I awoke, that my
shirts were no longer in my sack; the thieves had left the
papers. I praised God; that accident assured my fame and
saved my life, for the sixty pounds that pressed upon my
shoulders would have driven me into a consumption.”
Returning to France in 1792, he was wounded at the
siege of Thouinville. We next find him in London, where
he passed several years in exile, supporting himself wholly
by his literary labors. During this time he wrote his famous
essay on Revolutions. After the 18th Brumaire, he was
allowed to live again in Paris, where, in conjunction withA DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
109
LaHarpe and others, he established the Mercure de France
and the Journal des Debats.
He was at this time a Bonapartist, and declared in one
of his applications that the Emperor was one of those men
whom God, when He is weary of punishing, sends upon the
world in token of expiation. The “Genius of Christianity,”
beyond doubt the most celebrated and generally read of all
his reflective works, appeared in 1802, in London, at a
period admirably adapted to its success. Bonaparte wished
to restore the Church, and a book which twenty years
before would have found few to defend it, now attained an
immense popularity. The sincere religious feeling which
pervades it, mounting at times into the lofty atmosphere of
poetry, found its way to the heart of the public, then recov-
ering from the fatal extreme to which it had been hurried.
The next year, during his residence in Rome as Secretary
of the Embassy under Cardinal Fesch, he wrote “The
Martyrs,” and in the same year was appointed on a mis-
sion to the Valais, which station he resigned after the death
of the Due d’Enghien. In 1806 he traveled to Jerusalem,
by way of Cyprus and Rhodes, returning through Egypt,
Tunis and Spain. His “Itineraire” is one of the finest
specimens of descriptive writing in the French language.
At this date the fame of Chateaubriand had become Euro-
pean, and he was recognized as one of the first living
authors of France.
In 1811 he was elected a member of the French Institute,
in place of Chenier. After the banishment of Napoleon, he
published a pamphlet entitled “Bonaparte and the Bour-
bons,” which Louis XVIII was accustomed to say was
worth more to him than an army. This decided his position
as a royalist, which political view he held during the re-
mainder of his life. He remained in Ghent during Napo-110
A DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
leon’s second brief reign, as Minister to Louis XVIII, and
after the final restoration of this monarch was made a vis-
count and a peer of France. From this time until 1829, he
held various important positions under the Government ;
beside serving as Minister to Berlin, Extraordinary Am-
bassador to London, and to the Congress of Verona, and
Minister to Rome. The most important of his literary
productions, in addition to his editorials in the Journal des
Debats, were his “Notes on Greece,” and a very popular
essay on the abolition of the Censorship, in which he
affirmed that without freedom of the press a representative
government was worth nothing. His complete works were
published in 1829, the publishers L’Avocat and LeFevre
having offered him the enormous sum of 550,000 francs for
the copyright.
When the July Revolution took place, he advocated the
claims of the Duke of Bordeaux, and refused to give the
oath of loyalty to Louis Philippe, which obligated him to
resign his title of Peer. For the last years of his life he
devoted himself largely to the compositions of his delightful
Memoirs. There is a fine pen-picture of him in his declin-
ing days, leonine in aspect, seated in a chair as on a throne,
reading from his “Memoires” in the salon of his dearest
friend, Mme. Recamier.
Anything like a survey of his literary work and place
would lead us too far afield. “With me,” he somewhere
says, “began the so-called romantic school, a revolution in
French literature.” Nothing could be more true. Victor
Hugo has admirably summed it up. “Chateaubriand,” he
says, “stood on the threshold of this century and stamped' it
with his seal. The literary generations that have followed
are all his children. Gustave Flaubert, the De Goncours,
Alphonse Daudet, studied and formed their style on theA DREAMER AT NIAGARA.
Ill
inimitable prose of his ‘Memoires d’Outre Tombe/ the
most exquisite work, perhaps, in all the French language.
The works of Chateaubriand,” Hugo adds, “are as dead as
the readers they charmed, but his influence is a leading
factor in the book-making of our day, and will last as long
as the French tongue is spoken or read.”THE NIAGARA IN ART
T F one were asked to say what has been the most pictured
“*■ subject in all the world, he might perhaps pause for
reflection.
If this rather broad query were narrowed to the one
subject of natural scenery, still one might hesitate to de-
clare whether this mountain or that valley, or what wonder
of rushing stream, pouring cataract, or mountain height,
had received most attention from the artists of brush and
pencil.
The quest is no doubt an idle one, since the only precise
answer must rest upon statistics,—in regard to a matter on
which no statistics exist. The question, however, now that
I have for the first time put it fairly to myself, is not with-
out suggestiveness. As one attempts to survey in thought
what mankind has done by way of picture-making, since the
first rude scratches with stick or stone or coal, on stone, or
hide, or bark or clay, he soon eliminates all primitive picture-
making, and all practice of pictorial art, down to this very
day, in all lands of Islam, of Buddha, of Confucius, of all
the
“ .	. . lesser breeds without the law.”
With all the millions of Mohamedans, picture-making is a
forbidden—at least a disapproved—occupation. No Mon-
gol, Malay, African—no red, brown, black or yellow race
has ever cultivated art for art’s sake or any other reason.
113114
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
The Aryan is the world's picture-maker; and of all the
Aryans, the pictorial art has flourished widest and highest
in Christian lands.
If these statements appear reasonable, may we not go at
once to the end of this train of thought, and declare that
the Christ figure and Christianity's great symbol of the
Cross, have been and are more drawn and painted than any
other subjects which appeal to the mind of man? True, in
world history, Christianity is not old. But if the peoples of
earlier epochs practiced picture-making, knowledge of their
work, for the most part, has not survived. All the pictur-
ings of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and all the civilizations
of the past, are, so far as we know them, few and negligible,
as indeed is the picture-making of China, Corea and Japan.
If the reader concur in these deductions he will perhaps
reflect that through all the centuries in which painting as a
fine art was developing, the greatest painters found their
greatest inspiration in the Christ. Great painters there were
in Greece and Rome before the Christian era; but how few
their works and how limited their distribution and influence
in comparison with the works of the great masters whose
canvases of the Christ personality, albeit presented in a
myriad ways, have not been lost to the world; but in these
latter days are perpetually being multiplied by copyists and
engravers, by painters and photographers, many million
fold.
I think we may safely maintain some such deductive rea-
soning. The same course of thought brings me to conclude
that of all human subjects the Buddha is the most sculp-
tured. Images of Buddha exist by the thousand thousand,
where you will scarcely find one Buddha picture.
If we eliminate subjects of divine attributes, and seek to
determine what individual in all the world has been mostTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
115
portrayed in pictures, there is again a wide range for choice,
with perhaps equally good arguments in several directions.
It has been the perverse lot of many great men to live too
early to be much portrayed. Modern newspapers afford
proof that the frequency with which one’s portrait is made
public is not of itself a sufficient guarantee of greatness.
Julius Caesar might be rated greater than—shall we say—
William J. Bryan; yet the world rejoices in a thousand
portraits of the latter Public Character, where it has one
of the former—and that one dubious.
Considering then, the modern processes of picture-multi-
plication, we see at what a disadvantage were the great of
the earth before the days of the press—the modern prolific
press—and the camera. Thus it comes about that your
Member of Congress or your Alderman may be far more
abundantly portrayed than Alexander the Great. Of fa-
mous moderns, I should hazard that Napoleon, Queen Vic-
toria, Washington and Lincoln have been among the most
pictured. Indeed, when one calls to mind the wide realm
of Great Britain and the fine loyalty that animates the typ-
ical subject of that crown, whether in India, Australia or
other ends of the earth; especially when one remembers the
long reign of their most beloved sovereign, reaching well
down into the days of vast multiplication of portraits; the
conclusion is inevitable that more portraits have been
painted, engraved, photographed and printed of Victoria
than any other person who ever lived.
The reader who wonders what all this has to do with
my subject, is reminded that one of the greatest histories
ever written, Diedrich Knickerbocker’s “New York,” begins
with the creation of the world. The method is useful,
though now fallen into neglect. I can not aspire to such
thoroughness, and will come at once to the point which all116
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
that has gone before is intended to establish, namely: that
no other place on earth has been so much pictured as Niag-
ara Falls.
We prove it by elimination of all other places. No other
scenic point in America, which can be called a wonder, has
been so long known to the public or so much resorted to.
Europe abounds in scenes of beauty or grandeur, often with
the added attraction of human associations; yet there never
has been such abundant picturing of alp or valley, of Col-
iseum or Parthenon, as our Niagara has known for two cen-
turies.
We begin, of course, with Hennepin. He was not the
first white man who saw the Niagara Falls, but he is the
first who wrote at length of them, and in connection with
whose writings a picture appeared. The so-called Hennepin
view, reproduced in modern prints without number, is well-
nigh as familiar as yesterday’s photograph. It is customary
to speak of it with great respect, if not admiration; and it
is accepted, I think, as pretty good evidence of a former
condition of the cataract, before the deep recession ap-
peared in the Horseshoe, and while yet there was a third
fall.
I have great respect for historical evidence, and great ad-
miration for Father Hennepin, whose gifts as romancer
have never been half appreciated. But I confess, the more
I contemplate this first picture of the falls, the more skep-
tical I grow regarding it. The reader will remember that
Hennepin and the main body of La Salle’s expedition sailed
into the Niagara river, December 6, 1678. A small party
of LaSalle’s men, whose names we do not know, had been
sent on in advance, and although there were other routes to
the west, probably passed up the Niagara. Father Henne-
pin’s activities in the neighborhood continued until August,THE NIAGARA IN ART.
117
1679, when the Griffon sailed. He passed eastward, by the
Niagara route, in Easter week, 1681, in which year he re-
turned to Europe. Three years later, in Paris, he published
his first book. In that—the “Louisiane”—the story of the
expedition is told, and the great cataract is described, but
there is no picture of it, nor was any published until 1697,
eighteen years after he had seen it.
Now consider that picture, as a sketch. The point of
view is very high. The artist looked down on the falls. He
was so high that he saw the Niagara river all the way to
Lake Erie, and he saw the lake, and mountains on either
side of it. Any one who could see all this, was seeing in
imagination and in memory, and not very good memory at
that. It is plain, I think, that the first picture of Niagara
Falls was not engraved from any sketch or drawing “made
on the spot.” It couldn’t be, and be so wrong. But it is
just about what one who was not an artist might produce
from recollection of scenes he had been through a score of
years before; especially if he were not trying to make a
true picture—a work of art—but merely to give a bird’s-eye
view of the Niagara “streight,” as the old chronicles have it,
from the Falls to Lake Erie. Beyond some such purpose, I
think Father Hennepin is to be absolved from responsibility
for the first Niagara picture. It was no doubt drawn for
the engraver, and engraved on the copper, by French or
Flemish artists who had never been in America. The de-
tails are theirs, not Hennepin’s. They may, indeed, have
constructed this and the other illustrations which appeared
at the same time in the “New Discovery” wholly from the
data given in Hennepin’s text. None of the pictures has
any particular resemblance to anything that existed; and
they all show how impossible it is to draw an object cor-
rectly from some other man’s description.118
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
Much has been made of the third or western fall shown
in this primitive sketch; but do not those who argue from
it the existence of a separate fall at that point, overlook
Hennepin's own statement that Niagara consisted of two
falls ? Probably the portion that appears to descend cross-
wise of the great fall, was but the extreme right of it, very
badly drawn. The river no doubt ran higher and stronger
at that point then than now; the rocks made an elbow of
it; and the recession of the V-shaped cleft, now deep in the
Horseshoe, had probably begun. There is no hint of it in
the Hennepin picture, but it is shown, well-nigh as con-
spicuous as now, in a picture made only seventy years after
Hennepin's was published. We will presently consider that
picture.
The Hennepin picture was for many years the world's
only pictorial presentment of the cataract. It was much
copied, especially for use in the ponderous folio compila-
tions of voyages and travels which now often form a sub-
stantial foundation for accumulations of old books in anti-
quarian shops. As was to be expected each engraver de-
parted a little more from the original and from the truth.
For 150 years after Hennepin there continued to be pub-
lished views of Niagara, inspired not by the cataract itself,
but by this grotesque old copperplate of 1697. There was
thus evolved a certain typical view of Niagara, resembling
Niagara not at all, showing two straight downfalls of water
into a basin of surf-like flouncy foam; with Goat Island
reduced to a huge pillar of rock, and this rock, like the
abutting shores, elaborately drawn in a built-up box-like
form of cleaveage and fracture suggestive possibly of gran-
itic or igneous formation, but as far as possible from the
smooth sedimentary and practically horizontal strata of the
Niagara region. The surface of shores and island, in thisTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
119
type of view, is adorned with wonderful trees—each a long
slightly curved stem set from tip to base with recurrent
boughs, the unique effect being that of a long dart or javelin
with many barbs. Beyond are the usual mountains and
lake, and in the foreground are stalwart naked savages
pointing out the wonders of the scene to a group of amazed
Frenchmen, some in military uniform, others in priestly
robes. On the brink a small dog vociferously barks. I have
been unduly concerned about this dog, for he appears, then
disappears, in these old engravings with singular uncer-
tainty. On the Canadian side a path is shown, with natives
carrying burdens on their heads up and down the steep
portage.
This whole group of seventeenth and eighteenth century
engravings, often identical in many respects while varying
in small details, is a curious illustration of dull imitation.
The most curious thing about it is that this species of Ni-
agara picture continued to be published long after truer and
in some cases splendid studies of Niagara had been drawn
and published.
There exist numerous very early engravings of Niagara
Falls, which are now matters of curiosity rather than works
of art. Among the most curious are plates engraved with
two or more subjects, the Niagara cataracts among them.
A large vignette on some of Herman Moll's famous maps
shows the Falls—the conventionalized Hennepin picture—
with a colony of busy beavers in the foreground, gnawing
down trees and building dams. One might almost infer
from the picture that Niagara Falls were a beavers' dam.
Of this sort, too, is the picture of Niagara Falls that orna-
ments the map which accompanies the American travels of
Prince Maximilien Wied-Neuwied (1832-34). In front of
the cataract, on a low riverside plateau, mounted Indians120
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
are pursuing a herd of bison. Most striking, most artistic,
and perhaps most rare of these combination engravings, is
a copperplate signed S. LeClerc, an artist whose span of
life was from 1637 to 1714. Here we have a Niagara which
if anything is straighter and higher than Hennepin’s. Out
of a cloud above the left of the fall emerges Elijah in a
chariot of fire. At least, so declares a title at the lower mar-
gin : “Elie enleve dans un char de feu”—but the artist has
given Elijah not merely a glorious burst of flame but a fine
pair of steeds which are prancing above the yawning abyss
of the cataract. The upper margin of the picture bears the
legend:	“Chute de la riviere de Niagara” The picture
provokes speculation as to whether the artist sought to com-
bine the two greatest marvels, one of earth, the other of
translation from earth to heaven; whether he sought to fix
the locality from which Elijah made his ascent; or indeed,
whether Le Clerc were responsible for the whole engraving.
A variation of touch, of stroke and tone, suggests that two
hands may have worked on it. If the work is wholly
LeClerc’s its production must have been after 1697, the
year in which the Hennepin picture appeared, and before
1714, the year of his death.
Of this sort, too, is an aquatint, published to commemo-
rate the death of Washington. In front of Niagara Falls
stands the Goddess of Liberty; at her side a grotesque
figure, apparently a negro, weeps over a memorial tablet;
and above the cataract flies an American flag of thirteen
stripes and thirteen stars.
Still another extraordinary Niagara is an exquisite little
plate forming a frontispiece of the old French tragedy of
“Hirza” Here an impossible Niagara—we could not know
it was Niagara except that the text says so—forms a back-
ground for a rocky tomb and a display of heroic aboriginesTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
121
—all utterly impossible. No doubt one can find other curi-
ous old engravings in which our falls are used as a back-
ground, a mere setting, a stage property, for whatever sub-
ject the artist was engaged upon. In such compositions,
verisimilitude to nature is not looked for, or desired. To
copy nature without imagination—without ideality—is to
make no very lofty flight in the realm of art. One of the
most effective “Niagaras” ever painted is the weird, sugges-
tive cataract, glimpsed through a very nightmare of gloomy
pines and cedars, which was drawn by Gustave Dore to illus-
trate Chateaubriand’s “Atala” Dore never saw the Falls,
nor did he need to. His fancy could supply just the sort of
Niagara required to harmonize with and express the spirit
of “Atala”
Early in the eighteenth century certain map-publishers
—Popple, Homanno of Nuremberg and perhaps others,
embellished their maps of North America with engravings
of Niagara Falls, but these, like Le Clerc’s picture, were
obviously based on Hennepin’s original. After Hennepin,
I do not find any picture of the falls, that can in any measure
be ascribed to one who had seen them, until 1751. In Feb-
ruary of that year the Gentlemen's Magazine published “A
view of the Fall of Niagara,” designed to accompany Peter
Kalm’s letter about the Falls, written at Albany, Sept. 2,
1750, and published in the Gentlemen's Magazine of
January, 1751. Kalm’s description, by the way, appears to
have been the first account of Niagara originally written in
English. Hennepin’s and La Hontan’s descriptions had
been translated into English before Kalm wrote, but al-
though he was a Swede, this Niagara letter was written in
English, to a friend in Philadelphia—the beginning of
English literature on the subject! He probably had nothing
to do with the making of the picture which appeared in the122
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
Gentlemen's Magazine a month after his letter; but who-
ever engraved it evidently referred to his description for
data. Like the Hennepin picture it is a birdseye view, and
shows the river above the falls, and Lake Erie in the dis-
tance. The surrounding mountains are still there, but the
ship, which the Hennepin picture shows on the lake, has
disappeared. So have the great rock and the “third fall”
at the extreme right. Several islets appear in the Canadian
channel, opposite Goat Island; great birds hover over the
river; men are climbing up a ladder on the face of Goat
Island; and two other men, as the legend states, are
“passing over ye east stream with staves.” These changes
from the Hennepin picture are all suggested by Kalm’s
report.
After Kalm, engravings multiplied, but for many years
were all more or less of the Hennepin type—always except-
ing Pierie. An early German copperplate, “Wasserfall von
Niagara,” has the whole scene reversed, with the third or
cross-fall on the left (now the New York) side! Andrew
Ellicott’s drawing, engraved by Thackara & Vallance, 1790,
although a great advance toward truth, over the Kalm and
Hennepin views, is still vastly inferior to the Pierie picture
of many years before.
The world had no idea of what the Niagara really looked
like until 1774, when there was published in London a splen-
didly executed copperplate from a drawing made in 1768
by Lieutenant William Pierie of the Royal British Artillery.
This soldier-artist, of whom I regret I know nothing fur-
ther, was probably stationed at Fort Niagara and improved
his leisure by studying the cataract.
Several of the most interesting early engravings of the
falls are from drawings by British soldiers. To one of
them, the work of Captain Thomas Davies—the engravingTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
123
being dedicated to General Amherst—is ascribed the date
1760, antedating by a few years the work of Pierie. Davies
was far from being an artist; and yet his bad, crude draw-
ing, with a rainbow like half of a cartwheel, comes nearer
to depicting the Niagara scene than all the Hennepin-sug-
gested pictures that have gone before.
We may say, in a sense, that Niagara art began with
Hennepin; but in its higher sense, it began neither with
Hennepin nor Davies, but with Pierie. His point of view
is on the high land back of the present Queen Victoria park.
The scene embraces both falls. The distant shores, flat and
true to nature, close in the horizon. The Horseshoe is
shown not as a straight curtain of water, nor yet, as in
Davies’, by a great semi-circular sweep, but approximately
as it is today, with a wedge-shaped cleft tending up-stream.
It is almost a century and a half since this study was made.
The wedge has extended a little and is, perhaps, sharper.
The flood of water is less, so that now we have bare rocks
at either side of the greater fall where formerly the flood
swept. Yet the contour of the cataract is today approxi-
mately what it was in 1768.
I am free to confess that I do not care particularly for
the Niagara Falls as we know them today. The vicinage of
the cataract appeals to my imagination less and less with
each succeeding year of protection and improvement. Here
is no note of criticism upon the intelligent work of Niagara’s
governmental guardians. Far from it. Much of the beauty
of the environment has been preserved, and some of it,
now vanished, will perhaps be restored when power com-
panies cease from troubling; but if preserved and guarded,
Niagara is not and never can be the Niagara of the wilder-
ness. We tend inevitably in our care of such a place to curb
and pave, and smooth out, to bridge and trim and to wall,124
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
to improve this roadway and that bit of lawn; in short,
while protecting it so far as may be from vandalism, these
works are necessary to fit it for the use and delight of the
multitude. Whoever knows Europe, can recall scores of
places which once must have been the very heart of wild
beauty—back, let us say, in the days of Caesar,—but are
now and for many years hemmed about with all the devices
of protection, perhaps gates of admission, with hotels at
nicely-groomed points of view, with refreshment booths
and paths and permits in perfect propriety.
Keenly as I feel the beauty and serenity of the great
sweep of green waters, I find less and less in the prim and
parked environs that appeals to me. The Niagara I would
have delighted in was that which Pierie saw. How one
would have enjoyed standing at his elbow upon that sightly
height, or sitting at his side on rock or log, looking down
into and over the great cedar swamp where now are the
lawns and paths and playgrounds of the park; while beyond
poured the green flood of the great river, fed by thousands
of miles of wilderness-rimmed lakes. This of a truth was
the Niagara known to the red man and to the missionary, to
La Salle and all the gallant train of the remote adventurous
days.
I have no doubt that as Lieutenant Pierie worked over
his sketches he was the butt of joke and jibe of soldier
comrades who could find better sport in the wilderness than
the tame drawing of pictures. Who they were or what
their worth, we do not know. Forgotten every one of them.
But Pierie we remember with gratitude, and prize the work
into which he put not only skill as a draughtsman, but to
which he gave that admirable fidelity which marks him as a
lover of beauty and of truth.
When Lieutenant Pierie wrought, Niagara belongedTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
125
wholly to his King. Almost a century later the missionary
Livingston was to discover in the heart of Africa the only
cataract on earth which rivals Niagara, and was to christen
it, with fine loyalty, after England's Queen. Today the
Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi, are drawing enterprising
travelers to the British possession of Rhodesia, as Niagara
was the attraction for far-wandering Britons of a century
before.
In another study I have made note of Isaac Weld, Jr.,
and his Niagara visit of 1796. Weld was an Englishman,
a landscape painter by profession, but not a great artist.
Among the numerous copperplate engravings from his own
sketches which embellish his volume of travels, are three
of Niagara. These appear to much better advantage in the
original quarto edition of 1799 than in later octavo issues.
They are not beautiful or technically striking, these studies
of the falls. Weld was very matter-of-fact, or, as the
modern phrase is, was a realist, and nothing at all of an
idealist. None of his drawings quite gives adequate height
to the cataract, nor have they any quality of suggestion or
impressiveness. None the less they are a useful pictorial
record of Niagara aspects at the end of the 18th century.
In a rather apologetic note regarding his own drawings,
the artist says: “Those who are desirous of becoming more
intimately acquainted with the stupendous cataract, will
soon be gratified," at least so he has been given to under-
stand by the artist in whose hands they at present are,
“with a set of views from the masterly pencil of Captain
Fisher of the Royal British Artillery, which are allowed by
all who have visited the Falls of Niagara to convey a more
perfect idea of that wonderful natural curiosity than any
paintings or engravings that are extant." I regret that these
wonderful pictures are not known to me.126
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
Still another English artist was John Maude, whose visit
to the Falls of Niagara in 1800 was not published until
1826. His book is, I think, somewhat sought after by
collectors of Americana, not more for the value of his nar-
rative than for the attractive copperplate engravings from
his own paintings. There are occasionally offered by
dealers, at pretty stiff prices, copies of Maude with colored
plates, inserted manuscripts, and other souvenirs of per-
sonal association, supposed to make peculiar appeal to the
collector. Maude's narrative has a certain value, but I
cannot say much for his pictures. His “General View of
the Falls from the United States side" absurdly minimizes
their height. His beautifully engraved “Horseshoe" shows
that cataract with a rim in smooth unbroken curve, which
we know has not been its condition at any rate since the
days of Pierie. It is incredible that any sober-minded man
could so prevaricate with brush or pencil. How could he
have looked at it and drawn it as he did!
Some of the early engravings, of various dates, are
exceedingly curious. I have seen one, of unknown age,
“drawn by Heath, engraved by Metz." It is of the Henne-
pin type, with mountains in the distance, palm-like trees,
and wagon-tracks on the American side. Goat Island is
exceedingly attenuated—it looks to be a fragile rock pillar
several hundred feet high and a few feet wide. In this
wonderful engraving the American fall is as wide as the
Canadian, and there is no hint of “horseshoe" or any curve
in either. Equally marvelous—more so, indeed, consider-
ing its later date—is a view of Niagara by W. M. Craig,
engraved by T. Wallis. The river is seen above the fall,
like a Scotch loch, surrounded with close, high, sullen hills.
A barren rock stands for Goat Island, and the face of the
fall is mostly hidden by a vast cloud that drifts across theTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
127
picture, starting from the base of the fall on the extreme
left and suggesting the smoke from a bon-fire of damp
leaves on a windy day. A few aborigines appear in the
foreground, looking like negroes, with black skins and
white loin-cloths. Still another amusing “Niagara,” bearing
the imprint “Rawdon, Clark & Co.,” shows three falls and
two Goat Islands, with Indians in canoes cheerfully being
carried over! A singular picture, with some artistic merit,
was “painted by Wall, engraved by Archer.” It is a view
of the Falls from below, and either the painter or the
engraver has managed to make the whole face of the fall
look frozen, although it is not a winter picture. To note
but one more of these curios, there is a birdseye view of the
Niagara river from Erie to Ontario, “showing the situation
and extent of Navy Island and the towns and villages on
the banks of the river,” etc., drawn by W. R. Callington, a
Boston engineer, “from an actual survey made in 1837.”
The picture was no doubt occasioned by the Mackenzie
Rebellion, which accounts for the prominence given to Navy
Island. The whole thing is bad and inaccurate, not the
least curious feature being two good-sized islands at the
outlet of Lake Erie—a pictorial reminder, but not a true
one, of vanished Bird Island.
The old books of American travel, especially those
written by Englishmen, contain many views of Niagara,
often pretty bad, sometimes merely curious, but occasionally
engraved from drawings or paintings of manifest worth.
The large folding drawings of Niagara and other subjects,
by George Heriot, Deputy Postmaster General of British
North America, which accompany his quarto work of
“Travels through the Canadas,” etc., published in 1807,
have chiefly, perhaps, an antiquarian interest, though the
author must be rated among the artists. Of greater interest128
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
are the sketches made at Niagara by Alexander Wilson,
the Scotch-American poet-naturalist, who walked from
Philadelphia to Oswego, coming thence by boat to Niagara
Falls, and back again, and told the story of it all in verse.
His Niagara drawings were engraved and published in the
Portfolio of 1810. The Niagara drawings signed “Bonfils,”
which are to be found in Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s
"Voyage dans la Haute Pensylvanie” etc. (Paris, 1801),
may have place in our list; as perhaps should A. Hervieu’s
etching of Indians at Niagara, with the falls as a back-
ground, which accompanies Tyrone Power’s “Impressions
of America.” The field of book illustration is practically
boundless, yet here one sometimes finds real gems of
Niagara art. The numerous Niagara paintings of Mrs.
John Graves Simcoe, wife of the first Lieutenant Governor
of Upper Canada, have lately been published in Canada,
with her diary, covering her residence on the Niagara,
1792-93. While they have a considerable historical value,
their art quality does not call for consideration.
The early woodcuts of Niagara are for the most part
negligible, except as curios; though it may be noted that
one of them was by Peter Maverick, who is regarded as
the first American wood engraver. A woodcut in Prior's
“Universal Traveler” (London, 1823), has the Canadian
fall on the American side of Goat Island! A modern wood-
cut that should have mention was a two-page picture in
Harper's Weekly, Aug. 9, 1873, showing “How different
people see the Falls,” viewing them with the eye of the
artist, the poet, the business-man, etc.
Of exceptional character are the Niagara drawings made
in 1827 by Captain Basil Hall of the British Navy. He
used a “camera lucida,” which gave him an image of the
object to be drawn; all he had to do was to limn theTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
129
outlines as the sun and his lens set the copy. While this
was not great art it was ingenious—there being no photo-
graphs then—and it was useful as a record.
The first American artist of distinction to visit the Falls
and to paint them was, I believe, John Vanderlyn, whose
old home at Kingston on the Hudson still stands, an object
of interest to visitors, not merely because of its association
with the artist, but because of its age. It is one of Kings-
ton’s famous old stone houses, built by Dutch settlers early
in the eighteenth century, its walls withstanding the burning
of the town by the British in 1777. Young Vanderlyn came
to Niagara in 1802. That he studied the cataract and its
vicinity seriously and to good purpose is attested by his
numerous paintings. Two of these, evidently the original
sketches in oil, are preserved in the old Senate House in
Kingston. Another, a canvas of some eight feet or so in
length by four and a half in height, is owned by one of the
old Kingston families. It is a most curious picture of the
Falls, in that it scarcely shows the cataracts. The point of
view is high up on the bank of the Canadian side, opposite
the upper rapids. The American fall is shown in the
distance but nothing is shown of the face of the Canadian
fall; looking down the river from this point, one sees only
the line of its crest. The rapids, the islands, indeed, the
topography of much of the surrounding country, is admir-
ably represented. In the foreground runs the Canadian
portage road, along which toils the ox-team of a pioneer.
Several buildings are shown; Indians rest at the roadside;
and athwart the landscape thrusts a great dead tree, on a
limb of which sits an eagle, overlooking the scene. It is a
singular composition; although painted with skill and intel-
ligence, its chief interest today is historical rather than
artistic.130
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
Vanderlyn is known by other views of Niagara which
he painted, and of which he published fine aquatints, in
London in 1804. One of these, “A view of the Western
Branch of the Falls of Niagara, taken from Table Rock,”
etc., is about 30 by 21 inches in size. It was engraved by
F. C. Lewis, and inscribed “to the Society of Fine Arts in
New York.” It shows the angle of the Horseshoe, less
deeply worn than now. Of like size is a companion picture,
“Distant view of the Falls, including both branches, with
the islands and adjacent shores, taken from the vicinity of
the Indian Ladder.” This picture, engraved by Merigot,
was also published in London in 1804 by Mr. Vanderlyn
himself.
Of a later period are the paintings of F. Richardt,
engraved by A. H. Payne, and the drawings of Lieutenant-
Colonel Cockburn, engraved by J. Edge, or in aquatint by
C. Hunt. These and numerous other now rare views of the
Niagara were published by Ackermann, of London, from
1830 to the middle of the century. The enterprising house
of Ackermann did much to spread abroad a true knowledge
of the great cataract. There is one general view of Niagara
Falls from the Canada side, or, as the engraved inscription
has it, “from above the English ferry,” which is sometimes
to be found delicately colored, and is indeed a work of art
worth the several pounds sure to be asked for it.
Other excellent plates, “plain or colored/” were pub-
lished in the first half of the 19th century by McLean of
the Haymarket, London, from the paintings of Major
Henry Davis of the 52d Light Infantry. The date of this
soldier-artist's visit to Niagara is not clear, but apparently
in the 3o’s or 4o’s. A copy of his “Great Horseshoe Fall,”
a most realistic picture, bears date 1818; but this I take to
be an error, perhaps for 1848.THE NIAGARA IN ART.
131
Among the early publications of the distinguished house
of Goupil is a finely colored “Rapids of Niagara,” drawn
from nature by August Kollner.
More than half a century -ago Washington Friend, an
English artist of merit, whose panorama of American
scenery was exhibited throughout England, made a series
of studies of Niagara which were among the best of the
period. Some of these have been reproduced in colors by
English publishers of guide books. Perhaps Friend’s most
famous works are two large paintings, one a general view
of the falls, the other showing the Canadian fall, which I
believe are owned by the royal family of Great Britain.
Some years ago, when a notable art collection was placed
on view at Burlington House, these Niagara pictures by
Washington Friend were conspicuously hung with an an-
nouncement that they were loaned for public inspection by
the Prince of Wales—the late Edward Vllth. Judging
from the photogravure reproductions made of them at the
time, they are well-painted studies of Niagara, depicting
the scene with useful fidelity.
Among Friend’s Niagara views which have been pub-
lished not the least interesting at this date are pictures of
the whirlpool and Queenston Heights, places of great
former beauty but now much changed by the intrusion of
modern “improvements.”
My reference to Edward Vllth reminds me that Her
Royal Highness, the Princess Louise, has painted the
Horseshoe Fall, evidently with no little skill. An engraving
of her work accompanies an article on “Niagara” by Joseph
Hatton in the London Art Journal of 1885.
Pictures of Niagara Falls were vastly multiplied by the
development of chromo-lithography. The processes of
engraving upon stone were well adapted to such a subject,132
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either in colors or in single tint. Prior, say, to 1825 or
thereabouts, the published views of our natural scenery
were almost entirely either copperplate or engraved on
steel, but from the date named down to the development of
photo-engraving there has been a great production of litho-
graphs, among them some of the worst as well as some of
the best pictures of the Falls which we have. Notable
among the earlier lithographs are the Niagara views painted
by W. Vivian and drawn on the stone by T. M. Baynes;
and the Paris lithographs—a fine Niagara series—from the
drawings of Blouet. Both of the above artists made many
Niagara studies, their work being published in London and
Paris in the $0'$.
Of about that period, perhaps, are the colored views
“painted and engraved upon stone by W. J. Bennett.” If
the collector finds old colored lithographs of Niagara with
large and vari-colored goats in the foreground—the artist's
ingenious method of indicating that his point of view was
Goat Island—he may be pretty sure that it is a “Bennett.”
Lieutenant De Roos, who traveled here in 1826, illus-
trated his book with his own very good drawings, litho-
graphed. Another British officer, Lieutenant E. T. Coke,
made his own sketches at Niagara, which were drawn on
stone by T. M. Baynes, for “A Subaltern’s Furlough.”
Of American artists whose Niagara studies were litho-
graphed, may be mentioned A. Vaudricourt, whose interest-
ing lithographic views of the cataract (1845-46) occur in
various forms, sometimes small, but best about 30 by 14
inches. Vaudricourt is said to have utilized for his draw-
ings the daguerreotypes of F. Langheim. Is there any
other instance of the employment of the daguerreotype in
landscape work? Woodcuts made from Langheim’s daguer-
reotypes of Niagara are to be found in Appleton’s GuideTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
133
Book (of the United States) published in 1846; and pos-
sibly elsewhere.
If one may judge from existing prints of the Niagara
subject, the lithographic art gained high excellence in Paris
while yet the London and American productions were still
mediocre or worse. I cannot speak of German or Italian
works of this period—say prior to 1840—with much knowl-
edge or any enthusiasm. Such early pictures of Niagara
as I have seen produced in those countries are too crude
and insignificant to include in our review. Possibly I am
overlooking real works of art—if so, may I have the
pleasure of discovery. But certain it is the early French
lithographs of Niagara are by all odds the most pleasing;
and among them I should rank as of chief importance the
pictures of Jacques-Girard Milbert. He is of sufficient
importance in the art story of Niagara to warrant us in
dwelling briefly upon his career.
He was artist, author, and naturalist. Born in Paris in
1766, he died there in 1840. He had won gratifying recog-
nition, and held numerous posts of distinction—had been
professor of design in the National School of Mines; had
accompanied, as chief draughtsman, a Government expedi-
tion to the antipodes; and had sojourned two years in the
remote Isle of France, now Mauritius, studying its physical
and social conditions,—when in 1815 he came to America
in the official train of the French consul to New York. For
eight years he traveled through this country, engaged in
scientific research and in sketching, which pursuits brought
him to Niagara Falls in the summer of 1818. Ten years
later there was published in Paris the narrative of his
American travels, in two handsome quarto volumes; the
interest of which was vastly augmented by a folio volume
of his drawings. The work is entitled “Itineraire pittoresque134
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
du fleuve Hudson et des parties laterales de I’Amerique du
Nord” I know of no translation or other edition. Milbert’s
drawings were transferred to the stone by many artists,
some of them of reputation. The names of Adam, Biche-
bois, Deroy, Dupressoir, Jacottet, Joly, Sabatier, Tirpenne
and Villeneuve, are given as art-collaborators for the pro-
duction of this work—an item of Niagara art and history
which now for many years has been rather hard to come
across, though stray pictures from the collection occasion-
ally are to be found in the hands of London or Paris dealers.
There is never any difficulty in recognizing a Milbert. His
Niagara studies are not only well drawn, but have a delicacy
which makes them pleasing and attractive, apart from their
historical value—it will soon be a century since the artist
drew them! The Paris publishers, Henri Gaugain & Co.,
gave to the work a worthy typographic setting; the folio
drawings are printed in tint, and the titles of the subjects
are in French, German, English and Latin. A fine copy of
Milbert is for the collector of Americana—in the field of
early art—a rather choice possession, well nigh rivalling in
scarcity, if not in purchase value, the “Voyage,” etc., of
Prince Maximilien von Wied-Neuwied of a later date. The
Prince’s American travels were in the early 3o’s; the Paris
publication of his work was a decade later. As the accom-
panying royal folio atlas of some 80 plates includes studies
of our falls by M. Charles Bodmer, the artist of the expedi-
tion, we should include him, if not the enterprising prince
himself, among the artists of Niagara. The Prince was at
Niagara in June, 1834, when, he says, “Mr. Bodmer took
his general view of this sublime scene, which is the best I
have yet met with in every respect perfectly faithful to
nature.”
The Niagara drawings of W. H. Bartlett are worthy ofTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
135
notice for several reasons. They form an important part
of one of the most notable art works ever issued devoted
in part to the scenery of the Niagara region—the “American
Scenery,” handsomely published in London by Virtue in
1840, though many of the engravings bear an earlier date.
Bartlett was a young English artist, who, in his later
years, won great popularity for his illustrations of Egypt,
Jerusalem, and other regions of picturesque and storied
interest. His Niagara studies were made in the latter part
of the decade of the 30% a period, by the way, peculiarly
rich both in the art and literature of the Niagara region, due
in part, no doubt, to the fact that the opening of the Erie
Canal and the building of railroads for the first time had
made travel to the banks of the Niagara comparatively easy.
The London publishers who directed Bartlett’s work
engaged for the literary part of the venture N. P. Willis,
whose place in American letters was perhaps rated higher
then than it would be now. Willis’ work is by turns clever
and commonplace. But the chief value of the volumes lies
in the 120 engravings, all from Bartlett’s drawings. His
studies were engraved by many different hands, so that the
artist’s work received a somewhat varying presentation in
the metal. Yet, as one turns the pages of this still beautiful
and attractive work, it is impossible to say that any one of
the engravers failed to do justice to the original picture.
The work includes eight engravings of scenes on the
Niagara, with perhaps as many more studies of the Lakes,
the Erie canal, etc., of local interest.
Several of Bartlett’s drawings, aside from their art
quality, have a definite value as historical records; thus the
outlet of Niagara river with Lake Ontario in the distance is
one of the very few pictures that show the lower gorge and
the original monument to General Brock. But one other136
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
contemporary drawing known to me shows it better, and
that is Bartlett's own study of Queenston Heights and the
first Brock monument, made from the old Lewiston landing.
That picture in some of its detail is worth whole chapters
of reminiscences and record by way of recalling the condi-
tions of that time. The drawing of the lower gorge has a
peculiar charm in that it preserves for us the wildness of
that beautiful reach of river before it was encroached upon
by the works of man. It is true that the artist, or the
engraver, or the two in wicked collusion, have given us a
lovely sunset fair and square in the north; but one cannot
be too critical; perhaps the sun did set north of Toronto
in the late 30’s; and at any rate, artists have a perpetual
license to take liberties with the celestial bodies.
Genuinely edifying to the inquirer as to early conditions
at Niagara, is Bartlett’s view of the landing on the American
side. It shows the rowboat, small but staunch, which served
as ferry for many years; and it shows the log runways, the
windlass, and the rough zigzag steps up the cliffs, which
long ago disappeared. For these and like data Bartlett’s
picture is the best source of information I know of, even if
he does give us a glimpse of the falls coming like an ocean
from the sky.
And this brings me to Bartlett’s chief fault as an histori-
cal artist. He is a little prone to impose upon us by a subtle
magnifying of his subject. It is very easy to draw the
Niagara, as for instance his marvelous “View from Table
Rock,” and then by introducing human figures drawn say
to one-half or one-quarter scale, vastly to magnify the
height and grandeur of the scene. But if his studies are
open to this suspicion, or to a general charge of over-pretti-
ness—which fault, if it be a fault, perhaps lies with the
steel plate itself—they must also be credited with genuineTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
137
merit as works of art and in many instances with definite
value as historical records.
It was these beautiful volumes on “American Scenery,”
the first creditable work of the sort that had been under-
taken, that first fairly made known to the world the chief
scenic features of the eastern and northern United States.
What has since developed as the greatest scenic portion of
our country was then practically unknown. In the seventy
and more years that have elapsed since these drawings were
published, there have been many works on similar lines, of
varying merit, some of them enlisting the talent of genuine
artists; but I know of none which is a better Niagara
record or a more pleasing one than these old-time drawings
of W. H. Bartlett.
More than 'one artist appears to have re-engraved
Bartlett’s pictures. A New York publisher, Hermann J.
Meyer, in 1854 issued a Niagara series with German text;
most of the pictures were suspiciously like Bartlett, though
far inferior to the originals. The collector will sometimes
run across a beautiful plate, “Under the Horseshoe,” drawn
by J. C. Buttre and published in New York. It suggests
Bartlett’s study of the same subject, yet in the treatment of
the water is wholly different—and better than Bartlett.
In the roll of Niagara art the name of Thomas Cole has
long been eminent, if not preeminent. Though born in
England, Cole spent most of his life in America and is a
sort of landmark in the earlier development of American
painting. He first visited Niagara in 1829. Of that visit
his biographer, Louis L. Noble, records a not unusual
experience: “He was disappointed. Lifted by no rapture,
burdened by no sense of overpowering grandeur, he gazed
upon it almost without an emotion above that of surprise
at himself. .	.	. Its failure to affect him at once lay in138
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its very greatness. .	.	. Niagara to Cole was, by his
own declaration, far less than the mountains. They were
symbols of the eternal majesty, immutability and repose,
which no cataract could ever be. .	.	. Niagara was
great in its loneliness.” How much of this expresses Cole’s
mind, and how much the mind of the Reverend Mr. Noble,
one cannot say. Many a man has been lost to posterity
through the philosophizing of his biographer.
It is recorded that Cole made many drawings of Niagara
at this time—the spring of 1829. He sketched it “at various
points, particularly from below, and upon Table Rock, and
from a projection on the eastern brink, where the eye com-
mands, at a glance, the entire sweep of the cataract with
the rugged cliffs of Goat Island. For the study of water,
especially under all its circumstances connected with tor-
rent-motion, Niagara far exceeded, in his opinion, all other
places. A favorite study was a singularly fine swell, beauti-
fully breaking back upon itself, in the rapid below the
bridge crossing to the island. Well nigh twenty years after-
ward, he pointed it out to a friend, the same ‘thing of
beauty’ which he had studied with more pleasure and effect
than almost any other single object at the falls. Footing it
down the river with sketch-book in hand, the Whirlpool
afforded fine opportunities for water-studies, and the
heights of Queenston opened to his view an expanse of
forest-tops, then unbroken but by the mighty river, and
bounded by the distant Ontario, which he did not fail to
secure for future purposes.”
When or where he painted his great picture of the Falls
is not clear. Writing from London, May 1, 1831, he says:
“I hope to arrive in America November next. With me I
shall bring several pictures, and most likely the Falls of
Niagara.” I find no record of his painting Niagara at aTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
139
later period. Cole was but 28 years old when he first
studied the cataract. Sixteen years later, when he had won
high rank in the art world, he again visited Niagara Falls,
with his wife. The following page from his journal is
appropriate here, as it shows the attitude of an artist mind
towards the Niagara subject:
“September 4, 1847.—On Tuesday last, Maria and I
returned from an excursion to Niagara. Niagara I have
visited before. Its effect on my mind was perhaps as great
as when I first saw it. But I am convinced that, sublime
and beautiful as it is, it would soon cease to excite much
emotion. The truth is, that the mind dwells not long with
delight on objects whose main quality is motion, unless that
motion is varied. Niagara, stupendous and unceasing as it
is, is nevertheless comparatively limited,—limited in its
resources and duration. The mind quickly runs to the
fountain head of all its waters; the eye marks the process
of its sinking to decay. The highest sublime the mind of
man comprehendeth not. He stands upon one shore, but
sees not the other. Not in action, but in deep repose, is
the loftiest element of the sublime.
“With action waste and ultimate exhaustion are asso-
ciated. In the pure blue sky is the highest sublime. There
is the illimitable. When the soul essays to wing its flight
into that awful profound, it returns tremblingly to its
earthly rest. All is deep, unbroken repose up there—voice-
less, motionless, without the colors, lights and shadows, and
ever-changing draperies of the lower earth. There we look
into the uncurtained, solemn serene—into the eternal, the
infinite—toward the throne of the Almighty.
“The beauty of Niagara is truly wonderful, and of great
variety. Morning and evening, noon and midnight, in storm
and calm, summer and winter, it has a splendour all its
own. In its green glancing depths there is beauty; and also
in its white misty showers. In its snow-like drifts of foam
below, beauty writhes in torment. Iris, at the presence of
the sun, at the meek presence of the moon, wreathes its feet140
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
with brighter glories than she hangs around the temples of
the cloud. Yet all is limited. It cannot bear comparison
with that which haunts the upper abysses of the air. There
is infinity in the cloud-scenery of a sunset. Men see it,
though, so commonly, that it ceases to make an impression
upon them. Niagara they see but once or so, and then only
for a little while; hence the power it exerts over their
minds. Were there Niagaras around us daily, they would
not only cease in most cases to be objects of pleasure, but
would, very likely, become sources of annoyance.
“But great, glorious, and sublime Niagara—wonder to
the eye of man—I do not wish to disparage thee. Thou
hast a power to stir the deep soul. Thy mighty and
majestic cadence echoes in my heart, and moves my spirit
to many thoughts and feelings. Thy bright misty towers,
meeting the vault on high, and based upon the shooting
spray beneath, are images of purity. Thy voice—deep call-
ing unto deep, with a might that makes the hoary cliffs to
tremble,—leads back the soul to Him, speaking upon Sinai’s
smoking summit. Thy steep-down craggy precipices are
the triumphal gate through which, in grand procession, pass
the royal lakes and captive rivers. The soul is full of thee.
Favoured is the man who treads thy brink. Thankful
should he be to God for the display of one of His most
wonderful works. But they are blessed who see thee not,
if they will accept the gift which God vouchsafes to all
men, which, in beauty and sublimity, does far surpass
Niagara—the sky. O that men would turn from their
sordid pursuits, and lift their eyes with reverential wonder
there.”
Cole’s picture, in its day acclaimed a masterpiece, has
now a two-fold interest in the historic sense; it is a beauti-
ful record of a pristine forest Niagara that has long ago
vanished; and it is in itself an example of a method and
manner of painting—one might almost say, of seeing Nature
—no longer favored, perhaps not attainable by modern
artists. I should add, that I only know Cole’s “Niagara”THE NIAGARA IN ART.
141
through engravings. I have made considerable inquiry,
especially of the directors of the principal art collections in
America, but none of them has been able to inform me in
whose hands the original painting now is. In 1831 it was
owned by Joshua Bates. Engravings of Cole's “Niagara”
were published by Walker, in Boston, in 1832. It was also
engraved by T. S. Woodcock and published in Baltimore by
Robert Reid.
Lord Morpeth, afterwards the Earl of Carlisle, visited
Niagara Falls and wrote poetry about them. He also made
many friends in America, one of the best being W. H.
Prescott, the historian. Carlisle appears to have asked him
to procure a painting of the cataract, with what result is
shown by the following extract from one of Mr. Prescott’s
letters:
Boston, U. S., January 27, 1851.
My Dear Carlisle : I wrote you from the country that,
when I returned to town, I should lose no time in endeavor-
ing to look up a good painting of the Falls of Niagara. I
have not neglected this; but though I found it easy enough
to get paintings of the grand cataract, I have not till lately
been able to meet with what I wanted. I will tell you how
this came about. When Bulwer, your Minister, was here,
I asked him, as he has a good taste in the arts, to see if
he could meet with any good picture of Niagara while he
was in New York. Some time after, he wrote me that he
had met with “a very beautiful picture of the Falls, by a
Frenchman.” It so happened, that I had seen this same
picture much commended in the New York papers, and I
found that the artist’s name was Lebron, a person of whom
I happened to know something, as a letter from the Viscount
Santarem, in Paris, commended him to me as a “very
distinguished artist,” but the note arriving last summer,
while I was absent, I had never seen Mr. Lebron. I
requested my friend, Mr.--------, of New York, on whose142
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
judgment I place more reliance than on that of any other
connoisseur whom I know, and who has himself a very
pretty collection of pictures, to write me his opinion of the
work. He fully confirmed Bulwer’s report; and I accord-
ingly bought the picture, which is now in my own house.
It is about five feet by three and a half, and exhibits,
which is the most difficult thing, an entire view of the Falls,
both on the Canada and American side. The great difficulty
to overcome is the milky shallowness of the waters, where
the foam diminishes so much the apparent height of the
cataract. I think you will agree that the artist has managed
this very well. In the distance a black thunderstorm is
bursting over Goat Island and the American Falls. A
steamboat, the “Maid of the Mist,” which has been plying
for some years on the river below, forms an object by which
the eye can measure, in some degree, the stupendous pro-
portions of the cataract. On the edge of the Horseshoe
Fall is the fragment of a ferry-boat which, more than a
year since, was washed down to the brink of the precipice,
and has been there detained until within a week, when, I
see by the papers, it has been carried over into the abyss.
I mention these little incidents that you may understand
them, being somewhat different from what you saw when
you were at Niagara; and perhaps you may recognize some
change in the form of the Table Rock itself, some tons of
which, carrying away a carriage and horses standing on it
at the time, slipped into the gulf a year or more since.
I shall send the painting out by the “Canada,” February
12th, being the first steamer which leaves this port for
Liverpool, and as I have been rather unlucky in some of
my consignments, I think it will be as safe to address the
box at once to you, and it will await your order at Liverpool,
wrhere it will probably arrive the latter part of February.
I shall be much disappointed if it does not please you
well enough to hang upon your walls as a faithful represen-
tation of the great cataract; and I trust you will gratify
me by accepting it as a souvenir of your friend across the
water. I assure you it pleases me much to think there isTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
143
anything I can send you from this quarter of the world
which will give you pleasure. .	.	.
And believe me, dearest Carlisle,
Ever faithfully yours,
W. H. Prescott.
It may be well to remind the reader that the historian
Prescott was nearly blind; and, incidentally, to correct his
statement about the horses and carriage. The great fall of
Table Rock occurred at noonday, June 25, 1850. The
driver of an omnibus, who had taken off his horses for
their midday feed, and was washing his vehicle, felt the
preliminary cracking, and escaped, with the horses; the
empty omnibus being carried into the gulf below. Of
Lebron, or his work, I find no record.
It is now more than half a century since Frederic Edward
Church painted Niagara Falls. When his picture was first
exhibited, in New York in 1857, it was declared to be the
greatest Niagara painting ever made. That appeared to
express the consensus of the most capable critical opinion
of the day. In the half century and more that has passed
since, countless canvases have undertaken to express the
spirit of the Niagara scene; but as I studied Church's
picture, recently, in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington,
I could but echo the verdict of 1857. I know of nothing
that surpasses it, nothing that ranks with it. Frederic E.
Church is still first in the ranks of Niagara artists.
It is not a vast canvas—seven or eight feet or so, by
three and a half. One rather forgets just what it shows;
but long after he may find his mind dwelling in quiet delight
on the vision of a sublime onward movement of emerald
water, which falls majestically into an impenetrable abyss.
Something of the greatness of this picture lies in its sim-
plicity, in its freedom from distracting and belittling acces-144
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sories. One draws from it something of the thrill and
uplift of spirit that comes to the rightly-attuned soul in
contemplation of any great expression of nature—a sweep
of ocean billows, or a night full of stars.
The genius of Church, as expressed in this picture, had
due recognition in his time. Ten years after the “Niagara”
was painted, it won a prize at the Paris Exposition of 1867.
It was widely exhibited in Europe; and returning to
America found a fit and fortunate abiding place in the
Corcoran Gallery. The capital of the nation is an appro-
priate place for the greatest painting of Niagara Falls.
It is related of Church that during the summer he spent
at Niagara, he painted very little. “He passed many days
there, not busily sketching all the time, but wandering about
with his eyes and his heart brooding on the cataract, sitting
sometimes for hours, studying the shifting splendors of the
spectacle; and having made his sketches, came home, and
in two months of devotion produced this picture.” His
method is commended to artists who are under the cloud of
realism. Church’s picture, ignoring everything but the
heart and soul and essence of the scene, is the most real—
and the most poetic—picture of Niagara ever painted.
Fortunately, as is not always the case with a great
picture, there exist excellent chromo-engravings of Church’s
“Niagara.” They are hard to find, nowadays, and have to
be well paid for; but the original engraving,.made soon
after the picture was painted, is, if in good condition, a prize
worth paying well for. There is also, in the National
Gallery of Scotland, at Edinburgh, another “Niagara” by
Church.
The half century and more that has elapsed since Church
achieved his masterpiece, has not, so far as I am aware,
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145
merit. Niagara has been—and still is—much painted, but
the studies of it that could command wide attention as
works of art, are surprisingly few. Many of America’s
best art galleries—most of them, in fact—contain no Ni-
agara.
It is pleasant to be able to record that on at least one oc-
casion the Commonwealth of New York has taken official
cognizance of Niagara as an art subject. Prior to the Co-
lumbian Exposition, the State commissioned P. C. Flynne,
then resident at Niagara Falls, to paint a picture of the
cataract for exhibition in the New York Building at Chi-
cago. The completed work is probably one of the largest
of the Niagara paintings now exhibited, the canvas being
eight by fifteen feet. It embraces both the American and
Canadian falls; and if it reveals no particular inspiration,
it is at any rate skilfully and intelligently painted. In 1894
the artist presented it to the State of New York, and since
that time it has held a conspicuous place in the Senate lobby
of the Capitol. It may be noted that the unfinished mural
work of William M. Hunt, in the Capitol at Albany, was to
have included some treatment of the Niagara theme.
Louis R. Mignot, a New York artist, exhibited at the
Columbian Exposition a study of Niagara which long since
probably found its way to some private collection. Al-
though the “Niagaras” in public galleries are few, there are
beyond question many, often of great excellence, cherished
in private hands.
A little reflection suggests that the real Niagara—not
the wearisome depiction of detail, but the poetic soul of the
green flood—should appeal with peculiar force to the artist
of marines. I incline to the belief that of all the myriad
of Niagara studies the very few which have superlative art
excellence find their merit purely in the study of the move-146
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
ment, color and mass effects of the water. This phase of
Niagara is akin to the ocean and it is no great surprise,
though a matter of satisfaction, that one of the greatest of
marine painters found his way to the banks of the Niagara,
not to draw the detail of the scenery, but to paint a master-
piece of the moving waters. This was Mauritz Frederick
Hans de Haas. The name de Haas has an honored place
in the art annals both of America and Europe. At least
three artists of distinction have borne it. Maurice, to
Anglicize his first name, was born in Rotterdam in 1832.
His earlier life and study were in that city and the Hague.
In 1851 he was painting water-colors in London. Becom-
ing a pupil of Louis Meyer,—then recognized as the great-
est marine painter of Europe—he developed a style of
marked character and excellence. His work pleased not
only the artists, but the public, and his pictures—nearly
always marines—were welcomed for the principal art ex-
hibitions of Europe. He was given the curious appoint-
ment of artist to the Dutch Navy; and royalty in the per-
son of Queen Sophia of Holland bought one of his best
known paintings (“Dutch Fishing Boats”), and bestowed
upon the artist special marks of her favor. In 1859, soon
after his marriage, he came to New York, being induced
thereto, it is said, by his friend and patron, August Belmont.
From that date until his death in 1895, he was a conspicuous
and honored figure in the American art world, a member of
the National Academy of Design and the winner of many
medals. On coming to Niagara, he spent some time in a
study of its attractions; but, ignoring the great cataract,
found a subject worthy of his genius in the rapids above
the falls. There may be readers of this page who can re-
call having seen at the International Exposition in Paris,
in 1878, de Haas’ superb picture of these rapids. It wasTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
147
the subject of much comment and criticism, especially in
the art press, and it is entitled to rank, I think, among the
greatest works of this master of marine painting.
It was a reflective French visitor at Niagara—M. Au-
guste Laugel, author of “Les Etats-Unis pendant la Guerre”
(Paris, 1864)—who thought that the only artist who could
have painted the scene, the only one capable of rendering
“la terrible majeste de ce spectacle,” was Ruysdael. “He
would doubtless have chosen a day when the waters were
darkest, when great sweeping clouds throw heavy and
threatening shadows, when the pines bend under a cold and
furious wind.” I do not agree with M. Laugel in this.
Ruysdael’s penchant was for the melancholy moods of Na-
ture; whereas in my thought the characteristic aspect of
Niagara is bright and peaceful.
Countless modern artists—those of note as well as
amateurs—have painted or engraved Niagara. Harry
Fenn’s masterpiece is his “Niagara.” Joseph Pennell has
made excellent studies of it. J. Henry Hill, about 1889,
etched a large plate of the Canadian Fall, producing a
beautiful, genuinely artistic picture. Two studies in oil,
one a summer, the other a winter view of the cataracts, by
W. C. Bauer, are to be included among the thoroughly good
modern work on this subject. These canvases were recently
in the hands of a New York dealer. Notable, too, are the
Niagara paintings of F. V. Du Mond, reproduced in photo-
gravure to illustrate William Trumbull’s poem, “The
Legend of the White Canoe.” So are J. Hamilton’s en-
graving on steel from T. Taylor’s drawing, and the steel
plate engraved by Jones, from Frankenstein’s painting.
This last, published many years ago in Philadelphia, gives
a good general view of the Falls, from Hennepin’s Point.
An earlier painting, showing the rapids above the American148
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
Fall, and Judge Porter’s first bridge, was engraved and
published in London in 1831. One of the most striking of
all the published pictures is a large colored lithograph, after
John Bornet’s original, showing both falls, published by
Goupil in 1855. But it is obviously impossible to enumerate
all the work—even all the good work—on this subject.
Many pictures of the Niagara Falls have been published
in Buffalo, but few of them are of a character to be in-
cluded in these notes. Mention may be made of the draw-
ings of F. Holloway, showing the American fall from the
Ferry and the Horseshoe from Table Rock; these were
published in this city about i860. A portfolio of Niagara
Falls views, lithographed by Hall & Mooney and published
from Steele’s Press in 1844, has little art merit, most of
the views being badly redrawn from Bartlett. William H.
Beard painted the old Lewiston bridge, his picture being
lithographed in 1850; but I do not find that he or Buffalo’s
pioneer artist, James H. Beard, ever painted the Falls.
Several artists, whose work is particularly well known in
the Niagara region, have in recent years produced pictures
of the Falls which should have mention in our interview.
In the Historical Building at Buffalo hang Reginald C.
Coxe’s study of the Rapids, and his large and very lovely
canvas of the Luna Fall.
Here also is Raphael Beck’s fine painting of the Falls, a
general scene from much the same point of view as Thomas
Cole’s. Like Cole, Mr. Beck has painted a primitive Niag-
ara with no buildings, bridges or other signs of the white
man’s intrusion.
Among the many interesting pictures, old and modern,
good and bad, preserved at Niagara Falls, the visitor is sure
to study the fanciful, clever paintings depicting ‘The Red
Man’s Fact”—an Indian maid being swept over the fall inTHE NIAGARA IN ART
149
a sacrificial canoe; and “The White Man’s Fancy,” in
which the personified Spirit of the Cataract beckons in the
mist. These paintings, made widely familiar by process-
reproduction, were painted by James Francis Brown, resi-
dent for some years at Niagara Falls and at Buffalo.
Of all the artists who have studied Niagara none ap-
proaches in comprehensive thoroughness the work of Amos
W. Sangster. In the local annals of the region Mr. Sang-
ster may fairly be styled the artist of the Niagara. A life-
long resident of Buffalo, he gave his productive years to
painting and etching, usually of nearby subjects. Lake
Erie, I think, was his chief delight. He painted, with un-
common skill, its shores and waters, in storm and calm. His
marines, harbor views and kindred subjects, have long been
deservedly popular. It was in the early 8o’s or thereabouts
that he conceived the laborious project of illustrating the
Niagara river from lake to lake. Many difficulties were
overcome, and the work was issued in folio parts, bearing
date 1886, though its completion was a year or so later. It
was dedicated to the artist’s personal friend, Grover Cleve-
land, then President. The work includes an ample descrip-
tive text, and was well printed. The great feature of it is
Mr. Sangster’s art—one hundred and fifty-three etchings
on copper, from his own drawings, many of them being
full-page plates. The illustration of the river and the falls
is thorough and in the main satisfactory; and some of the
large plates rank among the best we have of the cataract.
Numerous artists, some of established repute, have vis-
ited the Falls, and painted them, in recent years, but of the
ultimate destination of their canvases I can only write, in
some cases, on newspaper authority. I well recall, a few
years ago, a sojourn at Niagara of Gilbert Munger, who
years before had been there and painted Niagara Falls by150
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
commission from Emperor William I. of Germany. For
this picture, it is recorded, he was decorated by his Em-
peror.
Then there was P. Calderon Cameron, a Scotch artist,
who painted two vast pictures of Niagara Falls in winter.
The first one, after exhibition in this country and Europe,
vras sold to H. H. Warner of Rochester—and of patent
medicine fame,—for, it was stated, $30,000. The huge can-
vas finally met its fate in London, where it was ruined in a
fire. The artist had created some sensation in painting this
picture, by having himself suspended by means of a tackle
reaching half way down the precipice, so that he might
make his studies in mid-air. After the destruction of his
picture, Mr. Cameron came again to Niagara—I think about
1890—and set up his easel on the ice bridge in the gorge
below the cataract. The second painting, as finally com-
pleted, in a specially-built studio at “River Rest,” near New
Brunswick, N. J., was ten feet high and twenty-one feet
long. It was described by a newspaper writer at the time of
its completion as “a study in greys.” Its present where-
abouts, or ultimate fate, I do not know.
Another very large painting of the Falls was made about
1889 by M. Hottes, a Virginian, who claimed to be the first
cadet sent from that State to West Point after the Civil
War. Turning from the arts of war to gentler pursuits, he
studied painting in Munich, being a fellow-student of Will-
iam M. Chase. I confess ignorance of his work except in
regard to his great Niagara—great at least in dimensions,
for it covered 190 square feet of canvas, and was com-
pleted in the spring of 1890, in a large hall in Rochester.
Mr. Hottes had begun his masterpiece in the old Museum
building on the Canadian side of the Falls; but after some
months of work he concluded that the mist and dampnessTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
151
of that place were detrimental to his picture. He thereupon
moved it to Rochester, where it was completed. It was a
general view of the cataract on a bright summer day, and
according to contemporary criticism in the Rochester press
was “a great work, and would do credit to any artist of the
day.” What has become of it? It would seem as if such
large paintings as this and Cameron’s could hardly be lost
if they have real artistic worth.
These notes on Niagara in art would be sadly incomplete
without some mention of the Niagara panoramas. The
younger generation knows nothing of this form of enter-
tainment. In fact, one has to be older than he likes to be, to
remember it at all—and even at that, unless he be a veritable
patriarch, he will know little of the panorama except in its
last years. The genuine old-fashioned panorama was a
popular form of edifying entertainment more than a century
ago. It continued, in this country, down to the Civil War
period; perhaps, in rural and remote towns, it lingered yet
longer. The writer’s earliest recollections, which hazily em-
brace such events as the siege of Vicksburg and the death
cf Lincoln, also include, as of about that time, a wonderful
evening spent in contemplation of a panorama of “The
Streets of New York,” as shown in a certain village hall.
Still vivid in memory is the row of smoking oil lamps which
stood on the edge of the little stage as footlights, and cast
their uncertain beams on the thoroughfares of the metrop-
olis as they unrolled from a great cylinder of canvas planted
upright at the left of the stage, and as slowly were rolled
up again on the right. There was much creaking and an oc-
casional hitch, as the deus ex machina wearied at the crank.
Most of what that panorama showed is forgotten; but still
vivid is a picture of a fallen horse, probably on Broadway,
with the crowd characteristic of such an incident. What the152
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
lecturer may have said of the splendors of New York has
wholly faded; but very distinctly is recalled his praise of
this scene, which was declared to be “one of the great mas-
terpieces of American art,” as perhaps it was. Midway in
this marvelous entertainment the curtain went down, while
the cylinders of canvas were changed and new ones set up—
much as pressmen now handle their rolls of printing paper
for the press; meanwhile the orchestra—a young woman
at a melodeon—relieved the tedium of the wait with mu-
sical “pieces,” sacred and patriotic. The climax came to-
ward the close, when the canvas, creaking on its rollers,
showed a regiment of blue-coated soldiers marching past
the old Astor House; and the girl at the wheezy melodeon
played with all her soul and both hands and feet, “When
Johnny comes marching Home Again,” and the crowded
audience of perhaps two hundred village people joined in
chorusing the “Hurrah!” Oh, yes, the old panorama was
not such a bad entertainment after all, especially if one were
a little boy with all the world yet to see. Grand opera some-
times since has offered much less entertainment.
Long before “The Streets of New York” toured the
country in great canvas rolls, there were panoramas of Ni-
agara. Indeed I suspect that Niagara panoramas were the
first ones seen in America, although in Europe, in the eigh-
teenth century, there were shown panoramas of battles and
of religious subjects. But before our Great West was
known, Niagara was America’s greatest wonder, and it was
early painted, not so much for American contemplation as
for exhibition abroad. Thus, in the autumn of 1832, we
find Robert Burford, an English artist of speculative bent,
faithfully sketching the Falls and vicinity. He returned to
London, where a panorama of Niagara was painted from
his drawings and exhibited at a building called the Pano-THE NIAGARA IN ART.
153
rama, in Leicester Square. The canvas probably was not
great in extent, since (as we learn from a surviving pam-
phlet which advertised the show) the “Siege of Antwerp”
was exhibited there at the same time. The painting itself is
probably long ago dust or ashes; but a folding sketch, which
shows its main features, is preserved and is of no slight his-
torical value. It indicates the location of buildings long
since gone if not forgotten, among them Forsyth’s hotel, the
old stairway, the guide’s house, etc., on the Canadian side;
and Whitney’s hotel on the American. What is now known
as Luna Fall is here named Montmorency!
Burford’s panorama was apparently used to promote
public interest in a projected City of the Falls, which it was
proposed to build on the Canadian Heights above the catar-
act. The prospectus of this city which was offered to the
London investor of 1832 was in a literary way as great a
work of art as the panorama. It was pictured as the pros-
pective rival of the most famous European resorts, “where
the most secluded privacy can be enjoyed in the midst of the
most refined society, yet so regulated, that Economy, Recre-
ation and Pleasure are united—where the well-dressed and
well-conducted, without reference to rank or wealth, may,
and do, mingle with Lords, Grandees and Princes.” Al-
though the Canadian City of the Falls has not developed
quite on the lines emphasized in the prospectus of 1832, it
has grown into a comfortable community with a national
pleasure-ground of surpassing beauty and industrial feat-
ures which would vastly have surprised the promoters in
the days of Burford’s panorama.
Other panoramas of which I have record were Brewer’s,
shown in American cities in the ’50’s, made up, apparently,
of canvases of “Niagara River and Falls in summer and
winter,” the Mammoth Cave and the Prairies; and the154
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
Baker-street Bazaar in London, where in this decade of the
’5o’s, was exhibited the “Grand Moving Mirror of Ameri-
can Scenery, painted on 25,000 feet of canvas, comprising
the Falls of Niagara, the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky,”
etc. Possibly those two art-expositions were identical.
The name of G. N. Frankenstein may not hold a familiar
place on the roll of American art. Little seems to be re-
corded of him. Cincinnati claimed him, I believe; and, if
ihe Press can be believed (and why not?), his achievements
in the realms of art were of the most notable. His one ac-
complishment in which we are interested was the making
of one hundred original paintings of Niagara Falls, as
studies for his panorama of the great cataract. The New
York press of 1853, in which I find some mention of him,
did not lack in praise. His genius was regarded as beyond
question. We can only judge now of the quality of his
work, by what was said of it at the time. At any rate, he
had the high virtue of industry, for he was often at Niagara,
from about 1840 to 1852. In Harper’s Monthly of 1853,
may be found some account of his work, with many wood-
cuts from his paintings, and a picture of the artist himself,
in winter garb, standing in the snow before his easel, dili-
gently painting the winter scene. “The artist whose labors
we have so largely borrowed,” writes the editor, “has made
the study of the great cataract a labor of love. He has
summered and wintered by it. He has painted it by night
and by day; by sunlight and by moonlight; under a sum-
mer sun, and amid the rigors of a Canadian winter, when
the grey rocks wore an icy robe and the spray congealed
into icicles upon his stiffened garments. The sketches from
which we have selected have grown up under his hands for
a half score of years.” If one may judge by all this herald-
ing, Frankenstein’s panorama was a real work of art; butTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
155
whatever its merit, it no doubt long ago passed into the
limbo of the forgotten.
There may have been yet other panoramas of our catar-
act; but it must suffice to notice the latest, if not the last,
which was for a time famous as the Cyclorama of Niagara.
It was an enterprise chiefly promoted by several gentlemen
of Buffalo, who put a generous amount of money into it,
and for a time enjoyed the prospect of rich returns. That
these were not realized has nothing to do with the art side
of the affair, which is the only side suitable for considera-
tion here. It came about that Paul Philippoteaux, a very
clever French artist, son of a yet more eminent sire, Felix
Philippoteaux, was commissioned to paint Niagara Falls.
He was an artist of established reputation; the pupil of
Cabanel and Leon Cogniet, the winner of first medals at
the ttcoles des Beaux Arts and of the Prix de Rome compe-
titions. He had already painted several cycloramas, among
them the long-popular Battle of Gettysburg, when in 1886,
he was engaged for the “Niagara.” Of several assistants
who shared with him the making of the gigantic picture,
Adrien Shulz, at any rate, is entitled to notice. He was a
Parisian, pupil of Dardoize and Hanoteau, and his pictures
had for many years been features of the Salon.
In the spring of 1888 the Cyclorama of Niagara was
opened to the London public, in York Street, Westminster.
As was to be expected, considering the artists, it was genu-
inely a work of art. The painting was delightful, the man-
ner of exhibition—the spectators viewing it with all favor-
able accessories of light, from the midst of the great circle
which it formed—was pleasing and effective; and for a
time the London public flocked to see it. The canvas was
four hundred feet long—or rather, when set up, four hun-
dred feet in circumference; and fifty feet high. Here were156
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
twenty thousand square feet of Niagara beauty, majesty and
power made visible even to the stay-at-home British public,
at a shilling a head. So successful was it, for a time, that
M. Philippoteaux painted a second Niagara. This was sold
to an English company, with a view to exhibition on the
continent. Whatever was the fate of that painting, the
present chronicler knows not. Many and vexatious busi-
ness troubles arising, the original painting was brought to
America, and exhibited, with discouraging returns, at
Chicago. I have not traced its subsequent fortunes. It has
not been exhibited for some years, and is probably in the
oblivion of storage.
The principal public art collections of America contain
few paintings of the Niagara cataract or rapids. The Cor-
coran Gallery at Washington easily leads the list with its
incomparable Church. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts at Philadelphia has an interesting miniature of Niag-
ara Falls, from the capable brush of William Russel Birch,
George Loring Brown painted a “Niagara by Moonlight/’
which sketches of that artist state is owned in Malden,
Mass.; and in the Detroit Museum hangs Mortimer L.
Smith’s “Niagara Falls in Winter.”
The Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; the Albright Art
Gallery, Buffalo; the City Art Museum of St. Louis; the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts; the Art Museum of
Worcester, Mass.; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cin-
cinnati Museum; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York City, contain in their collections no paintings of
Niagara Falls.
That they do not is hardly matter of surprise. What
may be termed the great passages in Nature, do not neces-
sarily inspire great art. Our art galleries probably would
be searched in vain for pictures of the Mississippi or theTHE NIAGARA IN ART.
157
Amazon, the Falls of the Zambesi, Mount Everest or—shall
we say—Mount Blanc or Washington. These things make
no particular appeal to the artist, because of the qualities
which give them preeminence in geography.
It used to be said of Niagara Falls, as no doubt of other
unusual phases of Nature, that “they cannot be painted.”
This attitude of mind is illustrated by the following passage
from C. F. Arfwedson, who toured hereabouts three-quar-
ters of a century ago:
“Long before I arrived at Niagara, I had often and
repeatedly been told that it is not in the power of man to
describe and paint these falls in true colors. I even met
with Americans who went so far as to consider it a sacrilege
to attempt to depict Niagara by word, pen, or pencil. One
day—I still have a lively recollection of my surprise—I
happened to pass a bookseller’s shop in New York, in com-
pany with a native American; several excellent drawings
of Niagara were exposed in the window for general inspec-
tion. I stopped, and drew his attention to them, expressing,
at the same time, my delight at the various engravings.
Uncertain whether I actually meant what I said, he eyed
me a long while with a penetrating look, and exclaimed at
last, with a sneer, ‘You have not seen Niagara!’ and then
cut short his conversation. This remark hurt me at the
time, and I was almost resolved to follow the example of a
certain traveller, who heard so much said of the waterworks
at Philadelphia that he determined not to see them at all.
Luckily I did not act upon the same principle at Niagara;
but my curiosity became so excited, that I can only compare
it to the sensation I felt when entering Rome for the first
time, or wandering in the streets of Pompeii. In truth,
there are no words expressive enough, no pen gifted with
sufficient inspiration, no pencil endowed with an adequate
share of poetical imagination, to describe Niagara as it
actually is.”158
THE NIAGARA IN ART.
In a more confident vein is the following comment by
Anthony Trollope:
“I came across an artist at Niagara who was attempting
to draw the spray of the waters. ‘You have a difficult
subject/ said I. ‘All subjects are difficult/ he replied, ‘to a
man who desires to do well/ ‘But yours, I fear, is impos-
sible/ I said. ‘You have no right to say so till I have
finished my picture/ he replied. I acknowledged the justice
of his rebuke, regretted that I could not remain till the com-
pletion of his work should enable me to revoke my words,
and passed on. Then I began to reflect whether I did not
intend to try a task as difficult in describing the Falls, and
whether I felt any of that proud self-confidence which kept
him happy at any rate while his task was in hand. I will
not say that it is as difficult to describe aright that rush of
waters, as it is to paint it well. But I doubt whether it is
not quite as difficult to write a description that shall interest
the reader, as it is to paint a picture of them that shall be
pleasant to the beholder/’
As for mere painting, the work of a Church proves that
the Falls can be painted, not merely with realism, but with
subtlest spirit. In a word, then (to be done with this) :
Is it not true of the painter as the poet, that he carries his
greatness with him, and does not find it lying in wait at this
or that specially distinguished spot of the earth ? The pho-
tographer, I grant, comes grandly into his own at a Niagara
Falls; but Nature’s highest appeals are largely independent
of the accidents of rock and water. The painter’s noblest
art never can find its supreme expression in merely depict-
ing the physical, no matter on how grand a scale it is pre-
sented in Nature.JOHN VANDERLYN’S
VISIT TO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802
HE first American artist to visit and paint Niagara
Falls, so far as I have been able to learn, was John
Vanderlyn. In preceding pages (129-130) I have made
brief note of his work. As there has come into my hands
a hitherto unpublished narrative of his visit to Niagara in
1802, it seems appropriate, in printing it, to add some
further facts regarding his eventful career.
There exists no published biography of Vanderlyn.
Many years ago the story of his life was written, either by
himself or from his dictation, but while in the hands of a
New York publisher the manuscript was destroyed by fire.
Much material was then lost which could not be replaced;
there still exists, however, much regarding him which it is
hoped may yet be put before the public by a competent and
sympathetic hand. Vanderlyn was a striking figure in the
art history of America, and his relations with Aaron Burr
and other celebrities of his day give to his career an
exceptional interest.
James Parton, in his “Life and Times of Aaron Burr,”
has told the story of Burr’s first meeting with Vanderlyn:
“The interest which Colonel Burr took in the education
of youth has been before alluded to. He always had a
protege in training, upon whose culture he bestowed un-
wearied pains and more money than he could always afford.
The story of Vanderlyn, the most distinguished protege he
159160
JOHN V AND ERL YN’S VISIT
ever had, was one which was often related in these later
years.
“He was riding along in a curricle and pair, one day
during his senatorial term, when one of his horses lost a
shoe; and he stopped at the next blacksmith’s to have it
replaced. It was a lonely country place, not far from
Kingston, in Ulster county, New York. He strolled about
while the blacksmith was at work, and, returning, saw upon
the side of a stable near by, a charcoal drawing of his
own curricle and horses. The picture, which must have
been executed in a very few minutes, was wonderfully
accurate and spirited, and he stood admiring it for some
time. Turning round, he noticed a boy a little way off,
dressed in coarse homespun.
“ ‘Who did that?’ inquired Burr, pointing to the picture.
“ ‘I did it,” said the boy.
“The astonished traveler entered into conversation with
the lad, found him intelligent, though ignorant, learned that
he was born in the neighborhood, had had no instruction
in drawing, and was engaged to work for the blacksmith
six months. Burr wrote a few words on a piece of paper,
and said, as he wrote:
“ ‘My boy, you are too smart a fellow to stay here all
your life. If ever you should want to change your em-
ployment and see the world, just put a clean shirt in your
pocket, go to New York, and go straight to that address,’
handing the boy the paper.
“He then mounted his curricle and was out of sight in a
moment. Several months passed away, and the circum-
stances had nearly faded from the busy senator’s recollec-
tion. As he was sitting at breakfast one morning, at
Richmond Hill, a servant put into his hand a small paper
parcel, saying that it was brought by a boy who was waiting
outside. Burr opened the parcel, and found a coarse,
country-made clean shirt. Supposing it to be a mistake, he
ordered the boy to be shown in. Who should enter but
the Genius of the Roadside, who placed in Burr’s hand the
identical piece of paper he had given him. The lad wasTO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
161
warmly welcomed. Burr took him into his family, educated
him, and procured him instruction in the art which nature
had indicated should be the occupation of his life-time.
Afterward, Burr assisted him to Europe, where he spent
five years in the study of painting, and became an artist
wTorthy of the name.”
Regarding this story, of which there are several versions,
one of Vanderlyn’s friends sent a letter of correction to
the historian, Parton, when his Life of Burr was first pub-
lished; the letter is appended to the later editions of that
wrork. The writer was Robert Gosman, now deceased, son
of the Rev. Dr. John Gosman, who in 1808 became the
pastor of the old Dutch church in Kingston, and was its
first pastor to preach in the English language. Robert
Gosman wrote with an intimate knowledge which could not
be questioned, and I can do no better than to quote a portion
of his letter correcting Parton, as it forms our most authori-
tative statement as to the early years of the first American
artist who painted Niagara Falls:
“Rondout, N. Y., February 11, 1858.
“	.	.	. Vanderlyn honored me with his confidence
during the last five years of his life. I minuted, at his
request, from his own lips, the principal events of his career.
As is ever the case with the aged, the incidents of his
earlier life were most vividly recalled. The circumstances
of his first acquaintance with Colonel Burr, and the friend-
ship and favor with which that eminent man honored him,
were favorite subjects of discourse; and I recorded many
anecdotes illustrative of the character of ‘his best friend/’
This but added to the strength of a conviction I had had
for many years, that the popular idea of Burr’s character
wras erroneous, and wrould be corrected in time. But to
my purpose, which was to correct the anecdote as to
Vanderlyn in your recent biography of Colonel Burr. That162
JOHN VANDERLYN’S VISIT
is related by you, in the main, as it had been in circulation
for many years. But it is an invention purely.
“Vanderlyn was born at Kingston, in 1775. His grand-
father, a Hollander, was a portrait painter of decided
talent, though he did not make painting a profession; his
father had the same taste and bias; and from his earliest
years John Vanderlyn showed the direction of his powers.
The Vanderlyn family were in comfortable circumstances
and highly esteemed. John was educated at Kingston
Academy, then an institution of high standing, and was a
proficient in the classics. At the age of seventeen he passed
a year in New York, and had, in a paint and color shop,
and at an evening drawing-school, some very seasonable
advantages. He turned his attention to oil painting the
summer afterwards, copying at home two of Stuart’s por-
traits lent by a friend, one being that of Colonel Burr.
This copy was purchased by the then representative in
Congress from this district, who was a warm friend of
Colonel Burr, and who mentioned the fact to the Colonel
at the session of 1795, the latter being then in the Federal
Senate. ‘Colonel Burr never forgot anything/ as Vanderlyn
frequently said, and he did not forget that his friend had
spoken very warmly of the decided talent of the youthful
painter.
“In the summer following, Vanderlyn, when at New
York, received a note without signature, asking him to call
at a certain place. He did so; it was the office of Colonel
Burr; and at the instance of J. B. Prevost, who was there,
and who said the note was in the Colonel’s handwriting,
Vanderlyn proceeded to the residence of Burr, at Richmond
Hill. The young artist was warmly met by Colonel Burr,
became an inmate of his house for several weeks, fulfilling
orders which came through his friend; and in the autumn
of 1795 he was placed under the instruction of Gilbert
Stuart, at Philadelphia.
“Vanderlyn remained with Stuart about a year, when
the latter told Colonel Burr he had taught him all he could,
and said he was then ready for Paris. Colonel Burr pro-TO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
163
vided his young friend with the means; Vanderlyn went
to Paris in 1796, remaining there between four and five
years, and enjoying all the advantages of its admirable
schools in art. ...
“On the occasion of Burr’s Parisian sojourn (1810-n),
he assisted Vanderlyn pecuniarily, instead of the latter
assisting him. Vanderlyn was always in straitened cir-
cumstances, and never more so than at that time. He was
generous to a fault, but rarely had a louis which was not
mortgaged ten deep. The ‘Marius at Carthage’ was the
only picture he ever exhibited at the Louvre, or indeed
anywhere else in Europe; though he painted his ‘Ariadne,’
and made some remarkable copies from Correggio and
other masters during his abode there.
“I have the honor to be, very respectfully yours,
“Robt. Gosman.”
The omitted portions of Mr. Gosman’s letter relate to
current charges against the character of Aaron Burr, with
which we are not in the present connection, interested.
Returning to America in 1801, Vanderlyn found himself
in a high tide of favor. He was welcomed as a youth of
great accomplishments and still greater promise. In
Washington he became a member of the household of
Aaron Burr, who was then Vice President; and there and
in New York he was made much of, socially, and received
many requests to paint portraits. He refused all commis-
sions at this time, however, but painted the portraits of
Burr and his daughter Theodosia, both in profile and both
now widely known through engravings. He was appar-
ently the most popular if not the most capable artist in
America when in the autumn of 1802 he set out with a
friend for Niagara Falls. The narrative of that tour was
taken down in later years, from the artist’s dictation, by
the late Robert Gosman. The original manuscript is now
owned by the Rev. Roswell Randall Hoes, chaplain in the164
JOHN VANDERLYN’-S VISIT
United States Navy, stationed at Norfolk, Va.; through his
courtesy the Buffalo Historical Society is enabled to give
it, herewith, its first publication:
JOHN VANDERLYN’S NIAGARA VISIT IN 1802.
In the latter part of September, 1802, Vanderlyn, with
a young nephew, took his way to Niagara Falls. He pur-
chased a horse and hired a chaise, and with as little baggage *
as was compatible with the supposed exigencies of a journey
through a wilderness comparatively, and his sketching mate-
rials, proceeded from Kingston, up the west bank of the
Hudson. Our travellers followed the ordinary route from
Albany to Schenectady, thence ascending the valley of the
Mohawk to Utica.
It was on the first of October that, in passing over the
then high hill at Little Falls, the first sketch taken on this
journey was made. Here the artist caught a fine view of
the Genesee Flats, with a grandly rugged foreground, and
the turbulent Mohawk eddying and foaming among the
rocks, partially hidden by huge tangled and rough forest
trees clinging to its precipitous banks.
Utica was then a small town, just emerging from the
condition of a trading post and frontier station; and
having lost the picturesque character and attributes of a
garrison town without, as yet, having acquired the grace
or comforts of advanced civilization. There was however
a very comfortable tavern, for the travel to “the Genesee
country” was becoming very great.
Simeon DeWitt, the State Surveyor General, had already
passed over the country with his Lempriere in hand, erasing
the Indian nomenclature, and giving to townships and
villages, names ludicrous in their misapplication, and pro-
voking the most biting comparisons. Rome then existed,
but it was an aggregation of small temporary dwellings
redolent of discomfort, and a half century could not efface
from the artist’s memory a most vigorous remembrance of
the activity and sleeplessness of the Roman fleas.TO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
165
Passing from Rome to Onondaga Hollow, the travellers
met an Indian, a drunken Onondaga, bottle in hand, singing
as a refrain “We sell all dis,” and sweeping an imaginary
boundary line. A few coppers persuaded the semi-savage
to halt whilst the artist took his rapid sketch. The after
history of this sketch is so curious, that it deserves note. A
year or two afterwards Vanderlyn met, at a friend’s, in
Paris, an ecclesiastic—of Italian birth, we believe—of very
benevolent turn and warmly commiserating the condition
of the American aborigines. The little he knew of them
seemed to be drawn from the history of Jesuit missions.
He anxiously enquired of Mr. Vanderlyn, on learning that
he was an American, as to the condition of the Indians in
New York. The artist quietly replied that he could give
his reverence an answer briefly, directly and professionally,
if he would call at his lodgings next day. The good father
did call, and Vanderlyn, without a word, put into his hands
this sketch of the drunken Oneida as a statement in brief
of the condition of his race. It is equally complimentary
to the penetration of the priest and the force of the artist’s
pencil, that he took the reply to its fullest extent at a
glance. He judiciously dealt out his anathemas, not on the
poor savage, but on his tempters and destroyers, laid down
the sketch with a sigh, and, though he and Vanderlyn met
frequently afterwards never reverted to the subject.
After dipping into Oneida Hollow the travellers ascended
a hill whence they caught a glimpse of Oneida lake, and an
inadequate sketch was added to the memorials of the tour.
Till reaching Manlius, the highway had been tolerable, but
thence it was so decidedly bad, even for a backwoods road,
that the “chaise” was abandoned, with a bargain to have it
sent back to Albany, another horse was purchased, and
the residue of the journey to Niagara made on horseback.
Their first day’s travel as cavaliers was marked by meeting
a lawyer of Vanderlyn’s acquaintance, and the rencontre
was attended with the usually disastrous consequences of
such meetings. The lawyer tendered his advice as to a
short-cut road; it was followed; and the natural conse-166
JOHN VANDERLYN’S VISIT
quence was that they consumed several hours in toiling to
a deserted clearing at its end, bringing about a catastrophe
equivalent to a nonsuit, and compelling a retracement of
their steps and proceedings de novo.
The artist spoke of his sensations on this, his first
experience of the painful solitude of an unbroken forest.
Any sound would have been a relief—any sight breaking
the sameness of the long walls of trees hemming them in, a
blessing indeed. There was no breeze to stir the foliage;
and the hot noontide sun pouring upon the expanse of
decaying vegetable matter, engendered an oppressive and
sickening atmosphere. The dead level of the road was
peculiarly wearisome to a wayfarer from a land of moun-
tains and valleys, and once it was seriously debated whether
it would not be best to turn back to the Hudson. In all his
subsequent journeyings, Mr. Vanderlyn declared, he never
passed through a more repellant country, and said he was
convinced it would not be settled for a century.
At Cayuga Bridge the travellers were most kindly enter-
tained by Gen. John Swartwout. Thence they skirted the
sandy beach to reach Geneva, then a small village on the
hill above the lake. The lake did not strike the artist very
forcibly, for with his mind intent upon the grander aspects
of nature towards which he was wending, the placid beauty
of that charming sheet of water with all its unbroken sylvan
surroundings seemed tame and lifeless.
From Geneva to Canandaigua, the travellers made their
sore way over “a corduroy road,” or a road made of logs
laid crosswise in the swampy soil, its inequalities unmiti-
gated by the slightest covering of earth. A little girl at
Canandaigua, said Mr. Vanderlyn, described it more accu-
rately than he had ever heard it, by calling it “the bump,
bump road.”
At Canandaigua the travellers were hospitably received
by Mr. Thomas Morris, to whom they were introduced by
a letter from Colonel Burr. Their host at parting gave
Mr. Vanderlyn letters to Judge Hamilton of Queenston,
Canada, and other Canadian gentlemen, which were ex-TO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
167
ceedingly useful. Mr. Morris highly commended the idea
of the artist to visit Genesee Falls prior to Niagara, “for,”
he remarked, “after seeing the latter, Genesee is hardly
worth a glance. But,” said he, “it is a place which will be
known hereafter, for there is a capital water power.”
The travellers turned off to Genesee Falls, now the site
of the city of Rochester. The germ of the present thriving
town with its dozen giant mills, consisted of a solitary farm
house and a primitive grist mill. The Genesee river falling
over three ledges formed three distinct falls. Now the
whole stream is diverted to furnish power for the mills,
and all the primitive aspect of the scene is lost. A finished
pen and ink sketch of the Falls of the Genesee by the
artist’s hand, is still in existence. Mr. Vanderlyn and
comrade found homely but bounteous entertainment at the
farm house spoken of, and as a farther act of hospitality,
their host got up a raccoon hunt by torchlight, which proved
highly successful.
From the junction of the cross road to Genesee Falls
and the main route, to the next inn was twenty miles, twelve
of it being unbroken forest. Night closed upon them as
the travellers were toiling wearily over the log causeway
of a morass, for they were unhappily in the heart of “the
endless swamp of Tonawanta.” It was moonlight, and
though this aided their progress, it sadly bewildered them
by giving in the fantasies of light and shade, hints to imagi-
nation which detected crouching beasts of prey in the
gloom, and pictured imaginary houses in the distance.
There was no lack of strange sounds in this wilderness,
the hoot of an owl being occasionally blended with the
scream of a panther. More jaded in mind than body, the
travellers reached a clearing and saw a cheering light, just
as they had decided to try and perch in a tree till day-
break. The haven of rest proved to be a rude log house,
where they were received at midnight and with backwoods
kindness treated to the best the cabin afforded. No inci-
dent of moment occurred prior to the arrival of Mr.
Vanderlyn and his nephew at New Amsterdam, now more168
JOHN VANDERLYN’S VISIT
appropriately called Buffaloe. The place was then little
more than a cluster of log huts, so uninviting that the
travellers crossed to Canada, where they found the evi-
dences of an older and more thriving country and got
comfortable quarters at a stone farm house.
From this point, Chippewa, even then a small village
though little more now, was twenty miles distant. The
cloud of mist from Niagara greeted the pilgrims some
eighteen miles from the cataract and its roar was heard two
miles. Vanderlyn remained at Niagara twelve days, having
reached [there] about mid October. After a day of needed
rest at Chippewa the artist took up his comfortable quarters
at Burden’s farm house hard by the cataract—so near in
fact—say 800 yards—that a constant tremor pervaded the
house and all its belongings, rendering a new comer rather
nervous till custom caused it to be unnoticeable. A fork
stuck into the floor would quiver like an aspen.
In 1802 there was no crossing for miles above and
below the Falls, and all Vanderlyn’s sketches were there-
fore taken from the Canada shore. The only descent to
the water was by ‘‘the Indian Ladder,” thus perilous enough
to deter the timorous from its trial. “Table Rock,” which
is so noticeable a feature in Vanderlyn’s views, was then
unmutilated by the wear of the elements, and the gunpow-
der experiments which have at length destroyed it. Nature
had then no divided empire with art, for save an occasional
clearing, and a farm house or log cabin here and there,
Niagara doubtless appeared very much as it did when
Father de Smet, in 16.., stood upon its banks, and the
glories and magnificence of the scene were revealed to the
first intelligent European to whom they were revealed.
The companion engravings afterwards given as the
fruits of this tour by Mr. Vanderlyn, were a “General
View,” and a “View of the Great Fall.” The first was
taken three fourths of a mile below the cataract near the
Indian Ladder, which is directly opposite “the American
Fall.” From the semi-circular sweep of the shelf, this
General View gives a surpassing idea of the magnitude andTO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
169
proportions of Niagara. The sketch for the Great, or
Horse Shoe Fall, was taken from Table Rock.
A day or two elapsed before the artist employed his
pencil. He said it required that time at least to give him
any idea of the proportion of the elements of the scene.
The absence of grand scenery, of towering rocks or moun-
tain heights as standards of comparison, rendered it im-
possible at first to seize an idea of the magnitude of the
scene. He said that in truth he was disappointed—a feeling
which is confirmed by most who see Niagara at first, the
reality not coming up to the imagination all indulge. Added
to this, the tremor of the rocks, and the roar and motion
of the mighty waters had a confusing effect, distracting,
dizzying and bewildering, for a time. The man overcame
the artist. He forgot his errand; sitting several hours as
if under a spell, lost to himself, taking in no distinct idea of
the scene, and only conscious of an arena of overwhelming
grandeur and power in full and turbulent vigour.
The narrative ends abruptly, nor have we any further
record of the sojourn at the Falls, or the return journey.
If Mr. Vanderlyn ever dictated it, it was perhaps destroyed
in the fire referred to.
The reader will have noted a few errors in the account
of the journey. The “Genesee Flats” should no doubt read
“German Flats.” According to credible testimony it was
not Simeon DeWitt, but a subordinate in his department,
who is responsible for the classic names of places through-
out central New York. The drunken Indian referred to
as an Onondaga, and again as an Oneida, may have been
either. The Thomas Morris met at Canandaigua was no
doubt the son of Robert Morris, the financier of the Revo-
lution, whose land interests in western New York were to
some extent looked after by Thomas. Father de Smet was
never at Niagara, so far as we know, and was of the170
JOHN VAND ERL YN’S VISIT
nineteenth, not the seventeenth century; the allusion is
undoubtedly to Father Hennepin, in 1678.
On his return from Niagara to Kingston Vanderlyn
evidently applied himself to his several paintings of the
Falls, as already noted. He returned to Europe in 1803,
published his famous companion studies of Niagara in
London in 1804; and after a sojourn in Paris, where he
painted a portrait of Washington Irving, settled in Rome,
where he did his most notable work. Living in a house
that had been Salvator Rosa’s, he painted his famous
picture, “Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage.” It was
exhibited at the Louvre in 1808, where it received a gold
medal offered by the Emperor Napoleon, in a competition
shared in by twelve hundred artists. It is significant of the
artist’s varied fortunes that this medal was twice pawned
for the necessities of life, and was finally redeemed and
preserved by members of the family of Bishop Kip, in San
Francisco, who at last accounts were the owners of the
“Marius.”
After two years in Rome, Vanderlyn again returned to
Paris, where he worked, with splendid results, until 1815.
Besides painting many portraits, and copies of great works
of Raphael, Titian and Correggio in the Louvre, he painted
his original “Ariadne of Naxos,” afterwards purchased by
Durand and engraved by him “in one of the best plates ever
produced in America.” When, some years later, the
“Ariadne” was exhibited in America, it aroused a no small
storm of protest in certain quarters, simply because it was
a nude study, something the American public has been
curiously slow to learn to look upon with proper vision.
It was during this sojourn in Paris that Vanderlyn
befriended Aaron Burr, who after his duel with Hamilton
found it advisable for a time to live abroad. In Europe heTO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
171
was shunned by Americans, but Vanderlyn remained true
to his former benefactor.
Returning to America, the artist entered upon a series
of calamitous and disappointing years. Although some
portrait commissions came to him, there was on the whole
but little demand for his services. He missed the apprecia-
tive art “atmosphere” of Europe, and as one project after
another miscarried, his nature changed and he became
morose and resentful. He had dreamed of founding in
America a National Gallery of Art, but failed to enlist
funds or even kindly interest. Although his sitters for
portraits included many of the great men of the day—
Madison, Monroe, Calhoun, Clinton, Jackson, Randolph
and others—he claimed that the rivalry of Stuart and
Trumbull deprived him of a just recognition. He turned
his talents to panorama painting, secured a concession from
the Corporation of New York for a building, and in the
rear of the present City Hall, erected the New York
Rotunda, where for some dozen years were exhibited very
excellent panoramas, largely his own work, as well as
various of his smaller canvases. The financial outcome
of this enterprise was disastrous; in 1829 the city refused
to renew his lease, and deeply in debt, he turned again to
portrait painting. So embittered was he by his experiences
that some years later, when elected to membership in the
Academy of Design, he refused to accept the honor.
Among his constant friends were Joseph Allston and
Gulien C. Verplanck, through whose efforts, in 1832, he
was commissioned by Congress to paint a full-length por-
trait of Washington, for the House of Representatives.
This work, when completed, gave such satisfaction that the
Government paid him $2500, instead of the $1000 originally
stipulated. In 1837 he was commissioned to paint, for172
JOHN VANDERLYN’S VISIT
$12,000, one of the panels for the rotunda in the Capitol.
He gladly accepted the commission, chose for his subject,
“The Landing of Columbus,” and went to Paris to execute
the work. But age and disappointment had sapped his
powers. The work was mostly painted by clever French
artists employed by Vanderlyn. The composition is said
to have been his, but the completed picture was a great
disappointment to all capable judges of art, and detracted
rather than added to Vanderlyn’s reputation. Before being
placed in the Capitol it was exhibited throughout the East;
and it may be noted that it is the original from which was
engraved the plate long used by the Treasury Department
on the back of the five-dollar bills of the United States
currency.
In his youth some of Vanderlyn’s successful attempts
were in the way of historical compositions, among others,
“The Death of Jane McCrea”; but in later life he made no
attempt in this field. One of his latest portraits was of
President Taylor, now in the Corcoran gallery, in Wash-
ington. His portraits of Burr and R. R. Livingston are
owned by the New York Historical Society. His “Ariadne”
is owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Several of his canvases, among them the “Niagaras” pre-
viously noted, and a number of excellent portraits, are
preserved in Kingston.
John Vanderlyn’s end was a touching one. I quote from
a sketch of him printed in the New York Evening Post,
July ii, 1903:
“One morning in September, 1852, he landed from a
Hudson river steamboat in a feeble condition, and set out
to walk to Kingston, two and a half miles distant. Fatigue
soon overcame him, and he was found sitting by the road-
side by a friend from whom he begged a shilling for theTO NIAGARA FALLS IN 1802.
173
transportation of his trunk, adding that he was sick and
penniless. He secured a small back room in the village,
and the friend spoken of went quietly about among a few
of his acquaintances with a subscription list for his main-
tenance. Funds for the purpose were promptly pledged,
but they were never needed. A few mornings after his
arrival Vanderlyn was found dead in bed. .	.	. He
rests now in the old Wiltwyck cemetery in Kingston, with
neither stone nor mound to mark his grave.”
The same capable biographer sums up his artistic merits
and defects as “those of a painter trained in the school of
David—splendid draughtsmanship and skill in composition
marred by frequent want of feeling for color.” Although
his range of subject was wide, his production was limited,
and the only canvases I have learned of, from his brush,
which depict American scenery, are the early pictures I
have described of Niagara Falls, painted while yet the
world’s only pictorial acquaintance with the great cataract
was through the inadequate sketches of early travelers, and
one or two worthy works by Europeans. But the pioneer
American artist of Niagara is John Vanderlyn.THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE
T N no field of literature regarding the Niagara region do
we arrive at more definite and gratifying results than in
science. Our poetry may be uninspired, our part in fiction
dubious, our art in large measure negligible; but in science
at any rate Niagara stands for something definite—some-
thing splendid and fruitful.
Without attempting a scientific treatise I propose to
bring together sundry available facts which will show what
Niagara represents, or what has been accomplished by its
aid, in the various branches of physics and of natural his-
tory; with something of its associations with distinguished
scientists.
The first men to visit the Falls, in anything like a
scientific spirit, were Canadian officers who came to Niagara
in May, 1721. Before that date the white visitors had
included missionary priests, soldiers and traders; and
although the latter at any rate would no doubt contemplate
the place with a practical eye, and objurgate the interruption
to navigation, yet their scientific attainments did not go
beyond some slight devices for ameliorating the toil of the
portage. But in the spring of 1721, there came to the Niagara
men of another stamp: Charles Le Moyne, Baron de
Longueuil, lieutenant governor of Montreal; with him the
Marquis de Cavagnal, son of the Governor-General of
Canada, Captain de Senneville, M. de Laubinois, commissary
of ordnance, Ensign de la Chauvignerie the interpreter, De
Noyan, commandant at Frontenac, and others, with a
I7S176
THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
numerous train of soldiers and servants. The main object
of the visit was to treat with the Senecas; an incidental
object was to measure the Falls. There is no mention of
their having been measured, up to this time. An unofficial
report says that the French officers used a cod-line and a
stone of half a hundred weight, and they found the perpen-
dicular height “vingt et six bras”—that is, twenty-six
fathoms, or 156 feet. This first measurement was probably
taken from what we know as “Prospect Point,” where the
height today is not far from what it was found to be in 1721.
The Rev. Father Bonnecamp, with De Celoron’s expe-
dition, at Niagara in 1749, reports its height to be “133 feet,
according to my measurement, which I believe to be exact.”
Peter Kalm, the first professional naturalist to write of
Niagara, reported in 1750 that “those who have measur’d it
with mathematical instruments find the perpendicular fall
of the water to be exactly 137 feet. Mons. Morandrier, the
King’s engineer in Canada, assured me, and gave it to me
also under his hand, that 137 feet was precisely the height
of it”; but he adds, that those who have tried to measure it
with a line, “find it sometimes 140, sometimes 150 feet, and
sometimes more.”
Andrew Ellicott, brother of Joseph, who was the “Father
of Buffalo,” was a distinguished civil engineer, a man of
scientific habit of thought, and the first American surveyor
to measure the Falls. He found “the perpendicular pitch
150 feet,” to which he added 58 feet for the descent in the
upper rapids, and 65 feet for the lower rapids, a total
descent of 273 feet “in the distance of about seven miles and
a half.”
Andrew Ellicott’s description is really one of the land-
mark-documents in the history of the region. It is not long,THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
177
but compact with precise data. It was widely reprinted, and
served to make general a new standard of information
regarding physical phenomena at Niagara. He noted the
formation of clouds, from the ascending spray; and the
striking effect of the water “puffed up in spherical figures,
nearly as large as common cocks of hay; they burst at the
top and project a column of spray to a prodigious height;
they then subside, and are succeeded by others, which burst
in like manner.”
This interesting phenomenon has been commented on by
many writers from Ellicott’s day to this; the accepted expla-
nation being that air carried down by the mass of falling
water is at first compressed, then, as the pressure is lessened,
expands and forces itself upwards, producing the “haycock,”
“cone” or “geyser” effect as it bursts through the water and
escapes. One of the best treatises on this subject, entitled
“The Upward Jets at Niagara,” by W. H. Barlow (F. R. S.,
etc.), is a paper read before a meeting of the British
Association; it appears in the publications of that body, and
also in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia,
1877. The author, who was one of the judges at the Centen-
nial Exposition, visited the Falls in 1876.
Initial curiosity as to the height of the Falls being satis-
fied, scientific thought was more and more concerned with
the history of Niagara and its gorge. In the eighteenth cen-
tury the science of geology did not exist, in the modern
comprehension of the term; yet very early men were specu-
lating and announcing theories as to the formati n of the
gorge.
One of our earliest writers on the scientific aspects of
Niagara was Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton of Philadelphia.
Among the papers which he contributed to the Proceedings178
THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
of the American Philosophical Society was one entitled
“Notes on the Falls of Niagara,” written (but not pub-
lished) in 1799. Ten years before that he had communicated
to the society “An account of an earthy substance
found near the Falls of Niagara and vulgarly called
the Spray of the Falls, together with some remarks on
the Falls,” by Robert McCauslin, M. D. Dr. McCauslin
had then resided at Niagara for nine years, and as early as
1781 had measured the height of the cataract, with the aid
of “the acting engineer,” perhaps of Fort Niagara. He
reported the American fall at 143 feet, the Canadian at 163.
In view of the early date and the thorough acquaintance
with the region which Dr. McCauslin had, it is well to quote
from his remarks on the recession of the Falls:
“This retrocession of the Fall does not by any means go
on so quickly as some have imagined. During nine years
that I have remained at Niagara, very few pieces of rock
have fallen down which were large enough to make any
sensible alteration in the brink; and in the space of two
years I could not perceive, by a pretty accurate measure-
ment, that the northeast brink had in the least receded. If
we adopt the opinion of the. Falls having retired six miles,
and if we suppose the world to be 5700 years old, this will
give above 66J4 inches for a year, or 16^3 yards for nine
years, which I venture to say has not been the case since
1774. But if we accede to the opinion of some modern
philosophers and suppose that America has emerged much
later than other parts of the world, it will necessarily follow
that this retrograde motion of the Falls must have been
quicker, which is a supposition still less consonant to the
observations of late years.”
In New York—then the seat of Government—in the
winter of 1790, Andrew Ellicott told of Niagara to his
friend William Maclay, one of the United States Senators
from Pennsylvania. Senator Maclay considered what hadTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
179
been told him, and in his journal, February i, 1790, wrote
as follows:
“Mr. Ellicott’s accounts of Niagara Falls are amazing
indeed. I communicated to him my scheme of an attempt
to account for the age of the world, or at least to fix the
period when the water began to cut the ledge of rock over
which it falls. The distance from the present pitch to
where the Falls originally were, is now seven miles. For
this space a tremendous channel is cut in a solid limestone
rock, in all parts one hundred and fifty feet deep, but near
two hundred and fifty at the mouth or part where the
attrition began. People who have known the place since
Sir William Johnson took possession of it, about thirty
years ago, gave out that there is an attrition of twenty feet
in that time. Now if 20 feet equals 30 years, then 7 miles
or 36,960 feet equals 55,440 years!"
To most modern readers the deductions of McCauslin and
Maclay would seem to be harmless enough. Yet the Chris-
tian world of that day was not able to listen to anything
which opened the way to doubt of the then accepted inter-
pretation of Scriptural statements. When Dr. McCauslin
wrote, and for many years after, no man could declare that
the rocks at Niagara showed the earth to be of greater age
than the literal reading of Genesis made out, and maintain
his integrity as a Christian or even a believer in the Chris-
tian's God. Half a century after McCauslin Sir Charles
Lyell gave to the geological problems at Niagara the most
intelligent study thay had, up to that time, received. Yet a
large part of the world was still incapable of accepting his
conclusions, which pointed to the world's great age. Dr.
J. L. Comstock, a prolific author on natural history topics,
in his “Outlines of Geology" (3d ed. New York, 1837)
reviews Lyell's earlier theories at length, and sums up as
follows:180
THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
“Suppose the cataract of Niagara now at the outlet of
Lake Erie and moving into it at the rate of 50 yards in 40
years, or a little more than a yard per year, we would
inquire of Mr. Lyell how long a period would be consumed
in draining it to the bottom, and whether the escape of its
waters thus sudden ‘would cause a tremendous deluge/ as
he asserts. The title of Mr. Lyell’s book being ‘An attempt
to explain the former changes of the Earth’s surface, by
reference to causes now in action/ is itself an attack on the
sacred Scriptures, but we are happy to believe that Christi-
anity is in little danger from his arguments.”
The Niagara Falls have been used both to prove, and to
disprove, the Biblical account of the Deluge. In 1837 George
Fairholme published in London a substantial volume en-
titled : “New and conclusive physical demonstrations, both
of the fact and period of the Mosaic Deluge, and of its
having been the only event of the kind that has ever occurred
upon the earth.” As he construed the Scriptural testimony,
he found that the Deluge occurred some 4000 years ago;
whereupon, with all possible ingenuity, he interprets all
geological data so as to harmonize with his theory. As a
result, all his calculations arrive at conclusions exactly
corresponding with the Mosaic chronology. Although he
had never seen the Falls of Niagara he had at hand descrip-
tions of them by several travelers, and these were adequate
for his purpose. He contemplated the seven miles of gorge
cut by the river from Queenston to the cataract, and finds
“distinct evidences” that the recession of the falls has
occupied less than 5,000 years. He devotes many pages to
his argument. “As the operation of Niagara began,” he
says, “at Queenston, on that same day when the shallow
basin of Lake Erie first overflowed its margin, we are thus
led, by all the laws of inductive reasoning, to the origin of
the whole American continent, as a dry land, at a periodTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
181
not more remote than about four or five thousand years.”
And again, speaking of the erosion produced by streams, he
observes:	“Their ceaseless friction affords us the key to
the fact of a commencement; and in the remarkable case
of Niagara, this the greatest of all cataracts, seems to have
been purposely appointed, to confound the reasoning of the
skeptic, and to open a more secret cabinet, distinctly disclos-
ing to us the very date of this event.”
Even in Fairholme’s day the science of geology had made
such progress that fair-minded men, with a knowledge of
the subject, were unable to reconcile Biblical chronology
with the testimony of the rocks. The conflict that arose
between the students of nature and the adherents of theolog-
ical teaching was one of the bitterest phases in the long
conflict between theology and science. When geologists
began to assert that the rocks proved that the earth was
more than five or six thousand years old, the strict adher-
ents to the Book of Genesis called them infidels, and atheists.
Nor is this strife by any means a matter of the remote past.
Many years after Fairholme proved it all—presumably to
his own convincement—another Englishman felt called upon
to prove it all over again. This was Philip Henry Gosse,
whose “Omphalos,” published in London as late as 1857,
seeks to reestablish the tottering structure of Mosaic
chronology. He developed a theory originally put forward
by Granville Penn, and styled “prochronism.” “In accord-
ance with this,” says Andrew D. White, summarizing the
views of Gosse (in his “Warfare of Science with Theol-
°gy”),
“all things were created by the Almighty hand literally
within the six days, each made up of The evening and the
morning/ and each great branch of creation was brought
into existence in an instant. Accepting a declaration of Dr.182
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Ure, that ‘neither reason nor revelation will justify us in
extending the origin of the material system beyond six
thousand years from our own days/ Gosse held that all
evidences of convulsive changes and long epochs in strata,
rocks, minerals and fossils are simply ‘appearances’—only
that and nothing more. Among these mere ‘appearances/
all created simultaneously, were the glacial furrows and
scratches on rocks, the marks of retreat of rocky masses,
as at Niagara”—
all these and many more manifestations of great time, we
are asked to believe came into being in an instant; asked
to believe, as Dr. White puts it, “that Jehovah tilted and
twisted the strata, scattered the fossils through them,
scratched the glacial furrows upon them, spread over them
the marks of erosion by water, and set Niagara pouring—
all in an instant—thus mystifying the world ‘for some in-
scrutable purpose, but for His own glory/ ”
William Priest, a musician whose volume of American
travels was published in London in 1802, did not visit the
Niagara region, but has the following interesting allusion:
“An American writer has been endeavoring to investigate
the age of the world, from the Falls of Niagara! Accord-
ing to his calculation (which, by the way, is not a little
curious) it is 36,960 years since the first rain fell upon the
face of the earth.”
I have not been able to identify this “American writer.”
From Andrew Ellicott’s day to this the geologists have
been studying Niagara and figuring out its age, with amaz-
ing diversity of result. The literature of Niagara geology
is vast—probably exceeded by that of no phase of our sub-
ject except possibly the War of 1812. No one who devotes
himself to the science of geology can omit Niagara from his
studies, and anything like an exhaustive mention of those
who have written on the subject is here out of the question.THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
183
In his “Partial Bibliography of the Geology of the Niagara/’
etc., A. W. Grabau (1901) gives the names of 61 authors
who have written 194 books or papers on the subject. Gra-
bau’s list is but a beginning and might be greatly extended.
He takes note only of scientists of distinction. To the
student of the subject in its historical aspect many other
writers, especially the earlier ones, must be taken note of,
for we trace through them the gradual growth of knowledge
and adjustment of theories. The problems of the “age” of
the cataract, and of its rate of recession, have always been
of great interest because their solution would establish a
relation between the periods of geologic time and the cen-
turies of human chronology.
Soon after Andrew Ellicott had made his measurements
of Niagara, came the French savant C. F. Volney. Our
grandparents knew Volney’s “Ruins” as a classic. His
“Views” contains a long account of his investigations at
Niagara, which he visited in 1796—a memorable year, in
which Great Britain relinquished her hold on the “Amer-
ican” side of the Niagara and the Lakes. DeWitt Clinton
was studying the rocks at Niagara in 1810, and in 1822,
under the pseudonym of “Hibernicus,” wrote at length of
the geology of the region in his “Letters on the Natural His-
tory and Internal Resources of the State of New York.”
He called the cataract “a great manufactory of clouds and
rainbows,” and adds: “It serves as a barometer as far as
Buffalo. If the spray spreads from the north it is a sign of
a northerly wind; a southeast wind indicates rain.”
Amos Eaton wrote prior to 1825. Robert Bakewell, an
eminent Englishman, studied the Niagara problem as early
as 1829, and estimated the age of the Falls—that is, the
time of recession from the escarpment at Lewiston—to be
12,000 years. Lyell, in 1841, visited Niagara, wrote delight-184
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fully of it, and decided that its age was about 35,000 years.
Compare this with the 55,440 years of Maclay and Ellicott,
and the “less than 5,000 years” of Fairholme!
In 1831 G. W. Featherstonhaugh made certain general
observations on the ancient drainage of North America, and
applied the operating principle to the origin of the cataract
of Niagara. He especially controverted Mr. James Geddes,
a distinguished engineer, who in a paper in the Proceedings
of the Albany Institute, had taken the ground that the
Niagara had not cut its gorge back from the Queenston
ridge to its present position, but that the river had found
the ravine already existing, and flowed through it.
A truly great name in Niagara study is that of James
Hall, for many years New York State Geologist. It was
he who in 1842 set the first stone monuments by which the
recession of the Falls has ever since been measured.
Professor Hall’s work of 1842, and subsequent surveys,
supplied exact data, so that there is little guess-work about
the retreat of the Falls in the last seventy years. The rate
of recession has been shown to vary remarkably, the Amer-
ican fall, from 1842 to 1875, averaged .74 of a foot a year;
from 1875 to 1886, only .11 of a foot; from 1886 to 1890
its rate rose to 1.65 feet, making an average per year, for
the period 1842 to 1890, of .64 of a foot. The Horseshoe
wears away much faster; from 1886 to 1890 at the rate of
5.01 feet; and for the whole period, 1842 to 1890, an aver-
age of 2.18 feet per year.
Dr. Julius Pohlman of Buffalo was the first scientist to
base his calculations on these known rates of recession. He
reasoned that a portion of the gorge was pre-glacial in
origin, and reduced the length of the post-glacial or reces-
sion period to 3,500 years. Warren Upham, taking the
same data but reasoning differently, made the age of theTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
185
gorge “between 5,000 and 10,000 years.” J. W. Spencer,
whose writings on this subject are held in esteem, puts the
age of the gorge at 32,000 years; and F. B. Taylor, also a
learned and prolific writer on Niagara, places the length of
the recession period, tentatively, at 50,000 years. Professor
G. F. Wright makes elaborate calculations and gets 10,000
years as the answer; and Professor C. H. Hitchcock figures
it all out, with delightful precision, at 18,918 years.
Never was there a more palpable case of the disagree-
ment of doctors. We may as well leave it, as A. W. Grabau,
a thorough student of the subject, leaves it in his valuable
“Guide to the Geology and Paleontology of Niagara Falls
and Vicinity” (Albany, 1901)—that is, with a few gener-
alities :
“All such estimates are little more than personal opinions.
.	.	. The leading questions concerning the extent of the
pre-glacial erosion in this region, and the changes in
volume of water during the lifetime of the Niagara, which
are of such vital importance in the solution of this problem,
are by no means satisfactorily answered. Nor can we
assume that we are familiar with all the factors which enter
into the equation. There may be still undiscovered causes
which may have operated to lengthen or shorten the life-
time of this great river, just as there may be, and probably
are, factors which make any estimates of the future history
of the river and cataract little more than a mere speculation.
We may perhaps say that our present knowledge leads us
to believe that the age of the cataract is probably not less
than 10,000 nor more than 50,000 years.”
Of prime interest are Robert Bakewell’s “Observations
on the Whirlpool and on the Rapids below the Falls of
Niagara” (Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, New Haven, 1847),
with curious illustrations. Mr. Bakewell, then a resident of
England, was at Niagara for six days in 1829. In 1846,
after he had made his home in the United States, he spent186
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eight days more at the Falls, studying the geology and
physical geography of the place. The paper referred to
derives much of its value from the author's ability to com-
pare his own observations at two intervals seventeen years
apart. His son also wrote on the same subject.
I have alluded to Professor James Hall's work of placing
markers in 1842. In 1837 had been appointed by Gov-
ernor Marcy to investigate the geology of the Fourth (N. Y.
State) district, including the Niagara region. The result
of his work, as presented in his “Geology of New York,
Part IV.," etc. (Albany, 1843), is perhaps even now the
most valuable single work we have on the geology of the
Niagara region.
Sir Charles Lyell, greatest of English geologists, made a
leisurely visit at Niagara in 1841. His studies of the region
(“Travels," etc., London, 1845) are conspicuous for their
thoroughness and sagacity, and his descriptions of scenery
and narrative of travels are still entertaining and profitable
reading, even for the unscientific. Not only in the “Travels,"
but in other of his writings, especially his “Principles of
Geology," will the student find much relating to our region.
Other notable English scientists who have written of their
Niagara experiences include Sir Andrew C. Ramsay, who
came in 1859; John Tyndall in 1872; Thomas Henry
Huxley in 1876. The last named, with his wife, visited
Buffalo, to attend the meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. Here they were the guests
of Mr. O. H. Marshall, who afterwards visited them in
England. A week was spent at Niagara, “partly," writes
Professor Huxley's biographer, his son Leonard,
“in making holiday, partly in shaping the lectures which
had to be delivered at the end of the trip. As to the im-
pression made upon him by the Falls—an experience which,THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
187
it is generally presumed, every traveler is bound to record—
I may note that after the first disappointment at their
appearance, inevitable wherever the height of a waterfall
is less than the breadth, he found in them an inexhaustible
charm and fascination. As in duty bound, he, with my
mother, completed his experiences by going under the wall
of waters to the Cave of the Winds. But of all things
nothing pleased him more than to sit of an evening by the
edge of the river, and through the roar of the cataract to
listen for the under-sound of the beaten stones grinding
together at its foot."
Professor Tyndall's visit, in November, 1872, gave to
Niagara literature one of its most delightful chapters. The
reader is recommended to turn to it, in the “Fragments of
Science," where he can enjoy the whole of it. No aspect of
the scene escaped Mr. Tyndall's attention. He soon con-
cluded “that beauty is not absent from the Horseshoe Fall,
but majesty is its chief attribute." With the veteran guide,
Tom Conroy, he made his way along the foot of the Horse-
shoe Fall, below Terrapin Point, to a point seldom visited
and only by the active; the place has since been named
“Tyndall's Rock." In his record of the experience he does
not content himself with formal observations on the force
of the currents or the erosion of the rocks. Scientist that
he was, and accustomed to deal only with exact facts and
known quantities, he takes note not only of external
phenomena, but of a “certain sanative effect" which the
spray and thunder of Niagara wrought on himself. “Quick-
ened by the emotions there aroused, the blood sped exult-
ingly through the arteries, abolishing introspection, clearing
the heart of all bitterness, and enabling one to think with
tolerance, if not with tenderness, on the most relentless and
unreasonable foe."
I know of no more significant utterance in all the realm188
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of Niagara literature. Coming from a sentimentalist, it
would scarce command our attention. Uttered by a Tyndall,
it has the impressiveness of a new revelation of the eternal
and benignant gospel of nature.
In 1886 the American Association for the Advancement
of Science met for the third time in Buffalo, thus gathering
on the banks of the Niagara America's foremost living
geologists and physicists. As fruit of that meeting, or of sub-
sequent studies then inspired, there are many books and
countless papers in scientific journals. Among the more
prolific and authoritative of recent writers on Niagara
geology I must be content with the mere mention of Herman
Leroy Fairchild (“The Birth of Niagara"), E. L. Garbett,
G. K. Gilbert of the U. S. Geological Survey—author of
many monographs on the subject, W. D. Gunning (“The
Past and Future of Niagara"), Aug. S. Kibbe (“Report of
the Survey to determine the Crest Lines of the Falls of
Niagara in 1900"), J. S. Newberry, N. S. Shaler (“Aspects
of the Earth”), J. W. Spencer—author of many papers
relating to Niagara geology and kindred topics, Warren
Upham (‘The Niagara River since the Ice Age"), Alex-
ander Winchell, R. S. Woodward (“On the Rate of Reces-
sion of Niagara Falls"), and G. Frederick Wright, among
whose numerous useful writings mention should be made
of the “New Method of Estimating the Age of Niagara
Falls" and “The Niagara Gorge as a Geologic Chron-
ometer."
Dr. John Bigsby, in a paper published in 1824 (Amer.
Jour. Sci. and Arts) describes minerals and other specimens
found at Niagara Falls in June, 1819.
Nobody has measured the flow of Niagara, but many
engineers and scientists have computed it. One of theTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
189
earliest to do so was Z. Allen, in co-operation with E. R.
Blackwell. In his report of their work (“On the Volume of
the Niagara River,” etc., Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, New
Haven, 1844), Mr. Allen writes:
“Whilst passing a few days at the Falls of Niagara in
the summer of 1841, it occurred to me to make the neces-
sary admeasurements for ascertaining the quantity of water
precipitated by the grand cataract. .	.	. For this pur-
pose the services of Mr. E. R. Blackwell of Black Rock, a
most skillful and accurate engineer, were engaged by me.”
There is a full-page map (by Blackwell) of a section of
the Niagara river opposite Black Rock, with thirty-eight
soundings extending in three ranges across the river, with
localities, etc., indicated. Mr. Allen computed the total
horse-power of Niagara Falls at 4,533,334.
An exceptional phase of Niagara study is Professor
William H. Brewer's “Earth Tremors at Niagara Falls."
(Yale Sci. Monthly, May, 1896.) It is an account of
observations made at Niagara Falls through a period of
forty-five years. The heaviest vibrations were found to
be on either side of and near the Horseshoe Fall. They dis-
appeared in places in the soft shales below the limestone,
although they were evident in the harder limestone and sand-
stones. Passing down the gorge, the vibrations decreased
in intensity, becoming too faint to be perceived between
the suspension bridges, but increasing again on nearing the
rapids. The theory has been promulgated that crystals are
more common in the rocks near the Falls than elsewhere,
their formation being promoted by the jar of the cataract;
but Professor Brewer found no evidence of this.
There is probably no connection between earth tremors
at Niagara Falls, and earthquakes; but Professor Brewer's190
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paper reminds me of a report made by Dr. Charles E. West
“On an Earthquake in Western New York,” Oct. 23, 1857.
Dr. West's report of it, made at a meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Balti-
more in May, 1858, says in part:
“It occurred in Buffalo, at a quarter past three o'clock,
p. m., and was violent compared with other earthquakes in
the Northern States. I was seated in a chair with my
head leaning against the mantel of the fireplace when the
shock occurred, and so great was its violence as to throw
me forward to my feet. ... A farmer living in
Aurora, a town sixteen miles southeast of Buffalo, was
digging potatoes in his field, at the time of the earthquake,
and so powerful was the shock that he instinctively leaned
upon his hoe-handle, and while in this posture he observed
the dirt shake back and forth over his hoe, which was
partially buried in the soil.”
Further evidence is presented from Port Hope, Ont.,
Lockport, Buffalo, Jamestown, Warren, Pa., Erie, Pa., and
other points. Other earthquake tremors have been reported
—or imagined—in this region, but this one of Oct. 23, 1857,
is the only one supported by credible testimony. Dr. West,
it is unnecessary to remind the older residents of Buffalo,
was the first principal of the Buffalo Female Seminary, a
gentleman of wide repute for his scholarly attainments and
love of truth. It might be shown, perhaps, that some of the
supposed earthquake tremors were coincident with the fall
of great rock-masses at the cataract, and either caused the
fall, or were caused by it. This was the case on January 7
and 8, 1889, when the fall of heavy rock masses in the cleft
of the Horseshoe produced earth tremors that were felt for
some miles around.
In 1804, Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, in his Medical and
Physical Journal, reported that an “earthquake occurred at
the Falls of Niagara, on the 26th of December, 1796, aboutTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
191
six o’clock in the morning. It seemed to proceed from the
northwest, and did not last more than two seconds. But it
was sensibly felt for fifty miles around the Falls.” This
also, in all probability, was due to the fall of rock.
The sound of Niagara—its roar, or if you please, its
thunder, or as one poet prefers to put it, its silence—has
occasioned much curious comment. The very earliest visit-
ors had as much to say about the great noise, and the dis-
tance at which it could be heard, as about any visual aspect
cf the scene. Niagara was, naturally, discovered by the ear
before it was by the eye; and as we have noted, some of
the early missionaries reported having heard it, without
going to see it. The distance at which its sound could be
beard was always matter of curious report and speculation.
J. T. Trowbridge, in that pleasant autobiography, “My
Own Story,” speaks cf his boyhood in Lockport, where, he
says, writing of the Falls, “often in the still autumn weather,
I listened to their continuous, low, hardly distinguishable
rear, a sound that always breathed a quiet joy into my soul.”
This was in the ’40’s, and the distance was some eighteen
miles. Tom Moore the poet, in 1804, claimed to have heard
the Falls at Buffalo. This is corroborated by the Hon.
Lewis F. Allen, an early resident of Buffalo, who told me
not many years before his death in 1890 that many a time,
seated on the veranda of his house on Niagara street near
Ferry, in the calm of a summer evening, he had heard the
roar of the Falls. What with whistles and bells and horns,
the noise of trains and electric cars, the din of pavement and
factory, the civic “shouting and tumult,” all that make up the
composite Voice of Cities, it has been many a day since the
cadence of Niagara has been audible in Buffalo. But the
sound is constant at the source; and I have no doubt that if192
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we would all keep still, and the wind were in the right
quarter, Niagara’s roar could again be heard, as Tom Moore
said, “upon Erie’s shore.”
In the early years of the long-distance telephone it was
thought to be a notable feat to make the roar of Niagara
audible in New York City. It is still an impressive thought
that audiences assembled in distant cities can, by the aid of
well-perfected instruments, distinctly hear its deep music.
Ole Bull, who came to America in 1843, soon saw the
Falls. In the autumn of 1844, resting at Bristol, R. I., he
wrote down his “musical thoughts” of Niagara. His wife,
who is his biographer, says that he had “spent many days at
the Falls at different times, and saw them in all lights—in
sun and storm.” “One evening great forest fires added their
blaze and glare to the silvery shimmer of the moonlit rapids,
and the lurid light with the grand rush and roar of the
waters made a deep impression upon him.” It was at
Niagara that he made the acquaintance of George Ticknor
and his family, with whom the musician ever after main-
tained a pleasant acquaintance and friendship.
The “Niagara,” which he played for the first time in
New York in the winter of 1844, was disappointing to the
general public, though favorably commented on by the press.
It was of the class of compositions which make no appeal to
the unimaginative. After it had been explained to the public
—after writers gifted with phrases if not with true inter-
pretative insight had given to the public a tangible explana-
tion of what they thought that Ole Bull thought he was
expressing in terms of the violin—then the public pro-
fessed to like it, and to see—or hear—a great deal of
exquisite sentiment in it, pertaining in an emotional way to
the cataract of Niagara. N. P. Willis was one of those whoTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
193
undertook to record Ole Bull’s emotions so that others, less
gifted, might share them. Thus he wrote, in part:
“We believe that we have heard a transfusion into music
—not of 'Niagara/ which the audience seemed bona fide
to expect, but of the pulses of a human heart at Niagara.
We had a prophetic boding of the result of calling the
piece vaguely 'Niagara/—the listener furnished with no
'argument’ as a guide through the wilderness of 'treatment'
to which the subject was open. This mistake allowed, how-
ever, it must be said that Ole Bull has, genius-like, refused
to misinterpret the voice within him—refused to play the
charlatan, and 'bring the house down’—as he might well
have done by any kind of 'uttermost/ from the drums and
trumpets of the orchestra.
"The emotion at Niagara is all but mute. It is a 'small,
still voice’ that replies within us to the thunder of waters.
The musical mission of the Norwegian was to represent the
insensate element as it was to him—to a human soul, stirred
in its seldom reached depths by the call of power. It was
the answer to Niagara that he endeavored to render in
music—not the call!”
Another of Ole Bull’s interpreters, most richly endowed
with imagination, was Lydia Maria Child, who in her once-
famous "Letters from New York” wrote as follows:
"You ask me for my impressions of Ole Bull’s 'Niagara/
It is like asking an aeolian harp to tell what the great organ
of Freiburg does. But .	.	. I will give you the tones
as they breathed through my soul. ...
"I did not know what the composer intended to express.
I would have avoided knowing if the information had been
offered; for I wished to hear what the music itself would
say to me. And thus it spoke: The serenely-beautiful open-
ing told of a soul going peacefully into the calm, bright
atmosphere. It passes along, listening to the half-audible,
many-voiced murmurings of the summer woods. Gradu-
ally, tremulous vibrations fill the air, as of a huge cauldron194
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seething in the distance. The echoing sounds rise and
swell, and finally roar and thunder. In the midst of this
stands the soul, striving to utter its feelings.
‘Like to a mighty heart the music seems
That yearns with melodies it cannot speak/
“It wanders away from the cataract, and again and
again returns within sound of its mighty echoes. Then
calmly, reverentially, it passes away, listening to the reced-
ing chorus of Nature's tremendous drums and trombones;
musing solemnly as it goes, on that vast sheet of waters,
rolling now as it has rolled, ‘long, long time ago.'
“Grand as I thought ‘Niagara' when I first heard it, it
opened upon me with increasing beauty when I heard it
repeated. I then observed many exquisite and graceful
touches, which were lost in the magnitude of the first im-
pression. The multitudinous sounds are bewildering in
their rich variety. .	.	. There is the pattering of water-
drops, gurglings, twitterings, and little gushes of song.
.	.	. It reminded me of a sentence in the ‘Noctes
Ambrosianae,' beautifully descriptive of its prevailing char-
acter: ‘It keeps up a bonnie wild musical sough, like that
o' swarming bees, spring-startled birds, and the voices of a
hundred streams, some wimpling awa' ower the Elysian
meadows, and ithers roaring at a distance frae the clefts.'
“The sublime waterfall is ever present with its echoes,
but present in a calm, contemplative soul. One of the most
poetic minds I know, after listening to this music, said to
me: ‘The first time I saw Niagara, I came upon it through
the woods, in the clear sunlight of a summer’s morning;
and these tones are a perfect transcript of my emotions!'
In truth, it seems to me a perfect disembodied poem; a
most beautiful mingling of natural sounds with the reflex
of their impressions on a refined and romantic mind. This
serene grandeur, this pervading beauty, which softens all
the greatness, gave the composition its greatest charm to
those who love poetic expression in music; but it renders
it less captivating to the public in general, than they had
anticipated. Had it been called a Pastorale composedTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
195
within hearing of Niagara, their preconceived ideas would
have been more in accordance with its calm, bright majesty.”
“Over everything stands its doemon or soul/’ says Emer-
son, “and as the form of the thing is reflected to the eye, so
is the soul of the thing reflected by a melody. The sea, the
mountain-ridge, Niagara, super-exist in precantations, which
sail like odours in the air; and when any man goes by with
ears sufficiently fine, he overhears them, and endeavors to
write them down, without diluting or depraving them.”
After all this, one can but wish that we had Ole Bull’s
own explanation of his “Niagara” music.
The sound of the cataract appeals particularly to the poets
and the scientists, and therein, perhaps, reveals their kin-
ship. Most poets are not scientists, in the practical sense
of the term; but every true scientist is a poet, in his appre-
ciation of nature’s processes and revelations. Frederick
Almy touches the matter with fine discernment in his paper
on “What to See” at Niagara (“The Niagara Book”) :
“Mr. Howells speaks in his book of the repose of
Niagara. Another paradox is its silence. The sheets of
falling water are so unchanging to the eye that the motion
seems no more actual than when the breeze runs through a
field of grain. It moves without moving. In some such
way the unchanging volume of sound soon leaves on the
ear a strange sense of silence. Now and again, however,
as some more compact mass of water makes its fall, a new
note strikes the ear, and under all is the heavy beating of
the air as if of sound too low for the range of human
hearing. It has always seemed to me as if much of the
voice of Niagara might be to us inaudible.”
Eugene M. Thayer, in a notable paper on “The Music of
Niagara” (Scribner's Magazine, February, 1881), analyzes
the voice of the cataract as it appealed to his trained musical
sense. He writes the chords of its harmonies, and finds196
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them four octaves lower than the lowest range of our piano
keyboards. His study is exceedingly suggestive and profit-
able to read. Mr. Thayer often visited Niagara Falls and
was a well-known figure at that resort. His passion for the
place suggested in some of its phases the morbid infatuation
of Francis Abbott, the Niagara “hermit” of many years
before. Mr. Thayer committed suicide by shooting, at
Burlington, Vt., June 27, 1889.
Much might be written of the bird-lovers at Niagara. In
1804 there came to our river the Paisley poet-weaver who
had turned poet-naturalist, Alexander Wilson. He had
walked from Philadelphia to Oswego, coming thence to the
Niagara by the lake. In my paper on “Niagara and the
Poets” I have dwelt at some length on Wilson’s adventures,
and on his work as a poet; in the present connection we
need recall him only as naturalist.
The Niagara visit was four years before the publication
of the first volume of his “American Ornithology,” but he
was already diligently collecting material for it. At the
Falls he was much impressed by the numbers of the white-
headed or bald eagles. The most striking of all the plates in
his great work is the colored engraving showing this bird,
about one-third life size. “In the background”—to quote
Wilson’s own description,
“is seen a distant view of the celebrated cataract of Niagara,
a noted place of resort for these birds, as well on account
of the fish procured there, as for the numerous carcasses
of squirrels, deer, bear and other animals that, in their
attempts to cross the river, above the Falls, have been
dragged into the current, and precipitated down that tre-
mendous gulf; where among the rocks which bound the
rapids below they furnish a rich repast for the vulture, the
raven and the bald eagle. .	.	. There rises from theTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
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gulf into which the Fall of the Horseshoe descends, a stu-
pendous column of smoke, or spray, reaching to the
heavens and moving off in large black clouds, according to
the direction of the wind, forming a very striking and
majestic appearance. The eagles are here seen sailing
about, sometimes losing themselves in this thick column,
and again re-appearing in another place, with such ease and
elegance of motion, as renders the whole truly sublime.,,
Wilson’s prose, especially when he attempts fine writing,
is apt to grow feeble. In his famous poem, “The Foresters,”
descriptive of this tour to Niagara, he has told of the eagles
in verse:
“High o’er the wat’ry uproar, silent seen,
Sailing sedate, in majesty serene,
Now midst the pillared spray sublimely lost,
Swept the gray eagles, gazing calm and slow
On all the horrors of the gulf below;
Intent, alone, to sate themselves with blood,
From the torn victims of the raging flood.”
Wilson, like Audubon, and Charles Lucien Bonaparte,
who continued Wilson’s work, makes numerous references
to Niagara Falls as the habitat of birds which he describes.
John James Audubon was at once author, artist and nat-
uralist. As America’s greatest ornithologist I find his most
fitting place among the scientists. In his journal—a fascinat-
ing narrative of one of the most interesting of careers—he
tells of his visit to Niagara in the summer of 1824. He had
crossed the State from Albany, part of the way by canal,
as yet unfinished to Buffalo. I quote from his journal:
“August 24. Took passage for Buffalo, arrived safely,
and passed a sleepless night, as most of my nights have been
since I began my wanderings. Left next morning for the
Falls of Niagara; the country is poor, the soil stiff white
clay, and the people are lank and sallow. Arrived at the
hotel, found but few visitors, recorded my name and wrote198	THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
under it, ‘who, like Wilson, will ramble, but never, like that
great man, die under the lash of a bookseller/
“All trembling I reached the Falls of Niagara, and oh!
what a scene! my blood shudders still, although I am not a
coward, at the grandeur of the Creator’s power; and I
gazed motionless on this new display of the irresistible force
of one of His elements. The falls, the rainbow, the rapids,
and the surroundings all unite to strike the senses with awe;
they defy description with pen or pencil; and a view satis-
fied me that Niagara never had been and never will be
painted. I moved towards the rapids, over which there is a
bridge to Goat Island, that I would like to have crossed, to
look on the water which was rushing with indescribable
swiftness below, but was deterred from the low state of
my funds. Walking along the edge of the stream for a
few hundred yards, the full effect of the whole grand rush
of the water was before me. The color of the water was
a verdigris green, and contrasted remarkably with the
falling torrent. The mist of the spray mounted to the
clouds, while the roaring below sounded like constant heavy
thunder, making me think at times that the earth was
shaking also.
“From this point I could see three-quarters of a mile
down the river, which appeared quite calm. I descended a
flight of about seventy steps, and walked and crouched on
my hams along a rugged, slippery path to the edge of the
river, where a man and skiff are always waiting to take
visitors to the opposite shore. I approached as near the
falling water as I could, without losing sight of the objects
behind me. In a few moments my clothes were wet. I
retired a few hundred yards to admire two beautiful rain-
bows, which seemed to surround me, and also looked as if
spanning obliquely from the American to the Canadian
shore. Visitors can walk under the falling sheet of water,
and see through it, while at their feet are thousands of eels
lying side by side, trying vainly to ascend the torrent.
“I afterwards strolled through the village to find some
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199
Went to bed at night thinking of Franklin eating his roll in
the streets of Philadelphia, of Goldsmith traveling by the
help of his musical powers, and of other great men who had
worked their way through hardships and difficulties to
fame, and fell asleep hoping, by persevering industry, to
make a name for myself among my countrymen.
“Buffalo, August 25. This village was utterly destroyed
by fire in the War of 1812, but now has about 200 houses, a
bank, and daily mail. It is now filled with Indians, who
have come here to receive their annuity from the Govern-
ment. The chief Red Jacket is a noble-looking man; an-
other, called the Devil’s Ramrod, has a savage look. Took
a deck-passage on board a schooner bound to Erie, Penn-
sylvania; fare, one dollar and fifty cents, to furnish my
own bed and provisions.”
Thus far the journal; but this was not Audubon’s only
visit to Niagara. The fortunate reader who has access to
Audubon’s great work, the “Ornithological Biography,” will
find therein a pleasant chapter on Niagara, describing
another visit, apparently in 1820. The following is ex-
tracted from it:
“After wandering on some of our great lakes for many
months I bent my course toward the celebrated Falls of
Niagara, being desirous of taking a sketch of them. This
was not my first visit to them, and I hoped it would not be
the last.
“Artists (I know not if I can be called one) too often
imagine that what they produce must be excellent, and with
that foolish idea go on spoiling much paper and canvas,
when their time might have been better employed in a dif-
ferent manner. But digressions aside—I directed my steps
towards the Falls of Niagara, with the view of representing
them on paper, for the amusement of my family.
“Returning as I then was from a tedious journey, and
possessing little more than some drawings of rare birds and
plants, I reached the tavern at Niagara Falls in such plight200
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as might have deterred many an individual from obtruding
himself upon a circle of well-clad and perhaps well-bred
society. Months had passed since the last of my linen had
been taken from my body, and used to clean that useful
companion, my gun. I was in fact covered just like one of
the poorer class of Indians, and was rendered even more
disagreeable to the eye of civilized man, by not having, like
them, plucked my beard, or trimmed my hair in any way.
Had Hogarth been living, and there when I arrived, he
could not have found a fitter subject for a Robinson Crusoe.
My beard covered my neck in front, my hair fell much
lower at my back, the leather dress which I wore had for
months stood in need of repair, a large knife hung at my
side, a rusty tin box containing my drawings and colors,
and wrapped up in a worn-out blanket that had served me
for a bed, was buckled to my shoulders. To every one I
must have seemed immersed in the depths of poverty, per-
haps of despair. Nevertheless, as I cared little about my
appearance during those happy rambles, I pushed into the
sitting-room, unstrapped my little burden, and asked how
soon breakfast would be ready.
“In America no person is ever refused entrance to the
inns, at least far from cities. We know too well how many
poor creatures are forced to make their way from other
countries in search of employment, or to seek uncultivated
land, and we are ever ready to let them have what they may
call for. No one knew who I was, and the landlord looking
at me with an eye of close scrutiny, answered that break-
fast would be on the table as soon as the company should
come down from their rooms. I approached this important
personage, told him of my avocations, and convinced him
that he might feel safe as to remuneration. From this
moment I was, with him at least, on equal footing with
every person in his house.
“He talked a good deal of the many artists who had
visited the Falls that season, from different parts, and
offered to assist me, by giving such accommodations as I
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201
tion. He left me, and as I looked about the room, I saw
several views of the Falls, by which I was so disgusted,
that I suddenly came to my better senses. ‘What/ thought
I, ‘have I come here to mimic nature in her grandest enter-
prise, and add my caricature of one of the wonders of the
world to those which I here see? No. I give up the vain
attempt. I will look on these mighty cataracts and imprint
them where they alone can be represented—on my mind!’
“Had I taken a view, I might as well have given you
what might be termed a regular account of the form, the
height, the tremendous roar of these Falls; might have
spoken of people perilling their lives by going between the
rock and the sheet of water, calculated the density of the
atmosphere in that strange position, related wondrous tales
of Indians and their canoes having been precipitated the
whole depth; might have told of the narrow, rapid and
rockbound river that lead§ the waters of the Erie into those
of Ontario, remarking en passant the Devil’s Hole and
sundry other places or objects; but supposing you had been
there, my description would prove useless, and quite as
puny as my intended view would have been for my family;
and should you not have seen them, and are fond of con-
templating the most magnificent of the Creator’s works, go
to Niagara, reader, for all the pictures you may see, all the
descriptions you may read of these mighty Falls, can only
produce in your mind the faint glimmer of the glow-worm
compared with the overpowering glory of the meridian sun.
“I breakfasted amid a crowd of strangers, who gazed
and laughed at me, paid my bill, rambled about and admired
the Falls for a while, saw several young gentlemen sketch-
ing on cards the mighty mass of foaming waters, and walked
to Buffalo, where I purchased new apparel and sheared
my beard. I then enjoyed civilized life as much as a month
before I had enjoyed the wildest solitudes and the darkest
recesses of mountain and forest.”
More than one bird-lover has since pursued his favorite
study in the vicinity of the great cataract, and has written of
it. The Duke of Argyll, not many years ago, spent some202
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time at Niagara, and in a series of pleasantly-written articles
in the Youth's Companion, made special note of the birds
he had seen in the neighborhood of the Falls.
I must not forget the visit of Professor Louis Agassiz,
who gave a course of scientific lectures at Niagara Falls in
the summer of 1848. He was really the leader of a party of
scientists, who made an excursion from Boston to the north
shore of Lake Superior, June to August, 1848. The nar-
rative of the tour, written by J. Elliot Cabot, gives an
account of the party’s sojourn at the Falls, of their scientific
explorations in the neighborhood, and of Professor Agas-
siz’ evening lectures on the phenomena of the region.
Agassiz saw at Niagara for the first time a living gar-pike,
the only representative among modern fishes of the fossil
type of Lepidosteus. From this type, he tells us, he had
learned more than from any other, of the relations between
the past and present fishes. Incidentally we learn from Mr.
Cabot’s narrative, that rattlesnakes were still abundant at
Niagara Falls and pigs roamed the streets of Buffalo.
Niagara has ever been beloved of the botanists. Her
constant baptism of spray no doubt has something to do not
only with the growth of an exceptionally large number of
species, but with the profusion of individuals. Goat Island
in particular is prolific of flowering annuals; and although
year after year its natural gardens have been despoiled in
May and June by the hordes of school children who call
their wholesale pulling of plants “botanizing,” yet most of
the species persist, and, to a surprising degree, in generous
and forgiving abundance.
Peter Kalm was the first botanist to study the flora of theTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
203
Falls. Students of the science today need only a reminder
to make them associate two of our most interesting wild
plants with the great Swedish botanist. Both are named
for him. One is Lobelia Kalmianum; the other, the rarest
of the St. Johnsworts in this latitude, Hypericum Kalmii;
and both of these plants are to be found today at Niagara
Falls, as no doubt they were in 1750, by Kalm himself. An-
other rarity that has in recent years been found near the
Horseshoe Fall, Canadian side, is Daphne mezereum, but we
cannot ascribe to it association with any early flower-loving
visitor.
It is probable that F. A. Michaux, whose “North Ameri-
can Silva,” published in 1807, was the first work of value
relating to our native trees, visited Niagara. Though I do
not find allusion to the Falls in his wTork, he frequently
notes, in his description of species, that he observed them
“on the shores of Lake Ontario” or Erie.
Among the published letters of Alexander Wilson is the
following:
Philadelphia, July 8, 1806.
To Mr. Wilson at the Falls of Niagara.
Dear Sir: This will be handed to you by Mr. Michaux,
a gentleman of an amiable character, and a distinguished
naturalist, who is pursuing his botanical researches through
North America, and intends visiting the Cataract of
Niagara. The kindness I received from your family in
1804 makes me desirous that my friend, Mr. Michaux,
should reside with you during his stay at Niagara; and any
attention paid to him will be considered as done to myself,
and suitable acknowledgments made in person by me on
my arrival at Niagara, which I expect will be early next
Spring.
You will be so good as give Mr. Michaux information
respecting the late rupture of the rock at the Falls, of the
burning spring above, and point out to him the place of204
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descent to the Rapids below, with any other information
respecting the wonderful scenery around you.
In the short stay I made, and the unfavorable weather
I experienced, I was prevented from finishing my intended
sketch equal to my wishes; but I design to spend several
weeks with you, and not only take correct drawings, but
particular descriptions of every thing relating to that stu-
pendous Cataract, and to publish a more complete and satis-
factory account, and a better representation of it, than has
been yet done in the United States.
I had a rough journey home through the Genessee coun-
try, which was covered with snow to the depth of fifteen
inches, and continued so all the way to Albany. If you
know of any gentlemen in your neighborhood acquainted
with botany, be so good as to introduce Mr. Michaux to
them. .	.	.
I cannot say who was the Mr. Wilson at Niagara Falls,
or whether Mr. Michaux used this letter; but he probably
did. His father, Andre Michaux, also studied the flora and
silva of America, but did not come into the Niagara region.
Alexander Wilson’s project of revisiting the Falls was never
carried out. His original sketches, made in 1804, were
completed by an artist, engraved by George Cooke of
London, and illustrated his poem of “The Foresters,” as it
originally appeared in the Philadelphia Portfolio, in 1809-10.
John Bartram, the first American botanist—spoken of
by the great Linnaeus as “the greatest natural botanist in
the world,” made his way in 1743, with Lewis Evans, from
Philadelphia to Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario. Such a
journey through the wilderness was no slight undertaking,
and no doubt these naturalists felt on reaching the lake
that they had pushed far enough into a region of doubtful
hospitality. They did not come on to Niagara. Amos
Eaton, eminent in his time both as botanist and geologist,
studied those sciences at Niagara, which he visited asTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
205
early as 1824. Asa Gray knew the Niagara region prior
to 1834 when he published his “Notice of some new, rare
or otherwise interesting plants from the Northern and
Western Portions of the State of New York.” Whoever
has used Gray’s “Manual” will recall his frequent citation
of Niagara Falls as habitat of uncommon species, though
no doubt many of his specimens were had in exchange, as
perhaps his data were secured, from local correspondents.
Constantine Rafinesque, an enthusiastic but most eccen-
tric naturalist, visited Niagara Falls in 1826, studying and
collecting with impartial zest its plants, birds, animals, fishes
and rocks. A meager account of his sojourn there is con-
tained in his “Life of Travels and Researches in North
America and South Europe,” published in 1836.
To those of us who live within the sound of Niagara no
student of the regional flora will ever attain quite the place
long held by Judge George W. Clinton. For many years he
was, preeminently, Buffalo’s naturalist. Botany was his
delight, and no one knew better than he all the herbal and
sylvan treasures of Niagara’s banks. He especially loved
the Whirlpool woods, not then as now despoiled and de-
vastated, but a wonderful wild nook, where great tulip and
sassafras trees grew. Foster’s Flats, too—now politely
named Niagara Glen—with its walking-fern (camptosorus
rhyzophyllus), its rare Aspidiums and Pellaeas, and other
lovely shy things in the vegetable world, was a favorite
forage-ground. As David F. Day wrote of him:	“The
thick woods, the shaded dells and the wild fastnesses about
the Falls of Niagara and at Portage become known to us as
they had never been known before.” Judge Clinton wrote
of his botanical studies in his “Notes of a Botanist,” which
delighted many readers during their newspaper publication.
His successor in this special field was Mr. Day, who like206
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Judge Clinton, studied much but wrote and published all
too little.
Every natural phenomenon, every scientific phase of the
Falls, has been written of. Some of the minor writings in
this field are most interesting. For instance, Charles A.
Carus-Wilson has written (Nature, vol. 47) of the Niagara
spray clouds, which “exhibit an ice bow in clear frosty
weather.” He notes the absence of mock suns, which are
accounted for by supposing the presence of hexagonal ice
crystals; and he offers the theory that the ice crystals in the
Niagara spray clouds are not hexagons but rhombs.
More appealing, perhaps, to popular appreciation are the
color observations of H. G. Madan (Nature, Dec. 21, 1882),
who finds in the American fall “a perfect and permanent
illustration of contrast-colors. The pure, green, even sheet
of water is trimmed, as it were, at regular intervals, by broad
bands of foam, which although of course really white,
appear of a delicate rose-pink hue. .	.	. The effect
heightens the beauty of the beautiful fall, and I am surprised
that no poet has made capital out of it.” It would seem to
be rather “capital” for the artists.
May I close these notes, which could be much extended,
by recording one observation of my own, of Niagara Falls
as a cloud-maker.
I had occasion to go to Lewiston on an early morning
train. Seated on the river side of the car, I enjoyed the
prospect of the fresh and dewy landscape. It had been a
windless night, and banks of fog were still sleeping above the
fields along the river. As the train reached that fair stretch
of stream, north of Tonawanda, I observed a long, heavy
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207
in the east, and the level beams made sharp contrasts of
light and shade on the cloud. As a bend in the road opened
an unobstructed view of the heaviest and lowest-hanging
portion of this cloud, it was discovered to reach earthward
with a mightly tap-root, the lower end of which was hid by
intervening trees.
I rubbed my eyes to make sure there was no illusion, and
resurveyed the celestial field. A few little clouds were at
rest here and there on the horizon’s rim, but in no quarter
any heavy cloud, except this one, whose arms stretched out,
vaporous and dark, across the Niagara peninsula for miles
on the one hand toward Lake Erie, and toward Lake Ontario
on the other; and whose middle part was joined to earth
by this sharply-defined pillar of vapor. It was not until, a
mile or so below the Falls, where the road skirts the edge
of the gorge and gives the traveler a fleeting but unob-
structed view of the cataract, that this earthward-reaching
cloud was seen to be nothing but the uprising vapor of the
Falls. During the still hours of the night, undissipated by
the sun, it had poured upward and spread out on a support-
ing stratum of air until it shadowed the country for many
miles.
Returning, a little later in the day, there was to be seen
only a distant-drifting cloud and the shifting spray that
vanished from sight as it rose in the warm air. The sun
and the morning breeze had broken the tie that held the
cloud to the cataract which had given it birth.
Men looked at the cataract for many years before the
idea of utilizing its energy occurred to them. The earlier
visitors viewed it, as all the universe was viewed before the
slow rise of a knowledge of nature developed the natural
sciences, as merely an extraordinary manifestation of Divine208
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power. As Nature’s story became better known and geology
more and more an exact science, Niagara was studied
with a view of reading from this torn page of the earth some
portion of its history. The great cataract was seen to be
one of the world’s chronometers, measuring with its cease-
less beat the progress of the ages. Men ceased to dispute
over the Mosaic account of creation, ceased attempting to
prove by the phenomena of Niagara that the Deluge was
universal and that it occurred exactly when the pre-scientific
interpretation of the Pentateuch made out that it should
have occurred. Gradually through the decades, these themes
of earlier strife and difference lost their importance. The
pulpit ceased to assail as infidel the geologist who dared
assert that the recession of Niagara proved the earth of a
far greater age than the six thousand or so Mosaic years.
Gradually the age of the earth and the erosion of the
Niagara gorge were taken as facts—as things demonstrated.
And all the time, while artists and poets and critics were
painting and rhapsodizing, more and more men of a practical
turn were thinking of the tremendous power of Niagara.
No miller who had ever regulated the flow of a little stream
to turn his mill-wheel could look upon Niagara without
reflecting on the tremendous waste of energy. A small mill
or two were set by Niagara’s margin in the pioneer days.
Later, when settlement had advanced and capital was avail-
able, came the era of construction of hydraulic canals,
diverting a small fraction of the flood, yet by its aid building
up no inconsiderable a city of many manufactories.
All this time the literary world was having its small say.
Hundreds of travelers wrote hundreds of uninspired books,
and would-be poets measured their emotions in mediocre
verse. Deeply religious natures, such as Mrs. Sigourney,
Margaret Fuller, Harriet Martineau and Fredrika Bremer,THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
209
were brought by Niagara into moods of exalted devotion.
Irritating British critics, disliking America and Americans,
of the type of Basil Hall and Mrs. Trollope, found Niagara
a new excuse for hostile demonstrations. A few men, true
poets and analysts at soul—Dickens, Hawthorne, Henry
James, and other choice spirits—labored to reveal to us the
real Niagara. And all this time the great river was pound-
ing away at its rocks and hurling its measureless millions of
tons into the abyss to no purpose whatever save as a means
of aesthetic gratification. But as it is a law of Nature that
man’s higher attainments come in the process of evolution
from those that are lower, so is it in the relation of man to
Niagara: as the latest expression of his appreciation of it,
he has begun to use it, without destroying it or marring its
beauty, for the good of mankind.
The greatest thing that can be recorded of Niagara, in no
matter what aspect it is studied, is, that we have in some
measure learned to utilize it for human good. With Niagara
as the starting point, as the inspiration, all the rivers of the
world, big and little, which offer any available power, are
being brought into new service for humanity. Already a
thousand waterfalls—of mighty cataracts and of sylvan
cascades—are “harnessed,” as the phrase is; and the record
of it is the latest and greatest chapter in the story of
Niagara.
When the historian comes who can write knowingly and
authoritatively of this phase of the subject, he will accord
eminence, if not absolute precedence, to Sir Carl Wilhelm
Siemens. His name will always be associated with Niagara
Falls. This renowned physicist and inventor found in our
cataract his greatest spur to achievement. In many papers,
mostly contained in his collected “Scientific Works” (3 vols.,
London, 1889) will be found record of his accomplishments210
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in this connection. In volume two is a paper, “On the
transmission and distribution of energy by the electric cur-
rent/’ read at the meeting of the Physical Society (British),
February 22, 1879. In volume three is his address as presi-
dent of the Iron and Steel Institute, delivered March 20,
1877. This paper, first published in the Journal of the Iron
and Steel Institute for 1877, was, I believe, the first formu-
lation by a scientist, and first presentation to a scientific
body, of a method of electrically transmitting Niagara*?
power for use. In these and other addresses of Sir William,
are given, more or less in extensu, his observations on
waste energy at Niagara, and the electrical transmission of
power therefrom.
In the “Life of Sir William Siemens” (Anglicising his
name) by William Pole (London, 1888) is set forth evi-
dence to show that Siemens was the first to propose the
utilization of Niagara power by electrical transmission.
“This subject,”says his biographer,“formed a favorite study
of Dr. Siemens; and it seems to have first strongly im-
pressed itself on his mind when, in the autumn of 1876, he
went to America and visited the Falls of Niagara. In all
his many journeys in different countries nothing made such
a deep impression on him as this wonderful natural phenom-
enon. The stupendous rush of waters filled him with fear
and admiration, as it does every one who comes within sound
of its mighty roar.” Dr. Siemens in his own account says
nothing of “fear and admiration,” but observes that the vast
amount of falling water accomplished nothing save by its
weight and concussion to raise, by a minute fraction of a
degree, the temperature of the St. Lawrence river! “But,”
continues Dr. Pole,
“he saw in it something far beyond what was obvious to
the multitude; for his scientific mind could not help view-THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
211
ing it as an inexpressibly grand manifestation of mechani-
cal energy. And he at once began to speculate whether it
was absolutely necessary that the whole of this glorious
magnitude of power should be wasted in dashing itself into
the chasm below?—whether it was not possible that at
least some portion of it might be practically utilized for
the benefit of mankind? He had not long to think before
a possible means of doing this presented itself to him. The
dynamo machine had just then been brought to perfection,
partly by his own labors; and he asked himself, Why
should not this colossal power actuate a colossal series of
dynamos, whose conducting wires might transmit its
activity to places miles away? This great idea, formed
amid the thunderings of the cataract, accompanied him all
the way home, and was meditated on in the quiet of his
study. He submitted it to the test of mathematical calcula-
tion, and so far convinced himself of its reasonable nature,
that he determined when a fitting occasion arrived, to make
it known. That occasion arrived in the spring of 1877,
when he had to give an opening address as President of
the Iron and Steel Institute.”
For many years, many schemes were devised, and plans
proposed, for securing some part of the Niagara power.
When the development of electrical science made it possible
not only to catch this power but to carry it to distant places,
new conceptions evolved as to what was possible. But in
the earlier plans electricity played no part. As early as 1830
George Catlin constructed a model of the Falls, to scale.
Men were even then figuring on using its power, and Catlin’s
model may have stimulated their fancies, but it seems to
have been chiefly used for exhibition, as any painting might
have been.
As late as 1878 a company was formed to transmit from
the Falls to Buffalo “a constant supply of compressed air,”
to be used as a substitute for steam in factories.212
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In the years immediately preceding the perfection of the
dynamo a great many plans were proposed for utilizing
Niagara power. Buffalo being the chief power-using place
on the river, most of these early schemes sought to take the
power from the river at Buffalo. Some of these deserve to
be chronicled for their originality, if nothing else. T. W.
Clark of Schofield, Wis., proposed “to move the great
cataract of Niagara back to Buffalo and drop the water
through a thousand great turbine wheels located in wheel
pits 240 feet deep at that city.” The “moving” of the Falls
was to be done by driving a great tunnel through the Clinton
shale from the precipice at the cataract to the outlet of Lake
Erie, 300 feet below the surface and 22 miles long. This
project was to make Buffalo “the greatest manufacturing
city on earth.” Less benevolent was the project of one Peter
Cameron, apparently a citizen of Rochester, who advocated
a deep tunnel from the Falls to Lake Erie, not to build up
Buffalo, but to drain Lake Erie, make Buffalo, Toledo and
Cleveland inland cities and “reclaim” the floor of Lake Erie
for agricultural purposes.
Still another project of the late Ws or thereabout was
that of Charles M. Bartlett of Chicago, who secured patents
and claimed to have ample financial backing from Chicago
capitalists, for the installation at Niagara Falls of a power
plant which would not mar the beauty of the scene. He
proposed to cut chambers in the rock under the river back
of the cataract, in which turbines could be placed. He pro-
posed to enter the bedrock of the river at the foot of the
precipice. The entrance excavation was afterwards to con-
stitute the tail-race. Back of this he planned to penetrate
upward as well as laterally, and cut room for the bottom
floors of the wheel-pit:THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
213
“The lowest floor will be used as a waste-room to receive
the water before it flows out through the tail-race. The
second floor will be the machinery floor, on which are to be
located a turbine wheel and electric dynamos to store and
convert the power obtained, to use. .	.	. Workmen
who operate the machinery will be let down by an elevator
shaft sunk on shore and conecting from the bottom with
the wheel-pit by tunnel. A house at the top of the elevator
shaft will probably be the only structure above ground.”
Buffalo was to have been Mr. Bartlett’s first main point
for disposing of his power. A publication of the day says:
“As an inducement to New York to grant the right to
operate, Mr. Bartlett will lay before the Legislature an
elaborate design of electric lights, which he will agree to
suspend over the brink of the Falls from the American to
the Canadian shore and keep perpetually burning. The de-
sign will represent the two nations shaking hands across the
chasm.” Although much reported for a time, in the press,
this project presently dropped out of sight, perhaps because
the necessary legislative consent was not secured. In view
of the subsequent action of Canada relative to “reciprocity”
overtures made by the United States, the proposed elec-
trical clasped hands above the cataract would have been
at least somewhat premature.
The most amazing project of those years was that of
Leonard Henkle of Rochester, who gravely produced elab-
orately-drawn plans and unfolded a scheme for the construc-
tion of a monstrous building, to bridge the Niagara river
from Goat Island to the Canadian shore, 35 feet above the
brink of the fall. It was to be 1,600 feet long, 804 feet
high in the center and 606 feet at the ends, with from 40 to
50 stories! Its lower part was to be used for power-genera-
tion. The inventor proposed to install “122 pairs of twin
turbine wheels, each of 6,000 horse-power, making in all214
THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
732,000 horse-power under a 28-foot head of water. It is
estimated that 21,000,000 cubic feet of water pass over the
Falls per minute, and by this 7,320 dynamos of 1,000 horse-
power each will be run.” I hesitate to quote further from
Mr. Henkle’s astounding prospectus. His ideas were per-
haps of the sort that belong less to Niagara and science,
than to dreams and visions. But in his day he had a hear-
ing, if not always a serious one, and the press, especially
of Western New York, lent itself generously to the some-
what ironical exploitation of his project. The cost of the
undertaking was estimated at $38,000,000, and the chief
promoter was quoted at one time as saying that $17,500,000
were pledged “by persons who are interested in the under-
taking.” Not the least striking feature of it all was the
vast assembly hall which was to be provided in the very
ample building, devoted to the uses not only of art and
science, but especially dedicated to religion and the promo-
tion of international amity.
The decade of the ’8o’s was prolific in Niagara schemes.
The Buffalo Historical Society preserves the original list of
subscribers to a fund for a prize to be given to the winner
of a competition for utilizing the power of Niagara river.
It contains the signatures of 108 men and firms, chiefly of
Buffalo, who from July 14, 1887 to May 23, 1888, subscribed
$1,000 each to this project. The fund was to constitute “a
prize or reward to be offered to the inventors of the world
for the discovery or invention (and sole right to use the
same), of the best appliance for utilizing, and that will
utilize economically, the water power of Niagara river at
or near Buffalo,” etc. Numerous plans, most of them of the
“crank” variety, were elicited by this offer, which was widely
advertised. The more promising were submitted to a board
of hydraulic engineers and other competent persons; butTHE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
215
in the end all were rejected; so that no prizes were awarded,
nor were any of the subscriptions ever called for.
Some years later, after power-development at the Falls
had been successfully undertaken, Alonzo C. Mather pro-
posed a combined bridge and power wheel construction for
the Niagara river at Buffalo. His plans were regarded as
far more practical than most of those that had been pro-
posed ; and as he professed to be able to finance his under-
taking without popular subscriptions, municipal or State aid,
and merely sought the necessary permission to build his
bridge, his claims received serious and for a time favorable
attention. A bill granting the desired permission passed at
least two Legislatures at Albany. In 1899 Mr. Mather was
again before the Legislature with a measure which had the
endorsement of Buffalo’s Exchanges, and of the Mayor.
At this time the inventor asked only for permission to erect
an experimental span, to demonstrate the soundness of his
claims; but although much seemed to be offered, with vast
possibilities, opposition developed and the Mather bridge
bill never received a Governor’s signature.
When the history of this phase of “Niagara and Science”
is written, it will contain due recognition of the work of
Thomas Evershed, who first suggested the utilization of
Niagara power by means of wheelpits with a tunnel tail-race
to the lower river. It will record the part borne by the
International Commission of which Sir William Thomson
(Lord Kelvin) was the president, his associates being
Professor Mascart, Colonel Theodore Turrettini, Ur. Cole-
man Sellers and Professor W. C. Unwin. And it will give
due credit to many other men of great attainments, among
them George Forbes and William Birch Rankine, who in one
capacity and another shared in the work of “harnessing”
Niagara. When this history is written it will tell of the co-216
THE NIAGARA IN SCIENCE.
operation of the greatest engineers and electricians of our
age. The literature of this subject is found today less in
books than in the pages of engineering and electrical jour-
nals and the Proceedings of learned societies. Something
of it is contained in the “Life of Lord Kelvin,” by S. P.
Thompson (London, 1910). The story of the gradual con-
struction, installation and operation of power plants at
Niagara Falls, already written by a thousand pens, is still
being written—and still to be written. It is the most
important, the most fascinating, the most splendid chapter
in all the literature of Niagara.
In common with all other parts of our country, Niagara
has its literature of history and locality; but in distinction
from all others it has a literature which celebrates one of the
world’s greatest wonders. From the day of its discovery
to this hour, Niagara has been a point of pilgrimage for all
lovers of nature, for all devotees at the shrine of beauty and
grandeur. And Niagara has spoken to each, after his kind.
For the artist, she draws aside her silvery veil, and in her
rainbows and her emerald tide gives him glimpses of the
beauty of light, of form and of motion, which are hints from
worlds hereafter. To the musician, she sounds the deep
diapasons of earth’s grandest organ. To the empty minded,
she makes no revelation. To all high and serious minds, she
brings peace, tranquillity, wholesome renewals of strength
and kinship with nature. To the devout, she speaks as with
the voice of God. These are some of the varied utterances
which we find recorded in the literature of the Niagara
region.TWO EARLY VISITORS
r I A HE narratives of early travels in the Niagara region
-*■ have for me a peculiar attraction; partly, no doubt,
because they help to fill in periods in our history for which
data are scanty; and partly, perhaps, because they give us
the Niagara landscape, and conditions hereabouts, before
the adjuncts of civilization had so largely obliterated the
things of the wilderness. Often have I echoed the senti-
ment expressed by Tyrone Power, an Irish actor of worth
and wit, who visited the Niagara early in the last century:
“How I have envied those,” he says, “who first sought
Niagara, through the scarce-trod wilderness, with the In-
dian for a guide; and who slept upon its banks with the
summer trees for their only shelter, with the sound of its
waters for their only reveille.” One of Power’s own coun-
trymen, many years before, and no doubt unknown to the
actor, had realized to the full this romantic longing. I do
not recall that that early visit has been made note of, in our
local annals, but it may appropriately be put on record here,
especially as it concerns still another visit, which likewise
merits a place in our Niagara chronicling.
Let us fancy ourselves, then, back in the year 1789. Al-
though the Revolution was over, and the Treaty of Paris
had been signed for half a dozen years, the British still held
control of both sides of the Niagara, and maintained gar-
risons at Fort Niagara, Fort Schlosser (now included in the
city of Niagara Falls), and Fort Erie. Buffalo did not
exist; though for nine years the Senecas, refugees from the
217218
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
Genesee country, had had their villages on Buffalo Creek;
and for five years the house built by Ezekiel Lane and his
son-in-law Martin Middaugh, the first white settlers on the
site of the present city, had stood near the present Exchange
street, east of Washington, not far from the bank of Little
Buffalo Creek.
This in very brief was the local situation when there
came into the region one who after enjoying to the full the
wilderness life as he found it here, was to pass to a life of
trouble and a most lamentable end. This was Lord Edward
Fitzgerald. I am not to write his biography and so refer
the reader at once to the story of Lord Edward’s life and
death, as written eighty years ago by Thomas Moore. For
our purpose it is enough to recall that he was the first son
of the first Duke of Leinster, and was born near Dublin in
1763. Given a military training, we find him serving with
his regiment, the 19th, in the American Revolution. As
aide-de-camp to Lord Rawdon, he distinguished himself in
numerous engagements, particularly in the battle of Eutaw
Springs, South Carolina, where he was wounded, Sept. 8,
1781. His biographer finds it “not a little striking that there
should have been engaged, at this time, on opposite sides,
in America, two noble youths, Lafayette and Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, whose political principles afterwards so entirely
coincided.” After the surrender of Cornwallis, Lord Ed-
ward was sent, early in 1783, to the West Indies, where he
served on the staff of General O’Hara. For the next few
years he had a varied service,in different parts of the world;
and in 1788 again came out to America to join the 54th
regiment in New Brunswick. He had reached the rank of
major, and according to report, was much esteemed in the
service. A sergeant-major of the 54th at this time was the
afterwards celebrated William Cobbett. In the latter’s onceTWO EARLY VISITORS.
219
famous “Advice to Young Men” he says that he got his dis-
charge from the army “by the great kindness of poor Lord
Edward Fitzgerald”; and he tells how, on dining one day
v/ith Mr. Pitt, on being asked by that statesman some
questions respecting his former officer, he answered that
“Lord Edward was a most humane and excellent man, and
the only really honest officer he ever knew in the army.”
An old portrait of him (from which the frontispiece of
Moore’s life of him was engraved), happily endorses this
verdict, and shows him as a bright-faced, alert, good-
humored youth, the very embodiment of Irish wit and en-
ergy.
This may serve as a sufficient introduction to his Lord-
ship the major, who with a fellow officer and a servant, in
February and March, 1789, walked from Fredericton to
Quebec, 175 miles through the wilderness. “We were thirty
days on our march, twenty-six of which we were in the
woods, and never saw a soul but our own party.” In April
of that year, in high health and spirits, he set out from
Quebec, bound for Ireland, by way of Niagara Falls, the
Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico! Contemplating the
adventure, before leaving Quebec, he wrote home that he
supposed they would think him mad; but his heart was set
on it. “It will not be very expensive, particularly as I go all
the first part with a relief of troops that are proceeding up
as far as Lake Superior. I am not quite determined
whether I will go up quite so far, perhaps only as far as
Detroit, from that to the Fort Pitt, and from thence to the
Ohio, and down it to the Mississippi.”
This was the tour on which Lord Edward set out, to-
wards the end of April. By June 1st he was on the Niagara,
where he wrote the following letter to his mother:220
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
“Fort Erie, June i, 1789.
“Dearest Mother: I am just come from the Falls of
Niagara. To describe them is impossible. I stayed three
days admiring, and was absolutely obliged to tear myself
away at last. As I said before, to describe them would be
impossible:—Homer could not in writing, nor Claude
Lorraine in painting: your own imagination must do it.
The immense height and noise of the Falls, the spray that
rises to the clouds—in short, it forms all together a scene
that is well worth the trouble of coming from Europe to
see. Then, the greenness and tranquility of everything
about, the quiet of the immense forests around, compared
with the violence of all that is close to the Falls,—but I
will not go on, for I should never end. ...
“I set out tomorrow for Detroit: I go with one of the
Indian chiefs, Joseph Brant, he that was in England. We
have taken very much to one another. I shall entertain you
very much with his remarks on England, and the English,
while he was there. Instead of crossing Lake Erie in a
ship, I go in canoes up and down rivers. In crossing Lake
Ontario, I was as sick as at sea,—so you may guess I prefer
canoeing;—besides my friend Joseph always travels with
company; and we shall go through a number of Indian
villages. If you only stop an hour, they have a dance for
you. They are delightful people; the ladies charming, and
with manners that I like very much, they are so natural.
Notwithstanding the life they lead, which would make most
women rough and masculine, they are as soft, meek, and
modest as the best brought up girls in England. At the
same time, they are coquettes au possible. Conceive the
manners of Mimi in a poor squaw, that has been carrying
packs in the woods all her life.
“I must make haste and finish my letter, for I am just
going to set off. I shall be at Michilimackinack in nineteen
days. My journey then will be soon over, for from that I
shall soon reach the Mississippi, and down it to New
Orleans, and then to my dearest mother to Frescati, to
relate all my journey in the little book-room. I shall thenTWO EARLY VISITORS.
221
be happy. Give my love to all. I think often of you all
in these wild woods:—they are better than rooms. Ireland
and England will be too little for me when I go home. If
I could carry my dearest mother about with me, I should
be completely happy here.”
A subsequent letter may be briefly quoted, to complete
the story in its local bearing:
“Detroit, June 20 [1789].
“My Dearest Mother: It is so hot I can hardly hold
the pen. My hand trembles so, you will be hardly able to
read my letter. My journey quite answered my expecta-
tions. I set out tomorrow for Michillimackinack, and then
down the Mississippi. I am in rude health. As soon as I
get to the Mississippi I reckon my journey half over. I can
say no more, for really it is too hot for anything but lying
on a mat. Entre nous, I am in a little sorrow, as I am to
part tomorrow with a fellow-traveller who has been very
pleasant and taken great care of me: Les plus courtes folies
sont les meilleures. I have been adopted by one of the
Nations, and am now a thorough Indian.”
According to Tom Moore, this adoption took place at
Detroit, through the medium of a chief of the Six Nations,
David Hill, by whom he was formally inducted into the
Bear Clan. A document recording the conferment of this
“wild honour,” as Moore phrases it, was preserved among
Lord Edward’s papers; and is, in alleged Indian and
English, as follows:
“Waghgongh Sen non Pryer
Ne nen Seghyrage ni i
Ye Sayats Eghnidal
Ethonayyere
David Hill
Karonghyontye
Tyogh Saghnontyon
21 June 1789.222
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
“I, David Hill, chief of the Six Nations, give the name
of Eghnidal to my friend Lord Edward Fitzgerald, for
which I hope he will remember me as long as he lives.
“The name belongs to the Bear Tribe.”
Captain David Hill’s letter purports to be in the Mohawk,
but the orthography as given by Moore is very erroneous.
According to O. H. Marshall, who commented on this
letter, “Karong hyontye” is the Indian name of Captain
David. “Tyogh Saghnontyon” is the name of Detroit,
where the letter was written.
Lord Edward’s correspondence says no more of the
Niagara region, but it has not told the whole of his experi-
ences hereabouts. For further particulars I turn to a
young woman’s journal of 1789, which although published
some thirty odd years ago, has never been made use of,
so far as I am aware, in connection with the letters of Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, to illustrate conditions on the Niagara
soon after the Revolution.
The young woman was Ann Powell, daughter of John
Powell of Boston, in which town she was born in 1769.
When she met Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and with him
visited the site of Buffalo in 1789, she was twenty years old,
he twenty-six. The Powell genealogy shows that her an-
cestors were of a distinguished line in Colonial Massachu-
setts. Her grandfather Powell came from England as
secretary of Lieutenant Governor Dummer, and married
his sister, Ann Dummer. Their eldest son, William
Dummer Powell, married Janet Grant, sister of Sir Alex-
ander Grant. They were a Loyalist family, and about 1775,
being declared alien, left Boston for Canada. William
Dummer Powell, eldest son of the John who was Dummer’s
secretary, became Chief Justice of Canada. At the time
we are considering, he had been appointed a Puisne Judge;TWO EARLY VISITORS.
223
and it was in connection with his duties in that office that
the journey from Montreal to Detroit was undertaken.
Thanks to his young sister, Ann, who accompanied him
and kept a journal, we have a glimpse of our locality not
elsewhere afforded. This journal, with a few unimportant
pages omitted, follows:
FROM THE JOURNAL OF ANN POWELL.
TOUR FROM MONTREAL TO DETROIT IN 1789—VISIT TO THE
SITE OF BUFFALO WITH LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD.
When I talked of keeping a journal from Montreal to
Detroit, I was not aware of the difficulties attending the
journey. I expected it would be tedious, and thought
writing would be a very pleasant employment, and so it
might have proved, had it been practicable, but the oppor-
tunities for writing were so few, that I found it would be
impossible to keep a journal with any degree of regularity,
so I left it wholly alone, and trusted to my memory (which
never deserved such a compliment) for recalling whatever
was worth communicating.
We left Montreal on the nth of May, 1789, with a large
party of our friends, who paid us the compliment of seeing
us the first stage, where we took a farewell dinner.
We then went to our boats; one was fitted up with an
awning to protect us from the weather, and held the family
and bedding. It was well filled, eighteen persons in all, so
you may suppose we had not much room; as it happened
that was of no consequence, it was cold on the water, and
we were glad to sit close. This mode of traveling is very
tedious; we are obliged to keep along the shore and go on
very slowly.
The first night we slept at the house of a “Habitan,”
who turned out with his family, to give us the best room,
where we spread our beds and slept in peace. I entertained
myself with looking at the Canadian family who were eating
their supper, saying their prayers, and conversing at the
same time.224
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
The next day we reached a part of the St. Lawrence
where our boats were obliged to be unloaded, and taken
through a Lock, the rapids being too strong to pass; these
rapids were the first of any consequence that I had seen.
Perhaps you do not know what I mean by a rapid; it is
when the water runs with swiftness over large rocks, every
one of which forms a cascade, and the river here is all a
bed of rocks. There is no describing the grandeur of the
water when thrown into this kind of agitation; the sea
after a tempest is smooth to it.
My brother had traveled the road before, and knew the
people, and the distance from house to house.
This part of the country has been settled since the Peace,
and it was granted to the troops raised in America during
the war. We went from a Colonel to a Captain, and from
a Captain to a Major. They have most of them built good
houses, and with the assistance of their half pay, live very
comfortably.
One night we reached the house of an old servant of
Mrs. Powell's; the children were delighted to see her, and
I was well pleased to view a new scene of domestic life.
This woman, it seems, had married a disbanded soldier,
who had a small lot of land, where they immediately went
to live, and cultivated it with so much care, that in a few
years they were offered in exchange for it, a farm twice its
value, to which they had just removed, and were obliged
to live some time in a temporary log house, which consisted
only of one room, in which was a very neat bed, where a
lovely babe of three months old, lay crowing and laughing
by itself. A large loom was on one side, on the other all
the necessary utensils of a famly, everythng perfectly clean.
Small as the place was, we chose to stay all night, so
while Mrs. Powell was giving orders for arranging the beds,
my brother and I walked out to enjoy a very fine evening.
The banks of the river were very high and woody, the
moon shone bright through the trees, some Indians were on
the river taking fish with harpoons, a mode of fishing I
had never seen before. They make large fires in theirTWO EARLY VISITORS.
225
canoes, which attract the fish to the surface of the water,
when they can see by the fire to strike them. The number
of fires moving on the water had a pretty and singular
effect.
When we returned to the house, we found the whole
floor covered with beds. The man and woman of the house,
with their children, had retired to their own room, and left
us to manage as we pleased. A blanket was hung before
my mattress, which I drew aside to see how the rest were
accommodated. My brother and sister, myself, five chil-
dren, and two maid servants made up the group; a blazing
fire (not in the chimney, for there was none, but in one
side of the room, which was opened at the top to let out
the smoke, and gave us a fine current of air) showed every
object distinctly.
I was in a humor to be easily diverted, and found a
thousand things to laugh at. It struck me that we were
like a strolling party of players.
At night we always drest a dinner for the next day.
When we were disposed to eat it, the cloth was laid in the
boat, and our table served up with as much decency as could
be expected, if we could be contented with cold provisions.
Not so our sailors; they went on shore and boiled their
pots, and smoked their pipes.
One day we happened to anchor at a small Island, where
the men themselves had some difficulty in climbing the
banks, which were very steep. I finished my dinner before
the rest of the party, and felt an inclination to walk. I
took one of the maids and made one of the men help us up
the bank; we strolled to the other side of the Island, and
when we turned round, saw the whole of the ground covered
writh fire. The wind blew fresh, and the dried leaves had
spread it from where the people were cooking. We had
no alternative, so were obliged to make the best of our way
back. I believe we took very few steps, for neither of us
had our shoes burnt through.
The weather was so fine that we ventured to sleep out,
and I liked it so much that I regretted that we had ever226
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
gone into the house; it is the pleasantest vagabond life you
can imagine.
We stopt before sunset, when a large fire was instantly
made, and tea and chocolate were prepared; while we were
taking it the men erected a tent; the sails of the boat served
for the top, and blankets were fastened round the sides;
in a few minutes they had made a place large enough to
spread all our beds, where we slept with as much comfort
as I ever did in any chamber in my life. It was our own
fault if we did not choose a fine situation to encamp.
You can scarcely conceive a more beautiful scene than
was one night exhibited. The men had piled up boughs of
trees for a fire, before our tent, till they made a noble bon-
fire. In the course of the evening it spread more than half
a mile; the ground was covered with dry leaves which
burnt like so many lamps, with the fire running up the
bushes and trees. The whole formed the most beautiful
illumination you can form an idea of. The children were
in ecstasies, running about like so many savages, and our
sailors were encamped near enough for us to hear them
singing and laughing.
We had, before we left Montreal, heard of his Majesty’s
recovery, so if you please you can set this all down as
rejoicings on that account, though I doubt whether it once
occurred to our minds, yet we are a very loyal people.
On the tenth day we reached Kingston; it is a small
town, and stands on a beautiful bay at the foot of Lake
Ontario. The moment we reached the wharf, a number of
people came down to welcome us; a gentleman in his hurry
to hand out the ladies, brushed one of the children into the
lake. He was immediately taken out, but that did not save
his Mother a severe fright. We went to a house of a Mr.
Forsyth, a young bachelor, who very politely begged we
would consider it as our own. Here we staid three days,
and then sailed with a fair wind for Niagara.
At Kingston we were overtaken by two officers of the
artillery, one going to Niagara the other to Detroit. They
both expressed themselves pleased with joining our party,TWO EARLY VISITORS.
227
and accepted an offer my brother made them, to cross the
Lake in a vessel appointed for him. We were fifteen where
there were only four berths. When the beds were put down
at night, every one remained in the spot he had first taken,
for there was no moving without general consent.
One night after we had lain down and began to be com-
posed, Mrs. Powell saw one of the maids standing where
she had been making the children’s beds, and asked her
why she staid there? The poor girl who speaks indifferent
English answered: “I am quazed, Ma’am.” Sure enough,
she was wedged in beyond the power of moving without
assistance. I heard a great laugh among the gentlemen,
who were divided from us by a blanket partition. I sup-
pose they were “quazed” too.
Lake Ontario is two hundred miles over. We were four
days crossing it. We were certainly a very good humoured
set of people, for no one complained or seemed rejoiced
when we arrived at Niagara.
The fort is by no means pleasantly situated. It is built
close upon the Lake, which gains upon its foundations so
fast, that in a few years they must be overflowed. There,
however, we passed some days very agreeably, at the house
of Mr. Hamilton. We received the most polite attentions
from Colonel Hunter, the commanding officer, and all his
officers. Lord Edward Fitzgerald had been some months
at Niagara before us, and was making excursions among
the Indians, of whose society he seemed particularly fond.
Joseph Brant, a celebrated Indian chief, lives in that neigh-
borhood. Lord Edward had spent some days at his house,
and seemed charmed with his visit. Brant returned to
Niagara with his Lordship. He was the first, and indeed
the only savage I ever dined at table with.
As the party was large, he was at too great a distance
from me to hear him converse, and I was by no means
pleased with his looks. These people pay great deference
to rank; with them it is only obtained by merit. They
attended Lord Edward from the house of one Chief to
another, and entertained him with dancing, which is the228
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
greatest compliment they can pay. Short as our stay was
at Niagara, we made many acquaintances we were sorry to
leave. Several gentlemen offered to escort us to the land-
ing, which is eight miles from Fort Erie [Fort Niagara].
There the Niagara river becomes impassible, and all the
luggage was drawn up a steep hill in a cradle, a machine I
never saw before. We walked up the hill, and were con-
ducted to a good garden with an arbor in it, where we found
a cloth laid for dinner, which was provided for us by the
officers of the post.
After dinner we went on seven miles to Fort Schlosher.
The road was good, the weather charming, and this was the
only opportunity we should have of seeing the Falls. All
our party collected half a mile above the Falls, and walked
down to them. I was in raptures all of the way. The Falls
I had heard of forever, but no one had mentioned the
rapids. For half a mile the river comes foaming down
immense rocks, some of them forming cascades 30 or 40
feet high. The banks are covered with woods, as are a
number of the Islands, some of them very high out of the
water. One in the centre of the river, runs out into a point,
and seems to divide the Falls, which would otherwise be
quite across the river, into the form of a crescent.
I believe no mind can form an idea of the immensity of
the body of water, or the rapidity with which it hurries
down. The height is 180 [!] feet, and long before it reaches
the bottom, it loses all appearance of a liquid. The spray
rises like light summer clouds, and when the rays of the
sun are reflected through it, they form innumerable rain-
bows, but the sun was not in a situation to show the effect
when we were there.
One thing I could find no one to explain to me, which
is, the stillness of the water at the bottom of the Falls; it
is as smooth as a lake, for half a mile, deep and narrow,
the banks very high and steep, with trees hanging over
them. I was never before sensible of the power of scenery,
nor did I suppose the eye could carry to the mind such
strange emotions of pleasure, wonder and solemnity.TWO EARLY VISITORS.
229
For a time every other impression was erased from my
memory. Had I been left to myself, I am convinced, I
should not have thought of moving whilst there was light
to distinguish objects. With reluctance I at length attended
to the proposal of going, determining in my own mind, that
when I returned, I would be mistress of my own time, and
stay a day or two at least.
We were received at Fort Schlosher by Mr. Foster, of
the 6oth Regiment, one of the most elegant young men I
ever saw. Here we were extremely well accommodated,
and much pleased with the house and garden. I never saw
a situation where retirement wore so many charms.
The next day we went in a batteau to Fort Erie. When
we arrived there we found the commanding officer, Mr.
Boyd, was gone in a party with Lord Edward and Mr.
Brisbane to the other side of the river, where the Indians
were holding a Council. The gentlemen all returned in the
evening, and seemed so much pleased with their entertain-
ment, that when they proposed our going with them the
next day, we very readily agreed to it. I thought it a
peculiar piece of good fortune, having an opportunity of
seeing a number of the most respectable of these people
collected together.
We reached the spot where the Council began, and as we
passed along, saw several of the chiefs at their toilets. They
sat upon the ground with the most profound gravity, dress-
ing themselves before a small looking-glass; for they are
very exact in fixing on their ornaments, and not a little
whimsical. I am told that one of these fellows will be an
hour or two painting his face, and when anyone else would
think him sufficiently horrible, some new conceit will strike
him, and he will rub it all off, and begin again.
The women dress with more simplicity than the men, at
least all I have seen; but at this meeting there were not
many of the fair sex. Some old squaws who sat in council,
and a few young ones to dress their provisions; for these
great men, as well as those of our world, like a good dinner
after spending their lungs for the good of their country.230
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
Some women we saw employed in taking fish in a
basket; a gentleman of our party took the basket from one
of them, and tried to catch the fish as she did, but failing,
they laughed, at his want of dexterity. One young squaw
sat in a tent weaving a sort of worsted garter intermixed
with beads. I suppose she was a lady of distinction, for
her ears were bored in four different places, with ear-rings
in them all. She would not speak English, but seemed to
understand what was said to her.
A gentleman introduced Mrs. Powell and me to her as
white squaws, begging she would go on with her work, as
we wished to see how it was done. She complied immedi-
ately, with great dignity, taking no more notice of us than
if we were posts. A proof of her good breeding.
We then went up a steep bank to a very beautiful spot;
the tall trees were in full leaf, and the ground covered
with wild flowers. We were seated on a log in the centre,
where we could see all that passed.
Upwards of 200 chiefs were assembled and seated in
proper order. They were the delegates of six nations;
each tribe formed a circle under the shade of a tree, their
faces towards each other; they never changed their places,
but sat or lay on the grass as they liked. The speaker of
each tribe stood with his back against a tree. The old,
women walked one by one with great solemnity and seated
themselves behind the men; they were wholly covered with
their blankets, and sought not by the effect of ornaments to
attract, or fright, the other sex, for I cannot tell whether
the men mean to make themselves charming, or horrible,
by the pains they take with their persons.
On seeing this respectable band of matrons I was struck
with the different opinions of mankind. In England when
a man grows infirm and his talents are obscured by age, the
wits decide upon his character by calling him an old woman.
On the banks of Lake Erie a woman becomes respectable
as she grows old, and I suppose the greatest compliment
you can pay a young hero, is that he is as wise as an old
woman, a good trait of savage understanding. These ladiesTWO EARLY VISITORS.
231
preserve a modest silence in the debates (I fear they are
not like women of other countries) but nothing is deter-
mined without their advice and approbation.
I was very much struck with the figures of these Indians
as they approached us. They are remarkably tall, and
finely made, and walk with a degree of grace and dignity
you can have no idea of. I declare our beaux looked quite
insignificant by them; one man called to my mind some of
Homer’s finest heroes.
One of the gentlemen told me that he was a chief of
great distinction and spoke English, and if I pleased he
should be introduced to me. I had some curiosity to see
how a chief of the six nations would pay his compliments,
but little did I expect the elegance with which he addressed
me. The Prince of Wales does not bow with more grace
than Captain David. He spoke English with propriety,
and returned all the compliments that were paid him with
ease and politeness. As he was not only the handsomest
but the best drest man I saw, I will endeavor to describe
him.
His person is tall and fine as it is possible to conceive,
his features handsome and regular, with a countenance of
much softness, his complexion was disagreeably dark, and
I really believe he washes his face, for it appeared per-
fectly clean, without paint; his hair was all shaved off
except a little on the top of his head to fasten his ornaments
to; his head and ears painted a glowing red; round his
head was fastened a fillet of highly polished silver; from
the left temple hung two straps of black velvet covered
with silver beads and brooches. On the top of his head
was fixed a Eoxtail feather, which bowed to the wind, as
did a black one in each ear; a pair of immense earrings
which hung below his shoulders completed his head-dress,
which I assure you was not unbecoming, though I must
confess somewhat fantastical.
His dress was a shirt of colored calico, the neck and
shoulders covered so thick with silver brooches as to have
the appearance of a net, his sleeves much like those the232
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
ladies wore when I left England, fastened about the arm,
with a broad bracelet of highly polished silver, and engraved
with the arms of England. Four smaller bracelets of the
same kind about his wrists and arms; around his waist was
a large scarf of a very dark colored stuff, lined with scarlet,
which hung to his feet. One part he generally drew over
his left arm which had a very graceful effect when he
moved. His legs were covered with blue cloth made to fit
neatly, with an ornamental garter bound below the knee.
I know not what kind of a being your imagination will
represent to you, but I sincerely declare to you, that alto-
gether Captain David made the finest appearance I ever
saw in my life.
Do not suppose they were all dressed with the same
taste; their clothes are not cut by the same pattern, like
the beaux of England. Every Indian is dressed according
to his own fancy, and you see no two alike; even their
faces are differently painted; some of them wear their
hair in a strange manner, others shave it entirely off. One
old man diverted me extremely; he was dressed in a scarlet
coat, richly embroidered, that must have been made half a
century, with waistcoat of the same, that reached half way
down his thighs, no shirt or breeches, but blue cloth stock-
ings. As he strutted about more than the rest, I concluded
that he was particularly pleased with his dress, and with
himself. They told us that he was a chief of distinction.
We only staid to hear two speeches; they spoke with
great gravity and no action, frequently making long pauses
for a hum of applause. Lord Edward and Mr. Brisbane
remained with them all night, and were entertained with
dancing.
We were detained some days at Fort Erie by a con-
trary wind. On the 4th of June as we were drinking the
King’s health like good loyal subjects, the wind changed
and we were hurried on board; we were better accommo-
dated than when we crossed Lake Ontario, for the weather
was so fine that the gentlemen all slept on deck. Lake
Erie is 280 miles over, we were five days on our passage.TWO EARLY VISITORS.
233
The river Detroit divides Lake Erie from Lake St.
Clair, which is again separated by a small river from Lake
Huron. The head of Lake Erie and the entrance into the
river Detroit is uncommonly beautiful. Whilst we were
sailing up the river a perverse storm of rain and thunder
drove us into the cabin, and gave us a thorough wetting.
After it was over we went on shore. The fort lies about
half way up the river, which is 18 miles in length. In
drawing the line between the British and American pos-
sessions, this fort was left within their lines; a new town
is now to be built on the other side of the river, where the
Courts are held, and where my brother must of course
reside.
As soon as our vessel anchored, several ladies and
gentlemen came on board; they had agreed upon a house
for us, till my brother could meet with one that would suit
him, so we found ourselves at home immediately.
The ladies visited us in full dress, though the weather
was boiling hot. What do you think of walking about when
the Thermometer is above 90? It was as high as 96 the
morning we returned our visits.
Whilst we staid at the Fort, several parties were made
for us. A very agreeable one by the 65th to an island a
little way up the river. Our party was divided into five
boats, one held the music, in each of the others were two
ladies and as many gentlemen as it could hold.
Lord Edward and his friend arrived just time enough
to join us; they went round the Lake by land, to see some
Indian settlements, and were highly pleased with their
jaunt. Lord Edward speaks in raptures of the Indian hos-
pitality; he told me one instance of it, which would reflect
honor on the most polished society. By some means or
other, the gentlemen lost their provisions, and were entirely
without bread in a place where they could get none; some
Indians traveling with them, had one loaf, which they
offered to his Lordship, but he would not accept it; the
Indians gave him to understand that they were used to do
without and therefore it was less inconvenient to them;234
TWO EARLY VISITORS.
they still refused, and the Indians then disappeared, and
left the loaf of bread in the road the travelers must pass,
and the Indians were seen no more.
Our party on the Island proved very pleasant, which
that kind of parties seldom do; the day was fine, the
country cheerful and the band delightful. We walked some
time in the shady part of the Island; and then were led
to a bower where the table was spread for dinner. Every-
thing here is on a grand scale; do not suppose we dined
in an English arbor. This one was made of forest trees
that grew in a circle, and it was closed by filling up the
space with small trees and bushes, which being fresh cut,
you could not see where they were put together, and the
bower was the whole height of the trees though quite closed
at the top. The band was placed without, and played whilst
we were at dinner. We were hurried home in the evening
by the appearance of a thunder storm ; it was the most
beautiful I ever remember to have seen. The clouds were
collected about the setting sun, and the forked lightning
was darting in a thousand different directions from it. You
can form no idea from anything you have seen of what the
lightning is in this country. These Lakes I believe are the
nurseries of thunder storms. What you see are only
stragglers who lose their strength before they reach you.
The locality indicated by Miss Powell as “the other side
of the river,” was, obviously, somewhere in the present
bounds of Buffalo, probably on the banks of Buffalo Creek.
When they “went up a steep bank to a very beautiful spot,”
they not unlikely gained what is now the Terrace; must
have been, indeed, as the neighborhood of the Indian vil-
lages further up Buffalo Creek would not satisfy Miss
Poweirs description. The old man in the scarlet coat was
Red Jacket. Miss Powell’s narrative is corroborated by
various official documents. A letter from Joseph Brant and
other Indians to Governor George Clinton, dated “Cana-
dague”—i. e., Canandaigua—“30th July, 1789,” refers toTWO EARLY VISITORS.
235
this council of Buffalo Creek. Red Jacket is one of the
signers with his “mark.” (See “Proceedings of the Com-
missioners of Indian Affairs,” etc., edited by F. B. Hough,
Albany, 1861.) David Hill, one of the chiefs of the Six
Nations, is referred to in Stone’s “Life of Red Jacket,” ist
ed., p. 95. Miss Powell is in error in writing that Lord
Edward “had been some months at Niagara” before she
arrived. His letters show that he was there in May; “some
weeks” was perhaps meant.
Lord Edward finished his journey, returning to Ireland
by way of New Orleans, much as planned. He has no
further connection with the Niagara region or Buffalo, but
the reader should have some further glimpse of his roman-
tic career. When the French Revolution broke out he
supported its principles and in 1793 went to Paris, where he
married Pamela, the reputed daughter of Louis Philippe
Joseph, Duke of Orleans, and Madame de Genlis. “On his
return to Ireland, Fitzgerald was desirous of effecting a
separation of that country from England, and induced the
French Directory to furnish him with a fleet and troops.
A landing was attempted on several occasions, but without
success, and Fitzgerald was seized, tried and condemned to
death.” While he lay in prison suffering from his wounds,
a soldier friend who had known him in Charleston during
the American Revolution, called on him and chanced to
speak of the circumstances under which they had first
become acquainted; when the suffering patriot exclaimed:
“Ah! I was wounded then in a very different cause. That
was in fighting against liberty—this, in fighting for it.”
Before the time set for his execution arrived, Lord Edward
died from his wounds, June 4, 1798. In her chaplet of
heroes and patriots, Ireland will forever keep the memory
of Lord Edward Fitzgerald.HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF
BUFFALO
T HAVE been asked to say something on the historical
A associations of Buffalo. At the outset, one most admit
that Buffalo, like many American towns, has paid little
attention to her landmarks, and has been too busy developing
material interests to care whether or not anything were done
to preserve the historical associations. This is so generally
the case with American towns that it need call for no par-
ticular comment; but, in the point of view of the student of
history, it is a matter of regret that more reminders of the
past are not preserved for the future. To those who make
the study of history a business, it is readily obvious that
more than a sentimental value attaches to reminders of
things that are gone. An old house; a battlefield, which still
shows the marks of conflict; a venerable tree, in the shade of
which a treaty or a council were held—any of these things is
an historical document quite as much as the written manu-
script or the printed page, and to the student helps make
clear and vivid conditions of the past. Some things of this
sort, happily, we have preserved from earlier generations;
and of some occurrences of which all trace is gone we are
able to determine the original site, so that after all, in some
fashion, we can still read the book of Buffalo in its to-
pography and along its water-front to pretty good purpose.
There are two ways of studying local history: one way
contents itself with a mere determination of dates and sites.
237238
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
Though this service has its value, I confess* it scarcely
appeals to me. Another aspect of local history, which I
think is the more useful, is that in which we see its relations
to the general history of our country. In this last relation,
Buffalo is, perhaps, the least historic point on the Niagara
frontier. The history of our town as a white man's settle-
ment runs back scarcely more than a century; but the
history of the Niagara river and of the lakes which it joins
goes back almost two centuries farther and belongs to that
romantic and picturesque chapter of American development
which begins with the forest missions of the Jesuits and
other holy orders, shifts soon into the period of exploration,
and, finally, after a time of strateg), of forest-fort building
and of wilderness campaigns, changes again from the
domain of the French to the rule of the English. In all the
long conflict of the old French war, ending on our frontier
in 1759, and in all the troubled years that followed, down
to the close of the Revolution, our river and lake bore an
important part. But there was no Buffalo, nor, indeed, did
the site of Buffalo figure to any extent in these early annals
of the region.
I am to confine myself to the present city. A portion of
it was the seat of Seneca villages, two or three of which
may still be traced by experts on the banks of the Buffalo
and Cazenovia creeks. Local archaeologists also tell us* that
within the present area of Delaware Park they find remains
of Indian village occupancy and burial. The motto which
is engraved on a lintel in the Historical Building, “Other
council fires were here before ours,” is perhaps literally
true, though it is little more than tradition which fixes upon
the banks of the Scajaquada in the vicinity of that building
a former abiding-place of the Senecas..
There is more definiteness about the tradition connectedASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
239
with a stream at the other extremity of Buffalo. Smoke's
creek, whose course into Lake Erie has, in recent years,
been well-nigh obliterated by great steel works and other
buildings, derives its name from the Seneca chief known
to the English as “Old Smoke." He held a position of
peculiar prominence among his people, is said to have been
foremost in leading them against the American settlers at
Wyoming, and was buried years after on the banks of the
stream which bears his name. South Buffalo has many
associations with the Indians. Here lived Red Jacket, who
died in 1830 and was buried in what is now known as the
“Old Indian Cemetery" on Buffam street. This little plot
of ground, still shaded by fine old oaks and walnuts, was
the burial-place of many of the Seneca Nation*, prominent
during the Revolution and in the early years of the 19th
century. Here, too, was buried Mary Jemison, the white
woman, whose life of captivity among the Indians is one of
the most famous stories in our local history. The remains of
Mary Jemison were removed in 1874 to Glen Iris, and the
bones of Red Jacket and other Seneca chiefs were re-
interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery by the Buffalo Historical
Society in 1884 and 1894. The old Indian burying-ground
has now been added to the park system of Buffalo and let
us hope will be preserved with its fine trees for future
generations. Near by was formerly the Indian Mission
Church, built 1826, abandoned 1843. What is now known
as Indian Church avenue crosses its former site. Several
other points in this vicinity are of interest to the student
of the Seneca Indians and their former relations to the
people of Buffalo.
Two or more council houses have at different times stood
on or near the banks of Buffalo creek, the last one probably
being not far from the present site of the International240	ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
Railway Company’s car-house on Seneca street, near its
junction with Elk. But perhaps the region has no associa-
tions of more importance than those which cluster around
the old mission house still standing on Buffam street. Built
in 1833, it is still in good preservation, with heavy hewn
black walnut beams that bid fair to stand for many a year
to come. In this house, from 1833 to 1844, dwelt the Rev.
Asher Wright, missionary to the Senecas, and his gifted
and devoted wife. Here, in 1839, was set up the Mission
Press, on which, in the Seneca language, from specially
made type, were printed portions of the Scriptures, hymnals,
spelling books, and Seneca lexicon, and a periodical, the
Mental Elevator, in the Seneca tongue. The story of the
work carried on for many years by Mr. and Mrs. Wright
is perhaps the most beautiful record of disinterested devo-
tion to the welfare of others to be found in the annals of
Buffalo.
There are many places within the city limits which have
associations, more or less important, with the Seneca
Indians. Most of these need not be touched on in a brief
sketch like the present. But the reader whose interest is. at
all drawn to this subject will do well some pleasant day to
stroll through Forest Lawn Cemetery. He will note the
bronze statue erected to Red Jacket and his associates; but
he is not so apt to have his attention drawn to another and
older, though less conspicuous, monument, nearer the east
side of the cemetery, which marks the resting place of some
twelve hundred bodies that were removed in 1851 from the
old Franklin Street Cemetery—the present site of the City
Hall—to the then new Forest Lawn. Among these remains
were those of Farmer’s Brother, one of the worthiest
Senecas of whom history gives us record. A man of far
higher character than Red Jacket, he proved himself theASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
241
staunch friend of the Americans, and fought bravely in
their cause during the War of 1812.
Buffalo was a poor little frontier village when that war
began. The first white settlement on Buffalo creek was,
apparently, in 1784; and there were squatters, frontiers-
men, and renegades, of whose presence here something is
known, but little that is worth our thought, until the village
of New Amsterdam was surveyed for the Holland Land
Company by their agent, Joseph Ellicott, in 1802. The
town that grew up in the next decade was wiped out of
existence by the British and Indians in 1813; so that,
although we have records which enable us to fix the locality
of many buildings thus destroyed, there now exists in the
city no structure that was standing in the village of Buffalo
when the British burned it. There is one house, now
within the city limits, which was standing at the time of the
burning, but it was then some three or four miles north of
Buffalo on the Williamsville road. Its age gives it distinc-
tion, although no associations of great importance belong
to it. It was built in 1809 by a settler, Zachariah Griffin,
and the story goes that the Indians in their course of
destruction with musket and firebrand were too much over-
come with liquor before they reached this house to do any
further damage. Oddly enough, it still stands, sound and
comfortable, as a residence, although its exterior appear*
ance is undoubtedly changed. It is No. 2485 Main street,
the second house north of the Belt Line crossing. A little
one story house, it is apparently of ordinary frame con-
struction, but behind its veranda and clapboards are still
the old log walls of the original structure.
I am often asked what is the oldest house in Buffalo,
and it may be worth while to mention a few which are
entitled to the respect we accord to age. The Griffin house,242
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
already mentioned, is, so far as I am aware, entitled to
precedence. There are but two or three in the county of
greater age. One of them known as the Evans homestead,
at Williamsville, dates back, in its oldest part, to 1797, and
has the associations which come, not only from long occu-
pancy by a family prominent in the history of our county
but from having been the headquarters of General Scott
and other officers during the War of 1812. Within the city,
the oldest house of distinction for many years was undoubt-
edly that known as the Porter mansion, afterwards the
home of the Hon. Lewis F. Allen; later, stripped of its
more dignified belongings, serving commercial purposes as
part of an automobile factory, and finally torn down. It
was formerly No. 1192 Niagara street, between the street
and the river, a short distance north of Ferry street. Its
site is wholly surrounded now by factory buildings; one
who has not known it in its better state can form no idea
of the former beauty of the place—a dignified, ample house,
with beautiful grounds, originally sloping to the banks of
the river. Built in 1816 by General Porter, afterwards
Secretary of War, it was for many years, both during his
ownership and that of Mr. Allen, often the scene of distin-
guished hospitality, and many famous men were guests
there. Mr. Allen’s nephew, Grover Cleveland, was, for a
time, an inmate of his household. It is a pity that so fine
an old house, with so many historical associations, could
not have been preserved, as is sometimes the case with old
houses in other towns, for a museum or headquarters of
historical or antiquarian organizations.
There are but few buildings in the city whose age entitles
them to distinction. One that remained a comfortable
home until recently was No. 1118 Niagara street, built in
1819 by Col. William A. Bird. For the most part, buildingsASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
243
that may be called old, now standing in the city, were erected
in the decade of the 3o’s. Two or three residences are
known of an earlier period. One of the latest to go was No.
37 Church street, understood to have been built before 1830.
The Wilkeson homestead, on Niagara Square, dates from
about 1825. Two or three years before this date, Joseph
Ellicott began the construction of a home for himself above
High street, about in line with the present Washington
street. The house was completed by others and passed
through various ownerships; finally, some twenty odd
years ago, being bought by Mr. John C. Glenny and moved
in two sections to Amherst street, where it was re-erected
with new wings and some other alterations, and now stands
as one of Buffalo’s most beautiful homes and the only
structure in Buffalo directly associated with the founder
of the city.
While we have lost the old houses, we have retained
knowledge of their sites. Thanks to the good work of the
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Association, suitable tablets
are being placed on numerous sites which have associations
worth preserving. One of these, on the Dun Building,
marks the site of Buffalo’s first schoolhouse, built in 1807;
another, on the Public Library, recalls the fact that that
site was occupied by two courthouses; the first one built in
18x0, destroyed at the burning of Buffalo; the second one
enduring until 1876. This spot, the center of the adminis-
tration of justice for what was formerly Niagara county,
and after the division, of Erie county, covering a period of
over half a century, has many associations connected with
the leaders of the bar, judges, and lawyers whose names
make a long list in the annals of our city. Two Buffalo
citizens, who became Presidents of the United States,
figured for many years in the practice of their profes-244
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
sion in the old courthouse—Millard Fillmore and Grover
Cleveland.
One house which was spared at the burning of Buffalo
in 1813, known as the St. John House, stood on ground
now covered by the H. A. Meldrum stores. The earlier life
of the town was active in the neighborhood of the Terrace
and lower Main street, and well-nigh every foot of that
region has its associations with events in our early history.
Some of these sites, no doubt, will later receive attention of
the Landmarks Association.
No period in the city’s history is more distinctly marked
than that of the War of 1812, and yet I do not know of a
single construction, not even an earthwork, belonging to
that time which now endures. There are many points along
the water front, from Buffalo creek to Lower Black Rock,
which have stirring associations with this war. The sites
of several batteries are known; one, which saw but little
service, was on the Terrace; another overlooked the
Niagara from the edge of the bluff at the foot of Vermont
street, the actual site being utterly obliterated by the con-
struction of the Erie canal in 1825; but now, overlooked
from the Front, most nearly approached a short distance
south of the memorial to the 13th U. S. Infantry, in the
grounds of Fort Porter. Still another battery was on a
high bank just south of the foot of Massachusetts street.
As in the case of the battery just mentioned, the construc-
tion of the Erie canal and later of the railroad, which cut
away much of the original bank, left only empty air where
formerly was this defensive work. But the edge of the
bluff at the point indicated is the nearest approach on the
old level. No place in Buffalo commands a finer view. A
point of public resort, a memorial tablet should sometime beASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
245
placed here, where it would be seen by thousands, and add
the historic to the present scenic interest.
Many points on the Niagara river bank have associations
with this period we are considering. Especially storied is
the site of the present International Railway Company’s
buildings, opposite School street, which cover the ground
where formerly stood Fort Adams, otherwise known as
Fort Tompkins. From this point to Breckenridge street
was battleground on more than one occasion. At the mouth
of the Scajaquada creek, on the south side, was the Sailors’
Battery, which figured in several hot engagements. Here,
too, during the war, were fitted out several of the vessels
which constituted the fleet with which Perry won his glori-
ous battle on Lake Erie. The present Niagara street bridge
over Scajaquada creek bears a tablet which records the fact
that thereabouts, on August 3, 1814, was fought the im-
portant Battle of Black Rock.
We have touched but a few of many points and many
associations in this interesting part of our city. Returning
to Fort Porter, we find associations of a later period, though
it should be noted that Fort Porter itself has never shared
in any war, although the old magazine which was destroyed
some years ago—the ruins of it underlying the present
parade-ground—was a picturesque structure and looked as
though it might have many war-time associations. As a
matter of fact, it was built in 1846-47, and, although it
served the Government for some years as a storehouse, for
a longer period it stood useless, having been ruined by fire.
No sentimental nor historic interest attaches to it.
Although there are many points in the city which have
associations with the period of this old war, I do not now
recall any visible reminder of it save one—a granite boulder
on the meadow in Delaware Park, which marks the burial-246
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
place of soldiers who died of camp fever during that war,
in the barracks hospital which stood on the banks of Sca-
jaquada .creek, within the present area of Forest Lawn
Cemetery. Their bones were removed many years ago to
their present resting-place, the long trench in which they
were deposited being marked at either end with a willow
tree; these willows for many years were objects of dis-
tinction and beauty in the park, but yielding to time and
storm, they disappeared and the present boulder with its
tablet was placed there on the 4th of July, 1896.
This is, perhaps, enough by way of reminder of this old
war. Later and more peaceful years have their associations
as well as those of conflict. The War of 1812 destroyed
Buffalo; the building of our harbor and the opening of the
Erie canal created a new Buffalo. The grave of Samuel
Wilkeson, marked by a rugged monument, shaded by fine
trees, in a quiet part of Forest Lawn, should be known to
every one who gives a thought to the history of our city;
for it was Judge Wilkeson, more than any other one man,
who brought about conditions which made possible the de-
velopment into Buffalo's commercial greatness. As the
inscription on his monument records: “Urbem condidit”
It was in Judge Wilke son’s house, then newly built, that
officials and prominent men of the State gathered after the
first passage westward through the Erie canal, in the fall of
1825. This house, already referred to, has not only been
the home of three generations of men and women prominent
in our community and devoted to its welfare, but has been
the scene of many gatherings of significance in Buffalo’s
history. It faces Niagara Square, and we may as well note
that this spot and the neighboring Square, now bearing the
name of Lafayette, have both, from the earliest days of the
town, been the scene of countless gatherings, receptions,ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
247
and 'events of note. That most famous of early executions
in Western New York—the hanging of the three Thayers—
took place in Court street, a few rods west of Niagara
Square. During the Civil War, the Buffalo troops ren-
dezvoused there and made their final reviews before leaving
for camp. Across the Square from the Wilkeson home-
stead, was for many years the residence of Millard Fillmore.
It is one of the queer things in our history that this Square,
so long associated with a President of the United States,
contains no reminder of him, his former home even being
known by another name than his; and the Square in these
later days has been given the distinction of a monument to
another President, whose last associations with Buffalo were
of the saddest, but who is not known to have any associa-
tions whatever with this particular spot.
Probably no place in Buffalo stands for more history,
both local and general, than Lafayette Square. In the old
days, when it was Courthouse Square and little more than
an open common, it was the scene of many conventions,
meetings, celebrations, and speeches. In 1825, when La-
fayette made his visit to Buffalo, he was given a reception
at the Eagle Tavern, on the west side of Main street, about
where the Hudson stores now are, and the square opposite
was named in his honor. The only national political con-
vention ever held in Buffalo—the Free Soil Convention of
1848—was held under a great tent in this Square. There
are, too, political associations of an early period that
attached to the block below, for in the famous Log Cabin
campaign of 1840 Buffalo’s veritable log cabin was built on
the northeast comer of Main and Eagle streets, and there
the citizens met to harangue, and cheer for “Tippecanoe,”
and drink hard cider.
Following the political associations a little further, it is248
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
well to remind the reader of at least one other site in our
city which is distinguished because of the people who have
labored there. Where now stands the building of the
Fidelity Trust Company, formerly stood, since 1820, the
three or four successive buildings owned* by the Messrs.
Weed, devoted in the main to the hardware business. In
the upper stories of the last of these buildings, which was
demolished to make way for the present structure, were,
for a time, the offices of Millard Fillmore, and, at a later
period, the offices of Nathan K. Hall, of Grover Cleveland,
and of his partner Wilson S. Bissell. The old Weed block,
therefore, sent out two Presidents and two Postmasters-
general.
Not all our historic associations relate to distant years.
An event of very recent years, which must have mention,
was a sequence of the Pan-American Exposition and the
assassination of President McKinley. The house in which
President McKinley died, September 14, 1901, known then
as the Milburn residence, No. 1168 Delaware avenue, will
always possess for the resident and the visitor a melancholy
interest. His successor, Theodore Roosevelt, took the oath
of office as President of the United States, in the home of
Mr. Ansley Wilcox, at No. 641 Delaware avenue, on the
day Mr. McKinley died. This house, by the way, is one of
the most “historic” in Buffalo. Built about 1840 as the com-
mandant’s headquarters for the military establishment
known as Poinsett Barracks, it originally faced to the east,
looking out on the parade ground, which extended from
Delaware to Main street, surrounded by buildings, the whole
military tract covering the area now bounded by North,
Main, Allen and Delaware. During this period, one part
of the present house was occupied by Dr. Wood, post
surgeon, whose wife was a daughter of Zachary Taylor,ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
249
who became President of the United States in 1850, with
Millard Fillmore as his Vice-president. After the abandon-
ment of Poinsett Barracks and the conversion of the tract
to other uses, the house now standing was given its front
approach from Delaware avenue. Additions and modern
improvement have been made, but the main part of the
structure is still the original old house, one of the most
dignified and attractive residences in our city.
We could ramble up and down Main street, and back
and forth across the town at great length, recalling this and
that association, passing in review virtually the whole
history of Buffalo. There are many associations with places
which offer to the eye no reminder, no memorial, of the
past. The enduring landmarks of early days are very few.
It was not my fortune to know Buffalo until what to
people in middle life may be called comparatively recent
years. My residence here dates from 1881; a little more
than a quarter century. To elderly persons who were born
here, who are familiar with the conditions and traditions of
a generation earlier than their own, the Buffalo I can have
known is not an old-time Buffalo at all. For that matter,
none of us who read this page can have known the old
Buffalo. And we must remember that for the young people
of today many things even of thirty years ago, would seem
strangely antiquated. For instance, the recent Buffalo that
I first knew, was a city of much less than half its present
size. There were still trees around the old First Church,
and residences in its rear, along Pearl street. There were
a few horse-car lines. You could go out Niagara street, as
far as the Prospect reservoir, where the 74th regiment
armory now stands, for five cents; if you rode further, the
fare was eight cents. Horse-cars took you out Main street
to Cold Spring. You could go on, as far as the Sisters’250
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
Hospital, in a bobtail car drawn by one horse, over rails at
the side of the street. When business seemed to warrant,
it ran once an hour. On Main street the Williamsville stage
was as familiar as the Lockport trolley cars are now—but
it went slower. There were still public cisterns in many
parts of town, and the pumps on the Terrace, at Main and
Genesee, and elsewhere, were much used. Bacteriology was
in its infancy, and the microbe, though no doubt then with
us, had not attained its present monopoly of ailment.
The old group of down-town churches were still the
devotional meeting-places of most of the church-going
population. The phrase, “The Churches,” was still in com-
mon use as designation of what is now Shelton Square; no
doubt some of our older residents still use it, but the reason
for it is no longer apparent. The “Old First” has gone; so
have St. John’s, and Trinity, and the Washington-street
Baptist, and the United Presbyterian, and two or three
other earlier churches on Washington street. The French
St. Peter’s has gone, and the Wells-street chapel. Old
Temple Beth Zion, originally a Methodist church, made way
for the Masonic building on Niagara street. The Central
Presbyterian and the Niagara-square Baptist—Congrega-
tional in its later years—are both abandoned, and the former
at least may be demolished before these lines reach the
reader. Of them all, there now remain, consecrated to reli-
gious use, but two, St. Paul’s and St. Joseph’s. A new St.
Joseph’s is building, but its completion will not, it is to be
hoped, put an end to the older edifice, infinitely rich in
associations, or to its sacred use.
Thirty years ago we had but one theatre—at least but
one attended by polite society—the old Academy. There
was still an occasional sailing craft in the harbor. The
Board of Trade still flourished on Central Wharf; andASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
251
from the purlieus of Canal street the sulphurous glory had
not yet wholly departed. What are now choice residence
districts were still vacant land and cow-pasture. Among
my own recollections of what I must call modern Buffalo,
are, an attendance at ball-games on grounds between Rich-
mond and Elmwood; and at a circus whose tents were
pitched just west of Wadsworth street, about where St.
John’s place now runs.
As one notes the constant change, both in the business
and residential sections, one comes to the conclusion that in
Buffalo at least each generation practically creates its own
city. If one will compare the Buffalo of today with that,
say, of thirty years ago, he will be surprised to note
how few of the important buildings are old. Our City Hall,
it is true, dates back to 1876, and the Jail is somewhat older;
but the Federal building, the Municipal building, every one
of the theatres; two of the three high schools; all of the
prominent hotels except the Genesee; even the historic
old Mansion House has been built over; our two great
armories; the Chamber of Commerce, the Y. M. C. A.
building; and the “old” Y. M. C. A. building, now the
home of the Y. W. C. A.; all of the conspicuous club
houses—the Saturn, University, Twentieth Century, Coun-
try—all in fact except the Buffalo and the Park, and they
occupy former residences so altered and enlarged as to be
practically new; the Public Library, the Grosvenor, the
Catholic Institute, the Historical Building, the Albright Art
Gallery; most of the churches and hospitals and asylums;
the banks; scores of public and private schools; miles
on miles of business buildings, and thousands of residences,
which really make up the Buffalo of today, have all been
built within the last thirty years. Attention is called
to this feature of our city merely to emphasize the point252
ASSOCIATIONS OF BUFFALO.
that historic association does not depend upon the preser-
vation of the old. The associations remain with us though
the face of our city constantly changes; and while we often
lament the passing of a beautiful old residence or a build-
ing which has been the scene of important events, it is well
to remember that after all the history of the community is
embodied in the acts of its men and women.
It is with the deeds of the makers of Buffalo that the
student of our history is, after all, most concerned. It
would be a pleasure, were it feasible, to recall the names
and achievements of many of the men and women who have
lived their lives in this community and accomplished some-
thing for the world’s betterment; but as one begins to
recall name after name, their very number is seen to make
it impracticable. Our dearest associations must always
remain with the personality of those who have lived and
worked, rather than with the things of brick and mortar that
may withstand for a few years. The only enduring work
and the most significant is the wholly immaterial memory
of good lives and useful effort, things that cannot be
labelled, nor kept in museums, nor marked by tablets. Is it
not true of all history, that it is merely the outcome of indi-
vidual character and effort?FROM INDIAN RUNNER TO
TELEPHONE
ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR THE MAGAZINE “OPPORTUNITY/”
JANUARY, I909.
O chapter in the story of Western New York is more
important or more interesting than that which relates
the development of means of intercommunication. It
touches the real life of the people far more than the record
of wars and politics.
Western New York has sometimes been called the “most
highly civilized spot on earth.” If there is a touch of irony
or humor in this, the residents of Western New York need
not admit it. They do have all the advantages and blessings
to be found anywhere. In nothing are they more fortunate
than in facilities of travel and communication by mail, tele-
graph and telephone.
The telephone service in our day, the highest and best
development of intercommunication, is the latest of a long
series of steps in our progress.
When the white man first came to know what we call
Western New York, it was the home of a people highly
developed, compared with most of the American aborigines.
Their trails ran across and up and down the country, and
their fleet-footed runners, by using the relay system, carried
verbal messages from Lake Erie to the Hudson in an
incredibly short time. The first whites used the old Indian
trails; but they used more the natural waterways. The
253254
INDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
campaigns and marches of the French—who were the first
white masters of the region—and after them of the British,
were mostly made by boats which skirted the shores of
Ontario and Erie, or paddled and poled up and down the
streams, with arduous portages from one watershed to
another.
This was the state of things so far as travel or traffic
was concerned when white men first undertook to acquire
the lands of Western New York.
For this sketch we will refer to Western New York as
that region bounded on the east by a line running through
Seneca lake. Under the old Colonial charters, both Massa-
chusetts and New York made claim to this territory. The
final adjustment of their claims led to a sale in 1788 on the
part of Massachusetts of the pre-emption right to some six
million acres, to Nathaniel Gorham and Oliver Phelps.
They paid about a million dollars for it, but they paid in
scrip which soon fell much below par. The first Western
New York land deal was not a conspicuous success for the
speculators. Two years later, Phelps and Gorham bought
the Indian title to 2,600,000 acres, extending from about
the line of Seneca lake to the Genesee river. The Indians
got very little out of the bargain, as was the case in every
trade with the whites.
In 1791, the western part of the great tract was resold to
Robert Morris, who again sold it to a company of Dutch
speculators, who, although they did not constitute a cor-
porate company, are known in history as the Holland Land
Company.
These Dutch speculators sent their surveyors and agents
into the wilderness. They opened the first roads and laid
out the first settlements. For the sake of its good harbor
on Lake Erie, a town was begun on Buffalo creek in 1799,INDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
255
and with Dutch loyalty was called New Amsterdam. It
soon became Buffalo.
For many years the two tracts into which Western New
York was thus divided,—the Phelps and Gorham tract east
of the Genesee, and the Holland Land Company’s tract west
of it,—present similar phases of development.
The first people to come in and take up the lands were
from New England; especially in the Genesee valley was
the New England immigration so large that it turned that
fertile wilderness into what is still the garden region of
New York State, and gave it a character for thrift, culture
and morality which constituted it a second New England.
The Holland Purchase, too, had a similar influx of
settlers from New England; but as time went on it received
more immigrants from Europe, most of them bringing very
few worldly goods. Its interests, too, were less purely agri-
cultural, especially at Buffalo, where lake traffic drew
together large numbers of sailors and others of a more or
less rough and adventurous disposition. Buffalo has always
been made up of many races. Rochester, the chief city of
the Genesee valley region, has always remained more dis-
tinctly of New England parentage and English origin.
The first thing that marks the development of a new
region after the settler has hewn the trees and built his
cabin, is the opening of a road that he may be in touch with
his neighbors,—neighbors none the less though perhaps
many miles distant.
The first wagon track on the Holland Purchase was
opened in 1798 and followed in the main the old Indian
trail from Canandaigua to the Buffalo creek. In the next
ten years, many roads were opened between the new settle-
ments, usually by the agents of the Holland Land Company.
One important road a hundred years ago, and still a much256
INDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
used highway, was not so constructed. This was the
Military Road opened by United States officers stationed at
Fort Niagara in 1800. They constructed it from the brow
of the high land above Lewiston to Scajaquada Creek, now
within the limits of Buffalo. Originally built to facilitate
the transportation of troops and munitions of war from
Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, it later became a convenient
road for the settlers. A portion of it, today known as the
Military Road, is a part of the street system of Buffalo.
Even before the roads were made, the people of Western
New York asked the Government for a mail service. Before
the era of settlements, when the French or British troops
controlled the region, military mail was sent back and forth
by boat between Oswego and Fort Niagara, and this method
was followed long after the first roads were opened. In
winter the mail carrier was either an athletic soldier or an
Indian who ran through the forest on snow-shoes. Many
an important mail has been delivered by such a carrier at
Oswego, Fort Niagara and Buffalo Creek.
In 1790 there were but 175 postoffices in the United
States and 1875 miles of post roads. These were mostly
between old cities near the seaboard. In New York State
Utica got its first mail in 1793, Canandaigua in 1794. The
first mail was carried from Canandaigua to Niagara,—
meaning not the present city of the Falls, but the old Fort,
—in 1797. On all the early mail routes in Western New
York, the carrier was a horseman who rode over the mirey
and stump-crowded roads, usually with his mail in his hat
or pocket, carrying food for himself and oats for his horse
in saddle-bags. As settlements and loadside taverns mul-
tiplied, the food question was simplified and the saddle-
bags were used for the mail. On September 30, 1804,
Buffalo's first postmaster was appointed. This was ErastusINDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
257
Granger, for many years one of the most prominent men in
Western New York. At that time there were no postoffices
nearer to Buffalo than Batavia on the east, Niagara to the
north and Erie to the southwest. The post route from
Canandaigua to Niagara was changed in that year so that
the carrier rode his horse by way of Buffalo creek, leaving
there the packet of letters and papers for Buffalo and for
the occasional schooner on the lake. Buffalo received its
mail once in two weeks until 1805; then, until 1809, it had
a weekly service. In 1810 a change to “stage-wagon”
service was established from Buffalo eastward and the mail
used that method. Andrew Langdon—grandfather of a
prominent citizen of Buffalo of that name—drove the first
stage from Albany to Buffalo.
The war of 1812 to 1815 was a great setback to the
development of Western New York. It stopped immigra-
tion, it impoverished many of the settlers who had already
taken up lands, and checked the development of all im-
provements.
From about 1815, for ten years or so, the interest of the
people in this section largely centered on the construction
of the Erie canal. Open from the east as far as Rochester
in 1823 and to Buffalo and Lake Erie in the fall of 1825, it
became for a period the main highway of freight shipment
and of travel; but it did not carry the mail. When the
canal was opened, in October, 1825, the news was carried
by the 'booming of cannon, one after another, across the
State from Lake Erie to the Hudson, in one hour and
twenty minutes.
The era in which the canal was without rival was short.
Eight years after the first boat had left Buffalo for the east,
a railway was opened from Buffalo to Black Rock. It was
a most primitive construction, the rail being of woodINDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
covered with a strap of iron and the motive power a team of
horses; but it was the beginning of the great railway era.
In 1836, however, a real railroad with a steam locomotive
whch drew the queer old cars over a wonderfully rough
track was opened from Buffalo to Niagara Falls. It car-
ried the mail and there was no lack of people willing to take
chances and travel on the new-fangled line. The chain of
railways across New York State from Albany to Buffalo
was completed in 1843. Built in sections with connecting
links added at intervals of years, and representing many
companies and various interests when completed, it was
found to keep very nearly the line of the old stage road,
which in turn had gradually evolved from the earlier roads
of the settlers, and these had followed, wherever practicable,
the ancient trails of the Indians.
Whoever rides today in the luxurious coaches on the
rapid-moving trains across the state, passes, for the greater
part, through the same valleys, skirts the same hills—but
does not see the same forests—which marked the way
along which the Iroquois runner hastened two hundred
years ago.
From the time railroads were first built, they carried the
mails, but it was not until many years later that the rate of
postage was so reduced that communication by mail ceased
to be an expense which was felt by the average individual.
In the earlier years, domestic postage ranged from 6}4c to
25c. Towards the close of the War of 1812, this maximum
rate of 25c was increased 50 per cent., so that a letter of
any considerable length sent from one part of New York
State to another was likely to cost either the sender or the
receiver 37j4c. No envelopes were used. The correct
way of folding, sealing and addressing the sheets of
paper is now one of the lost arts. The modern envelopeINDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
259
and cheap postage practically revolutionized domestic cor-
respondence.
The railway era was quickly followed by the Age of
Wire. Before people in New York State had overcome
their timidity enough to travel generally on the railways,
they began to hear of Morse’s new-fangled “magnetic
telegraph.” Nothing in the history of the world did so
much to revolutionize intercommunication as this invention.
Next to the inventor himself, none did more to make it
practicable than two men of Western New York. It was
Millard Fillmore of Buffalo, afterward President of the
United States, who, as a member of Congress in 1842, pro-
cured for Morse the Government appropriation for the
construction of an experimental line. Morse’s idea was to
bury the wires. It was Ezra Cornell of Ithaca who first
suggested stringing them on poles. Mr. Cornell made a
fortune out of the idea and hastened the day when tele-
graph communication was made well nigh universal.
The Civil War had a curious effect on the development
of the telegraph. Prior to the war it was used sparingly,
partly because of its cost, partly because many people mis-
trusted its accuracy. But the demand for prompt reports
from the front during the war led the great newspapers of
the country to make the first extensive use of the wire for
news reports. The business public soon followed. Boards
of trade and commercial interests generally made little or
no use of the telegraph until about the time of the Civil
War. Now the bulk of their business is transacted by wire.
Extensive as telegraphic communication has become, it
has never reached every corner of every county, and prac-
tically every household, as has the telephone. This is the
more wonderful when we recall that the practical use of
the telephone is scarcely more than a quarter century old.260
INDIAN RUNNER TO TELEPHONE.
Although the telephone was in use more than thirty years
ago, it was for some years chiefly confined to great cities
and short distances. It is not too much to say that now all
of Western New York is brought into instantaneous com-
munication by a network of wires.
While these advances have been taking place, Western
New York itself has been transformed. When the first
Federal census was taken, in 1790, the white population of
old Ontario county, which then embraced all of the territory
we are considering, was 1085. The fourteen counties into
which old Ontario has been divided, had at the Federal
census of 1900 a population of 1,469,360, now beyond
question in excess of a million and a half. With the possi-
bilities of wireless communication and other yet undreamed-
of improvements, who can doubt that the coming decades
will show changes in our means of intercommunication- as
marked and wonderful as those of the past ?SOME THANKSGIVING
CONTRASTS
A SUNDAY AFTERNOON ADDRESS AT THE HISTORICAL BUILDING.
T ASK you to join with me in considering briefly the
historical aspect of Thanksgiving, the American feast
and holiday which most of us—I hope all of us—are to
celebrate this week. I have no thought of preaching a
Thanksgiving sermon. Our point of view in these talks, as
you know, is always that of the student of history. As such
let us take note of certain significant changes in the char-
acter and observance of this day we call Thanksgiving.
And first, let me call attention to certain contrasts in the
proclamations establishing the day. I hope you have all
read the short proclamation issued a few days ago by
Governor Hughes. I was much struck on reading it with
its significant difference from many of the formal procla-
mations which have preceded it. “With profound appre-
ciation/’ says the Governor, “of the obligations of liberty
and of our dependence, for the maintenance of our insti-
tutions, upon a proper sense of the responsibilities of citi-
zenship and upon the cultivation of those qualities of char-
acter which will enable us to discharge them/’ And again
he says: “Let us devote our lives to the attainment of the
best of which we are capable in all good works, delighting
in our fellowship and in the joyous service of brotherhood.”
261262
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
And then he goes on and in the usual way recommends a
religious observance of the day.
But such language as Governor Hughes uses, such ideas
and ideals as inspired that language, would have been abso-
lutely impossible and incomprehensible to the old Colonial
governors whose proclamations instituted the observance of
the day.
Contrast with these words of Governor Hughes the
following from the Connecticut proclamation of 1650:
“Every person shall duly resort and attend thereunto upon
such public fast days and days of thanksgiving as are to be
generally kept by the appointment of authority/' and for
failure to obey this mandate the Connecticut citizen was
liable to a fine of five shillings. This illustrates the early
idea of commanding the people, not merely to attend service,
but to pray and to fast and to rejoice.
More than one hundred years later, in Massachusetts
Bay Colony, a man was liable to fine or other punishment if
he worked on days appointed for fasting and prayer. In
1696, William Veazie of Boston was pilloried for plowing
on a fast-day.
For many years such was the conception and the custom.
Gradually, as the nation expanded, the ideas underlying
this thanksgiving institution shifted. It would be an inter-
esting inquiry to trace year by year the evolution of the
modern conception; but for our purpose let us cite only one
other, a proclamation by Governor Seward? made some
fifty years ago, in which, after reviewing the blessings of
the people, he says: “I recommend to my fellow citizens
that they abstain on that day from secular employments.”
It was no longer a peremptory order, but a recommenda-
tion. Governor Seward's proclamation was by no means
exceptional; his point of view was that of his time; butSOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
263
note how far he had travelled from the old compulsory
mandates of 1650. And now, half a century after Seward,
we find the Governor of New York State neither ordering
nor formally recommending, but heartily reminding the
citizen and the individual of his obligations to government
and to others. Nothing more perfectly illustrates the
growth of the feeling of personal responsibility, than such
a proclamation as we have this year from Governor Hughes.
Again, notice the contrasts in the observance of the day.
It has come to be a custom that no governor of a State
issues a Thanksgiving proclamation until the President of
the United States has issued one. By custom the institution
has taken on a national character. In its origin, as you
know, it was purely local, and for many years it continued
a variable and irregular institution. Three of the early
Presidents, Washington, John Adams and Madison, issued
proclamations to the people, calling on them to observe
certain days with fasting, prayer and thanksgiving; but
after Madison no President of the United States issued a
proclamation for a national thanksgiving until Abraham
Lincoln. This seems the more remarkable because at dif-
ferent periods in our history, when most of the states and
territories had practically settled upon one day in the year
for thanksgiving observance, requests had been presented
to the President that the institution of Thanksgiving might
be given a national character. This feeling manifested
itself always during or after some national crisis or
calamity. The most notable Thanksgiving in the early
history of the country followed the treaty of peace con-
cluding the War of 1812. After the great financial crisis
of i837-’38, after the Mexican War, and at different times
during the long period of bitter agitation over slavery,
special fast days, sometimes combined with the feature of264
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
thanksgiving, were ordained by the governors of different
states. But there was a feeling at Washington that such
matters belonged to the states.
A Buffalo President had offered to him, urged upon him,
the opportunity to establish this most symbolical day of
American observance, but he failed to improve the oppor-
tunity. This was Millard Fillmore. While he was Presi-
dent in 1852, a strong movement was started to give to
Thanksgiving a national character by having it proclaimed
by the President and observed on the same day throughout
the Union. Prior to that time, the different states named
their own days, so that a Massachusetts man might cele-
brate Thanksgiving in Boston, and, perhaps, being later in
Connecticut or New Jersey, might celebrate another
Thanksgiving with the citizens of those states.
Among the manuscripts in the possession of this Society,
formerly belonging to President Fillmore, are certain inter-
esting letters written to him by representatives of public
journals and by organizers and educational workers, ex-
plaining to him at great length how he might add to the
luster of his administration, by creating a national Thanks-
giving Day. Mr. Fillmore’s reply was that such matters
were the prerogative of the several states. And such,
apparently, was the view of his successors until the day of
Lincoln.
I have said that the popular demand for this observance
always followed a period of crisis or calamity, so that you
may readily believe that the greatest of our nation’s crises,
the Civil War, turned the minds of the people more strongly
than ever before in their history to the formal observance
of this institution. President Lincoln issued several procla-
mations creating days of prayer and fasting during the
Civil War.SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
265
In 1863 he appointed August 6th as a special Thanks-
giving because “there have been vouchsafed to the Army
and Navy of the United States victories on land and on the
sea so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable
grounds for augmented confidence that the Union, of these
States will be maintained, their constitution preserved and
their peace and prosperity permanently restored.” The
people were not asked to give thanks because the North had
won victories over the South, but “for augmented confidence
that the Union of these States will be maintained.” I cannot
forbear to call attention to one striking thing which this
quotation illustrates—the beauty and purity of Mr. Lincoln’s
English. How came he to be master of a diction that rivals
in its rhythmic appeal to the ear, and in its precise and
forceful use of our speech, the most exalted passages in
the Prophets, the prayer of St. Crysostom, or the best of
English anywhere ? Was the gift his because he was abso-
lutely sincere, and wrought, as well as wrote, in the midst of
times that taught, no less than they tried, the souls of men?
But President Lincoln died before the whole country
had fairly come to consider itself once more as a Union.
So that it was his successor, President Johnson, who had
the distinction of issuing the first Thanksgiving proclama-
tion for a national observance throughout the country.
From Andrew Johnson’s day to this we have had an annual
Thanksgiving proclamation from the President.
Nothing better illustrates the changed conditions since
Thanksgivings were first observed in this country than a
list of some of the things for which thanks were specially
ordered at different periods.
Our ancestors gave thanks for not starving to death.
This, in a word, was the occasion of those first New Eng-
land Thanksgivings.266
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
For rain.
For the end of a too rainy season.
For the arrival of provision1 ships.
For deliverance from pirates.
For defeat of enemies in war.
For safe arrival of persons of rank or quality.
For the birth of an heir to the British throne. This, of
course, in the English colonies.
For the establishment of the Constitution.
Some of these promptings to thanksgiving may be dwelt
on a little. For instance, the gratitude for rain. That caused
the second American Thanksgiving, in July, 1623. This
was no harvest-home, but a triumph of the faith of the com-
munity. From May to the middle of July there had been
no rain. The Pilgrims stood it as long as they could, then
set apart “a solemn day of humiliation.” In the morning,
when they began to pray, according to the old chronicle, “it
was clear weather and very hot, and not a cloud or any
sign of rain to be -seen.” Strenuous religious services were
kept up for nine hours; towards evening it began to rain—
and the shower lasted fourteen days. They were no mere
dilettanti, these Pilgrim fathers, when it came to praying.
Then they changed their fast to a thanksgiving.
You may be a bit skeptical as to a thanksgiving because
of defeat of enemies in war. A manuscript preserved in
the archives of the Hague shows that in 1644 the New
Yorkers marched to Greenwich, Conn., shot or burned alive
five or six hundred Indians, including women and children ;
they then marched back to New York—and sat down to a
Thanksgiving dinner! And did the New England colonists
have a Thanksgiving season after the virtual annihilation
of the Pequots ?
It has always been true that men give thanks at theSOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
267
defeat of their enemies. One of the most notable Thanks-
giving Days in the history of our country was October 9,
1760, which was appointed by Colonial Governors “a day
of Public Thanksgiving for the success of his Majesty’s
Arms, more especially in the intire Reduction of Canada.”
Clergymen everywhere (except in Canada), and especially
in Boston, preached long sermons full of exultation at the
overthrow of the power of France in America; and these
were the good old-fashioned double-barreled sermons,
which began- with a long discourse in the morning, stopped
for a noon breathing spell, and wound up with two or three
more hours of exhortation in the afternoon. To many an
eager, restless youth in those days, the real Thanksgiving
must have begun when the minister’s “amen” released him
from all these hours on hard benches.
One of those old Thanksgiving sermons has come down
to me. It was preached on this same October 9, 1760,
morning and afternoon, by Jonathan Mayhew, a most emi-
nent D. D. of his time, in the West Church, Boston. His
text was : “Thou art my son. . . . Ask of me, and I
will give the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter-
most parts of the earth for thy possession.” The devout
inference, of course, was that the Lord had taken Canada
away from the wicked French, and had put it in the pos-
session of the good English, as a part of the general scheme
of advancing His kingdom on earth. That was, of course,
the only way that Minister Mayhew and his people could
look at it; that is the way we always look at the defeat of
an adversary. The curious thing about it is that these same
people, a few years later, were holding Thanksgiving ser-
vices in gratitude to the Almighty for their own deliverance
from the English!
As to the establishment of the Constitution, it is interest-268
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
mg to recall that in 1789 a joint commission of the two
houses of Congress waited upon Washington “to request
that he would recommend to the people of the United
States a day of public thanksgiving and thanks to God,
especially for affording them an opportunity peacefully to
establish a constitution of government for their safety and
happiness.” There have been other occasions in our history
when Congress has asked the President to proclaim fast or
thanksgiving days—three times during the War of 1812.
The modern evolution of Thanksgiving day observance
has carried1 us a long ways from the original institution.
Every schoolboy knows, probably with- more certainty of
information than his elders, that what is now a national
observance is an outgrowth of the Pilgrim Thanksgiving.
As a religious observance it antedates the coming of the
Pilgrims; fasts and feasts are as old as the Hebrew faith,
if not as old as the race itself. But the first American
Thanksgiving followed that first Pilgrim harvest of 1621;
on which joyful occasion, thanks to “King” Massasoit, the
turkey was brought in, and entered upon the most exalted
career attained by any bird, not even excepting the eagle.
We give the eagle vague respect, but we love the turkey.
I have spoken of the second American Thanksgiving.
The third American Thanksgiving of formal observance
was in 1631, because of the safe arrival of provision ships.
Gradually, the festival became established, and extended to
other colonies; but Thanksgiving has always been pre-
eminently a New England institution. Other parts of the
country have varied in their regard for it. Where there is a
strong element of New England settlers, Thanksgiving is
made much of. It was the great day of the year in Boston
for a century and a half before New York paid much atten-
tion to it. New York, with different traditions, alwaysSOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
269
exalted Christmas and New Year’s. The Bostonians for
long years frowned on the Christmas festivities, which
savored so much of ritualism and, as the old preachers used
to put it, “of popery.” New York and the southern
colonies have adopted Thanksgiving from New England.
New England has warmed up to a merry Christmas; and
these and the whole country have handed the earlier day
over to feasting, visiting and sports, with less and less of
religious observance.
Thanksgiving Day and Fast Day sermons are really
pretty lively reading—if they are old enough. Our country
got through the Colonial and the Revolutionary period with
an alternation of fasts and thanksgivings which truly
gauges the varying fortunes of the struggle. But when we
were once fairly launched in the critical period that fol-
lowed, and then so soon carried into another war with Great
Britain, our troubles began in earnest. The American poli-
tician arrived as he never had before, and that “menace of
malice,” which one of our Presidents mentioned in one of
his Thanksgiving proclamations, showed itself as never
before. Fast days multiplied, and there were few Thanks-
givings.
A very curious chapter of American history could be
written from data contained in the Fast Day and Thanks-
giving Day sermons preached during the decade from 1810
to 1820. New England did not support President Madi-
son’s policy. When Congress declared war, June 18, 1812,
the first thing that the Governor of Massachusetts did was
to proclaim a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. Other
governors did the same, in addition to the annual spring
fast, usually a Sunday in April, which was a regular observ-
ance at that time. So violent was the adverse criticism on
Madison’s policy, that, although the President did not270
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
swerve from his course, he fell in- with the spirit of his
opponents—or perhaps felt that the emergency called for it
—and proclaimed a national fast. This was on August 20,
1812. But -before that time the New England ministers had
“sailed into him,” hot and heavy. He was denounced as the
enemy of his country and the tool of France. Pulpit
politics, then as now, were not conspicuous for discretion.
But no minister today would' be apt to go to the intemperate
extremes of language and denunciation- of the National
Executive that characterized many a fast day sermon of
these wrathy New England parsons. They usually prefaced
their remarks by saying that it was not their custom to talk
politics in the pulpit, but that the day was exceptional.
Many a Thanksgiving sermon nowadays has a like introduc-
tion. Freedom of speech meant free speaking, in the New
England pulpit in the good old days.
The Reverend John Smith, pastor of the church in
Salem, N. H., told his. congregation: “Whether Great
Britain is friendly to the American interest or not, she is
friendly to her own interest, and in defending herself she
guards our liberties. Could our twenty ships effect any real
injury to the thousand ships of the British navy, it would
be like taking away the rampart of our own defense. Could
the wildest imagination conceive of anything like victory
over England, in the same event might be seen the complete
ruin of our own country.” What a shock to this good man
must have been those glorious sea-duels that were so soon to
demonstrate American superiority. He urged the young
men- not to enlist, and declared the war not merely “an
alliance with France,” -but “making war with the Lamb and
with the saints,” “uniting with Antichrist”—an epithet at
the time often given to Bonaparte—“combining with the
deluded nations, that wander after the beast, .	.	. andSOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
271
finally go to perdition.” Dr. Dwight’s fast-day sermons in
the chapel of Yale College proved1 to the boys, with absolute
logic, that the war would put this country in an abject alli-
ance with France. “We are linking ourselves,” said William
Ellery Channing, in his fast-day sermon at the Federal
street church, Boston, July 23, 1812, “with the acknowl-
edged enemy of mankind, with a government which has left
not a vestige of liberty where it has extended its blasting
sway.” The Reverend John Gardiner, at Trinity Church,
Boston, on the same day said: “Let no considerations what-
ever, my brethren, deter you at all times and in all places
from execrating the present war. It is a war unjust, fool-
ish and ruinous. ... As Mr. Madison has declared
war let Mr. Madison carry it on.” Scores of New Eng-
land’s ministers harangued their congregations in this
strain.
Outside of New England, especially in Philadelphia, the
Episcopal ministers were equally violent against President
Madison. All through the war, the fast-day sermons
preached by New England ministers were practically an-
other hostile campaign against the struggling American
forces. The preachers did not hesitate at personalities
towards the President. The Reverend Elijah Parish, at
Newburyport, fulminating on the certainty of an alliance
with France, exclaimed: “Have not the Rulers at Paris and
Washington, since the commencement of the war, been one
as much as ‘the great red dragon’ and ‘one of his horns’ are
one? Which sooty slave in all the ancient dominion, has
more obsequiously watched the eye of his master, or flew
to the indulgence of his: desires, more servilely, than the
same masters have waited and watched, and obeyed the
orders of the great Napoleon? Are not the bonds of this
alliance already stronger than death?” These clergymen272
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
feared not only political bondage to France, but the spread
throughout America of French atheistical views. Only now
and then did a minister, on these fast-day occasions when
politics were permitted, stand up for his President. Such a
one was the Reverend John Giles, Presbyterian, of New-
buryport; and such another was Solomon Aiken, pastor of
the First Church in Dracutt, who issued “an address to
Federal clergymen on the subject of the war,” and vigor-
ously showed them which way lay true patriotism. “Some
of you,” he said, “treat our Christian rulers with more free-
dom than what Michael thought decent, or even dared, to
treat the devil.”
These fast-day exhibitions of public feeling gradually
gave way to a more reconciled state of mind, as the for-
tunes of war favored us more. And when President Madi-
son proclaimed April 13, 1815, as a National Thanksgiving
Day, even his pulpit critics who had opposed him most
bitterly and hampered his policy all they could throughout
the war, found a good deal to be thankful for. With the
exception of the Thanksgivings of i863~,64, that of April
13, 1815, was the most notable in the history of the United
States.
In one of President Roosevelt’s Thanksgiving proclama-
tions there is a striking sentence. Each generation, he says,
in the more than the century and a quarter which have
passed since this country took its place among the nations,
“has had its peculiar burdens, each to face its special crisis,
and each has known years of grim trial, when the country
was menaced by malice, domestic or foreign levy, when the
hand of the Lord was heavy upon it in drouth or flood or
pestilence, when in bodily distress and anguish of soul it
paid the penalty of folly and a froward heart.” President
Roosevelt wrote his own proclamations ; there can be noSOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
27a
doubt of that. He is a historian; and when he sweeps the
past years in a single sentence, he is thinking of specific
things in our history. “Menaced- by malice” is no mere
phrase. American progress has always been more delayed
and endangered by internal strife than by any act of other
nations. We are more at peace now, among ourselves, than
ever before. Curiously enough, the bitterest strife of past
years finds its most intemperate record in fast-day and
Thanksgiving-day sermons.
Nothing is more significant, in the history of our people,
than the decline of the fast. Good Catholics and orthodox
Hebrews continue faithful in the observance of fasts pre-
scribed in their churches. There are fasts for the Protestant
Episcopalians ; but taking that denomination as a whole,
there is less insistence on abstaining from food than for-
merly. As for the multitude of sects, for the most part,
they do not fast. The tendency of the time is simply that of
all peoples who are prosperous. The last great fasts in
American history were observed in the dark days of the
Civil War. If this country should be once more plunged
into such deep trouble, the fast day would no doubt reap-
pear as essentially a national observance. The first national
Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by President Lincoln
in 1863; the second in 1864, after the triumphs of the
Union forces. There was a spirit of earnestness in the
Thanksgiving services then that has disappeared from them
now. This is no reproach; it is human nature. We are too
prosperous to observe days of supplication and fasting, too
free from great calamity to be anything more than just
placidly thankful. The so-called decline of Thanksgiving
io but an index of national well being. It does not mean
that the people are grown irreligious.
Turning to recent years, it is instructive to observe how274
SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
the keynote, the special bequest of different Thanksgivings
varies, as shown- in the proclamations.
Thus in 1883, Grover Cleveland, then- Governor of the
State, found as a special cause for the people's gratitude,
“that the supremacy of law and order has been complete,"
and “we have advanced in all that pertains to the material,
social and educational interests of our people." The year
before this Governor Cornell had mentioned as a special
blessing that the “tide of immigration to our shores has
been unprecedented." This view would hardly prompt a
special thanksgiving today.
Governor David B. Hill, in 1885, called upon the people
to give thanks because “political rights have been enjoyed
without infringement from any source."
Governor Flower, in 1893, found special reason for
gratitude because the “State had been spared serious conflict
between employers and employes.”
Each of these shows in a measure the issue which had
engaged the attention of the public and on which, more or
less, party lines had been drawn, or a subject of general
discussion and common concern.
In 1889 Governor Roosevelt in a proclamation, which
was as unconventional and individual as are all of his utter-
ances, saw reason for thanksgiving because “each man- has
been permitted to live his life and do his work as seemed
best to him, provided only that he in no wise interfered
with the liberty and well being of his fellows.” “It is
right," he added, “that we should give thanks for the pros-
perity that has come to the nation and for the way in which
this great people in the first flush of its mighty manhood is
moving forward to meet its destiny and to do without flinch-
ing every duty with which that destiny brings it face to
face."SOME THANKSGIVING CONTRASTS.
275
The Thanksgiving proclamations of President Roosevelt
and Governor Hughes, and some other of the present gov-
ernors of States, well establish, from an historical point of
view, the fact that this country is absolutely at peace, undis-
turbed by any menace to its prosperity. Whenever that
menace has arisen, the thought of those in authority has
found definite expression, so that we may see in the old
proclamations just what were the evils from which deliver-
ance was sought or the specific blessings for which the
nation’s gratitude was due.
If the future historian of this country were to have no
other sources of information than the Thanksgiving proc-
lamations, he could not write much of a history, but he
could state with confidence two important facts:
First: That the American people (notwithstanding the
clamor of political strife, the conflicts of labor, and all the
difficult problems of our day) are at this time really very
prosperous and with ample grounds for happiness and
gratitude.
Second: That the idea of personal responsibility—the
national valuation of individual conduct towards the state as
towards one’s fellows—has come to the front, as never
before in the history of this Nation.ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU
HERE recently came into the possession of the Buffalo
Historical Society the original manuscript of a long
letter written by Harriet Martineau, at Niagara Falls, in
1834. It was addressed to her friend the Rev. Charles
Brooks, at “Hingham near Boston, Massachusetts.,, As it
has never been published, and as it is in part an interesting
bit of Niagara literature, I deem it worthy a place in these
records. The letter itself is something of a curiosity;
written in a light angular hand on thin paper, covering both
sides of the folded sheets and then cross-written, from side
to side and from top to bottom, in a very maze of thrifty
and exasperating chirography. The only portion of the
sheets not closely criss-crossed, is a space on the back for
the address—for this was before the days of envelopes, and
the precious pages were folded after a fashion which is
now a lost art, and fastened with red wafers.
Few of our early visitors—especially of our early
English visitors—have been so affable, so gracious without
condescension, as Harriet Martineau. When she came to
America in the summer of 1834, she was thirty-two years
of age, and for ten years had had a growing reputation as
a writer and a vigorous, remarkably clear-minded young
woman. Her first book, “Devotional Exercises for the use
of Young Persons,” was not of a sort likely to gain wide
277278
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
popularity. In 1830 she won three prizes offered by the
Central Unitarian Association for as many essays “designed
to convert respectively the Catholics, the Jews and the
Mohammedans. The essays,” observes an acute biographer,
“probably converted nobody, but brought in forty-five
guineas.” She had won some measure of popularity by her
stories, and genuine respect for her ability by her “Illustra-
tions of Political Economy” and “Illustrations of Taxa-
tion,” when, in 1834, she sailed for America. Here she was
less interested in the obvious phases of our society and our
scenery, than in the great problems which then engaged the
thought of political and social leaders in the United States.
On her return to England in 1836 she published her well-
known work, “Society in America,” and followed it in 1838
with the three-volume “Retrospect of Western Travel.”
She designed in this latter work to picture the scenery and
the lighter phases of her journeyings; but at her lightest
Miss Martineau was never anything but serious; and her
criticisms of slavery, as she had observed it in her travels,
won for her “Retrospect” some pretty harsh criticism. Had
she come to us twenty years later she would have found
the Abolition movement better organized, and would have
been greeted by warm sympathizers.
I revert to her “Retrospect” because it is one of the best
books we have, for its period. It pictures America to us
as it was seen in 1834 by a person who was absolutely
without prejudice and who never became hysterical. Miss
Martineau was very deaf, and thereby may have been
spared some small unpleasantnesses; but she seems to have
had a singularly judicial cast of mind. She loved justice
as well as she loved philosophy; and the lapse of more
than three quarters of a century has not taken from her
pages their worth or attractiveness. In later years herWITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
279
work grew more and more grave. In 1853 she published a
condensation of Comte’s “Positive Philosophy,” followed
by a “History of England during the Thirty Years’ Peace”
and other works of learning and merit. Her voluminous
“Autobiography” is one of the most candid records we have
of an ardent life pledged to high ideals. Able biographers
have long since sought to do justice to this gifted, high-
minded woman. I here merely seek to recall to the student
of our regional history her visits and what she wrote of us.
The “Retrospect” contains a lively chapter on Buffalo,
and another and longer one on Niagara Falls. Miss Mar-
tineau visited the Falls in October, 1834, and again in June,
1836. It was during her first visit that she wrote the letter
I am about to quote from. First, however, I wish to copy
from her pages a narrative of the burning of Buffalo, told
to her by one who had shared in the experiences described.
It is a record worthy a place in Buffalo’s annals of the War
of 1812. I give it as Miss Martineau wrote it down—
seated, she tells us, with a friend, “a lady of Buffalo, who
happens to be a good walker,” on the ruins of Fort Erie;
and I reserve a word or two of comment or correction until
the end:
At the time of the War of 1812, Mrs. W. lived in
Buffalo, with her father, mother, brothers, and sisters. In
1814, just when the war was becoming terrific on the
frontier, her father and eldest brother were drowned in
crossing the neighboring ferry. Six months after this
incident, the danger of Buffalo was so great that the
younger children of the family were sent away into the
country with their married sister, under the charge of their
brother-in-law, who was to return with his wagon for the
mother and two daughters who were left behind, and for
the clothes of the family. For three weeks there had been
so strong an apprehension of a descent of the Indians, the280
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
barbarous allies of the British, that the ladies had snatched
sleep with their clothes on, one watching while the others
lay down. It was with some difficulty, and after many
delays, that the wagon party got away, and there were still
doubts whether it was the safer course to go or stay.
Nothing was heard of them before night, however, and it
was hoped that they were safe, and that the wagon would
come for the remaining three the next morning.
The ladies put out their lights early, as they were
desired; and at eight, two of the three lay down to sleep;
Mrs. W., then a girl of sixteen, being one. At nine, she
was called up by the beating of a drum, the signal that the
Indians were at hand. No description can give an idea of
the loathing with which these savages were then regarded,—
the mingled horror, disgust, dread and hatred. The Indians
were insidious, dangerous, and cruel beyond example, even
in the history of savage warfare. These poor ladies had
been brought up to hate them with a deadly hatred; they
were surrounded with persons burning with the injuries
inflicted by Indian revenge and barbarity; for weeks they
had lived in hourly dread of death by their hands; their
strength was worn, and their nerves were shaken by the
long suspense; and now the hoarse drum woke them up
with news that the hour was come. A deadly sickness
overspread their hearts as they started from their beds.
They looked from their windows, but could see nothing
through the blank darkness. They listened, but they knew
that if the streets had been quiet as death, the stealthy
tread of the savages would have been inaudible. There
was a bustle in the town. Was the fight beginning? No.
It was an express sent by the scouts to say that it was a
false alarm. The worn-out ladies composed their spirits,
and sank to sleep again.
At four, they were once more awakened by the horrid
drum, and now there was a mustering in the streets which
looked as if this were no false alarm. In the same moment,
the sister who was watching what passed in the street, saw
by torchlight the militia part asunder and fly, and Mrs. W.,WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
281
who was looking through the back window, perceived in
the uncertain glimmer that a host of savages was leaping
the garden-fence,—leaping along the walks to the house,
like so many kangaroos,—but painted, and flourishing their
tomahawks. She cried out to her mother and sister, and
they attempted to fly; but there was no time. Before they
could open the front door, the back windows came crashing
in, and the house was crowded with yelling savages. With
their tomahawks, they destroyed everything but the ladies,
who put on the most submissive air possible. The trunks
containing the clothing of the whole family stood in the
hall, ready to be carried away when the wagon should
arrive. These were split to fragments by the tomahawk.
These wretches had actually met the wagon, with the rest
of the family, and turned it back; but the brother-in-law,
watching his opportunity, wheeled off from the road when
his savage guards were somewhat engaged, and escaped.
The ladies were seized, and as Mrs. W. claimed pro-
tection, they were delivered into the charge of some squaws
to be driven to the British camp. It was unpleasant enough,
the being goaded on through such a scene by savage women,
as insolent as the men were cruel; but the ladies soon saw
that this was the best thing that could have happened to
them; for the town was burning in various directions, and
soon no alternative would be left between being in the
British camp and in the thick of the slaughter in the burn-
ing streets. The British officer did not wish to have his
hands full of helpless female prisoners. He sent them home
again with a guard of an ensign and a private, who had
orders to prevent their house being burned. The ensign
had much to do to fulfil his orders. He stood in the door-
way, commanding, persuading, struggling, threatening; but
he saved the house, which was, in two days, almost the only
one left standing. The whole town was a mass of smoking
ruins, in many places slaked with blood. Opposite the door
lay the body of a woman who in her despair had drunk
spirits, and then defied the savages. They tomahawked her,
in sight of the neighbors, and before her own door, and her282
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
body lay where it had fallen; for there were none to bury
the dead.
Before the fire was quite burned out, the Indians were
gone, and the inhabitants began to creep back into the
town, cold and half dead with hunger. The ladies kept up
a large fire (carefully darkening the windows), and cooked
for the settlers, till they were too weary to stand, and one
at a time lay down to sleep before the fire. Mrs. W. often
during those dreary days used to fasten a blanket, Indian
fashion, about her shoulders, and go out into the wintry
night, to forage for food,—a strange employment for a
young girl in the neighborhood of a savage foe. She traced
the hogs in the snow, and caught many fowls in the dark.
On the third day, very early in the morning, six Buffalo
men were enjoying a breakfast of her cooking, when the
windows were again broken in, and the house once more
full of savages. They had come back to burn and pillage
all that was left. The six men fled, and, by a natural
impulse, the girl with them. At some distance from the
house, she looked behind her, and saw a savage leaping
towards her, with his tomahawk already raised. She saw
that the next instant it would be buried in her skull. She
faced about, burst out laughing, and held out both her hands
to the savage. His countenance changed, first to per-
plexity; but he swerved his weapon aside, laughed, and
shook hands, but motioned her homewards. She was full
of remorse for having quitted her mother and sister.
When she reached her door, the house was so crowded that
she could neither make her way in, nor learn anything of
their fate. Under the persuasion that they lay murdered
within, she flew to some British dragoons who were sitting
on the ground at a considerable distance, watching the
burning of the remainder of the town. They expressed
their amazement that she should have made her way
through the savages, and guarded her home, where they
procured an entrance for her, so that she reached the arms
of her patient and suffering mother and sister. The house
was, at length, the only one left standing; and when we
returned, Mrs. W. pointed it out to me.WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
283
The settlers remained for some time in the woods, steal-
ing in to a midnight warming and supper at the lone abode
of the widow and her daughters. The ladies had nothing
left but this dwelling. Their property had been in houses
which were burned, and their very clothes were gone. The
settlers had, however, carried off their money with them
safely into the woods. They paid the ladies for their hospi-
tality, and afterwards for as much needlework as they could
do; for every one was in want of clothes. By their indus-
try these women raised themselves to independence, which
the widow lived some tranquil years to enjoy. The daugh-
ter who told the story is now the lady of a Judge. She
never boasts of her bravery, and rarely refers to her ad-
ventures in the war; but preserves all her readiness and
strength of mind, and in the silence of her own heart, or
in the ear of a sympathizing friend, gratefully contrasts the
perils of her youth with the milder discipline of her riper
age.
The “Mrs. W.” of this narrative was Sarah, daughter of
Gamaliel and Margaret St. John, who became the wife of
Samuel Wilkeson. Miss Martineau’s dates are wrong, the
events described being at the burning of Buffalo, December
30, 1813, and days following. Certain other inaccuracies
may best be corrected by referring the reader to the narra-
tives of Mrs. Wilkeson’s sisters, Mrs. Sidway and Mrs.
Skinner, published in volume IX., Publications of the
Buffalo Historical Society.
Miss Martineau tarried in Buffalo long enough to note
several things of significance. She thought Buffalo an un-
desirable place of residence, because of the many rough
characters that gathered here. “It is the rendezvous of all
manner of persons; the passage through which fugitives
pass from the States to Canada, from Canada to the
States, and from Europe and the Eastern States into the
wild West. Runaway slaves come here, and their owners284
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
follow in hopes of recapturing them. Indian traders, land
speculators, and poor emigrants come here, and the most
debased Indians, the half-civilized, hang about the outskirts.
.	.	. The place is unavoidably a very vicious one.” For
her other observations in Buffalo, at Fort Erie and Niagara
Falls, I must refer the reader to her own pages; and sub-
mit without further comment a letter which she wrote, as
above described, omitting portions of no general interest,
but adhering to Miss Martineau’s peculiarities of style:
Niagara Falls, Octbr 19th, 1834.
Dear friends (for I know Mrs. B. will let me address
her thus)—I can not hope that you have been thinking of
us as often as we have of you, but yet you may have begun
to look for a letter to tell how we like your country & your
people, so far. On our part, we hope that you are now so
far settled down into your usual habits of life that a full
sheet will not come in upon you as an interruption. How
we did think of you both on the day of your meeting and on
the next Sunday! And now we want to know what you
are doing, & whether you will write to tell us. A letter
addressed to us at Mr. [name illegible], Philadelphia, be-
tween the 10th & 25th of next month, will be sure to reach
us & we shall be truly thankful for it. A newspaper wh
I have just taken up tells me that I am now at Boston—a
thing not to be believed even on such assurance while the
roar of these falls is in my ears. You will not expect me
to wish to be anywhere but where I am, but indeed I should
like to spend an hour by your evening fireside and hear
what is doing in Hingham. Well, let us hope the time will
come.
If I did but know where to begin, I sh’d like to tell you
what I think of what I have seen,—secure that you will not
betray me by repeating as my opinions what can be no more
than first impressions. I will just go on till my paper is full
& leave the rest for some future time. First, let me dis-
charge a duty, as well as give myself & you pleasure byWITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
285
reporting of my companion, Louisa Jeffery. I am really
delighted with her, & my esteem & regard for her grow
every day. Our popularity so far I consider to be much
owing to the cheerfulness & pleasantness of her manners.
No difficulty or fatigue seems to have any effect upon her.
She is as careful of me as my mother herself cd be, & as
a companion, she is all I c’d wish; so great is her good
sense joined with much cultivation of mind. I believe that
she is much liked wherever we have been & am sure she
ought to be.
We have had such a month of enjoyment. We are in
love with travelling; & I really hope in spite of the contra-
dictions between what we hear & what we see to learn
more of man & get more light upon social morals than I
anticipated, & Mr. B. knows how much I expected. From
New York we went to Paterson & saw the falls of the
Passaic, & a pleasant manufacturer’s family, where we
were kindly entertained & taught much of what life is like
in such a place. Then from New York to West Point,
where we saw Washington Irving, & some curious & some
interesting human specimens besides, & where I was driven
half delirious by the beauty of the scene. Then up to
Tivoli where we staid three days with the Elmendorfs &
saw much of the neighboring country. Then to Stock-
bridge, where we staid with the Sedgwick clan for some
time,—so happy that we scarcely expect to enjoy ourselves
more in all our lives. I am sure Stockbridge can be no
fair specimen of a village in any country. I never saw any
thing to compare with it for its union of the charms of
scenery & Society. The presence of Miss Sedgwick alone
is blessing enough for any one place; but the whole clan
seems worthy of her. You will rejoice to hear that we are
not only to meet her again in Philadelphia, but that she &
her eldest brother will travel with us all thro’ the West
next spring.
At Albany, we joined Dr. Julius, his two friends, Messrs.
Oppenheim & Sillen, & Mr. Higham, for our journey to the
falls. Miss Sedgwick w’d fain have gone, but a call of duty286
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
at home prevented her, besides that she had already taken
the journey this year. At Albany, Mr. Van Buren called
on me. I had letters to him at Washington, but I was glad
to begin our acquaintance earlier that I might be able to
unravel some of the contradictions that we hear about him
wherever we go. He was kind & communicative, took
pains to provide for my seeing Auburn properly, & held
out the prospect of much further intercourse at Wash-
ington.
Our happy party arrived here last Tuesday after a
delightful week’s journey, comprehending days at Trenton
Falls, Auburn, & Canandaigua. We saw all the beautiful
scenery by the way, except a part of the valley of the
Mohawk, wh we passed in the canal boat in the dark.
Louisa & I wished to make out a week here, not being able
to understand how people persuade themselves that they
have seen the Falls by staying two days. Our companions
c’d not remain so long, and were obliged to return by dif-
ferent routes; so Higham, & Oppenheim set out for New
York on Friday & Dr. Julius & Mr. Sillen for Toronto
yesy. We go back to Buffalo tomorrow for some days &
then proceed to take possession of Gen’l Mason’s house at
Detroit, where his son, who is Govr of Michigan will take
care that we get a palaver with Indians, & all else that we
want. Crossing the Lake to Cleveland, we go by Pittsburg
to Philadelphia. We might go through all our adventures
in white satin shoes, for besides that I have abundance of
letters, the principal people of every place call upon me &
the only fear seems to be that I sh’d be overwhelmed with
kindness.
I was amused at a message from the Mayor of Buffalo
(whose name I do not yet know). We arrived at dark &
left early next morning, but he conveyed his regrets that
he did not hear of my arrival for two hours (!) after I
alighted, when he thought it w’d be too late to call, but
means to await my return. The only thing of this kind that
has vexed me is its having been said in the newspapers that
I am rich, a mistake wh can not but cause me inconvenience.WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
287
I will talk over the Falls with Mr. B. when we meet.
As you, Mr. B., have not seen them, I shall not talk here
of their unimaginable beauty. It is this beauty, soft beyond
all names of softness, wh strikes me much more than their
grandeur, though I have been over them & under them,
looked at them from every side.
An adventure of ours yesy will give you an idea of what
we do to see the country. We wanted to have just a peep
at Ontario, as we may not live to visit it next year. So we
went to Queenston by stage, with Dr. Julius, & bade him
farewell there, intending to walk back (jy2 miles). We
got a package of sandwiches & a bottle of cider at the inn,
in order to have as much time as possible for exploring.
We carried our prog to Gen’l Brock’s monum1 wh we,
ascended, full of astonishment that we had heard so little
of the splendid scene wh lay below us. I w’d almost as
soon have passed by the Falls in the night as have omitted
this view of the strait, the lake, forests, villages & (alas!)
battle grounds. The portress, a nice little Yorkshire
woman, was delighted to see countrywomen, & made us eat
our dinner in her cottage, where she told us all her affairs.
When we had seen everything & were setting out on our
walk home, a country wagon, driven by a fine lad, passed,
& he asked us to let him drive us to the falls, as he was
going as far as Chippewa. We were glad of such an
opporty of learning something of Canada farming so we
jumped in; whereby we escaped a thorough wetting, saw
a new road, & learned all that the lad c’d tell us,—he being
amused all the while, instead of hav’g a solitary ride. This
will do, won’t it?
I am apt to forget that we are in Canada till the boarders
here & our host begin their cruel remarks on their neighbors
over the water,—the narrow limit wh sh’d not divide men’s
hearts. I almost think that the host must speak to please
his British guests, or he c’d not be so hard as he is. They
all seem to vie with each other in abusing the Americans, &
agreed at breakfast this morning that Mrs. Trollope’s book
is the truest, & it only stops short of the truth. Some of288
ON THE NIAGARA FRONTIER
these people are really superior people, & they say they were
delighted with the States when they first travelled through
them. When they appeal to us, & we can only say that we
have not seen the enormities they speak of, they look at one
another with smiles, as much as to say that we shall soon
grow wiser. One silly man acknowledges that there is more
refinement of mind & manner than among the Engh gen-
erally, but fears that religion has a poor chance, since so
much political independence must make men think them-
selves independent of God! There is a new idea for you!
At least it is quite new to us.
As for me,—if I may say what I feel at the end of one
month,—I am charmed. No one thing has struck us both
so much as (what I have never heard even alluded to by
our countrymen) that freedom & ingenuousness of manners
wh belongs only to a society remarkably pure in its morals.
I w’d already stake all the knowledge I have of human
nature on the fact that the morals of society are purer here
than in any society I have ever been in. The disagreeable
instinct by which the presence of profligacy is indicated has
never once been awakened; & the confidence thus inspired
is exhilarating to a degree I cannot describe. We cannot
explain this to the boarders here and we must therefore
submit to their anticipations that we shall grow wiser as
we travel on. Next to this comes the universal diffusion of
plenty & comfort, & the growing conviction that your gov1
is as wise & as stable as I believed it was. The more I read
& hear, the more amused I am at all alarms about your
political perils; & I shall probably feel this at any rate till
I get to Washington. At present, I like the children, their
independence & extraordinary efficiency & dexterity. I
cannot judge of them in their filial relation till I have been
more in private houses.
Now for what I do not like.—Your newspapers distress
a stranger. Their carping spirit & abusive language disgust
me more than anything I almost ever met with. I mean to
get at the bottom of this. Then—we were on board the
canal boat with a party of clergymen going to Utica—someWITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
289
of them missionaries; & their praying & saying grace all
day, their stories of special judgments, & criticisms of their
neighbours realized all I had ever read of bigotry & cant.
But there is much like this in England. It does not belong
to the country,—unless indeed it be the ignorant & silly
questions wh were asked about the Chinese, & foolishly
answered by a missionary from China. I can hardly
imagine any disciple in Engd asking if the Chinese are can-
nibals. Tobacco is a grievance, of course; & now and then
we are struck with a little coldness of manner: but all this
is nothing in comparison with the hearty hospitality & un-
varying consideration & kindness we have met with: still
less with the innocence wh I have spoken of as the pre-
vailing charm. As to domestic accommodations, we are
only surprised at their completeness, considering how new
a country we are in. Here are, in brief, my impressions.
I shall have much more to say, & with more confidence,
when I have been settled in a town for a month together.
.	.	. My mother writes delightfully, persuading me that
she is happy without me. It was a great comfort to her
while writing, she says, to remember that you were on
board, dear Mrs. B.
Farewell now. Louisa sends her kind regards. Believe
me ever most truly & gratefully yours
H. Martineau.
Up to the hour of our leaving N. York, we were obliged
to your brother for much kind attention.
The Mayor of Buifalo in 1834, whose courtesy Miss
Martineau mentions, was Ebenezer Johnson.
I conclude these notes with the following letter which
Miss Martineau wrote at this time to her mother. It has
been published, in her “Autobiography,” but deserves a
place in our collection:
Niagara, October 14.
.	.	. You must not expect a description from me.
One might as well give an idea of the kingdom of heaven
by images of jasper and topazes as of what we have been290
WITH HARRIET MARTINEAU.
seeing by writing of hues and dimensions. Except the
hurricane at sea, it is the only sight I ever saw that I had
utterly failed to imagine. It is not its grandeur that strikes
me so much; but its unimaginable beauty. All images of
softness fail before it. Think of a double rainbow issuing
from a rock one hundred feet below one, and almost com-
pleting its circle by nearly lighting on one’s head. The
slowness with which the waters roll over is most majestic.
There is none of the hurry and tumble of common water-
falls, but the green transparent mass seems to ooze over
the edges. The ascent of the spray, seen some miles off,
surprised me; it did not hang like a cloud, but curled vig-
orously up, like the smoke from a cannon or a new fire.
We have crossed the ferry, and done more than in my
present state of intoxication I can well remember or tell
you of. On the spot, I felt quite sane—sure-footed and
reasonable; but when I sat down to dinner, I found what
the excitement had been. I could not tell boiled from roast
beef, and my only resource was to go out again as soon as
we could leave the table; and now I am very-sleepy. I
expected I should be disappointed, and told Miss ^edgwfck
so. She was right in saying that it was impossible. If one
looks merely at a cataract, it would be easy to say, “Dear
me! I could fancy a rock twice as high as that, and a river
twice as broad,” but I could not think any imagination could
conceive of such colouring; and I was wholly unprepared
for the beauty of the surrounding scenery. Fragments of
rainbow start up and flit and vanish, like phantoms at a
signal from the sun. We have watched the growth of this
moon, “the Niagara moon”; and there she is, at her very
brightest! What a pleasure there is in a wholly new idea!
It never occurred to me before that there can never be a
cloudless sky at Niagara. A light fleecy rack is always in
the sky over the falls; and the watcher may here see the
process of cloud-making. No more now. Rejoice with me
that I have now seen the best that my eyes can behold in
this life. .	.	. _y	„
Yours most affectionately,
H. Martineau.HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO
ITHOUT aspiring to the ranks of those who maintain
that there is no truth in history; and conceding (to
avoid argument) that there is much in what they say, I am
still prompted to point out in behalf of what I conceive to
be history, a few instances which really have no warrant
to be so called. I would shrink from the role of the
Schoolmaster Abroad, for to correct other people is usually
as futile as it is, to me, distasteful. It is my present reflec-
tion, however, that if there is any service to be rendered by
seeking out and setting down facts, an equal service may be
rendered by pointing out some alleged facts which are only
There is no difficulty in doing this if one go back far
enough. While it might be embarrassing to accuse a living
writer of mendacity, there is no trouble at all about it if
your writer has been dead for a century or so. In such a
case no temper is aroused; the contention usually becomes
merely a matter of mild amusement.
This is very much so with several of the early writers
who described Niagara Falls. It is not likely they deliber-
ately tried to deceive anybody; a traveler must have a
marvelous tale to tell, and from the beginning Niagara has
been a fount of inspiration. Father Hennepin’s account of
the Falls has been much quoted. Here is a somewhat later
one, that of the Baron La Hontan, which I like better:
“As for the waterfall of Niagara; ’tis seven or eight
hundred feet high, and half a League broad. Towards the
fiction.
291292
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
middle of it we descry an Island that leans towards the
Precipice, as if it were ready to fall. All the Beasts that
cross the Water within half a quarter of a League above
this unfortunate Island, are suck’d in by force of the
Stream: And the Beasts and Fish that are thus kill’d by
the prodigious fall, serve for food to fifty Iroquese, who are
settled about two Leagues off, and take ’em out of the water
with their Canows. Between the surface of the water that
shelves off prodigiously, and the foot of the Precipice, three
Men may cross in a breast without any other damage than
a sprinkling of some few drops of water.”
This is the most satisfactory description of Niagara Falls
I know of. It is jaunty, off-hand, sufficiently precise, not
too long—and how suggestive! That it hit the popular
fancy, and even that of scholars, is shown by the following
extract from an old English geography:
“Near this place (Fort Niagara) there’s a waterfall in
the river, which runs down from Lake Gonti (Erie) ; ’tis
about eight hundred foot high, and half a league broad.
Towards the middle there’s an island that leans toward the
precipice, as if it were ready to fall down. All the beasts
that cross the water for a mile at least above this precipice
are sucked down by the stream and killed by the Fall: so
that fifty Iroquese, who are planted near it, daily wait for
them in their canoes. Under this cataract, three men may
pass abreast without being much wet, because the current
falls like a spout over their heads.”
So it was not the staid and trustworthy Hennepin, but
the devil-may-care La Hontan, who supplied the Niagara
data for small Britons in the Eighteenth century. This
shows us at what an early period the British educational
authorities adopted the system which has been so well
characterized by Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Ignorance of
America,” says the genial Doctor, “is one of the branches
taught in the English public schools.” That little geographyHISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
293
lesson also illustrates a trait of human nature. La Hontan
said the falls were “seven or eight hundred feet high.” The
geography maker, who drew on La Hontan for his infor-
mation, made them “about eight hundred feet high.” Tell
a man that a mountain he has climbed is eight to ten thou-
sand feet high, and how high do you suppose it is when
he tells of his exploit? Never a foot less than ten thousand.
Tell a woman that the diamond you are giving her cost
between $250 and $500—and what do you suppose that
diamond cost, when she shows it to her friends!
The first man who tried to measure the height of Niagara,
by eye, estimated that they were from 150 to 200 feet; by
the time he had told of it two or three times, he said they
were about 200 feet, then 200 feet or more; and the
hearer, all the while believing that he was giving a true
report, made them “two or three hundred”; and so they
grew with each telling. Having got up to 800 feet, the
wonder is they didn’t go further. Probably some one came
along with a new measurement.
Oliver Goldsmith must have had other sources of infor-
mation about us than that old geography, for I read in the
account of Niagara given in his invaluable “History of the
Earth and Animated Nature”: “It may easily be conceived
that such a cataract quite destroys the navigation of the
stream, and yet some Indian canoes, as it is said, have been
known to venture down it with safety.” This bit of history
carries off at a pen-stroke all the laurels of Mrs. Taylor
and the redoubtable Bobby Leach.
And, as my friend the Baron would say, as for going over
the Falls, the student should by no means overlook that
wonderful treatise by Thomas Carlyle: “Shooting Niagara
—and After,” which in more than one book-catalogue—
those seductive works, compiled with exceptional acumen—294
HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
I find classified with works relating to the cataract. How
edifying this essay of Carlyle may prove to students of our
great natural wonder, I leave for them to discover.
The literature of our region begins with a blunder.
Champlain says in “Des Sauvages”: “At the end of this
lake”—i. e., Ontario—“they pass a fall, somewhat high and
with but little water flowing over.” We cannot possibly
believe that—the power companies had not arrived in 1603.
Perhaps some of Champlain’s aboriginal informants were
of the cautious and conservative type, men of the stamp of
the Rev. Barzillai Frost. Edward Everett Hale tells the
story; and although it is quite a jump from Champlain to
Hale, it may as well be recorded here. Dr. Hale is writing
of the boyhood of James Russell Lowell, a portion of which
was passed in the home of the Rev. Barzillai Frost :
“Imagine the boy Lowell, with his fine sense of humor,
listening to Mr. Frost’s sermon describing Niagara after he
had made the unusual journey thither. He could rise at
times into lofty eloquence, but his sense of truth was such
that he would not go a hair’s breadth beyond what he was
sure of, for any effect of rhetoric. So in this sermon, which
is still remembered, he describes the cataract with real
feeling and great eloquence. You had the mighty flood dis-
charging the waters of the vast lake in a torrent so broad
and grand—and then, forgetting the precise statistics, he
ended the majestic sentence with the words: ‘and several
feet deep.’ ”
And what of this, as a contribution to human knowl-
edge:
“The Falls of Niagara river are the greatest and most
sublime curiosity which this or any other country affords.
.	.	. The noise produced by this cataract is sometimes
heard 40 or 50 miles. .	.	. There is sufficient space be-
tween the perpendicular rock and the column of water forHISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
295
people to pass in perfect safety. .	.	. Near Burlington
Bay is a volcano, subject to frequent irruptions, with a noise
like thunder. The Indians sacrifice to the Bad Spirit at
this place.”
This description, which rather carries the impression
that there is a fine popular promenade behind the falls, is
not, as one might suppose, from some old and excusable
author of a couple of hundred years ago, but from the
sixteenth edition of Morse’s “American Universal Geog-
raphy,” published in Boston in 1815.
As for that active volcano on Burlington Bay—some-
where in the vicinity of Hamilton, Ont.—it’s quite too much
for me; I leave it right there.
The spread of misinformation about Niagara began, as
we have seen, as soon as men began to write of the region.
The first man usually means the first lie. In contemplation
of such a cataract, exaggeration was a natural tribute of
the mind. La Hontan’s “seven or eight hundred feet” was
of a sort with the modern reporter’s estimate of a crowd,
or the first reports of loss of life in a casualty. People see
the real thing, but it gets exalted in their imagination before
they describe it. We are so accustomed to the contemporary
writing of history that isn’t so—in the Press—that we lose
our powers for critically estimating the history of long ago.
Perhaps, in cases like La Hontan’s, the overstatement—the
mere excess of fact, as it were—is what the critics mean
when they talk of “literary perspective.” The Falls were so
far from Europe they had to be elevated to make the proper
effect upon the reader. The Baron’s motive was wholly
laudable.
The early artists who illustrated Father Hennepin’s
books were impelled by the same motive. America was so
far off, the features of its topography must be magnified296
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
and emphasized to be appreciated in Europe. So they put
high mountains around Lake Erie, and up and down the
Niagara, and planted thereon strange trees—the sort of
tropical verdure that a man in a Paris garret or a Dutch
cellar might dream of. And among these mountains and
under these dreamland trees they tried to depict the strange
American animals: the bison, a very queer European cow
with a hump and curly hair; and from the bough above
they hung a long-tailed rat—presumably an attempt to
depict the opossum. Some of the early pictures of the
beaver, drawn of course by artists who had never seen one,
but were impressed by priests’ and travelers’ accounts of
their wonderful sagacity, are uncannily human.
In the 1704 edition of Hennepin’s “Nouvelle De-
couverte ” there is a picture of the building of the Griffon,
that famous pioneer vessel of the Upper Lakes. It was con-
structed, you will remember, on the American shore of the
Niagara near the present village of La Salle. According to
the old French or Flemish artist, there were high mountains
with precipitous sides over on the western bank, which is
now Canada. Alas, the leveling influences of time in demo-
cratic communities—these mountains are all gone now. The
Griffon itself, we learn from this precious picture, was put
together under the shade of a tree which looks like a huge
feather-duster, or a sheaf of corn-leaves tied to a pole.
The early artists were fond of this tree; it appears in many
plates illustrating Seventeenth-century travels in America.
I too am a lover of trees, and in years past have roamed
over every foot of ground of the Niagara shores; but I
found no trace of the Hennepin feather-duster tree. Still,
the species is not extinct. I have but to turn to a certain
shelf of old books, where La Salle and Hennepin and Tonty
and other worthies hold converse with each other, and lo!HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
297
as I turn the leaves, the feather-duster tree is found as
abundant and flourishing as ever.
And speaking of the Griffon. Our local newspapers are
little enough addicted to history; yet the story of La Salle’s
small craft is a favorite, and allusions to it are not infre-
quent, though rarely—I may as well say, never—with
accuracy. Editors and contributors seem to have agreed
that the Griffon was the first white man’s vessel on the
Great Lakes. Over and over again I find it so stated; and
not merely in newspapers, but in school-books. What then
of the brigantine in which La Salle’s party sailed across
Lake Ontario in December, 1678, bringing on her material
for the construction of the Griffon? She was afterwards
wrecked on the Lake Ontario shore. She was appropriately
named the Frontenac, and, obviously, to her belongs the
distinction of priority.
There has long been a variety of opinion and disagree-
ment as to the place where the Griffon was built. It was
Mr. O. H. Marshall who found and set in order the evidence
which fixes the spot near the present site of La Salle. I
think this is proved, although there are statements in some
of the old chronicles which I cannot reconcile with this
view. That the matter has occasioned the writing of con-
siderable “history that isn’t so,” is readily seen by examining
any shelf of books on that period of American history.
Jared Sparks, in the early editions of his “Life of La
Salle,” says the boat was built “at Chippewa creek, on the
Canadian side of the river.” Parkman, prehaps accepting
Sparks as trustworthy, said the same thing in his “Life of
Pontiac.” These statements are changed, in recent editions.
John S. C. Abbott, who is not to be classed with Sparks or
Parkman, but whose unreliable pages have had wide read-
ing, says, in his “Adventures of La Salle and his Com-298
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
panions,” that the ship-yard “was about six miles above
Niagara Falls, on the western side of the river, at the outlet
of a little stream called Chippewa creek.” Schoolcraft, in
his “Tour to the Lakes*” said the Griffon was built “near
Buffalo.” Governor Lewis Cass, in an address before the
Historical Society of Michigan, claimed that “the Griffon
was launched at Erie”; and Bryant & Gay’s “History of
the United States” has the amazing statement that the
Griffon was built at Fort Frontenac, which it locates on
Lake Erie!
A statement which is made from the best available evi-
dence, even if afterwards shown to be wrong, is entitled to
respect. But it is a reprehensible thing for author or pub-
lisher to persist in error, after the truth has been established.
Some of the statements relative to the much written-of
episode of La Salle on the Niagara are—to me—inexplic-
able. What for instance can be made of this, which occurs
in the article “Fort Niagara,” contained in that nearest
approach of the human mind to omniscience, the latest
edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica:
“A fort built (1675) by Gabriel Edouard, chevalier de
Nouvel (1636-1694), was soon destroyed, as were Fort
Conti and the trading-post built by La Salle in 1679.”
I leave that for students of our regional history who like
“nuts to crack,” along with another, a simple inquiry: How
did Point Abino get its name?
La Salle is often but erroneously called Chevalier; not
merely by amateurs in historical study, but by more than one
writer of reputation. Thus the story of La Salle, by John
S. C. Abbott, in the “American Pioneers and Patriots”
series, is entitled “The Adventures of the Chevalier De La
Salle,” etc. It would seem to require exceptional careless-HISTORY THAT ISNJT SO.
299
ness to mistake La Salle’s family name, Cavelier, for
“Chevalier,” indicating the rank of knighthood. Cavelier
was ennobled, but never knighted. The patent of nobility
granted him by Louis XIV., May 13, 1675, states that he,
his wife and their lawful issue shall be “deemed and reputed
noble, bearing the rank of Esquire, with power to reach all
ranks of knighthood and gendarmerie.” But La Salle never
married and found a grave in a Texas swamp, with no
higher rank of nobility than “Sieur.” His companion Tonty
was knighted before he appears on the Niagara, and is
entitled to be called “Chevalier.”
It has long been customary to write of Father Hennepin
as the discoverer of the Niagara. If discovery is to be
ascribed to the expedition of which he was a member, ought
not the leader of that expedition to have the credit? Yet
we are not warranted in saying that La Salle discovered the
Falls. We do not know what white man first saw them.
It is a good guess, with some plausibility, that Etienne Brule
was that man; but there is nothing to prove it. Many
years before Hennepin came this way, Jesuit missionaries
had written of it. Father Jerome Lalement had referred to
the Falls, by name, thirty-seven years before Hennepin saw
them; and thirty-one years before, another missionary,
Father Paul Ragueneau, had told of “a waterfall of fright-
ful height” between Erie and Ontario. Hennepin may very
likely have read their descriptions. We may be sure that
much information about the great cataract was current
before the party including Hennepin arrived in December
of the year 1678.
By the way, is Hennepin responsible for our present
perverse spelling of “Niagara”? Before him it was
“Ongiara” and “Onguiaahra,” the two (Huron or Neuter)
forms pronouncing much the same. Hennepin was not the300
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
student of the native dialects that his predecessors, the
Jesuits, were. Which was the more likely to be correct?
And now, to this wrong name, “Niagara,” we have long
given a wrong pronunciation. It was formerly spoken
“Ni-[or Nee]-ah-ga-ra.” To speak it with a syllable ending
in hard “g”—“Ni-a^-a-ra”—is to do violence to the genius
of the Seneca language. “Ni-ag-a-ra” is a harsh and ugly
word. “Nee-ah-ga-ra” is soft and pleasant. I have else-
where (“Niagara and the Poets”) called attention to a line
in Goldsmith's “Traveler” which shows that in his day the
word was correctly spoken:
4‘And Nia-gtt-ra stuns with thundering sound.”
The scansion and rhythm would be lost with our present
perverted pronunciation.
So we are not only wrong in our name of the falls, but
wrong in our pronunciation of that wrong name!
There exists a curious narrative of the discovery of
Niagara Falls. Many years ago it was widely printed, in
more than one language. Not long ago I found it in French,
in the first volume of the Magazin de Bas-Canada, Journal
Litteraire et Scientifique, etc., published in Montreal in
1832. After I had taken the trouble to copy and translate
it, I found that it was essentially the same story that had
appeared in the Museum of Foreign Literature and Science,
Philadelphia, October, 1831, which had taken it from
Fraser's Magazine. No doubt it may turn up in a score of
old-time magazines and reviews, to say nothing of the
newspapers. It is a veracious, rather straightforward nar-
rative, too long to be given here in full, but of which the
following summary may suffice.
Among the first missionaries who were sent from
England to convert the American aborigines to Christianity,HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
301
were Joseph Price and Henry Wilmington. It is related
with some detail, but a lack of dates, that these young Eng-
lishmen, after a passage of thirteen weeks from Plymouth,
landed at Boston, “then a very small but thriving village,”
fired with a desire to carry the gospel to the Indians. At
the end of May they set out, provided with compasses and
fowling-pieces. “It was their intention to visit a distant
tract of country, of which nothing was known except vague
reports of sheets of water so immense that, but for the cir-
cumstance of their being fresh, they might have been led
to suppose they were on an island.” After some days, hav-
ing passed “the ultimate farm,” they plunged into the forest
“which had most likely never been trodden by the feet of
civilized man.” After various woodland incidents they
reached “a large and rapid river.” “In about a week after,
they reached a chain of mountains,” beyond which were
encountered friendly Indians who were surprised “at be-
holding people so different in colour to themselves, and
armed with what appeared to them only polished sticks.”
A flock of wild geese passing high overhead, the Indians
futilely shot arrows at them, whereupon Price and Wil-
mington promptly brought down two with their guns—no
slight exploit even for expert woodsmen and hunters, which
these missionaries could hardly claim to be. They sojourned
with the Indians at their village “on the Oneida.” This is
the first name which helps to localize the story, but as we
go on it appears that “the Oneida” is the designation not
of a lake but of a river. Price preached a sermon, until the
Indians refused to listen any more. Then he proposed to
Wilmington that they verify a rumor, heard in Boston, of
great inland waters. They set out, the chief Maiook—or
Mayouk, a work suggesting “Mohawk”—guiding them to
a river which he said “would carry them to the great basin.”302
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
But few of his people had been there, but an old man in
his youth had gone many days in his canoe, coming to an
enormous river which fell from a fresh-water lake. While
hunting he had heard a great noise of water, but fear had
turned him back.
The missionaries were given a guide—one account says
Maiook went with them. They have adventures in a burn-
ing wood; reach Lake Ontario and for days coast along its
shore, finally coming to “a great and rapid river,” which
they ascended until rapids were encountered, when they
continued along the bank. Price told a young man to
climb a tall tree, to spy out the country. “Encouraged by
his report they continued to follow the precipitous banks of
the river. The noise, which had gradually increased, be-
came each instant more terrible, and the swiftness of the
current showed that they were near a furious rapid.” Pres-
ently “they found themselves on the edge of a bare rock
which hung over a vast abyss into which two currents of
one great river fell with a noise that drowned their excla-
mations of surprise, and surpassed that of the ocean in a
tempest.” The “missionaries” narrowly escape being
plunged into the abyss by a fall of rock. A description—
that is, a sort of a description—of the Falls follows. Among
other things, they behold “a large deer struggling against
the overpowering suction of the falls .	.	. but the roar
of the cataracts drowned its voice and it was soon precipi-
tated into the boiling abyss.”
“The French,” concludes the conscientious chronicler,
“from the Province of Quebec, may have reached as far
before, but Price and his companion believed they were the
first who had penetrated to that spot; and when they
returned back to their settlements, their description of the
unparalleled magnificence of the cataracts, to which MaiookHISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
303
gave the name of Niagara, or the thundering waters, was
deemed incredible.”
And well it may have been, for the whole yarn is incred-
ible. So far as I have traced it, it was originally contributed
to Fraser’s Magazine by the clever Canadian writer, John
Galt. It bears so few earmarks of fiction that no doubt
many excellent people, three quarters of a century ago,
regarded it as history. But it “isn't so.”
Prolific sources of minor error and inaccuracy on the
part of many who have written of our regional history, are
some of the papers in the collections known as “The Docu-
mentary History of the State of New York” and the “Docu-
ments relative to the Colonial History of the State of New
York.” These well-known sources of information are
precious—simply invaluable; but they are not always com-
plete, or accurate transcriptions of the original manuscripts;
and they need to be used, as any source material does,
with discernment. Especially are the Sir William Johnson
papers in them full of slips and misstatements, which can
usually be detected by the painstaking student. Sir Wil-
liam's innocence of any knowledge of French, and the
ingeniousness of his spelling, are responsible for many oft-
repeated errors. One instance will illustrate this.
Not long ago I had occasion to review the early history
of the Chautauqua and French Creek portages, a part of
the old military routes from Lake Erie into the Ohio valley.
Of the well-known expedition of 1753, commanded by
Marin, I found it stated, in more than one history, that he
had a sub-officer, I am not sure of what rank, called
“Babeer” or “Barbeer.” The story, as usually told, is to
the effect that “Babeer” and his detachment of troops,
coming on from Montreal in advance of the main expedi-
tion, landed at what is now Barcelona Harbor, and began304
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO,
there the construction of a fort, and that the commander-in-
chief arriving a little later put a stop to the work, moved
the expedition further westward, and opened up the famous
portage by way of Presque Isle. There is no great difficulty
in getting access to the official records of this expedition;
the names of the officers are easily ascertained. They were,
for the most part, men conspicuous in the French service in
America; but no where in all these sources of trustworthy
information can be found the name of this alleged fore-
runner of the expedition, called “Babeer.” The name itself
is improbable as a French word, and should have long
ago awakened the suspicion of conscientious writers who
have told of the exploits of Babeer in the Chautauqua
wilderness. If, however, one will take the trouble to con-
sult the “Documentary History of the State of New York,”
he will find there a certain deposition made by one Stephen
Coffen before Col. Johnson (afterwards Sir William), at
his home on the Mohawk, in 1754. Coffen was an ignorant
soldier, a New Englander, who had been a prisoner among
the French for some years. Being at Montreal in the fall
of 1752, he was allowed to serve as a soldier under Marin.
Deserting from the French service soon after the passage
of Marin’s troops down the Ohio, he reached the Mohawk
and told his story to Johnson. Unable to write, he signed
his statement with a cross. The record, therefore, that
bears his name was set down either by Johnson or a sec-
retary.
It takes but the slightest familiarity with the names of
the French officers of the period to discover how untrust-
worthy were Coffen’s memory and Johnson’s spelling. It
is a grotesque blending of misinformation, badly spelled.
One pauses a moment when he reads of Governor-General
“Le Cain” to remember that the officer’s name is Du Quesne.HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
305
“Presque Isle” becomes “Briske Isle.” Every name men-
tioned by Coffen is distorted. And here we have the source
of this mythical “Babeer,” who has been so taken for
granted by the writers of Chautauqua county histories.
Whoever “Babeer” was we may be sure that was not his
name, nor was there any officer in the retinue of Marin
whose name suggests this form.
The discovery of Chautauqua Lake, like the discovery
of Niagara Falls, is still a matter of speculation. Some
writers try to show that La Salle discovered the lake, I
know not on what evidence. Others have claimed the
honor for Celoron, whose name is preserved in the nomen-
clature of the region. But this is plainly “history that isn’t
so,” for the old records which tell us of his expedition also
state that when near the outlet of the lake his forces were
shown a path to the high land, a cut-off, I suppose, to avoid
the long marsh, by a Frenchman who had been that way
before.
This was Dagneaux de la Saussaye, and a little search
among the documents of the time discovers that he had
passed through the region in the summer of 1743 on a mis-
sion to the Chanouanons—i. e., the Shawanees. I do not
find in any of the local histories that de Saussaye receives
so much as a mention, yet he certainly preceded Celoron by
six years, and is the first white man of whom I find official
record who can be said to have explored what is now Chau-
tauqua county.
A book could readily be written on the blunders in other
books, relating to our region. It would probably add to
them, and would be of little service, as ungracious perform-
ances usually are. The ordinary kind of misstatement is
not “very deadly” to a student who knows the subject at
all. Many current errors in our published annals are trivial,306
HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
many are due to prejudice and the fact that a definite event
may be construed variously by different writers—the battle
of Lundy’s Lane, for instance, which is still being fought—
and many are merely amusing. One that I call amusing is
the grave statement in William Kirby’s “Annals of Niagara”
that Lewiston was named for Louis—or, as I believe he
spells it, Lewis XIV! Shade of Governor Morgan Lewis,
what is fame! Mr. Kirby was an excellent gentleman, for
many years Collector of Customs at Niagara, Ont. He
knew the history of his comer of the world better than any
one else, and he rendered a real service to history when he
wrote the “Annals of Niagara”; if the work could be over-
hauled, and its many errors eliminated, its value would be
increased.
Another work that the student of our history should
know is exceedingly deceptive in its title. That is Ketchum’s
“Authentic and Comprehensive History of Buffalo,” pub-
lished in two volumes in 1864. Many a reader in quest of
Buffalo data has discovered that it really is not a history of
Buffalo at all, except in the earliest years, the narrative
ending with the burning of the village in 1813*. It is an
admirable compilation of data relating to the aborigines of
Western New York, to events preceding settlement and the
earliest years of the town. This is a case of a good book
having a title which “isn’t so.” Probably the author’s plan
never contemplated a review of events for the half century
and more which he did not write about; but if it did he
paused on the threshold, like Henry Thomas Buckle, who
exhausted himself in writing the two-volume introduction
to his “History of Civilization,” and never wrote more.
The enquiring student, curious about the history of our
region, may run across a book published in Albany in
1841, entitled “A History of the early Adventures of Wash-HISTORY THAT ISN’T SO.
307
ington among the Indians of the West,” etc. The author
was Josiah Priest. If our student knows about Priest, he
will be on his guard; if he does not, he will presently be
wandering in a veritable maze of “history.” One of the
characters of this extraordinary narrative, which purports
to be “gathered from the Records of that Era,” is a mys-
terious Mingo prophet, Tonnaleuka, otherwise the Laird of
Mackintosh, a Scotch outlaw, who tells Washington that
through the interests of the Stuarts he procured a com-
mission in the French army:
“In a few years I was sent as lieutenant-colonel of a
regiment to Canada. My superior disliking the climate,
soon returned to Europe, and I was made Colonel in his
place. In this capacity I was stationed for a number of
years at a Fort near the Falls of Niagara. Here I had an
opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the
manners and customs of the Indians, as well as with many
of their languages; and also of greatly improving my
fortune by purchasing their furs and transmitting them to
Quebec.”
Washington is represented as falling in love with this
man’s daughter. The book is a curio, but the reader who
chances upon it must not mistake it for history.
Many of the books relating in whole or part to the
Niagara region, which today seem merely amusing and
absurd, when first published were no doubt taken seriously
enough by their readers, if not by their authors. Such for
instance is the anonymous “Travels in North America,”
published in Dublin in 1824. It is apparently an abridgment
of another work, if indeed it is not a manufactured narra-
tive, based on any available works, for the edification of
Young Ireland. It relates, soberly enough, the adventures
of one George Philips, who visited Niagara apparently inHISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
1816, after having traveled with the Lewis and Clarke
exploring expedition to the Pacific, by way of the Missouri
and Columbia rivers. The author states, as though it were
the simplest thing in the world, that Philips “engaged a
canoe and men, and by keeping dexterously in the middle
of the stream from Chippeway, reached an island called
Goat Island.” Having viewed the Falls—of which an amus-
ingly bad cut is given—he and his companion “returned to
Chippeway, by keeping their canoe in the middle of the
stream”! Lake Erie is described as very deep, while in
places “long ranges of steep mountains rise from the very
edge of the water.” All in all, it’s quite a book.
There are many statements in the local guide-books,
appropriated by one compiler after another, republished
year after year, purporting to be “history,” yet utterly
without authority or reason. I am not speaking of mere
uncertainties or inaccuracies of date; the person who makes
no mistakes has not yet been born, and there is very much
yet to be learned by all. I criticize only the deliberate
inventions which are passed off as truth. Of this class is
the much-printed statement that Father Hennepin discov-
ered Niagara Falls from the point known as “Hennepin’s
View.” Of course he may have stood there, or he may
not. He passed repeatedly up and down the river bank,
but there is no authority for associating him, particularly,
with any one spot.
Another fiction, and a silly one, is that which makes
La Salle a visitor at the cave in the Devil’s Hole. The
whole yarn is preposterous, yet it is retold, at intervals, by
writers who know better.
Still another incident that is much distorted and em-
bellished, even in pretentious works, is the affair of the
Caroline. By some accounts, she was sent blazing over theHISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
309
Falls, carrying many men down to death. A painstaking
study of all available evidence in the case affords proof of
the death of but one man, and he was shot on the dock at
Schlosser.
There are numerous instances of plagiarism in the
literature of our region, and of the appropriation by one
writer of the narrative—and experiences—of another. I
will not go here into the intricacies of the literary strife
that was waged, by all who could share in it, over the
exploits of La Salle and his several expeditions. Hennepin,
Tonty, Joutel, Cavelier, shared in the contention, to say
nothing of the train of commentators to this day. As early
as 1750 Peter Kalm felt called upon to correct all Niagara
visitors who had preceded him. He found people in Canada
calling Father Hennepin “un grand menteur ” and added
his own repudiation of that worthy. Kalm wanted it
understood that he could be relied on: “I like to see things
just as they are, and so to relate them.” He surely was no
plagiarist; but many later writers on the Niagara have been
victims of this most widespread literary sin. No one cares,
particularly, about such thievery, unless it constitutes a
false record—becomes “history that isn’t so.” An instance
of this sort, to which, I think, attention has not been called,
is that of Peter Williamson. There are many editions of
this wandering Scotchman’s book. One before me, printed
in Edinburgh in 1768, is entitled: “The Travels of Peter
Williamson among the different Nations and Tribes of
Savage Indians in America”—and much more, a very prolix
inscription. The work purports to contain “a general
description of the Falls of Niagara, according to my own
observations, during the course of my travels through
America, before the late war,” that is, the Old French War.
Any narrative of observations hereabouts at so early a310
HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
period would have value and interest; but when I read
Williamson, I find that his description is stolen—and rather
clumsily stolen—from Kalm’s account, written at Albany in
1750. Incidents narrated shortly after his account of
Niagara are dated May, 1746, and August, 1748, but there
is nothing in the book to fix more definitely his alleged
travels in this region. The preface states that the author
“was born in Aberdeenshire in the north of Scotland, and
was carried off in his infancy from that city, by his own
countrymen, and sold as a slave in America; after continu-
ing in this state of slavery for many years he was at last
unfortunately taken captive by the savage Indians, in whose
hands he remained for some years, and suffered during their
hunting expeditions the most severe hardships.” The work
contains no narrative of these experiences; and I am con-
strained, in lack of evidence to the contrary, to include
much of Williamson’s reputed career, especially his alleged
Niagara visit, in the category of “history that isn’t so.”
Most of the early observers at the Falls saw things that
were not there. Some of these I have touched on in preced-
ing pages. In looking through Volney’s “Views,” I note his
account of the carcasses of wild boars, found at the foot of
the falls. His observation was not disturbed by the fact
that the wild boar has never inhabited America.
De Witt Clinton, in his delightful old journal, “Letters
on the Natural History and Internal Resources of the State
of New York,” a volume much more attractive than its
title would indicate, quotes from the speech of “a cidevant
governor to a great military commander, on the presentation
of a sword. ... In speaking of a nocturnal battle
near the cataract of Niagara, he says that it produced a
midnight rainbow, whose refulgence outshone the iris of
the day.”HISTORY THAT ISN'T SO.
311
This is history, though perhaps not so much natural
history as unnatural. It belongs in the same class as the
eulogium of a country schoolmaster on General Wolfe:
Great General Wolfe, without any fears,
Led on his brave grenadiers,
And what is most miraculous and particular,
He climbed up rocks that were perpendicular.
Error is everywhere. I pick up a picture post-card from
a hotel stand. It is labeled: “Old stone house and barracks
where Morgan was imprisoned, Niagara/’ and it isn’t that
at all, but a very different building at Fort Niagara. I take
a ride on a sight-seeing wagon in Buffalo, and as we pass a
certain gray-stone residence the conductor-orator-guide
declaims loudly that this house was “General Scott’s head-
quarters in the War of 1812”—and I know of a certainty
that the house was built in 1836. As we drive around the
Park meadow he calls the attention of the tourists to the
large boulder which, he explains, marks a battlefield of the
War of 1812! Thus is history made—popular.
If I retreat to the peaceful seclusion of my office in the
Historical Building, I have numerous callers who ask to be
shown the place where President McKinley stood in that
edifice when he was shot! How this last painful and
needless error gains currency I cannot guess, but the num-
ber of strangers who have been informed to that effect—so
they declare—is amazing.NARRATIVES OF
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
VISITORS TO NIAGARA18TH CENTURY VISITORS
IN preceding pages have been given the earliest printed
reports concerning Niagara Falls. There are probably
no other Seventeenth-century visitors who printed accounts
of what they saw here, except Hennepin and La Hontan.
The latter’s account of Niagara was not printed until 1703.
Father Hennepin’s first book, the “Louisiane,” says much
less of the Falls than his later and less trustworthy works.
As matter of record I quote from the “Louisiane” first
published in 1683:
“On the 6th [December, 1678], St. Nicholas day, we
entered the beautiful river Niagara, which no bark had ever
yet entered. . . . Four leagues from Lake Frontenac there
is an incredible Cataract or Waterfall, which has no equal.
The Niagara river near this place is only the eighth of a
league wide, but it is very deep in places, and so rapid above
the great fall, that it hurries down all the animals which
try to cross it, without a single one being able to withstand
its current. They plunge down a height of more than five
hundred feet, and its fall is composed of two sheets of
water and a cascade, with an island sloping down. In the
middle these waters foam and boil in a fearful manner.
They thunder continually, and when the wind blows in a
southerly direction, the noise which they make is heard for
from more than fifteen leagues. Four leagues from this
cataract or fall, the Niagara river rushes with extraordinary
rapidity especially for two leagues into Lake Frontenac. It
is during these two leagues that goods are carried. There
is a very fine road, very little wood, and almost all prairies
mingled with some oaks and firs, on both banks of the316
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
river, which are of a height that inspire fear when you
look down.
That is Father Hennepin’s first description of Niagara
Falls. In his subsequent work he increased the height to
600 feet, and elaborated his account in various ways. This
later description is the one most often quoted, and need not
be included here.
The Baron La Hontan, who saw the Falls in August,
1687, published in 1703 an account which I have given in
a preceding paper (p. 291).
During the Eighteenth century, travelers more and more
found their way to the Niagara, and more and more descrip-
tions appeared in print. Some of these are among the most
interesting records we have, of early days on the Niagara.
A few of them are perhaps familiar through much reprint-
ing, but others are unknown except to students who may
have made particular research in this subject. As matter
of record, therefore, and for the convenience of all, there
are brought together in pages following the principal des-
criptions of the Falls which were written, down to the close
of the Eighteenth century. Correction of their many errors
is here deemed, for the most part, superfluous.
FROM “THE FOUR KINGS OF CANADA,” 1710.
In that curious little book, “The Four Kings of Canada,
being a succinct account of the Four Indian Princes lately
arriv’d from North America,” etc., printed in London in
1710, occurs the following:
“The River of St. Lawrence or Canada, receives in these
Parts an Infinite Quantity of fresh Water from the four
great Lakes, the Lake Huron, the upper Lake, the Lake of
the Illinois, and the Lake Erie or of the Cat, which mayEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
317
properly be call’d little fresh Water Seas. This great
Deluge of Water tumbling furiously over the greatest and
most dreadful Heap in the World, an infinite Number of
Fish take great Delight to spawn here, and as it were
suffocate here, because they cannot get over this huge
Cataract: So that the Quantity taken here is incredible.
“A Gentleman who was traveling this Part, went to see
this Heap, which comes from a River in the North, and
falls into a great Basin of Lake Outano [Ontario], big
enough to hold a Hundred Men of War, being there he
taught the Nations to catch Fish with their Hands, by
causing Trees to be cut down in the Spring, and to be roll’d
to the Bank of the River, so that he might be upon them
without wetting himself; by the Assistance of which he
thrust his Arm into the Water up to the Elbow, where he
found a prodigious Quantity of Fish of different species,
which he laid hold on by the Gills, gently stroking ’em, and
when he had taken Fifty or Sixty of ’em at a Time, he use
to warm and refresh himself; after this Manner, in a short
Time he would catch Fish enough to feed Fifty or Sixty
Families.”
This account, which puts Niagara well to the fore in
the matter of fish stories, would seem to have been drawn
from a source quite independent of Hennepin and La
Hontan. When it was published the latter was still living—
his death occurring in 1715—and Hennepin may have been.
In 1710 he would have been but 71 years old, but there is
no trace of him later than 1701.
“The Four Kings of Canada” is the first publication I
know of, relating to Niagara, after La Hontan. Next in
chronological order is the account given by “M. Borassaw,”
at Albany in 1721, to the Hon. Paul Dudley, who wrote it
down and published it. The Frenchman, whose name was
probably Borassan or Borassau—it certainly was not as
Dudley spelled it—appears to have been a boatman, or318
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
possibly a trader. He said he had been at Niagara seven
times, and was there in May, 1721, when de Longueuil
measured the Falls. His account, as written by Dudley,
was printed in many places. I here transcribe it from the
Philosophical Transactions, Royal Society of London, of
1722:
THE “BORASSAW” NARRATION OF 1721.
WRITTEN BY THE HON. PAUL DUDLEY, F. R. S.
The falls of Niagara are formed by a vast ledge or
precipice of solid rock, lying across the whole breadth of
the river, a little before it empties itself into, or forms the
lake Ontario.
M. Borassaw says, that in spring 1722 [should be 1721],
the governor of Canada ordered his own son, with three
other officers, to survey the Niagara, and take the exact
height of the cataract, which they accordingly did with
a stone of half a hundred weight, and a large cod-line, and
found it on a perpendicular no more than 26 fathoms—
'*vingt et six bras”
This differs very much from the account Father Hen-
nepin has given to that cataract; for he makes it 100
fathoms, and our modern maps from him, as I suppose,
mark it at 600 feet; but I believe Hennepin never measured
it, and there is no guessing at such things.
When I objected Hennepin’s account of those falls to M.
Borassaw, he replied, that accordingly every body had
depended on it as right, until the late survey. On further
discourse he acknowledged, that below the cataract, for a
great way, there were numbers of small ledges or stairs
across the river, that lowered it still more and more, till you
came to a level; so that if all the descents be put together,
he does not know but the difference of the water above the
falls and the level below, may come up to Father Hennepin;
but the strict and proper cataract on a perpendicular is no
more than 26 fathoms, or 156 feet, which yet is a prodigious
thing, and what the world I suppose cannot parallel, con-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
319
sidering the size of the river, being near a quarter of an
English mile broad, and very deep water.
Several other things M. Borassaw set me right in, as to
the falls of Niagara. Particularly it has been said, that the
cataract makes such a prodigious noise, that people cannot
hear each other speak at some miles distances; whereas he
affirms, that you may converse together close by it. I have
also heard it positively asserted, that the shoot of the river,
when it comes to the precipice, was with such force, that
men and horse might march under the body of the river
without being whet; this also he utterly denies, and says,
the water falls in a manner right down.
What he observed farther to me was, that the mist or
shower which the falls make, is so extraordinary, as to be
seen at five leagues distance, and rise as high as the common
clouds. In this brume or cloud, when the sun shines, you
have always a glorious rainbow. That the river itself,
which is there called the river Niagara, is much narrower
at the falls than either above or below; and that from
below there is no coming nearer the falls by water than
about six English miles, the torrent is so rapid, and having
such terrible whirlpools.
He confirms Father Hennepin’s and Mr. Kelug’s [?]
account of the large trouts of those lakes, and solemnly
affirmed there was one taken lately, that weighed 86 lb.
which I am rather inclined to believe, on the general rule,
that fish are according to the waters. To confirm which, a
very worthy minister affirmed, that he saw a pike taken in
Canada river, and carried on a pole between two men, that
measured five feet ten inches in length, and proportionably
thick.
PIERRE F. X. DE CHARLEVOIX, S. J., 1721.
Father Charlevoix, best known of all the early Jesuit
writers on America, twice visited Canada and voyaged
down the Mississippi. He came to the Niagara in May,
1721. In the original French edition of his “History of320
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
New France,” volume three consists of his “Journal,” in
the form of a series of letters to the Duchess de Lesdi-
guieres. Three letters are dated respectively, “Niagara,
May 23,” “Falls of Niagara, May 26,” and “Entrance to
Lake Erie, May 27,” 1721. In the first English edition of
the “Journal,” the second Niagara letter is erroneously
dated “May 14.” In the following extracts I have in the
main followed the old English translation, which though
now and then quaint in form, is true to the original. A
few omissions have also been supplied. So far as I am
aware, Charlevoix is the first writer to use the word “horse-
shoe” [“fer a cheval”] in description of the greater fall.
[Niagara, May 23, 1721.]
.	.	. Now, Madam, we must acknowledge, that noth-
ing but zeal for the public good could possibly induce an
officer to remain in such a country as this, than which a
wilder and more frightful is not to be seen. On the one side
you see just under your feet, and as it were at the bottom
of an abyss, a great river, but which in this place is like a
torrent by its rapidity, by the whirlpools formed by a thou-
sand rocks, through which it with difficulty finds a passage,
and by the foam with which it is always covered; on the
other the view is confined by three mountains placed one
over the other, and whereof the last hides itself in the
clouds. This would have been a very proper scene for the
poets to make the Titans attempt to scale the heavens. In
a word, on whatever side you turn your eyes, you discover
nothing which does not inspire a secret horror.
You have, however, but a very short way to go, to behold
a very different prospect. Behind those uncultivated and
uninhabitable mountains, you enjoy the sight of a rich
country, magnificent forests, beautiful and fruitful hills;
you breathe the purest air, under the mildest and most
temperate climate imaginable, situated between two lakes
the least of which is two hundred and fifty leagues in
circuit. ...EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
321
[At the Falls of Niagara, May 26, 1721.]
.	.	. The officers having departed, I ascended those
frightful mountains, in order to visit the famous Fall of
Niagara, above which I was to take water; this is a journey
of three leagues though formerly five; because the way
then lay by the other, that is, the west side of the river, and
also because the place for embarking lay full two leagues
above the Fall. But there has since been found, on the left,
at the distance of half a quarter of a league from this
cataract, a creek, where the current is not perceivable, and
consequently a place where one may take water without
danger. My first care, after my arrival, was to visit the
noblest cascade perhaps in the world; but I presently found
the Baron de la Hontan had committed such a mistake with
respect to its height and figure, as to give grounds to believe
he had never seen it.
It is certain, that if you measure its height by that of the
three mountains, you are obliged to climb to get at it, it
does not come short of what the map of M. Deslisle makes
it; that is, six hundred feet, having certainly gone into this
paradox, either, on the faith of the Baron de la Hontan or
Father Hennepin; but after I arrived at the summit of
the third mountain, I observed, that in the space of three
leagues, which I had to walk before I came to this fall of
water, though you are sometimes obliged to ascend, you
must yet descend still more, a circumstance to which trav-
ellers seem not to have sufficiently attended. As it is im-
possible to approach it but on one side only, and conse-
quently to see it, excepting in profile, or sideways; it is no
easy matter to measure its height with instruments. It has,
however, been attempted by means of a pole tied to a long
line, and after many repeated trials, it has been found only
one hundred and fifteen, or one hundred and twenty feet
high. But it is impossible to be sure that the pole has not
been stopt by some projecting rock; for though it was
always drawn up wet, as well as the end of the line to which
it was tied, this proves nothing at all, as the water which
precipitates itself from the mountain, rises very high in322
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
foam. For my own part, after having examined it on all
sides, where it could be viewed to the greatest advantage,
I am inclined to think we cannot allow it less than one hun-
dred and forty, or fifty feet.
As to its figure, it is in the shape of a horseshoe, and is
about four hundred paces in circumference; it is divided
into two, exactly in the middle, by a very narrow island,
half a quarter of a league long. It is true, those two parts
very soon unite; that on my side, and which I could only
have a side view of, has several branches which project
from the body of the cascade, but that which I viewed in
front, appeared to me quite entire. The Baron de la
Hontan mentions a torrent which comes from the West, but
which if this author has not invented it, must certainly fall
through some channel on the melting of the snows.
You may easily guess, Madam, that a great way below
this Fall, the river still retains strong marks of so violent a
shock; accordingly, it becomes only navigable three leagues
below, and exactly at the place which M. de Joncaire has
chosen for his residence. It should by right be equally
unnavigable above it, since the river falls perpendicular the
whole space of its breadth. But besides the island, which*
divides it into two, several rocks which are scattered up and
down above it, abate much of the rapidity of the stream;
it is notwithstanding so very strong, that ten or twelve
Outaways trying to cross over to the island to shun the
Iroquoise who were in pursuit of them, were drawn into
the precipice, in spite of all their efforts to preserve them-
selves.
I have heard say that the fish that happen to be entangled
in the current, fall dead into the river, and that the Indians
of those parts were considerably advantaged by them; but
I saw nothing of this sort. I was also told, that the birds
that attempted to fly over were sometimes caught in the
whirlwind formed, by the violence of the torrent. But. I
observed quite the contrary, for I saw small birds flying
very low, and exactly over the Fall, which yet cleared their
passage very well.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
323
This sheet of water falls upon a rock, and there are two
reasons which induce me to believe that it has either found,
or perhaps in time hollowed out a cavern of considerable
depth. The first is, that the noise it makes is very hollow,
resembling that of thunder at a distance. You can scarce
hear it at M. de Joncaire’s, and what you hear in this place,
may possibly be only that of the whirlpools caused by the
rocks, which fill the bed of the river as far as this. And
so much the rather as above the cataract, you do not hear
it near so far. The second is, that nothing has ever been
seen again that has once fallen over it, not even the wrecks
of the canoe of the Outaways, I mentioned just now. Be
this as it will, Ovid gives us the description of such another
cataract situated according to him in the delightful valley
of Tempe. I will not pretend that the country of Niagara
is as fine as that, though I believe its cataract much the
noblest of the two.
Besides I perceived no mist above it, but from behind,
at a distance, one would take it for smoke, and there is no
person who would not be deceived with it, if he came in
sight of the isle, without having been told before-hand that
there was so surprising a cataract in this place.
The soil of the three leagues I had to go afoot to get
hither, and which is called the carrying-place of Niagara,
seems very indifferent; it is even very ill-wooded, and you
cannot walk ten paces without treading on ant-hills, or
meeting with rattle-snakes, especially during the heat of
the day. .	.	.
FATHER BONNECAMPS’ DESCRIPTION, 1749.
In the summer of 1749, a French expedition headed by
Pierre Joseph Celoron, passed up the Niagara, bound for
the Ohio. With it was the Jesuit Joseph Pierre de Bonne-
camps, hydrographer at the Jesuit college in Quebec. He
kept a journal of the expedition, which arrived at the
Niagara June 30th. Of the Falls he wrote:324
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
The famous waterfall of Niagara is very nearly equi-
distant from the two lakes. It is formed by a rock cleft
vertically, and is 133 feet, according to my measurement,
which I believe to be exact. Its figure is a half-ellipse,
divided near the middle by a little island. The width of
the fall is perhaps three-eighths of a league. The water
falls in foam over the length of the rock, and is received
in a large basin, over which hangs a continual mist.
PETER KALM’S ACCOUNT, 1750.
In 1750 there came to the Niagara the eminent Swedish
botanist, Peter Kalm, “Professor of Oeconomy in the
University of Aobo in Swedish Finland, and Member of
the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences,” who wrote a big
book about America and left Niagara out. I am not
familiar with his work in the original; but in John R.
Forster’s English translation (Warrington, 1770) I find it
stated that “the author, who ... is still living, has not
yet finished this work; .	.	. the journal of a whole
year’s traveling, and especially his expedition to the Iro-
quese, and fort Niagara, are still to come.” It does not
appear that Professor Kalm ever completed the work as
suggested; but at Albany, Sept. 2, i§SO, he wrote a long
letter to a friend in Philadelphia. If originally written in
English, I believe it is the first detailed account of Niagara,
not a translation, to appear in that language. It follows
herewith:
Albany, Sep. 2, 1750.
Sir—After a pretty long journey made in a short time,
I am come back to this town. You may remember, that
when I took my leave of you, I told you, I would this sum-
mer, if time permitted, take a view of Niagara Fall,
esteemed one of the greatest curiosities in the World. When
I came last year from Quebec, you inquired of me severalEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
325
particulars concerning this fall; and I told you what I
heard of it in Canada, from several French gentlemen who
had been there: but this was still all hearsay; I could not
assure you of the truth of it, because I had not then seen
it myself, and so it could not satisfy my own, much less
your curiosity. Now, since I have been on the spot, it is
in my power to give you a more perfect and satisfactory
description of it.
After a fatiguing travel, first on horseback thro’ the
country of the Six Nations, to Oswego, and from thence
in a batteau upon Lake Ontario, I came on the 12th of
August in the evening to Niagara fort. The French there
seemed much perplexed at my first coming, imagining I
was an English officer, who under pretext of seeing Niagara
Falls, came with some other view; but as soon as I shew’d
them my passports, they chang’d their behaviour, and
received me with the greatest civility. Niagara Fall is six
French leagues from Niagara Fort. You first go three
leagues by water up Niagara river, and then three leagues
over the carrying place. As it was late when I arriv’d at
the Fort, I could not the same day go to the Fall, but I
prepared myself to do it the next morning. The com-
mandant of the Fort, Monsr. Beaujou, invited all the officers
and gentlemen there to supper with him. I had read
formerly almost all the authors that have wrote any thing
about this Fall; and the last year in Canada, had made so
many enquiries about it, that I thought I had a pretty good
Idea of it; and now at supper, requested the gentlemen to
tell me all they knew and thought worth notice relating to
it, which they accordingly did.
I observed that in many things they all agreed, in some
things they were of different opinions, of all which I took
particular notice. When they had told me all they knew,
I made several quiries to them concerning what I had read
and heard of it, whether such and such a thing was true
or not? and had their answers on every circumstance. But
as I have found by experience in my other travels, that
very few observe nature’s works with accuracy, or report326
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
the truth precisely, I cannot now be entirely satisfied with-
out seeing with my own eyes whenever ’tis in my power.
Accordingly the next morning, being the 13th of August,
at break of day, I set out for the Fall. The commandant
had given orders to two of the Officers of the Fort to go
with me and shew me every thing, and also sent by them
an order to Monsr. Joncaire, who had liv’d ten years by the
carrying-place, and knew every thing worth notice of the
Fall, better than any other person, to go with me, and shew
and tell me whatever he knew. A little before we came to
the carrying-place, the water of Niagara River grew so
rapid, that four men in a light birch canoe, had much diffi-
culty to get up thither. Canoes can go half a league above
the beginning of the carrying-place, tho’ they must work
against a water extremely rapid; but higher up it is quite
impossible, the whole course of the water for two leagues
and a half up to the great Fall, being a series of smaller
Falls, one under another, in which the greatest canoe or
Batteau would in a moment be turn’d upside down.
We went ashore therefore, and walk’d over the carrying-
place, having besides the high and steep side of the river,
two great hills to ascend one above the other. Here on the
carrying-place I saw above 200 Indians, most of them
belonging to the Six Nations, busy in carrying packs of furs,
chiefly of deer and bear, over the carrying-place. You
would be surpris’d to see what abundance of these things
are brought every day over this place. An Indian gets 20
pence for every pack he carries over, the distance being
three leagues.
Half an hour past 10 in the morning, we came to the
great Fall, which I found as follows. To the river (or
rather strait), runs here from S. S. E. to N. N. W. and the
rocks of the great Fall crosses it, not in a right line, but
forming almost the figure of a semicircle or horseshoe.
Above the Fall, in the middle of the river is an island, lying
also S. S. E. and N. N. W. or parallel with the sides of the
river; its length is about 7 or 8 French arpents (an arpent
being 180 feet). The lower end of this Island is just at theEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
327
perpendicular edge of the Fall. On both sides of this island
runs all the water that comes from the lakes of Canada, viz.
Lake Superior, lake Mischigan, lake Huron, and lake Erie,
which you know are rather small seas than lakes, and have
besides a great many large rivers that empty their water in
them, of which the greatest part comes down this Niagara
Fall. Before the water comes to this island, it runs but
slowly, compar’d with its motion when it approaches the
island, where it grows the most rapid water in the World,
running with surprizing swiftness before it comes to the
Fall; it is quite white, and in many places is thrown high
up into the air! The greatest and strongest batteaux would
here in a moment be turn’d over and over.
The water that goes down on the west side of the island,
is more rapid, in greater abundance, whiter, and seems
almost to outdo an arrow in swiftness. When you are at
the Fall, and look up the river, you may see, that the river
above the Fall is every where exceedingly steep, almost as
the side of a hill. When all this water comes to the very
Fall, there it throws itself down perpendicular! It is be-
yond all belief the surprize when you see this! I cannot
with words express how amazing it is! You cannot see it
without being quite terrified; to behold so vast a quantity
of water falling headlong from a surprizing height!
I doubt not but you have a desire to learn the exact
height of this great Fall. Father Hennepin supposes it 600
Feet perpendicular; but he has gained little credit in
Canada; the name of honour they give him there, is un
grand Menteur, or The Great Liar; he writes of what he
saw in places where he never was. ’Tis true he saw this
Fall: but as it is the way of some travellers to magnify
everything, so he has done with regard to the fall of
Niagara. This humour of travellers, has occasioned me
many disappointments in my travels, having seldom been
so happy as to find the wonderful things that had been
related by others. For my part, who am not fond of the
Marvellous, I like to see things just as they are, and so to
relate them.328
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
Since Father Hennepin’s time, this Fall by all the ac-
counts that have been given of it, has grown less and less;
and those who have measur’d it with mathematical instru-
ments find the perpendicular fall of the water to be exactly
137 feet. Monsr. Morandrier, the king’s engineer in
Canada, assured me, and gave it me also under his hand,
that 137 Feet was precisely the height of it; and all the
French Gentlemen that were present with me at the Fall,
did agree with him, without the least contradiction: it is
true, those who have try’d to measure it with a line, find it
sometimes 140, sometimes 150 feet, and sometimes more;
but the reason is, it cannot that way be measured with any
certainty, the water carrying away the Line. When the
water is come down to the bottom of the rock of the Fall, it
jumps back to a very great height in the air; in other places
it is as white as milk or snow; and all in motion like a
boiling chaldron.
You may remember, to what a great distance Hennepin
says the noise of this great Fall may be heard. All the
gentlemen who were with me, agreed, that the farthest one
can hear it is 15 leagues, and that very seldom. When the
air is quite calm, you can hear it to Niagara Fort; but
seldom at other times, because when the wind blows, the
waves of Lake Ontario make too much noise there against
the Shore. They informed me, that when they hear at the
Fort the noise of the Fall, louder than ordinary, they are
sure a North East Wind will follow, which never fails: this
seems wonderful, as the Fall is South West from the Fort:
and one would imagine it to be rather a sign of a contrary
wind. Sometimes, ’tis said, the Fall makes a much greater
noise than at other times, and this is look’d upon as a certain
mark of approaching bad weather, or rain; the Indians
here hold it always for a sure sign. When I was there, it
did not make an extraordinary great noise: just by the
Fall, we could easily hear what each other said, without
speaking much louder than common when conversing in
other places. I do not know how others have found so greatEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
329
a noise here, perhaps it was at certain times, as above
mentioned.
From the Place where the water falls, there rise abun-
dance of vapours, like the greatest and thickest smoke,
sometimes more, sometimes less: these vapours rise high in
the air when it is calm, but are dispersed by the wind when
it blows hard. If you go nigh to this vapour or fog, or if
the wind blows it on you, it is so penetrating, that in a few
minutes you will be as wet as if you had been under water.
I got two young Frenchmen to go down, to bring me from
the side of the Fall at the bottom, some of each of the
several kinds of herbs, stones and shells they should find
there: they returned in a few minutes, and I really thought
they had fallen into the water; they were obliged to strip
themselves quite naked, and hang their clothes in the sun
to dry. When you are on the other East side of the Lake
Ontario, a great many leagues from the Fall, you may,
every clear and calm morning, see the vapours of the Fall
rising in the air; you would think all the woods thereabouts
were set on fire by the Indians, so great is the apparent
smoak. In the same manner you may see it on the West
side of the lake Erie, a great many leagues off.
Several of the French gentlemen told me, that when
birds come flying into this fog or smoak of the fall, they
fall down and perish in the Water, either because their
wings are become wet, or that the noise of the fall aston-
ishes them, and they know not where to go in the Dark:
but others were of opinion, that seldom or never any bird
perishes in that manner; because, as they all agreed, among
the abundance of birds found dead below the fall, there are
no other sorts than such as live and swim frequently in the
water; as swans, geese, ducks, water-hens, teal, and the
like. And very often great flocks of them are seen going
to destruction in this manner; they swim in the river above
the fall, and so are carried down lower and lower by the
water, and as water-fowl commonly take great delight in
being carry’d with the stream, so here they indulge them-
selves in enjoying this pleasure so long, till the swiftness of330	EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
the water becomes so great, that ’tis no longer possible for
them to rise, but they are driven down the precipice, and
perish. They are observ’d when they draw nigh the fall, to
endeavour with all their might, to take wing and leave the
water, but they cannot. In the months of September and
October, such abundant quantities of dead waterfowl are
found every morning below the Fall, on the shore, that the
garrison of the fort for a long time live chiefly upon them;
besides the fowl, they find also several sorts of dead fish,
also deer, bears, and other animals which have tried to cross
the water above the fall; the larger animals are generally
found broken to pieces. Just below the fall the water is not
rapid, but goes all in circles and whirls like a boiling pot;
which however doth not hinder the Indians going upon it
in small canoes a fishing; but a little lower begins the
smaller fall. When you are above the fall, and look down,
your head begins to turn: the French who have been here
ioo times, will seldom venture to look down, without at the
same time keeping fast hold of some tree with one hand.
It was formerly thought impossible for any body living
to come at the Island that is in the middle of the fall: but
an accident that happen’d 12 years ago, or thereabouts, made
it appear otherwise. The history is this. Two Indians of
the Six Nations went out from Niagara fort, to hunt upon
an island that is in the middle of the river, or strait, above
the great fall, on which there used to be abundance of deer.
They took some French brandy with them, from the fort,
which they tasted several times as they were going over
the carrying-place; and when they were in the canoe, they
took now and then a dram, and so went along up the strait
towards the Island where they propos’d to hunt, but grow-
ing sleepy, they laid themselves down in the canoe, which
getting loose drove back with the stream, farther and far-
ther down till it came nigh that island that is in the middle
of the fall. Here one of them, awakened by the noise of the
fall, cries out to the other, that they were gone! yet they
tri’d if possible to save life. This island was nighest, and
with much working they got on shore there. At first theyEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
331
were glad; but when they had consider’d every thing, they
thought themselves hardly in a better state than if they had
gone down the fall, since they had now no other choice,
than either to throw themselves down the same, or to perish
with hunger. But hard necessity put them on invention.
At the lower end of the island the rock is perpendicular,
and no water is running there. This island has plenty of
wood; they went to work directly and made a ladder or
shrouds of the bark of linden tree, (which is very tough
and strong) so long till they could with it reach the water
below; one end of this bark ladder they tied fast to a
great tree that grew at the side of the rock above the fall,
and let the other end down to the water. So they went
down along their new-invented stairs, and when they came
to the bottom in the middle of the fall, they rested a little;
and as the water next below the fall is not rapid, as before-
mentioned, they threw themselves out into it, thinking to
swim on shore. I have said before, that one part of the fall
is on one side of the island, the other on the other side.
Hence it is, that the waters of the two cataracts running
against each other, turn back against the rock that is just
under the island. Therefore, hardly had the Indians began
to swim, before the waves of the eddy threw them with
violence against the rock from whence they came. They
tried it several times, but at last grew weary; and being
often thrown against the rock they were much brus’d, and
the skin of their bodies torn in many places. So they were
obliged to climb up their stairs again to the island, not
knowing what to do. After some time they perceived
Indians on the shore, to whom they cried out. These saw
and pity’d them, but gave them little hopes of help; yet they
made haste down to the fort, and told the commandant
where two of their brethren were. He persuaded them to
try all possible means of relieving the two poor Indians;
and it was done in this manner. The water that runs on
the east side of this island is shallow, especially a little
above the island towards the eastern shore. The comman-
dant caused poles to be made and pointed with iron: two332
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
Indians determined to walk to this island by the help of
these poles, to save the other poor creatures, or perish
themselves. They took leave of all their friends as if they
were going to death. Each had two such poles in his hands,
to set against the bottom of the stream, to keep them steady.
So they went and got to the island, and having given poles
to the two poor Indians there, they all returned safely to
the main. Those two Indians who in the abovementioned
manner were first brought to this island, are yet alive.
They were nine days on the island, and almost starved to
death.
Now since the way to this island has been found, the
Indians go there often to kill deer, which having tried to
cross the river above the fall, were driven upon the island
by the stream: but if the King of France would give me all
Canada, I would not venture to go to this island; and were
you to see it, Sir, I am sure you would have the same
sentiment.
On the West side of this island are some small islands
or rocks of no consequence. The east side of the river is
nearly perpendicular, the west side more sloping. In former
times a part of the rock at the Fall which is on the west
side of the island, hung over in such a manner, that the
water which fell perpendicularly from it, left a vacancy
below, so that people could go under between the rock and
the water, but the prominent part some years since broke
off and fell down; so that there is now no possibility of
going between the falling water and the rock, as water now
runs close to it all the way down.
The breadth of the Fall, as it runs into a semicircle, is
reckon’d to be about six Arpents. The island is in the
middle of the Fall, and from it to each side is almost the
same breadth: the breadth of the island at its lower end is
two thirds of an Arpent, or thereabouts. Below the Fall in
the holes of the rocks, are great plenty of Eels, which the
Indians and French catch with their hands without other
means; I sent down two Indians boys, who directly came
up with about twenty fine ones.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
333
Every day, when the Sun shines, you see here from io
o’clock in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, below the Fall,
and under you, when you stand at the side over the Fall, a
glorious rainbow and sometimes two rainbows, one within
the other. I was so happy to be at the Fall on a fine clear
day, and it was with great delight I viewed this rainbow,
which had almost all the colours you see in a rainbow in
the air. The more vapours, the brighter and clearer is the
rainbow. I saw it on the East side of the Fall in the bottom
under the place where I stood, but above the water. When
the wind carries the vapours from that place, the rainbow
is gone, but appears again as soon as new vapours come.
From the Fall to the landing above the Fall, where the
canoes from Lake Erie put on shore (or from the Fall to
the upper end of the carrying-place) is half a mile. Lower
the canoes dare not come, lest they should be obliged to try
the fate of the two Indians, and perhaps with less success.
They have often found below the Fall pieces of human
bodies, perhaps drunken Indians, that have unhappily came
down the Fall. I was told at Oswego, that in October, or
thereabouts, such plenty of feathers are to be found here
below the Fall, fhat a man in a day’s time can gather enough
of them for several beds, which feathers they said came off
the birds kill’d at the Fall. I ask’d the French, if this was
true? They told me they had never seen any such thing;
but that if the feathers were picked off the dead birds, they
might be such a quantity. The French told me, they had
often thrown whole trees into the water above, to see them
tumble down the Fall. They went down with surprising
swiftness, but could never be seen afterwards; whence it
was thought there was a bottomless deep or abyss just under
the Fall. I am also of Opinion, that there must be a vast
deep here; yet I think if they had watched very well, they
might have found the trees at some distance below the
Fall. The rock of the Fall consists of a grey limestone.
Here you have, Sir, a short but exact description of this
famous Niagara cataract; you may depend on the truth of
what I write. You must excuse me if you find in my ac-334
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
count, no extravagant wonders. I cannot make nature
otherwise than I find it. I had rather it should be said of
me in time to come, that I related things as they were, and
that all is found to agree with my description; than to be
esteem’d a false Relater. I have seen some other things in
this my journey, an account of which I know would gratify
your curiosity; but time at present wilf not permit me to
write more, and I hope shortly to see you. I am &c.,
Peter Kalm.
THE ABBE PIQUET IN 1751.
Peter Kalm was a thorough naturalist and a good ob-
server. In strong contrast is the next visitor I am able to
note—the Sulpitian priest, the Abbe Franqois Picquet, who
came to the Niagara, from his mission near the present
Ogdensburg, in 1751. Of Niagara he wrote the following
extraordinary passage:
“This cascade is as marvelous for its height, and the
quantity of water which falls there, as for the diversity of
its falls, which are in the number of six principal ones
separated by a little isle which puts three to the north and
three to the south; they have a regular symetry and an
astonishing effect.”
ADVENTURES OF M. BONNEFONS, 1753.
A narrative of American travel and adventure very little
known, and I believe unpublished as yet in English, is the
“Voyage au Canada dans le Nord de VAmerique Septen-
trionale fait depuis Van 1751 a 1761/' The original manu-
script, written in journal form during the decade 1751 to
1761, was at last accounts in the possession of the Marquis
de Bassano, in Paris. The National Library of France
possesses a manuscript copy of it. In 1887 it was printed,EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
335
in French, at Quebec, with some editing by the very capable
hand of the Abbe H. R. Casgrain. The only acknowledg-
ment of authorship on the original manuscript is the initials
“J. C. B.” which the Abbe Casgrain ascertains, with prob-
able accuracy, to stand for J. C. Bonnefons, who held
various posts in the French military service in America, and
who became secretary to Capt. Pouchot, the last French
defender of Fort Niagara. The whole journal is full of
interest; but I translate from it only a few paragraphs
relating to M. Bonnefons’ adventures at Niagara Falls in
1753. A few errors will be corrected at the close of the
quotation:
Fort Niagara, situated on the high ground and at the
south of Lake Ontario, was originally named Denonville.
It stands on an elevated spot which is overlooked by moun-
tains at the west bordering a strait three leagues in length,
which bears the name of the Niagara river. This fort, built
in 1687, was palisaded. It was rebuilt and fortified in
1763. We find it built partly of stone and partly of wood,
well fortified on the land side and surrounded with ditches,
with bastions supplied with eighteen pieces of cannon, a
drawbridge and eighty men in the garrison.
Opposite this fort, at the north and nearly at the end of
Lake Ontario, is a great bay, named Toronto, since called
by the English, York Bay. On the shore of this bay, there
had been built by order of the Governor Joncquiere a fort
named Toronto, which has since been destroyed as useless.
The next day, April 12th, we went on by land. From
Fort Niagara we ascended the three mountains which are
at the west of the fort and on the top of each of which we
found a level space formed of flat rock, very even, which
makes a resting place for travelers who pass there. It is
about two leagues from the bottom to the top of the moun-
tains. When we had reached the top we had to rest, after
which we continued to march. At a quarter of a league to
the north of the last mountain is the famous fall of Niagara,336
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
the noise of which may be heard nearly three leagues. At
the place to the south of where we were was a little station,
newly established, for the building of batteaux and canoes
needed for the navigation of Lake Erie. This station was
named Toronto, the English gave to it that of Scuyler or
Sckuiler. At the time of our passage there was there a
garrison of forty men, Canadians, all boat carpenters. We
rested there three days, during which they loaded the pro-
visions, ammunition and goods which we had to take with
us to the upper end of Lake Erie.
The curiosity permitted to travelers made me wish to
visit the Niagara fall, which I had heard spoken of as a
marvelous curiosity. I was one of three to go there. I
examined this astonishing cataract, which has the form of
a crescent, a quarter of a league in extent. They give to it
the height, according to common report, of 180 feet. It is
the discharge of Lake Erie, and receives its waters, which it
throws into the strait or river of Niagara, which then
empties into Lake Ontario near Fort Niagara.
The approaches to this fall appear inaccessible, especially
on the south side where we were, and present from both
sides a rock covered with bushes, which grow naturally in
the crevices. It is impossible when near it to make speaking
heard, unless very near to the ears. After having well
examined this fall from above, I proposed to the two per-
sons who had accompanied me to go down below. They
opposed the difficulty of getting there, there being neither
road, nor path, nor security, and that the undertaking was
perilous and rash to go there by the bushes, which ap-
peared too weak to sustain us, or by the roots which were
not strong, having only hold in the joints of the rock. These
reasons, all of force as it appeared to me, did not prevent
me from persisting in my curiosity. I resolved then to
expose myself alone and presently I began to descend with
the intention of making sure of the branches which I
encountered on my way; descending backwards, so that I
would not let go one after another, until I had seized others
of the same firmness.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
337
I was about an hour in getting down, not without com-
mending myself to Providence, for I perceived the rashness
of my undertaking, but I had to finish as much from pride
as from curiosity. Finally, I came to the bottom, at about
twenty toises from the foot of the fall, which even at that
distance, did not prevent me from being drenched by the
rain-like spray which the fall made. I advanced still nearer.
I passed over a fine shingle of flat rock, which led me under
the sheet of falling water. It was then that I was very
much more drenched and felt the trembling of the rocks
caused by the fall of water, which made me hesitate
whether I ought to go on or retreat. However, reflecting
that this trembling must be the same always, I resolved to
go forward, and after having made thirty steps more I
found myself in a sort of cavern, formed in the rocks, in
the midst of which ran the sheets of water from crevices at
several points, which made cascades, agreeable and amusing
enough if the rain caused by the fall had permitted me to
stay there a little time. I seemed in this place to be in the
midst of the cataract. The noise and the trembling were
very great. That did not prevent me from examining the
cavern, which appeared of a length of six toises by about
twenty feet in height. Its depth was scarcely more than
fifteen feet. I would have passed it, but was unable to go
further because of large clefts which I was unable to cross.
I had to retrace my steps. All shivering with cold, and
drenched, I hastened to take again the road by which I had
descended. I climbed up the bushes quicker than I had
descended them. Arrived on top, I found the two people
with whom I had come. They wished to interrogate me.
This was futile. I was deaf and was not able to hear them.
Cold and hunger forced me to hasten to Toronto, where,
being arrived, I at once changed my clothes, after which
I ate.
It was not until two hours afterwards that the deafness
left me and I was able to give an account of what I had
seen. I have since questioned several travelers to learn if
they had knowledge of any one who had descended this338
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
fall. They had heard no one tell of it. That does not seem
extraordinary to me, knowing that the Canadians are so
little curious that they would not deign to turn aside from
their route for something worthy of report. This indiffer-
ence on their part does not however give me pretence of
being the only one who may have risked himself in this
perilous visit, nor that there will not be found in days to
come others as curious as I. But if that happens, those
who will have the enterprise will be able to confirm what I
report to have seen.
It is common report in this country that a native Iroquois,
finding himself with his canoe drawn into the current from
above, and not being able to draw out of the force of it,
wrapped himself in his blanket, glided along in his canoe,
and abandoned himself to the current, which quickly pre-
cipitated him over the fall, where he was swallowed up
with his canoe without reappearing. I have seen the fall
of a tree, drawn down by the current, which did not again
appear; from which I have concluded that there is a gulf
where everything that falls from above is swallowed up.
About twenty feet above this fall is a little island,
formed of rock, some fifteen toises in length, by io or 12
feet in width, overgrown with bushes, with one single tree
in the midst. The water of Lake Erie, which rushes around
it and throws itself into the fall, is very rapid and glides
over a shelf of flat rock at a depth of four or five feet,
especially on the side to the south, where I examined it.
One finds at the foot of the fall, along the river Niagara,
a great many dead fish. Travelers pretend that these fish
come from Lake Erie. They find they have become drawn
down into the fall by the rapidity of the water. I have
given to this matter a reflection which seems to me just. It
is that they first ascend rather than descend, and that com-
ing from Lake Ontario, ascending near to the fall, they are
there killed, afterward drawn down by the current which
throws them on the banks, where one often finds them only
stunned. Now if they came from Lake Erie they would be
killed and, what is more, swallowed up in the fall.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
339
It is said also that birds which fly over the fall are drawn
into it in spite of themselves, by the force of the air. I
am not sure of this fact, which, however, is not lacking in
probability, since there is often seen there a rainbow which
seems strongly to attract the birds who direct their flight
into it, where they become confused and drenched, lacking
strength to ascend. And it may perhaps be only birds of
passage, for those which inhabit the neighborhood are so
accustomed to the rainbow and to the noise of the fall that
they know how to preserve themselves, since they are seldom
seen there, although there are a great many of them in
this vicinity.
The place called Toronto is not, except in the first
allusion, the present Toronto, but the old landing-place above
the Falls, long known as Schlosser. It was no doubt this last
name that Bonnefons aimed at when he wrote “Scwyler ou
Sckuiler ” The early French writers made as bad a mess
of English names—or in this case of a German—as the
English did of French names. One has but to look at Sir
William Johnson’s attempts at French names to see how
bad that could be. I have used the old French word “toise,”
which occurs in Bonnefons’ journal; it could be translated
“fathom,” or six feet. The “little island” described by M.
Bonnefons was no doubt that afterwards named Gull island;
numerous early visitors speak of it, Tom Moore among
others, in 1804. It disappeared not many years later.
DIARY OF RALPH IZARD, 1765.
The following is a portion of a diary, ascribed to Ralph
Izard of South Carolina; it was published anonymously in
New York in 1846, it is said by his grand-daughter, Anna
Izard Deal. The writer was born in Charleston in 1742,
and fell heir to large property, both in land and slaves. He
was educated in England; returning to America he married340
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
a niece of Lt. Gov. De Lancey. It was apparently before
his marriage that he made the journey to Niagara described
in his journal. In 1771 he went to England, residing in
London, and, after the outbreak of war with the American
colonies, in Paris. He returned to America in 1780, became
devoted to the patriot cause, and pledged his estate as
security to the Government, when Congress was trying to
arrange for the purchase of ships of war in Europe. In
1782 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and
from 1789 to 1795, United States Senator from South
Carolina, and a part of the time president pro tem of the
Senate. He stood high, in the esteem of Washington, and
was a loyal and active patriot; he was, however, says a
biographer, “violent in his temper and practically useless
as a diplomatist.” He died at South Bay, near Charleston,
May 30, 1804. The following extract from his diary pre-
serves some of the peculiarities of the original:
Monday, 24th June, 1765. Went with my three com-
panions on board a sloop for Albany—a very hot day, with
the wind at south. After sailing about fifty miles through
a very rocky and mountainous country, the wind came about
contrary and we anchored. Friday, 28th. Arrived at
Albany, one hundred and sixty miles from New York.
Albany is a dirty, ill-built Dutch town, of about three hun-
dred houses; stands upon Hudson’s River. Dined at
Schuyler’s. July 2d. Left Albany in a wagon, came to
Schenectady. Lay at Sir William Johnson’s; he is super-
intendent for Indian affairs in the northern district. Break-
fasted at Fort Johnson, where Sir William’s son lives,
eighteen miles from Schenectady; good land all the way
thither. Dined with Sir William at Johnson Hall. Extra-
ordinary good land about his house. The office of superin-
tendent very troublesome. Sir William continually plagued
with Indians about him, generally from three hundred to
nine hundred in number—spoil his garden and keep hisEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
341
house always dirty. 7th. Left Sir William’s; lay at
Nicholas Failings, a very civil Dutchman, who seemed glad
to give us whatever he had in his house; it is forty-two
miles from Schenectady. 8th. Got to Nicholas Harkimer’s,
sixteen miles from Failings, pth. Fort Harkimer, eight
miles. The land about it belongs to old Harkimer, excellent
land, settled by Germans. During the war this fort was
built for the protection of the neighborhood from the
attacks of the Six Nation Indians, who live round about it.
10th. Discharged our wagon; went on board a batteau;
hunted and rowed up the Mohawk River against the stream
which, on account of the rapidity of the current, is very
hard work for the poor soldiers. Encamped on the banks
of the river, about nine miles from Harkimer’s.
The inconveniences attending a married subaltern,
strongly appear in this tour; what with the sickness of
their wives, the squealing of their children, and the small-
ness of their pay I think the gentlemen discover no un-
common share of philosophy, in keeping themselves from
running mad. Officers and soldiers, with their wives and
children, legitimate and illegitimate, make altogether a
pretty compound oglio, which does not tend towards show-
ing military matrimony off to any great advantage.
Friday nth. Got to Fort Schuyler, fifteen miles from
our last night’s encampment. A little block-house, built
during the late war, not capable of containing above six or
eight people.
Saturday 12th. Had a disagreeable ride twenty-two
miles through a thick wood, with a bad path, to Fort Stan-
wix built in the year 1759 by General Stanwix. Lieutenant
Allan Grant commanded there.
Monday 14th. Went on horseback by the side of Wood-
creek, twenty miles to the royal block-house, a kind of
wooden castle; proof against any Indian attacks. It is
now abandoned by the troops, and a settler lives there, who
keeps rum, milk, rackoons, etc., which though nothing of
the most elegant, is comfortable to strangers passing that
way.342
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
This block-house is situated on the east end of the Oneida
Lake, and is surrounded by the Oneida Indians, one of the
Six Nations, Some of our batteaux not being come up, we
stayed next day at the block house.
16th. Embarked and rowed to the west end of the lake
which is twenty-eight miles, to Fort Brewington, a small
stockade, built last war. The Oneida Lake is twenty miles
broad from north to south.
17th. Rowed down Oswego River to the Onondaga
Falls, thirty-nine miles. These falls, are so rapid, that the
batteaux were all drawn out of the water, and rolled twenty
yards, upon logs, made for that purpose below the Falls,
where we encamped.
18th. Arrived at Fort Ontario (commanded by Captain
Lieut. Jonathan Rogers of the Seventeenth), situated on the
lake of that name, near a point formed by the lake and
Oswego river. Fort Ontario is of wood, has five bastions,
built in 1759.
Fort Oswego, which was taken by the French, is on the
opposite side of the river, within sight of this Fort.
Pondiach, the famous Ottawa chief, with fifty head men
of the neighboring Indians, were arrived here to meet Sir
William Johnson, about matters of consequence.
21st. Sir William arrived.
22d. At two o’clock in the morning, left Fort Ontario,
encamped on the banks of Lake Ontario, about thirty miles
from the Fort.
23d. Proceeded and encamped. 24th. Arrived late in
the evening at Niagara Fort, one hundred and seventy miles
from Fort Ontario. Captain Thomas Norris, of the Seven-
teenth regiment, commanded here. Many civilities received
from him and the officers of the regiment.
26th. Rode to Fort Schlosser, about fifteen miles from
Niagara, which is situated on Niagara River, about two
miles above the famous Falls.
Mr. Pfister, a German half-pay lieutenant of the Royal
Americans, lives at Fort Schlosser. He has made a contract
with General Gage, commander-in-chief, to carry all stores,EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
343
batteaux, etc., belonging to the army, in wagons over land,
about seven miles, the Falls of Niagara making the river
of that name so rapid both above and below them, that it is
absolutely necessary for every thing going towards Lake
Erie, to be carried that distance by land. Every batteau,
besides those belonging to the army, pays him fio, New-
York currency, and upwards, according to their size.
Batteaux and all heavy baggage are raised to the top
of an high hill on the river, by means of a capstan.
From Fort Schlosser we went to see the Falls, which
are two amazing cataracts, divided by an island in the
river. We were inclined to go down a steep rock and view
the Falls from the bottom, but having no rope with us to
fasten to a tree above, the dangerous appearance of the
precipice deterred us.
A few days after, we crossed the river from Niagara
Fort and rode to the Falls, which appeared much higher
and more beautiful than from the opposite side.
We had got a rope, and resolved by its assistance to go
to the bottom of the Falls; but some accident happening to
the horse of the man who had charge of the rope, he was
obliged to stop on the road, and endeavoring to overtake
us, he lost his way; so we should have been a second time
disappointed of the pleasure of seeing the Falls from the
bottom had we not resolved to go down at all events, with-
out a rope. Before this resolution could be executed, it was
necessary to find out a proper place from which we might
make an attempt with some probability of success.
This was no easy matter; and we examined the banks
of the river for at least an hour and a half before any such
place could be found. Nothing but the bare face of a rock
was to be seen. At last an opening appeared between some
trees and bushes, which, though dangerous to go down,
seemed the most likely place for our purpose of any we
had seen. A council was now held, whether an attempt
should be made there. We all seemed pretty well agreed,
that if any one of us would jump down a smooth perpen-
dicular rock, about twenty feet in height, when he got to344
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
the bottom it was likely he might find a place where we
might descend lower with ease. Nothing was now wanting
but a mouse hardy enough to tie the bell about the cat's
neck. At last one of the company, after having made one
or two fruitless attempts, fixed a forked pole to the branch
of a tree that hung over the rock, and by that means let
himself down to the bottom. The fork of the pole broke
as he was going down, and I think it is a wonder he did
not break his neck.
After looking about him some time, he found some
notched logs, not twenty yards from the place where he had
risked breaking his bones, that served as a ladder, by which
the whole company went down easily to the place where
he was.
We then scrambled down, holding by stumps and roots,
and tufts of grass, to the bottom, and a terrible piece of
work we had before we got there. Our labor, however,
was in a great measure recompensed by a sight of the Falls,
which appear much higher and much more beautiful than
from above, on either side. We went so near, as to be wet
through with the spray. After getting to the bottom of the
precipice our anxiety to be near the Falls was so great, that
we forgot to mark the place where we came down; and
so, after our curiosity was satisfied with looking, we were
obliged to wander up and down for three hours, and
scramble over many dangerous places, before we could find
our way. The night approaching, gave us a comfortable
prospect of staying there till morning; and the appearance
of wolves' tracks in many places added much to our pleas-
ant situation. We were informed that those animals fre-
quently travelled about that place, in companies of about
twenty or thirty at a time, and were so fierce as to attack
men even in the middle of the day. As we had nothing
with us to defend ourselves, nor flint and steel to make a
fire, I think the odds were about five to four that no part
of us except our bones would have ever got to the top of
the hill, undigested, if we had not luckily found our way.
Upon the whole, our jaunt was difficult and dangerous,EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
345
and although a sight of the Falls from below affords great
pleasure, yet it is not adequate to the trouble and hazard
necessary to the obtaining it.
The Falls of Niagara have been measured several times
by a line, let down from a rock near the top of the Falls.
From the best accounts I could get, I think they are about
one hundred and forty feet perpendicular. They are ex-
tremely grand, and are well worth seeing.
During our stay in this part of the world, we went to
Fort Erie, which is situated on the mouth of the Lake of
that name. Lake Erie is about three hundred miles long
and about one hundred and twenty broad.
At the north-west corner of Lake Erie is Detroit on the
Straits between that Lake and Lake Huron; eighteen miles
up these Straits is Fort Pontchartrain.
Niagara seems to be the key of all our northern posses-
sions in America; yet so fond are the Ministry of the
appearance of economy that this Fort, for want of a trifling
annual expense, is suffered to go to ruin. The works are
built of turf; they are very extensive and very much out
of repair. The commanding officer assured me, that if the
Fort was attacked it must fall, as he did not think it
tenable. There is indeed in the Fort a large stone house,
ninety by forty-five feet, which is proof against any Indian
attacks, even though they were in possession of the Fort,
yet if there were three or four Frenchmen, with these In-
dians, who could show them the use of the cannon in the
Fort, the house would soon be levelled to the ground. This
large house was built by the French, under the pretence of
its being a trading-house, the Indians refusing then to per-
mit them to build a fort. Soon after the house was built,
they raised a stockade about it, and by degrees constructed
the regular fortification, which is now seen here.
The officers’ fresh provisions were entirely out, and they
had not a drop of wine; we luckily had a little which we
brought up with us.
When we first arrived we were told that the schooner
that carries provisions between Niagara and Oswegachy,346
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
would certainly arrive in two or three days; we waited
with the utmost expectation for her, but she did not appear
until Saturday, 16th August, when to our great joy she
arrived.
The diary continues with an account of the return
journey, down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, back to
Montreal, thence through Lake Champlain to Albany, and
by river sloop to New York.
A few peculiarities in the preceding journal may be
noted. “Harkimer” is a much-used early form for the
family name now usually written “Herkimer.” “Pondiach”
is a permissible spelling for “Pontiac”; but “Fort Brew-
ington” is an error for “Fort Brewerton.” Other minor
slips do not call for correction.
JONATHAN CARVER, 1766.
Jonathan Carver passed this way in 1766 and observed
“those remarkable Falls which are esteemed one of the most
extraordinary productions of nature at present known”!
But, he adds, “As these have been visited by so many trav-
elers, and so frequently described, I shall omit giving a
particular description of them.” If that had to be said in
1766, what would Carver think of the cataracts of descrip-
tion which have been poured out in the last century and
a half ?
ST. JOHN DE CREVECOEUR, 1785.
To the researches of Mr. O. H. Marshall we are indebted
for one of the most important of the early narratives of
travel in the Niagara region. It is a letter written in 1785
by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur to his young son
Alexander, in France. A copy of it, and of an accompany-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
347
ing map, were given to Mr. Marshall, some thirty odd years
ago, by a grandson of the writer, Count Robert de Creve-
coeur, at that time the head of the family in France. Mr.
Marshall sent a translation of the document, with the map,
to the Magazine of American History, in which they were
printed, October, 1878. I am not aware of any other publi-
cation of this very interesting and useful narrative, which
amply merits inclusion in the present collection.
Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, usually called, it appears,
at least during his American sojourn, Mr. St. John, was
born, of a distinguished French family, at Caen in Nor-
mandy in 1731. He was educated in England and in 1754
came to America, where he married, and for some years
was settled as an agriculturist. I quote from a sketch of
him by Mr. Marshall:
“In 1780 he was arrested by the British as a spy and
imprisoned for three months. Released through the media-
tion of a friend who became security for his neutrality, he
returned to his paternal home in Normandy. On the ratifi-
cation of peace in 1782 between the United States and
Great Britain, he was appointed French Consul-General for
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. On his arrival at
New York he found his property burnt, his wife dead and
his children in the hands of a stranger. A Mr. Fellows of
Boston, having learned that Mr. St. John had befriended
some American sailors wrecked on the coast of Normandy,
went over three hundred miles to the relief of his children
and took charge of them in their father’s absence.
“Mr. St. John remained in America until 1793, during
which time he traded extensively among the western
Indians. He visited an Onondaga council in 1789, where
he was received as an adopted son of the Oneidas under
the name of Kayo. He was also present at an Indian treaty
held at Fort Stanwix, now Rome. He had a daughter who
was married to an attache of the Consular office by the
name of Otto, who rose to high diplomatic rank in the348	EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
French service, even to the embassy to England for a short
time.,,
Crevecoeur was the author of two curious and interesting
works. One, “Letters from an American Farmer,” was
written and first published in English. There are London
editions of 1782 and 1783. The author subsequently
enlarged it and translated it into French, Paris editions
appearing in 1784 and 1787. “In it,” writes Mr. Marshall,
“he paints in glowing colors the attractions of rural life in
America. His graphic descriptions drew many an emi-
grant from Europe to our shores, to find disappointment in
the hardships and privations of a new country. General
Washington briefly characterizes the book as ‘a work,
though founded in fact, embellished in some instances with
rather too flattering circumstances’.”
His other work, written in French, is entitled “Voyage
dans la Haute Pensylvanie, et dans VEtat de New York ”
It was published, three volumes, in Paris, 1801. It purports
to have been translated from an English manuscript,
rescued from an American vessel wrecked at the mouth of
the Elbe. This gave the author an excuse for disconnected
writing, under pretense that portions of the original manu-
script were lost. He describes his travels in America and
his intercourse with the Indians. Many pages are devoted
to the Niagara region, but they are so embellished with
incidents apparently the invention of the author, that one
can only regard them as fiction, rather than as trustworthy
history. The letter to his son, however, written after his
excursion to Niagara in July, 1785, is indubitably trust-
worthy, and his map is unequaled, in that period, for
accuracy and useful data.
Crevecoeur corresponded with Washington and with
Franklin. In 1787 he accompanied the latter to Lancaster,EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
349
Pa., when Franklin laid the corner-stone of the college that
bears his name. He spent his last years in France, dying at
Sarcelles, near Paris, in 1813, aged 82 years.
In the account that follows, there are numerous refer-
ences, by letters, to places on the map, marked to cor-
respond. “The gentleman of the name of Hambleton” was
probably Robert Hamilton, the founder of Queenston,
which is the “Landing” or “landing place” of Crevecoeur’s
letter. The allusion to “surrounding mountains” is singular.
Early travelers called the Lewiston heights “mountains,”
but it was an oddly perverse memory which made mountains
visible at the Falls.
Having no access to the original manuscript, I have had
to follow Mr. Marshall's translation, which has some
obvious slips, as for instance where two falls, each a quarter
of a mile, are said to make in all a mile; probably the first-
mentioned should read “three quarters.” Further explana-
tion will be found in connection with the map, at the end
of the letter.
It was in the month of July, 1785, my friend Mr. Hunter
and I arrived at the Fort of Niagara, after a long and
painful voyage up the river St. Laurence, the particulars of
which being foreign to my present subject, I will therefore
proceed to the immediate description of the wonderful
Cataract of Niagara, which of its kind, is the greatest
phenomenon in nature.
Early in the morning of July the 12th, a gentleman of
the name of Hambleton to whom we had been introduced,
called upon us with horses to accompany him to Fort
Slausser, “A,” near which place the falls are situated. Our
route was upon the banks of the river which takes its name
from the Cataract and is generally one quarter to one half
a mile wide, the current extremely rapid, but being deep
water for about 9 miles, is navigable with a strong north-350
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
erly wind to “B.” Here the rapids begin and whose fury
and violence increases for 9 miles more, which bring you
to the head of the river “C.”
From the landing place, as it is called (because the boats
discharge their loading) we found the banks became more
steep, and we continued to ascend them until we arrived at
Mr. Stedman’s house “D” who forms this place of Govern-
ment and has the exclusive right of transporting the stores
and merchandise from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. The
men were received by the gentleman with the greatest hos-
pitality, who amused us for the remaining part of the day
with various details of the incidents which had occurred
during his residence here. Having concerted every thing
for our Expedition to the Falls, we retired to our rooms.
July 13. We arose before the Sun, and in company with
several gentlemen of the Army, began our walk to the river
Erie, which is here some miles over and interspersed with a
number of beautiful small islands, covered with forest trees.
We pursued the course of the river for nearly two miles,
our Expectations were kept awake by the distant sound of
the Fall, which became louder as we approached it. About
a mile before you arrive at the Cataract, “E,” the rapids
commence, and which of themselves, in any other part of
the world would be thought superior to anything of the
kind. You distinguish them best from a sawmill, “F,”
which projects from the shore. These rapids are formed
by a continuous chain of craggy rocks of various heights
and the descent below the bed of the river being great, the
vast body of water which comes from the upper lakes and
which are discharged by this river, force themselves over
these rocks, with inconceivable fury and rapidity, producing
billows of white foam which for magnitude, can only find
a companion in the agitation of the Atlantic Ocean in a
gale of wind.
We continued our route through a wood until we came
in view of this tremendous Cataract; but where shall I find
language to convey even an idea of the grandeur of the
Scene? When the period of astonishment was over, andEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
351
the mind at liberty to investigate each part of these varied
beauties, we found a very ample field for observation.
The most sublime and elevated object was a column of
spray or vapor, that rises from the basin “C” into which
the waters are hurled, the weight and elasticity of which
make it rebound at least one half the height of the fall.
The upper particles being light form into a thin vapor,
which appears like a cloud. The weather was remarkably
serene, not a breath of air nor a cloud to be seen. The sun
rose with peculiar lustre, and as the night clouds were dis-
sipated then succeeded a clear Azure sky. The rays of the
sun gilded the tops of the surrounding mountains, and at
length, in oblique angles, struck the cloud I have mentioned.
It was instantly vivified by the colors of the rainbow, three
of which were visible at once. One as it were under our
feet upon the surface of the basin below, was at 180 feet.
The splendor of those objects was truly beautiful, and
lasted some time until the sun rising in the horizon, from
its attracting influence, left only a light cloud which upon
many occasions has been seen at the distance of 50 to 60
miles.
Our attention was now taken up with the general ap-
pearance and shape of the Cataract, which, from the situa-
tion we were in, appeared an irregular curve. We were
standing upon a rising ground on the Eastern Shore, and
within a few yards of the lesser fall, for it is so distin-
guished from another which is separated from this by an
island, and which conceals a great part of the large fall,
and can only be seen to advantage on the opposite side.
I shall here confine myself to the small fall, which is
near one quarter of a mile wide; this vast body of water all
in a foam, is precipitated 150 feet perpendicular, with a
noise like thunder. I shall reserve the most minute and
descriptive part until I arrive on the Western Shore, but
before I leave this, I must mention the perilous and dan-
gerous descent we made. We had provided a strong rope
which we attached to the trunk of a large tree about 40 or
50 yards from the edge of the little fall. The rocks are352
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
nearly perpendicular, from the fissures of which grew a
number of shrubs and plants, which served to fix our feet
upon whilst we held firm by our hands on the rope. In
this manner we descended nearly 150 feet, not without
having experienced the greatest bodily fatigue, but also
some fearful apprehensions. What will not curiosity stimu-
late us to encounter, for certainly there was more danger
than pleasure or advantage.
However this is considered as a part of a traveler’s
duty, and being come so far, we were determined not to
be excelled in spirit or variety of attempt. We approached
the falling waters until we were completely wet. We rested
ourselves upon a rock and from thence we could see these
tumultuous waters which seemed to threaten us with
instant death, but before they could arrive to us, they were
diverted from us by a ledge of rocks which conveyed them
into the immense vortex below, for we were still elevated
above the bed of the river. We had now to return by the
way we came, which we effected without any material in-
jury, except some bruises which could not be avoided. We
had been several hours on this Expedition, and returned to
Mr. Stedman’s where we ate our breakfast with keen
appetites, which were whetted by the feast of mental grati-
fication we had just been enjoying.
We had the pleasure of an introduction to Capt. Jones,
commanding officer of this Post, whose obliging communi-
cations and very polite attention, I shall ever recollect with
gratitude. We were desirous of crossing the river Erie to
the opposite shore, where we might see the Cataract in the
best situation. The general route is to return to the landing
place upon the river Niagara “B,” pass the river and pro-
ceed by a road through the thick woods until you arrive at
the falls. We were saved this troublesome route by Mr.
Jones offering us one of the Military Batteaux, with six
soldiers, to put us and our horses over. After expressing
our obligation to him for his convenient offer, which we
accepted, we took our leaves of the friends we had met
with. The river here is about three miles wide, the watersEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
353
very deep, which conceals in some measure the rapidity of
the current, which is so great that we were obliged to pole
up the river close in shore for near two miles. Our men
then took to their oars and with incredible labor arrived at
the other side and landed in Chippeway Creek “I.” This
passage is extremely awful, for many accidents have hap-
pened from the breaking of an oar and the current running
at the rate of six miles an hour, it requires great exertion
to prevent being hurried along with it; and this is the
reason they ascend the river so high, for Chippewa Creek
is even lower down than Fort Slausser. The terror is
increased by a full view of the rapids I have described, and
the spray and cloud within two or three miles. An accident
such as I have mentioned would expose persons to be driven
by the current into the rapids, where you must inevitably
perish.
We however had this only in idea, for we were safely
landed upon a beautiful plantation occupied by Mr. Birch,
a gentleman from London, but who from a long residence
in the State of New York and attached to the British
Government, came under the description of a Loyalist. He
had the lands granted him which now seem to repay his
labors and difficulties, with the greatest abundance of every
thing useful; we were entertained by him with great hos-
pitality and we found him a very sensible, well informed
character, his conversation pleasing and instructive, and his
communications very novel, which some day I may take an
opportunity of imparting. This gentleman directed us how
to proceed in a choice of situation and objects, and we
derived considerable advantage from it. We pursued our
route upon some elevated ground covered with large forest
trees, through which we now and then caught a glimpse of
the river. One station we took gave us one of the most
beautiful views I had ever seen. We arrived at the house
of Mr. Ellsworth, a Loyalist, “K,” who is settled upon a
fine plot of land which is cultivated to the very edge of the
Falls “L,” and which with the river and extensive prospect
is plainly seen and commanded from his house. We in-354
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
duced him to act as a guide, and having put ourselves under
his direction, he conducted us to a shelve of rocks which
are upon a level of the river Erie, “M.” Upon one of those
we took our stand, and how shall I attempt to describe the
scene before me! The bare recollection seems to deny my
pen expression of the influence of the mind; in vain the
ideas form and seek expression. They multiply upon each
other so quick that even now I require reflection to arrange
them.
The view of this cataract from the Eastern shore seems
only preparative for that on the west side, where we now
stood. I shall begin with observing, that you command
here every drop of water, since there is not a curve or
indented line but may be seen. We were within 30 or 40
yards of the great fall, the waters of which force them-
selves over these great rocks, and occasionally two small
falls, the waters of which washed our feet. The great fall
is in the shape of a horse-shoe, and is about a quarter
mile broad, its descent at least 175 feet. The vast bodies
of water which are discharged here, are more than the
ingenuity of man can ascertain. To form a competent idea,
we must trace them to their sources, which are derived
from those great inland seas which are distinguished as
lakes and which in order of magnitude are:
The Lake of the Woods which is of no fixed size.
The two chains of Lakes, which are small.
Lake Superior is 350 miles long, 250 miles broad.
Lake Michigan	“ 290 “	“ 60 “	(C
Lake Huron	“ 280 “	“ 180 “	((
Lake Erie	“ 330 “	« 75 «	(<
Lake Ontario	“ 190 “	“ 70 “	«
These lakes have all a communication with each other,
and their collected waters, except Lake Ontario, are precipi-
tated over the falls of Niagara with a force and weight
inconceivably great. It rises again at least 80 feet and
produces a spray, which when the wind blows is like a
shower of rain and is felt at some 100 yards distance. The
vapor and cloud are similar to what we observed on theEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
355
East side, only here we observed four distinct rainbows at
once.
The waters in the center of the great fall appear of a
fine green color. On each side of the crescent the waters
are in a white foam, the contrast of which has a very
beautiful effect.
At the extremity of the crescent a right line runs for ioo
yards over which the water flows. You then come to an
island covered with trees and shrubs, whose foliage and
situation have a very happy effect amidst the turbulent
scene around. The breadth of it may be near a quarter of
a mile when the lesser fall continues for about a quarter
more, making in all a mile. The appearance of the whole
is level, and the island enables you to see the ledge of rocks
which form the base over which it runs, being like a wall,
the sides of which are so smooth that you might think it
proceeded from the chisel rather than from the hand of
nature. The waters fall as it were into a large basin, which
from the fermentation of the water may be justly com-
pared to an immense caldron of boiling water, every part
of which is only increased by the magnitude of the object.
This immense basin appears land-locked from this station
and the turn of the river is so quick and the body of the
water so great, seeking a bent [vent?], that it causes an
amazing whirlpool, which would swallow up the largest
vessels. The basin is surrounded, except the outlet, by
high steep craggy rocks, covered with trees of various
sorts, and which are from 150 to 200 feet above the level
of the water. Objects below are very minute. The rock
we were upon, bends over at least 20 or 30 feet, and to look
down makes you giddy, particularly from the agitation of
your feelings.
Our attention had been so much taken up with the
cataract, that we could think and see nothing else for some
time, but when we raised our eyes to make a more general
survey, I was at once transported and astonished with the
variety of natural scenery and beauty, that had been over-
looked in the contemplation of a more sublime and uncom-356
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
mon object than is to be found in any other part of the
world; we were relieved from this by one of the most
varied prospects I had ever beheld. First you see the
rapids sweeping with inconceivable force and in different
courses round the several islands which are interspersed
in the river, which from its breadth and great extent
appears like a lake. At some miles distant appears, on the
opposite shore, Fort Slausser, Mr. Stedman’s house and his
plantations, and if you pursue the scenery around, you are
lost in the immeasurable extent. The back grounds at a great
distance are terminated by a chain of high mountains, which
lose themselves in the clouds and are bounded by the
horizon.
Having dwelt with pleasure and delight upon the objects
before us, which my eyes run over a thousand times and
with which the mind could never be fatigued, we were
at length admonished by our conductor that we had no
time to spare, if we meant to complete our tour, and satisfy
our curiosity. We followed him upon the bank or ledge of
rocks for a short mile, in which walk we had many striking
views of the falls, altering their appearance as we saw
them from projecting points. We arrived at a break in
the rock, “N,” which serves as the only admittance or path
to descend to the river. This we pursued for some distance
down to a very steep bank, and were obliged to hold by the
roots of trees and shrubs that surrounded us. We came
to a large tree which stands alone, “O,” and upon the back
of which were carved a number of names of different per-
sons who had been here. Being fatigued we rested here
some little time, and amused ourselves by adding ours to
the number. We now continued our route until we came
to a large rock the sides of which are perpendicular and
near 30 feet high. We were obliged to make use of an
Indian ladder, which is simply two straight trees in which,
with their tomahawks or hatchets they cut notches at 12
or 15 inches from each other. In these notches you put
your feet and by this means we got to the bottom. We
now found our route more difficult, being obliged to change357
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
our course in different directions, according as we thought
it could accelerate our passage; sometimes we crept on all
fours for many yards together, passing through holes in
the rocks, which would scarce admit our bodies. At other
times we absolutely passed under the roots of trees which
had been hollowed by the savages who have made this
Indian path in order to amuse themselves with fishing,
which is a very favorite amusement. At some seasons
fishes are found here in great plenty, and then many hun-
dred savages frequent it.
We had now been near an hour in descending and but a
very small part of our difficulty overcome. We were
arrived upon a broken shelve of rocks which had fallen
from above in the spring of the year when the ice began to
thaw, the rocks being loosened. It is from the expansion
of the fissures which have snow and water in them during
the winter, and melting in the spring of the year,' that this
effect is produced. There have been instances of persons
losing their lives or being lamed from the falling of these
pieces, some of which would weigh many tons. At this
period of the year there was little danger. We were nearly
a mile and a half from the foot of the cataract, and the
whole way back was strewed with these broken pieces of
stone, and owing to the great declivity to the river we were
in fear of falling in, as the stones sometimes gave away,
and the only way to save ourselves was by lying down, by
which we frequently were hurt. The pending rocks above
us added much to the horrors of our situation, for knowing
those under our feet had fallen at different periods, we
could not divest ourselves of apprehension. However we
encouraged each other with the idea of surmounting the
same difficulties which others had done before us. We
came at last to the two small falls which I have mentioned
before. Being excessively fatigued and warm we sat
down some time to refresh ourselves, and prepare for ad-
vancing. Here we undressed and in our boots and trousers
began the most hazardous expedition I was ever engaged in.
After climbing over several very high and craggy rocks,358
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
we came to the first of the small falls, under which we
passed without much inconvenience, though the pressure of
the water was so great from the height it fell, that I can
only compare it to a violent storm of hail, but when we
came to the second through which our guide with difficulty
passed, I felt no inclination to proceed. Our guide returned
to encourage us, and upon my hands and feet I followed
him, expecting each moment to sink under the weight of
water, but I began to find it less disagreeable as I advanced,
and I was soon relieved by enjoying the open air, which
now I breathed with pleasing avidity. Here we reposed a
little. My friend Hunter was entirely spent; I repented his
coming, for fear of some accident, and indeed had endeav-
ored to dissuade him from this perilous excursion, but he
could not bear being left behind.
We now were recovered in some degree, and proceeded
toward the great fall, and here I may say with propriety,
that the most awful scene was now before me that we had
yet seen. Our difficulties and dangers as well as our grati-
fications, had been progressive and this was the height of
our ambitious pursuit. I have before remarked that the
waters run over the shelve of rocks, that in many places
pend over their base. The great force with which they are
precipitated, gives them an horizontal direction, so that at
the bottom where we stood, it left an opening between the
water and rocks. It was here we entered by slow and cau-
tious steps. It soon became dark, which proves the immense
body of water there must be betwixt us and the light, for
we all know we can see a great depth in the river, and
here I should imagine the light would assist in rendering
it more transparent, but we found it opaque or dark. We
had proceeded about 15 or 20 yards, when we found it so
very sultry that we might be said to be in a fumigating
bath. We hastened out of this dreary place, and once more
congratulating each othfer upon our safety, and in seeing
the sun whose beams seem to shine with peculiar lustre,
from the pleasure and gaiety it diffused over our trembling
senses. I found here ample subject for reflection. I ad-EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
359
mired this cataract as one of the great efforts of a Provi-
dence, showing the omnipotence of a Supreme Being, for it
certainly is one of the most sublime and terrific objects in
nature, at once impressing the mind with reverence and
admiration. It has often been matter of surprise to me
that men do not pursue the study of nature more. Its
works are possessed with every requisite to gratify the
senses, and our feelings are harmonized into placid con-
templation. Where is there in being one who could refuse
his cheerful matin praise when he rises from his pillow
after the refreshing slumbers of the night and beholds that
grand luminary, the sun, vivifying every object; there is
not a tree or a shrub but seems to welcome the return of
day. If we indulge in a contemplative walk, what an im-
mense variety presents itself to our notice. We may learn
the most useful lessons of moral duties from every sur-
rounding object. The progressive rise of every plant and
flower, teaches us the gradation of man from infancy.
Their decay informs us of the instability of human nature,
and indicates the dissolution of time and the whole of the
animated universe. How preferable are these innocent
contemplative reflections, to the hurry and bustle of a
licentious world, where our sensibilities are alarmed with
the sight of men preying upon men, and degrading the finest
and noblest works of God-man, below the level of the brute
creation. The awful majesty and craggy appearance of the
great and stupendous works which are on both sides of
the river, form a kind of impenetrable barrier for many
miles, except the winding path by which we descended,
seemingly made by the hand of nature to admit prying
man into every one of its secrets.
Here also is to be found a Phenomenon of which kind
there can be seen no other, that is an eternal or never
ceasing shower, the influence of which is felt to a great
distance. I mean the spray of the clouds which is occa-
sioned by the concussion of the water; the rainbows are
ever visible where the God of day, bright Phoebus, makes
his daily course and diffuses his genial rays.o
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UEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
361
NOTES ON THE MAP.
The map is here reproduced except a marginal inscription in
French, in effect as follows:	“Plan of the communication between
Lakes Erie and Ontario, towards the middle of which is found the
Fall of Niagara, the greatest known, as much for its height, esti-
mated to be 160 feet, as for the immense volume of the waters there
precipitated. Addressed to M. Ally [Alexander] St. John by his affec-
tionate father; drawn to help the description of this cataract which
he sends to him.”
The upper river is here called “Erie”—sometimes more properly
“Erie.” The early writers more often called it the St. Lawrence.
The key to the letters, given on the map in French, is as follows:
A.	Fort Erie, spot surrounded with palisades, in which are built
several houses for the reception and protection of goods.
There are here a captain and company. [This was Fort
Schlosser.]
B.	Wharf, consisting of two quays and three large storehouses,
surrounded by palisades.
C.	Foot of the fall; group [of rocks] more than 200 feet in diam-
eter, where the water churns about before escaping.
D.	House of Mr. Stedman, a little distance from the river, where
we slept the first night.
E.	Beginning of the rapids and head of the rocks.
F.	Saw mill on a point, belonging to Mr. Stedman.
G.	Site whence we viewed the west branch of the fall, estimated to
be 800 feet wide, and from which we descended to the edge of
the great group.
I. Plantation where we landed after crossing the river.
K.	Plantation belonging to Mr. Elsworth, who served us as guide.
L.	West branch of the fall, estimated to be at least 1700 feet in
width.
M.	Isolated rock surrounded with water, from which we studied the
great fall.
N.	Place where we descended to the water's edge.
O.	Great larch tree on which we wrote our names.
P.	Anchorage for vessels which come from Detroit and Mackinac,
the first distant [.. ] miles and the second [.. ] miles.
S. Isle in the midst which divides the great cataract in two, 900 feet
wide by about 1000 to 3400 feet long.
[The English “Scale of ten Miles” on the map was probably added
by Mr. Marshall.]362
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
I found here a kind of calcareous earth, which is called
Surf stone. It certainly derives its formation from some
hidden cause proceeding from the agitation of the waters
which imbibe certain cohesive particles, but I am not suffi-
ciently acquainted with chemistry to analyze its peculiar
properties.
It is dissolvable in water though formed by it, but it
acquires its solidity by being thrown upon its shores and
exposed to the sun and air. It seems to have many of the
qualities of soap but less greasy. It may be melted by heat,
but when cold becomes a solid mass again. When found it
has the appearance of Derbyshire Spar or marble, is quite
white but much lighter. I saw nothing else curious here.
There are great numbers of snakes amongst the rocks, par-
ticularly the rattlesnake, which delights in these retired and
gloomy places. We found an Indian of the Messasauga
nation fishing at the mouth of the Basin. We exchanged
some friendly signs and took our leaves. We could have
wished for a balloon to have ascended at once, but we were
obliged to toil the same way back, in which we were often
constrained to repose upon the ground. We at length ar-
rived upon the summit, and who can speak the pleasure
we received from our safe return. We had been six hours
and upwards descending and ascending.
Our friend Mr. Hambleton had been under some fears
for us and welcomed us back. He had prepared us a
homely but wholesome repast at Ellsworth’s house, which
we ate voraciously. The night was advancing and we
wished to return to Niagara that evening. We mounted our
horses and after riding some miles in the woods, we came
to a fine cultivated country interspersed with good farms.
Government lately has given every possible assistance to
these new settlers. After a ride of 18 miles we arrived at
Butlersburg, so called from Col. Butler, who had barracks
for his Corps of Loyalists and another for the savages.
There are several good buildings here and an appearance
of civilization. We had only to cross Niagara river and
found ourselves once more in that hospitable garrison. TheEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
commanding officer, Major Campbell, to whom we had
brought letters of introduction, had shown us great atten-
tions, and continued them during our stay there. I saw
very little worth remarking at Niagara Fort. The garrison
consisted of 400 soldiers. The fortifications are defensible.
The fort is built upon an elevated point of land which
commands the entrance of the river from Lake Ontario,
which is seen to great advantage.
CAPTAIN ENYS’ VISIT IN 1787.
The original manuscript of the following journal is in
the Dominion Archives at Ottawa. It was in the possession
of a son of Captain Enys, the writer, who a number of
years ago emigrated to New Zealand. At the Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia, in 1876, Dr. Selwyn, then
Director of the Canadian Geological Survey, met Mr. Enys,
who in the course of conversation respecting the changes
that had taken place at Niagara Falls, mentioned that at his
home in New Zealand he had his father’s manuscript
journal of his visit to Niagara in 1787. On Mr. Enys’
return to New Zealand he sent the manuscript to Dr.
Selwyn, who transferred it to the Archives Branch. The
late Douglas Brymner, then archivist, printed it in his
report for 1886. This was, it is believed, its only publica-
tion. The sketch is reproduced from a drawing preserved
with the manuscript.
1787, July 18th.—From hence to Fort Slosser is about a
mile & a half or two miles on a perfectly straight and good
road, at which place we at length arrived, after being four
hours on the road from Niagara, which is only fourteen miles.
On our arrival we found dinner over but we soon got a
mutton chop, which we had no sooner swallowed than we
all set out to see the Falls taking Mr. Hamilton of the 53d364
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
Regiment for our guide, who having commanded Fort
Slosser for some time knew his way.
After passing through some fields and a small piece of
wood, we came to the river side at an old saw-mill, about
a quarter of a mile from the brink of the Falls. This view
alone is worth going many miles to see. The current, which
is very strong more than three miles above the Falls, is
here increased by many causes, for the river which grows
naturally narrower as it approaches the brink of the
cataract, is here divided by a large island in the middle; it
also begins to be shallow and rocky, so that from hence
quite down to the brink of the Falls the water is in a con-
tinual foam and has in many parts of the distance Falls
which would be much talked of were they in any other
situations, which may be easily conceived from the perpen-
dicular height which the water falls in the course of this
quarter of a mile previous to its reaching the brink of the
cataract, which is at least sixty feet; this many seem to
think should be added to the perpendicular height of the
Falls; whether it should or no I shall not presume to
determine.
I already find my pen, or at least my ideas, inadequate
to give any account of what is now before me, as it is not
only the water which is beautiful but the island also is
covered with noble trees down quite to the edge of the
water; to this we must add the many small islands which
have been severed from time to time from the larger one
by the force of the current, and which still partake of their
parent's verdure and beauty. It was with difficulty we could
prevail on ourselves to leave the place, even tho’ we knew
we were to go to parts infinitely more beautiful. We at
length, however, struck again into the wood and, passing
down its skirts, Mr. H. brought us out a few yards below
the Fall. Here I for one sat down for some time in silent
admiration and astonishment, at a sight which I am fully
persuaded no pen or pencil can ever convey across the sea.
In our present situation we were too near to the highest
part of the Fall, which in a kind of a sketch or plan I haveEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
365
annexed is marked i, to enjoy its full beauty, but we had
a tolerable good view of the great, or as it is generally
called, the Horseshoe Fall, which is here marked 4, 5, 6.
To give any adequate idea of the astonishing variety which
here crowds upon your mind is impossible, and it may be
well said to be the real sublime and beautiful conveyed in
the language of nature, infinitely more strong than the
united eloquence of Pitt, Fox and Burke, even if we give
them the assistance of Loutherbourg to help them.
As the water during its fall from different parts meeting
the rays of the sun in different directions takes an infinite
number of different colours and shades; to this we must
add the numberless beautiful breaks in the water; the
delightful verdure which covers the islands and neighbour-
ing shores; the beauty of the most noble rapid which can
be conceived, before it ever reaches the brink of the preci-
pice ; the astonishing column of spray which rises from the
great Fall; the thundering noise which the whole makes
by its fall on the heap of stones below, from whence it runs,
no longer like water but absolutely in such a state of foam
as to appear like a perfect river of milk, for about 100 or
150 yards, after which it resumes its natural state again,
although it is still carried away by means of a strong rapid.
To all this I must add the lofty banks which surround the
basin into which the water falls, the tops of which are
covered with noble trees quite close to the edge of these
cliffs. Hence I could not help remarking to Mr. Humphry
that before my arrival I expected to have been disappointed,
from having my ideas raised too high by hearing so many
CAPT. ENYS’ SKETCH OF THE FALLS.366
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
people join in their praise, but that I was sure from this
view alone no one can say too much of it.
Here some of our party wished to go down to the bottom,
a thing very seldom done on this side, as well from the diffi-
culty of the descent as that when down your view is by no
means so good as on the opposite side. It was however
agreed upon to make the attempt, preparatory to which Mr.
Hamilton made us all take off our shoes, as in many places
it is so very slippery it would have been more dangerous
to attempt with them on. Our party now consisted of Mr.
H. our guide, Mr. Douglas of the 65th and Mr. Brunton
of the same Regiment, myself, and last of all Mr.
Humphry. We all with great difficulty got down about one
third part of the way. But when I saw the path by which
I was to descend further I gave it up, telling Mr. Humphry
that if he choose to go further I would get out of his way,
which I accordingly did and he descended as low as I had
done where like me he gave up the point. The other three
gentlemen completed their design and on their return very
candidly allowed, although they were well pleased with
what they had done, now it was over, they would by no
means attempt it again until ropes or something more secure
were placed in the most dangerous parts, as in some of the
steepest parts they were obliged to let themselves down by
means of twisted stick, in the manner of the faggot band,
which was tied to an old stump above, which stick had been
then in use for three years. Mr. H. indeed went further
and acknowledged that on reflection when at the bottom he
entertained some doubts their being able to reascend.
However, they all got up safe with no other loss than the
feet of their stockings, which were perfectly worn out.
We next went back a few yards to the brink of the
Falls and found to my surprise that we could not only
approach close to the top of the Falls, but that the water
was nearly on a level with the flat rock on which we stood
(marked 1,) that I could without the least danger stoop
and take up the water with my hand after it had fallen
over the precipice. The view which we have here straightEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
367
over the Falls is very fine, but not so grand as the one we
had before left, except that we saw the pillar of spray to
greater advantage, as the Fall from whence it proceeded
appeared less in this direction than the former. I do not
know how long we should have stood looking at the scene
before us, if the setting of the sun had not reminded us
that it was time to return, on which we began to retreat.
After we had returned more than a mile, on looking back
from a little eminence we could see the spray of the Fall
rising to an immense height above the surrounding woods,
like the large column of smoke which ascends from any
large building on fire, but not of so dark a colour.
Having gone a little further we came to the house of
Mr. Philip Stedman where we passed an agreeable hour in
company with him and his niece. As Mr. Humphry and
myself had no business at the Fort, we staid a short time
after the rest of the party, and were at last going in quest
of our supper without any hopes of seeing any of the Fall
for the night. Notwithstanding it was the very middle of
summer and the day had been extremely hot, the night was
very cold, so that we had run a good deal of the way, when
stopping just before the Fort gate we saw the most beau-
tiful as well as strange appearance, that can be well con-
ceived. It was the moon which was now just setting
behind the spray of the Falls; it appeared to rise to a very
uncommon height in likeness of a very dark column, but
the thinner part of the spray which admitted the light
through it, gave all the edge of the column a luminous
appearance which looked more like a pillar fringed round
with fire, than anything I can compare it to. Not wishing
to keep the sight to ourselves we ran to call the rest whom
we found collected round a large fire from which we could
with great difficulty draw them, as they supposed it was
only a story made for the purpose of drawing them from
their seats by the fire, that we might ourselves get posses-
sion of them, by which means they were not out until the
moon was very near gone, when from what they saw they
sincerely lamented they had been so tenacious of their seats.368
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
This over we all returned to the Fort and after a hearty
supper we returned to Mr. Stedman’s again to bed and slept
very sound until past 7 o’clock next morning (19th), at
which time from the orders which had been given to the
servants over night, I was in hopes our chair and horses
were on the other side of the water; in this I was again
disappointed. I next hastened to the Fort with all expedi-
tion, where I found both officers and men still in bed, from
whence they were soon roused and a boat and party of men
got to put the chair and horses over, which we soon sent
off with orders to land them on the north side of the
Chipaway Creek, whilst we, having procured Mr. Sted-
man’s light boat, remained behind to breakfast.
Breakfast being finished, we left Mr. Brunton alone at
his new Government, about ten in the forenoon, and after
having rowed up a mile or more under the East shore, we
crossed a very large island that lies in the middle, which
having gained we rowed up under its western bank for a
considerable distance before we ventured to cross to the
western side of the river. At length we made our crossing
and landed about four miles from the Falls, at a farm of
Mr. Stedman’s; here Mr. Hamilton left us and striking to
the left went to Fort Erie, whilst the rest of us taking the
right-hand road after a walk of two miles came to Chipaway
Creek where we found our horses at the house of Mr.
Birch, one of the principal people in the settlement. As
the squire was not at home, we were glad to wave the
ceremony of a visit, so as soon as our cavalry were ready
we set out toward the Falls. About another mile brought
us to the head of the rapid, and a short way further we
came to a mill Mr. Birch has lately built; it appears to me
a very elegant piece of workmanship, and is to be both a
grist and saw mill, but I am very much afraid from the
rapids above it he will find it difficult, if not dangerous, to
bring down boats and rafts to it, although the man who
superintends it says he thinks it may be done with ease
when they become better acquainted with the currents.
About 100 yards below the mill, from a point thatEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
369
projects a little, we had a most delightful view of the whole
rapid, which is near a mile in length and I should think
three times as broad as that on the east side; the numerous
falls are large in proportion, which of course renders it
infinitely more grand than the one we had seen the evening
before, but still it wanted those beautiful little islands with
which the smaller one is adorned. In the course of this
long rapid I conceive the perpendicular fall of the water is
not less than ioo feet before it reaches the brink of the
Fall, and so full is it of rocks and cascades that I conceive
it utterly impossible that any boat can ever get down to the
Fall without being overset; indeed some of the 29th Regi-
ment whilst in these parts sent down an old boat for the
purpose of seeing it go over the Fall. They went them-
selves below the Falls to look out for it, whilst they left
men on the different points to make signals when it passed
them, but some of those near the Fall nor the Gentlemen
at the bottom never saw any thing more of it.
As the day was now advancing, we could not stay so
long here as I could have wished for fear of being stinted
in time at the Fall itself, for which we now set off, and
very soon reached the nearest house to it and got permis-
sion from Mr. Elsworth the owner to put our horses in his
stable; but all the family being busy carrying their corn we
could get no one to go with us. However, as Mr. Humphry
had been here before, he undertook to guide us, and we
accordingly set out under his directions. Not far from the
house we came to the edge of a very steep bank, which we
descended through a very deep ravine or gully, not without
some dread of rattlesnakes, for whose habitation this place
seemed particularly suited, and the pass being so very
narrow and full of stones and stumps, that had any such
thing been there it would be difficult to avoid it. After
going some distance we got to the bottom of this nasty
place and found ourselves again on level ground, which took
us to the brink of the Fall at a place from its appearance
called the Table rock, over a part of which the water rolls.
This being the nearest part to the Great Fall, you are of370
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
course almost stunned with its noise and perfectly wet with
the continual mist arising from the bottom, in form of a
pillar, which having gained a sufficient height is separated
by the wind and falls like small rain or mist. From hence
we had a much better view of the Falls than that which we
had the preceding evening, but like that we were too near
the object to see it to perfection. I am told many people
think this is the best view in which you can place the Fall,
but I rather think it can only be such as have never given
themselves the trouble to search for any other. Here, they
say, you can likewise dip up the water after it has passed
the brink of the precipice. However true this may be, it is
not so. perfectly so as on the opposite side, as here it is only
a small branch of the Fall you approach; on the other side
it is actually the main body of water itself, as may be seen
in the little sketch of the top of the Fall before given; the
former or Fort Slosser side being marked i in the plan; I
am now speaking of 8. The Table Rock is a very large
flat rock projecting from the bank and overhanging its
base very much, by which means it forms one of the best
modes of determining the height of the Fall, being exactly
upon the same level and projecting so much that a line let
down from its summit will drop very nearly at the water's
edge at the bottom. But whatever methods may have been
taken to ascertain its height, that of both sides is very well
determined, being agreed by all hands to be 170 feet on the
east, or Fort Slosser side, whilst from the Table Rock it
is only 140, but this 30 feet if it is taken from the perpen-
dicular of the Fall adds to the noble rapid that is above it.
Having staid a long while we at length set off from
hence, hoping to find a way to a point not many hundred
yards below where we now were, without returning to the
top of the bank again; in this, however, we were disap-
pointed, finding the brake too thick and the ground too
swampy to admit of our passage, although I hear there is a
possibility of going to those who are acquainted with the
place. This was not our case, so we were obliged to ascend
the gully by which we came, at the top of which we turnedEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
371
off to the right and soon found a path leading to another
gully of the same kind, through which we a second time
descended the bank. Having got down to the level ground,
we could find no kind of path; we therefore marked the
trees as we went, thinking they might serve us as a guide
on our return. Thus, guided by the noise of the Falls more
than by any thing else, we soon came to the brink of the
clift and striking off a little to our left found the place we
were in search of, and which I believe is now called
Painter’s Point, from a man of that name in whose ground
it is. Here we found a spot which had been in some
measure cleared (by Lieutenant Tinling of the 29th when
he was acting Engineer at Niagara) on purpose to give you
a good view of the whole of this grand object at once, and
it most certainly is the best view of any on a level with the
Fall, as here every part is by far more equidistant than in
any other point you can look at it from. From hence you
look directly against the island which is in the centre, hav-
ing the Great Fall to the right and the smaller one to the
left; from this place you have also a better view of a small
Fall on the east side of Goat Island which is called the
Montmorrency Fall, and which is said to disembogue more
water in the course of a year than the famous fall of that
name near Quebec, which perhaps it may, but I do not think
it is so broad as that Fall. Perhaps its very diminutive
appearance here may be only occasioned by its being placed
in the midst of such astonishing large ones, as the nearest
computation that has ever been made allows the breadth of
the Fall from one side to the other to be 1,300 yards, includ-
ing all the turns which there are in the summit and the
island in the centre; which last may be something more
than 100 yards broad.
I could willingly have staid here much longer than we
did, but having determined to go down to the bottom we
were obliged to hasten towards the place where you descend.
This place lies some yards to the left of Painter’s Point,
from which you pass all the way on the brink of the preci-
pice, nor is it easy to find the opening unless you are372
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
acquainted with it, as you pass round a small bush where you
find some stumps and roots which assist you for the first
three or four yards of a very steep bank, when you come to
a place quite perpendicular for perhaps about twelve feet.
Here they have put what they call Indian-ladders, which is
no more than a tree about a foot in diameter with notches
cut in its sides that is placed rather slantwise to answer the
purpose of going down. Not far after you pass the first of
these ladders, you come to a second, not quite so long, after
which you descend through a very steep gully full of rocks
and stumps, most part of the way being assisted by the
branches of the neighboring trees. It surprised me to find
that the descent was so easy to what I had always been led
to think it, which I conceive proceeds from many who have
never tried it but speak from hearsay; indeed I am fully
persuaded that many who say they have been at the bottom
never have been there, as they are frequently betrayed by
the erroneous accounts they give of the lower region, which
in fact is, I believe, visited by but few.
Once arrived at the bottom, you receive ample reward
for the pains the descent has occasioned you. If this noble
scene inspire you with awe when above, it may be easily
conceived how much it must be augmented when you get
to the bottom, absolutely into the very basin whence all this
sheet of water falls. You are no sooner clear of the wood
than you have a full and complete view of all the magnif-
icent scene, in which all the various shades which the water
receives in its fall, either from the projecting rocks or from
the intersection of the rays of the sun, appear to the
greatest of all possible advantage; besides which you here
see nothing of the rapid above, your prospect being con-
fined to the perpendicular fall and the basin which receives
it, but then that fall appears to much greater advantage and
much higher than it does from any of the views above.
Having sat down a few minutes to rest after our descent
and drank a glass or two of wine, we proceeded to get as
near the Fall as we conveniently could. This is by far the
most difficult and I may add, dangerous part of the day’sEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
373
journey. The distance from hence to the fall, is very con-
siderable and you have no kind of road, the way lying along
the beach, which is formed of large stones which have from
time to time fallen from the high clifts which overhang
most part of the way. These rocks lie just as they happen
to have fallen, so that sometimes you are obliged to climb
over them, at others to creep under them, whilst they seem
to threaten your destruction every step you take; many of
them appear as if they would fall every moment, being
only ballanced on a point, others seem to have no other
support than trees which have fallen at the same time with
themselves, which appear very slight supporters for such
immense masses of stone; then as the apertures among
these rocks are not large enough to admit of your walking
through, you are obliged to creep through them on your
hands and knees, or slide through them on your back, every
moment in danger of meeting with either a water or a
rattle snake, for both of which this place is very remark-
able, particularly the latter, and the very best part of the
road lies over a parcel of large round stones that slide under
your feet. Notwithstanding all these dangers, such is the
beauty of the surrounding prospect and such the pleasing
kind of awe which I felt at the time, that it never once
struck my mind that I was in the least danger until the
whole was over and we had got back again to the entrance
of the wood.
But to return to my tale. Having scrambled over these
rocks until we got pretty near the Fall, we found the spray
begin to fall like hard rain. Here Mr. Humphry stopped,
but Mr. Douglas and myself went on until we got within
about twenty yards of the Falls. Here we were in some
doubt whether or no we should strip and go as far as we
could under the Fall; this we however at length rejected,
as we never found any one pretends to have gone further
than under the first small shoot, which we thought unworthy
the trouble of undressing for. There are reports of people
that have gone under the great shoot but who they were I
could not learn, although I have examined several who374
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
asserted they had been under the Falls of Niagara, yet,
when questioned closely upon the subject, it appeared to
have been only the small spout they had been under. Yet I
by no means mean to assert there is not that kind of cavity
betwixt the under part of the rock and the fall itself, that
would admit of a man going under for some distance. On
the contrary from the Table Rock being so very much
undermined near its base, I conceive it to be highly probable
the rock over which the Fall rolls is the same, but as the
falling of the spray is so very thick and troublesome as to
prevent your seeing and almost to prevent your breathing
even where we were, I do not conceive it is possible for a
man to exist under the great shoot itself.
However, we did not advance thus far without finding
something which had so far as I could find never been
spoken of before. Within a few yards of the place we
turned round, I could perceive a very strong smell of
sulphur, which I remarked to Mr. Douglas and on further
examination we perceived a small rill which descended from
the rocks above and all the stones over which it passed
seemed covered with a whitish kind of slime. This induced
me to taste the water, which I found to be exactly the same
as the water at Harrowgate, in Yorkshire. Mr. Douglas
also tasted of the same water and directly exclaimed, “it is
just like the washings of a gun barrel,” although he declares
he had never heard the Harrowgate water compared to that
mixture.
Having staid here for some time contemplating the
grandeur of the object before us, our time passed away
insensibly until we found by our watches that it was high
time we should turn our backs upon the scene from which
we had received so much delight. On our return we
employed ourselves in picking up a kind of stone which is
said to be the spray of the Fall petrified, but whether it is
or no, I will not pretend to determine; this much I can say,
that it grows or forms itself in cavities in the clift about
half way to the top, from whence it falls from time to time;
its composition is a good deal like a piece of white marbleEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
375
which has been burnt in the fire, so that it may be pulver-
ized with ease. Whatever may be its composition, it does
not appear that it will bear to be exposed to the air, as some
pieces which seem to have fallen longer than the rest are
quite soft, while such as have lately fallen are of a much
harder nature.
Having again made our way back to the edge of the wood
where we were to reascend, we sat down to take some
refreshment, very well satisfied to have seen everything
worth our notice except the rainbow, which very often forms
itself in the spray. During the time we were lamenting the
loss of this object, it made its appearance in a most perfect
state across the highest part of the Fall, which made our
sight of this place as complete as possible.
We now began our ascent and after again visiting
Painter’s Point, in our way we came to the place where we
had marked the trees; we found one or two of the first but
had done it so very ill that we could not trace our way back
by them. We therefore struck into the wood and endeav-
oured to keep the sound of the Falls directly behind us, by
which means we found our way by a much nearer route
than the one we had descended, from which we again soon
reached the house we had left our horses at, after an
absence of five hours and a half, from which time we had
been employed walking about the place.
It may not be improper here to take notice of an opinion
which is held by some people of this place, who seem to
think the original situation of the Falls was at the landing
which as before observed is seven miles from where they
now are, and that through a series of years the water has
worn away the channel that distance. Among those who
favour this opinion is a Mr. Hamilton, a merchant at
Niagara and a man of very good understanding, who says
also that he has examined the face of the adjacent country,
which has confirmed his opinion, and in particular conceives
the place which has before been taken notice of by the name
of the Lion’s Den, to have been made by a channel of the
river formerly passing through it. How far this may be376
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
true I do not know; I did not hear this opinion until after
I had seen the place, at which time no such idea ever entered
my head. The principal reasons they seem to give for this
opinion are two: First, from the abrupt rise of the bank of
the river at the Landing, which from being of a moderate
height and almost every where accessible from the water’s
edge, they became at once very high and perpendicular
clifts; at the same time the river becomes much more
narrow and rapid than before. The second reason seems
to have more reason in it, and is, that according to their
language the Falls have altered their position or retreated
since the memory of men. Having made all the inquiries I
could concerning this movement, I found that about twenty
years since, there was a projecting rock at the end of the
centre island which had fallen and seems to be the only
ground work for this strong contested opinion. One thing
I must grant, that it is possible that in a very long series of
years they may alter a little and for this reason: the spray
rising from the bottom continually striking against the
clifts wears it away and forms a kind of cavity over which
a large rock projects, as the Table Rock already mentioned,
which, when it becomes so undermined that it is not able
to sustain the weight of water which overflows it in great
floods, must naturally fall. How long it may take the water
to excavate its clifts in this manner I cannot determine; all
I can say is, the place where the rock fell twenty years ago
does not yet appear to be the least worn by its influence, nor
does any one pretend to remember the Table Rock any other
than it now is, projecting very far over its base. By which
I conceive we may fairly conclude it will take many cen-
turies to bring about this revolution, which when done only
alters one small part of the Fall for a yard or two. At that
rate, how long it would have taken to have retreated from
the landing I shall leave to those who pretend from such
causes to ascertain the age of our terrestrial globe. But
even if we should for a moment grant the possibility of
their favourite maxim, what is become of the immense
quantity of stone, which must from time to time haveEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
377
fallen during its movement. This seems to me to be a
question none can answer, certain a great quantity of stone
must have been in a channel above seven miles long and
from a half to a whole mile broad, and from seventy to
eighty feet deep. Had it fallen in such quantities as it is
natural to suppose it is very strange the fall should keep its
present perpendicular form; it is by far more natural to
think had this been the case that these immense rocks, re-
posing where they fell, would have altered the Fall from
a perpendicular to a strong rapid. But say the advocators
for this opinion, the force of the water has driven them
away from its foot. This may also be true in a small
measure, for where it is, the rocky part of the river would
not break off so abruptly just at the same place where the
mountain ends, which is at present the case, for not more
than two hundred yards from the end of this rocky rapid
part which is the spot they say the Fall originally occupied,
the River expands itself and becomes deep, muddy and
tranquil, which course it continues for about 9 miles by the
water to the mouth, the outside of which is encumbered
with a bar of sand.
I also when at the Fall observed another circumstance
which seems to be against their having been once so far
down the river. Below the present situation of them is a
circle of more than a quarter perhaps a mile or more in
diameter whilst the outlet is not so wide. I conceive this
part has been widened by the same means the Falls have
retired, as when you get beyond the influence of the spray
the river assumes its natural breadth. Speaking to Mr.
Birch, who lives at the mouth of the Chipaway Creek, he
said he had perceived a regular flux and reflux in the Creek,
resembling the tide of the Sea. Mr. Hamilton who I have
before mentioned, says it is not a regular flux or reflux at
all, but that occasionally the current runs up instead of
down, and what appears at first more extraordinary is, that
the Creek has its source to the West and runs to the East-
ward yet it is a Westerly or a wind directly down the Creek
which occasions the Current to run up it to the Westward.378
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
This he accounted for in some measure to my satisfaction.
It is well known that Lake Erie is to the Westward of this
place in which a Westerly wind has great powers and driv-
ing its waters into this outlet meets with no resistance until
it comes to the Falls where not being able to empty itself
so fast as it comes from the Lake it causes the waters above
the rapids to rise. Now this Creek being a dead swampy
Creek, just above the rapid, some of the repulsed water
forces itself into it and counteracting its own current
favours one of the contrary way.
JAMES SHARAN IN 1787.
An exceedingly rare book is “The Adventures of James
Sharan: compiled from the Journal, written during his
voyages and travels in the Four Quarters of the Globe.”
A neat little demi-octavo of 240 pages, it was printed at
Baltimore in 1808. “The publication,” says the preface,
“owes its appearance from the press, to the solicitations of
a great number of respectable persons in the neighborhood
in which the author resides,” which, the reader presently
learns, was Charleston, S. C.
According to this narrative, James Sharan was born in
Liverpool in 1762; was stolen, when a lad of ten, by a
press-gang, and carried off to sea on board the Princess.
They fought with a pirate, and after a desperate battle, in
which twenty-five of the Princess crew were killed, the
pirate was taken, and towed into Plymouth, Eng. In
August, 1772, having refitted, they sailed again. Many
adventures follow, but there is a break in the journal from
1772 to 1777, when we find the author embarked on another
cruise. The next year he was injured in an engagement
and left in a New York hospital. When recovered, he
forsook the sea, went to Philadelphia and wandered inland.
Then follows an interesting account of his life, first as anEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
379
apprentice wheelwright, then as an itinerant trader. He
prospered, and made various voyages to Europe, on one
of which he narrowly escaped drowning. He carried furs
to Scotland, and brought back Irish linens. A venture in
tobacco paid well. In the spring of 1787, being at New
Orleans, “I resolved,” he says, “to penetrate into the
United States by a course up the river Mississippi, and
endeavor to find my way through the forests and Indian
tribes, until I had seen that wonder, the Falls of Niagara.”
He had experiences with the Spanish, the French, and
various Indian tribes. “I pursued my way through the
North Western Territory, and after the lapse of several
weeks, came to a settlement of Americans near the Lakes.
I had during my journey met with several tribes of Indians,
and a considerable number of traders, by whom I was
supplied, and received every direction to reach the object
of my desire, the Falls of Niagara.”
The absence of dates and precise data, gives a dubious
quality to Sharan’s pages. If we take his word for it, it
was, apparently, in the summer or autumn of 1787, or
perhaps later, when he reached Niagara, of which he gives
the following account:
The waterfall of Niagara, by far the greatest in the
world hitherto discovered, is about ten miles from the fort
of the same name. The course of the river is from S. S. E.
to N. N. W. and the rock of the fall forms a kind of figure
like a hollow circle or horse shoe. Above the fall in the
middle of the river, is an island about 300 yards long; the
lower end of which is just at the edge of the fall. Before
the water comes to this island, it runs but slowly compared
with its motion afterwards, when it grows extremely rapid,
running with surprising swiftness before it comes to the
fall. It is perfectly white, and in several places is thrown
high up into the air. The water that runs down on the west380
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
side is in greater abundance, and whiter than that on the
opposite side; and seems almost to outfly an arrow in
swiftness. When a person is at the fall and looks up the
river, he may perceive that the water is every where ex-
ceedingly steep, almost like the side of a hill; but on look-
ing at the fall itself, the astonishment it occasions is im-
possible to be described.
The height of the fall is exactly 137 feet; and when the
water is come to the bottom, it flies back to a great height
in the air. The noise may sometimes be heard at the great
distance of forty miles. The peculiar strength of the
sound which is sometimes heard, is an infallible prognostic
of rough or rainy weather.
From the place where the water falls there arises a
prodigious vapour, like a thick smoke, insomuch that when
viewed at a distance, a stranger might suppose, that the
nations [natives?] had set the forests on fire. These
vapours rise very high in the air when it is calm, but are
dispersed by the wind when it blows hard. If any person
go into this vapour, or if the wind blow it on him, it is so
penetrating that in a few moments, he will be as wet as if
he had been emersed in water.
Some persons are of opinion, that when birds happen to
fly into the smoke of the fall, they immediately drop down
and perish in the water; either because their wings become
wet, or that the tremendous noise of the fall astonishes and
confounds them: but others think that this opinion is merely
fancy; because among the great number of birds found
dead about the fall, there are no other sorts than such as
mostly live in the water, swans, geese, ducks, teal, &c.
Great flocks of these animals are often seen going to
destruction in the following manner: They swim in the
river above the fall, and so are carried down lower and
lower by the water; and as water fowl are commonly
pleased with being carried by the stream, they indulge
themselves in this pleasure, till the rapidity of the water,
renders it impossible for them to rise, and they are conse-
quently hurried down the precipice.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
381
In the months of September and October, such prodi-
gious quantities of dead water fowl are found every morn-
ing below the fall, that they afford ample subsistence for
the garrison at the fort. Here are also frequently found
the bodies of deer, bears, and other animals which have
attempted to cross the water above the fall.
A variety of melancholy instances of persons having
lost their lives in this fall, is recorded, but few are more
affecting than the following, which is related by a traveller,
who explored the cataract.
“An unfortunate Indian was reposing in a state of
inebriety in his canoe, which was properly secured at the
distance of some miles above the cataracts, while his wife
sat on the shore to watch his slumbers. After some time,
a sailor from one of the vessels on the lake, arrived at the
spot, and took some indecent liberties with the Indian
female. The woman naturally attempted to rouse her
husband, but before she could effect her design, the brutal
mariner, cut the cord of the canoe and set it adrift. The
little vessel glided down the stream, and in the space of a
few minutes it was seen to enter the rapids.
“The Indian, awakened by the violent motion of the
waves, started up, and on perceiving his perilous situation,
he grasped his paddle with a look of inexpressible horror;
but finding it absolutely impossible to stem the force of the
current, he calmly wrapped himself up in his blanket and
resumed his former position at the bottom of the canoe.
In the space of a few moments, he was hurried down the
precipice and was never discovered more.,,
The following instance of magnanimity and heroism in
an attempt to save human life deserves insertion here; not
only as a proof that those whom we call savages, possess
the most tender feelings of our nature, but also as it may
excite a blush in the cheek of many selfish, brutal, hard-
hearted persons who call themselves civilized Christians.
There is an island in the middle of the fall which was
formerly supposed inaccessible; but an accident that hap-
pened about sixty years ago made it appear otherwise.382
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
Two Indians went out from Fort Niagara to hunt upon an
island that is situated in the middle of the river above the
great fall, which was then stocked with abundance of deer;
but having indulged too freely in the use of s6me French
brandy, they fell asleep, and their canoe drove back with
the stream until it approached that island which is in the
middle of the fall. Here they were awakened by the noise
of the cataract, and began to give themselves over as lost,
but after some vigorous exertions, they effected a landing
upon the island. At first they exulted in the idea of their
escape; but upon cool reflection they found themselves
hardly in a better state than if they had gone down the
fall, since they had no other alternative than either to throw
themselves down the same, or to perish with hunger. After
some time, however, hard necessity put them on invention;
and as they found plenty of wood on the island, they made
a ladder of the bark of the lind tree, in order to reach the
water below; one end of this ladder they fastened to a
large tree that grew on the side of a rock above the fall
and let the other end to the water. By this contrivance
they descended to the bottom in the middle of the fall; and
then threw themselves out into the water, thinking to swim
on shore. Scarcely, however, had they begun to swim,
before they were thrown back with violence against the rock
from which they came, and after several fruitless attempts
they were compelled to re-ascend to the island. After
some time they discovered Indians on the shore, who ap-
peared to pity their misfortune, but gave them little hope of
assistance. These ran to inform the commandant of the
fort of the situation of their friends and he soon projected
the means of their deliverance in the following manner.
The water that runs on the east side of the island is
shallow, especially toward the shore. The commandant,
therefore, caused some poles to be made and pointed with
iron, and by the help of these, two Indians offered to walk
to the island to save their unfortunate brethren or to perish
in the attempt. Each had two such poles in his hands, to
set to the bottom of the stream in order to keep him steady;EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
383
in this manner they safely reached the island, and brought
away the poor creatures, who were almost perishing for
want of food.
On the west side of this island, are some small rocks;
and in former times a part of the rock at this side of the
fall hung over in such a manner, that the water which fell
perpendicularly from it left a vacancy below, so that people
could go under between the rock and the water; but some
years ago, the prominent part broke off and fell down.
The breadth of the fall as it runs in a semi-circle is about
three hundred feet. [!]
Every day when the sun shines, from ten o’clock in the
morning till two in the afternoon may be seen, below the
fall, the similitude of a beautiful rainbow, and sometimes
two; within one another. The brightness and clearness of
this phenomenon depends on the quantity of vapour that
results from the spray of the cataract; for when the wind
drives the vapours away the rainbow disappears; but as
soon as new vapours come, it resumes its former appear-
ance. The rock of the fall consists of a grey lime stone.
It is hardly necessary to correct any statements in the
foregoing. Many of them seem based on what earlier
travelers had published, Peter Kalm in particular, rather
than on Sharan’s own observation. He says that from
Niagara he “traveled through the Gennessee country to
Albany,” and so on to New York, but all with a suspicious
absence of dates. The next date in the narrative is
February 17, 1789, when he reached his home at Charleston,
“having traveled during my absence more than 10,000 miles,
principally on foot, and alone, and having been from home
nearly twenty-two months.”
His subsequent travels took him to Africa, where he
had experiences recalling those of Mungo Park among the
Moors; to China, and elsewhere, a most adventurous and
varied career.384
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
ANDREW ELLICOTT, 1789.
The following description of the Falls of Niagara is
from a letter by Andrew Ellicott to Dr. Benjamin Rush,
dated “Niagara, Dec. 10, 1789.” It is here taken from the
Massachusetts Magazine of July, 1790. It appeared in
several other publications, in the United States and Europe,
at about that time.
Niagara, Dec. 10, 1789.
Dear Sir—Among the many natural curiosities which
this country affords, the Cataract of Niagara is infinitely
the greatest. In order to have a tolerable idea of this
stupendous fall of water, it will be necessary to conceive
that part of the country in which Lake Erie is situated, to
be elevated above that which contains Lake Ontario about
three hundred feet. The slope which separates the upper
and lower country is generally very steep, and in many
places almost perpendicular. It is formed by horizontal
strata of stone, great part of which is what we commonly
call limestone. The slope may be traced from the north
side of Lake Ontario, near the Bay of Toronto, round the
west end of the Lake; thence its direction is generally east,
between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie—it crosses the strait
of Niagara and the Cheneseco river, after which it becomes
lost in the country towards the Seneca Lake. It is to this
slope that our country is indebted, both for the Cataract of
Niagara and the great Falls of the Cheneseco.
The Cataract of Niagara was formerly down at the
northern side of the slope, near to that place which is now
known by the name of the Landing; but from the great
length of time, added to the great quantity of water, and
distance which it falls, the solid stone is worn away for
about seven miles up towards Lake Erie, and a chasm is
formed, which no person can approach without horror.—
Down this chasm the water rushes with a most astonishing
velocity, after it makes the great pitch. In going up the
road near this chasm, the fancy is constantly engaged in the
contemplation of the most romantic and awful prospectsEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
385
imaginable, till, at length, the eye catches the Falls:—the
imagination is instantly arrested, and you admire in silence!
The river is about one hundred and thirty-five poles wide
at the Falls, and the perpendicular pitch one hundred and
fifty feet. The fall of this vast body of water produces a
sound which is frequently heard at a distance of twenty
miles, and a sensible tremulous motion in the earth for
some poles round. A heavy fog, or cloud, is constantly
ascending from the Falls, in which rainbows may always be
seen when the sun shines. This fog, or spray, in the winter
season, falls upon the neighboring trees, where it congeals,
and produces a most beautiful crystalline appearance. This
remark is equally applicable to the Falls of Cheneseco.
The difficulty which would attend levelling the rapids in
the chasm, prevented my attempting it; but I conjectured
the water must descend at least sixty-five feet. The per-
pendicular pitch at the Cataract is one hundred and fifty
feet; to these add fifty-eight feet, which the water falls in
the last half mile, immediately above the Falls, and we
have two hundred and seventy-three feet, which the water
falls in the distance of about seven miles and an half. If
either ducks or geese inadvertently alight in the rapids above
the great Cataract, they are incapable of getting on the wing
again, and are instantly hurried on to destruction.
There is one appearance at this Cataract worthy of some
attention, and which I do not remember to have seen noted
by any writer. Just below the great pitch, the water and
foam may be seen puffed up in spherical figures, nearly as
large as common cocks of hay; they burst at the top, and
project a column of spray to a prodigious height; they
then subside, and are succeeded by others, which burst in
like manner. This appearance is most conspicuous about
half way between the island that divides the Falls and the
west side of the strait, where the largest column of water
descends.	I am, &c.,
Andrew Ellicott.
This description was widely printed. It appeared in the
Columbian Magazine for June, 1790. It was printed in the386
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
Massachusetts Magazine, July, 1790. On being reprinted
in the European Magazine, October, 1793, the editor added
this comment: “It is said by those who have visited this
stupendous Cataract, that the descent into the chasm is
exceedingly difficult, because of the great height of the
banks. A person having descended, however, may go up
to the bottom of the Falls, and take shelter behind the tor-
rent, between the falling water and the precipice, where
there is a space sufficient to contain a number of people in
perfect safety, and where conversation may be carried on
without much interruption from the noise, which is less here
than at a considerable distance. This is not unworthy the
attention of the philosophic reader.”
PATRICK CAMPBELL, 1791.
Patrick Campbell, who traveled through Canada and the
region of the Lower Lakes in 1791-2, sojourned for some
time on the Niagara. The pages of his exceedingly rare
book (“Travels in the interior inhabited parts of North
America,” etc., Edinburgh, 1793), afford many data for
our local history, but little by way of description. He
prints Ellicott’s figures of the height of the falls, and adds
the following note:
A description of these tremendous Falls has been so
often attempted by preceding travellers, without giving the
least idea adequate to the grandeur of the scene, that, lest
I split on the same rock, I will not essay it here; I shall
therefore only remark, that there is an island of a mile or
two long, and about a quarter broad, which divides the
stream about two-thirds over. This island is clad with poor
spruce pine, and so overrun with Rattlesnakes, that it was
dangerous for any person to walk through it, until a parcel
of Swine were put in, which nearly rooted them out. HogsEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
387
are so fond of Snakes, that if once they get a hold, should
they be so hard bitten by a strong Rattlesnake as to make
them squeel, which sometimes happens, yet they hold fast
until the Snake is devoured. It is said a Hog sometimes
swells when severely bitten by a Rattlesnake, but that a
crevice bursts open between the hoofs, through which the
venom is discharged, the swelling subsides, and the Hog
soon becomes as well as formerly.
DUNCAN INGRAHAM IN 1792.
The following narrative, entitled “Extract from a Letter
from a Gentleman upon his return from Niagara,” dated
August 8, 1792, was printed in the Collections of the
Massachusetts Historical Society for 1792. The author is
said to be Duncan Ingraham—possibly an ancestor of the
distinguished naval officer of that name.
I am just returned from Niagara, about 560 miles west
of Boston. I went first to Albany, from thence to Schenec-
tada, about sixteen miles; this had been a very consider-
able place of trade, but is now falling to decay: It was
supported by the Indian traders; but this business is so
arrested by traders far in the country, that very little of it
reaches so far down; it stands upon the Mohawk river,
about 9 miles above the Falls, called the Cohoes; but this
I take to be the Indian name for the falls: Its chief business
is to receive the merchandize from Albany, and put it into
batteaux, to go up the river, and forward to Albany such
produce of the back country as is sent to market. After
leaving Schenectada, I travelled over a most beautiful
country of eighty miles to Fort Schuyler, where I forded
the Mohawk: This extent was the scene of British and
Savage cruelty, during the late war, and they did not cease,
while any thing remained to destroy. What a contrast now!
every house and barn rebuilt, the pastures crowded with
cattle, sheep, etc., and the lap of Ceres full. Most of the388
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
land on each side of the Mohawk river, is a rich flat, highly
cultivated with every species of grain, the land on each side
the flats, rising in agreeable slopes; this, added to the view
of a fine river passing through the whole, gives the beholder
the most pleasing sensations imaginable.
I passed next through Whitestown. It would appear to
you, my friend, on hearing the relation of events in the
western country, that the whole was fable; and if you were
placed in Whitestown, or Clinton, ten miles west from Fort
Schuyler, and see the progress of improvement, you would
believe it enchanted ground. You would there view an
extensive well built town, surrounded by highly cultivated
fields, which spot in the year 1783 was the “haunt of
tribes” and the hiding place of wolves, now a flourishing
happy situation, containing about six thousand people.
Clinton stands a little south of Whitestown, and is a very
large thriving town. After passing Clinton, there are no
inhabitants upon the road, until you reach Oneida, an
Indian town, the first of the Six Nations; it contains about
five hundred and fifty inhabitants; here I slept, and found
the natives very friendly. The next day I went to Onon-
daga, leaving the Oneida lake on the right, and the Onon-
daga lake on the left, each a few miles distant. I slept at
Onondaga, at the house of a Mr.------who is employed in
boiling down the waters of the salt springs, which are about
7 miles north of his house, for supplying the country with
salt—he told me that he made about fifty bushels per week,
which he sold at five shillings per bushel, but that any
quantity may be made, and at a less price; these springs
are in the State reservation, and are a wonderful benefit to
the country, every part of which is so united by lakes and
rivers as to render the supply of this bulky and necessary
article very easy. Independent of our own settlements we
can supply the British in the whole of Upper Canada.
Thirty-five miles from this place I struck the Cayuga Lake.
The road is tolerable for a new country; the land excellent,
and very heavy timbered. There are but three houses upon
this road. This lake is from about thirty-five to forty milesEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
long, about two miles wide, and abounds with salmon, bass,
catfish, eels, and many other kinds of fish. This lake
empties itself into what is called Three Rivers, joining the
waters of the Oneida Lake, and then proceeds by Oswego
into Ontario. On each side the Cayuga Lake is a ferry
house and good attendance given.
Twelve miles west of the Cayuga I struck the Canada
Saga lake—no inhabitant upon this road—this lake is the
handsomest piece of water I ever beheld; its length and
breadth nearly that of Cayuga, into which it empties. Upon
a pretty slope, on the new part of this lake, stands a town,
called Geneva; it has a fine effect from the opposite shore,
but disappoints you when you arrive at it. It consists of
about twenty log houses, three or four frame buildings, and
as many idle persons as can live in them. Eighteen miles
lower, on the same side of this lake stands the Friend’s
Settlement, founded by Jemima Wilkinson; there are
eighty families in it, each has a fine farm, and are quiet,
moral, industrious people. There is a road from the
Friend’s Settlement nearly completed, across the country,
to Genesee river, forty-five miles. I went from Geneva to
Canadaqua, sixteen miles, crossing the outlet of Canadaqua
lake, just as I entered the town. This is a settlement made
by Mr. Phelps, and promises to be a very flourishing one;
there are now about thirty houses situated on a pleasant
slope from the lake, and the adjacent farms are very thriv-
ing. The Indians are settled on all the reservations made
by this State, and are to be met with at every settlement of
whites, in quest of rum!
From Canadaqua I travelled about twenty-six miles
through a fine country, with many settlements forming;
this brought me to Genesee river. On this river a great
many farms are laying out; sixty-five miles from its mouth
is a town marked by the name of Williamsburg, and will
in all probability be a place of much trade; in the present
situation of things it is remote, when considered in a com-
mercial point of view; but should the fort of Oswego be
given up, and the lock navigation be completed, there will390
EIGHTEENTH century visitors.
not be a carrying place between New-York and Williams-
burg. The present carrying places are as follow, viz:
Albany to Schenectada, sixteen miles—the Little Falls, on
the Mohawk river, two miles—from the head of the Mo-
hawk to Wood Creek, one mile—Oswego Falls, two miles—
Genesee Falls, two miles. Thus you see there is only
twenty-three miles to cut and lock, in order to carry com-
merce by water, through an extent of country capable of
maintaining several millions of people. The famous
Genesee flats lie on the borders of Genesee river; they are
about twenty miles in length, and about four miles wide;
the soil is remarkably rich, quite clear of trees, and pro-
ducing grass near ten feet high. I estimate these flats to
be well worth 200,000 £. as they now lie. They are mostly
the property of the Indians. Taking a view of this country
altogether, I do not know such an extent of ground so good.
Cultivation is easy, and the land is grateful. The progress
of settlement is so rapid, that you and myself may very
probably see the day when we can apply these lines to the
Genesee country,
“Here happy millions their own lands possess,
No tyrant awes them, nor no lords oppress.* *
Many times did I break out in an enthusiastic frenzy,
anticipating the probable situation of this wilderness twenty
years hence. All that reason can ask, may be obtained by
the industrious hand; the only danger to be feared is, that
luxuries will flow too cheap.
After I had reached the Genesee river, curiosity led me
on to Niagara, ninety miles—not one house or white man
the whole way. The only direction I had was an Indian
path, which sometimes was doubtful. The first day I rode
fifty miles, through swarms of musquetoes, gnats, &c.
beyond all description. At eight o’clock in the evening I
reached an Indian town, called Tonnoraunto—it contains
many hundreds of the savages, who live in very tolerable
houses, which they make of timber and cover with bark.
By signs I made them understand me, and for a little moneyEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
391
they cut me limbs and bushes sufficient to erect a booth,
under which I slept very quietly, on the grass.
The next day I pursued my journey, nine miles of which
lay through a very deep swamp; with some difficulty I got
through, and about sun-down arrived at the fort of
Niagara: Here the centinel inquired from whence we came;
upon his being told, he called the sergeant of the day, who
escorted us to the captain of the guard, he asked our names
(a Mr.------, of------, was with me), and said he supposed
we came upon our private business, &c.—he sent us to the
commandant who entered our names, and offered us a pass
to go over to the British side, which we accepted. Quite
fatigued, we were happy to find a tavern, and something
to eat; a few hours’ sleep brought me again to myself.
This fort is now garrisoned by the 5th regiment, com-
manded formerly by Earl Piercey, and had the honour of
dancing yankee doodle on the plains of Cambridge, 19th
April, 1775. The commander of the fort is a Col. Smith.
The day after our arrival we crossed the river Erie to the
town of Niagara where probably the British fort will be
built, when the present one is given up. We met Col.
B[utler], This is the man who did so much execution in
the late war with the Indians, upon the Mohawk river,
Schohary and Cherry Valley. We found him holding a
council with a body of the chiefs who were at Philadelphia
in April last, informing him what they had done there. A
Mr. Johnson, some relation of the famous Sir John John-
son, interpreter to the Indians, was also present; and I
have no doubt remaining but they effaced every favourable
impression made on their minds by presents from Con-
gress. I see enough to convince me of the absurdity of our
endeavours to hold the savages by presents, while the
British are situated at Detroit, Niagara, &c. They have all
their clothing, cooking utensils, ammunition, &c. served
almost as regularly as the troops on garrison; if they want
provisions they get it free.
Those tribes called the Six Nations we are at peace with
and take much pains to cultivate a good understanding, but392
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
we deceive ourselves. The old men, the women, and the
children remain at home inactive while all the young war-
riors join the fighting powers against us-—this is all they
could do, if we were at open war with them. An Indian
becomes a miserable being when deprived of his hunting-
ground, and surrounded with cellars of rum or whisky.
The whole Six Nations live on grounds called the State
Reservations, and are intermediate spaces settled on both
sides by white people; this has a tendency to drive off the
game, and if by chance they kill a bear, or a deer, his skin
goes at once for rum; in this way they are become poor
enervated creatures. They cannot keep together a great
while, and I expect they will quit all this part of the coun-
try, and retire over the lakes Ontario and Erie. Their
whole number is about 6000, of which 1000 are warriors—
how contemptible compared with their former greatness!
The leading men of these Six Nations, or what they call
Chiefs, were on the road with me going to Buffaloe Creek,
to hold a council; their object I was informed was to use
their influence with the hostile tribes to make a peace. This
will have no effect! Power is the influence with Indians;
this alone will give us peace. I see some of the Indians
who fought the battle at the Miami; and by an interpreter
received a very tolerable account of the action; they were
of opinion that our troops did not do their duty.
Col. B. told me that the only way to make a peace with
the Indians was to apply to Lord Dorchester, or the com-
mander in chief at Quebec, and let him appoint some of
the Commanders of the garrisons, say Detroit, Niagara, &c.
to meet on the part of the British, to draw a line that shall
be deemed right and reasonable between the Americans and
Indians, and have the treaty guaranteed to the Indians by
the British. I spurned at the idea, and told Col. Butler,
that it was my wish, whenever Americans became so con-
temptible, that the whole country might be annihilated.
I visited the great curiosity, the falls, and must refer you
to Mr. Ellicott’s account of them in the Columbian Maga-
zine for June, 1790.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
393
I cannot help being of opinion that Indians (or what
are called Redmen) never were intended to live in a state
of civil society. There never was, I believe, an instance of
an Indian forsaking his habits and savage manners, any
more than a bear his ferocity.
The Rev. Mr. Kirkland, who acts as missionary among
the Oneidas, has taken all the pains that a man can take,
but his whole flock are Indians still, and like the bear which
you can muffle and lead out to dance to the sound of musick,
becomes again a bear when his muffler is removed and the
musick ceases. The Indians will attend publick worship
and sing extremely well, following Mr. Kirkland’s notes;
but whenever the service is over, they wrap themselves in
their blankets, and either stand like cattle on the sunny side
of a house, or lie before a fire. This is their mode of
passing life: even the bold energy of their forefathers,
which was conspicuous in the chace, is unstrung in their
descendants, and instead of sliding to the grave “like a
shock of corn in its full ear” they become ripe for it in
youth, and often find it by the most disgraceful means.
BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, 1798.
Benjamin Smith Barton, professor of Materia Medica,
Natural History and Botany in the University of Penn-
sylvania, visited Niagara Falls in 1798. He published the
following account in the Philadelphia Medical and Physical
Journal in 1804. His pseudo-scientific observations on
the recession of the falls, feeble at best, were controverted
by Felix Robertson of Tennessee, in a letter to the editor of
the Journal, dated Philadelphia, Feb. 9, 1805.
The falls are formed by a general descent of the country
between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario of about 300 feet, the
slope of which is generally very steep, and, in many places,
almost perpendicular. This general description of the394
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
country is observable for about ioo miles to the east and
above 200 miles to the west, or rather northwest, of the
falls.
The slope is formed by horizontal strata of stone, a great
part of which is limestone. At Fort Erie, which is 20 miles
above the cataract, the current is sometimes so strong that
it is impossible to cross the river in the ferry-boat. Pro-
ceeding downwards, the rapidity of the stream increases.
It may, however, generally be crossed by hard rowing in a
boat opposite to the mouth of Chippewa Creek. As we
rowed along the St. Lawrence, from Fort Erie on the
Canadian side, we heard the sound of the falls at a distance
of ten miles, the wind was northeast and the weather clear.
Had it been northwest, we should have heard it at a much
greater distance. In heavy weather, and with a fair wind,
the sound is sometimes heard 40 or 50 miles.
The rapids, or first falls, begin about one-half mile
above the great cataract. In one instance has a man been
saved who had been carried down to them. His canoe was
overturned, he retained his fast hold of it, and it very provi-
dentially fastened itself to the uppermost rock. Some
people on shore, seeing this, ventured to his assistance and
saved his life at the risk of their own.
As we approached the falls the first time, the sun was
low in the west, which gave us an opportunity of viewing
the beautiful rainbow which is occasioned by the refraction
of his rays on the cloud or fog that is perpetually arising
from them. We afterwards found that the whole phen-
omenon is never viewed to so much advantage from the
Canada side as on a clear evening. The vast fog ascending
from the grand cataract being in constant agitation, appears
like the steam of an immense boiling caldron. In summer
it moistens the neighboring meadows, and in winter, falling
upon the trees, it congeals and produces a most beautiful
crystaline appearance. The view of this fog at a distance,
which, when the cause of it is known is in itself a singular
phenomenon, fills the mind with awful expectation, which
on a nearer approach can never end in disappointment.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
395
The first sight of the falls arrests the senses in silent
admiration. Their various hues arising from the depth;
the descent and the agitation of the water and the reflection
of the sunbeams upon them; their great height; their posi-
tion between lofty rocks and their roaring noise, altogether
render them an unparalleled display of Nature’s grandeur.
But what chiefly distinguishes them and gives them a
majesty incomparably superior to anything of the kind in
the known world, is the vast body of water which they
precipitate into an immense abyss.
The St. Lawrence is one of the greatest rivers of
America. It is very deep and about 742 yards wide at the
Falls. The perpendicular descent there is about 140 feet
down to the level of the water below. How far the water
rushes downward still further within the chasm underneath
is uncertain. It falls 58 feet within the last few miles above
the falls, which adds to the force and velocity of the
cataract. The sound occasioned by the great and precipitate
fall of such a vast body of water has the most grand effect
that can be conceived. It far exceeds in solemnity any other
sounds produced by the operation of nature. It is only at
the falls that the force of that figure made use of in the
book of Revelation can be fully felt: “I heard a voice as
the voice of many waters.” And what did that voice say?
It proclaimed aloud as if all Heaven spoke “Hallelujah,
Hallalujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.” This
is the language that has been thundered for ages from the
Falls of Niagara.
Every hour of the day and every change of the weather
varies the scenery of this romantic, this magnificent dis-
play of the wonders of Nature, comparable with which
every attempt of art to produce the sublime sinks into utter
insignificance. The first day that we spent there, the
weather was clear, the next day it became cloudy and rained
a little. As we were desirous to enjoy the prospect before
us from every possible point of view, we went down* the
high bank below the cataract into the immense chasm below,396
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
from thence walked, or rather climbed, along the rocks so
near the cataract till it appeared ready to overwhelm us.
The descent though steep is not dangerous. General
Simcoe, the late Governor of the Province, caused a ladder
tc be fixed in the most perpendicular part of it, which is so
safe that his lady ventured to go down it. Below the air
is, in some places, strongly tainted with the smell of dead
fish, which lie in great numbers on the beach. Every creat-
ure that swims down the rapids is instantly hurried to
destruction. We had seen a loon a little above them, which
was unknowingly approaching swiftly to its ruin. Even
birds which fly above them are frequently impelled down-
wards by the strong current of air, as their shattered frag-
ments among the rocks do attest. Perhaps these were the
fragments of water fowl, in which case the above remark
is incorrect.
When the river is low, it is easy to walk up to the foot
of the falls; but when high, one has to climb over rocks
and piles of large loose stones for nearly half a mile. This
last was the case when we were there. In many places the
impending mass of stone seemed ready to fall upon us. It
is known that the falls are divided into the greater and
lesser fall by means of a lofty island between them. At the
place of descent we were nearly opposite to the lesser fall,
the water of which rushes down in a direction nearly
parallel with the beach we walked along. They are again
divided into two very unequal falls, the least of which prob-
ably discharges more water than the great fall of the Rhine
in Switzerland, which is the most famous waterfall in
Europe.
We now approached the great fall, which discharges at
least four times as much water as the two lesser ones to-
gether. It is nearly in the form of a horseshoe. We ob-
served below, what is imperceptible above, that the fall is
not throughout the same pitch. In the hollow of it, where
the greatest body of water descends, the rocks seem to be
considerably worn away. We cannot however subscribe to
the opinion that the cataract was formerly at the northernEIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
397
side of the slope near the landing, and that from the great
length of time, the quantity of water and the distance which
it falls, the solid stone is worn away for about 9 miles up
the river towards Lake Erie.
This notion seems extravagant. The island which
separates the fall, is solid rock and so high that the river
can never have run over it. Its bank towards the falls runs
in the direction with them and at the same time does not
project beyond them, as would surely be the case if the
whole body of rocks, from which the water descends, was
fast wearing away. The situation and appearance of the
falls is exactly the same as described and delineated by the
French artist 160 years ago; besides, according to the laws
of motion, the principal pressure of the water here must be
in the direction in which it moves, and consequently not
against the rocks it merely flows over and where it meets
with no opposition. There is less probability of the bottom
wearing away here than in any other river of equal depth
where there are no such falls; for where the current is so
very strong the pressure downwards must thereby be very
considerably diminished, and for the same reason the water
being ejected far beyond the precipice acts with little force
against its edge. How, then, can it wear or bear it away for
miles even in the greatest length of time? If the solid stone
at the falls had been carried away, at so monstrous a rate
as is supposed by some, it might be expected that the rapids
would in length of time become smooth or vary their ap-
pearance, which has not been observed to be the case.
That the perpetual descent of such a vast body of water
has produced an immense chasm below is more than prob-
able, and that where the greatest quantity of it falls, the
surface of the rocks may in great length of time have
become more hollow is very credible; but it appears diffi-
cult for us to conceive that in any one period an immense
bed of rock should have been so completely worn away for
9 miles that no vestige should be left of them and the falls
exhibit at length their present appearance. An old Indian
told us that many years since a grey-headed Chippewa had398
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
said to him: “The white people believe that the falls were
once down at the landing. It is not true. They were
always where they are now. So we have heard from our
forefathers.” We are led thereby to conclude that the
Niagara Falls received their present singular position
at . . . [so in original, meaning, perhaps, Creation.]
It is generally supposed because the assertion has fre-
quently appeared in print that it is possible to go behind the
descending column of water at the Falls and to remain
there in perfect safety. Conversation, it has been said, may
be held there without interruption from the noise, which is
less there than at a considerable distance. People who live
near the spot have daily to contradict these fables. They
have themselves been repeatedly as far as possible under
the falls and are in the habit of conducting strangers there.
Their information is, therefore, to be relied on.
Under the Table Rock, as it is called, from a part of
which the water descends, there is, it is true, space sufficient
to contain a great number of people in perfect safety. But
how should they get there? Were they to attempt to enter
the cavity behind the fall, the very current of air (as the
guides say) even were the stream of water not to touch
them, would deprive them of life. The truth is, it is possible
to go under, that is, below the falls, as we did, but not to go
behind them.
The motion of the water below the cataract is, as may
be supposed, extremely wild and irregular, and it remains
so down to the landing. As far as the fog extends, it is
impossible to judge of the state of the atmosphere with
respect to heat and cold. In summer it cools it and in winter
renders it milder. The surrounding country on the Canada
side is very delightful, affording charming situations for
pleasure grounds from whence the falls might be viewed to
advantage. On this account, as well as for the sake of
trade, the land here will probably, at some future period,
sell for a very high price. It is at present, 1798, valued at
£10 an acre.EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
399
CHARLES WILLIAMSON, 1799.
This well-known pioneer of the Genesee Valley wrote the
following brief description of Niagara in 1799.
Should curiosity induce you to visit the Falls of Niagara,
you will proceed from Geneva by the State Road, to the
Genesee River, which you will cross at New Hartford, west
of which you will find the country settled for about twelve
miles; but after that, for about sixty-five miles, to Niagara
River, the country still remains a wilderness. This road
was used so much last year by people on business, or by
those whom curiosity had led to visit the Falls of Niagara,
that a station was fixed at the Big Plains to shelter trav-
elers. At this place there are two roads that lead to
Niagara River; the south road goes by Buffalo Creek, the
other by Tonawandoe Village to Queen’s Town Landing.
The road to Buffalo Creek is more used both because it
is better and because it commands a view of Lake Erie;
and the road from this to the falls is along the banks of
Niagara River, a very interesting ride. The river is in no
place less than a mile over, and the picture is enlivened by a
variety of landscapes. Niagara River is the only outlet of
Lake Superior, and all these immense lakes that afford from
the falls an uninterrupted navigation of near two thousand
miles to the westward. As you approach Chippaway, a
military station two miles above the falls, the rapidity of
the river increases, bounding to a great height when it
meets with resistance from the inequality of the surface;
and this vast body of water at last washes over a precipice
of one hundred and seventy feet. The falls can be viewed
from several different places; but they are seen to most ad-
vantage below. You can, with safety, approach the very
edge of the fall, and may even go some distance between
the sheet of f alling water and the precipice; but this experi-
ment requires caution; the footing is unequal and slippery;
and blasts of condensed air rush out with such violence as
to deprive you for some moments, of the power of breath-
ing. From the falls to Queenstown, the nearest place to400
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY VISITORS.
which shipping approach the falls, the roar is confined
within a chasm in the rocks, one hundred and fifty feet
deep, and to all appearance cut by the force of the water.
Among other Eighteenth century accounts, far better
known, are the descriptive pages in the well-known works
of Isaac Weld (1796) and the Duke Rochefoucault Lian-
court (1795). Their books are in many libraries. John
Cosens Ogden, who was on the Niagara in 1794, makes
many useful notes in his “Tour,” but does not indulge in
description. An earlier writer of wide fame was Major
Robert Rogers, who passed up the Niagara in October,
1760. In his “Concise Account of North America” (Lon-
don, 1765), he gives a description of Niagara Falls; but
his book is not so rare as to make advisable the reprinting
of his pages. Much of the greatest importance was written
about Niagara, and from the vicinity of. Niagara, during
and after the campaign of 1759; as for instance the letters
of Charles Lee, afterwards Washington’s major-general of
treasonable fame; but these really belong to a different
phase of our regional history.
Numerous accounts of Niagara may be found in
Eighteenth-century compilations of travels, but they are
either taken bodily from one or another of the accounts
here given—usually from Hennepin, La Hontan, Kalm or
Ellicott—or they are based on those narratives, and re-
written by book-makers who never saw the Falls.
The foregoing collection of rare and little-known nar-
ratives of personal experience at Niagara well shows the
gradual acquisition of correct information, and the difficul-
ties under which it was gathered, prior to the era of good
roads and means of travel, of bridges and stairs and hotels.
Niagara, even to the close of the Eightenth century, was a
Niagara of the wilderness.APPENDIX
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BUFFALO HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
1911OFFICERS OF THE
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
1911
Honorary President.................ANDREW LANGDON
President..................... HON. HENRY W. HILL
Vice-President.....................CHARLES R. WILSON
Secretary-Treasurer................FRANK H. SEVERANCE
BOARD OF MANAGERS
Term expiring January, 1912,
Albert H. Briggs, M. D.,	Lee H. Smith, M. D.,
R. R. Hefford,	Willis O. Chapin,
Loran L. Lewis, Jr.
Term expiring January, 1913,
Robert W. Day,	Henry A. Richmond,
Hugh Kennedy,	Charles W. Goodyear,*
G. Barrett Rich.
Term expiring January, 1914,
Hon. Henry W. Hill,	Henry R. Howland,
J. N. Larned,	Charles R. Wilson,
J. J. McWilliams.
Term expiring January, 1915.
Andrew Langdon,	James Sweeney,
Frank H. Severance,	George A. Stringer,
Ogden P. Letch worth.!
The Mayor of Buffalo, the Corporation Counsel, the Comptroller, Superin-
tendent of Education, President of the Board of Park Commissioners, and
President of the Common Council, are also ex-oiRcio members of the Board of
Managers of the Buffalo Historical Society.
♦Died, April i6, 1911.
t Resigned.
403LIST OF THE
PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY
FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.
*Millard Fillmore,...........................1862 to 1867
*Henry W. Rogers,.....................................1868
*Rev. Albert T. Chester, D. D.,.......................1869
*Orsamus H. Marshall,.................................1870
*Hon. Nathan K. Hall,................................1871
♦William H. Greene,...................................i872
*Orlando Allen,.....................................  1873
♦Oliver G. Steele,................................... i874
♦Hon. James Sheldon,.........................i875 and 1886
♦William C. Bryant,................................. • • i876
♦Capt. E. P. Dorr,....................................i877
♦Hon. William P. Letchworth,......................... i878
William H. H. Newman,......................i879 and 1885
♦Hon. Elias S. Hawley,................................1880
♦Hon. James M. Smith,.................................1881
♦William Hodge,.....................................  1882
♦William Dana Fobes,.........................i883 and 1884
♦Emmor Haines,........................................i887
♦James Tillinghast, ................................. 1888
♦William K. Allen,................................... i889
♦George S. Hazard,...........................i89° an<^ i892
♦Joseph C. Greene, M. ................................i89*
♦Julius H. Dawes,.................................... i893
Andrew Langdon, ...........................i894 to 1909
Hon. Henry W. Hill,........................I910 and 1911
* Deceased.
404APPENDIX
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL MEETING.
The forty-ninth annual meeting of the Buffalo Historical Society
was held at the Historical Building, Tuesday evening, January io,
1911. President Henry W. Hill presided; in the absence of the
secretary, Mr. George A. Stringer was made secretary pro tern. The
minutes of the last annual meeting were read; reports of officers
submitted; and Messrs. Andrew Langdon, O. P. Letchworth, Frank
H. Severance, George A. Stringer and James Sweeney were reelected
as members of the Board of Managers for the ensuing four years.
President Hill delivered the annual address of the president, as fol-
lows :
THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS.
Members of the Buffalo Historical Society, Ladies and Gentle-
men:	The Board of Managers of the Buffalo Historical Society
with pleasure bid you welcome to this forty-ninth annual meeting
and to assure you that they deeply appreciate your continued interest
in its welfare and participation in its activities.
From its organization in 1862, it has been supported by many of
Buffalo’s distinguished citizens and finally established on a perma-
nent basis through the liberality of the taxpayers of this city. In
this respect it occupies a unique position among the historical so-
cieties of the country, for there are few that are so sustained. In
return, however, its doors are kept open to the public and its
archives and collections are daily consulted by the teachers, stu-
dents and citizens of Buffalo as well as by writers of this and other
states, interested in historical research. Inquiries come frequently
from within and without the state for information in relation to
40s406
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
genealogies and other matters of an historical nature, that can be
found nowhere else so readily as in the archives of this society. We
have a large and valuable collection, which is being yearly increased,
of books, pamphlets, papers, manuscripts, letters, coins, portraits,
Indian relics and other original data relating to the people and in-
stitutions of Western New York and especially of the city of Buf-
falo. For several years this Society has maintained a course of
popular lectures free to the public, which have brought it into popu-
lar favor with all classes of our citizens. These have included his-
torical, biographical, patriotic and educational subjects, several of
which were prepared and given by our secretary, Frank H.
Severance; and others were given by professional men and others
well qualified to speak on their respective subjects. These weekly
afternoon lectures have been attended by hundreds of our citizens,
including a large number of young people interested in such mat-
ters. It has also maintained a formal course of lectures, open to the
members of the Society. The year’s entertainments have included
the following:
Jan. 20.
Feb. 6.
Feb. 13.
Feb. 20.
Feb. 24.
Feb. 27.
Mar. 13.
Mar. 20.
Mar. 27.
Mar. 28.
May 8.
May 31
Jun. 6.
Oct. 25.
Nov. 10.
“An Evening with Dickens/’ by E. E. Williamson, To-
ronto.
“Forts on the Niagara Frontier,” by Hon. Peter A. Porter.
“Lincoln,” Address by Rev. John W. Ross.
“Western New York in the Days of Washington,” by
Frank H. Severance.
“Emerson and His Friends at Concord,” by Mrs. Mary K.
Babbitt, Concord, Mass.
“The Story of Seneca Park, the old Indian burial ground
at South Buffalo,” by Frank H. Severance.
“The City of Buffalo,” by John Sayles.
“The Career of General Philip Sheridan,” by James Har-
mon.
“The First Easter Observance on the Niagara,” by Frank
H. Severance.
Illustrated lecture on “Arabia,” by Dr. Edgar J. Banks,
New York City.
“Some Facts about Father Hennepin,” by Frank H. Sever-
ance.
June 2. Meetings of the American Association of Mu-
seums.
“The Story of Hingham Plantation,” by Rev. Louis C.
Cornish, Hingham, Mass.
Illustrated lecture, “The League of the Five Nations,” by
Arthur C. Parker, New York State Archaeologist.
“The Governors of New York,” by Hon. Charles Z. Lin-
coln.BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
407
Nov. 17. Illustrated lecture, “Holidaying in Picturesque Brittany,'*
by Frank Yeigh, Toronto.
Dec. 12. Illustrated lecture, “The Evolution of our Flag/* by
Charles Wm. Burrows, Cleveland, O.
These indicate to some extent the scope and popularity of enter-
tainments offered our members during the past year. Others fully
as entertaining are to follow. All these free, as well as the formal
lectures, together with its Publications, of which I shall speak later,
have given the Buffalo Historical Society a unique position in the
intellectual life of this city. It may be said that its sphere of use-
fulness is somewhat extended beyond that contemplated by its foun-
ders, but we confidently believe, it is being better understood and
that it is steadily growing in popular favor, if we may judge from
the attendance at the public exercises and the number of the So-
ciety’s daily visitors.
The original Certificate of Incorporation, filed in the office of the
Secretary of State on January 10, 1863, defined its purposes to be “to
discover, procure and preserve whatever may relate to the history
of Western New York in general and the City of Buffalo in par-
ticular, and to gather statistics of the commerce, manufactures and
business of the lake region, and those portions of the West, that are
intimately connected with the interests of Buffalo.”
In the federal, state and other reports annually received and
catalogued in our library may be found the statistical information of
the commerce, manufactures and business of the lake region, so
that it is no longer necessary to make special compilation of those
data, although it is important to see to it that all such reports are
securely deposited in the library, as is now being done and as has
been done since we came into possession of this spacious building.
If we have enlarged the domain of this Society, still we have
faithfully adhered to the objects for which it was founded, as here-
inbefore stated, and as somewhat elaborated by the Honorable Mil-
lard Fillmore in his first inaugural address as the first president of
this Society, at the American Hotel in this city, on July 1, 1862. He
said: “Its object is not to teach but to preserve history. And it is
certainly a grateful task to commemorate the virtues of those who
have built up this city and its noble institutions and to be sure that
their names are not forgotten. . . . Now is the time to photograph
their character in all lineaments of active life, that the generations
who shall come after us may see them as we have seen them, and be
stimulated to emulate their virtues and if possible rival their enter-
prise.” In conclusion, he said:	“Finally, let this institution be the
grand repository of everything collected to throw light on our his-408
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
tory. Books, newspapers, letters, pamphlets, maps, medals and relics
of every description should be deposited here, and let our citizens
unite heart and hand in building up this Society, which, while it does
justice to the dead, reflects honor upon the living.”
The prominent part taken by this Society on its own initiative
and in cooperation with such other organizations as the Niagara
Frontier Landmarks Association and the Historic Sites Commission
in discovering and marking historic places in Western New York
and in preserving a record of the important events occurring in con-
nection therewith is in fulfillment of the declared purposes that led
to the foundation of this Society. Its large and varied historical
collections have been made also in fulfillment of its purposes by its
friends, including many large donors and the successive boards of
managers, who have administered its affairs from its organization.
President Fillmore’s advice that it be a repository of everything that
might throw light on our history has been very generously followed.
In this connection, and bearing in mind the statement of President
Fillmore as to the functions of this Society that “while it does jus-
tice to the dead, reflects honor upon the living,” I may be permitted
to digress from the current of my remarks long enough to say a few
words in justice to two of our members, viz., Mr. Langdon and Mr.
Severance, both of whom are absent tonight. Mr. Andrew Langdon
was president of this Society for sixteen consecutive years, from
1894 to 1909, inclusive, a period equalling those of President Fill-
more, who presided over the Society for five years, from 1862 to
1867, and Hon. James Sheldon, who presided over it for eleven
years, from 1875 to 1886, inclusive, the two other longest terms of
any of its twenty-five presidents. But length of service is not alone
the measure of his contributions to this Society. As chairman of the
building committee he brought about the aggregation of three funds
that made it possible to build this beautiful building designed by the
architect, Mr. George Cary of Buffalo, of marble rather than of
brick—after the manner of Augustus, of whom it has been said
“Urbem lateritiam invenit, marmoriam reliquit" Mr. Langdon was
the donor of the beautiful solid bronze gates, designed by the sculp-
tor R. Hinton Perry and embellished with female figures represent-
ing Ethnology, History, Science and Art. He presented to this So-
ciety the two fifteenth century Medicean bronze candelabra that
adorn and at night light the northwesterly entrance of this building.
He also presented to the Society the Washington bust of Carrara
marble, the work of the Florentine sculptor Pugi; and the antique
bust of the Roman Emperor Nero He presented to the city the
bronze replica of the superb statue of David by Michael AngeloBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
409
within view from the portico of this building. He was the chair-
man of the committee that secured for us the Julius H. Francis col-
lection and the Lincoln statue, the work of the sculptor, Charles H.
Niehaus. His gifts have been many and his interest in this Society
has been untiring. Much pertaining to this Society is due to his
keen appreciation of the ideals in architecture, sculpture, painting
and landscape gardening, for it will be remembered that he was for
years one of our efficient Park Commissioners. In addition to all
these and what is quite as important, is that during his long service
as president of this Society, he devoted his time unsparingly to its
interests and the extension of its usefulness to the people of this
city. His name will ever be associated with that of President Fill-
more as one of the Society's most helpful friends and most liberal
benefactors.
[President Hill here spoke appreciatively of the work of the
Secretary, who had been granted a needed leave of absence.]
The founders of this Society, appreciating Buffalo’s commercial
importance at the foot of the Great Lakes, whose annual waterborne
tonnage exceeds that of all the Atlantic seaports, laid emphasis upon
the compilation and preservation of statistics relating to that subject.
The summary of the tonnage of the port of Buffalo for 1910 was as
follows:
Vessels Entered.	No.	Tonnage.
Coastwise ..................................... 2,874	6,615,912
American vessels in foreign trade ............... 765	507,741
Foreign vessels in foreign trade.................. 76	53,186
Totals .................................. 3,715	7,176,839
Vessels Cleared.	No.	Tonnage.
Coastwise ..................................... 2,992	6,989,116
American vessels in foreign trade ..............  699	334,012
Foreign vessels in foreign trade.................. 62	46,534
Totals .................................. 3,753	7,369,662
The total grain receipts, including flour in its equivalent of grain
and flaxseed, were 138,229,075 bushels. The receipts of iron ore
were less than in 1909, but of pig iron greater by 51,000 tons. The
lumber imports were 177,136,000 feet at Buffalo and the Tonawandas.
The total shipments were of coal 3,639,368 tons, of cement 2,895,510
barrels, of salt 469,509 barrels, of sugar 1,179,070 pounds. The total
tonnage received on the Erie canal was 649,471 tons, valued at
$18,542,775, and the total shipments by the Erie canal were 885,235
tons, valued at $16,912,769.410
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
The total tonnage of the port of Buffalo for the year 1910 can-
not now be given, but it was somewhat smaller than it was in 1909,
owing to inactivity of lake commerce during the summer months.
The arrival and departure of vessels by lake and canal and the
tonnage handled at the port of Buffalo, as compiled by Mr. George
E. Pierce, were as follows:
Lake	Canal
Year	Number	Tons	Number	Tons
1903 			 8.727	11,586,719	6,974	1,324,216
1904 			 7,375	10,783,980	5,132	988,725
1905 			 7,950	12,090,153	4,902	985,861
1906 				 8,294	13.876,759	5,666	1,769,919
1907			 8,205	14.S78.233	5,014	1,942,455
1908 			 6,191	12,003,968	4,482	1,621,527
1909 			 6,659	14,145,013	4,230	1,568,615
The total tonnage of the port of Buffalo during the season of
navigation in 1909, was 15,713,628 tons and exceeded the tonnage of
any other port on the Great Lakes, except that of the port of Duluth,
which is principally a shipping port of iron ore and grain, whereas
Buffalo is both a shipping and receiving port for various classes of
freights. Duluth at the upper end and Buffalo at the lower end of
the Great Lakes in 1909, had the largest tonnage of any fresh-water
ports in the world, and they are likely to maintain that commercial
rank for years to come.
The founders of this Society wisely inserted, therefore, in its
charter a provision that record be kept of the commerce of the Lake
region, which for three-fourths of a century has been the principal
business of the people of Buffalo and has made it one of the large
inland ports of the world.
The commerce of the Great Lakes has been largely promoted by
the Erie canal, extending from Buffalo to the Hudson river, thereby
affording water inter-communication between these vast commerce-
bearing natural bodies of water. Intimately associated historically
with the growth of Buffalo, therefore, are the waterways of this
state, the story of whose construction, enlargement and utilization
was thought worthy of preservation and is told in the three latest
volumes of the Society’s Publications. Some of the contributors to
these volumes were active participants in enlarging upon the policy,
that had its inception in the Colonial era and its conclusion in the
construction of the Barge canal system now in progress. These Pub-
lications have had a wide sale and form an important part of the
history of Buffalo as well as of the State of New York.BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
411
We still have many unpublished manuscripts, that may, in our
future publications, be given to the world. These will bring this
Society into still closer relation with the historical societies of the
state and nation, of which there are many now crowding forward
in their several fields of original investigation. Among such may
be mentioned the New York State Historical Association, presided
over by our former esteemed townsman and former State Comp-
troller, the Honorable James A. Roberts. The annual proceedings
of that organization are being published in book form and thus add-
ing materially to the wealth of Americana relating to the discovery,
conquest, settlement, and institutions of the domain of New York.
That organization is doing important work. Its tour of Lake Cham-
plain last fall and the scholarly papers and addresses of its distin-
guished guests on that occasion will be read with interest by all stu-
dents of the history of the Champlain valley. Our secretary, Mr.
Severance, had part in that tour of the lake and of inspection of its
historic forts, of which he has made report.
During the year 1909, two great historic celebrations were held
in this state. There were the Lake Champlain Tercentenary cele-
bration, from July 4th to July 9th, and the Hudson-Fulton celebra-
tion, from September 25th to October 9th. The State made liberal
appropriations for both these celebrations and the Federal Govern-
ment made an appropriation and formally participated in the former.
In the Lake Champlain Tercentenary celebration the Federal Gov-
ernment was represented by President William H. Taft and its
Secretary of War, the Honorable Jacob M. Dickinson. The Re-
public of France was represented by its Ambassador, the Hon. J. J.
Jusserand; the Kingdom of Great Britain, by its Ambassador, the
Right Honorable James Bryce; the Dominion of Canada, by its
Postmaster-General, Rudolphe Lemieux; the Province of Quebec
by its Premier, Sir Lomer Gouin; and the states of New York and
Vermont by their respective Governors and other officials, and many
distinguished citizens.
The Hudson-Fulton celebration was largely the work of the en-
terprising and patriotic citizens of NewT York City, who threw open
the gates of the metropolis to the. distinguished official guests of
many foreign nations. The official reports of the two commissions
having these historical celebrations in charge, are now in press and
will be read with deep interest by students of the history of this
state.
As secretary of the New York-Lake Champlain Tercentenary
Commission, and by the authority of that commission, I prepared
the literary programme of exercises that were given in the State of412
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
New York, which comprised historical and other addresses, poems
and Indian pageants at Crown Point, Ticonderoga and Plattsburgh.
The Vermont-Lake Champlain Commission had similar exercises at
Burlington and Isle la Motte. All the addresses and poems are in-
cluded in full in the Report of the New York-Lake Champlain Ter-
centenary Commission, and the Report of the Vermont Commission
includes all addresses and poems at Burlington and Isle la Motte
and something of the local exercises at Vergennes, Swanton and at
other places in Vermont.
The Vermont Commissioners in their official report say that the
“Tercentenary has permanently enriched American literature in the
notable addresses and poems prepared for the occasion. It has
added largely to our knowledge of early history of this region, which
we inhabit. It has increased our pride in the land we love, and has
heightened our patriotism.” The press of the country quite generally
published reports of the exercises and in many instances gave copious
excerpts of the addresses and poems.
The Hudson-Fulton celebration was conducted on a much larger
scale than the Lake Champlain celebration, but after entirely dif-
ferent plans. The growth and prestige of the emporium of the
Western Hemisphere could not well be more forcefully and bril-
liantly represented than it was on that occasion to the guests from
many nations, who came to do honor to New York. The history of
the entire period, from the discovery of the Hudson to the building
of the last great bridge over the East river and the great subway
from the Bronx to Brooklyn, was fittingly reproduced in historic
and naval parades, aquatic pageants, electric displays, musical fes-
tivals, dramatic exhibitions and literary exercises of great variety
and brilliancy. These will be fully described and as far as possible
reproduced in the final report of that commission, now in press.
The foreign guests were amazed that such a city, with world-wide
commercial relations, had arisen, as it were, like Aphrodite from the
foam of the sea, in the short period of time elapsing since Henry
Hudson sailed the Half-Moon up the Hudson in September, 1609.
Our vice-president, Mr. Charles R. Wilson, was on the board of
directors of the Hudson-Fulton commission.
In both these historical celebrations prominence was given to
“pageantry,” which Percy Mackay defines as “poetry for the masses.”
In the Indian pageants at Lake Champlain, under the direction of
L. O. Armstrong of Montreal, were 150 descendants of the native
tribes occupying the Champlain valley, and in the drama founded
on such records as are extant and available, there enacted, was a
representation of the battle of Champlain with the Iroquois; andBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
413
the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy. No one who was for-
tunate enough to witness the pageants of the Quebec Tercentenary,
under the direction of that Oxford scholar and successful pageant
director, Frank Lascelles of London, failed to appreciate that the
realistic presentation in the open air on the Heights of Abraham, of
the great events of Canadian history and of the Court of Henry IV
of France, made a deep and lasting impression on the thousands in
attendance.
Pageantry has thus been employed ever since “The Canterbury
Pilgrims,” as one of the most effective means of impressing historical
facts upon the masses, who may not take the time to read, or possess
the imagination to be stirred, if they were to read, the record of a
nation unillustrated and entirely divorced from dramatic art.
On January 25, 1910, I introduced a concurrent resolution in the
State Senate, authorizing the appointment by the Governor of a
commission to confer with similar commissions of Ohio, Pennsyl-
vania, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin in relation to the Centennial
celebration of the victory of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry on
Lake Erie, September 10, 1813. The resolution passed the Senate
and Assembly and the Governor appointed as members of that Com-
mission Messrs. Ogden P. Letchworth and George D. Emerson of
Buffalo, both prominent members of the Buffalo Historical Society,
and Col. John T. Mott of Oswego, Dr. Clinton Bradford Herrick of
Troy and Henry Harmon Noble of Essex, N. Y. The states of
Kentucky and Rhode Island have also appointed commissioners, and
Indiana and Minnesota are expected to appoint others, soon.
On September 10, 1910, a meeting was held of the commissioners
of the eight states at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, at which articles of associa-
tion were adopted, the first section of which reads as follows:
“This association shall be known as the Inter-State Board of the
Perry's Victory Centennial Commissioners, organized for the pur-
pose of promoting the historical, educational, naval and military
celebration and the erection of the proposed Perry memorial at
Put-in-Bay, Ohio, in the year 1913, in honor of the one hundredth
anniversary of the battle of Lake Erie and of the Northwestern cam-
paign of General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812, which
terminated in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813.”
In that organization Mr. Letchworth was chosen vice-president
for the State of New York.
The New York Commission organized on November 2, 1910, at
Albany, by electing Mr. Letchworth chairman and Mr. Emerson
secretary. Application has been made to Congress for an appro-
priation for the erection of a memorial at Put-in-Bay Island, and414
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
the Committee on Industrial Arts and Expositions has reported fa-
vorably thereon.
It is possible that the Perry Centennial Celebration may also in-
clude a review of the commerce of the Great Lakes, which has ever
been and still is the chief contributing agency in the building up of
Buffalo. Should that be done, the people of the city and of Western
New York might very properly actively participate in that celebra-
tion.
Although the Buffalo Historical Society was not formally identi-
fied with either the Lake Champlain or with the Hudson-Fulton
Tercentenary Commissions, still our members have held prominent
official positions on those commissions, and were, therefore, to a
certain extent charged with the responsibility of the conduct of
those celebrations. That relation has necessarily brought this So-
ciety into close touch with these two most notable historical cele-
brations which have ever occurred in this State, and which, there-
fore, I have considered worthy of special mention on this occasion.
These have extended the work of some of us into wider fields
of historical research during the two years past, but, as may be seen
from the present report of our secretary, that has been done without
encroaching upon the work of the Society within its own more
limited domain of discovering and preserving whatever relates to
local history.
In closing the work for the year, we sincerely deplore the loss
of eleven of our esteemed members, whose deaths are chronicled in
the secretary’s report. We have gained, however, twenty-eight new
members during the year and our present membership includes 124
life members and 572 annual members, a total of 696 members in a
city with a population of 423,715 inhabitants. Evidently there are
many in this city who are not availing themselves of the privileges
and benefits of this Society, which is generally recognized as the
leading literary institution of Buffalo. For its members is main-
tained a formal course of lectures, and its annual Publications are
presented to them without other charge than their annual dues. In
many ways its silent appeal is more eloquent than words. Let us
have more members, that we may extend its sphere of usefulness to
Buffalonians, whose family records it is founded to preserve and
whose history it is ordained to perpetuate.
In conclusion I wish to express to my colleagues of the board of
managers, including the city officials, who are ex-officio members,
my grateful appreciation of their timely counsel and friendly coopera-
tion in the administration of the affairs of this Society during the
past year. They have spared no efforts at whatever personal lossBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
415
of time to promote its welfare and are entitled to the gratitude of
its friends as well as of the people of Buffalo.
THE SECRETARY'S REPORT.
Mr. Stringer read the following, which had been prepared by the
Secretary:
Mr. President, Members of the Buffalo Historical Society: I re-
spectfully submit the following notes on the work of the year:
Building. After the extensive construction work of 1909, we
have not been called upon to do much in the way of repairs or bet-
terments on the building. A needed extension of the heating system
has been made by installing at the east end of the library a four-
column radiator. This is expected to make that room comfortable
for visitors in severe weather. Heretofore it has often been found
impossible to warm.
During the summer a thorough overhauling of the roof was made
under the supervision of Mr. Jones, our engineer. Some slight re-
pairs of tiling and metal work were all that we found needed.
The tract of land at the north of the building, during the year,
has been opened up for residence purposes. Streets have been laid
out and paved, and sewer, water and gas mains installed. This work
cut off the temporary sewer running from this building north and
connecting with the city sewer at Elmwood and Amherst streets.
There being no city sewer with which we could connect, application
was made to the Nye Improvement Company for permission to
sewer into their system. This was courteously granted, so that we
now have a much better provision for this need than ever before.
During the year we have continued1 the so-called Still Alarm
electrical installation as protection against burglary. Even when the
device as installed is in perfect working order, it is not, in th<T judg-
ment of the secretary, a very efficient protection. Frequently it has
been out of order and often, no doubt in spite of the best efforts or
intentions of the company, it has been left out of order for days
after we have reported it. To rely for protection in this respect
upon a device so uncertain, seems to your secretary most unwise.
The alternative is either to employ a night watchman—a system
which, in the judgment of the board, has heretofore been thought to
have many -drawbacks—or to further protect the windows with iron
gratings. If the eight or ten most readily accessible windows on the416
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
main floor were thus protected, the building would in all probability
be secure, as only the most determined burglar with ladders and
elaborate outfit could gain entrance. As it is now, some of these
windows, opening directly on the south porch, present an easy means
of ingress to anyone armed with a glass-cutter. It may be objected
that to protect these windows with iron gratings is to give to a
beautiful structure the appearance of a jail. In reply to this, it may
be said that the same objection was raised before the iron gratings
were placed on the basement windows, but that since they were put
on there is no jail-like appearance. It is possible to combine beauty
of design with utility in such work; and although we all desire to
preserve the attractiveness of the exterior of this building, we must
recognize the fact that a greater desire is to protect its contents.
Such barring of windows is most common in museum buildings the
world over. The need for that kind of protection exists here. So
far as cost is concerned, a few years of more or less uncertain and
inefficient so-called burglar alarm service, would cost quite as much
as permanent protection of the building by suitable gratings.
It is probable that early the coming year, say at the usual time of
spring housecleaning, it will be necessary to paint or kalsomine the
basement walls, at least in such portions as have become soiled and
marred by the passing of many hands. So far as can now be fore-
seen, there is no urgent call for any other work on the building.
The retaining wall at the side of the area-way on the east end of
the building, is gradually settling out of the perpendicular and be-
fore many years will have to be relaid, but, apparently, it will not
need our attention this year.
Library. There have been added to the library by gift and pur-
chase 890 volumes, making the number of catalogued volumes in the
general collection 19,847. The Lord library and the Marshall col-
lection continue unchanged. Mrs. A. A. Andrews has continued, as
heretofore, to give most of her time to the library work. As oppor-
tunity permits, our card catalogue is being much extended, not only
by the new accessions, but by the making of many entries of cross
reference and other data which make it of greater use to the people
who come to us for assistance. In this connection may be mentioned
the listing of the Society’s manuscripts, which was accomplished
during the year. A report of that work and rough list of the manu-
scripts were contained in volume Fourteen of our Publications.
There has also been made a card catalogue of the manuscripts, by
the aid of which this unprinted material is made as available as are
the classified books. Fifty copies of the printed list of manuscriptsBUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
417
were distributed, chiefly among other historical societies, for the
purpose of informing them of what we have, of extending help to
those who may care to use our manuscripts, and in the hope of
stimulating like work on the part of our sister societies.
Among the donors of books to our library during the year, pre-
cedence should be given to the Hon. T. Guilford Smith. He has
not only added to our shelves some scores of works, both genealog-
ical and historical, but has made this institution one of the three
American libraries to have a copy of his great genealogical compila-
tion, “The Making of Smith.” This is a three-volume folio work,
for the most part typewritten, with hundreds of maps, portraits,
views, and other illustrative material, all bearing on the history of
the families to which he belongs.
Other donors of books include William A. Galpin, Mrs. J. H.
Jewett of Canandaigua, J. N. Larned, Frederick W. Danforth, Madi-
son C. Peters, Brooklyn, N. Y.; William H. Walker, M. F. Elliott,
New York City; H. T. Green, Walter L. Brown, John Debar, Cin-
cinnati; Dr. S. A. Freemen, Mrs. James W. Ward, Mrs. George
Fuller Tuttle, Plattsburgh; Hon. George Clinton, Mrs. Robert A.
Bethune, Mr. Slason Thompson, Chicago; Mrs. Wm. D. Doherty,
Mrs. Julia F. Snow, and Mr. James A. Ellis, representing the Lewis
Historical Publishing Company.
The enlargement of the newspaper collection is a matter dear to
the secretary's heart, believing as he does that no department of our
library presents more valuable material for the student of our
regional history. The room fitted up a few years ago for the bound
newspaper files, is rapidly filling up and although we are binding
only the more important of the local papers, yet the yearly addition
is such that before long more room will be needed if these files are
to be continued. We have on hand a large number of duplicate files
which the Society might well exchange or even send as a gift out-
right to institutions which would pay the freight on them. We are,
as opportunity offers, filling in the gaps of the earlier papers. A
most fortunate find came the past summer, when a gentleman of
Black Rock, Mr. George Morrissey, turned over to us a quantity of
unbound papers, including long runs of early Buffalo and Black
Rock issues. Although none of these is complete as a file, all of
them are well worth caring for and binding. They extend from
about 1820 to 1840.
Even more noteworthy was the gift of Mr. J. G. Shuler, of a
complete file of the Buffalo Freie Presse, from its establishment in
1872 to date. As this was a paper not heretofore represented in our
collection, the gift of a complete file was most welcome.418
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Museum. The Society’s museums have been much improved dur-
ing the year. As we rarely buy anything for these collections except
the cases to hold the articles given us, it will be seen that the growth
of the museum, both in number of specimens and in historic value,
depends on the interest taken in it by our friends.
Fortunately several friends have made notable and worthy addi-
tions during the past year. In the Indian Department, the collection
of Mr. Dilworth M. Silver and that of Dr. A. L. Benedict, the latter
merely deposited with us, have both been enlarged and much im-
proved. We have added to the Indian articles by purchase the
tomahawk-pipe formerly owned by Chief Strong, prominent in the
early councils of the Seneca Nation.
Among the miscellaneous articles received for the museum, one
of more than ordinary interest should be mentioned: a saddle of
the Mexican War period, handsomely inlaid, with ornamentation in
carved leather. This is loaned by Mrs. Albert J. Barnard. Two
large frames of Masonic badges from the estate of William H.
Kirkholder; numerous articles of antiquarian interest, including old-
time surgical instruments, from Mrs. F. H. James; and others of
equal interest, were received. A full record of all donations is kept
by this society.
To our portrait collection, several notable additions have been
made. They include portraits of Samuel M. Welch, the gift of
Deshler Welch; Stephen C. Clarke and Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Dutton,
the gift of Mrs. S. C. Clarke; Mr. Frank H. Goodyear, from Mrs.
Goodyear; Hon. David S, Bennett and Miss Charlotte Mulligan, a
gift of Mrs. Albert H. Chester of New Brunswick, N, J.; Hon.
Franklin A. Alberger, Mayor of Buffalo in 1860-61, a gift of his
brother, Col. M. A. Alberger, of Hamburg, N. Y.; Patrick Reily,
the gift of his daughter, Miss Emma Reily. One portrait of especial
historical interest is that of Mrs. Mary Harris, who came to Buffalo
from Hartford, Conn., in 1809, and in 1814 was married to Captain
A. C. P. Harris, at Harris Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Harris for many
years were active and influential residents of this county, Mrs.
Harris dying in 1880. The portrait is a gift of her daughter, Mrs.
Sophia Atkins, now a venerable lady of this city. Very welcome too
is an oil portrait of Michener Cadwallader, the first comptroller of
the city of Buffalo, painted by Le Clear. It is one of the most ar-
tistic portraits in our collection. It comes to us from the estate of
Miss Juniata Stafford of Chicago. A portrait designed for our col-
lection, though not yet placed here, is a full length life size study
of Commander Charles A Orr, ultimately to be presented to this
Society by Chapin Post, G. A. R., of this city.BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
419
To Mr. William A. Galpin is due a word of special recognition
for the interest he has taken in the improvement of our museum.
His gifts to it during the year have been many. Among numerous
rare and valuable steel engravings which he has added to our col-
lection, are a most interesting group relating to Washington, among
them some of the rarest and most prized of the early plates. 'He has
also given us a number of valuable engravings of Lincoln, of Grant
and other subjects. Among the articles of antiquarian interest should
be mentioned some score or more of curious and artistic clocks, also
a donation from Mr. Galpin. He has also given us an instructive
exhibit of old pewter and miscellaneous articles, most of them dating
back to Colonial days. Appreciated quite as much as are his gifts,
is his spirit of interest in the institution and eagerness to help it as
he can.
DEATHS IN 1910.
The year’s death roll from our membership is as follows:
Apr. 7.	S. Douglas Cornell...........Resident member
Jun. 16.	James Mooney.................Resident member
Jul. 22. Emil Machwirth ...............Life member
Aug. 15.	Willis H. Meads . . .........Resident member
Aug. 19.	Hon. Jacob Stern.............Resident member
Sep. 24. D. A. A. Nichols, Westfield, N.Y. Corresponding member
Oct. 13.	Henry S. Sill................Resident member
Nov. 12.	Miss Lucy S. Lord............Resident member
Dec. 1. Hon. William P. Letch worth . Life member
Dec. 18.	Hon. Henry F. Allen..........Resident member
Dec. 18.	Gen. William Bull............Resident member
Conventions. In June, the Society shared with other Buffalo in-
stitutions in entertaining the American Association of Museums. In
October the Society was represented by its secretary at the annual
meeting of the New York State Historical Association on Lake
Champlain. We have also been represented in the conferences re-
garding the proposed Centennial Peace Jubilee on the Niagara Fron-
tier in 1915.
Historic Sites Commission. In February, 1910, the Society re-
ceived a communication from Prof. Charles H. Haskins of Harvard
University, Secretary of the Council, the governing body of the
American Historical Association, appointing the Secretary of the
Buffalo Historical Society one of a committee of five for establish-
ing an Historical Sites Commission “to serve as a central coordin-420
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
ating body in the work of marking and commemorating historical
sites and buildings throughout the United States.” The committee
as constituted represented the following institutions: State College,
Pa., by its president, Edwin Erie Sparks, who is chairman of the
committee; University of Washington, Seattle, represented by Prof.
Edmond S. Meany; Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio,
Prof. Henry Eldridge Bourne; Wisconsin State Historical Society,
Madison, Dr. Reuben Gold Thwaites; and the Buffalo Historical
Society, Frank H. Severance. The entire territory of the United
States was apportioned among the members of this committee, and
to the Buffalo Historical Society was allotted New England, New
Jersey and New York, the requirements being that reports should be
made on all historic sites which have been marked by monument,
tablet or otherwise, with mention of other sites not yet marked^ but
deemed worthy of commemoration. The Secretary has devoted con-
siderable time to the collection of data in his field and preparation
of a report. This report, however, cannot be regarded as final, nor
the survey of the field thus far made as thorough. The committee
will, no doubt, be continued another year, though it is to be hoped,
with an enlarged representation. The outcome of this work will
probably be a most comprehensive report on the subject as stated,
covering the whole country and making when published a substantial
and valuable volume. Your secretary regards it as matter for grati-
fication that the Buffalo Historical Society was given a part in this
work.
Publications. Volume Thirteen of the Society's Publications was
completed in December, 1909, but much of its distribution and prac-
tically all of its sale to purchasing libraries and other institutions
came in the year 1910. By July a succeeding volume was completed,
its distribution being postponed until September. We have, there-
fore, virtually sent out two volumes within the past year. They have
been very well received, and although for the most part ignored by
the local press, they have had truly critical, and usually commenda-
tory, notice in papers of other cities, and especially in the historical
journals and reviews of a national character. With each succeeding
volume of our series, our standing order list makes some gain. Al-
though we have not yet reached the point where the sales of any
volume equal the cost of publication, yet they are a substantial in-
come towards that end, and warrant the belief that the time is not
distant when a volume of our Publications, if devoted to topics of
general interest, will find a sale sufficient to offset the cost of pub-
lication.BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
421
Your Secretary believes that this character can be given to our
volumes without loss of the local interest which may be demanded
by our members. It should be borne in mind that a large part of
each edition is distributed free to the paying members of the Society.
Other Work. Besides the preparation of these volumes and of
the report on historic sites already mentioned, one other task has
taken no little of the Secretary’s time. At the request of President
Henry W. Hill, who as Secretary of the Lake Champlain Tercen-
tenary Commission for New York State, was charged with the prep-
aration of the official report of that celebration, your secretary has
given assistance in the preparation of this report for the printer.
Although our institution had no official connection with that work,
our share in it may be regarded as a part of the general effort to
make the Buffalo Historical Society useful in any legitimate field.
Our institution is naturally interested in the improvement of the
grounds adjoining the park on the north and immediately in front
of the Historical Building. The owners of that tract, in laying out
Nottingham Terrace, a new street to run easterly from Elmwood
avenue, bordering on the park line, have left an irregular triangle
of land on the park side of the street at its junction with Elmwood
avenue. The Society has asked the owners to donate this triangular
plot to the city that it may be added to the park system. We have
also asked of the Park Commissioners, in case such donation is
made, that they so improve it that a finer and more convenient en-
trance from the street to the Historical Building may be laid out.
Your Secretary makes these notes on the eve of his departure on
a leave of absence, very considerately granted by the Board of Man-
agers. Because of this absence and for other reasons, one feature
of the work which for a few years past has been carried on with
varying success, the free Sunday afternoon talks, for the present,
will be omitted. It is the purpose, however, of the Secretary not to
discontinue any phase of the work which brings results or for which
there seems to be any public demand, and he goes away for a needed
rest with the firm purpose of taking up, on his return, whatever work
may be suggested which will contribute to the satisfaction of the
community or the prosperity of the Society.
The Society is limited in its expenditures for entertainments, but
if to the evening lectures we can add a course of talks on home
history or any other topic, by the Secretary or others whose services
may be had without cost, such work will cheerfully be undertaken.
In 1912 occurs the 50th anniversary of the founding of tfiis So-
ciety. It is the purpose of our Board of Managers to mark this422
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
semi-centennial with seme fitting observance, for which we bespeak
the cooperation and interest of all our members.
FRANK H. SEVERANCE,
Secretary.
ANNUAL MEETING.
The annual meeting of the Board of Managers for the election of
officers, was held, according to law, on Thursday, January 12, 1911.
The officers of 1910 were reelected, the voting being by ballot, as
follows:	President, Henry W. Hill; vice-president, Charles R.
Wilson ; secretary-treasurer, Frank H. Severance.Sin Utaonam
WILLIAM PRYOR LETCHWORTH
THE Board of Managers of the Buffalo His-
torical Society directs the following trib-
ute ENTERED UPON ITS MINUTES :
In THE DEATH OF WlLLIAM PRYOR LeTCHWORTH,
WHICH OCCURRED AT GLEN IRIS, DECEMBER I, 1910,
this Society has lost one of its oldest and most
FAITHFUL MEMBERS AND FRIENDS.
In 1878 he was its President, and his interest
in its welfare has always been unfailing. The
real work of his life began when, released from
THE RESPONSIBILITIES AND CARES OF ACTIVE BUSINESS,
HE WAS ENABLED TO DEVOTE HIS THOUGHT AND ENER-
GIES TO THE WORK OF THE STATE AND THE NATION IN
BEHALF OF DEPENDENT AND SUFFERING HUMANITY.
AS A MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF
Charities for more than a quarter of a century,
as its President for many years, as a prominent
mover in state and national organizations, and
always as a generous philanthropist, his human-
itarian labors were most fruitful. Especially
were they felt in that which he accomplished
on behalf of dependent children, in his investi-
gations AND PUBLISHED WRITINGS REGARDING THE
PROPER CARE OF THE INSANE, THE CARE AND TREAT-
MENT OF EPILEPTICS, AND IN THE IMPORTANT RESULTS
WHICH HAVE EMANATED THEREFROM.
His most generous gift to the State of New
York of his large estate with its picturesque
surroundings as a public park has endeared his
MEMORY TO THE PEOPLE OF THIS COMMONWEALTH.
We, who have been his friends and associates,
HOLD IT IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE.INDEXINDEX
"A British Subject,” pseud., 36.
Abbott, Francis, “the hermit of Ni-
agara,” 40, 86, 196.
Abbott, Jacob, 86.
Abbott, John S. C., his life of La Salle,
298.
Abdy, E. S., 41.
Aberdeenshire, 310.
Ackermann, R., London publisher, 130.
Adam, —, artist, 134.
Adams, John, 263.
Agassiz, Louis, 202.
“Age (The) of Wire,” 259.
Aiken, Rev. Solomon, of Dracutt, 272.
Albany Institute, Proceedings, 184.
Alexander, Capt., J. E., 40.
Allen, Z., 189.
Almy, Frederick, 195.
American Ass’n for the Advancement
of Science, its 3d meeting in Buf-
falo, 188.
American Philosophical Society, Pro-
ceedings, 1 77, 178.
American Revolution, service of Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, 218, 235.
Ampere, J. J., 57.
Allen, Hon. Lewis F., 191; his his-
toric house, 242.
Allston, Joseph, 171.
Anderson, A., early American en-
graver, 32.
Archer, —, engraver, 127.
Arfwedson, C. D., 41; comments on
Niagara in art, 157.
Argyll, Duke of, 201, 202.
“Ariadne of Naxos,” painting by Van-
derlyn, 163, 170.
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 68.
Audubon, John James, 197-201.
“Babeer” (“Barbeer”), [? Baby], 303-
Robt., 55.
Bakewell, Robt., 183, 185, 186.
Bakewell, Robt., Jr. 186.
Barcelona harbor, N. Y., 303.
Barlow, W. H., 177.
Barr. Robt., 93.
Bartlett, Chas. M., 212, 213.
Bartlett, W. H., 134-137.
Barton, Dr. Benj. Smith, 177J acct.
of his Niagara visit, 1798, 393*398.
Bartram, John, 204.
Bassano, Marquis de, 334-
Bates, Joshua, 141.
Bauer, W. C., 147.
Baxter, W. E., 58.
Baynes, T. M., 132.
Beard, Jas. H., 148.
Beard, Wm. H., 148.
Beardsley, Levi, 29.
Beaujou, Mons., 325.
Beck, Raphael, 148.
Bedier, M. Joseph, critical study of
Chateaubriand’s American travels,
106-107.
Beecher, Harriet, 72.
Bennett, W. J., 132.
Bernhard. Duke of Saxe-Weimar
Eisenach, 34.
Bianchi, Alberto G., 68.
Biart, Lucien, 62.
Bigelow, Timothy, 27.
Bigsby, Dr. John, 188.
Bigot, Chas., 68.
Birch, Wm. Russell, 156.
Birch, —, a Loyalist near Chippewa,
Can., 1785, 353; his house and
mill in 1787, 368; notes tide-like
action at Chippewa creek, 377.
Bird, Jas., 86.
Bird, Col. Wm. A., his house in Buf-
falo, 242.
Bissell, Wilson S., 248.
Blackwell, E. R., 189.
Blanchard, Amy E., 85.
Blaney, Cqpt. Wm. Newnham, 33.
Blouet, —, 132.
Bodham-Whetham, J. W., 66.
Bodmer, M. Chas., 134.
Bonaparte, Charles Lucien, 197.
Bonfils, —, artist’s signature, 128.
Bonnecamps, Rev. Joseph Pierre de,
20, 176; his account of Niagara
falls, 323, 324.
Bonnefons, J. C., 20; adventures at
Niagara, 334*339-
Bonnycastle, Sir Richard H., 49.
"Borassaw, M.” (? Borassan or Boras-
sau), 317; his account of Niagara,
318, 319.
Bornet, John, 148.
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 156.
Bouchette, Joseph, 41.
Bowles, Samuel, 75.
Boyd, —, commanding at Ft. Erie,
1789, 229.
Brant, Jos., travels with Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, 220, 221, 227.
Brebeuf, Rev. Jean de, 11.
Bremer, Fredericka, 55, 208.
Brewer, Wm. H., 189.
Brewer, —, his panoramas, 153, 154.
Brisbane, James, visits site of Buf-
falo, in 1789, 229, 232.
“Briske Isle” (Presqu* Isle), 305.
437428
INDEX.
Bristol, Eng., 4.
Brock's (Gen.) monument, Queens-
ton, Can., 287.
Brooks, Rev. Chas., 277; letter to,
from Harriet Martineau, 284.
Brown, Geo. Loring, 156.
Brown, Jas. Francis, 149.
Brule, Etienne, 5.
Brunton, —, of the 65th regt., with
Capt. Enys at Niagara, 1787, 366,
Bryant, Wm. Cullen, 54.
Bryant & Gay’s “History of the
TJ. S.” on the building-place of the
Griffon, 298.
Brymner, Douglas, 363.
Buckingham, J. S., 49.
Buckle, Henry Thomas, 306.
Buffalo (Buffaloe, New Amsterdam),
in 1802, 168; visit of Lprd Ed-
ward Fitzgerald and Ann Powell in
1789, 229-234.
Buffalo, Albright Art Gallery, 156.
Buffalo Female Seminary, 190.
Buffalo, Forest Lawn cemetery, 240.
Buffalo, Franklin-st. cemetery, 240.
“Buffalo, Historical associations of,”
23 7-2 52-
Buffalo Historical Society, given use
of Vanderlyn Mss., 164; has orig-
inal subscription list for Niagara
power fund, 214; reburies remains
of Red Jacket and other chiefs,
239; proceedings, 49th an. meet-
ing, 405-422.
Buffalo, Indian Church avenue, 239.
Buffalo, Indian Mission church, 239.
Buffalo, “Old Indian cemetery,” 239.
Buffalo creek, 218, 234, 238; council
houses on, 239; first white settle-
ment on, 241; road to in 1799, 399.
Bull, Ole, visits Niagara, 192; his
musical composition, “Niagara,”
192; interpreted by N. P. Willis,
*93; by Lydia Maria Child, 193-
195-
Bur den, —, settler near Niagara
Falls in 1802, 168.
Burford, Robt., his panorama of Ni-
agara, 152, 153-	%
Burlington Bay (Ont.), volcano at,
295.
Burr, Col. Aaron, relations with John
Vanderlyn, 159-163; portrait by
Vanderlyn, 163.
Burr, Theodosia (Mrs. Jos. Allston),
portrait of, by Vanderlyn, 163.
Busch, Moritz, 57.
Bustamente y Campuzano, Don Juan,
67.
Butler, Frances Anne (“Fanny Kem-
ble”), 42, 43.
Butler, Col. John, 362.
Butler, Capt. W. F., 62.
Butlersburg (Butlersbury), 362.
Btittner, Dr. J. G., 46.
Buttre, J. C., 137.
Cabanel, A., 155.
Cabot, J. Elliot, 202.
Cadillac, Antoine de la Mothe, 81.
Calhoun, John C., portrait by Van-
derlyn, 171.
Callington, W. R., 127.
Cameron, P. Calderon, 150.
Cameron, Peter, 212.
Campbell, Patrick, 23; at Niagara,
386, 387.
Campbell, Maj. —, commands at Ft.
Niagara, 1785, 363.
Canadaqua (Canandaigua), 389.
Canandaigua in 1802, 166.
Carlisle, Earl of, 50; letter to, from
W. H. Prescott, 141-143.
‘Caroline,” affair of the, 308; 309.
Carlyle, Thos., 293.
Carus, Paul, 88.
Carus-Wilson, Chas. A., 206.
Carver, Jonathan, 23; at Niagara
falls, in 1766, 346.
Casgrain, Abbi H. R., 335.
Cass, Gov. Lewis, on the building-
place of the Griffon', 298.
Casson, Dollier de, 12.
Cat nation, see Erieehronons.
Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, 81.
Catlin, George, 211.
Cavagnal, Marquis de la, 20, 175.
Cavelier, Jean, 309.
Cayuga Bridge, N. Y., 166.
Cayuga lake, 388, 389.
Cazenovia creek, 238.
Celorom, Pierre Joseph, 305, 323.
Chambers, Wm., 58.
Champlain, Samuel de, his “Des Sau-
vages” the beginning of Niagara
literature, 4; its value, 5; cited,
to, 16, 294.
Channing, Wm. Ellery, 271.
Chanouanons (Shawanees), 305.
Charleston, S. C., 235.
Charlevoix, Rev. Pierre F. X. de, 16;
his Niagara letters, 319-323; first
writer to designate the “Horse-
shoe” fall, 320.
Chase, Wm. M., 150.
Chateaubriand, Francois Auguste* vi-
comte de, 94; “A Dreamer at Ni-
agara, 97-111.
Chaumonot, Rev. Pierre Joseph Marie,
11.
Chautauqua county, N. Y., first ex-
ploration, 305.
Chautauqua lake, 5; question of its
discovery, 305.
Chautauqua portage, 303.
Chauvignerie, Ensign de la, 175.
Chenier, Marie Joseph de, 109.
Chevalier, Michel, 45.
Chicago Art Institute, 156.
Child, Lydia Maria, interprets Ole
Bull’s “Niagara,” 193-195.
Chippewa (Chippeway, etc.), Can., in
1802, 168; in 1834, 287.
Chippewa (Chippeway) creek, 353.
Church, Frederic Edward, 143, 144-
Cincinnati Museum, 156.
‘City of the Falls,” project promoted
by Burford’s panorama, 153-
Civil War, one phase of its litera-
ture, 19; travel literature during,
64-70; effect on development ofINDEX.
429
the telegraph, 259; fasts and
thanksgivings during, 264.
Clark, T. W., 212.
Clark, Willis Gaylord, 46.
Cleveland, Grover, President, A. W.
Sangster’s “Niagara” dedicated to
him, 149; early residence in Buf-
falo, 242; associations with the old
court house, 244; his law offices,
248; a Thanksgiving proclamation
as governor of New York, 274.
Clinton, DeWitt (“Hibernicus”), 183,
310.
Clinton, Gov. George, portrait by
Vanderlyn, 171; letter to, from
Jos. Brant, 234.
Clinton, Judge George W., 205, 206.
Clinton, N. Y., 388.
Ccbbett, Wm., 218, 219.
Cobden, Richard, 74.
Cockburn, Lt.-Col. —, 130.
Coffen, Stephen, 304, 305.
Cogniet, Leon, 155.
Coke, Lieut. E. T., 40, 132.
Cole, Thos., 137-141; journal of his
■ki:----------------- ----- jjfe point
Niagara visit, 139, 140;
of view, 148.
Colton, C., 37-
Columbian Exposition, “ Niagara
painted for, 145.
Columbian Magazine, 385, 392.
Combe, George, 48, 49.
Comettant, Oscar, 62.
Comstock, Dr. J. L., 179.
Conroy, Tom, Prof. Tyndall's guide
at Niagara falls, 187.
Cooke, George, 204.
Cooper, Jas. Fenimore, 71; his his-
torical fiction touching the Niagara,
77, 82.
Corcoran Gallery, Washington, 143*
144.
Cornell, Alonzo B., governor of New
York, Thanksgiving proclamation,
274.
Cornell, Ezra, 259.
Cox, Rev. F. A., 46.
Coxe, Reginald C., 148.
Coyne, Jas. H., 14.
Craig, W. M., 126.
Crevecoeur, Alexander St. John de,
346, 361.
Crevecoeur, Count Robert de, 347*
Crevecoeur, J. H. St. John de, 21;
sketch of, 346-349; letter to his
son about Niagara falls, 349-363 •
Crowley, Mary C., 81.
Cruxio, Rev. Francisco, 14.
Curtis, G. T., 72.
Curtis, George Wm., 57, 71.
Dallion, Rev. Joseph de la Roche, 10.
Dalton, Wm., 32.
Daly, Frederic, 68.
Darby, Wm., 31.
Dardoize, —> 155.
Daubeny, Dr. Chas., 47.
Davies, Capt. Thos., 122, 123-
Davis, Maj. Henry, 130.
Day, David F., 205, 206.
Day, Samuel Phillips, 62.
Deal, Anna Izard, 17, 339.
‘Death of Jane McCrea, painting by
Vanderlyn, 172.
De Celoron’s expedition of 1749, 176.
Deedes, Henry, 59.
De Haas, M. F. H., 146, 147.
De Lancey, Lt.-Gov. Jas., niece of,
marries Ralph Izard, 340.
Denonville, Jacques Rene de Brisay,
Marquis de, 81.
De Nouvel, Gabriel Edouard, cheva-
lier, alleged builder of first Niag-
ara fort, 298.
De Noyan, —, 175.
De Roos, Hon. Lt. Fitzgerald, 35,
*32-
Deroy, —, artist, 134.
Delisle (Deslisle), Guillaume, his
map, 321.
De Smet, Rev. Peter John, 168, 169.
Despard, John (“Despares”), 30.
Detroit, Mich., founding of, 81; in
1789.. 233.
DeWitt, Simeon, 164, 169.
Dickens, Charles, 50-53, 209.
Dinet, Rev. Jacques, 11.
Dixon, Rev. James, 54.
Dor6, Gustav, 121.
Douglas, —, of the 65th regt., with
Capt. Enys at Niagara, 1787, 366,
373> 374.
Doyle, Gen. Sir Hastings, Lt. Gov.
of Nova Scotia, 65.
Dudley, Hon. Paul, 317, 318.
Dufferin, Lady, 64, 65.
Du Mond, F. V., 147.
Dummer, Ann, 222.
Dummer, Lt.-Gov. Richard, 222.
Duncan, John M., 31.
Dunlap, Wm., 83; founder, Nat'l
Academy of Design, 84.
Dupressoir, —, artist, 134.
Durant, Rev. John, 20.
Dwight, Dr. Timothy, 25, 26; his
fast-day sermons, 271.
Earthquake reported in Western New
York, 190.
Eaton, Amos, 183, 204.
Ebelings, Christo f Daniel, 21.
Edge, J., 130.
Edwards, C. R., 86.
“Eighteenth century visitors to Niag-
ara, narratives of,” 313-400.
Ellicott, Andrew, his drawing of Ni-
agara Falls, 122; measures the
falls, 176; describes them, 178;
mentioned, 183, 184; his account
of the falls, 384-385, 400.
Ellicott, Joseph, “Father of Buffalo,”
176; surveys New Amsterdam,
241; his house, 243.
Ellsworth (Elsworth), Francis, a
Loyalist at Niagara, 1785, 353; his
plantation, 360 (map), 361, 362..
Encyclopaedia Brittanica, cited, 298.
Enys*, Capt. —, narrative of his visit
to Niagara in 1787, 363-378; specu-
lation on recession of the falls,
375-378.
Engleheart, Gardner D., 60.430
INDEX.
Erie Canal, romances of, 86; con-
struction period, 257.
Erieechronons, 11.
European Magazine, 386.
Eutaw Springs, S. C., battle of, 218.
Evans, Estwick, 31.
Evans, Lewis, 204.
Everest, Rev. Robt., 59.
Evershed, Thos., 215.
Eyre, Rev* John, 41.
Fairchild, Herman Leroy, 188.
Fairhclme, George, 180, 181, 184.
Farmer’s Brother, 240.
Farralt, S. A., 37.
Featherstonhaugh, G. W., 184.
Fenian raid of 1866, 19.
Fenn, Harry, 147.
Ferguson, Wm„ 59.
Fesch, Jos., Cardinal, 109.
Fidler, Rev. Isaac, 40.
Fields, Jas. T., 75.
Fillmore, Millard, 59; his former
residence, 247; his offices, 248; as
Vice-President, 249; aids Morse’s
telegraph project, 259; attitude to-
wards a national thanksgiving, 264.
Fisher, Capt. —, Royal British Ar-
tillery, 125.
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, his mili-
tary career, 218, 219; visits Niag-
ara, 219; letters to his mother,
220, 221; his Indian adoption, 221;
hjs Niagara excursions, 227; visits
site of Buffalo with Ann Powell
and others, 229-231; at Detroit,
233; subsequent career and death,
235-
Fleming, Dr. Wm., 46.
Flint, Jas., 32.
Flint, Timothy, 75.
Flower, Roswell P., governor of New
York, thanksgiving proclamation,
274.
Flynne, P. C., 145.
Forbes, Geo., 215.
Forster, John R., translator of Kalm’s
work on America, 324.
Forster, Wm., “Memoirs of,” 33.
Forsyth, —, of Kingston, entertains
Judge Powell’s party, 1789, 226.
Fort Adams (Ft. Tompkins), 245.
Fort Brewerton (“Brewington”), 342,
346.
Fort Conti (Niagara), 298.
Fort Erie, 217; Ralph Izard at, 345;
mentioned, 394.
Fort Frontenac (Kingston, On£.),8i;
wrongly located, 298.
Fort Herkimer (“Harkimer,r), 341,
346.
Fort Johnson, 340.
Fort Niagara, 1; its importance in
history of the region, 2, 3; in
1789, 217; early mail service, 256;
Peter Kalm at, 325; sound of the
falls heard there, 328; M. Bonne-
fons at, 335; Ralph Izard at, 342;
its ruinous state in 1765, 345; its
state in 1785, 363; in 1792, 391.
Fort Ontario, 342.
Fort Oswego, 342, 389.
Fort Pontchartrain, 345.
Fort Porter, memorial tablet at, 244;
_1 j______^
old magazine, 245.
Fort Schlosser (Scuiler,
Slosser, Slausser,
Sckuiler,
Toronto), 217,
229, 309. 336, 337, 339, 342, 343.
349, 3535 Stedman s house at, 350,
356, 360 (map), 361; in 1787, 363.
Fort Schuyler, 341, 387, 388.
Fort Stanwix, 341, 347.
Foster’s Flats (“Niagara Glen”), 205.
‘Four (Tbe) Kings of Canada” quoted,
316, 317.
Fowler, John, 37.
Frankenstein, G. N., 147; his Niag-
ara paintings and panorama, 154,
Franklin, Benj., corresponds with H.
St. J. de Crevecoeur, 348; at
Franklin college, 349.
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Jour-
nal of, 177.
Free Soil Convention of *48, held in
Buffalo, 247.
Friend, Washington, 131.
Friends Settlement, founded by Je-
mima Wilkinson, 389.
“From Indian Runner to Telephone,’
253-260.
Frost, Rev. Barzillai, 294.
Fuller, Susan Margaret, 53, 208.
Fulton, Linda de K., 87.
Galinee, Rene de Brehant de, 12.
Galt, John, 85, 303.
Ganastogue Sonontoua Outinaouatoua,
Garbett, E. L., 188.
Gardiner, Rev. John, of Boston, 271.
Geddes, Jas., 184.
Geneva, N. Y., in 1802, 166; in
1792, 389.
Genlis, Mme. de, 235.
Gentlemen’s (The) Magazine, 121.
Gilbert, G. K., 188.
Giles, Rev. Charles, 29.
Giles, Rev. John, of Newburyport,
272.
Gilman, Caroline, 46.
Glen Iris, 239.
Glenny, John C., buys house begun
by Joseph Ellicott, 243.
Godley, John Robert, 50.
Goldsmith, Oliver, his account of Ni-
agara falls, 293.
Golovin, Ivan, 59.
Gorham, Nathaniel, 254.
Gosman, Rev. John, D. D.} 161.
Gosman, Robert, corrects Parton re-
garding Vanderlyn, 161-163; writes
narrative of Vanderlyn’s visit to
Niagara, 163-169.
Gosse, Philip Henry, 181.
Gosselman, Carl August, 36.
Goupil, publishing house of, 131, 148.
Grabau, A. W., 183, 185.
Granger, Erastus, Buffalo’s first post-
master, 256, 257.
Grant, Sir Alexander, 222.INDEX.
431
Grant, Lt. Allen, commands at Ft.
Stanwix, 1765, 341.
Grant, Janet (Mrs. Wm. Dttmmer
Powell), 222.
Gray, Asa, 205.
Greenwich, Conn., 266.
Greenwood, Rev. F. W. P., 40.
Greenwood, Thos., 68.
Griffin, Zachariah, his house the old-
est in Buffalo, 241.
Guest, Lady Theodora, 68.
Gull island, 339.
Gunning, W. D., 188.
Gurney, Joseph John, 48.
Gzowski, Col. Sir Cassimir S., 65.
Hale, Rev. Edward Everett, 294.
Hall, Capt. Basil, 36, 128, 129, 209.
Hall, Lieut. Francis, 29, 30.
Hall, Jas., N. Y. State Geologist, 184,
186.
Hall, Nathan K., 248.
Hall & Mooney, 148.
Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 72.
“Hambleton,” see “Hamilton, Robt.*’
Hamilton, Capt. —, 41.
Hamilton, J., 147.
Hamilton, Robt., of Queenston, Can.,
166, 227, 349, 362; his views on
recession of Niagara falls, 375.
Hamilton, —, of tne 53d Regt., con-
ducts Capt. Enys about Niagara
falls, 363-368.
Hamilton, Ont., 295.
Hanoteau, H., 155.
Hardy, Lady Duffus, 67.
Harper*s Weekly, 128.
Harris, Wm. Tell, 32.
Harrowgate, in Yorkshire, 374.
Hatton, Joseph, 68, 131.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 37, 38, 71,
209.
Head, Sir Francis Bond, 46.
Henkle, Leonard, 213, 214.
Hennepin, Rev. Louis, his “Louisi-
ane ” 4, 14, 315; other works, 15;
his picture of Niagara falls, 116-
118; “the Hennepin type,” 118,
119; mentioned, 170, 291; illustra-
tion of his books, 295, 296; not
the discoverer of Niagara falls,
299; his spelling of “Niagara/’
299, 300; his first account of Ni-
agara falls, 315, 316; mentioned,
317, 318, 319, 321; his veracity
questioned by Peter Kalm, 327;
mentioned, 328, 400.
“Hennepin’s Point” (or “View”), 147,
308.
Henry, Alexander, 23.
Henry, Dr. Walter, 44.
“Henri Gaugain & Co.,” 134.
Herriot, George, 25; as artist, 127.
Herkimer (“ Harkimer ”), Nicholas,
34i-
Hervieu, A., 128.
“Hibernicus,” pseud., see Clinton,
De Witt.
Hill, Capt. David, “Karong hyontye,”
Mohawk chief, 221, 222, 231; his
dress described, 231, 232; men-
tioned, 235.
Hill, David B., governor of New
York, Thanksgiving proclamation,
274-
Hill, J. Henry, 147.
Hingham, Mass., 277, 284.
“Historical Associations of Buffalo,”
237*252.
Historical Building, Buffalo, paintings
in, 148; mentioned, 5, 311.
“History that isn’t so,” 291-311.
Hitchcock, C. H., 185.
Hoby, Rev. J., 46.
Hoe, Robert, sale of his library, 4, 5.
Hoes, Rev. Roswell Randall, 163,
164.
Hole, Rev. S. Reynolds, 68.
Holland Land Co., surveys village of
New Amsterdam, 241; the pur-
chase, 254* 255.
Holloway, F., 148.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 292.
Homann (Homanno), J. B., of Nu-
remberg, 121.
“H9rseshoe” fall, Niagara, first so des-
ignated by Charlevoix, 320.
Hottes, M., 150, 151.
Hough, F. B., 235.
Houston, Mrs. M. C., 55.
Howells, Wm. Dean, 71, 94, 195.
Howison, John, 30.
Howitt, E., 32.
Howitt, Mary, translator of Fred-
erika Bremer’s “Homes of the New
World,” 56.
Howland, Sarah, 31.
Hubbard, Elbert, 93,
Hudson, T. S., 67.
Hughes, Gov. Chas. Evans, features
of his Thanksgiving proclamations,
261, 262, 275.
Hughes, Thomas, 63.
Humphry, —, with Capt. Enys at
Niagara in 1787* 365-373-
Hunt, Wm. M., 145.
Hunter, Col. —, commanding at Ft.
Niagara, 1789, 227.
Hunter, —, accompanies H. St. J. de
Crevecoeur to Niagara, 349, 358.
Huxley, Leonard, 186.
Huxley, Thos. Henry, 186.
“Indian ladders,” at Niagara, used by
Crevecoeur, 1785, 356; in 1787,
372-
Indian legends, largely invented by
whites, 88.
Indians swept upon Goat island, 330,
331; their rescue, 332.
Ingraham, Duncan, his journey to
Niagara in 1792, 387-393.
Irving, Sir Henry, 68.
Irving, Washington, portrait by Van-
derlyn, 170; visited by Harriet
Martineau, 285.
Izard, Ralph, 17; sketch of, 339, 340;
diary of his tour to Niagara, 340-
346.432
INDEX.
Jackson, Andrew, portrait by Vander-
lyn, 171.
Jacottet, —, artist, 134.
James, Henry, 63, 64, 71, 209.
Jameson, Mrs. Anna Brownell Mur-
pby, 47;
Jeffery.
ffery, Louisa, companion of Har-
riet Martineau, 285.
Jcmison, Mary, 239.
Jesuit Relations, meager data in them
for Niagara region, u, 14.
Johnson, Andrew, President, 265.
Johnson, Ebenezer, first mayor of
Buffalo, 286, 289.
Johnson, Sir John, 391.
Johnson, Sir Wm., 17, 18, 21, 179;
errors in his papers, 303-305, 339;
entertains Ralph Izard, 340.
Johnson, —, relative of Sir John
Johnson, 391.
Johnston, Jas. F. W., 55.
Johnstone, C. L., 68.
Joliet, Louisj 81.
Toly, •—, artist, 134.
Joncaire, Louis Thomas de, Sieur de
Chahert, 322, 323.
Joncaire, Philip Thomas de, Sieur de
Chabert, ordered to escort Peter
Kalm about Niagara Falls, 326.
Jones, Capt. —, commands at Ft.
Schlosser, 1785, 352.
Joutel, Henri, 15, 309.
Kalm, Peter, 20,# 121, 122; first nat-
uralist to visit Niagara, 176; as
botanist, 202, 203; his account of
Niagara falls, 324-334; mentioned,
383, 400.
"Karong hyontye,” Mohawk name of
Capt. David Hill, 221, 222.
Kayo, Oneida name of H. St. J. de
Crevecoeur, 347.
Kelug (? Kellogg), —, 319.
Kemble, Fanny, see “Butler, Frances
Anne/’
Kent, Chancellor James, 76.
Kent, Wm., 76.
Ketchum, Wm., his “History of Buf-
falo,!” 306.
Kibbe, Aug. S., 188.
King, Thos., police justice, 93.
Kingston, Wm. H. H., 58.
Kingston, N. Y., home of John Van-
derlyn, 129, 162; pastorate of Dr.
John Gosman at, 161; mentioned,
164, 170, 172, 173.
Kingston, Ont., 81, 226.
Kipling, Rudyard, 69.
Kirby, Wm., his “Annals of Niag-
ara” cited, 306.
Kirkland, Rev. Sami., 393.
Kirkpatrick, John E., 75.
Knox, Capt. John, 17.
Kohl, J. 6., 59.
Kollner, August, 131.
Kroupa, B., 68.
Laubinois, M. de, 175.
Lebron, —, artist, 141, 143-
La Bruyere, quoted, 57*
Lafayette, Gen., 35.
La Harpe, Jean Francois de, 109.
La Hontan, Louis Armand Lorn
d’Arce, baron de. 15; his descrip-
tion of Niagara falls, 291-292, 295;
mentioned, 315, 316, 317, 321, 322,
400.
‘Laird of Mackintosh,” see Tonna-
leuka.
Lake Conti (Erie), 292.
Lake Ontario, alluded to in 1641, 11;
in 1647, 12; in 1669, is> 13, 80;
in 1794, 21; in 1807, 27; in Coo-
per’s fiction, 82; in Bartlett’s
drawings, 135; mentioned by
Michaux, 203; by Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, 220; by Ann Powell,
227, 232.
Lake St. Louys (Ontario), n.
Lalemant, Rev. Jerome, 11, 299.
Lancaster, Pa., 348.
“Landing (The),” see Queenston,
Can.
“Landing of Columbus,” painting by
Vanderlyn, 172.
Lane, Ezekiel, 218.
Langdon, Andrew, stage-driver in
1810, 257.
Langheim, F., 132.
La Potherie, M. de Bacqueville de,
16.
La Salle, Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur
de, 10, 12; inadequacy of fiction
dealing with him, 80, 81; his ex-
pedition of 1678, 116, 297; his
trading-post “built in 1679,” 298;
not a chevalier, 298, 299; claim
that he discovered Chautauqua lake,
305; Devil’s Hole absurdity, 308.
La Salle, N. Y., 296, 297.
Laugel, Auguste, 62, 147.
Lavasseur, A., 35.
Leach, “Bobby,” 293.
Le Beau, C., 79, 80.
“Le Cain” (Duquesne), 304.
Le Clerc, S., 120, 121.
Le Clercq, Rev. Christian le, 4, 11.
Lee, Maj.-Gen. Chas., 400.
Le Moyne, Charles, see “Longueuil,
Baron de.”
Lery, Gaspard Chaussegros de, 3.
Lescarbot, Marc, 4; cited, 10, 16.
Lesdiguieres, Duchesse de, 320.
Letchworth, Wm. Pryor, memorial to,
423-
Lever, Chas., 82.
Lewis, F. C., engraver of Vander-
lyn’s “Niagara,” 130.
Lewis, Rev. G., 54.
Lewis, Gov. Morgan, 306.
Lewis & Clarke exploring expedition,
308.
Liancourt, Due de la Rochefoucault,
22, 400.
Lieber, Francis, 45.
Lincoln, Abraham, proclamations for
fasts or thanksgivings, 264; the
quality of his English^ 265; his
Thanksgiving proclamations of 1863
and 1864, 263, 265, 273.
Lion’s den (The), on the Niagara,.
375-INDEX.
433
Little Falls, N. Y., sketched in 1802
by John Vanderlyn, 164.
Livingston, David, 125.
Livingston, Robt. R., 172.
Lombardo, Alberto, 67.
London Art Journal, 131.
Longueuil, Baron de, 20, 175,
Lome, Marquis of, 68.
Loti, Pierre, pseud., 68.
Louis XIV., builder of Fort Niag-
ara, 1.
Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Or-
leans, 235.
Lowell, Jas. Russell, 55, 294.
Lutaud, Dr. Auguste, 68.
Lyell, Sir Chas., 179, 183, 186.
McCauslin, Dr. Robt., 178, 179*
Mackay, Alexander, 54.
Maclay, Wm., 178, 179, 184.
Madan, H. G., 206.
Madison, Jas., portrait by Vanderlyn,
171; proclamations, 263; his pol-
icies opposed by New England,
269, 270; proclamation of Apr. 13,
1815, 272.
Magazine of American History, 347.
Maiook (Mayouk), fictitious Indian
chief, 301, 302.
Maitland, Sir Perigrine, 34, 35.
Majoribanks, Alexander, 57.
“Mammoth Cave and the Prairies,’'
panorama of, 153.
Manchester (Eng.), Times, 54.
Manlius, N. Y., 165.
Mante, Thomas, 17.
Marcou, Jules, 62.
Margry, Pierre, publication of docu-
ments cited, 16.
Marin, Paul, commands an expedition
3°> , „ . .
4 Marius at Carthage, painting by
Vanderlyn, 163, 170.
“Mark Twain,” pseud., 71, 94.
Marquette, Rev. Jacques, 81.
Marryat, Capt. Frederick, 47, 48.
Marshall, Chas., 66.
Marshall, Orsamus H., entertains
Prof. Huxley in Buffalo, 186; finds
and publishes letter of H. St. J. de
Crevecoeur, 346, 347.
Marshall, W. G.,.67.
Martineau, Harriet, her comment on
“lawless Buffalo,” 45, 208; “On
the Niagara Frontier with,” 277-
290; her career, 277-279; describes
the burning of Buffalo, 279-283;
letter from Niagara Falls to Rev.
Chas. Brooks, 284-289; letter to
her mother, 289-290.
Mason, Gen. John T., 286.
Mason, Stevens Thompson, governor
of Michigan, 286.
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 262.
Mass. Hist. Society Collections, 387.
Massachusetts Magazine, 384, 386.
Massasoit, 268.
Mateos, Don Juan A., 84.
Mather, Alonzo C., 215.
Matheson, Rev. Jas., 45.
Matthews, —, 33.
Maude, John, 23; as artist, 126.
Maverick, Peter, regarded as first
American wood-engraver, 33, 128;
Maxwell, Lt.-Col. A. M., 49.
Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, D. D., 267.
McCarroll, Jas. (“Scian Dubh”), 93.
McKinley, Wm., President, house in
Buffalo where he died, 248; error
as to place of assassination, 311.
McLean, —, publisher, Haymarket,
London, 130.
Medley, Julius George, 65.
Melisn, John, 28, 29.
Mental (The) Elevator, Seneca peri-
odical, 240.
Merigot, —, engraver of Vanderlyn’s
“Niagara,” 130.
Merriam, Geo. S., 76.
Merwin, Samuel, 81.
Meyer, Hermann J., 137.
Michaux, Andre, 204.
Michaux, F. A., 203, 204.
Middaugh, Martin, 218.
Mignot, Louis R., 145.
Milbert, Jacques-Girard, 133, 134.
Milet, Rev. Pierre, 14.
Military (The) Road, Lake Ontario
to Lake Erie, 256.
Moll, Herman, vignettes of Niagara
Falls on his maps, 119.
Moniteur (Le), Paris journal, 25.
Monroe, Jas., President U. S., 30;
portrait by Vanderlyn, 171.
Montmorency (Montmorrency, i. e.,
Luna) fall at Niagara, 371.
Montule, E., 30.
Moodie, Mrs. Susanna, 58.
Moore, George, 53.
Moore, Tom, 25, 191, 192; his life
of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 218,
221; mentions Gull island, 339.
Morandner, Mons. —, 176, 328.
Morgan, Wm., his incarceration at
Fort Niagara, 311.
Morley, John, his “Life of Cobden”
quoted, 74, 75.
Morpeth, Lord, see “Carlisle, Earl
of.”
Morris, Robt., 254.
Morris, Thos., 166, 167, 169.
Morris, Wm., 66.
Morse, Samuel F. B., 259.
Munger, Gilbert, 149, 150.
Murray, Hon. Amelia M., 58.
Murray, Hon. Chas. A., 45.
Myers, P. Hamilton, 86.
Napoleon I., awards gold medal to
painting by Vanderlyn, 170.
Nash, Willis, 66.
National Academy of Design, 146.
Navy Island, early engravings of,
127.
Neal, John, 42, 72.
Neuters, nation of aborigines, 11.
Neutral nation, see Neuters.
New Amsterdam, see Buffalo.
New York Academy of Design, 171.
New York City, Metropolitan Mu-
seum of Art, 156.434
INDEX.
New York Rotunda, erected by John
Vanderlyn, 171.
Newberry, J. S., 188.
Niagara, variants in spelling, 299,
300.
Niagara, Cyclorama of, see ‘'Niagara
panoramas.**
Niagara panoramas, is 1-156; Bur-
ford’s, 152; Brewers, 153, 154;
Frankenstein’s, 154; Cyclorama of
Niagara, in London, 155, 156; in
Chicago, 156.
Niagara Falls, 5; described by Gali-
nee, 12-13; fictitious account of
discovery, 300-303.
Niagara Frontier Landmarks Associa-
tion, 243, 244.
Niagara Glen (“Foster’s Flats”), 205.
Niagara, Ont., 1.
Niagara - on - the - Lake, see Niagara,
Ont.
Niagara region, “Early Literature
of,** 9*23; defined, 9; how settled,
18.
“Niagara (The) in Art,” 113-158.
“Niagara (The) Region in Fiction,”
77-96.
“Niagara (The) in Science,” 175-216.
“Nineteenth Century visitors (to Ni-
agara) who wrote books,” 25-76.
Noah, Maj. M. M., 87.
Noble, Rev. Louis L., 137, 138.
Norris, Frank, 93.
Norris, Capt. Thos., 342.
Norumbega, 5.
Offenbach, Jacques, 66.
Ogden, Rev. John Cosens, 21, 400.
OrHara, Gen. —, 218.
“O. Henry,” pseud., 93.
“Old Smoke,’5 Seneca chief, 239.
“Oliver Optic,” pseud., 87.
“On the Niagara Frontier with Har-
riet Martineau,” 277-290.
Oneida, N. Y., 388.
Oneida Hollow, N. Y., 165.
Oneida lake, 165, 342, 388; lake or
river, 301.
“Ongiara catarractes” (Niagara falls),
on Cruxio’s map, 1660, 14; early
spelling of “Niagara,” q. v., 299.
Onguiaahra (Niagara), 11, 299.
Onondaga falls, 342.
Ontario co., N. Y., in 1790, 260.
Ontario Historical Society, 14.
Orcutt, Wm. Dana, 80.
Oswegatchie (“Oswegachy,” i. e.,
Ogdensburg), 345.
Oswego river, 342.
Outaways (Ottaways, etc.), swept
over Niagara, 322, 323.
Painter’s Point, below Niagara falls,
Canadian side, 371, 375.
Palacio, Don Vicente Riva, 84.
Pamela, daughter of Louis Philippe
Joseph, marries Lord Edward Fitz-
gerald, 235.
Pan-American Exposition, 248.
Paris Exposition of 1867, Church’s
“Niagara” exhibited at, 144.
Parish, Rev. Elijah, of Newburyport,
271.
Park, Mungo, 383.
Parkman, Francis, 1, 17; at Niagara
in 1845. 53.
Parton, Jas., his “Life and limes of
Aaron Burr” quoted, 159-161;
statements corrected, 161-163.
Patriot War, literature of, 19.
Patten, Edmund, 58.
‘Paul Pry, Jr. ” pseud., 88.
Pavilion du Flores, part of the
Louvre, 2.
Payne, A. H., 130.
Pennell, Jos., 147.
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
172.
Pequots, annihilation of, 266.
Perry, Com. Oliver Hazard, as char-
acter in juvenile fiction, 85.
Pfeiffer, Iaa Meyer, 61.
Pfister, Lt. —, contractor at Ft.
Schlosser in 1765, 342.
Phelps, Oliver, 254.
‘Phelps and Gorham Purchase,” 254,
Philadelphia Medical and Physical
Journal, 393.
Philadelphia Portfolio, 204.
Philippoteaux, Paul, 155, 156.
Philip, Geo., reputed travels of, 307,
Pidgeon, David, 67.
Pierie, Lieut. Win., 122-124.
Piquet, Abbe Francois, his account
of Niagara falls, 334.
Pitt, Wm., 219.
Pittsburg, Carnegie Institute, 156.
Plymouth, Mass., 301.
Pohlman, Dr. Julius, 184.
Point Abino, 298.
Pole, William, 210.
Pontiac (“Pondiach,” etc.), at Ft.
Oswego, 342.
Popple, Henry, 121.
Portage, N. Y., 205.
Porter, Hon. Augustus, his first
bridge at Niagara Falls, 148.
Porter, Gen. Peter B., his Buffalo
house, 242.
Pouchot, Capt. Francois, 17, 335.
Powell, Ann, her family, 222; her
journal of visit to Niagara and site
of Buffalo in 1789, 223-234.
Powell, John, of Boston, 222.
Powell, Wm. Dummer, 222.
Power, Tyrone, 41, 42, 128; quoted,
217.
Prentice, Archibald, 54.
Prescott, W. H., 141-143.
Preston, T. R., 47.
Prevost, J. B., 162.
Price, Joseph, alleged discoverer of
Niagara tails, his adventures, 300-
303.
Priest, Josiah, 307.
Priest, Wm., 182.
Prieto, Guillermo, 66.
Prince of Wales (Edward VII.), 60,
i3*«
Princess Louise, 131.INDEX.
435
Prior’s “Universal Traveler 128.
‘‘Prospect Point” at Niagara Falls, 176.
Quai Voltaire, book-stalls of, 3.
Queen Victoria Park, 123, 124.
Queenston, Can. (“The Landing”),
182, 228, 287, 399.
R-------, C. von, 34.
Rafinesque, Constantine, 205.
Ragueneau, Rev. Paul, cited, 12, 299.
Ramsay, Sir Andrew C., 186.
Randolph, John, portrait by Vander-
lyn> 171.
Rankine, Wm. Birch, 215.
Rawdon, Lord, 218.
“Rawdon, Clark & Co.,” 127.
Raumer, Frederick von, 53.
Red Jacket, Seneca chief, described
by Audubon, 199; by Ann Powell,
232, 234» 235; his home, 239.
Red Jacket’s widow, 41.
Reed, Rev. Andrew, 45.
Reid, Robt., 141.
Rhodesia. 125.
Richardson, Maj. John, 82.
Richardt, F., 130.
Richmond Hill, residence of Aaron
Burr, 162.
Rivera y Rio, Jose, 87.
Robertson, Felix, 393.
Robertson, Wm. Parish, 57.
Rochefort. Henri, 65, 66.
Rogers, Lt. Jonathan, 342.
Rogers, Mai. Robt., 400.
Rome. N. Y., in 1802, 165.
Rondout, N. Y., Robt. Gosman’s let-
ter from, 161-163.
Roosevelt, Theodore, Buffalo house
in which he took oath as President,
248; one of his proclamations as
governor of New York, 272, 273,
274-
Rush, Dr. Benj., Andrew Ellicott s
description of Niagara sent to, 384.
Russell, W. Howard, 62.
Ruysdael, Jacob van, the “Niagara”
he would have painted, 147*
Sabatier, —, artist, 134.
Sagard, Gabriel, 4, ix, 16.
Sagra, Don Ramon de la, 46.
St. James Hall, Buffalo, 75.
St. John de Crevecoeur, see Creve-
coeur.
St. Louis City Art Museum, 156.
St. Mary’s-on-the-Wye, Huron mis-
sion, 11.
St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, book-
shops of, 3.
Sangster, Amos W., 149.
Sanson, Joseph, 30.
Saunders, Wm., 66.
Saussaye, Dagneaux de la, 305.
Savery, William, 54.
Scajaquada creek, 238.
Schofield, Wis., 212.
Schoolcraft, Henry, on the building-
place of the Griffon, 298.
Schultz, Christian, Jr., 27, 28.
“Scidn Dubh,” pseud., Jas. McCarroll,
93-
Scott, Gen. Winfield, headquarters at
Williamsville, in War of 1812, 242.
Scotland, National Gallery of, 144.
Scott, Gen. Winfield, alleged head-
quarters in Buffalo, 311.
“Scuyler” (“ Sckuiler ”), see Fort
Schlosser.
Sedgwick, Catherine Maria, 33, 72;
visited at Stockbridge by Harriet
Martineau, 285.
Sellars, Robt., 85.
Sellers, Dr. Coleman, 215.
Selwyn, Dr. Alfred Richard Cecil, of
the Canadian geological survey,
363.
Seneca Mission, Buffalo, 240.
Seneca Mission Press, 240.
Seneca villages, in present site of
Buffalo, 238, 239.
Senneville, Capt. de, 20, 175.
Severance, Frank H., his “Niagara
and the Poets” cited, 78, 196.
Seward, Wm. H., Thanksgiving proc-
lamation as governor, 262, 263.
Shaler, N. S., 188.
Sharan, Jas., 23; sketch of, 378, 379,
383; his Niagara narrative, 379-
383-
Shawanees (Chanouanons), 305.
Sheriff, Patrick, 42.
Shulz, Adrien, 155.
Sid way, Mrs. Jonathan (Parnell St.
John), 283.
Siemens, Sir Carl Wilhelm, 209-211.
Sigourney, Mrs. Lydia Huntley, 208.
Silliman, Augustus E., 50.
Silliman, Benjamin D., 50.
Simcoe, Mrs. John Graves, 128.
“Simcoe’s ladder,” 396.
Sinclair, Rev. John, 59.
Skinner, Mrs. Martha St. John, 283.
Smith, Goldwin, 74.
Smith, Rev. John, Salem, N. H., 270.
Smith, Mortimer L., 156.
Smith, Col. —, commands at Ft. Ni-
agara, 1792, 391.
Smoke’s creek, 239.
Society of Friends, 18.
“Some Thanksgiving Contrasts,” 261-
Southesk, Earl of, 60.
Spencer, J. W., 185, 188.
Springfield (Mass.) Republican, 75.
Stamford, Ont., 34.
Stanley, H. A., 86.
Stansbury, P., 32.
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 73, 74.
Stedman, Philip, his house at Niag-
ara, 350, 352, 367, 368.
Steele, Mrs. Eliza A., 50.
Steele’s Press, Buffalo, 148.
Stoddard, Wm. O., 81.
Stone, Wm. L., his life of Sir Wm.
Johnson, 18.
Story, Joseph, Justice U. S. Supreme
court, 35.
Stratemeyer, Edward, 87.
Stringer, Geo. Alfred, 79.436
INDEX.
Stuart, Gilbert, instructs John Van-
derlyn, 162.
Stuart, Jas., 36.
Sturge, Joseph, 49.
Sutcliff, Robt., 27.
Swartwout, Gen. John, 166.
Table Rock, fall of, 143.
Talbot, Edward Allen, 33.
Tallack, Wm., 59.
Taylor, Bayard, 61, 62, 71.
Taylor, F. B., 185.
Taylor, Mrs. Anna Edson, 293.
Taylor, T., 147.
Taylor, Zachary, portrait by Vander-
lyn, 172.
Terrapin Point, Niagara Falls, 187.
Thackara & Vallance, 122.
Thanksgiving contrasts in American
history, 261-275.
Thayer, Eugene M., 195, 196.
Thomas, Rev. Abel C., 57.
Thompson, S. P., “Life of Lord Kel-
vin,” 216.
Thomson, E. W., 87.
Thomson, Sir Wm. (Lord Kelvin),
215.
Thoreau, Henry David, 73.
Thornton, Sir Edward, British Min-
ister at Washington, 65.
Thornton, Mai. J°kn> 55*
Thouinville, siege of, 108.
Ticknor, George, 72, 192.
Tinling, Lt. —, of the 29th regt.,
opens a vista at Niagara, 371.
Tirpenne, —, artist, 134.
Tomlinson, Everett T., 87.
Tonawanda (“Tonawanta,” etc.)
swamp in 1802, 167.
Tonawondoe ( Tonawanda) village,
399-
Tonnaleuka, Mingo prophet (ficti-
tious), 307.
Tonnoraunto (Tonawanda), 390.
Tonty (Tonti), Henri de, 15, 309.
Toronto (Fort Schlosser), 336, 337.
Toronto (York Bay), 335.
Tounshend, F. French, 63.
Tourgee, Hon. Albion W., 86.
Train, Geo. Francis, 56.
Trollope, Anthony, 60, 61; comments
on Niagara in art and letters, 158.
Trollope, Mrs. Frances, 39, 40, 209;
British estimate of her book, 287.
Trouve, Mons. —, 13.
Trowbridge, J. T., 86, 191.
Trumbull, Wm., 147.
Turrettini, Col. Theodore, 215.
Tyndall, John, 186, 187.
“Tyndall's Rock,” 187.
Unonius, Rev. Gustav, 55.
Unwin, W. C., 215.
Upham, Warren, 184, 185, 188.
Utica, N. Y., visited by John Van-
derlyn, 1802, 164.
Van Buren, Martin, entertains the
Earl of Carlisle, 50; calls on Har-
riet Martineau, 286.
Vanderlyn, John, first American ar-
tist to paint Niagara falls, 129,
130; “Visit to Niagara Falls in
1802,”	159*173; relations with
Aaron Burr, 159-161; account of
journey to Niagara, 164-169; his
later life, 170-173; work character-
ized, 173.
Vanderlyn family, 162.
Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuyler, 68.
Vaudricourt, A., 132.
Veazie, Wm., 262.
Verplanck, Gulien C., 171.
Victoria Falls on the Zambesi, 125.
Vigne, Godfrey T., 40.
Villeneuve, —, artist, 134.
Vivian, H. Hussey, 66.
Vivian, W., 132.
Volney, Chas. F., 22, 23, 183, 310.
Voltaire, “Charles Douse/* 3.
Wadsworth, Gen. James1, entertains
E. S. Abdy at Geneseo, 41; enter-
tains the Earl of Carlisle, 50.
Waldo, S. Putnam, 30.
Wall, —, painter, 127.
Wallis, T., 126.
War of 1812, service of Farmer's
Brother, 241; Buffalo during, 241;
sites of batteries in Buffalo, 244;
of forts and battlefields, 245; sol-
diers of, buried in Delaware Park,
245, 246; postal rates during, 258.
Warburton, Eliot, 53.
Warner, Chas. Dudley, 71, 94-96.
Warner, H. H., 150.
Warner, Susan, 87.
Washington, Geo., 263; fictitious ad-
ventures of, 306, 307; corresponds
with H. St. J. de Crevecoeur, 348.
Waterton, Charles, 33, 34.
Waylen, Rev. Edward, 53.
Weld, Charles, 58.
Weld, Isaac, Jr., as writer, 22; as
artist, 125; mentioned, 400.
West, Dr. Chas. E., 190.
West Point, N. Y., 285.
Western Monthly Review, Cincinnati,
75.
White, Dr. Andrew D., his “Warfare
of Science with Theology” quoted,
181, 182.
White, John, 59.
Whitestown, N. Y., 388.
Whitman, Walt, 66, 67.
Wied-Neuwied, Prince Maximilien,
119, 120, 134.
Wilcox, Ansley, his historic resi-
dence, 248.
Wilkeson, Judge Samuel, his grave,
246; his house, 246, 247.
Wilkeson, Mrs. Samuel (Sarah St.
John), friend of Harriet Marti-
neau, 279-283.
Wilkie, D., 46, 47.
Wilkinson, Jemima, 389.
William I., Emperor of Germany,
commissions Gilbert Munger to
paint Niagara Falls, 150.
Williamsburg, on the Genesee river,
389, 390.INDEX.
437
Williamson, Chas., describes Niagara
in 1799, 399-400.
Williamson-, Peter, his American trav-
els, 309, 310.
Williamsville, N. Y., Evans home-
stead at, 242.
Williamsville road, 241.
Williamsville stage, 250.
Wilmington, Henry, alleged discov-
erer of Niagara falls, 300-303.
Willis, N. P., 42, 71; interprets Ole
Bull’s “Niagara,” 193*
Wilson, Alexander, 128; his Niagara
visit, 196, 197; letter introducing
F. A. Michaux, 203, 204.
Wilson, Thos., 59.
Wilson, Wm. R. A., 81.
Wilson, —, resident at Niagara Falls
in 1806, 203, 204.
Winchel, Alexander, 188.
Winthrop, Theodore, 72-
Withrow, W. H., 85.
Wolfe, Gen. Jas., lines on his ex-
ploit, 311.
Wood, Joanna E., 86.
Woods, Nicholas Augustus, 60.
Woodcock, T. S., 141.
Woodward, R. S., 188.
Wooster, Gen. David, 21.
Worcester (Mass.) Art Museum, 156.
Wright, Rev. Asher, 240.
Wright, Mrs. Asher, 240.
Wright, Francis, 31.
Wright, G. Frederick, 185, 188.
Zangwill, Israel, 87.
Zavala, Don Lorenzo de, 39-
Zincke, F. Barham, 62.