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THE RETURN OF THE INDIANS TO NIAGARA.
My faithful love, we'll onward roam,
And seek together our forest home,
No more the stranger's roof to see,—
In our woods, on our rivers, we are free!
He cannot lure the Indian to stay
From his woods and his rivers long away.
The stranger's halls may yield him bliss,
But can they compare to a sky like this?
The stranger may feast in his gaudy bowers,
But his banquet is not so sweet as ours;
And gold and jewels may round him shine,
But can they compare with riches like mine?
My wide domains of mountain and grove,
My joys with thee of freedom and love!
Lake Erie is near, and the Rapids[1] clear
Will guide us on our ways
Until they rash with sparkling gush
Where wild Ontario's waters play.
The ravens are hovering for their food,
For fatal to the finny brood
Is the dash of the Rapids' spray:
They lie on the shore, and their colours bright
Flash for awhile in the sunny light,
Then fade in death away.
The evening sun its parting glance
Is shedding on plain and tree,
And lo! the shadowy mists advance,
And they move—how rapidly!
What murmur rises on my ear—
Now louder, deeper, and more near?—
Ha! tis not evening’s misty dew
That spreads in clouds on high.
Those wreaths of snowy foam defy
The might of time, of earth and sky,
The stately Falls burst on my view
In all their majesty!
Now down the dizzy steep we go
Where the stunning waters flow,?
Over rocks, whose heads are seen
The overwhelming waves between.
Searcely the eye may mark the wiles;
From whence they pour with reinless might.[2]
- ↑ We crossed the Rapids about three miles below Lake Erie. These Rapids form a very considerable river, being at this place nearly one mile over, and conveying a vast body of water from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. I observed a number of large fish that were thrown on shore, round which many ravens were hovering or devouring them. Clouds of mist are seen rising from the Falls, and the concussion occasioned by the descent of so large a body of water is such that in a still summer's evening a constant tremor of the earth is perceptible.
- ↑ Immediately below the cataract the river is confined between two steep rocks that form a deep winding valley, through which the waters flow in their course towards Lake Ontario. This valley is terminated by a perpendicular rock of fifty-three yards in height, over which this vast body of water precipitates itself with astonishing rapidity, and with a noise so tremendous that it cannot be described.
Travels in North America.