two o'clock. The village is small and insignificant, though pleasantly situated on a litle inlet of the Niagara strait, about two miles above the edge of the Falls. Close by it is the celebrated battleground which, on the 5th of July, 1814, was the scene of a most sanguinary contest between the British and the Americans, with Indian auxiliaries on either side, in which the British, though occupying their own territory, and attacked by the Americans crossing from the other side, were beaten and obliged to retreat, having lost 514 men, while the loss of the Americans was 328.

We started from this village about half past two o'clock, in a small steamboat called "the Red Jacket," the name of the celebrated Indian chief who died at Buffalo only a few years since. This boat, though upward of 100 tons, had an engine of only twenty-five horse power; and when she first stood out of the Chippewa inlet on the Niagara stream, her powers were so feeble that she began sensibly to drop down by the current towards the Falls, distant about two miles astern of us, with the curling clouds of mist ascending from their deep abyss. A stranger might well be forgiven for feeling a little anxious at such a moment, till the boat recovered way enough to make some visible progress upward by the land. This was soon effected by her creeping close in to the shore, though even then her rate of progress, owing to the strength of the current and her deficiency of power, was very slow indeed.

After a short distance we crossed over to Schlosser, a small landing-place on the American side where passengers embark. This place has obtained some celebrity from the cutting out of the Caroline steamer, which was moored at this place. She was an American vessel, and was in an American port; but, being alleged to be in the service of the Canadian insurgents at Navy Island during the late rebellion, she was cut out by a British officer, Captain Drew, and his followers, then set on fire, and left to drift over the Falls. This act excited great indignation throughout America at the time of its happening; and it was certainly unnecessary, as she could as well have been taken on the British side. But the excitement on this subject had greatly subsided, when a most ungenerous attempt to revive the feeling which this act engendered was made by a person signing himself "A British Officer," in the register-book kept at the Table Rock at Niagara, where the entry in its pages is in substance this: "The Americans proudly boast of their having been the first to apply steam-power to the navigation of rivers, but the British were the first to teach the Americans how to navigate the Falls:" alluding to this setting fire to the Caroline, and sending her over the cataract. The vindictiveness of spirit which could make this questionable act a subject of national triumph, was far from being honourable to the individual whose pen could place such a sentiment on record, especially where it was sure to excite feelings of the most hostile nature.

CAROLINE STEAMER.-CANADIAN REBELLION.

159

Respecting the descent of this vessel over the Falls, as well as of another that was once purchased for the purpose when unfit for anything else, and sent to float down the cataracts with some few brute animals and large birds on board, we heard from those residing on the spot that neither of them went over the Falls whole. This, indeed, might have been easily predicted by any one conversant with the locality, because, long before a ship or a boat of any size could reach the edge of the cataract, she would run aground upon the rocks, which present a complete barrier across the stream, and would be knocked to pieces among the rapids; so that only her fragments would be sent piecemeal over the Falls, and many of these even would be entangled in the rocks and among the islands for months before they would be floated over.

The story seems to be well authenticated of an Indian in a state of intoxication having quarrelled with his squaw, when in her anger she got out of the canoe in which they both were, and, pushing him into the middle of the stream, with his face towards the rapids, got herself safe to shore. The Indian, finding himself approaching the cataract without the possibility of escape, seized the bottle of rum or whiskey, in which some of the intoxicating liquor still remained, and, lifting it with both hands to his mouth, was seen to be precipitated over the great Fall in this attitude and condition. The crime and misery which the whites have introduced among the Indians with this fatal poison, sold to them for gain, is greater than a century of future kindness, instruction, and protection would suffice to recompense or atone for, and it is impossible now to wipe it away.

From Schlosser we passed by Navy Island, the only one of the islands in the Niagara strait that belongs to the British. It derives its name from having been the place where the ships of war, intended for the service of the upper lakes, were built by the British during their last contest with America. It is an insignificant spot in size, having only 300 acres of surface, and no remarkable features, but has been brought of late into great notoriety by having been the retreat of the Canadian insurgents, who there concentrated themselves to the number of about 500, under Mr. W. L. Mackenzie and Mr. Van Renselaer, as their leaders.

How any persons in possession of their right senses could imagine that such a spot as this could be held for any length of time in opposition to the forces of Canada, or make a place of safe refuge even for those who wished to escape from its power, is astonishing.

From the testimony of all parties here, as far as I could gather it, and I spoke with as many who were favourable to the rebellion and wished it success, as with those who were not, there were never collected together in any one spot such a set of abandoned and contemptible persons as those constituting what were called the patriot forces.

We had on board the steamboat, as a passenger from Schlosser, one of the Canadian rebels, who had been sentenced to be hung, and had recently escaped from prison at Toronto, with fourteen others, two of whom only had been recaptured, Parker and Watson, and reloaded with additional chains. He himself admitted that the leaders were wholly incompetent, and the followers mostly idle, dissolute, and abandoned men; the greater number being persons out of employ from Buffalo, Rochester, and the American side, who flocked to Navy Island in hopes of subsistence and plunder, many of them emigrants, and some native Americans. At the same time, the general belief seemed to be, that if the insurrection had been commenced by leaders in whom the people had confidence, and, above all, if success had attended their first efforts and given victory to their arms, a much larger portion of the Canadian population would have joined their standard, to enforce a change in their institutions if they could.

After passing Navy Island we approached the larger island, called by the Indians Owanungah, or Grand Island. This is about ten miles in length and about seven miles in breadth, being an irregular oval in its shape, dividing the Niagara stream into two branches, of which the easternmost is the broadest and deepest, and, consequently, the one generally navigated, there being from three to five fathoms of water in it throughout. This island contains nearly eighteen thousand acres of land, of the first quality as to fertility, though now covered with forests of wood.

It was originally purchased of the Indians who inhabited it for a trifling sum, but it is now the property chiefly of a company of wealthy men at Boston, who bought it for its timber; and some few individuals residing in Buffalo and elsewhere have portions of it also. The price asked for land upon it now is from twenty to thirty dollars per acre, though no part of it, I believe, is yet cultivated. The finest trees growing upon it are chiefly white oak, hickory, basswood, black walnut, whitewood, ash, elm, sugar-maple, and beech.

The Boston company have recently erected saw-mills at a point on the east side of the island, nearly opposite the Erie Canal, which they have called Whitehaven, and where we landed while the steamboat was taking in wood for her fires. We saw several large oak-trees under the process of being sawed into planks of from two to five inches in thickness. The machinery was worked by steam, and one set of saws, all acting together so as to divide the tree into as many planks as might be thought proper, would effect as much in the same space of time as thirty men using saws in pairs. Some of these trees were five feet in diameter; and instances had occurred of some exceeding six feet, or eighteen feet in girth,

These are the trees of the primeval forest where no wood has

GRAND ISLAND.-PROJECTED CITY OF "ARARAT."

161 ever been cut down before, and which trees are no doubt the growth of centuries. In the recesses of these thick forests are found, even now, deer in abundance, as well as other game; and the larger birds, such as pheasants, quails, partridges, and pigeons, abound, as well as fish in great variety. When the first-growth wood is all cleared away, the island will no doubt be cultivated; and it is more than probable that before the commencement of the next century several large cities may occupy its banks, its position being extremely favourable for that purpose, and its fertility sufficient to sustain a large population.

From the Whitehaven timber-yard there have been already sent to Boston, besides the oak plank going off almost every day, three complete ships, which were cut out in frame here, including all the necessary timbers and planking; and these, being conveyed by the Erie Canal to Albany, thence to New-York by the Hudson, and thence to Boston by sea, were put together at the ship-yards of Boston in perfect vessels, one of which was sent to South America, one to the Mediterranean, and one to India.

It was on this island that Major Noah, the present editor of the New-York Evening Star, and author of a work endeavouring to establish the descent of the Indian race from the lost tribes of the house of Israel, proposed to build a city, to be called " Ararat," for the purpose of collecting together all the Jews, now scattered over the world, into one spot, and fixing on this as their permanent home and abode till the coming of their expected Messiah. The plan, however, was not sufficiently popular among the Jews themselves to receive their approbation, and it accordingly fell to the ground; but the major, himself a Jew, has thought the project of sufficient importance to deserve a permanent record; and accordingly, at this station of Whitehaven, where the city was intended to be built, a monument has been erected, with an inscription in Hebrew, for the information of all succeeding generations.

After completing our supply of wood, we passed beyond Grand Island, keeping close to the Canada shore, passing the small villages of Waterloo and Fort Erie, with British sentinels at each, till, coming opposite to the lighthouse of Buffalo harbour, we stood across for the American shore, and, arriving at the wharf about seven o'clock, having been about five hours in performing 22 miles against a current running nearly six miles an hour, we went to our former quarters at the American Hotel, and were delighted with the change which its ample and well-furnished apartments, good beds, and other agreeable auxiliaries afforded us, in contrast to those with which we had so recently been familiar.

I omitted to mention that the captain of the Red Jacket steamboat, in which we came from Niagara to Buffalo, introduced himself to me as an old acquaintance in Calcutta in the year 1822, now 16 years ago. He said he was struck with my name, as enVOL. II.-X

tered on the waybill of the passengers by the coach to his vessel; and he examined my person with some attention, by which he was confirmed in his belief of my being the same individual he had known in Bengal. But it was not until I had spoken that his recognition of my identity was complete, as he remembered the tones of my voice more distinctly than anything else, and, without seeing my face, he said he should have recognised me by those sounds in another room or in a crowd. The memories of men are no doubt differently quickened by different things, as some remember names, some countenances, and some figures best; but it was the first time that I ever remember to have been recognised solely by the tones of my voice.

This worthy captain and myself had met in Calcutta at the table of Mr. John Palmer, the prince of merchants, as he was so justly called. Captain Chase, for that was his name, then commanded a large ship in the trade from Boston to India, and, having been successful, he repeated his voyages afterward. He was familiar with all the history of my banishment from India for upholding and maintaining the liberty of the press in that country. He related to me many pleasing anecdotes of the expression of sympathy in my case by all classes in India after I had left it; and he had followed the history of my progress in England in opposing the renewal of the East India monopoly since, and rejoiced in its ultimate overthrow.

We talked a great deal, also, about our mutual friend, Ram Mohun Roy, the celebrated Brahmin, who died in England, but who was then in Calcutta, and at whose house we had both shared the Brahmin's hospitality, and enjoyed his ever-interesting and instructive conversation. In short, we talked till we seemed to be living our Calcutta lives over again; and I believe that this occupation was mutually agreeable: to me, indeed, it was delightful, as I can remember no period of my life abounding in more pleas ing recollections than that passed in India, notwithstanding all the persecutions of the government there; and, as the reminiscences of that period are always welcome to me, I rejoice at every opportunity of reviving and indulging them.

The captain accounted to me for being in his present position by saying that, having now, from age, done with the salt water, and not being able to live without some occupation, he had taken to these gentle trips upon the Niagara, by which he found his health preserved, his mind occupied, and his means replenished.