Page images
PDF
EPUB

world. Thousands of salmon trout of a great size, together with white fish, &c. are caught immediately below the falls; and the numbers of large sturgeon that come up to the same place, afford excellent sport to those who are at all dexterous in throwing a fish spear. Above the falls also, a great quantity of very large fish is to be caught, either with nets or with the hook and line. While I was at Niagara the weather was uncommonly fine and warm, and the river, at a mile or two above the rapids, was spotted over every night in the most picturesque manner, with canoes carrying lighted torches of pitch-pine. Out of these boats the settlers and Indians transfix with their spears a great number of very large fish which are attracted by the light.

Along the whole of the Niagara frontier, several sharp little battles were fought between the British and Americans, during the last war.

Some of the information with regard to the environs of the Falls is extracted from Mr. Darby's interesting work, from which also is taken the very accurate map which is annexed.

ater

P

CHAPTER XXIII.

BUFFALO-THE INDIANS.

LEAVING the Falls, I proceeded on an excursion to the small town of Buffalo, on Lake Erie. The road, on the Canadian side, runs close to the broad, deep, and rapid stream of the Niagara River, and passes through a cleared and well-cultivated country; while the views, presented as one drives along, are extremely beautiful. The Canadian bank is divided into well-cultivated fields, while that on the New York side remains covered with thick forest. But in consequence of the stimulus given by the neighbourhood of the Great Canal, the New York side is beginning to be settled, and will doubtless soon be as well cultivated as its Canadian rival.

After crossing the river at the little village of Blackrock, three miles of very bad road brought me to Buffalo, a small town, but which is rising to eminence with wonderful rapidity, from the circumstance of its being the place where the Grand Canal enters Lake Erie. Many of the Indians of the Six Nations were assembled here to receive payment from the United States for some lands purchased of them. Their number, in the town and its immediate neighbourhood, was about 1200, being a large portion of all that remains of these once powerful tribes.

It is a melancholy thing for any one to contemplate the rapid decrease of the aborigines of America, a decrease at first begun by the sword, and which is now more rapidly effected by the pernicious effects of ardent spirits. Moreover as the settlements of the Backwoodsmen extend to, and border on the frontier, the Indians find themselves, as it were, pushed back; and since the game decreases in proportion as the country becomes inhabited, their means of subsistence decrease also. Under these circumstences, they are induced to sell their lands to the United States; although they generally reserve a small tract for themselves, to which they can retire if they please, and cultivate the earth. Many remove back into the woods; and being uncontaminated by the neighbourhood of civilization, remain a very fine race of men, and differ materially from the demi-civilized Indians, who soon lose the virtues, as well as the appearance of savages. Moreover, as the white men occasionally form a very intimate acquaintance with the Squaws, a race of what the Americans call half-bloods is the consequence.

In their wild state, the Indians are brave and noble-minded, always keeping their promise inviolable, and considering hospitality to a stranger as a sacred duty. As to their treatment of prisoners, I will only observe that greater cruelty has been practised, in similar cases, by nations calling themselves civilized. An old Indian very

« PreviousContinue »