Niagara Falls 



1800 resistance and admixture of another element, had lashed it into 

 Maude foam, white as the driften snow, and so compact as to resemble a 



falling body of pure vegetable cotton. ... I had crept upon 

 a projecting slab of the rock, not more, I believe, than four feet, 

 perhaps less, in thickness, and overhanging the base of the rock 

 which supported it full fifty feet! This slab has probably since 

 fallen, as these rocks are constantly caving in, and the cataract 

 receding. 



Saturday, August 23 d. 

 At 10 a. M. I embarked with Mr. Steadman in a bateau for 

 Fort Schlusser. For fear of the current we poled up along shore 

 for half a mile, till we came nearly opposite to the Western 

 extremity of Navy Island, when we took a slant across the River, 

 being about two miles and a half above the Falls. The River 

 is here two miles wide, and was crossed in twenty-five minutes 

 with three oars. 



• • • • « 



On landing, Mr. Steadman took us to the Old Mansion, and 

 gave the following account of the manner in which this prop- 

 erty came into the possession of his family : — 



The Portage, or Carrying-place, which is now from Queens- 

 town to Chippawa, was, previous to 1 792, from a place opposite 

 to Queenstown, to Fort Schlusser. In 1 760, John Steadman 

 was Master. In 1 763, the Indians attacked the train of waggons 

 and its guard, consisting in soldiers and waggoners, of ninety-six 

 persons. Of these ninety-two were killed on the spot. Three 

 jumped down the precipice overhanging the River, and John 

 Steadman, putting spurs to his horse, galloped to Fort Schlusser. 

 The three who jumped down the precipice, (considered by them 

 as certain death, but which they preferred to the tomahawk and 

 scalping knife of the Indians,) were preserved by shrubs and 

 brushwood breaking their fall. One was a drummer, whose drum 

 falling into the river, took the news of this defeat to Fort Niagara. 



Peace being concluded with the Indians a few months after 

 this massacre, they, of their own free will, made a grant to 



118 



