Travelers Original Accounts: 1 80/ -1 840 



the British commander, who fell in the battle to which I have 1829 

 just referred. . . . The country is very level to the falls. 



During the last mile of our ride, we passed over the ground 

 memorable as the scene of the bloody battle of Bridgewater, 

 as it is called in our annals — in the British it is called the Battle 

 of Lundy's Lane. It was here that Brown and Scott, and the 

 troops and commanders on both sides, covered themselves with 

 renown ; for never was a battle more fiercely and obstinately con- 

 tested, and both armies claimed a brilliant victory ! ! The moon 

 shone out, though rather obscurely, as we reached Forsyth's 

 Hotel, near the Falls, for some time previously to which our 

 ears has been filled with the heavy sound of the rush of mighty 

 waters. Without looking at the river, however, we took supper, 

 and retired to our apartment, which we found to overlook the 

 far-famed cataract. I repressed my curiosity and did not lift a 

 curtain, being resolved not to dissolve the charm of a first look 

 upon the mighty, the glorious whole! But the roar of the 

 tumbling torrent long banished sleep from my pillow; and when 

 all was quiet and still in the house, I could distinctly feel that 

 the earth, and the building and my ov/n body trembled. And 

 when some fitful slumbers stole over me, it was only to dream of 

 whirlpools, cliffs, crags and cataracts. 



Tuesday, Oct. 6. Breakfasted at 8, and after surveying the 

 rapids above the principal proemption from the veranda of the 

 pavilion, we descended the high and steep bank to the Table 

 Rock, from which the best view of the Great Cataract, on both 

 sides of Goat Island is obtained, unless it be from below. It 

 was fortunate for us, perhaps, that while surveying the rapids, 

 from the piazza of the Pavilion, the heavy and dense clouds of 

 vapour which arose from the cauldron into which the torrent 

 pours, effectually obscured the broken view of the main fall 

 which otherwise would have been presented from that situation. 

 Meantime the rapids themselves, where the torrent rushes impetu- 

 ously onward, leaping in foaming billows from rock to rock for 

 a distance of more than a mile, during which period it descends 



175 



