Travelers* Original Accounts Since 1840 



it was my own fault, for instead of getting the first view from 1842 

 the Table Rock on the British side, — where you stand opposite ° ey 

 to, and at a sufficient distance from the Great Fall, — we were 

 misled into taking a position quite close to one corner of it, and 

 absolutely overlooking the abyss, so that the cloud of spray and 

 foam which is continually rising, hid the true shape and extent 

 of the cataract from us. When I did afterwards come to see 

 it thoroughly, I could not imagine anybody being disappointed, 

 at least I cannot conceive what such a person could have expected 

 to see: but after all, what is the impression which Niagara makes 

 on us, who have all our lives been reading accounts, and seeing 

 pictures and models of it, compared to that which it must have 

 made on the first civilized, or at least white man, probably some 

 hunter or trader, who suddenly, and unprepared perhaps, came 

 upon it in the solitude of the forest, and feasted his eyes upon its 

 wonders? I should think astonishment and awe must almost 

 have deprived him of his senses. Imagine his attempts to describe 

 it afterwards to those who had never heard of anything of the 

 sort, — for the peculiarity of Niagara is, that there is " nihil simile 

 aut secundum" nothing near it, or like it in the world! My mind 

 has been continually reverting to this idea. 



1843 



ADAMS, JOHN Quincy. (Speech on Niagara Falls.) {In A 1843 

 souvenir of Niagara. Buffalo: Sage. 1864. P. 128.) Ada 



You have what no other nation on earth has. At your very 

 door there is a mighty cataract — one of the most wonderful 

 works of God. I have passed through the seventh and nearly 

 half of the eighth decade of life, and yet, until a few days ago, 

 I had known of the cataract only by name and the common fame 

 of the historian. But now I have seen it! Yes, I have seen it 

 in all its sublimity and glory — and I have never witnessed a 

 scene its equal. I experience the same feeling in your presence 

 as when I saw it — there is left in my mind a deep impression 

 which will last with my life — a feeling overpowering, and which 



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