Page:Tupper family records - 1835.djvu/168

 146 SIR ISAAC BROCK.

must unload and leave their cargoes at Queenston, that they may- be conveyed overland to Chippewa, where the Niagara river again becomes navigable. Even now, a good deal of this carrying business goes on during the summer months. The north-west company forward a considerable quantity of stores to the Indian territories by this route, and the country merchants receive annual supplies of goods from Montreal, and send down pork, flour, staves, and potash, in return.

"The environs of Queenston are beautifully picturesque and romantic, and nothing can be finer than the prospect up the Niagara river. Immediately above the village its channel narrows very much, and the banks rise to the height of three hundred feet perpendicular, while at the same time they become wild and rocky, and are thickly covered with trees of various kinds. In some places they partly over-arch the river, and throw an appalling gloom upon its waters, now dashed into turbulence and impetuosity by the ruggedness of their sloping bed. It was night when I first viewed this scene, and as the moon gradually rose, she threw a broken light successively upon different portions of the stream, and some- times brought to view the foamy bosom of a rapid, at other times unveiled the struggling and heaving waters of a whirlpool, while the mingled roar, on all sides, excited a shuddering curiosity about those parts of the river that rolled along in darkness.

" Over the precipice, on the summit of which I stood while I contemplated this scene, many of the American soldiers had rushed at the close of the battle of Queenston heights. They were so warmly pressed by our troops and the Indians, and had so little prospect of obtaining quarter from the latter, that a great number wildly flung themselves over the steep, and tried to save their lives by catching hold of the trees that grew upon it ; but many were frightfully dashed to pieces by the rocks, and others who reached the river perished in their attempts to swim across it. Several, who had dropped among the cliffs without receiving any injury, were afterwards transfixed and killed by falling upon their own bayonets, while in the act of leaping from one spot to another. I almost imagined I saw these unfortunate men writhing in all the agonies of a protracted death, and gazing with envy at their companions, who were convulsively catching for breath among the sullen waters below. Were the Canadians inclined to be superstitious, they could not select a more suitable place than this for the haunt and appearance of unearthly beings. The wildness of the scenery, the

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