Isaac Weld

“ The performances at the amphitheatre at Philadelphia, though unquestionably highly interesting to them, never drew forth from them, I observed, more than a smile or a gentle laugh, followed by a remark in a low voice to their friend sitting next to them. With equal indifference do they behold any thing terrible, or listen to the accounts of any dreadful catastrophe that has befallen their families or their nation. This apathy, however, is only assumed, and certainly does not proceed from a real want of feeling: no people on earth are more alive to the calls of friendship ”

“ They have hardly ventured to stir, at times, beyond the walls of their little habitations; and for whole nights together have they been kept on the watch, in arms, to resist the onset of the Indians. They have never dared to visit their neighbours unarmed, nor to proceed alone, in open day, on a journey of a few miles. The gazettes of the United States have daily teemed with the shocking accounts of the barbarities committed by the Indians, and volumes would scarcely suffice to tell the whole of the dreadful tales. ”

“ It is only at evening and morning that the rainbow is seen in perfection; for the banks of the river, and the steep precipice, shade the sun from the spray at the bottom of the fall in the middle of the day. ”

“ The trees on the borders of these having ample room to spread, were luxuriant beyond description, and shot forth their branches with all the grandeur and variety which characterizes the English timber, particularly the oak. The woods round the plains were indented in every direction with bays and promontories, as Mr. Gilpin terms it, whilst rich clumps of trees, interspersed here and there, appeared like so many clusters of beautiful islands. The varied hues of the woods at this season of the year, in America, can hardly be imagined by those who never have had an opportunity of observing them ”

“ The violent motion of the waves soon awoke the Indian; he started up, looked wildly around, and perceiving his danger, instantly seized his paddle, and made the most surprising exertions to save himself; but finding in a little time that all his efforts would be of no avail in stemming the impetuosity of the current, he with great composure put aside his paddle, wrapt himself up in his blanket, and again laid himself down in the bottom of the canoe. In a few seconds he was hurried down the precipice ”

“ We reached this house according to the directions we had received; we readily gained admittance into it, and the blaze of an immense wood fire, piled half way up the chimney, soon made us amends for what we had suffered from the inclemency of the weather. The coldness of the air, together with the fatigue which we had gone through in the course of the day, had by this time given a keen edge to our appetites; no sooner therefore had we warmed ourselves than we began to make enquiries about what we could get to satisfy the calls of hunger ”

“ The Indians scarcely ever lift their hands against their children; but if they are unmindful of what is said to them, they sometimes throw a little water in their faces, a species of reprimand of which the children have the greatest dread, and which produces an instantaneous good effect. One of the French missionaries tells us of his having seen a girl of an advanced age so vexed at having some water thrown in her face by her mother, as if she was still a child, that she instantly retired, and put an end to her existence. ”

“ REMARKS. The Indians appear, on the first view, to be of a very cold and phlegmatic disposition, and you must know them for some time before you can be persuaded to the contrary. If you shew them any artificial production which pleases them, they simply tell you, with seeming indifference, “that it is pretty;” “that they like to look at it;” “that it is a clever invention:” nor do they testify their satisfaction and pleasure by emotions seemingly much warmer in their nature, on beholding any new or surprising spectacle, or on hearing any happy piece of intelligence. ”

“ Your senses are appalled by the sight of the immense body of water that comes pouring down so closely to you from the top of the stupendous precipice, and by the thundering sound of the billows dashing against the rocky sides of the caverns below; you tremble with reverential fear, when you consider that a blast of the whirlwind might sweep you from off the slippery rocks on which you stand, and precipitate you into the dreadful gulph beneath, from whence all the power of man could not extricate you ”

“ Notwithstanding that the government of the United States has thought it incumbent upon itself to remonstrate against our taking possession of this island, and thus to dispute every inch of ground respecting the right to which there could be the smallest doubt, yet the generality of the people of the States affect to talk of every such step as idle and unnecessary, inasmuch as they are fully persuaded, in their own minds, that all the British dominions in North America must, sooner or later, become a part of their empire. ”

“ From the town of Niagara to Queenstown, the country in the neighbourhood of the river is very level; but here it puts on a different aspect; a confused range of hills, covered with oaks of an immense size, suddenly rises up before you, and the road that winds up the side of them is so steep and rugged that it is absolutely necessary for the traveller to leave his carriage, if he should be in one, and proceed to the top on foot. Beyond these hills you again come to an unbroken level country ”

“ Commend their great dexterity in driving, and the excellence of the Canadian horses, and it seldom fails to quicken your pace at least two or three miles an hour; but if you wish to go in a gallop, you need only observe to your companion, so as to be overheard by the driver, that the Canadian calashes are the vilest carriages on earth, and so heavy that you believe the people are afraid the horses would fall down and break their necks if they attempted to make them go as fast as in other countries; above all, praise the carriages and drivers of the United States. ”

“ He went on for some time staggering about from side to side, but at last, stopping and laying hold of his scalping knife, which they always carry with them by their sides, he began to brandish it with a threatening air. There is but one line of conduct to be pursued when you have to deal with Indians in such a situation, and that is, to act with the most determined resolution. If you betray the smallest symptoms of fear, or appear at all wavering in your conduct, it only serves to render them more ungovernable and furious. ”

“ The country for many miles round Bethlehem is most pleasingly diversified with rising grounds; the soil is rich, and better cultivated than any part of America I before saw. Until within a few years past this neighbourhood has been distinguished for the salubrity of its climate, but fevers, chiefly bilious and intermittent, have increased to a very great degree of late, and, indeed, not only here, but in many other parts of Pennsylvania, which have been long settled. ”

“ I saw a young Shawnese chief, apparently not more than ten years old, fix three arrows running in the body of a small black squirrel, on the top of a very tall tree, and during an hour or two that I followed him through the woods, he scarcely missed his mark half a dozen times. It is astonishing to see with what accuracy, and at the same time with what readiness, they mark the spot where their arrows fall. ”

“ I never saw an Indian woman of the age of thirty, but what her eyes were sunk, her forehead wrinkled, her skin loose and shrivelled, and her whole person, in short, forbidding; yet, when young, their faces and persons are really pleasing, not to say sometimes very captivating. ”

“ REMARKS. Acceptable presents are generally found very efficacious in conciliating the affections of any uncivilized nation: they have very great influence over the minds of the Indians; but to conciliate their affections to the utmost, presents alone are not sufficient; you must appear to have their interest at heart in every respect; you must associate with them; you must treat them as men that are your equals, and, in some measure, even adopt their native manners. ”

“ On arriving at the bottom of the cliff, you find yourself in the midst of huge piles of mishapen rocks, with great masses of earth and rocks projecting from the side of the cliff, and overgrown with pines and cedars hanging over your head, apparently ready to crumble down and crush you to atoms. Many of the large trees grow with their heads downwards, being suspended by their roots, which had taken such a firm hold in the ground at the top of the cliff, that when part of it gave way the trees did not fall altogether. ”

“ Some persons, who have made the Indian languages their study, assert, that all the different languages spoken by those tribes, with which we have any connection, are but dialects of three primitive tongues, viz. the Huron, the Algonquin, and the Sioux; the two former of which, being well understood, will enable a person to converse, at least slightly, with the Indians of any tribe in Canada or the United States. All the nations that speak a language derived from the Sioux, have, it is said, a hissing pronunciation; those who speak one derived from the Huron, have a guttural pronunciation ”

“ It is worthy of remark, that as military posts, all those lately established by the British are far superior, in point of situation, to those delivered up. The ground on which the new block house is building, on the British side of Niagara River, is nine feet higher than the top of the stone house in the American fort, and it commands every part of the fort. The chief strength of the old fort is on the land side; towards the water the works are very weak, and the whole might be battered down by a single twelve pounder judiciously planted on the British side of the river. ”

“ The ground here is very much broken, and numberless large masses of wood still remain standing, through the vistas in which you occasionally catch the most delightful prospects of the distant hills on Staten Island and the New Jersey shore, and of the water, which is constantly enlivened by vessels sailing to and fro. ”