the road near this chafm, the fancy is conftantly engaged in the contemplation of the most romantic and awful profpects imaginable, until at length, the eye catches the falls, the imagination is inftantly arrefted, and you admire in filence! The river is about one hundred and thirty five polls wide, at the falls, and the perpendicular pitch one hundred and fifty feet. 5. The fall of this vaft body of water produces a found which is frequently heard at the diflance of twenty miles, and a fen-` fible tremulous motion in the earth for fome polls round. A heavy fog, or cloud, is conftantly afcending from the falls, in which rainbows may always be feen when the fun fhines. 6. This fog, or fpray, in the winter feafon, falls upon the neighboring trees where it congeals, and produces a moft beau tiful chryftalline appearance. This remark is equally appli,' cable to the falls of the Chenefeco. 7. The difficulty which would attend levelling the rapids in the chafm, prevented my attempting it; but I conjecture the water mult defcend at leaft fixty-five feet. The perpendicular pitch at the cataract is at least one hundred and fifty feet; to these add fifty-eight fect, which the water falls in the last half mile, immediately above the falls, and we have two hun. dred and feventy-three feet, which the water falls in a distance of about feven miles and a half. 8. If either ducks, or geefe inadvertently alight in the rapids, above the great cataract, they are incapable of getting on the wing again, and are inftantly hurried on to deftruction. There is one appearance at this cataract, worthy of fome attention, and which I do not remember to have feen noted by any writer. 9. Juft below the great pitch the water and foam may be feen puffed up in fpherical figures nearly as large as common cocks of hay; they burft at the top, and project a column of fpray to a prodigious height; they then fubfide, and are fucceeded by others, which burft in like manner. This appear ance is molt confpicuous about half way between the ifland that divides the falls and the weft fide of the ftrait, where the largest column of water defcends. Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. JEMIMA Howe, taken by I. A weft of the river, were returning home a little before funfet to a place called Bridgman's Fort, they were fired upon by twelve Indians, who had ambushed their path. 2. Howe was on horfeback, with two young lads, his chil. dren behind him. A ball which broke his thigh, brot him to the ground. His horfe ran a few rods and fell likewise, and both the lads were taken. The Indians in their favage manner, coming up to Howe, pierced his body with a fpear, tore off his fcalp, ftuck a hatchet in his head, and left him in this forlorn condition 3. He was found alive the morning after, by a party of men from Fort Hinfdale; and being asked by one of the party whe ther he knew him, he antwerdd, yes, I know you all. Thefe were his lat words, though he did not expire until after his friends had arrived with him at Fort Hinfdale, Grout was fo fortunate as to escape unhurt. 4. But Gaffield in attempting to wade through the river, at a certain place which was indeed fordable at that time, was un. fortunately drowned. Flushed with the fuccefs they had met with here, the favages went directly to Bridgman's Fort. There was no man in it, and only three women and fome children, Mrs. Jemima Howe, Mrs. Submit Grout, and Mrs. Eunice Gaffield. 5. Their husbands I need not mention again and their feelings at this juncture I will not attempt to deferibe. They had heard the enemy's guns, but knew not what had happened to their friends. 6. Extremely anxious for their fafety they, tood longing to embrace them, until at length, concluded from the noife they heard without, that fome of them were come, they unbarred the gate in a hurry to receive them; when lo! to their inex. preffible difappointment and furprife, instead of their husbands, in rushed a number of hedious Indians, to whom they and their tender offspring became an eafy pray; and from whom they had nothing to expect, but either an immediate death, or a long and doleful captivity. 7. The latter of thefe, by the favor of Providence, turned out to be the lot of thofe unhappy women, and their fill more unhappy, becaufe more helplefs children Mrs. Gafield had but one, Mrs. Grout had three, and Mrs. Howe feven. The eldeft of Mrs. Howe's was eleven years old, and the youngeft but fix months. 8. The two eldest were daughters, which he had by her firft husband, Mr. William Phipps, who was alfo flain by the Indians, of which I doubt not but you have feen an account in Mr. Doolittle's hiftory. It was from the mouth of this woman that I lately received the foregoing account. She alfo gave me, I doubt not, a true, tho to be fure, a very brief and imperfect history, of her captivity, which I here infert for your perufal. 9. The Indians (the fays) having plundered and put fire to the fort, we marched, as near as I could judge, a mile and a half into the woods, where we encamped that night. 10. When the next morning came, and we had advanced as much farther, fix Indians were fent back to the place of our late abode, who collected a little more plunder, and destroyed fome other effects that had been left behind; but they did not return until the day was fo far spent, that it was judged beft to continue where we were through the night. 11. Early the next morning we fet off for Canada, and continued our march eight days fucceffively, until we had reached the place where the Indians had left their canoes, about fifteen miles from Crown Point. This was a long and tedious march; but the captives, by divine affistance, were enabled to endure it with less trouble and difficulty than they had reafon to expect. 12. From fuch favage mafters, in fuch indigent circumstances, we could not rationally hope for kinder treatment than we received. Some of us, it is true, had a harder lot than others ; and, among the children I thought my fon Squire had the hardest of any. 13. He was then only four years old, and when we stopped to reft our weary limbs, and he fet down on his mafter's pack, the favage monfter would often knock him off; and sometimes too with the handle of his hatchet. Several ugly marks, indented in his head by the cruel Indians, at that tender age are still plainly to be feen. 14. At length we arrived at Crown Point, and took up our quarters there, for the fpace of near a week. In the mean time, fome of the Indians went to Montreal, and took several of the weary captives along with them, with a view of felling them to the French. They did not fucceed however, in finding a market for any of them. 15. They gave my youngest daughter to the governor, de Vandreuil, had a drunken frolic, and returned again to Crown Point, with the rest of their prisoners. From hence we set off for St. John's in four or five canoes, juft as night was coming on, and were foon furrounded with darkness. 16. A heavy ftorm hung over us. The found of therolling thunder was very terrible upon the waters, which at every flash of expanfive lightning feemed to be all in a blaze. Yet, to this we were indebted for all the light we enjoyed. No object could we difcern any longer than the flashes laited. 1. In this pofture we failed in our open tottering canoes, almost the whole of that dreary night. The morning indeed had not yet began to dawn, when we all went afhore; and ha ving collected a heap of fand and gravel for a pillow, I laid my felf down with my tender infant by my fide, not knowing where any of my other children were, or what a miferable condition they might be in. 18. The next day however, under the wing of that ever prefent and all powerful Providence, which had preserved us through the darkness and imminent danger of the preceding night, we all arrived in fafety at St. John's, 19. Our next movement was to St. Francois, the metropo tis, if I may fo call it, to which the Indians who led us captive belonged. Soon after our arrival at the wretched capital, a council confifting of the chief fachem, and fome principal warfiors of the St. Francois tribe, was convened and after the ceremonies ufual on fuch occafions were over, I was conducted and delivered to an old fquaw, whom the Indians told me I must call my mother. : 20. My infant ftill continued to be the property of its origi nal Indian owners. I was nevertheless permitted to keep it with me a while longer, for the fake of faving them the trouble of looking after it. When the weather began to grow cold, fhuddering at the profpect of approaching winter, I acquainted my new mother, that I did not think it would be poffible for me to endure it, if I muft fpend it with her, and fare as the Indians did. 21. Liftening to my repeated and earneft folicitations, that I might be difpofed of among fome of the French inhabitants of Canada, fhe at length fet off with me and my infant, attended by fome male Indians upon a journey to Montreal, in hopes of finding a market for me there. But the attempt proved unfuccefsful, and the journey tedious indéed. 22. Our provifions was so fcanty as well as infipid and un favory; the weather was so cold, and the travelling so very bad, that it often feemed as if I must have perished on the way. 23. While we were at Montreal, we went into the house of a certain French gentleman, whofe lady being fent for, and coming into the room where I was, to examine me, feeing I had an infant, exclaimed with an oath, "I will not buy a woman who has a child to look after," 24. There was a fwill-pail ftanding near me, in which I obferved fome crufts and crumbs of bread fwimming on the furface of the greafy liquor it contained. Sorely pinched with hunger, I kimmed them off with my hands, and ate them and this was all the refreshment which the houfe afforded me. 25. Somewhere in the courfe of this visit to Montreal, my Indian mother was fo unfortunate as to catch the fmall-pox, of which diftemper fhe died, foon after our return, which was by water to St. Francois. And now it came on the feafon when the Indians began to prepare for a winter's hunt. 26. I was ordered to return my poor child to thofe of them who ftill claimed it as their property. This was a fevere trial. The babe clung to my bofom, with all its might, but I was obliged to pluck it thence, and deliver it, fhrieking and fereaming, enough to penetrate a heart of lone, into the hands of those unfeeling wretches, whofe tender mercies may be termed cruel. 27. It was foon carried off by a hunting party of those In dians, to a place called Meflifkow, at the lower end of lake Champlain, whither in about a month after, it was my fortune to follow them. And here I found it, it is true, but in a condition that afforded me no great fatisfa&tion; it being greatly emaciated, and almoft ftarved, 28. I took it in my arms, put its face to mine, and it infantly bit me with fuch violence, that it feemed as if I must have parted with a piece of my cheek. I was permitted to lodge with it that, and the two following nights; but every morning that intervened, the Indians, I fuppofe on purpose to torture me, fent me away to another wigwam, which food at a little distance, though not fo far from the one in which my diftreffed infant was confined, but that I could plainly hear its incefant cries, and heart reading lamentations. 29. In this deplorable condition, I was obliged to take my leave of it, on the morning of the third day after my arrival at the place. We moved down the lake feveral miles the fame day; and the night following was remarkable on account of the great earthquake which terribly fhook that howling wilderness. 30. Among the islands hereabouts, we fpent the winter fea fon, often ing our quarters, and roving about from one place to another; our family confifting of three perfons only, befide |