Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-30

OF Huclcul Virtue AEQlH uifu ltii > cHIlci uFt
as much reverenced by the Alpine peasants as
Mecca by a devout Mussulman and the depu-
ties of the three ancient cantons met, so late
as IT'S, TO renew their allegiance and their
oaths of eternal union.n
Filled with such emotions as these, and fresh
from the perusal of these fine passages, / left
Lucerne. on q lovely morning Of August, the at
mosphere pleasantly cooled by the previous
storms, and now a glorious cloudless sky hang
ing over this mountain sea. ! was all the bet
ter prepared to enjoy the lake from having
spent several days ut Lucerne, refreshing my
self after hill climbing, and taking that clear
comfort which any reasonable man may lind at
the Swan Hotel, IL commend the Schwan at
Lucerne and the Baur ut Zurich as the very
best in Switzerland that / have yet found, and
l have been at many On a little island, and
strange to say the only island in the lake, a
monument OF wood once stood to the memory
Of William Tell, but it was struck by lightning
and has disappeared. Near it the bay of Kuss-
nacht sets up, where is a chapel to mark the
spot on which the arrow from Tells unerring
bow drank the hearts blood of his enemy and
.tyrant, Gessler; and a ruined castle, said to
have been the prison to which Tell was destined
when he made his memorable escape, of which
we shall soon speak. All over the banks Of
the lake, as we are leaving Lucerne, are the
residences Of wealthy people, who have given
to their grounds the decorations OF taste, and
the slope is made lovely to the eyes that rest
on it. 1t invites the traveller to pause and find
q home in Switzerland. But the boat put up
into another bay on the other side, under old
Pilatus, and landed passengers, who were taken
into the small boats which ply continually
among these bays, and distribute the passen-
gers at the several points from which they would
make their excursions into the country. Pila.
tns rises in gloomy grandeur from the very
shores of the water, and its bifurcated peak
soon is lost sight OF, while but one presents it.
self. Rugged, barren, and uninviting as it is,
there are those who yet make the ascent, and
from this landing, though the ascent is far more
difficult, and the view from the summit far less
satisfactory than the Rigi.
We now returned to Kussnacht bay and If
the great shooting match, which occurred last
Monday, had been coming of to-day, I should
have been well pleased to go ashore to see it.
Once a year the marksmen Of the canton as
semble for a trial Of their skill with the rifle,
and there is also an annual festival, when the
best from all. the cantons assembl for the fede-
raj shooting match. With music and banners,
and professions, with garlands and arches of
victory and feasting and drinking, they keep
up this custom from generation TO generation;
and the rilemen Of the Swiss and Tyroi noun
tains, ike their ancestors of the bow, have no
rival. The military displays were very miser-
able. Having Just come from France, Prussia,
and Austria, where the army was evidently the
pet of governments, and the curse of the peo
pie, / was pleased to see that the Swiss had no
need Of armies, and the military procession was
sorry enough. But the music was stirring, and
/ could see that the Swiss might readily be-
come so much attached TO it as to feel that it
was part and parcel Of their patrimonial inheri-
lance, and to be reused by its strains to noble
needs, or melted to tenderness by its subdning
power. The lake had assumed to the eye, when
looking down upon it from one slope of the
Rigi, the form of an x, and now the two pro-
montories that divide it come within q mile of
each other, and are called the Noses, which we
pass and enter the bay of Brochs, where the
Horn Of that name and Stawzer rear their lofty
heads.
We touched at Bechenried, and then swept
the width Of the lake again to Gersau, a little
cluster Of houses at the foot of a gently reced-
ing Hill, one Of the most remarkable spots Of
land in the whole world, in. the fact that for four
hundred years the people Of this village, shut
ont from the rest of mankind by these mighty
ramparts of mountains, and having but three
miles long and two wide Of territory, maintain
ed an independent democratic government Of
their own. The mountain side is covered with
orchards, in the midst of which neat cottages
nestle sweetly, and / could not but regret that
the French invasion OF 1898, should have de-
stroyed their freedom by uniting them to the
Canton Schwytz. All the land they have has
been washed down from the mountains, and it
would not be strange if trees and cottages and
people should one day be washed into the lake
together. Such a calamity would carry off the
old gallows, still standing, but which govern
ment had no occasion to use during its indie
pendent existence. Here the scenery Of the
lake becomes in the highest degree sublime.
We stop for a moment at Drummer, where
goods are deposited that are to 60 over the
Alps by st. Gothard into Italy, and in one OF
the warehouses you see three men painted in
bold colors, and their names affixed, the heroes
who with Tell achieved the deliverance of Swift
zerland in 1915. On this spot the alliance was
formed between the three cantons of Uri, I'm
terwalden, and Schwytz. Now the vast noun
tains rise more perpendicularly from the lake
a solitary rock stands a few feet from the shore
on the promontory opposite, and passing it we
seem to be issuing into a new lake altogether.
Away on the lodges, or table land on the heights,
stands a little church, and a few dwellings are
Scattereu arOunu, Dut we lose sigHb u lncHi,
and are now in the midst of a solitude of water,
mountain, snow, and sky, the grandeur and
sublimity Of which it is equally impossible for
me to ~exaggerate or describe. No road, not
even a footpath, can be made along the base Of
these rocky mountains that literally stand in
the water, and thence rear their heads so Far
into the upper air that the fields Of snow lie
there in full view, forever whitening in the sun.
A little recession from the shore gives Judgment
for soil enough to make a secluded bosom in
the hills and this oasis is a sacred spot in
Swiss history, for here, in the dead Of night, the
three confederates already mentioned met to
form their plans Of action to deliver their noble
country from the Austrian yoke. This is
Grutli, and every American who passes the
spot will feel a sympathetic thrill ofjoy to look
on the birthplace Of a country's freedom.
Nearly opposite to Grutly, the steamboat
slackens its speed, and moves slowly, and ] may