Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-09-27

Time hath enough of ills to undeceiye them
And cares will crowd where dreams have dwelt
On! therefore, while the heart is trusting, leave
Their happy childhood and their fairy lore!
AN Adventure on the Father of WATERS
Dy Hon. Lewis C;Iss.
When Lewis Cass was twenty years Young
er than now, and represented America at the
French court, he was a correspondent of the
Knickerbocker Magazine and in one of his
letters sent the following de cription of an
adventure on our great western rivers 1t is
a pleasant thought that our American minister,
standing on a beautiful day in autumn upon
the hill whose summit is crowned by the
famous Chateau of st. Cloud, should have in.
dulged in these comparative reflections upon
the beloved native land which he had left
behind him. The beautiful valley of the
Seine was before him but so also was the
river scenery, which in his minds eye at the
moment blotted out all else from his patriotic
vision:
Our lakes and riAers, plains, valleys, and
forests, are impressed with character of vast
ness, if | may coin an abstract term, which is
itself one of the attributes of true sublimity,
and which produces upon the travelled who
visits them emotions which no after events in
life can efface. | never felt more profoundly
the weakness of man ard power of God, than
when seated in frail birch canoe, with its
ribs of cedar and its C vering of bark, descend
ing the Mississippi in the night, and approach
ing the junction of this mighty river with the
mightier Missouri.
These little Indian boats are admirably cal.
culated for the manners of our aborigines, and
OF the Canadian voyageurs, their co.tenants of
the western forests, and often their co.descend-
ants from the same stock, and for the various
lines of internal communication which Nature
has so bountifully provided for the trans-Al,
leghany regions. Driven by the paddle an
by the wind, with great ease and velocity,
light and apparently fragile, they are managed
with skill, and safely ride over the waves,
which they seem hardly to touch and when
they reach an interruption in navigation they
are taken from the water and carried to the
next point of embarkation, across the inter-
vening country | had come down the Mis-
sissippi in one of these shells, padded by a
crew Of voyageurs-a race of men of tried fl
deity, of wonderful muscular strength, and
with power of abstinence and repletion alter
nately tried by periods OF want and abundance,
which at once the effect and the accOmpaini
ment of nomadic life. No Frenchmen exceeds
them in animal spirits, and no Dutchman in
love of tobacco; and their intervals of exer-
ton and repose are called pipes and pauses
and during the former, they paddle with the
utmost force of their tawny armes, keeping
time to their songs, which break upon the
silence of the forest, while the period of relax
alton is passed in cheerful conversation.
One of those excitements, almost periodical,
which make their appearance among our In.
dian tribes, and which spread alarm upon the
frontiers, had suddenly manifested itself upon
the upper regions of the Mississippi; and 1
had descended the river with a rapidity till
hon 10,
with short intervals of repose Tor my willing
but weary crew. Under ordinary circumstan-
ces, | should have sought the first good place
Of encampment which presented itself, toward
the decline OF day, and, landing, should have
taken from the water and brought to shore my
canoe and luggage; and, pitching my tent,
and lighting good fire, should have disposed
myself to a comfortable supper and quiet night
But was obliged to torego these luxuries of
interior western travelling and the night had
already commenced, when passed the mouth
of the Illinois, and was advanced, when the
gradual relaxation of the current warned us
that we were approaching the point of junct-
ion OF those great arteries of the continent,
where the Missouri precipitates itself, with
the force of this tremendous stream, into the
Mississippi, and sending its current almost to
the opposite bank, checks, for many miles, the
power of its riYa-a rival which usurps its
name, but whose changed characteristics from
here to the sea- sufficiently indicates its infer
iority. The peculiar features of these great
rivers, seeking their origin in regions SO dis
tant, and mingling in common mass to pour
their joint floods into the ocean, presents one
of the most interesting subjects of considera-
ton which the study of our geology offers to
the inquirer
The current of the Missouri is prodigous-
boiling, whirling, eddying, as though confined
within too narrow space, and striving to es-
cape from 1t; 1t is perpetually undermining its
banks, which are thrown into the stream, al
most with the noise of an avalanche; and its
water is exceedingly turbid, mixed with the
earth (which it takes possession, and exhib-
ing whitish, clayey appearance, so dense
and impenetrabe to the light, that it is impos.
sible to discern an object below the surface of
the river The Mississippi on the contrary, is
quiet, placid stream, with gentle current
and transparent water, where the traveller
leaves few traces of its ravages behind him,
and apprehends no danger before him. We
had no moon, but the stars shown brightly
and danced in the clear water of the river,
revealing the dark foliage of the forest which
seemed like walls to enclose us as we swept
along, but still opening passage to us as we
advanced. Our Canadians had been merry,
sending their songs along the water, breaking
the stiffness OF the night alternately by TIE
clear voice of their favorite singer and then
by the loud chorus in which each joined with
equal aacrity and strength of lungs. But as
the night closed us, their gayety disappeared !;
and the song and the chorus gradually died
away leaving us in the silence Of the flood
and forest, which seemed to be our world /;
alive only with the little band whose destiny
was committed to as frail bark as ever
tempted danger.
There seemed TO be something sacred in the
place and circumstances. There was indeed
no molly ground, nor was there near burning
bush, nor warning voice to proclaim the duty
OF alteration But we all felt that we had
reached one OF those impressive spots in the
creation OF God, which speaks His power in
living characters and we had reached If cov
cred by the shadows of night, whose obscnritv
while it shr0uded the mnuter fpatures NJ a.,
scene, could not conceal its great outlines
though it added TO the deep and breathles.
emotions with which we gazed around ms
seeking to penetrate the narrow, gloomy bar
rier that shut us in We felt the very momen,
when we touched the waters of the Missions;
We heard the boiling of the mighty stream
around us. We were launched upon our course
almost like racehorse in the lists. Our ligh
canoe was whirled about by the boiling flood
and the thick, muddy water sent us back ne
friendly stars to guide and enliven u.s. Tn,
slightest obstacle we might have encountered
n tree projecting from the bank, a sawyer o.
:, floating loo would have torn off the trai