Connecticut western news., 1892-05-05
BIG JOHNS peRlLous FEAT.
An Indian Shoots the Dangerous La
 chine Rapids in Midwinter.

chine Rapids in Midwinter.
 To shoot the Lachine Rapids in the St. Lawrence river in a hatboat is no triAing matter and live to tell about it
 afterward, but to shoot these world fa-
 nous rapids in the middle of winter,
 with the boiling, tempestuous waters filled with large cakes of ice and drift
 wood, is still more hazardous. Yet
 Big John," the Caughnawaga Indian. has for the last fourteen years on every
 New Years day made this perilous trip. Peculiar as it may seem, Big John has | always taken some one with him on ! these trips. This year he made the same dangerous shoot, but it will be his last. On the morning of the first of the year ! Big John, who lives down the river from Lachine, came up to the village to see if | any one had come up from Montreal to accompany him. He found two young l men, utter strangers to him and to each
 other. One, George Wait, was from
 Montreal, while the other, Frederick Cover, came from ''back countrie."
 The men walked down to Big Johns
 house, distance of three miles. Here =
 was increased by one more, Big Johns
 son Murray. It took only half an hour to work out through the ice and heavy
 water to reach the top ot the rapids. AS
 the boat approached them Big John
 stood up in the stern with his long pad
 dle in his hand ready for the shoot
 Rocks glistened on all sides with their icy coats; huge waves dashed high. leaped over the frail boat and threatened to swamp her. Goyer was kept busy
 bailing out with Wait, while Murray obeyed the commands of his father. Goyer describes the passage as follows: "From the time we struck the rapids
 until we reached the lower end of them,
 John seemed being inspired. His eyes
 were fairly glistening and shooting fire.
 thought they would leap from their sockets with the tremendous excite ment. His long, thin paddle would sweep the air like flash and be buried
 in the foaming water. swinging the boat hither and thither, avoiding this jutting rock and then that one. A continuous stream of commands in French flowed from his lips to his son Murray, who
 was nearly the equal of his father in dexterity. Now and then he directed me in broken English to do something. He was picture that no artist would ever forget, and that would haunt him
 until he had reproduced it on canvas" The trip was one of excitement and peril from beginning to end, the boat
 passing from one rapid to another in succession. It filled continually with
 water and kept Wait and Goyer busy
 bailing. When they reached the whirl-
 pool, the last and most dangerous spot, Big John gave his final command, and
 it came near also being his last on earth.
 He shouted to Murray, the boy, to pad
 dle hard, and as the lad shifted his posi-
 ton to take longer and stronger stroke
 he lost his balance and fell over on Eis
 back in the bottom of the boat. The mighty Indian, quick as wink, threw
 himself down flat in the boat, and thus
 saved it from being capsized, the heavy
 waves throwing twenty buckets of
 water all over the party. Big John was
 up again in a second, and with two or three powerful strokes he spun the boat
 around and sent her nose straight into
 the waves again.
 The whole incident did not occupy
 more than six seconds, and then the
 boat shot down into the home channel in few seconds more. Big John threw
 his paddle into the bottom of the boat,
 and, almost exhausted from the violent exertion and excitement, sank down into the stern sheets. All danger was passed, but he fully realized what close shave the party had had as he pointed back at the whirlpool and said,
 "Je croyais qu'on allait au ciel tout rond." Which was translated. II thought
 we were going to heaven, boat and all." The boat was pulled out at Jacques Car tiers landing by willing hands. Big John gave Goyer his paddle as a re- hinder of the trip, and announced that
 that was the last time he would ever shoot the Lachine rapids in winter
 Cor. Chicago Tribune.