The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1899-07-29


darkling tide as it was when, first born in
nature darkest hour, its gloomy currents
began to boil and whir and flow. Every
other river on the face of the earth has
changed It's banks and bed, but this strange
river has changed not at all and cannot
change until the end Of time,
No wonder that the ancient mariners
gazed with awcat the gloomy portal through
which its siuiStcr-looking current pours
into the St Lawrence. No wonder that
they shrank from entering between Its
monstrous banks, such as no man had ever
seen ON earthly river before. No wonder
that their superstition pictured tas an out
let of the kingdom of darkness, and that
the ship which ventured for any distance
through the awful opening would never
come back This superstition was dcepened
and confirmed by strange and sad event.
Fer Roberyal, noble Of France, tavorlte
at court and beloved Of the king, 4 true
sailor and a. brave soul as ever faced
death on land or sea. sailed in great strong
ship, with stout company, into the
Saguenay
He sailed in and with him went the
PRAYERS and fears of many brave man and
sanity woman, for in old France he was
known and loved of many. and the king
favorite; he sailed in, he and his stout
company. determined to penetrate the
mystery beyond and read the riddle of this
stvgian sphynx. Thus bravely he entered
the grim portals of the Sagueuay when the
dark tide was at its food, aud on 1t, float
ing upward, he disappeared from the eyes
of those who. from the rocky point below
what now Is called l. Anse a | Eau. stood
watching him Full many day the
watchers on that stony point stood waiting
for his return. but never more did Roberval
come back. nor WAS he ever seen of men,
he nor his crew. nor of them did word
Of tidiugs ever come. Il was, IN truth, a
startling disappearance, aud an awful fate,
and long it was before another ship went
up the darklinc stream. But sailors said
and for a hundred years the saying was
belieyed-that once each year, in the old
Of the moon. when winds were high, the
ship Of Roberyal. with Roberyal at the
helm. would come sailing out of the Ssgue
uay-sailiug down with the ebb, and at
the food 1t would sail up again and no
matter which way the winds would blow,
The sail, Of that ghustly ship we're always
full-full Of winds that were not ls earthly
gales. And - Roberyals ship became
the specler Of the Saguenay.
But Of him and his company no tidinSs
ever came. nor do we Of TO-DAY know, nor
can We ,urmis,. whittier they went % where
they died. save thIS-aud It Is a most
strange thing that two hundred aud tiity
years after Ruberyal and his ship went up
the >a-uenay a priest visiting on holy
crraua the wandering tribes that still IN
habit the d,>olaie region 20 the north Of
Lake -, John found on the Mi>ta~sinni
River. aud near the lake oil tha, name,
IecIl, buried in those intcrninable woods,
the ruins 81 fort. and within the eucln-
sure af the wall,. - once they stood. two
ancient cannon, with the royal stamp Of
France upon them aud certain other relies
II usc and ornament, such a. were IN fash
ian centuries ago Such Wa the strange
discovery that be made And the ques
,iau arises with startling force
RoBEEvAL FuRT.
Vas not this Roberyals fort, that he
buIh at the further=, point gt hi persis-
tent exploration, j, the coming on Of win
ter Vas /; not here, in the very depths
IL that drrary waste Of wilderness which
stretches from Lake It John to the shore
q Hudson Bay that he and his men
from starvation perishei, aud i not the
ruined fragment Of this stoekade, thus
strangely found. brave Roberval monu
uleat-the ruined monument Of the first
white man that ever steercd ship up the
Sacueuay /. dark tide? hope, some day,
20 ,.e this ruin in the woods and find, it
r.e,sible ss,nc elew which shall connect 1t
with the mystery Of the Saguenay
The Indians called this marvel Of waters
bv mauy names, for many tribes lived on
il ~ by H. tributaries Each seems To
have called 1t BY different name but all
agreed in the meaning Of IT. mouth, and
thcy call 1t Mamclous. OF the Place Of
Grcat Mounds The reason OF this l. -
plain to the eye today a. it was in oldcn
time- for the munstrous mountains Of rock
which guard II, entrance are rounded at
the summit and domcd ike nature : cathe-
dral- and more suggestive, yet, perhaps,
tu many are the great saud hills all of pure
golden color, which are at the eastern side
ul it, entrance. round about the little
plateau on which Tadousac stands. These
mountains Of sand are the only beaches of
geologic ages. left a the waters retired
from the face Of the earth above the re
treating waves, and they stand four tiers
deep. one above the other Ike the galleries
u an immense amphithcater, once perfect,
but now in ruins and Of which only an arc
remains
First l. the modern beach, ON which the
fishermen haul their boats aud bareleeged
children play, burruwiug in the warm,
yellow sand and making, with shouts Of
glee. their sand castles Then hundred
feet above is another and an ancient beach
and on this the present village stands.
Above this rises another and higher one,
vast Of size and lofty, all sand, gravel and
smoothly rounded cubble of many colors,
some beautiful; and above this most ancient
relic of primeyal world creating action
curves yet another and larger; and over
all the great dome And this is why the
Indians called the Saguenay's mouth
Mamelous, or the Place of Great Mounds.
climbed one day thousand feet of
toilsome ascent that | might stand upon
the uppermost beach of that oldtime sea
level that saw the birth of the world, and
whose sands made music when the stars of
the first morning sang together, that |
might feel the age of it, and from its shin
ing height behold the sublime spectacle
that the growth of the world growing
through all the numberleSs ages since those
sands were sited there. had made for the
eve of man, who is but Of a day to see.
| searched this oldtime silt with curious
eve to find some shell of molluSk, some
tiny fragment of pearl. some hint of birth,