ritish troops in 1812. Having ascertained
the captain's intention not to sail until the day following, and it
being described as a very attractive spot, I hired a horse, and, after a
seven miles' ride through a country dotted with farm houses, which had a
desolate look, and the lands appertaining to which were subdivided by
zigzag log fences (hedges being unknown in the back settlements), I
reached the so-called city, which is built in nearly the form of a
parallelogram, the area of greensward having a pretty effect. Here are
some good hotels, and a seminary or college for young ladies, which is
much patronized by the better classes of the northern and eastern
states, especially New York. I looked in vain for the Fort, which has,
since the war, been demolished; but the landlord of the hotel at which
I afterwards dined, took me to its site, and related several incidents
that occurred in connection with the fortress, and the struggle between
the belligerent parties at the time. As, however, I considered these
somewhat apocryphal, from several of his relations failing to hang
together, and his decided bias against the Britishers, as he called the
English, I shall not trouble the reader with the details. After viewing
the place and its suburbs to my satisfaction, and after an excellent
dinner of green maize and venison, I rode back to the steamer.

It was towards evening when I arrived; and, as I approached Huron, by
the banks of the creek that divides the swamp I have mentioned, and
which was unusually swollen, I noticed a canoe that had broken loose
from its moorings, drifting down the current; a moment afterwards the
owner arrived in breathless haste, to endeavour to save it from
destruction; his exertions were, however, useless, and, finding there
was no alternative, he hailed the bystanders, and offered the reward of
a dollar to any one who would swim to and paddle the canoe on shore;
this offer was eagerly caught at by a tall man, of great muscular power,
who was amongst the crowd, and who at once threw off his coat and
plunged into the stream. This was very rapid, and, after a few moments
battling with the turbid current, he was overpowered; uttering a loud
cry for assistance, which I shall never forget and which rang in my ears
like a death knell, he disappeared from the view of the spectators, and,
being probably entangled in the trees and debris that were floating down
the torrent, he did not rise again. A loud wai