ill followed by their pursuer, who hoped to cut off some
straggler during the retreat; but no such victim fell in his way. In the
course of a day or two the roar of waters, and the ascending mist of the
cataract, warned them of their approach to the mighty falls of Niagara;
and soon the Oneida party had encamped among the gloomy pines and
hemlocks opposite the torrent.

Wauchee, though he had often heard among the dim traditions of his race,
of the existence of an awful torrent of water, that poured for ever with
a voice of thunder, among the remote woods of the wilderness, had never
yet gazed on this stupendous spectacle, and now, as he listened to its
earthquake voice with wonder, some such thoughts as the following may
have agitated his mind:

'Tis pouring, 'tis pouring
With a wild eternal roar;
Like a sea, that's burst its barriers
Resounding evermore:
Like an ocean lash'd to fury,
And toiling to o'erwhelm
With its devastating billows
The earth's extended realm.

It falleth, still it falleth,
A deluge o'er the rocks;
It calleth, still it calleth,
With tones likes earthquake shocks:
For ever and for ever,
It sounds its mighty hymn;
Like a thousand anthems pealing
In some cathedral dim.

The dark pines shrink and tremble
As o'er the abyss they lean,
And falling are ingulf'd like reeds
With all their branches green;
And oaks from northern mountains,
O'erwhelm'd by some fierce blast,
Are rent like autumn flowerets,
In that vast caldron cast.

A thousand years ago the tribes
In wonder trod its side:
Those tribes have vanish'd, but the Fall
Still pours as full a tide;
A thousand more may pass away--
A future race of men
May view the awful cataract
Unchang'd dash down its glen.

How passing vain doth mortal pride
Beside this torrent seem!
An army doth not march to war
With half its sound and gleam;
While o'er it, like a banner,
The rainbow spreads its fold,
Colored with prismy glories
Of purple and of gold.

The wild deer of the forest
At the river stoop to drink,
But from the rush of waters
All panic-stricken shrink;
And the mountain eagles sailing
O'er the cataract's foaming brim
Alarmed, on soaring pinions,
Away, o'er Heaven's clouds skim.

O! who that views the wonders
Of Nature o'er the ear