TO THE LADY CHARLOTTE RAWDON. FROM THE BANKS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. Nor many months have now been dream'd away I dreamt not then that, e'er the rolling year Had fill'd its circle, I should wander here In musing awe; should tread this wondrous world, See all its store of inland waters hurl'd In one vast volume down Niagara's steep, Or calm behold them, in transparent sleep, Where the blue hills of old Toronto shed Their evening shadows o'er Ontario's bed; Should trace the grand Cadaraqui, and glide Down the white rapids of his lordly tide Through massy woods, mid islets flowering fair, And blooming glades, where the first sinful pair For consolation might have weeping trod, When banish'd from the garden of their God. Oh, Lady! these are miracles, which man, But lo,-the last tints of the west decline, From the land beyond the sea, Where, transform'd to sacred doves, Then, when I have stray'd a while shone bright, I could sit in my canoe, where the depth was upwards of six fathoms, and plainly see huge piles of stone at the bottom, of different shapes, some of which appeared as if they had been hewn the water was at this time as pure and transparent as air, and my canoe seemed as if it hung suspended in that element. It was impossible to look attentively through this limpid medium at the rocks below, without finding, before many minutes were elapsed, your head swim and your eyes no longer able to behold the dazzling scene." 7 Après avoir travers plusieurs isles peu considérables, nous en trouvâmes le quatrième jour une fameuse nommée l'Isle de Manitoualin.-Voyages du Baron de Luhontan, tom. i. let. 15. Manataulin signifies a Place of Spirits, and this island in Lake Huron is held sacred by the Indians. "The Wakon-Bird, which probably is of the same species with the Bird of Paradise, receives its name from the ideas the Indians have of its superior excellence; the Wakon-Bird being, in their language, the Bird of the Great Spirit."-Morse. DD Wrapt within the web of leaves, Then my playful hand I steep Oft, when hoar and silvery flakes To the wig-wam's cheering ray, 1 The islands of Lake Erie are surrounded to a considerable distance by the large pond-lily, whose leaves spread thickly over the surface of the lake, and form a kind of bed for the water-snakes in summer. 2 "The gold thread is of the vine kind, and grows in swamps. The roots spread themselves just under the surface of the morasses, and are easily drawn out by handfuls. They resemble a large entangled skein of silk, and are of a bright yellow "Morse. 3 "L'oiseau mouche, gros comme un hanneton, est de toutes couleurs, vives et changeantes: il tire sa subsistence des fleurs comme les abeilles; son nid est fait d'un coton très-fin suspendu à une branche d'arbre."- Voyages aux Indes Occidentales, par M. Bossu, seconde part, lett. xx. Icy columns gleam below, To the land where spirits rest! Thus have I charm'd, with visionary lay, The lonely moments of the night away; And now, fresh daylight o'er the water beams! Once more embark'd upon the glitt'ring streams, Our boat flies light along the leafy shore, Shooting the falls, without a dip of oar Or breath of zephyr, like the mystic bark The poet saw, in dreams divinely dark, Borne, without sails, along the dusky flood, While on its deck a pilot angel stood, And, with his wings of living light unfurl'd, Coasted the dim shores of another world! Yet, oh! believe me, mid this mingled maze So inly felt, as when some brook or hill, Whether I trace the tranquil moments o'er For pure and bright'ning comments on the dead; — 4 Emberiza hyemalis.- See Imlay's Kentucky, p. 290. 5 Lafitau supposes that there was an order of vestals established among the Iroquois Indians.-Mœurs des Sauvages Américains, $c. tom. i. p. 173. 6 Vedi che sdegna gli argomenti umani; Si che remo non vuol, ne altro velo, Che l' ale sue tra liti si lontani. Vedi comme l'ha dritte verso 'l cielo DANTE, Purgator, cant. i. When guests have met around the sparkling board, mix'd with happiness;-but, ah! no more- IMPROMPTU, AFTER A VISIT TO MRS. Her OF MONTREAL. 'Twas but for a moment-and yet in that time She crowded th' impressions of many an hour: eye had a glow, like the sun of her clime, Which wak'd every feeling at once into flower. Oh! could we have borrow'd from Time but a day, To renew such impressions again and again, The things we should look and imagine and say Would be worth all the life we had wasted till then. What we had not the leisure or language to speak, We should find some more spiritual mode of revealing, And, between us, should feel just as much in a week As others would take a millennium in feeling. WRITTEN ON PASSING DEADMAN'S ISLAND,' IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE, LATE IN THE EVENING, SEPTEMBER, 1804. SEE you, beneath yon cloud so dark, This is one of the Magdalen Islands, and, singularly enough, is the property of Sir Isaac Coffin. The above lines were suggested by a superstition very common among sailors, who call this ghostship. I think," the flying Dutchman." We were thirteen days on our passage from Quebec to Halifax, and I had been so spoiled by the truly splendid hospitality of my friends of the Phaeton and Boston, that I was but ill prepared for the miseries of a Canadian vessel. The weather, however, was pleasant, and the scenery along the river delightful. Our passage Say what doth that vessel of darkness bear? There lieth a wreck on the dismal shore Where, under the moon, upon mounts of frost, Yon shadowy bark hath been to that wreck, Oh! hurry thee on-oh! hurry thee on, WITH triumph this morning, oh Boston! I hail That in high-minded honour lies liberty's strength, might, Free only to ruin, and strong but to blight! through the Gut of Canso, with a bright sky and a fair wind, was particularly striking and romantic. 2 Commanded by Captain J. E. Douglas, with whom I returned to England, and to whom I am indebted for many, many kindnesses. In truth, I should but offend the delicacy of my friend Douglas, and, at the same time, do injustice to my own feelings of gratitude, did I attempt to say how much I owe to him. 3 Sir John Wentworth, the Governor of Nova Scotia, very kindly allowed me to accompany him on his visit to the College, which Farewell to the few I have left with regret ; May they sometimes recall, what I cannot forget, The delight of those evenings,-too brief a delight! When in converse and song we have stol'n on the night; When they've ask'd me the manners, the mind, or the mien Of some bard I had known or some chief I had seen, And still as, with sympathy humble but true, stream Of America's empire should pass, like a dream, Ere hope had deceiv'd me or sorrow deprest. But, Douglas! while thus I recall to my mind The elect of the land we shall soon leave behind, they have lately established at Windsor, about forty miles from Halifax, and I was indeed most pleasantly surprised by the beauty and fertility of the country which opened upon us after the bleak and rocky wilderness by which Halifax is surrounded. I was told I can read in the weather-wise glance of thine eye, And shall steal us away, ere the falling of night. There is not a bleak isle in those summerless seas, Where the day comes in darkness, or shines but to freeze, Not a track of the line, not a barbarous shore, That I could not with patience, with pleasure ex plore! Oh think then how gladly I follow thee now, When Hope smooths the billowy path of our prow, And each prosperous sigh of the west-springing wind Takes me nearer the home where my heart is enshrin'd; Where the smile of a father shall meet me again, And the tears of a mother turn bliss into pain; Where the kind voice of sisters shall steal to my heart, And ask it, in sighs, how we ever could part? But see!-the bent top-sails are ready to swellTo the boat-I am with thee - Columbia, farewell! that, in travelling onwards, we should find the soil and the scenery improve, and it gave me much pleasure to know that the worthy Governor has by no means such an “inamabile regnum" as I was, at first sight, inclined to believe. |