was cloudless, and the river, no longer ruffled by the
now motionless barks of the recently arrived Indians,
yet obeying the action of the tide, offered, as it glided
onward to the lake, the image of a flood of quick-silver;
while, in the distance, that lake itself, smooth as a
mirror, spread far and wide. Close under the bank yet
lingered the canoes, emptied only of their helmsmen (the
chiefs of the several tribes,) while, with strange tongues
and wilder gestures, the warriors of these, as they rested
on their paddles, greeted the loud report of the cannon--
now watching with eager eye the flashes from the vessel's
sides, and now upturning their gaze, and following with
wild surprise, the deepening volumes of smoke that passed
immediately over their heads, from the guns of the battery,
hidden from their view by the elevated and overhanging
bank. Blended with each discharge arose the wild yell,
which they, in such a moment of novel excitement, felt
it impossible to control, and this, answered from the
Indians above and borne in echo almost to the American
shore, had in it something indescribably startling. On
the bank itself the effect was singularly picturesque.
Here were to be seen the bright uniforms of the British
officers, at the head of whom was the tall and martial
figure of General Brock, furthermore conspicuous from
the full and drooping feather that fell gracefully over
his military hat, mingled with the wilder and more fanciful
head dresses of the chiefs. Behind these again, and
sauntering at a pace that showed them to have no share
in the deliberative assembly, whither those we have just
named were now proceeding amid the roar of artillery,