Part 7 (2/2)

But fortune had not abandoned her adventurers, for just in the nick of time we saw the tug moving, the engine had started again and in half an hour the _Chicora_ was inside the harbour, tied up alongside the old Northern Railway Dock, her journey from Collingwood ended on this the afternoon of the day before Christmas Day.

Capt Hall, who was on his tug, had suffered as much from anxiety as had we, for he knew that every other tug on the lake had been laid up, so there would have been nothing left to pull the _Robb_ off had she, as well as we, been carried upon the bouldered sh.o.r.e.

The _Robb_ was the largest Canadian wrecking tug then on the lakes. She had done service in the Fenian Raid of 1866 at the time of the engagement at Fort Erie between the Welland Battery and the Fenians, some of the bullet marks still remaining on her wheel-house. After a long and honourable career she was grounded at Victoria Park, where her hull was used to form a portion of the landing pier, and where some of her timbers may still remain.

What a happy relief it was to be back on old familiar ground again, to meet the cheery greetings and congratulations of the ”Old Northerners” of the yards and machine shops who took the utmost interest in this enterprise of their President, Hon. Frank Smith, and their General Manager, Mr. F. W.

c.u.mberland, and formed an affection for the _Chicora_ which is lasting and vivid to the present day.

Christmas was a happy and well-earned rest. We had completed the first part of the undertaking, but not for unmeasured wealth would the experience be repeated. Youth is energetic and looks forward in roseate hope, so the anxieties and risks were soon forgotten, and all nerves turned toward the business engagements and profits, which, now that we had her safe in hand, the boat was to be set to earn.

The balance of that winter, and the spring of 1878 were fully occupied in rebuilding the upper works of the steamer in their new form adapted to her service as a day boat and in overhauling and setting up the engine after their long rest. Not long after our arrival, Captain Manson developed a severe inflammation, which confined him to his room in the Richmond House.

Here, bright and cheerful to the last, he died on 29th February and was buried in Collingwood on March 2nd, deeply regretted by all sailorfolk and particularly by our crew. Five others of that crew, lost with the _Wabuno_ and _Asia_, found watery graves in the waters of the Georgian Bay. The writer is now the sole survivor, and Mr. R. H. M. McBride, and he the only remaining members of the original company.

For the interior work a party of experienced French-Canadian s.h.i.+p joiners were brought up from Sorel, no centre of s.h.i.+p carpentering existing in Ontario at that time.

The comely main stairway which gives such adornment to the entrance hall was then erected in all its grace of re-entrant curves, ornate pillars, and flowing sweep of head-rail and bal.u.s.trade. When one thinks of the unnumbered thousands of travellers who have pa.s.sed up and down its convenient steps, ones admiration and respect are raised for the French-Canadian Foreman who designed its form and executed it with such honest and capable workmans.h.i.+p, that to-day it still displays its lines of beauty without a creak or strain.

The octagonal wheel-house of the upper lakes which had been brought by rail from Collingwood was re-erected with its columned sides and graceful curving cornice under which was again hung the little blockade-running bell, lettered ”Let Her B.”

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NIAGARA PORTAL--HISTORY OF NAMES AT NEWARK AND NIAGARA--A WINTER OF CHANGES--A NEW RIVALRY BEGUN.

On the south side of Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, is the Niagara Portal, where the mouth of the Niagara River, with high banks on either hand, makes its entrance into the lake, forming the only uninterrupted deep water harbour on that sh.o.r.e.

Here the rapid waters, outfall of all the gatherings of the inland Upper Lakes, pour out in fullest volume, enabling entrance even in winter, when all other harbours are closed in the grasp of ice. It is worthy of its mighty source, the product of the greatest Fresh Water Lakes in all the world.

Over the west bank floats the Union Jack on Fort Missasuaga, and over the east on Fort Niagara, the Stars and Stripes, each the emblem of the British and United States nationalities, between whose possessions the river forms the boundary line.

The first port of call on the Canadian side at the mouth of the river, now known as Niagara-on-the-Lake, had in olden times an importance and a past, which much belies its present outlook of quiet and placidity. Once it was the princ.i.p.al and most noted place in the Province of Upper Canada, and the centre of legislative power, making its surrounding neighborhood full of reminiscence.

The successive changes in the name of this ancient lakeside town, as also those of the settlement on the opposite sh.o.r.e, are interesting, as in themselves they form footprints in the paths of history.

The French had entered the St. Lawrence in 1534, and, as we have seen, had fully established their first route of connection to the Upper Lakes and the inner fur-trading districts, via the Ottawa and Lake Nip.i.s.sing. The Niagara River route, via Lake Erie, had been learned of by them in 1669 under Pere Gallinee, and followed by the enterprise of the _Griffon_ in 1678, but then, and for long after, was too fiercely occupied by hostile Indian tribes to be greatly available for commercial use. A first advance from Montreal intending to occupy the route, under Chevalier de la Barre, was intercepted by the Indians at Frontenac (Kingston) and driven back to Montreal.

In 1687 another advance for possession of the river succeeded in creating a foothold and the French erected a wooden fort and palisade upon the projecting point on the east bank of the river at its junction point with the lake. This outpost they named Fort Niagara, the name by which the place has ever since continued to be known.

The little garrison was not long able to keep its foothold. Beset by Indians and cut off by the failure of food supplies expected from their compatriots in the east, they were in dire straits, but yet boldly holding out in hopes that relief might yet arrive. At this juncture, Col. Thomas Dongan, Governor of the English Colony of New York, then loyal subjects of James II., made demand that the French should evacuate the fort, as it was in British territory. The British colonists of New York and New Jersey had recently joined hands with the Colonies of New England, in a British union, for united defence against the French. Upon the English Home Government having indicated to the French authorities its support of the Colonial demand, the Marquis de Denonville, Governor of Canada, ordered the garrison to retire. This they reluctantly did, but before leaving raised in the centre of the fort, under the influence of Pere Millet, their Jesuit Missionary, a great wooden cross 18 feet in height, upon which they cut in large letters:

, ”REGN: VINC: IMP: CHRS:”

_Regnat_; _Vincit_; _Imperat_; _Christus_; (Christ Reigns, Conquers, Rules.)

The place was being for a while abandoned as a military post, but by this they left notice that it was still held as on outpost of their religion.

Here again at Niagara an episode was being repeated exceedingly similar to that which had been developed at Quebec a century and a half before.

<script>