s toward the place of our destination,
arriving late in the afternoon at the Upper Falls, on the Genesee, where
the waters dashed from rock to rock, until it reached the valley below
the Falls. We traced the river bank three or four miles, to Gardow, a
village on the west bank of the Genesee River, where the roar of the
Upper Falls could be distinctly heard, where we were received with great
cordiality, and conducted to comfortable lodgings, and furnished with
all that nature required for comfort. After one day's rest we again
started for the great Falls of Niagara, with a part of the Genesee tribe
of Indians that resided at Gardow. We took the most direct Indian path
that led to Niagara, which led us over hills crowned with forests, and
through dark wooded valleys, reaching the Falls about sunset the second
day, and encamped on the banks of that mighty rushing river, with the
numerous throng that had reached their place of destination before us.

"We all encamped like a family of friends, upon the banks of a river
that was destined to divide a kingdom from a republic. Early the next
morning preparations were made for offering a human being as a sacrifice
to the Great Spirit that created the earth and the heavens, and all
things contained therein. The most beautiful and gifted young Indian
maiden, just blooming into womanhood, was chosen by the priests and
prophets of that ancient tribe, to appease the anger of the gods, and
bear a message from that tribe to their friends that had gone over the
River of Death before them, to the land of the olive and the vine in the
clear Southwest, known only to the brave and just, where the wild doe
and her fawn feed on flowers, where the flowers wear their everlasting
bloom, and the grass is greener and more luxuriant than was ever seen,
and softer than the Persian silk. In that beautiful land mortals put on
the garments of immortality. When the young maiden was informed that she
was chosen for the sacrifice, she came forward with a smile upon her
countenance, adorned in all the glory of the Indian costume, as a bride
adorned for her husband, and entered the arena. The Indian priest then
stepped forward and poured upon her head the oil of venison, and placed
a crown of roses, intermixed with swans-down, to give it a snowy-white
appearance, and crowned her, in the name of the tribe, Queen of Niagara.

"A more beautiful or graceful being could not be found to offer up her
life for her