320                                                                               APPENDIX.

       The ship Hamlet was taken in tow by the Oliver Ellsworth and Bolivar, and assumed and maintained its place in splendid style. Four pilot-boats were also towed by other steam-boats, together with the following boats of the Whitehall Watermen, all tastefully decorated, viz.­The Lady of the Lake, Dispatch, Express, Brandywine, Sylph, Active, and Whitehall, Junior.

      The sea was tranquil and smooth as the summer lake ; and the mist, which came on be­tween seven and eight in the morning, having partially floated away, the sun shone bright and beautiful as ever. As the boats passed the Battery they were saluted by the Military, the Revenue Cutter, and the Castle on Governor's Island ; and on passing the Narrows, they were also saluted by forts Lafiyette and Tompkins. They then proceeded to the United States' schooner Porpoise, Captain Zantzinger, moored within Sandy Hook, at the point where the grand ceremony was to be performed. A deputation, composed of Aldermen King and Taylor, was then sent on board the abeam-boat Chancellor Livin&-ton, to accompany his Excellency the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the several Committees from Buffalo, Utica, Albany, and other places, on board the steam-boat Washington.

      The boats were thereupon formed in a circle around the schooner, preparatory to the cere­mony ; when Mr. Rhind, addressing the Governor, remarked "that he had a request to make, which he was confident it would afford his Excellency great pleasure to grant. He was desirous of preserving a portion of the water to be used on this memorable occasion, in order to send it to our distinguished friend, and late illustrious visiter, Major General Lafayette; and for that purpose Messrs. Dummer and Co. had prepared some bottles of Ameriran fabrick for the occasion, and they were to be conveyed to the General in a box made by Mr. D. Phyfe, from a log of cedar, brought from Erie in the "Seneca Chief." The Governor replied, that a more pleasing task could not have been imposed upon him, and expressed his acknowledgments to Mr. Rhind, for having suggested the measure.

        His Excellency Governor CLINTON then proceeded to perform the ceremony of commingling the waters of the Lakes with the Ocean, by pouring a keg of that of Lake Erie into the Atlantic ; upon which he delivered the following Address :­-

        "This   solemnity,   at   this   place,   on   the   first   arrival   of   vessels   from   Lake   Erie,   is   intended   to  indicate   and   commemorate   the   navigable   communication,   which   has   been    accomplished   between our   Mediterranean  Seas   and   the  Atlantic   Ocean,   in   about   eight   years,   to   the   extent   of   more   than

APPENDIX.                                                             321

four hundred and twenty-five miles, by the wisdom, public spirit, and energy of the peo­ple of the state of New York ; and may the God of the Heavens and the Earth smile most propitiously on this work, and render it subservient to the best interests of the human race."

       Doctor MITCHILL, whose extensive correspondence with almost every part of the world enables him to fill his cabinet with every thing rare and curious, then completed the ceremony by pouring into the briny deep, bottles of water from the Ganges and Indus of Asia; the Nile and the Gambia of Africa; the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine, and the Danube, of Europe ; the Mississippi and Columbia of North, and the Oronoko, La Plata, and Amazon of South, America. The learned Doctor availed himself of this occasion to deliver the peculiar and interesting address which will be found in this collection, and which so happily illustrates the uses of types and symbols. The Honorable CADWALLADER D. COLDEN then presented to the Mayor the able Memoir upon the subject of Canals and Inland Navigation in general, which forms the first part of the present volume.

      Never before was there such a fleet collected, and so superbly decorated; and it is very possible that a display so grand, so beautiful, and we may even add, sublime, will never be witnessed again We know of nothing with which it can be compared. The naval fete given by the Prince Regent of England, upon the Thames, during the visit of the Allied Sovereigns of Europe to London, after the dethronement of Napoleon, has been spoken of as exceedng every thing of the kind hitherto witnessed in Europe. But gentlemen who had an opportunity of witnessing both, have declared, that the spectacle in the waters of New York so far transcended that in the metropolis of England, as scarcely to admit of a comparison. The day, as we have before remarked, was uncommonly fine. No winds agitated the surface of the mighty deep, and during the performance of the ceremonies, the boats with their gay decorations, lay motionless in beauty. The orb of day darted his genial rays upon the bosom of the waters, where they played as tranquilly as upon the natural mirror of a secluded lake. Indeed the elements seemed to repose, as if to gaze upon each other, and participate in the beauty and grandeur of the sublime spectacle. Every object appeared to pause, is if to invite reflection, and prepare the mind for deep impressions--impressions, which, while we feel them stealing upon the soul, impart a conciousness of their durability. It was one of those few bright visions whose evanescent glory is allowed to light up the path of human life.

.

BACK TO THE MAIN ERIE CANAL FOUNDATION page