 excerpt of The History of Simcoe County by Andrew F. Hunter. Innisfil. Cherry Creek at its neighborhood. Before 1830 a few families had taken up farms and were already making their first clearings. To notice the more conspicuous, at least of these settlers, and to review the most notable incidents of their first years in the forest, the plan proposed is to begin at the southern extremity of the township and proceed northward along the Penetanguishine Road, making short digressions here and there into the various intersecting concessions, wherever a particular individual or event of notoriety should be recalled. Louis J. Clement, a Dutch-Canadian, arrived on north half-sixteen concession one from Niagara in June 1829 with his wife, one child, a hired man, and a yoke of oxen. He built a temporary brush-tent, which was by them called home, for a brief period, until a more substantial and commodious dwelling-place could be erected. Clement's house, built by the carpenter James Soles, was the first frame-house in Innisfil, and is still standing. In subsequent years Mr. Clement became a magistrate. He died April 9th, 1873, in his seventy-fourth year. A large family then survived him, of whom the best known, perhaps, were Dr. Louis Clement of Bradford and Stephen Clement, who was for a time deputy-sheriff of this county, under Sheriff Smith, and, to afterward, became sheriff of Shoal Lake District, at Bertle, in Manitoba. Robert McClain and Irish soldier settled upon Lot 17 concession, too, in May 1829, a month earlier than Clement. Dugald McClain, a son of this pioneer, and John Laurie, Jr., were the soirs of the settlement, and they were drowned about 1840 off Degrassi Point. Both McClain and wife died from an attack during an epidemic of cholera, which carried off numerous settlers in that section in September 1849. Another notable pioneer, though not one of the earliest, was Charles Wilson, south half, fifteen, concession, too, who arrived and settled in 1833, in company with the Maconkey brothers of Lot 15 concession five. He came from the north of Ireland, Tyrone or Derry, and to a member of that family he became married. He was one of the three wardens of Innisfil for the year 1841, before a township council was organized and filled other important positions at different times, but in 1850 he removed to Tecumseh. On a corner of his farm, Robert Laird, who had settled at an early date, opened a store about 1835, the first store in Innisfil. This was the nucleus of Cherry Creek. James Rogerson, north half nineteen, concession two, a native of Scotland, arrived in 1833, of his family, which was large, several members of it became residents of this neighborhood. Edward Wilson, the son of a U.E. loyalist, came from Holland Landing after the rebellion and took up the north half Lot 16 concession two at Cherry Creek. He was the representative of Innisfil at the meetings of the Simcoe District Council from 1843 until 1849, both years inclusive. He also contested this county in December 1851 with the honorable W.B. Robinson, but was not successful. Some time later he moved to Bellewart, where he lived until his death in 1888, at the age of seventy-seven years. Hereon Wilson, his brother, with two sons, Lambert and Wellington, came from Sharon in York County, later and purchased south half Lot 16 concession three near Cherry Creek, also becoming settlers of longstanding. The Dalhousie settlers. Innisfil, like W.Willembury, had its Scottish settlement, but the group of settlers, which it comprised, came from another quarter, and, at a later date, the autumn of 1832. We turn off the main road now to notice this group of interesting pioneers. Previous to that year they had settled in the township of Dalhousie, Lanark County, but finding its rocky surface, anything but a congenial dwelling-place, and seeing no prospects of making a permanent home there, they deserted in a body and settled in the southeast of Innisfil. Their native place was Glasgow, and its vicinity, where some of them had belonged to the recalcitrant brotherhood of Glasgow Weavers, so notorious in British history. They had left Scotland at the time of the intense public excitement preceding the passing of the Reform Bill. Most of them had taken part in the agitation, and, like the Pilgrim Fathers of an earlier time, they preferred to live beyond the sea, rather than ensure the grievances of their native land. Most of them, too, were platform orators and enthusiastic reformers, which their descendants are to this day. The individuals who live with their families composed this interesting group of settlers were John Laurie, N.H. 17, II, Kevin John Climey, S.H. 17, II, John Todd, S.H. 19, II, Hugh Todd, S.H. 12, S.H. 5, Gavin Allen, S.H. 15, S.H. 5, Robert Wallace, S.H. 22, S.H. 5, William Duncan, S.H. 18, S.H. 6, William Cross, S.H. 20, S.H. 6, James Jack, S.H. 21, S.H. 5. They settled closely together, and this circumstance, together with the fact that a number of their descendants remained at the old homesteads and in the same neighborhood, gave the southeast part of Innisfil the Scotch Presbyterian character which it possessed. At the rebellion of 1837 some of these settlers did not desire to go to the front and assist in quelling the uprising, as they naturally sympathized, to some extent, with the principles advocated by William Lyon McKenzie and his party. As the Dahousie settlers were not outspoken in their opinions on the matter, they were suspected of having non-Pacific intentions, one of them possessed an old rusty musket which was promptly taken from him lest he should aid the rebels' cause, and he was forced by loyalists to go to the frontier. This circumstance attached the name of Rebels in Disguise to the Dahousie people and their descendants for some years after the rebellion. Another report was circulated that they had been banished from Glasgow to Dahousie, and that they had fled from their place of banishment to Innisfil. This report was chiefly made to do duty at municipal elections when any of the Dahousie settlers were candidates. John Laurie, the first on the list given above, was a prominent person in his neighborhood and a platform speaker of ability. His two sons, John and William, together with Dugald McClain, were the three sawyers of the settlement for which they manufactured almost all the lumber for the district with a whip-shaw in one of the old-time saw-pits. About the year 1840 John Laurie, Jr. and McClain obtained a canoe near Dahousie Point one Sunday afternoon and set out to cross the lake to Roach's Point on the opposite shore. They were never heard of afterwards and it was supposed that they had been drowned off Dahousie Point. The other son, William Laurie, probably became better known at one day than any other member of the group. A few years after his arrival in Innisfil he married a daughter of Reverend John Climey and filled a variety of callings. At one time he preached occasionally, at another, he occupied the position of Chief Constable of this county after having served a term in Bradford as bailiff of the division court, and another in Barrie in the office of Sheriff Smith. At other times he was bailiff, auctioneer, etc., and travelled throughout this county to a considerable extent in these capacities. Few men in his day knew it better than he. One of his most notable exploits was the arrest in 1858 of Robert Couture, the outlaw, charged with murder at Holland Landing. On another occasion he was in company with John Rose of Bradford when they were beset by robbers near the place, but the two succeeded in warding off the attack. Subsequently he removed to Roxeter, here on county, where he carried on a conveyancing business for some years, and reached an advanced age. Reverend John Climey, the second individual on the foregoing list, had been a weaver in a village seven miles from Glasgow. A brother of his started the famous Clark Spool firm of Glasgow, the name of the firm continuing for several years to be Climey and Clark. His family consisted of four sons and some daughters who came with him from Scotland. One of the sons died in Innisfil soon after their arrival. Reverend John Climey, Jr. of this family was a congregationalist minister and was stationed from 1840 onward for some time at Bowmore, now Duntroon, in Ottawa, Saga, and subsequently at Darlington, 1851, Bowmanville 1856 and Belleville 1861. It appears to have been difficult for him to abstain from taking part in politics. His son, Mr. W. R. Climey, was Secretary of the Ontario Press Association, an editor and proprietor of the Bowmanville son until his death in 1894. William Climey, another son of the pioneer, lived on the homestead on the Second Concession Line. The two remaining brothers, George and Andrew, went to Perth County and have left there a numerous line of descendants. Other settlers in the South East. At Churchill, Galvin Allen, one of the Dalhousie settlers, took up Lot 16 Concession III North Half in 1832 and lived there for about eight years when he moved a mile further north. His sons have been identified with this neighbourhood from the beginning of the settlement. On the opposite corner of the Crossroads, in South Half, Lot 15 Concession IV, John Gimby, a native of England, settled with his family in 1833. Three children of this family died during the local outbreaks of cholera in the autumn of 1849. This family removed to the township of Derby near Owensound, where John and Joseph hewed out new homes for themselves in the unbroken forest. These two men in their neighbourhood became well known, the latter of whom died on November 21, 1889, at the age of sixty-three, leaving a large family. In the early years of its existence Churchill was known as Gimby's Corners and subsequently as Bulley's Acre from the rough characters who often congregated there and held a Mary Dublin. One of the best known citizens of Churchill for many years was Henry Sloan. By trade he was a wagon-maker and pursued his calling at this place. He was a prominent orange man, one of his ancestors, having come with William of Orange from Holland and settled in Ireland. He was second deputy-rieve of Innisfil for two years, 1869 to 70. In the neighbourhood of Lafroy Henry Gross, who had arrived in the county in 1832, after some time spent in West Willembury, settled on South Half, Lot 21 Concession IV, Innisfil, and had a saw mill there at an early date. He was a native of England, became a justice of the peace, and was at one time a member of the Township Council. His death occurred in 1888. The village of Lafroy was named after General Sir John Henry Lafroy, who from 1844 until 1853 was in charge of the Magnetic Observatory in Toronto. General Lafroy's first wife was a daughter of Chief Justice Sir John Beverly Robinson. John Cripps, who arrived upon South Half 20 Concession IV about the same time as the other pioneers of this neighbourhood, at first performed all his farm-work, with only one ox. Then, after fortune had smiled more graciously upon him, with a horse and an ox yoked together, which presented a spectacle rather more amusing than convenient. Some years later he sold his farm, and shortly afterwards a false report was circulated by someone that gold had been found upon the farm, which he had just left, causing him sorely to regret the sale of his possession. While in this neighbourhood it may be proper to say a few words upon Bellewirt, once the commercial metropolis of this Lake Simcoe region. For a long time, immediately after the opening of the northern railway in 1853, it was the busiest distributing point in the north. For there all the traffic of Lake Simcoe centred. It was the headquarters of the boats and the shipping of the lake. In 1852 Sage and Grant, two capitalists from the United States, built a large sawmill there, the largest in these parts at the time. While good timber was plentiful around the lake, a large business was carried on, but after a few years the timber limits became partially exhausted. The large mill was accidentally burned down, and Bellewirt dwindled in size. With regard to the orthography of the word Bellewirt, a curious circumstance arises. The place was named after the late Mr. Bellewirt, spelt B-E-L-L, separate word E-W-A-R-T, and the word is so spelled in all records of the post office department, but for some reason or another the most frequent rendering was Bellewirt, spelt B-E-L-L-E, separate word E-W-A-R-T, and a majority of the older books and records persisted in using the final E. It is recorded, though with what degree of correctness we have been unable to learn that a pioneer named Jacob Gill pitched his habitation in 1821 on Lot 23, concession two near Degrassie Point, just in from the Lakeshore, where for a number of years he was left the sole disturber of the woodland peace. With Bellewirt the list of deserted villages is not exhausted. For about three miles to the north of that place, beyond Cedar Point, on the shore of a small bay, was once the village of Lakeland. Here was a sawmill and two or three dozen houses, but the place lost its human habitations. HUNDREDS OF LIVES LOST A WATER SPOUT'S DREADFUL WORK IN PENSILVANIA THE CITY OF JOHNSTOWN SWEPT COMPLETELY AWAY A lake on the neighbouring hills burst its barriers and sweeps everything before it, men, women and children swallowed up by the angry flood, awful scenes witnessed by survivors. HITZBURG, MAY 31 An appalling catastrophe is reported from Johnstown, Cambria County, the meager details of which indicate that the city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants has been practically wiped out of existence and that hundreds, if not thousands of lives, have been lost. A dam at the foot of a mountain lake, eight miles long and three miles wide, about nine miles up the valley of the south fork of the Conamog River, broke at four o'clock this afternoon, just as it was struck by a water spout, and the whole tremendous volume of water swept in a resistless avalanche down the mountainside, making its own channel until it reached the south fork of the Conamog, swelling it to the proportions of Niagara's Rapids. The flood swept onward to the Conamog like a tidal wave, over twenty feet in height to Johnstown, six or eight miles below, gathering force as it tore along through the wider channel and quickly swept everything before it. The houses, factories, and bridges were overwhelmed in the twinkling of an eye, and with their human occupants were carried in a vast chaos down the raging torrent. The water began flowing over the dam or abutment at the weakest part of the mountain lake at about one o'clock, when Johnstown and people down the valley were warned by messengers to look out for a flood as the result of a water spout. Three hours later the whole end of the lake gave way, sweeping everything before it, railroads, bridges, and telegraph lines included. The scene of the disaster is cut off entirely from all manner of communication and has been since six o'clock this evening, and fragmentary details of the character and extent of the calamity have only come to hand from various places in the valley. About six o'clock Superintendent Robert Pitcarn of the Pennsylvania Railroad telegraphed from Song Hollow at the gap in the Laurel Ridge Mountains west of Johnstown that he had seen about two hundred persons afloat on gondola cars, shanties, etc., and that the disaster was appalling. One telegraph operator says he counted sixty-three bodies in twenty minutes floating past his office. A telegraph operator at Song Hollow on the Pennsylvania Railroad Tower, twelve miles this side of Jamestown, says that at least seventy-five dead bodies have floated past that point. The wires are all down, and no trains are running east of Blairsville, which is about twenty-five miles west of Johnstown. Pennsylvania railroad officials aver that over two hundred dead bodies have been counted floating downstream at Johnstown alone, while along the line many additional lives have been lost. But two houses in Johnstown are entirely above the line of the flood, and by far the greater part of the town has been entirely destroyed and carried down in the seething torrent. A special train bearing Pennsylvania railroad officials, and a large number of newspaper men, has left this city for the seam. A special dispatch from Greensburg says, a report has just reached here that the greater portion of Johnstown has been flooded and hundreds of lives lost. Houses are floating about, and the people who are free are panic-stricken, and are fleeing to the mountains. At a point near New Florence eighty-five persons have been seen floating down the river on Driftwood. One report comes that but two roofs of houses in Johnstown can be seen. The cove town and the New Florence bridges have been washed away, and all the buildings along the conamog between New Florence and Johnstown have been carried away. The railroad towers have been abandoned by the operators. A dispatch from Song Hollow says, at seven-forty-five o'clock a boy was rescued by men in the signal tower of the railroad company. His name is unknown, but he said that with his father, mother, brother, and two sisters he was swept away in the light-frame house which was their home. He was washed away from the building, but said the other members of the family were in it when it was swept over the breast of the New Stone Bridge at Johnstown, and it capsized a few seconds later, and that they were all drowned so far as he could tell. The railroad operator officially reports that before dark they were able to count one hundred nineteen persons clinging to buildings, wreckage, or drowned and floating in the current. If this information is to be credited, the damage in the town proper must be in the nature of a clean sweep. As early as one o'clock the alarm was sent to Johnstown that there was danger from the dam. The railroad officials were notified and in a very short time began to carry people from the town to places of safety on regular trains and hastily improvised rescuing trains. Superintendent Pitcarn of the Western Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was on his way to South Fork and was notified of impending trouble. Another report coming from Greensburg says, Johnstown is completely submerged and the loss of life is inestimable, houses are going down the river by dozens, and people can be seen clinging to the roofs. At Caketown, a village of several hundred inhabitants, the houses are almost entirely covered and a great many dwellings at Blairville are submerged. Scarcely a dwelling in the vicinity of Song Hollow can be seen. The bridges of Bolivar and Nineveh, it is reported, have given way, and that at Salzburg it is feared will be carried away. People here who have friends in the flooded district are eagerly waiting for news at the telegraph office. Great uneasiness prevails. The river at Livermore is rising and great destruction will follow. Later dispatches indicate that the tempest is a far wider range than was at first indicated. It raged with terrible violence throughout Indiana, Cambria, Westmoreland, Blair, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry counties, carrying away the telegraph wires, flooding and washing out railroads, converting the beautiful mountain streams into raging and resistless torrents that carry death and devastation all along their pass. The little Juniata, Frankstown Branch, and Juniata Rivers, that for the great part of the year are mere brooks, are over thirty feet deep with water. All the railroad and wagon bridges, so far as heard from, have been swept down in the watery avalanche and countless houses that were never dreamed to be in danger from flood have been swept away. Philadelphia, May 31st. At the office of the general manager of the Pennsylvania Railroad it was stated tonight that all the wires of the company West of Wilmore, a station on the Pittsburgh Division, twenty-five miles west of Altoona, had been down since eight a.m., and that consequently the information in regard to the break west of that place is very meager. Enough has been learned, however, to indicate that the rush of water is the worst ever known in that section. At Broad Street Station the following bulletin for the information of travelers was posted about eight o'clock. On account of the unprecedented storm prevailing in the western part of this state, the lines west of Altoona have been damaged to what extent cannot be ascertained until the water subsides. The storm is still raging and it is thought no trains will be passed until Sunday. The Chicago Limited Express, which left New York at nine o'clock this morning, the fast line leaving there at the same hour, and the train leaving that city at eight o'clock last night, are all laid up at Altoona. At ten thirty tonight a dispatch was received by general manager Pew, dated Wilmore, from the conductor of the eastbound New York and Chicago Limited, which left Pittsburgh at seven o'clock this morning, saying the train was safe, and that all were well on board. Mr. Pew inferred from this that the Limited was laid up somewhere west of Lily Station. The conductor reported that the bridge at South Fork was washed away, and expressed the opinion that all the bridges between South Fork and Johnstown would be swept away. The Chicago and New York Day Express, and all other eastbound trains are supposed to be laid up between Crescent and Pittsburgh. When Mr. Pew was shown a copy of the Associated Press Dispatch from Pittsburgh announcing the breaking of the dam near Johnstown, he said the report confirmed a dispatch received from Wilmore tonight, which stated that a man had reported to the Pennsylvania Railroad operator there that the South Fork dam had broken, and the water had carried away the coal tipple and telegraph tower at South Fork Station, and also a portion of an eastbound freight train. The telegraph operator, who was in the tower, managed to escape, but several of the train hands are reported to have been drowned. The reservoir or dam at South Fork, which is said to have burst with such terrible results, is described by a gentleman acquainted with the locality in which it was situated to be an immense body of water formerly used as a water supply for the Old Pennsylvania Canal. It has been owned for several years by a number of Pittsburgh gentlemen who used it as a fishing ground. The gentleman who gave this information said that if the report of the bursting of the dam was true, he had no doubt that the damage and loss of life was fully as great as indicated by the dispatches. The conductor of the eastbound New York Limited Express, who reported the safety of his train, also said that a report had reached him of the breaking of the dam. He said nothing about the damage caused thereby. General Manager Pugh was out of town early in the day, and he said tonight that he could not understand what was meant when he received dispatches announcing damage to the tracks at Lily Station. Such a thing has never been heard of before, said he tonight, and nothing short of a water spout could have caused such damage. Lily's is a little mining town of about three or four hundred inhabitants. For the water to rise high enough to obstruct the passage of trains is unprecedented. A dispatch just received by me says that the water is rushing over the tracks at a height of at least five feet above the roadbed, and this, I say, could be brought about by nothing short of a water spout. I have no doubt if our operator at Song Hollow said he saw the bodies from Johnstown floating down the river, as reported in the Associated Press Bulletin, that it is true, as his tower is situated right on the bank of the river. A special dispatch from Altoona says, Central Pennsylvania is in the midst of a flood tonight that has not been exceeded in the past fifty years. A steady, unbroken rain for thirty hours has paralyzed travel, destroyed numberless bridges, laid waste entire towns, and caused losses that will reach millions of dollars. The Juniata River is thirty feet high at Holidaysburg, and the water is four feet deep in the streets of Gasport. All communication with southern county towns has been cut off since this morning. Not a bridge remains on the branch roads. Trains have been abandoned. The Eldorado Valley is a vast lake, and farming districts suffer untold destruction. The Western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad is closed to travel. No trains from the west have passed this point since Thursday evening. Washouts have occurred at Portage and Lily Station. Johnstown is partially submerged. There is a landslide at Wilmore and another at Alagripua, on the mountain a mile long, and the Greensburg Bridge is gone. The limited express west is held here, and the railroad officials can give no encouragement when traffic can be resumed to the east. The bridge at Petersburg is very shaky. There are two miles of water at Tipton, through which trains run at heavy risk. Many families have been rescued from houses at Birmingham. Tyrone is cut off. Clearfield stands in four feet of water, and the Juniata at Huntingdon is a mile wide, sweeping destruction down the valley. The storm has caused forty thousand dollars of damage in this city alone, and the great reservoirs are all but gone. The sewers are useless. Many houses are undermined, and the storm shows no signs of cessation. Seven inches of rainfall in thirty hours has completely prostrated the Bell's gapped country, and that prosperous section from Bellwood to Puxatani, sixty-seven miles, is under the water ban. Word comes that Calport is submerged by Clearfield Creek, and Blaine City is partially washed away. So far no destruction of life is reported. John Caller was caught by the Juniata's rise at Frankstown. He had only time to climb a willow tree. He has been there since morning. Boats cannot reach him, and it is thought he has succumbed. Three bridges are gone at Williamsburg, and the town is invested. New Jersey Colored Men Colored mass meeting at Long Branch, Speeches and General Fett, Special Dispatch to the New York Times, Long Branch, August 23rd. A large and enthusiastic mass meeting of the Grant and Wilson Colored Citizens of Long Branch was held in this village tonight. This grand meeting was to have taken place Thursday night, but it was unfortunately prevented by the terrific storm which raged with such violence in the vicinity, and which completely frustrated the design of the committee of arrangements. The spot selected for the meeting was the large square between the Metropolitan and Clarendon Hotels, fronting on the beach, which is well adapted to the purposes of a large open-air assemblage. The Ninth Regiment used this square for encampment a year ago last summer. Owing to the duties of the Colored Population, many of whom work in hotels, restaurants, and private houses, it was impossible to organize at an early hour in the evening, and it was fully ten o'clock before the forces began to muster. When they did, they came in from every quarter and in every way. Some came on horseback, some in carriages, others traveling a long distance on foot. But everybody of color appeared eager to turn out and unite in the grand demonstration in support of the administration, and in honor and favor of President Grant. The hotels, as far as the waiters were concerned, were nearly destitute, and the general exodus of the Colored Population had the effect of drawing a very large number of other guests to the square to listen to the remarks of the speakers and become partakers in the general enthusiasm. The original program was to have all of the waiters of the different hotels form in line and march to the President's Cottage, serenade him there, being headed by the band, proceed to march in procession past all of the hotels to the square in front of the Metropolitan Hotel, where the stand had been erected for the speakers. The Excelsior Coronet Band, composed entirely of colored men from Philadelphia, was here on Thursday to lead the procession and join in celebrating the occasion, but could not remain to the postponed meeting in the consequence of a previous engagement to be in Cape May on the 23rd of September. The waiters of the Metropolitan Hotel, a very large body, marched to the West End Hotel, where they were joined by their brethren of that house, as well as by the waiters of the Howlins Hotel, Jocks Hotel, Clarendon Hotel, United States Hotel, Ocean Hotel, and Mansion House. Their numbers were largely augmented by people who came in from the surrounding country, in sympathy with the movement. Large numbers of torches were born in the procession, as well as Chinese lanterns and transparencies, with matos, let us have peace. One good term deserves another. We are for the right man, Grant, 1873. Roman candles and fireworks of every description were in abundance, and the continuous glare of blue lights, shooting off Roman candles and other brilliant passage of rockets through the air, rendered the scene both animated and delightful. The committee found it impossible to procure a band, as those at Long Branch are permanently employed by the hotels. A telegram to Red Bank for a band met with no success, and the procession was compelled to march without music. After marching to the stand, the meeting was organized by the election of Mr. A. J. Davis as president, and Mr. Robert Taylor of Washington, and 12 others as vice presidents. The chairman made a short speech, strongly supporting the administration, and endorsing the action of President Grant, after which he introduced Mr. Richard Garnett of Baltimore. Mr. Garnett spoke in a logical and convincing way concerning the relative position of President Grant and Horace Greeley, the Democratic nominee before the people, and of the services which each has rendered to the colored race. He showed that while President Grant had done more to elevate and place the colored race and positions due to them as men, and kept him there, Greeley has been undecided and willing, for the mere sake of office, to let all the good which has been done already be wiped out. He also spoke of the attitude of W. U. Garnett, and characterized him as a man simply chasing after power, and willing, like Greeley, to do almost anything to obtain it. Mr. H. B. Wilson of Long Branch was next introduced to the audience, and said, although he was suffering from hoarseness, he could not but speak a word for the cause, which so heartily commended itself to every honest and patriotic American citizen. He spoke very strongly in favor of the Republican Party. Mr. Titus of New York followed in an outing and able address. General Hoker of New York also spoke strongly in favor of the administration. The meeting was largely attended, and great enthusiasm was manifested. Tumultuous cheering at times interrupted the remarks of the speakers. End of New Jersey Colored Men from the New York Times. This recording is in the public domain. Origin of the Shell Mounds by J. Y. Detweiler, Florida Fish Commissioner. From the Florida Historical Society Quarterly, April 1908. Read for LibriVox.org by Leanne Howlett in Florida. Modern methods of traveling and the corresponding number of travelers permitting easy access to all parts of the civilized world, and especially throughout the United States, caused many persons to spend their winters in a semi-tropical climate, thereby combining the opportunity to escape the rigor of winter and secure that change of climate conducive to health and happiness. To entertain this vast concourse of people whose dispositions and tastes vary almost as much as their personal appearance is no small matter. For the success of each city or locality and obtaining its proportion of tourists is in proportion to their being properly and satisfactorily entertained. Time, unless satisfactorily occupied by the individual, hangs heavily on his hands, and a change is made for the better, the first available opportunity. The first questions arising in regard to a given locality or a accessibility, its living accommodations, and its opportunities for enjoyment. Hunting, fishing, and sightseeing are among the principal time-killing occupations, and the locality that can combine the three mentioned requisites is favored in proportion as these opportunities are known. Perhaps no location in the state of Florida possesses better opportunities in these three directions than New Smyrna for the class of people whose means permit them to retire from business for a time, leaving their home duties for a period of rest, recuperation, and enjoyment at a price within their income. Hunting has its advantages among the sterner sex. Fishing is enjoyed by the majority of ladies, some of whom are enthusiasts on the subject, but sightseeing, especially that which abounds within the realms of nature, is enjoyed by all classes. New Smyrna possesses in a very great measure all and more than that of any other place. The heavy hammocks within her environments, portions of which are under cultivation and embrace the largest orange groves in the state, her prehistoric buildings dating beyond the memory of man without sufficient historic data to inform the present generation as to their antecedents, comprising the foundations of a prehistoric fort, a building from every indication of the Spanish mission, and other historical objects. In addition to this, we have the prehistoric shell mounds located at different points along the river, showing conclusively that races of men subsisted upon the oysters, the shells of which remain for countless ages. These shell mounds, in some instances, are of such magnitude as to cover several acres and in places are 40 feet high. Along the west banks of the North Indian River, the shell ridges extend for a distance of many miles. They are also found along the Halifax River from Ormond to New Smyrna, but more especially observed along the new automobile road connecting the later city with Daytona. These shell piles are of such magnitude that an intelligent person said to the rider, what an upheaval of nature's forces must have occurred to produce this vast pile of shells, little realizing that they were the kitchen middens or the refuse of the culinary department of forgotten races of men, which, having withstood the ravages of time, excite the wonder and curiosity of succeeding generations. It is mainly the object of this article to correct the misleading ideas possessed by the public on this matter and to explain satisfactorily and intelligently how these shell piles were formed by those who erected them. Centuries ago, the waterways of the east coast of Florida were virtually of the same character as today, a system of lagoons forming century after century, the ridges dividing the freshwater from the ocean at intervals, an inlet permitting the freshwater to enter the ocean. The St. John's River at one time was what the Halifax and Indian rivers are today. At the land, an examination of the shell banks or moral pits shows decomposed, shells, an occasional clam shell or conch shell entire. At enterprise, there are large shell mounds of freshwater shells collected for the purpose of food by those living at that time. They are a species of snail and their shells are entire. The method by which the edible matter was removed will be explained later. The present marshes in the vicinity of New Smyrna were at one time a vast oyster bed, covered daily by the ebb and flow of the tide. The topography of the surrounding country was the same as now. No freshwater streams other than creeks emptying into the lagoons, the density of the water was too great for deep water cultivation of oysters, and the limit of the fixation of the oyster spat was that of extreme high or low water or the spring and neeptides. The marsh was composed of soft mud and the oyster beds when once formed covered vast areas and were the sources from which the oysters were collected that produced the mounds. An examination of the shell and the mounds today shows they were entirely similar to those in the marshes at the present time as collected for an oyster roast by the tourists. These are cold, the larger ones broken off, the smaller ones remaining to increase in size. The point of juncture is easily discerned. The length of the oyster shows that it was restricted in lateral growth by being bunched with others to elevate itself out of the mud. An oyster grown on a hard bottom lying on the side having depth and width made like a saucer. The calcareous matter of the shell was thin showing but little lime in the water. The edges of the shell are invariably found unbroken showing that they were not struck with an implement in order to obtain the edible matter inside. How was this accomplished in a speedy and satisfactory manner? Pots, pans, and kettles were not then in use or the question could be readily solved. It is supposed game was plentiful and the skin of a deer would make satisfactory receptacle for hot water to open the oyster by immersion therein. How to heat the water with no stones to heat in the fire but coquina which would burn into lime. Necessity knows no law and by building up an earthenware pot from the marsh clay the mystery is readily solved. A hole was dug on the sand lined with a deer skin. This was filled with water. The earthenware pot was placed therein, a fire built inside which soon boiled the water. Oysters were placed around the pot or dipped in until the shell opened and they were pried open with another shell and the oyster was ready for eating. In the case of the dunac or soup clam the conditions were reversed. The clams were boiled, the broth made use of with fish, game, and other food. Pieces of broken pottery are plentifully found among the shell piles as well as large conks with the point broken to obtain the contents. In the case of the freshwater snails along the St. John's River the dipping in the hot water would loosen the animal leaving the shell intact. As to the method of making fire it was presumably obtained by friction in some manner and in their travels by canoe or overland could be kept in the cooking pot. All the pieces that are found are black on the inside. In the investigation of the conditions that then existed there is as much enjoyment and satisfaction secured by the lover of nature and his search for information as in other pursuits and if the mystery of how the shell mound were formed is satisfactorily made plain it is but a contribution to knowledge freely imparted to those who have not had the opportunity to investigate for themselves. End of Origin of the Shell Mounds. This recording is in the public domain. Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Suthay by Joseph Cottle redfilibrevox.org by Rachel Linton Bristol UK To account for my introduction to all the persons subsequently noticed it is necessary to apprise the reader that I was a bookseller in Bristol from the year 1791 to 1798 from the age of 21 to 28 and having imbibed from my tutor and friend the late John Henderson one of the most extraordinary of men some little taste for literature I found myself during that period generally surrounded by men of cultivated minds with these preliminary remarks I shall commence the narrative. At the close of the year 1794 a clever young man of the Society of Friends of the name of Robert Lovell who had married a Miss Fricker informed me that a few friends of his from Oxford and Cambridge with himself were about to sail to America and on the banks of the Susquehanna to form a social colony in which there was to be a community of property and where all that was selfish was to be prescribed. None he said were to be admitted into their number but tried and incorruptible characters and he felt quite assured that he and his friends would be able to realize a state of society free from the evils and term oils that then agitated the world and to present an example of the eminence to which men might arrive under the unrestrained influence of sound principles. He now paid me the compliment of saying that he would be happy to include me in this select assemblage who under a state which he called Pantysocracy were he hoped to regenerate the whole complexion of society and that not by establishing formal laws but by excluding all the little deteriorating passions injustice, wrath, anger, clamour and evil speaking and thereby setting an example of human perfectability. Young as I was I suspected there was an old and intractable leaven in human nature that would effectually frustrate these airy schemes of happiness which had been projected in every age and always with the same result. At first the disclosure so confounded my understanding that I almost fancied myself transported to some new state of things while images of patriarchal and pristine felicity stood thick around decked in the rainbow's colors. A moment's reflection however dissolved the insubstantial vision when I asked him a few plain questions. How do you go? said I. My young and ardent friend instantly replied we freight a ship carrying out with us plows and other implements of husbandry. The thought occurred to me that it might be more economical to purchase such articles in America but not too much to discourage the enthusiastic aspirant after happiness. I forebore all reference to the accumulation of difficulties to be surmounted and merely inquired who were to compose his company. He said that only four had as yet absolutely engaged in the enterprise Samuel Taylor Coleridge from Cambridge in whom I understood the plan to have originated Robert Suthey and George Burnett from Oxford and himself. Well I replied when do you set sail? He answered very shortly I soon expect my friends from the universities when all the preliminaries will be adjusted and we shall joyfully cross the blue waves of the Atlantic. But said I to freight a ship and sail out in the high style of gentleman agriculturalists will require funds. How do you manage this? We all contribute what we can said he and I shall introduce all my dear friends to you immediately on their arrival in Bristol. Robert Lovell though inexperienced and constitutionally sanguine was a good specimen of the open frankness which characterizes the well-informed members of the Society of Friends and he excited in me an additional interest from a warmth of feeling and an extent of reading above even the ordinary standard of the estimable class to which he belonged. He now read me some of the MS poems of his two unknown friends which at once established their genius in my estimation. My leisure having been devoted for many years to reading and composition and having a small volume of poems at that time in the press I anticipated great pleasure from an introduction to two poets who super added to talents of a higher order all the advantages arising from learning and a consequent familiarity with the best models of antiquity independently of which they excited an interest and awakened a peculiar solicitude from there being about so soon to leave their fatherland and to depart permanently for a foreign shore. One morning shortly after Robert Lovell called on me and introduced Robert Sothe never will the impression be afaced produced on me by this young man tall dignified possessing great suavity of manners and I piercing with accountants full of genius, kindness and intelligence. I gave at once the right hand of fellowship and to the moment of his decease that cordiality was never withdrawn. I had read so much of poetry and sympathized so much with poets and all their eccentricities and vicissitudes to see before me the realization of a character which in the abstract most absorbed my regards gave me a degree of satisfaction which it would be difficult to express. I must now make a brief reference to George Burnett who in this epidemic delusion had given his sanction to and embarked on his prospects in life on this Pantisocrator scheme. He was a young man about the age of 20 the son of a respectable summercatcher farmer who had bestowed on him his portion by giving him a university education as an introduction to the church into which he would probably have entered but for this his transatlantic pursuit of happiness. His talents were not conspicuous but his manners were unpresuming and honesty was depicted on his countenance. He possessed also that habitual good temper and those accommodating manners which would prove a desirable accession in any society and it soon appeared without indicating any disrespect that his was a subordinate part to act in the new drama and not the less valuable for its wanting splendor. After some considerable delay it was at length announced that on the coming morning Samuel Taylor Coleridge would arrive in Bristol as the nearest and most convenient port and where he was to reside but a short time before the favouring gales were to waft him and his friends across the Atlantic. Robert Lovell at length introduced Mr C. I instantly described his intellectual character exhibiting as he did an eye, a brow and a forehead indicative of commanding genius. Interviews succeeded and these increased the impression of respect. Each of my new friends read me his productions. Each accepted my invitations and gave me those repeated proofs of good opinion ripening fast into a steam that I could not be insensible to the kindness of their manners which it may truly be affirmed infused into my heart a brotherly feeling that more than identified their interests with my own. I introduced them to several intelligent friends and their own merits soon augmented the number so that their acquaintance became progressively extended and their society coveted. Bristol was now found a very pleasant residence and though the ship was not engaged nor the least preparation made for so long a voyage still the delights and wide spreading advantages of Pantysocracy formed one of their everlasting themes of conversation and considering the barrenness of the subject it was in no common degree amusing to hear these young enthusiasts repel every objection to the practicality of their scheme and magnify the condition to which it was to introduce them where thorns and briars were no doubt to be expelled and their couch to be strewed with down and roses. It will excite merely an innocent smile in the reader at the extravagance of a youthful and ardent mind when he learns that Robert Lovell stated with great seriousness that after the minutest calculations and inquiry among practical men the demand on their labor would not exceed two hours a day that is for the production of absolute necessaries. The leisure still remaining might be devoted in convenient fractions to the extension of their domain by prostrating the sturdy trees of the forest where lop and top without cost would supply their cheerful winter fire and the trunks when cut into planks without any other expense than their own pleasant labor would form the sties for their pigs and the linneys for their cattle and the barns for their produce reserving their choices timbers for their own comfortable log dwellings but after every claim that might be made on their manual labor had been discharged a large portion of time would still remain for their own individual pursuits so that they might read converse and even write books. Cooper in an unpublished letter now before me says I know well that publication is necessary to give an edge to the poetic turn and that what we produce in the closet is never a vigorous birth if we intend that it should die there for my own part I could no more amuse myself with writing verse if I did not print it when written than with the study of tactics for which I can never have any real occasion but I young and ardent friends seem to entertain a strong impression that the mere pleasure of writing that is like a virtue writing for its own sake was all the mental and rational gratification wise men could desire views and times alter and these richly endowed young men in afterlife were prompt and among the first to confess the fallacious schemes of their youth but at this time the pleasurable alone occupied their field of vision and confidence never stood more unencumbered with doubt if any difficulties were now started and many such there were a profusion of words demonstrated the reasonableness of the whole design impressing all who heard with the conviction that the citadel was too strong for assault the mercury at this time was generally mr. Coleridge who as has been stated ingeniously parried every adverse argument and after silencing his hardy disputants announced to them that he was about to write and publish a quarto volume in defense of pantisocracy in which a variety of arguments would be advanced in defense of his system too subtle and recondite to comport with conversation it would then he said become manifest that he was not a projector raw from his cloister but a cool calculating reasoner whose efforts an example would secure to him and his friends the permanent gratitude of mankind from the sentiments thus entertained i shall represent mr. Coleridge in the section of his days which devolves on me to exhibit just as he was and that with a firm belief that by so doing without injuring his legitimate reputation i shall confer an essential benefit on those to come who will be holding mr. C much to admire and imitate and certainly some things to regret for it should be remembered mr. Coleridge from universal admission possessed some of the highest mental endowments and many pertaining to the heart that if a man's life be valuable not for the incense it consumes but for the instruction it affords to state even defects in one like mr. C who can so well afford deduction without serious loss becomes in his biographer not optional but a serious obligation it is proper additionally to remark that some apology or propitiation may be necessary toward those who regard every approximation to poverty not as a misfortune but a crime pecuniary difficulties especially such as a current early life and not ascribable to bad conduct reflect no discredit on men of genius many of them subsequently surmounted their first embarrassments by meritorious exertion and some of our first men like travellers after having successfully passed through regions of privation and peril delight even to recall their former discouragements and without the shame that luxuriates alone in little minds undisguisedly to tell of seasons indelible in their memories when in the prostration of hope the wide world appeared one desolate waste but they ultimately found that these seasons of darkness however tenaciously retained by memory in better times often administered a new and refreshing zest to present enjoyment despair therefore ill becomes one who has follies to be wail and a god to trust in johnson and goldsmith with numerous others at some seasons were plunged deep in the waters of adversity but halcyon days awaited them and even those sons of merit and misfortune whose pecuniary troubles were more permanent in the dimness of retrospection only stand out invested in softer hues savantes is not the less red because the acclimations of praise were heard by him in his abode of penury butler octway collins chatterton and burns and men like them instead of suffering in public estimation from the difficulties they encountered absolutely challenge in every generous mind an excess of interest from the very circumstances that darkened the complexion of their earthly prospects in corroboration of this remark in our own day the son of crab who must have cherished the deepest solicitudes for his father's reputation has laid bare to general inspection his parents early perplexities by which impartial disclosures we behold the individual in his deepest depressions worth enriched by trial and greatness by a refining process struggling successfully with adversity does the example of such a man nobly bearing up against the pressures that surrounded him inflict obduracy in our hearts on the contrary while we feelingly sympathize with the poet and deplore the tardy hand of deliverance we pause only to transfer a reflex portion of praise to him whose magnanimous conduct has furnished so ample a scope for the tenderest emotions of our nature this reflection will induce me not to withhold from false delicacy occurrences the disclosure of which none but the inconsiderate will condemn and by which all the features of mr coneridge's character will be exhibited to the inspection of the inquisitive and philosophical mind i proceed therefore to state that the solicitude i felt lest these young and ardent geniuses should in a disastrous hour and in their mistaken apprehensions commit themselves in this their desperate undertaking was happily dissipated by mr coleridge applying for the loan of a little cash to pay the voyages freight or passage no lodgings they all lodged at this time at number 48 college street never did i lend money with such unmingled pleasure for now i cease to be haunted day and night with the specter of the ship the ship which was to affect such incalculable mischief the form of the request was the following my dear sir can you conveniently lend me five pounds as we want a little more than four pounds to make up our lodging bill which is indeed much higher than we expected seven weeks and bonnets lodging for 12 weeks amounting to 11 pounds yours affectionately s t coleridge till this time not knowing what the resources of my young friends were i could not wholly divest myself of fear but now an effectual barrier manifestly interposed to save them from destruction and though their romantic plan might linger in their minds it was impossible not to be assured that their strong good sense would eventually dissipate their delusions finding now that there was a deficiency in that material deemed of the first consequence in all civilized states and remembering Berg's feeling lamentation over the improvidence or rather the indifference with which many men of genius regard the low thoughts at a merely of a pecuniary nature i began to revolve on the means by which the two poets might advantageously apply their talents soon after finding mr coleridge in rather a desponding mood i urged him to keep up his spirits and recommended him to publish a volume of his poems oh he replied that is a useless expedient he continued i offered a volume of my poems to different booksellers in london who would not even look at them the reply being sir the article will not do at length one more accommodating than the rest condescended to receive my manuscript poems and after a deliberate inspection offered me for the copyright six guineas which some poor as i was i refused to accept well said i to encourage you i will give you 20 guineas it was very pleasant to observe the joy that instantly diffused itself over his countenance nay i continued others publish for themselves i will chiefly remember you instead of giving you 20 guineas i will extend it to 30 and without waiting for the completion of the work to make you easy you may have the money as your occasions require the silence and the grasped hand showed that at that moment one person was happy end of extract this recording is in the public domain secessionists being armed by miss yours walker and lick this is a libre vox recording all libre vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libre vox.org i have been surprised to see the way union men have been served during this rebellion men in the southern part of our state in dent county texas county and over the southern and southeastern part of felps practically are hired to be secessionists and secession sympathizers union men who have been known and tried as such are held in terror of their lives by the secession sympathizers in their neighborhoods their property is taken from them with perfect impunity union citizens are taught practically that they cannot receive any protection for life or property from the secession gorillas and their active cooperators secession sympathizers secessionists take an oath for which they openly say they have no respect give a bond which stands in no danger of being forfeited because never enforced their sons return from the rebel army and bring their arms with them which they are not required to give up their secession neighbors with very few exceptions withheld their guns at the call under general order number 19 while the union citizens delivered their guns up the consequence is secessionists are armed the union citizens are unarmed another thing the union citizens experience as much difficulty in getting their arms as secessionists do from our present authorities consequently every advantage is given to those of secession proclivities to annoy and harass union citizens if a union man loses or has lost any property from secessionists he has practically little or no redress whereas if a secessionist he has just as good a claim upon government for protection as though he were loyal go into any of those neighborhoods who are the unarmed citizens union men who are robbed union men who are despised union men whose families are robbed of their subsistence union soldiers whose lives are in danger in those infernal neighborhoods union citizens what families really suffer the most from military restrictions upon trade i think i say not too much when i say that union citizens experience more trouble improving their loyalty than secessionists themselves i make no charges or reflections upon any officers in the discharge of their duties but i do say these appear to be the facts and i would respectfully ask if it should be so is it right that returned rebels who are here to hibernate only to return to their robbing and stealing in the spring should receive better protection than loyal citizens and does it appear right that foresooth because a man has returned from the rebel army and given a bond that it should entitle him to better protection than the citizen who has always remained true to his country if so then is the effect of it to offer a premium to traders a neighborhood where a union man cannot live in safety is not entitled to the protection of government neighborhoods that do not respect their oaths enough to yield to union citizens the same protection they claim for themselves should not receive the respect or protection of government officials but should be treated as rebel communities union end of secessionists being armed by missures walker and lick recording by eric ray in missouri united states silences by debose hayward this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org from carolina chansons by hervey alan and debose hayward silences followed by note on the chimes by debose hayward you who have known my city for a day and heard the music of her steepled bells then laughed and passed along your vagrant way carrying only what the city tells to those who listened solely with their ears you know st. matthew swinging harmonies and old st. michael's tale of golden years far less like bells than chanted memories yet there is something wanting in the song of lyric youth with voice unschooled by pain and there are breathing stillnesses that throng dim corners and that only stir again when bells are dumb not even bronze that beats our heartthrobs back can tell of old defeats but you who take the city for your own come with me when the night flows deep and kind along these narrow ways of troubled stone and floods the wide savannas of the mind with tides that cool the fever of the day one with the dark companion to buy the stars will seek st. phillips nebulous and gray holding its throbbing beacon to the bars a prison spirit vibrant in the stone that knew its empire of forgotten things then will the city know you for her own and feel you meet to share her sufferings while down a swirl of poignant memories herself shall find you in her silences once coaches weighted row on shining row before this door and where the thirsty street drank the deep shadow of the portico the sunday hush was stirred by happy feet low greetings and the rustle of brocade the organ throb and warmth of sunny eyes that flashed and smiled beneath a bonnet shade life with the lure of all its swift disguise then from the soaring lyric of this fire like the composite voice of all the town the bells burst swiftly into singing fire that wrapped the building and which showered down bright cadences to flash along the ways loud with the splendid gladness of the days war took the city and the laughter died from lips that pain had kissed one after one all lovely things went down the sanguine tide while death made moaning answer to the gun then as a golden voice dies in the throat of one who lives but whose glad heart is dead the bells were taken and a sterner note rang from their bronze where lee and jackson led the rhythmic seasons chill and burn and chill cooling old angers warming hearts again the ancient building quickens to the thrill of lilting feet but only singing rain flutters old echoes in the portico those who can still remember love it so end of silences by debose hayward note on the chimes to accompany silences the bells of charleston like the bells of london town have a peculiar interest saint michael's bells and clock were brought from england in 1764 when the british evacuated charleston in 1782 they took the bells with them a mr rinneau bought them in england and returned them they were rehung and november 1783 during the civil war saint michael's steeple was the target for federal artillery and fleet guns in 1861 the bells were taken to columbia south carolina where two of them were stolen and the rest injured by fire when the city was burned those left were again sent to england and recast in the original molds in march 1867 they once again rang out from the spire saint phillips church stands in the old part of the town during the civil war its bells were cast into canon for a long time its steeple was used as a lighthouse it is the center of forgotten things the bells of saint matthews are modern and speak of a new order but all the bells are the voice of the town they speak for her silences which are eloquent end of note on the chimes recording by lauri ann walden from south carolina now living in north carolina the two sisters by pauline johnson this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org the two sisters the lions from legends of vancouver by e pauline johnson you can see them as you look towards the north and the west where the dream hills swim into the sky amid their ever drifting clouds of pearl and gray they catch the earliest hint of sunrise they hold the last color of sunset twin mountains they are lifting their twin peaks above the fairest city in all canada and known throughout the british empire as the lions of vancouver sometimes the smoke of forest fires blurs them until they gleam like opals in a purple atmosphere too beautiful for words to paint sometimes the slanting rains festoon scarves have missed about their crests and the peaks fade into shadowy outlines melting melting forever melting into the distances but for most days in the year the sun circles the twin glories with a sweep of gold the moon washes them with a torrent of silver oftentimes when the city is shrouded in rain the sun yellows their snows to a deep orange but through sun and shadow they stand immovable smiling westward above the waters of the restless pacific eastward above the superb beauty of the cabaleno canyon but the indian tribes do not know these peaks as the lions even the chief whose feet have so recently wandered to the happy hunting grounds never heard the name given them until i mentioned it to him one dreamy august day as together we followed the trail leading to the canyon he seemed so surprised at the name that i mentioned the reason that it had been applied to them asking him if he recalled the lancir lions in trefalgar square yes he remembered those splendid sculptures and his quick eye saw the resemblance instantly it appeared to please him and his fine face expressed the haunting memories of the faraway roar of old london but the call of the blood was stronger and presently he referred to the indian legend of those peaks a legend that i have reason to believe is absolutely unknown to thousands of pale faces who look upon the lions daily without the love for them that is in the indian heart without knowledge of the secret of the two sisters the legend was intensely fascinating as it left his lips in the quaint broken english that is never so dulcet as it when it slips from an indian tongue his inimitable gestures strong graceful comprehensive were like a perfectly chosen frame embracing a delicate painting and his brooding eyes were as the light in which the picture hung many thousands of years ago he began there were no twin peaks like sentinels guarding the outposts of this sunset coast they were placed there long after the first creation when the sagali taii molded the mountains and patterned the mighty rivers where the salmon run because of his love for his indian children and his wisdom for their necessities in those times there were many and mighty indian tribes along the pacific in the mountain ranges out of the shores and sources of the great frasier river indian law ruled the land indian customs prevailed indian beliefs were regarded those were the legend making ages when great things occurred to make the traditions we repeat to our children today perhaps the greatest of these traditions is the story of the two sisters they are known to us as the chief's daughters and to them we owe the great peace in which we live and have lived for many countless moons there is an ancient custom amongst the coast tribes that when our daughters step from childhood into the great world of womanhood the occasion must be made one of extreme rejoicing the being who possesses the possibility of someday mothering a man child a warrior a brave receives much consideration in most nations but to us the sunset tribes she is honored above all people the parents usually give a great potlatch and a feast that lasts many days the entire tribe and the surrounding tribes are bidden to this festival more than that sometimes when a great taiyi celebrates for his daughter the tribes from far up the coast from the distant north from inland from the island from the caribou country are gathered as guests to the feast during these days of rejoicing the girl is placed in a high seat an exalted position for is she not marriageable and does not marriage mean motherhood and does not motherhood mean a vaster nation of brave sons and gentle daughters who in their turn will give us sons and daughters of their own but it was many thousands of years ago that a great taiyi had two daughters that grew to womanhood at the same spring time when the first great run of salmon thronged the rivers and the olali bushes were heavy with blossoms these two daughters were young lovable and oh very beautiful their father the great taiyi prepared to make a feast such as the coast had never seen there were to be days and days of rejoicing the people were to come for many leagues were to bring gifts to the girls and to receive gifts of great value from the chief and hospitality was to rain as long as pleasuring feet could dance and enjoying lips could laugh and mouths partake of the excellence of the chief's fish game and olalis the only shadow on the joy of it all was war for the tribe of the great taiyi was at war with the upper coast Indians those who lived north near what is named by the pale face as the port of prince rupert giant war can you slipped along the entire coast war parties paddled up and down war songs broke the silences of the nights hatred vengeance strife horror festered everywhere like sores on the surface of the earth but the great taiyi after warring for weeks turned and laughed at the battle and the bloodshed for he had been victor in every encounter and he could well afford to leave the strife for a brief week and feast in his daughter's honor nor permit any mere enemy to come between him and the traditions of his race and household so he turned insultingly deaf ears to their war cries he ignored with arrogant indifference their paddle dips that encroached within his own coast waters and he prepared as a great taiyi should to royally entertain his tribesmen in honor of his daughters but seven sons before the great feast these two maidens came to him hand clasped in hand oh our father they said may we speak speak my daughters my girls with the eyes of april the hearts of june early spring and early summer would be the more accurate indian phrasing someday oh our father we may mother a man child who may grow to be just such a powerful taiyi as you are and for this honor that may someday be ours we have come to crave a favor of you oh our father it is your privilege at this celebration to receive any favor your hearts may wish he replied graciously placing his fingers beneath their girlish chins the favor is yours before you ask it my daughters will you for our sakes invite the great northern hostile tribe the tribe you wore upon to this our feast they asked fearlessly to a peaceful feast a feast in honor of women he exclaimed incredulously so we would desire it they answered and so it shall be he declared i can deny you nothing this day and sometime you may bear sons to bless this piece you have asked and to bless their mother's sire for granting it then he turned to all the young men of the tribe and commanded build fires at sunset on all the coast headlands fires of welcome man your canoes and face the north greet the enemy and tell them that i the taiyi of the capillanos ask no command that they join me for a great feast in honor of my two daughters and when the northern tribes got this invitation they flocked down the coast to this feast of a great peace they brought their women and their children they brought game and fish gold and white stone beads baskets and carbon ladles and wonderful woven blankets to lay at the feet of their now acknowledged ruler the great taiyi and he in turn gave such a potlatch that nothing but tradition can vie with it there were long glad days of joyousness long pleasurable nights of dancing and campfires and vast quantities of food the war canoes were emptied of their deadly weapons and filled with the daily catch of salmon the hostile war songs ceased and in their place were heard the soft shuffle of dancing feet the singing voices of women the play games of the children of two powerful tribes which had been until now ancient enemies for a great and lasting brotherhood was sealed between them their war songs were ended forever then the sagali taiyi smiled upon his indian children i will make these young eyed maidens immortal he said in the cup of his hands he lifted the chief's two daughters and set them forever in a high place for they had born two offspring peace and brotherhood each of which is now a great taiyi ruling this land and on the mountain crest the chief's daughters can be seen wrapped in the suns the snows the stars of all seasons for they have stood in this high place for thousands of years and will stand for thousands of years to come guarding the peace of the pacific coast and the quiet of the capillano canyon this is the indian legend of the lions of vancouver as i had it from one who will tell me no more the traditions of his people end of the two sisters by pauline johnson upon westminster bridge by william wordsworth red for libruvox.org by david barnes earth has not anything to show more fair dull would he be of soul who could pass by a sight so touching in its majesty this city now doth like a garment where the beauty of the morning silent bare ships towers domes theaters and temples lie open unto the fields and to the sky all bright and glittering in the smokeless air never did sun more beautifully steep in his first splendor valley rock or hill ne'er saw rye never felt a calm so deep the river glideth at his own sweet will dear god the very houses seem asleep and all that mighty heart is lying still end of poem this recording