THE SUBLIME FALLS –– HENRY DIDN’T GO THERE February 12, Wednesday: ... There is something more than association at the bottom of the excitement which the roar of a cataract produces. It is allied to the circulation in our veins We have a waterfall which corresponds even to Niagara somewhere within us. It is astonishing what a rush & tumult a slight inclination will produce in a swolen brook. How it proclaims its glee –its boisterousness –rushing headlong in its prodigal course as if it would exhaust itself in half an hour – how it spends itself– I would say to the orator and poet Flow freely & lavishly as a brook that is full –without stint –perchance I have stumbled upon the origin of the word lavish. It does not hesitate to tumble down the steepest precipice & roar or tinkle as it goes, –for fear it will exhaust its fountain.– The impetuosity of descending waters even by the slightest inclination! It seems to flow with ever increasing rapidity. It is difficult to believe what Philosophers assert that it is merely a difference in the form of the elementary particles, as whether they are square or globular –which makes the difference between the steadfast everlasting & reposing hill-side & the impetuous torrent which tumbles down it.... THE SCARLET LETTER: There was one thing that much aided me in renewing and re-creating the stalwart soldier of the Niagara frontier – the man of true and simple energy. It was the recollection of those memorable words of his –“I’ll try, Sir”– spoken on the very verge of a desperate and heroic enterprise, and breathing the soul and spirit of New England hardihood, comprehending all perils, and encountering all. If, in our country, valour were rewarded by heraldic honour, this phrase – which it seems so easy to speak, but which only he, with such a task of danger and glory before him, has ever spoken– would be the best and fittest of all mottoes for the General’s shield of arms. The Niagara cataract is divided into the American Falls, the Bridal Veil Falls, and the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls. The American Falls spills its water 800 feet onto rocks the size of houses. No one has ever gone over the American Falls and lived (and perhaps there is something about that that is somewhat sublime). Then there is Luna Island, and then the Bridal Veil Falls, and then Goat Island, and then the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls, at the base of which there are surge pools that are free of fallen rock, and we know of at least 15 cases in which someone has gone over this section of the lip and been retrieved downriver bodily intact, more or less. –But Horace enjoined it to be the “last effort of philosophical fortitude, to behold the immense and glorious fabric of the universe ... without terror and amazement.” –And Thoreau experienced the sublime not at Niagara, but on Ktaadn. “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX THE SUBLIME ONGUIAAHARA 1535 Since we’re always interested in anything that a white man gets around to finding out about for the first time: French explorer Jacques Cartier heard of curative waters to be found in the future Saratoga Springs, New York area, while exploring the St. Lawrence River. He may also have heard tell at this point of a great falls (Niagara Falls) to the west. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX ONGUIAAHARA THE SUBLIME 1603 Captain Samuel de Champlain heard that there was a great waterfall “Onguiaahara” (Niagara Falls) at the western end of Lake Ontario. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX THE SUBLIME ONGUIAAHARA 1679 Père Louis Hennepin reached the Niagara Falls. The first shipyard on the Great Lakes was created on the banks of Cayuga Creek, in the future Buffalo, New York area. René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle launched Le Griffin on Cayuga Creek above the falls. This was the 1st sailing vessel on the Great Lakes, and the expedition would be using it to explore Lake Erie and the western shore of Lake Michigan. Hennepin was 39 when he sailed with LaSalle on Le Griffon from New France through the Great Lakes to explore the unknown western region of Canada. HDT WHAT? INDEX ONGUIAAHARA THE SUBLIME 1684 Father Louis Hennepin, in DESCRIPTION DE LA LOUISIANE, NOUVELLEMENT DECOUVERTE AU SUD’OÜEST DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE, PAR ORDRE DU ROY. AVEC LA CARTE DU PAYS: LES MŒURS & LA MANIERE DE VIVRE DES SAUVAGES, DEDIÉE À SA MAJESTÉ PAR LA R. P. LOUIS HENNEPIN, MISSIONAIRE RÉCOLLET & NOTAIRE APOSTOLIQUE, published in Paris, reported having viewed a giant waterfall between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in New York — Niagara Falls. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE SUBLIME ONGUIAAHARA War broke out again between the Five Nations and France, in western New York. Mr. de la Barre made an unsuccessful inroad into the territories of the Five Nations; this was settled by the peace of September 5th, at Famine Cove, on Lake Ontario, and De la Barre with his whole army returned to Montréal. CANADA NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX ONGUIAAHARA THE SUBLIME 1697 Father Louis Hennepin’s NOUVELLE DECOUVERTE D’UN TRÈS GRAND PAYS SITUÉ DANS L’AMÉRIQUE, ENTRE LE NOUVEAU MEXIQUE, ET LA MER GLACIALE, AVEC LES CARTES, & LES FIGURES NECESSAIRES, & DE PLUS L’HISTOIRE NATURELLE ET MORALE, & LES AVANTAGES QU’ON EN PEUT TIRER PAR L’ÉTABLISSEMENT DES COLONIES. LE TOUT DEDIÉ À SA MAJESTÉ BRITANNIQUE, GUILLAUME III (Utrecht: Guillaume Broedelet) included the first illustration, ever, of Niagara Falls: NOUVELLE DÉCOUVERT ... “HUCKLEBERRIES”: Father Hennepin — who writes in 1697 — says that his captors, Naudowessi (the Sioux!), near the falls of St. Anthony, feasted on wild-rice seasoned with blueberries, ‘which they dry in the sun during the summer, and which are as good as raisins of Corinth’ — [that is, the imported currants]. FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN HDT WHAT? INDEX THE SUBLIME ONGUIAAHARA It was at this point that Hennepin began to prevaricate, mentioning something he had not mentioned before, that he had traversed not only the upper but the lower Mississippi and had traced the course of the stream to its outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact it would be implausible between the date when Hennepin left the country of the Illinois and the date upon which he was captured by the Issati to effect a canoe voyage from Fort Crève-coeur to the mouth of the Mississippi and then upstream to a point near the present southern boundary of Mississippi — the guy would have needed a jet-ski! The “Nouvelle Découverte” would be followed by another book coming from the press at Utrecht in the year 1698, entitled “Nouveau Voyage.” Almost simultaneously, English translations of the two last-mentioned works appeared in London.1 Both the French and the English versions would be dedicated to William III, King of England, for at that time Hennepin had lost the favor of the French monarch — the archives contain an order from King Louis XIV directing the governor of New France to arrest Hennepin should he make an appearance there and send him home. 1. A NEW DISCOVERY OF A VAST COUNTRY IN AMERICA, EXTENDING ABOVE FOUR THOUSAND MILES BETWEEN NEW FRANCE & NEW MEXICO: WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT LAKES … (London: H. Bonwicke, 1699) HDT WHAT? INDEX ONGUIAAHARA THE SUBLIME 1726 The “Castle,” a stone fortification, was built on the Niagara River (this would become the nucleus of Fort Niagara). LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX THE SUBLIME ONGUIAAHARA 1749 July: Pierre-Joseph Céloron de Bienville and his party, traveling across the western part of backwoods New York, reached Fort Niagara. They would proceed to the Ohio Valley via Chautauqua Lake, depositing lead (not tin?) sheets carrying the French coast-of-arms at each important river mouth. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX ONGUIAAHARA THE SUBLIME 1750 Peter Kalm witnessed bored French soldiers push whole trees into the rapids above Niagara Falls, in order to watch them disappear over the brink. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The Niagara and the concept of the Sublime HDT WHAT? INDEX THE SUBLIME ONGUIAAHARA 1751 J. Whiston & B. White of Fleet-Street in London published the results of Friend John Bartram’s trip to Lake Ontario as OBSERVATIONS ON THE INHABITANTS, CLIMATE, SOIL, RIVERS, PRODUCTIONS, ANIMALS, AND OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF NOTICE MADE BY MR. JOHN BARTRAM, IN HIS TRAVELS FROM PENSILVANIA TO ONONDAGO, OSWEGO AND THE LAKE ONTARIO, IN CANADA: TO WHICH IS ANNEX’D A CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE CATARACTS AT NIAGARA BY MR. PETER KALM, A SWEDISH GENTLEMAN WHO TRAVELLED THERE. NIAGARA FALLS (Thus was initiated the scientific and literary writing about nature in America.) HDT WHAT? INDEX ONGUIAAHARA THE SUBLIME Bartram’s diagram of an Iroquois longhouse and the town of Oswego.