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Beyond Penn's Treaty

A Mission to the Indians from the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne, in 1804

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a distance of two miles. This was a walk, of
which every step seemed to increase curiosity
and surprise. Our attention was soon arrested
by a cloud which hangs perpetually over the
Falls for the height of 600 feet, arising from the
dashing of the waters.

As we advanced to the Falls the solid earth
and rocks shook, or seemed to shake, under our
feet, whilst the roar of the waters so overpowered
every other sound that, notwithstanding we were
tete-a-tete, it was necessary to raise the voice to
a very loud key in order to be heard. Mean-
while the cloud above mentioned issued contin-
ually in what we sometimes hear called a Scotch
mist.

There is a common saying, Those who know
no danger, fear none. This was our case on re-
turning to the extremity of an overjutting rock,
called Table Rock, opposite to the great cataract,
in order to gratify our curiosity, in a peep down
the precipice which is more than 150 feet per-
pendicular. In passing afterwards a short dis-
tance below this rock, we were alarmed with the
discovery, that the place on which we had stood
was but a thin shell, the Falls having under-
mined the rock for many feet. Proceeding a
little lower down the Falls, we again found that
our second stand was almost as baseless. We
however supposed that the danger was not equal
to our apprehensions, as the names of great num-
bers of visitors were cut in these rocks, near their