She had in her hold on that
fateful trip the cordage and iron for the pioneer of the river ships. So
when she went down she spoke to the waters that engulfed her the two
dreams of her builder and commander: one dream the navigation of the lakes
and the other the coursing of the western rivers.
The Spanish council which decreed long ago that "if it had pleased God
that ... rivers should have been navigable, He would not have wanted human
assistance to make them such" would be horrified by the sacrilege that has
been committed and is being contemplated by the followers of the men of
the _Griffin_.
They have made a canal around the Falls (which Hennepin first saw
breathing a cloud of mist over the great abyss)--a canal that,
supplemented by other canals along the St. Lawrence River, allows vessels
of fourteen-foot draught to go from Lake Erie to Montreal and so on to the
sea. If this achievement were put into the poetry of legend it would show
the outwitting of the dragon.
They have deepened the straits where the _Griffin_ had to wait for
favorable breezes and soundings to pass from Erie to Huron--the
Symplegades (clashing rocks) of the new-world voyage.
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