" They filled
twenty-three canoes in a procession that was halted by shipwreck, by heat,
by lack of rain and by too much rain, by difficult portages, and damage to
the canoes.
Over a part of their first portage from Lake Erie I walked one night years
ago through a drenching rain, such as they endured in the seven days in
which they were carrying their canoes and baggage up those steep hills
through the then dense forest of beech, oak, and elm, to the waters of
Lake Chautauqua, where now many thousands gather every summer, from
children to white-haired men and women, to study history, language,
sciences, cooking, sewing, etc., and to attend conferences daily.
But the expedition then was often stopped by savages who ran away to avoid
the excessive speechmaking and lecturing of these old-world orators,
conferenciers; and the ears and eyes of the auditors who did not run away
were opened by strings of wampum, though they were often too little moved
by the love of their father Onontio and his concern lest the English
should make themselves masters and the Indians their victims.
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