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glad to find shelter, and even Gossine confessed, that the ‘Chatham' out at anchor in the bay, in this temperature, would be uncomfortable. The lady, bred with the polished manners of really well-bred people, found as much as possible in the house and its arrangements to be pleased with, and the Colonel seemed more happy, so Gossine said, than he had been since they left Oswego.

That night was in truth a bitterly cold one. The wind lulled with the set of the sun, and the air was keen with the chill that the blow had brought from the north. In the morning the lake smoked like a caldron, being so much warmer than the atmosphere. Except around the beach, where for a few rods there was a black and glassy covering of tough young ice, the waters glistened and sparkled in the bright sun, as free as if it were a summer day. Indeed, the Cayuga at this place has very seldom in the record of very many years been frozen over. The body of water is too deep, and too constantly renewed by the springs at the bottom, whose outlet it is. It was closed in 1835, '36, '39 and '49; but never for a longer period than forty-eight hours. The writer of these sketches was assured by Major Jacobs, the old Cayuga Chief, who left here in 1794, that he knew no instance, traditionary or from observation, of its having been closed. Cold as it was, the boat was ordered to return, and the sailors promptly obeyed. A row of twelve miles was not a very formidable affair, and that was to be the extent of their task that day. They were directed by Colonel Grey to cross over the lake and go down under the lee of the west shore. The young ice bent and cracked under the weight of the boat as it was pushed over it to the water, and resisted breaking so long that Gossine accompanied the boat to the outer edge, where boat and all broke through, and John had practical experience of the temperature in a way which had not entered into his theories. But he was soon up again, and as the craft was sent ahead under the strong muscles of the experienced oarsman, he watched its progress until it was scarcely visible in the shadows of the deep forests on the other side of the lake.

The

Colonel Grey also watched the departure of the boat until he saw, by the aid of a glass which he had brought with him, that it was turned to the north, and was making good headway. The day was devoted to the prepartions for a lengthened stay, which, much to the surprise of Mr. Mitchell, was announced as likely to be during the winter. liberality of the offer made for the use of a portion of his house, and the winsome manner of his guests, soon produced a bargain satisfactory to all. Society in that sparse settlement was an object; and a society that at once fascinated and paid, was a treasure indeed.

Mr. Mitchell's house stood on the spot where there has since stood for many years a quaint old store-house, one of the relics of the days when stores were few and scattered, and when timber and wood were plentier than now. It has a strange large roof, out of all proportion, and a second story, which would hold in itself the harvest of a township. The ceiling in the lower story is curiously low and inconvenient, and the old house has indeed only its age as a virtue. Nevertheless, in its day of usefulness, which was prior to the date of our narrative, it was

esteemed a remarkable building, and was for many years the scene of an active and extensive trade.

There were but few houses in the village in the year after its first settlement. The few settlers that were there, had, with few exceptions, no landed estate in their own right. The titles were not clear, and there were only the germs of that population and that wealth which have since distinguished this location.

The cold did not diminish during the day, and the night brought with it additional severity, so that the north wind which had arisen had blown the ice on the beach into little hummocks that looked like the Esquimaux huts, as they are depicted in the view of such voyages as Sir John Franklin made.*

These hummocks were formed all along the shore; and were the object of curiosity to the new-comers, from the plastic wreathings and whirlings of the ice. About ten o'clock, the Colonel heard a loud 'Sail ho!' from the clear voice of Gossine, who ran from the beach hastily to apprise him that the Chatham's' yawl was on the return. The Colonel suggested that he might be mistaken as to the boat, it being yet as far off as Levanna Point. Gossine declared it was none other, as he knew the sail; having, he said, taken it himself out of one of the lockers of the schooner, and he could not be mistaken in its color, which was after the fashion of those nautical dry goods that never see the wash-tub. The wind blew fresh, and it was soon evident that he was right. The yawl ran the last mile rapidly, and was soon hauled over the ice again into the little creek. The explanation of her return was soon made. The ice had formed so thick in the shoal water near the bridge that the yawl could not make any progress, and the sailors feared that if they remained thereabout it would end in their being frozen up.

Colonel Grey came to Aurora from the following singular circumstances: Gold and love are the great motive powers of society. Philip Grandlet, of Oxford, bequeathed to Ellen Grey an ample fortune, payable when she became of age, on the condition that she should marry Lewis Grey, a cousin of Ellen, and a relative of the testator. But there was appended to this legacy the farther condition, that if, before the expiration of the young lady's twentieth year, this Mr. Lewis Grey should not personally claim her hand, by application to herself, then the bequest should be hers without the restriction. If he requested her hand, and was refused, the fortune became his own.

Grandlet had died in the August preceding the date of our narrative, and the charming Ellen would attain her majority on the first of March.

Lewis Grey was already wealthy; rich beyond the compass of most

"THE writer of these sketches recollects having seen Sir JOHN FRANKLIN in the city of Albany, a number of years since, when he was passing through on his way north. He came up to the rooms of the old Albany Library, which were then up three or four impassible stair-cases, in a building since removed for the widening of State-street. A hardware store was on the first floor. PAUL HOCHSTRASSER, a precise old German, was the Librarian. Sir JOHN was introduced by Mr. G. S. LANSING, then a representative in congress from that district. His visit to the library was to consult a curious and very old volume, in black leather binding, which was entitled, 'Orbis Terra Typois.' It was said to contain some singular charts. The book-men of Albany ought to have kept track of that volume. Sir JOHN had a grave and quiet and rather melancholy expression of face.

men's hopes. He was one of the vulgar rich; men who knew the power of money, as connected with the wants and necessities of others. It was his idol, or rather shared his affections with himself, though he did not know even the luxury of making himself happy. He had, as that kind of rich men always have, cringing flatterers investing their money at so much per cent.; but he did not or would not see, that in the thinnest possible distance beneath, lay the most unmitigated contempt. He had courage and energy, and could be aroused to actions of vigor when his pride or interest was concerned.

And to such a wooer was the fortune of pretty Ellen bound, if he could see and of herself ask her alliance. His character was too well known by her, to allow of the thought being for a moment entertained of a life passed with such a man. The golden chain often enters the soul' as well as the iron. It was true that if the interview did take place, Mr. Lewis Grey would have been, wealth or no wealth, most summarily rejected, probably to his own intense astonishment; but it was the policy of Ellen and the Colonel, and a just and laudable one it was, if possible to keep the fortune and avoid the condition; and if they could only succeed in keeping out of the way until March, they were safe.

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Colonel Grey had been ordered to Montreal, which he gladly obeyed; and arriving there, easily obtained leave of travel in the States for a few months. The climate of Canada was too severe for a winter's residence there by Ellen; and the Colonel had taken passage from Kingston in the Chatham,' and arrived at Oswego, where he quietly devised the best plan for the object he had in view. Hearing of the banks of the Cayuga as being then in a process of settlement, and as combining seclusion with a pleasant climate, and one of the last places where he would probably be sought for, he made the journey which we have already described. Communicating only to his friend, the captain of the Chatham,' his residence, Colonel Grey prepared calmly to keep a vigilant guard against any surprise during the winter, and to make his house as agreeable as possible. The two sailors had been sent back to Oswego with an earnest request to Captain Clemens to acquaint him of any movement of the much-dreaded Lewis Grey.

Nor was this caution unnecessary. Lewis Grey was not the man to lose a prize so brilliant as that of the bequest of Grandlet, and he was quite enough of a young man to like it the more, with the pretty appendage that was its contingency. The time for action he knew, as well as the other parties, was brief, and he adopted the most vigilant movement immediately. On the day that the Colonel arrived at Aurora, he sailed from England, taking his passage, most fortunately for the perplexed Ellen, in the 'Cumberland,' a ship described in the advertisement as 'that remarkably fast sailing vessel,' but the performance of which was directly opposite; it being to Grey's impatience a doubtful question, on some days, whether it was stern-way or head-way that she was making. He was exceedingly provoked at having made such an unlucky choice, but on the ocean submission to fate is a philosophy soon learned.

The winter days passed on merrily. In the daughter of their host,

Sam Mitchell, the pretty Ellen found a delightful companion, and new lessons were learned from each other of their different experiences. There is so much to be fused into mutual observation by the relations of varying incidents which characterise a life passed at home, and one diversified by the truant from one nation to another, and in employment, pleasant and interesting, of a kindred scholarship, Ellen and Sam found the winter neither lifeless or dull. Nor is it ever dull when, as here, a broad expanse of bright and clear water was in perpetual movement, changing its pictures like the successions of a festive gathering, and when there was mind to enjoy those companions who accompany one as kindly to the solitary dwelling as to the crowded hall — I mean books. They who love them have a talisman to charm away dullness always.

John Gossine was the busiest man imaginable. He had very nearly traversed the entire locality, and wherever there was a glen, or mine, or water-fall, notwithstanding the temperature, he had explored and examined, and reported his observations, the object portrayed losing nothing in size or importance by his narration. The Indians who still remained on the Reservation had especially attracted his notice. The Reservation is even to this day the term frequently applied to that part of the village which is situated just north of the pretty Grecian summer-house, to which we have before alluded.

There are yet the old orchard trees, some of which probably survived the destruction inflicted by the detachment of Sullivan's army, which was sent up the lake, and passed through this way a work of terror, which the Indian never forgot. The banks are higher, and there are fewer trees near the lake, but the Reservation has many positions of great beauty for architectural improvement.

It was excessively to the annoyance of Gossine that the Indians, and especially one old brave would completely distance him with their canoes, while he was sculling the yawl. It did not seem in accordance with his notions of water craft, that such affairs as these bark canoes should so easily leave his boat in the distance. With the consent of the Colonel, he hauled his yawl ashore, and commenced a vigorous repair and refixture. Boat-building was a novelty on the Cayuga in those days. We have changed all that since then, and can produce models now that we will place in competition with any others; but then theChatham's' yawl was the finest craft that had yet floated there, and as the industrious and ingenious Gossine proceeded to give her a centre-board, and to deck her over, and otherwise prepare her for sailing, Mr. Mitchell evidently expressed the opinion of the settlers, when he prophesied her invincibility.

It was

The old Indian, John Key, watched the proceedings keenly, but with the usual custom or wisdom of his people, said not a word. not many days before the yawl was equipped, a regular decked sailboat. Gossine then worked at her sails and rigging, and by the assistance of the ladies, the yawl was soon in complete order, spreading a complement of sail about as much as she could carry. It was rather cold weather for pleasure sailing, but John had seen service in the Baltic, and there was soon added to the attraction of the lake the spec-

tacle of the yawl darting about in all kind of nautical evolutions, chased by or chasing some of the canoes belonging to the Reservation, the most of which, in a decent wind, it left far in the distance. John soon organised a crew among the young men, who entered eagerly into the sport, especially as it gave, or seemed to give them, a superiority in one manly exercise to their active and quick-motioned Indian neighbors. Old Key kept his canoe, the largest and best constructed, carefully drawn up on the beach, and when challenged to a contest, made no other reply than 'Time enough; John catch him yet.'

Colonel Grey found at the breakfast-table of Mr. Mitchell, on one of the mornings of January, a new guest, who was introduced to him as Mr. Ryckman, and who, he ascertained, was an Indian trader, passing in one of his usual tours from Albany by the way of Oswego, as far as Fort Niagara, and thence through the Delaware country homeward. There was nothing about the guest to awaken notice, except that Colonel Grey would rather not have been met by any one, at that time, whose travels were in the direction of the cities. He asked no questions, and was communicative only of a few general facts, and passed on. Those who were familiar with Albany some years since will recollect Wilhelmus Ryckman. He attained to old age, as indeed did every member of his remarkable family. I saw him often. He never associated or conversed with any one that I saw, but moved along, apparently a man alive in the world and belonging to the past. He was grave and quiet, and seemed to have imbibed the taciturnity of the people with whom he had so long been a trader. His associations of thought and habit were with the days of the frontier trading post, and the modern city seemed to him a place of strangers.

The longest voyage ever known, except that of old Vanderdecken, the Flying Dutchman, had its end, and at last the 'Cumberland,' after having been beaten and be-stormed, after drifting out of her course, and going very slow in it, arrived at New-York. Lewis Grey was indignant at her long passage, and could not understand why such a thing should happen to a rich man. The information that Colonel Grey had been at Oswego was soon ascertained, and Lewis moved thitherward as promptly as his health, enfeebled by sea-sickness, (enjoyed to its fullest extent on board of the 'Cumberland,') would allow. At Oswego his efforts to find the present residence of the Colonel were very strenuous, for his pride and avarice were both roused into action. He ascertained that the Colonel had taken the yawl of the 'Chatham,' and had gone 'somewhere,' that usual temporary hiding place of all conjecture. But he made no progress until the Chatham' herself arrived. Captain Clemens was very much perplexed to baffle the eager questions of Lewis. To all of them, however, he made the most general answers that he could devise, resorting in all cases to an episode on the description and merits of the yawl he had parted from as being the best piece of boat fabric afloat, until Grey wished the 'Chatham's' yawl in the Maël

strom.

The two sailors who had accompanied the Colonel to the Cayuga were exceedingly anxious to defeat the purposes of Lewis, and in an endeavor to get some information from them he found himself en

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