Madison by a Winnebago Indian.
1821. I left New York for Chicago on the 16th June--hurried rapidly
through the western part of that State--passed up Lake Erie from
Buffalo, and reached Detroit just in season to embark, on the 4th of
July. General Cass was ready to proceed, with his canoe-elege in the
water. We passed, the same day, down the Detroit River, and through the
head of Lake Erie into the Maumee Bay to Port Lawrence, the present
site, I believe, of the city of Toledo. This was a distance of seventy
miles, a prodigious day's journey for a canoe. But we were shot along by
a strong wind, which was fair when we started, but had insensibly
increased to a gale in Lake Erie, when we found it impossible to turn to
land without the danger of filling. The wind, though a gale, was still
directly aft. On one occasion I thought we should have gone to the
bottom, the waves breaking in a long series, above our heads, and
rolling down our breasts into the canoe. I looked quietly at General
Cass, who sat close on my right, but saw no alarm in his countenance.
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