On Saturday, the 13th of July, 1850, as a boy, ten years old, was rowing
his father over to their home on Grand Island, the father being so much
intoxicated as not to be able to assist any more than to steer the
canoe, the wind, which was very strong off shore, so frustrated the
efforts of his tiny arm, that the canoe in spite of him, got into the
current, and finally into the rapids, within a very few rods of the
Falls! On went the frail shell, careering and plunging as the mad waters
chose. Still the gallant little oarsman maintained his struggle with the
raging billows, and actually got the canoe, by his persevering
manoeuvring so close to Iris Island, as to have her driven by a
providential wave in between the little islands called the Sisters. Here
the father and his dauntless boy were in still greater danger for an
instant; for there is a fall between the two islands, over which had
they gone, no earthly power could have withheld their final passage to
the terrific precipice, which forms the Horse-shoe Fall. But the sudden
dash of a wave capsized the canoe, and left the two struggling in the
water. Being near a rock, and shallow, the boy lost no time, but
seizing his father by the coat collar, dragged him up to a place of
safety, where the crowd of anxious citizens awaited to lend assistance.
The poor boy on reaching the shore in safety, instantly fainted, while
his miserable father was sufficiently sobered by the perils he had
passed through. The canoe was dashed to pieces on the rocks ere it
reached its final leap.