And the answer was that William the Fourth was dead, and that Queen
Victoria reigned in his place! We sat silent looking at each other, and
even in that very moment the orb of the sun rose out of the lake, and
poured its beams full in our dazzled eyes.
We asked if the governor were at the Manitoolin Island? No; he was not
there; but the chief officer of the Indian department had come to
represent him, and the presents were to be given out to the assembled
Indians this morning. We urged the men to take to their oars with
spirit, and held our course due east down by the woody shores of this
immense island; among fields of reeds and rushes, and almost under the
shadow of the towering forests.
Meantime, many thoughts came into my mind, some tears too into my
eyes--not certainly for that dead king, who in ripe age and in all
honour was gathered to the tomb--but for that living queen so young and
fair:--
"As many hopes hang on that noble head
As there hang blossoms on the boughs in May!"
And what will become of _them_--of _her_! The idea that even here, in
this new world of woods and waters, amid these remote wilds, to her so
utterly unknown, her power reaches and her sovereignty is acknowledged,
filled me with compassionate awe. I say _compassionate_, for if she feel
in their whole extent the liabilities of her position, alas for her! And
if she feel them not!--O worse and worse!
I tried to recall her childish figure and features. I thought over all I
had heard concerning her. I thought she was not such a thing as they
could make a mere pageant of; for _that_ there is too much within--too
little without. And what _will_ they make of her? For at eighteen she
will hardly make anything of them--I mean of the men and women round
her. It is of the woman I think, more than of the queen; for as a part
of the state machinery she will do quite as well as another--better,
perhaps: so far her youth and sex are absolutely in her favour, or
rather in _our_ favour. If she be but simple-minded, and true-hearted,
and straightforward, with the common portion of intellect--if a royal
education have not blunted in her the quick perceptions and pure kind
instincts of the woman--if she has only had fair play, and carries into
business plain distinct notions of right and wrong--and the fine moral
sense that is not to be confounded by diplomatic verbiage and
expediency--she will do better for us than a whole cabinet full of cut
and dried officials, with Talleyrand at the head of them. And what a
fair heritage is this which has fallen to her! A land young like
herself--a land of hopes--and fair, most fair! Does she know--does she
care any thing about it?--while hearts are beating warm for her, and
voices bless her--and hands are stretched out towards her--even from
these wild lake shores?[46]
These thoughts were in my mind, or something like to these, as with aid
of sail and oar we were gliding across the bay of Manitoolin. This bay
is about three miles wide at the entrance, and runs about twelve miles
in depth, in a southern direction. As we approached the further end, we
discerned the whole line of shore, rising in bold and beautiful relief
from the water, to be covered with wigwams, and crowded with Indians.
Suddenly we entered a little opening or channel, which was not visible
till we were just upon it, and rounding a promontory, to my infinite
delight and surprise, we came upon an unexpected scene,--a little bay
within the bay. It was a beautiful basin, nearly an exact circle, of
about three miles in circumference; in the centre lay a little wooded
island, and all around, the shores rose sloping from the margin of the
lake, like an amphitheatre, covered with wigwams and lodges, thick as
they could stand amid intermingled trees; and beyond these arose the
tall pine forest crowning and enclosing the whole. Some hundred canoes
were darting hither and thither on the waters, or gliding along the
shore, and a beautiful schooner lay against the green bank--its tall
masts almost mingling with the forest trees, and its white sails half
furled, and half gracefully drooping.
We landed, and were received with much politeness by Mr. Jarvis, the
chief superintendent of Indian affairs, and by Major Anderson, the
Indian agent; and a space was cleared to pitch our tent, until room
could be made for our accommodation in one of the government log-houses.
[Footnote 46: The reader will have the goodness to remark that all this
passage relating to the Queen stands verbatim in the original printed in
1838.]
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