Thursday, September 25th, 1823 – I packed my
gleanings of plants and seeds and specimens, and stood in readiness for the
steamboat from Detroit, which came in the afternoon. In company with Mr Briscoe
and family during the whole of the passage; we experienced a motion that could
not be surpassed in an ocean. It blew a tempest the whole of the time. Towards
Midnight on Sunday 28th we reached Buffalo, one of the wheels of the boat being
swept away, and otherwise disabled.
Effectively, this marks the northern limit of
Douglas's journeyings on this trip. He goes on to botanise around Niagara for a
couple of days but in practice he has now given up on Canada and started to
turn back towards New York.
And what a journey back to Buffalo! He sets sail
on, let's say, Thursday evening and reaches Buffalo just before midnight on
Sunday. So he has spent three full days being tossed about in a tempest on Lake Erie, in a
steamboat which is gravely disabled and must have been at some risk of
foundering. I can't help thinking he has been lucky on this part of his journey
and is perhaps secretly glad to be heading back to NYC.
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