Grand Falls, New Brunswick, Canada (Colebrooke)
1899 - Grand Falls Legend

About one hundred and forty miles above Fredericton are the Grand Falls. Although only half as high as Niagara, they are quite as overwhelming. This is be cause their surroundings are so dark and gloomy that Niagara, by contrast, appears bright and joyous. The St. John River narrows at this point from one quarter of a mile to three hundred feet, and then plunges eighty feet into a dark gorge . A suspension bridge hangs above the river a few feet below the cataract, and there on moonlight nights the view is beautiful.

Many legends cluster round the Grand Falls ; but the most interesting story of all has an Indian girl for the heroine. She was of the tribe of the Melicites, who lived in the region of the upper St. John. From a child she had known all the windings of the river, and its falls and cataracts, as well as you know your way home from school. She could steer and paddle a canoe almost as well as a young Indian brave.

The Mohawks were the deadly enemies of the Melicites. The two tribes hated each other with strong, undying, Indian hatred. Once our Indian girl was with a small party on the upper St. John. They had left her home, the chief village of the Melicites, had carried their canoes around the Grand Falls, and were well on their way up the river, when they were captured by a party of fierce Mohawks.

All the Melicites were put to death except our hero ine . She was placed in the first canoe and ordered to conduct the captors to a safe landing- place above Grand Falls. In the morning they would carry the canoes round the falls and continue their journey.

That was all they told her, but she could guess the rest. They were dressed as warriors on the warpath, and their destination was her native village. There they would give no quarter. Her nearest kin would be surprised and butchered by the wily enemies of their tribe.

What sad thoughts passed through her mind, as she bent to her work ! How fast the river banks flew by ! Soon they would be at the falls ! The falls ! Ah ! there lay the way by which she could save her tribe from mas But herself ? She would be lost too. Well, what mattered it, if the others were saved. And so the dauntless girl steered straight for the Grand Falls.

The Mohawks were half asleep, trusting implicitly in the girl whose life was in their power. They were awakened by the roar of the cataract, just too late to save themselves. The paddles were seized and plied desperately for a moment, and then they gave them selves up to their dreadful fate with the grim silence of the Indian brave. Mohawks, canoes, and Melicite girl, all were dashed to pieces over the falls ; but never again was there a Mohawk invasion into Melicite territory.


The World and Its People, Book IV, Our American Neighbors by Fanny E Coe, 1899, Page 30-31

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