A Legend of Goat Island

He wore his Sacred Order's gown, A long loose robe of reddish brown.
Ascribed to FATHER LOUIS HENNEPIN, who visited Niagara in 1678 BY PETER A. PORTER Sketches by C. BRECKINRIDGE PORTER THE GAZETTE PRESS, NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y.
COPYRIGHT BY PETER A. PORTER 1900
It is told in Indian story, Dim tradition of the race, How, to God's eternal glory, And through His all-saving grace, Many a warrior's heart was stirred To belief in His ever-living Word, And the Faith that saves us all, By a Priest, whose holy mission Overcame their superstition About the Island, which divides Niagara's tumultuous tides, At the brink of the mighty Fall.
Here is the story, as 'tis told In one of the chronicles of old.
'Twas many a year ago, when o'er The land on Ni-a-gáh-ra's shore The Neuter tribe held sway. On its western bank, above, but near, Where rapids begin, in wild career Toward the Fall, and down as low As a bark canoe could safely go, One of their villages lay. In that village by the river, Late one eve, when bow and quiver Had been laid aside, And the warriors were sitting In the silence, deemed befitting To an Indian's pride, A stranger in their midst appeared, Whose hoary locks and silvery beard Were to their vision strange and weird. He was a man of giant size, Which found him favor in their eyes, As, at his priestly garb amazed, In silent wonderment they gazed.
He wore his Sacred Order's gown, A long loose robe of reddish brown, Across his shoulders, lightly flung, The cape and cowl backward hung, Around his waist a rope was twined, A girdle and a scourge combined; While from it, hanging loose and free, Suspended hung the rosary. He was the first of stranger race They e'er had met with, face to face, Though they knew that such-frocked men Had visited their brethren. When they saw him, brave and squaw Viewed him with a reverend awe.
A wanderer, all alone he came, He bore no weapons, gave no name. He said his errand was to teach The glories of the Life to be, When, after death, men's spirits reach The confines of Eternity, And, as he spake in Indian speech, They listened most attentively. For he had dwelt for many a day Mid Indian tribes, far, far away, And thus had learnt the Indian tongue From those whom he had dwelt among. So, sullenly, they let him share