As the pageant moved along through the state it was joined ever and anon by other craft and at almost every village exercises and illuminations were the order of the day and the much-feted governor and committees were hauled to the best hotel and feasted. The “Niagara” joined the squadron at Black Rock and “fell in behind.” At Lockport guns captured by Perry at the battle of Lake Erie were fired in salute to the guests and the occasion; a gunner who, it was said, had fought under Napoleon, discharged them. At Holley an address was given on the twenty-seventh. At Brockport cannon welcomed the boats. There was a procession at Newport, as everywhere else where the guests were feted. At Rochester a feu de joie was fired from the aqueduct on the arrival of the triumphal flotilla, and here a fine boat, the “Young Lion of the West,” rode out to meet it.
“Who comes there?” cried the “Young Lion’s” sentinel as the strangers drew near.
“Your Brothers from the West, on the waters of the great Lakes.”
“By what means have they been diverted so far from their natural course?”
“By the channel of the Grand Erie Canal.”
“By whose authority, and by whom, was a work of such magnitude accomplished?”
“By the authority and by the enterprise of the patriotic People of the State of New York.”
The procession being formed, the vast throng marched to the Presbyterian church where an address was delivered by Timothy Childs. General Matthews, assisted by Jesse Hawley, presided at a banquet which followed at one of the hotels. Grand illuminations and a ball concluded the day’s entertainment. The Rochester committee consisting of Messrs. E. B. Strong, Ward, Leavett, Rochester, Hulbert, Reynolds, A. Strong, R. Beach, Johnson, and E. S. Beach, embarked on the “Young Lion” for New York.
At Palmyra an arch across the canal welcomed the pageant on the twenty-eighth; it read “Clinton and the Canal” from one side, and “Internal Improvements” on the reverse. Another arch at Montezuma, which was reached late that evening, was a transparency displaying the words “De Witt Clinton and Internal Improvements” on one side, and “Union of the East and West” on the other.
Buckville was found brightly illuminated at midnight; Port Byron was reached on the twenty-ninth and Weedsport was illuminated. A twenty-four pounder was discharged, resulting in the death of only two. Syracuse was reached on the thirtieth; Joshua Forman, the early champion of the canal in 1810, gave an address to which Governor Clinton made reply.