Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/145

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PLANNING, BUILDING, AND OPENING
141

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