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DROWNING -In the Sound between the village of Ernest Town and Amherst Island,
on Wednesday the 9th instant, Miss SUSAN McKENZIE,
daughter of Mr. Colin McKenzie, RODERICK McKAY,
Esq., WILLIAM BARBER, PETER LARD, and JAMES JOHNSTON, all of Ernest Town.
Amidst the many melancholy manifestations which we are called to
witness and to publish, of the fragility of life and earthly expectation,
few, - very few are the instances, which touch the heart so keenly with
sorrow, or so deeply with grief and gloom, as the mournful occasion of the
present remarks. Seldom, indeed, have
we shed the sympathizing tear, over any event so afflictive or affecting. - Seldom have we known a warning so imperious
or impressive. To those who are bereft
of a friend and relative, the wound is deep and terrible: but to those of us who are exempted from
such anguish, it should be like the salutary incision of the Lancet,
restoring or reducing our minds to a state of health and capability for
useful and active exertion. Surely it
was not in the purposes of Providence that these unfortunate beings should
perish in vain. From the gloom that
envelopes their fates, a voice speaks to us all, in language, admonitory and
instructive, though solemn and distressing; and little of human feeling, of
human fears or philanthropy does that heart possess, which can regard,
unmoved, this lamentable occurrence. The
individuals, whose premature and dreadful fate has called forth these
reflections, were returning, at the time of the accident, in a sail boat from
Amherst Island to Ernest Town village.
All of them, (excepting Miss McKenzie,) went over in the morning. A young Gentleman, who accompanied the
party to the Island, determined suddenly and unexpectedly, from some trivial,
casual, & perhaps capricious motives, not to return, until the ensuing
morning. Miss McKenzie, who was at the
Island, on a visit to her friends, was anxious to return; but, for a long time, vibrated between that
anxiety and the fears natural to a timid and amiable young female. However, her apprehensions, after much
hesitation, were chid away by the cheering assurances and urgent invitations
of the gentlemen, and she went on board the fatal boat! -How affecting is the contemplation of this
important moment! In vain do we attempt to penetrate the purposes of
Providence: nor would we with rash and
blasphemous audacity arraign its decisions:
yet, apart from impious murmuring or inquisitiveness, we cannot but be
impressed, soberly and sadly by that awful and inscrutable destiny which
decreed the dreadful and premature fate of a Being, young, lovely and
engaging, the charm and the promise of her friends, while it should so
obviously and graciously interpose, to snatch from death another one,
reserved perhaps for many years of future ufefulness,
eminence and happiness. - After leaving the Island-shore, the boat
proceeded about one third of the distance to the village, when it was seen to
upset, and instantly sink, leaving behind not a speck or a vestige to mark
the spot, or keep hope alive. Boats
immediately put out from the village; but they could discover only three
[---], a silk reticule and a setting pole.
It is a probable conjecture, that all clung to the boat, and were intombed with it in the watery grave. But we can only conjecture; and, it is,
perhaps, not the least painful and distressing of the circumstances,
attending this most melancholy event, that we can only
conjecture. There is a certain
disposition in our nature, which renders us anxious to know and to witness
the expiring language and feelings of our friends, and to be acquainted with
all the incidents which accompany their decease. in the present
lamentable instance, the mind is left to wander in confusion, conjecture and
doubt. Fancy, with painful assiduity,
rears up many a gloomy surmise, merely to destroy it. All that can be gathered with precision from
the circumstances within our knowledge, is the
unquestionable certainty of their awful and unexpected fate. Dark, dreary and dreadful is the chasm,
created by the contemplation of this event, in the circle of our gay and
cheerful emotions; but it is to be
hoped, that, as the annals of accident present no precedent of a similar occurrence,
in the vicinity of this melancholy casualty, it may not fleet by without
impression or improvement: - and that
every one, within reach of the despondency and dismal tone of feelings, which
it has awakened, may pass from the contemplation, with sentiments and
sensations, sanctified, reproved and admonished. To contemplate scenes sad and sombre as
this, may destroy the momentary and elastic energy of gaiety, of the
factitious warmth and earnestness of euthusiasm; but far, -very
far is it from being without its utility.
It reads us practical and lasting lessons. The hour of woe is the hour of wisdom; and from
calamities the most desolating and grievous reflections and resolutions the
most salutary will always arise. -
Who, in contemplating this direful disaster, does not carry his thoughts and
reflections beyond the incident that occasioned them? Who does not, with natural and sadly-musing
solicitude, look forward, with the vision of faith and fancy, to that moment,
yet in the abyss of futurity, which bears upon it the fiat of his own fate? Such,
in every mind, must be some of the emotions and ideas which this dismal and
distressing misfortune suggests. The
anguish of those whose hearts have now been reacked
by the bereaving affliction of Providence, admits of no description. A deep and doleful gloom seems to pervade
every countenance, and over the whole country is cast an anxious and
unaffected melancholy. Every circumstance
seems pregnant with precept and premonitions, earnest, and important, to
remind us, with emphatic solemnity “what shadows we are, and what shadows we persue.” Mr.
McKay and Mr. Barber, were Europeans: - the former
from North Briton, the latter from Ireland.
Mr. Lard was a native of the United States. The two other unfortunate persons were born
in the immediate vicinity of the place, where they perished. To attempt a biographical sketch, which
should do justice to their memory, demands the efforts of a more able pen. Nor do they require it. Enshrined in the hearts of their friends,
their memory will long live, to awaken the precious tear of amiable and
affectionate sensibility. Our feelings, were too deeply and painfully impressed with
this gloomy occurrence, to pass it with the ordinary brevity of an obituary
notice. Surely, we must all feel and exclaim, that “man also knoweth
not his time: as the fishes that are
taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare: so are
the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth
suddenly upon them.” On
Thursday, as if by preconcerted arrangement, a
large and solemn concourse spontaneously assembled and united in dragging the
bottom to discover their remains.
After an anxious and persevering research, the boat was found, about
sunset, in eighteen fathoms water, and the next morning raised,
with her sails set and half a ton of stone ballast, which was the undoubted
cause of her sinking. On Saturday,
after further preparation, the bottom was again examined, and the friends of
Mr. MacKay and Mr. Lard had the sorrowful satisfaction of seeing their
lifeless remains rescued from the deep, to be resigned forever to the
grave. No other, we believe, of these
unfortunate sufferers, has, as yet, been found. The bodies of Messrs.
MacKay and Lard were interred on Sunday, a 5 o’clock, P.M. -
And we understand that the body of Miss McKenzie was found on Monday
afternoon. - Every exertion is making
to find the other two. [Kingston Gazette,
Sept. 22 1818] MR. EDITOR, Among the five unfortunate
sufferers mentioned in your last Gazette, who were lost in the sound by the
foundering of a boat in crossing from Amherst island to Ernest Town on the 9th
instant, appears the name of RODERICK MACKAY, Esquire. The sudden and lamented death of this
Gentleman, and of those who perished with him, will be long remembered in the
village of Ernest Town: even when the
soothing hand of time shall have softened the poignancy of that grief which
agonizes the hearts of the afflicted relations, the names of the deceased will
be remembered with a sigh, and the tear of sympathy will be dropped to their
memory. The writer is not acquainted
with four of the individuals whose fate he laments, but their merits will be
appreciated by those who know them best;
their loss will be deeply felt, and their virtues long remembered by
those who were respectively connected with them by all the endearing ties of privated friendship, social intercourse, or
relationship. With Mr. Mackay, the
writer has been intimately acquainted for several years. This gentleman’s general information,
lively wit, and engaging manners, rendered his company highly entertaining
and agreeable to his friends. His acts of Charity were
numerous, and flowed from a benevolent heart.
The inhabitants of Ernest Town will bear ample testimony to his
philanthropy and public spirit, during his short residence in that
place. In the establishment and
support of the Bible Society, of which he was Secretary, in his contribution
to the erection of a parsonage house so necessary to the accommodation of the
Clergyman officiating in the Church there, in a similar contribution of his
for the erection of a Wesleyan Chapel in that village, not less necessary for
the comfort and convenience of that denomination of Christians, he shewed a judgment and liberality that did equal honor to
his head and heart. If Mr. Mackay had
his feeling they were such as “Leaned
to virtue’s side” If he had a slight tincture
of vanity, it is a weakness which has often appeared blended with the
greatest talents, and the most distinguished abilities. If at any time it shewed
itself in him, it was in being the first to promote some public benefit, some
benevolent institution. In private
life he was a sincere friend, and an affectionate husband, most tenderly
beloved by his wife, who but a few days ago had fondly looked forward through
the vista of future years to scenes of happiness in the prospect before her
-Alas the scene has suddenly changed the pleasing prospect vanished, and left
behind a dreary void in the bosom of disappointed affection, which all the
remaining sources of worldly happiness are unable to fill. -
Such is the melancholy State of this amiable sufferer, and cold and
worthless must be that heart, who does not sympathize with her in this hour
of deep and complicated distress. -
Such has been the awful and unexpected call which in a moment summoned five
of our fellow men into the unseen and eternal world. “No warning given, Unceremonious fate.” If any
thing could rouse us thoughtless mortals, from the state of
insensibility into which we are sunk, this alarming dispensation could not
fail to produce some serious though, some fixed purpose to reform. This however, like numerous other warning
of the kind, will by many soon be forgotten.
-But though we should shut our eyes on dangers, and slumber on our
post, Death slumbers not, nor is he satiated - He has already marked his next
victim, and who dare say - “I am not the man”! AMICUS. Kingston,
Sept. 19th, 1818
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