Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

warmed and cherished, the brand to consume our dwellings. They were covered with mats, and burnt like dried straw. The enemy retreated without the palisade. In vain did our warriors fight for a path by which we might escape from the consuming fire; they were beaten back; the fierce element gained on us; the Narragansetts pressed on the English, howling like wolves for their prey. Some of our people threw themselves into the midst of the crackling flames, and their courageous souls parted with one shout of triumph; others mounted the palisade, but they were shot, and dropped like a flock of birds smitten by the hunter's arrows. Thus did the strangers destroy, in our own homes, hundreds of our tribe."

"And how did you escape in that dreadful hour, Magawisca?you were not then taken prisoners?"

"No; there was a rock at one extremity of our hut, and beneath it a cavity, into which my mother crept, with Oneco, myself, and the two little ones that afterwards perished. Our simple habitations were soon consumed; we heard the foe retiring, and, when the last sound had died away, we came forth to a sight that made us lament to be among the living. The sun was scarce an hour from his rising, and yet in this brief space our homes had vanished. The bodies of our people were strewn about the smouldering ruin; and all around the palisade lay the strong and valiant warriors-cold-silent-powerless as the unformed clay."

Magawisca paused; she was overcome with the recollection of this scene of desolation. She looked upward with an intent gaze, as if she held communion with an invisible being. 66 Spirit of my mother!" burst from her lips-oh! that I could follow thee to that blessed land, where I should no more dread the war-cry, nor the deathknife." Everell dashed the gathering tears from his eyes, and Magawisca proceeded in her narrative.

"While we all stood silent and motionless, we heard footsteps and cheerful voices. They came from my father and Sassacus, and their band, returning from the friendly council. They approached on the side of the hill that was covered with a thicket of oaks, and their ruined homes at once burst upon their view. Oh! what horrid sounds then

pealed on the air! shouts of wailing, and cries of vengeance. Every eye was turned with suspicion and hatred on my father. He had been the friend of the English; he had counselled peace and alliance with them; he had protected their traders; delivered the captives taken from them, and restored them to their people: now his wife and children alone were living, and they called him traitor. I heard an angry murmur, and many hands were lifted to strike the death-blow. He moved not- Nay, nay,' cried Sassacus, beating them off. Touch him not; his soul is bright as the sun; sooner shall you darken that, than find treason in his breast. If he hath shown the dove's heart to the English, when he believed them friends, he will show himself the fierce eagle, now he knows them enemies. Touch him not, warriors; remember my blood runneth in his veins.'

"From that moment my father was a changed man. He neither spoke nor looked at his wife, or children; but. placing himself at the head of one band of the young men, he shouted his war-cry, and then silently pursued the enemy. Sassacus went forth to assemble the tribe, and we followed my mother to one of our villages."

"You did not tell me, Magawisca," said Everell, "how Samoset perished; was he consumed in the flames, or shot from the palisade ?"

66 Neither-neither. He was reserved to whet my father's revenge to a still keener edge. He had forced a passage through the English, and, hastily collecting a few warriors, they pursued the enemy, sprung upon them from a covert, and did so annoy them that the English turned, and gave them battle. All fled save my brother, and him they took prisoner. They told him they would spare his life if he would guide them to our strong holds; he refused. He had, Everell, lived but sixteen summers; he loved the light of the sun even as we love it; his manly spirit was tamed by wounds and weariness; his limbs were like a bending reed, and his heart beat like a woman's; but the fire of his soul burnt clear. Again they pressed him with offers of life and reward; he faithfully refused, and with one sabre-stroke they severed his head from his body."

Magawisca paused-she looked at Everell, and said with a bitter smile" You English tell us, Everell, that the book of your law is better than that written on our hearts, for, ye say, it teaches mercy, compassion, forgiveness-if ye had such a law, and believed it, would ye thus have treated a captive boy?"

Magawisca's reflecting mind suggested the most serious obstacle to the progress of the Christian religion, in all ages and under all circumstances; the contrariety between its divine principles and the conduct of its professors; which, instead of always being a medium for the light that emanates from our holy law, is too often the darkest cloud that obstructs the passage of its rays to the hearts of heathen men. Everell had been carefully instructed in the principles of his religion, and he felt Magawisca's relation to be an awkward comment on them, and her inquiry natural; but, though he knew not what answer to make, he was sure there must be a good one, and, mentally resolving to refer the case to his mother, he begged Magawisca to proceed with her narrative.

.

were

"The fragments of our broken tribe," she said, “ collected, and some other small dependant tribes persuaded to join us. We were obliged to flee from the open grounds, and shelter ourselves in a dismal swamp. The English surrounded us; they sent in to us a messenger, and offered life and pardon to all who had not shed the blood of Englishmen. Our allies listened, and fled from us, as frightened birds fly from a falling tree. My father looked upon his warriors; they answered that look with their battleshout. 'Tell your people,' said my father to the messenger, that we have shed and drank English blood, and that we will take nothing from them but death.' The messenger departed, and again returned with offers of pardon, if we would come forth, and lay our arrows and our tomahawks at the feet of the English. 'What say you, warriors?' cried my father shall we take pardon from those who have burned your wives and children, and given your homes to the beasts of prey?-who have robbed you of your hunting-grounds, and driven your canoes from their waters ?" A hundred arrows were pointed to the messenger. 'Enough-you have your answer,' said my father; and

the messenger returned. to announce the fate we had chosen."

"Where was Sassacus ?-had he abandoned his people?" asked Everell.

"Abandoned them! No-his life was in theirs; but, accustomed to attack and victory, he could not bear to be thus driven like a fox to his hole. His soul was sick within him, and he was silent, and left all to my father. All day we heard the strokes of the English axes felling the trees that defended us, and, when night came, they had approached so near, that we could see the glimmering of their watch-lights through the branches of the trees. All night they were pouring in their bullets, alike on warriors, women, and children. Old Cushmakin was lying at my mother's feet, when he received a death-wound. Gasping for breath, he called on Sassacus and my father-Stay not here,' he said; look not on your wives and children, but burst your prison bound; sound through the nations the cry of revenge! Linked together, ye shall drive the English into the sea. I speak the word of the Great Spirit -obey it!' While he was yet speaking, he stiffened in death. Obey him, warriors,' cried my mother; she said, pointing to the mist that was now wrapping itself around the wood like a thick curtain-see, our friends have come from the spirit-land to shelter you. Nay, look not on us our hearts have been tender in the wigwam, but we can die before our enemies without a groan. Go forth and avenge us.'

[ocr errors]

see,*

"Have we come to the counsel of old men and old women!' said Sassacus, in the bitterness of his spirit.

"When women put down their womanish thoughts and counsel like men, they should be obeyed,' said my father. Follow me, warriors.'

[ocr errors]

"They burst through the enclosure. We saw nothing more, but we heard the shout from the foe, as they issued from the wood-the momentary fierce encounter and the cry, They have escaped!' Then it was that my mother, who had listened with breathless silence, threw herself down on the mossy stones, and, laying her hot cheek to mine- Oh, my children-my children!' she said, 'would that I could die for you! But fear not death-the blood

of a hundred chieftains, that never knew fear, runneth in your veins. Hark, the enemy comes nearer and nearer. Now lift up your heads, my children, and show them that even the weak ones of our tribe are strong in soul.'

"We rose from the ground-all about sat women and children in family clusters, awaiting unmoved their fate. The English had penetrated the forest-screen, and were already on the little rising-ground where we had been intrenched. Death was dealt freely. None resisted-not a movement was made-not a voice lifted-not a sound escaped, save the wailings of the dying children.

"One of your soldiers knew my mother, and a command was given that her life and that of her children should be spared. A guard was stationed round us.

"You know that, after our tribe was thus cut off, we were taken, with a few other captives, to Boston. Some were sent to the Islands of the Sun, to bend their free limbs to bondage like your beasts of burden. There are among your people those who have not put out the light of the Great Spirit; they can remember a kindness, albeit done by an Indian; and when it was known to your sachems that the wife of Mononotto, once the protector and friend of your people, was a prisoner, they treated her with honour and gentleness. But her people were extinguished-her husband driven to distant forests-forced on earth to the misery of wicked souls-to wander without a home; her children were captives-and her heart was broken."

Character of Fisher Ames.-KIRKLAND.

MR. AMES, as a speaker and a writer, had the power to enlighten and persuade, to move, to please, to charm, to astonish. He united those decorations, which belong to fine talents, to that penetration and judgment, that designate an acute and solid mind. Many of his opinions had the authority of predictions fulfilled and fulfilling. He had the ability of investigation, and, where it was necessary, did investigate with patient attention, going through

« AnteriorContinuar »