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question, and effectually established Hawk-eye in the possession of his
dangerous reputation. Those curious and admiring eyes which had been turned
again on Heyward, were finally directed to the weather-beaten form of the
scout, who immediately became the principal object of attention, to the simple
and unsophisticated beings, by whom he was surrounded. When the sudden and
noisy commotion had a little subsided, the aged chief resumed his examination.
Why did you wish to stop my ears? he said, addressing Duncan; are the
Delawares fools, that they could not know the young panther from the cat?
They will yet find the Huron a singing-bird, said Duncan, endeavouring to
adopt the figurative language of the natives.
It is good. We will know who can shut the ears of men. Brother, added the
chief, turning his eyes on Magua, the Delawares listen.
Thus singled, and directly called on, to declare his object, the Huron arose,
and advancing with great deliberation and dignity, into the very centre of the
circle, where he stood confronted to the prisoners, he placed himself in an
attitude to speak. Before opening his mouth, however, he bent his eyes slowly
along the whole living boundary of earnest faces, as if to temper his
expressions to the capacities of his audience. On Hawk-eye he cast a glance of
respectful enmity; on Duncan, a look of inextinguishable hatred; the shrinking
figure of Alice, he scarcely deigned to notice; but when his glance met the
firm, commanding, and yet lovely form of Cora, his eye lingered a moment, with
an expression, that it might have been difficult to define. Then, filled with
his own dark intentions, he spoke in the language of the Canadas, a tongue
that he well knew was comprehended by most of his auditors.
The Spirit that made men, coloured them differently, commenced the subtle
Huron. Some are blacker than the sluggish bear. These he said should be
slaves; and he ordered them to work for ever, like the beaver. You may hear
them groan, when the south wind blows, louder than the lowing buffaloes, along
the shores of the great salt water, where the big canoes come and go with them
in droves. Some he made with faces paler than the ermine of the forests: and
these he ordered to be traders; dogs to their women, and wolves to their
slaves. He gave this people the nature of the pigeon; wings that never tire;
young, more plentiful than the leaves on the trees, and appetites to devour
the earth. He gave them tongues like the false call of the wild-cat; hearts
like rabbits; the cunning of the hog, (but none of the fox,) and arms longer
than the legs of the moose. With his tongue, he stops the ears of the Indians;
his heart teaches him to pay warriors to fight his battles; his cunning tells
him how to get together the goods of the earth; and his arms enclose the land
from the shores of the salt water, to the islands of the great lake. His
gluttony makes him sick. God gave him enough, and yet he wants all. Such are
the pale-faces.
Some the Great Spirit made with skins brighter and redder than yonder sun,
continued Magua, pointing impressively upward to the lurid luminary, which was
struggling through the misty atmosphere of the horizon; and these did he
fashion to his own mind. He gave them this island as he had made it, covered
with trees, and filled with game. The wind made their clearings; the sun and
rains ripened their fruits; and the snows came to tell them to be thankful.
What need had they of roads to journey by! They saw through the hills! When
the beavers worked, they lay in the shade, and looked on. The winds cooled
them in summer; in winter, skins kept them warm. If they fought among
themselves, it was to prove that they were men. They were brave; they were
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just; they were happy.
Here the speaker paused, and again looked around him, to discover if his
legend had touched the sympathies of his listeners. He met every where with
eyes riveted on his own, heads erect, and nostrils expanded, as though each
individual present felt himself able and willing, singly, to redress the
wrongs of his race.
If the Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red children, he
continued, in a low, still, melancholy voice, it was, that all animals might
understand them. Some he placed among the snows, with their cousin the bear.
Some he placed near the setting sun, on the road to the happy hunting grounds.
Some on the lands around the great fresh waters; but to his greatest, and most
beloved, he gave the sands of the salt lake. Do my brothers know the name of
this favoured people?
It was the Lenape! exclaimed twenty eager voices, in a breath.
It was the Lenni Lenape, returned Magua, affecting to bend his head in
reverence to their former greatness. It was the tribes of the Lenape! The sun
rose from the water that was salt, and set in water that was sweet, and never
hid himself from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the woods, tell a
wise people their own traditions? Why remind them of their injuries; their
ancient greatness; their deeds; their glory; their happiness--their losses;
their defeats; their misery? Is there not one among them who has seen it all,
and who knows it to be true? I have done. My tongue is still, but my ears are
open.
As the voice of the speaker suddenly ceased, every face and all eyes turned,
by a common movement, towards the venerable Tamenund. From the moment that he
took his seat, until the present instant, the lips of the patriarch had not
severed, nor had scarcely a sign of life escaped him. He had sate, bent in
feebleness, and apparently unconscious of the presence he was in, during the
whole of that opening scene, in which the skill of the scout had been so
clearly established. At the nicely graduated sounds of Magua s voice, however,
he had betrayed some evidence of consciousness, and once or twice he had even
raised his head, as if to listen. But when the crafty Huron spoke of his
nation by name, the eyelids of the old man raised themselves, and he looked
out upon the multitude, with that sort of dull, unmeaning expression, which
might be supposed to belong to the countenance of a spectre. Then he made an
effort to rise, and being upheld by his supporters, he gained his feet, in a
posture commanding by its dignity, while he tottered with weakness.
Who calls upon the children of the Lenape! he said, in a deep, guttural
voice, that was rendered awfully audible by the breathless silence of the
multitude; who speaks of things gone! Does not the egg become a worm--the
worm a fly--and perish! Why tell the Delawares of good that is past? Better
thank the Manitto for that which remains.
It is a Wyandot, said Magua, stepping nigher to the rude platform on which
the other stood; a friend of Tamenund.
A friend! repeated the sage, on whose brow a dark frown settled, imparting
a portion of that severity, which had rendered his eye so terrible in middle
age-- Are the Mingoes rulers of the earth! What brings a Huron here?
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