whole obligations
consist of an accident over which he had not the smallest control, that
of birth; though the very reverse of this is usually maintained under
the influence of popular prejudice. The reader will probably discover
how we view this master, in the course of our narrative.

Perhaps this story is obnoxious to the charge of a slight anachronism,
in representing the activity of the Indians a year earlier than any
were actually employed in the struggle of 1775. During the century of
warfare that existed between the English and French colonies, the
savage tribes were important agents in furthering the views of the
respective belligerents. The war was on the frontiers, and these fierce
savages were, in a measure, necessary to the management of hostilities
that invaded their own villages and hunting-grounds. In 1775, the enemy
came from the side of the Atlantic, and it was only after the struggle
had acquired force, that the operations of the interior rendered the
services of such allies desirable. In other respects, without
pretending to refer to any real events, the incidents of this tale are
believed to be sufficiently historical for all the legitimate purposes
of fiction.

In this book the writer has aimed at sketching several distinct
varieties of the human race, as true to the governing impulses of their
educations, habits, modes of thinking and natures. The red man had his
morality, as much as his white brother, and it is well known that even
Christian ethics are coloured and governed, by standards of opinion set
up on purely human authority. The honesty of one Christian is not
always that of another, any more than his humanity, truth, fidelity or
faith. The spirit must quit its earthly tabernacle altogether, ere it
cease to be influenced by its tints and imperfections.

Chapter I.

"An acorn fell from an old oak tree,
And lay on the frosty ground--
'O, what shall the fate of the acorn be?'
Was whispered all around
By low-toned voices chiming sweet,
Like a floweret's bell when swung--
And grasshopper steeds were gathering fleet,
And the beetle's hoofs up-rung."

Mrs. Seba Smith.

There is a wide-spread error on the subject of American scenery. From
the size of the lakes, the length and breadth of the rivers, the vast
solitudes of the forests, and the seemingly boundless expanse of the
prairies, the world has come to attach to it an idea of grandeur; a
word that is in ne