not the courage
which delights in the post of danger, and encounters difficulties for
the mere honour of overcoming them, but in another, and less active
form, that of endurance. And their wisdom and power were greater than
the wisdom and power of the Abnakis priests, who could draw water
from the clouds, and foretell the coming of tempests and storms(1).
The wisdom and power of the strange beasts was very great--they were
subtler than the fox or the beaver, and stronger than the bear.

Among these beasts, there was one of most transcendent beauty, who
appeared to be their queen. She bore the form of a stately woman. She
was clothed, not as beasts generally are, in fur, but in a robe of an
unknown material, that reached to her feet, which were shrouded in a
veil of so thin a texture, that the pure flesh was transparent through
them, and not shod with mocassins, but with something of a different
form. Around her head was bound a grape-vine, from which hung
beautiful clusters of rich, ripe grapes, intermingled with locks of
hair, of a hue resembling the yellow leaf. Her round and plump arms
were bound with bracelets of a very bright material; and, upon her
long and slender fingers, were rings set with sparkling stones, of
various and exceedingly radiant hues--green, blue, purple, white. In
one of her delicate hands, she carried a small bunch of grain, of a
kind which was never seen before by the Abnakis, but the ears of which
bent over like the wings of a hawk hovering over his prey, or or a
bird settling upon its perch. The same fair hand carried the
instrument wherewith it was reaped. The other hand bore a huge shell
and a three-forked sceptre, emblems of her dominion upon the element,
which supported the cloud upon which she came. Upon her breast she
wore a shield, on which was painted the likeness of two animals, one
of them wearing a shaggy mane, and both looking exceedingly fierce and
warlike. There were upon this shield other paintings and devices,
which even the ingenuity of the priests could not explain. Altogether,
the appearance of the being, animal, or whatever it was, which the
Abnakis dreamer saw, was exceedingly noble and beautiful. They who
came with her said she was the genius of the land beyond the Great
Water, the guardian spirit of an island more powerful than all the
world besides. And surely great power was written in her countenance,
and authoritative command engraved on the lines of her face.

Th