, there sat
the ugly little creature, with the moss-coloured beard and yellow ears,
perched upon the top of a high tree. They spoke to him, but he made no
answer--asked him what he had brought them--still no answer. All the
while his eyes were intently fixed upon the waters of the Great Lake,
which began to be tossed about with a high wind. At last, when they were
tired of watching his motions, and some of the boldest, now grown
familiar with him and no longer chilled with fear, talked of stoning him
from his roost, he cried out, pointing with his finger, "Look yonder!"
They now beheld, in the direction he bade them look, far away on the
foaming bosom of the Great Lake, something resembling a great, white
fowl. It was moving very swiftly towards the land of the Narragansetts.
The nearer it approached, the more our people were puzzled to tell what
it was; some said it was a duck, some thought it a cloud, and others
that it was the Good Spirit who had taken a new form, and was coming to
offer more proofs of his love for the Narragansetts. They asked the ugly
little man upon the tree what it was, but he only showed his teeth like
a dog that guards a bone, and would not make answer.

The strange creature was now very near, and seemed a more wondrous
object than ever. It had a body shaped very much like the canoe which
the Great Spirit had given the Indians; but it was as much larger as an
old bear is larger than a cub, the minute it is born, or an eagle is
larger than a humming-bird. It had wings, white as the wings of the
sea-gull, and as large over as a small lake. When it had come near the
shore, its many wings were drawn up and hidden, and in their stead three
tall poles were displayed, with many short ones crossing them, to one of
which the Little Man jumped from his perch on the tree.

The Indians were more astonished at this object than they had been at
any of the others. It did not appear to possess life, yet how came it
thither. Unable to tell what it meant, our people fled, startled and
frightened, into the deep thicket, and there held a council, and debated
what was best to be done. At length, encouraged by the thought that, of
all the strange creatures which had visited them, none had ever
attempted to harm them, they called up courage, and returned to the
shore. They now beheld a canoe, moved by long paddles and filled with
men, approaching the shore where they stood. It struck on the beach, and
out of it came