of his companion, the Indian was far
too dignified to betray his unbelief. He listened like one who was
convinced, and resumed his narrative in his former solemn manner.

"We came from the place where the sun is hid at night, over great plains
where the buffaloes live, until we reached the big river. There we
fought the Alligewi, till the ground was red with their blood. From the
banks of the big river to the shores of the salt lake, there was none to
meet us. The Maquas followed at a distance. We said the country should
be ours from the place where the water runs up no longer on this stream,
to a river twenty suns' journey toward the summer. The land we had taken
like warriors, we kept like men. We drove the Maquas into the woods with
the bears. They only tasted salt at the licks; they drew no fish from
the great lake; we threw them the bones."

"All this I have heard and believe," said the white man, observing that
the Indian paused: "but it was long before the English came into the
country."

"A pine grew then where this chestnut now stands. The first pale-faces
who came among us spoke no English. They came in a large canoe, when my
fathers had buried the tomahawk with the redmen around them. Then,
Hawkeye," he continued, betraying his deep emotion only by permitting
his voice to fall to those low, guttural tones, which rendered his
language, as spoken at times, so very musical; "then, Hawkeye, we were
one people, and we were happy. The salt lake gave us its fish, the wood
its deer, and the air its birds. We took wives who bore us children; we
worshipped the Great Spirit; and we kept the Maquas beyond the sound of
our songs of triumph!"

"Know you anything of your own family at that time?" demanded the white.
"But you are a just man, for an Indian! and, as I suppose you hold their
gifts, your fathers must have been brave warriors, and wise men at the
council fire."

"My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The
blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever. The Dutch
landed, and gave my people the fire-water; they drank until the heavens
and the earth seemed to meet, and they foolishly thought they had found
the Great Spirit. Then they parted with their land. Foot by foot, they
were driven back from the shores, until I, that am a chief and a
sagamore, have never seen the sun shine but through the trees, and have
never visited the graves of, my fathers!"

"Graves bring sole