neither the chief
of the Salt Lake nor the Miko of the Oconees made it; it is the Great
Spirit who gave it brightness. Here," said he, pointing to the palmetto
field, whose soft rustle came murmuring across the meadow, "here is
heard the sighing of the Miko's fathers; in the forest where he was born
it howls in the storm; both are the breath of the Great Spirit, the
winds which he places in the mouths of the departed, who are his
messengers. Listen!" he continued, again drawing up his weather-beaten
form to its utmost height; "the Miko has read your book of life; when
yet a young man he learned your letters, for he saw that the cunning of
the palefaces came from their dead friends. That book says, what the
wise men of his people have also told him, that there is one Great
Spirit, one great father. The Miko," he resumed, after a moment's pause,
"was sent from his people to the great father of the palefaces, and when
he came with the other chiefs to the villages where the whites worship
the Great Spirit in the lofty council wigwams, he found them very good,
and they received him and his as brothers. Tokeah spoke with the great
father--see, this is from him"--he showed a silver medal with the head
of Washington. "He asked the great father, who was a wise father and a
very great warrior, if he believed in the Great Spirit of his book, and
he answered that he did believe, and that his Great Spirit was the same
whom the Red men worship. When the Miko returned to his wigwam and came
towards the setting sun, his soul remembered the words of the great
father, and his eyes were wide open. So long as he saw the high walls of
the council wigwams, where the palefaces pray to their Great Spirit, the
Red men were treated as brothers; but when they approached their own
forests, the countenances of the white men grew dark, because the Great
Spirit no longer lighted them up. Tokeah saw that the men who did not
worship the Great Spirit were not good men. And my brother scoffs at the
Great Spirit, and yet would be a friend of the Oconees? He would be a
friend of the Miko, who would already have sunk under his burden had not
his fathers beckoned to him from the happy hunting-grounds! Go," said
the old man, turning away from the pirate with a gesture of disgust;
"you would rob the Miko and his people of their last hope."

"Good-night," said Lafitte, yawning. "There's been a good Methodist
parson spoilt in you." And so saying he turned toward