Alone in the forest, alone,
When the night is dark and late--
Alone on the waters, alone,
She drifts to her woman's fate.
Again Malaeska took to her boat and, all alone, began her mournful
journey to the forest. After the fight at Catskill, her brethren had
retreated into the interior. The great tribe, which gave its name to
the richest intervale in New York State, was always munificent in its
hospitality to less fortunate brethren, to whom its hunting-grounds
were ever open. Malaeska knew that her people were mustered somewhere
near the amber-colored falls of Genesee, and she began her mournful
voyage with vague longings to see them again, now that she had nothing
but memories to live upon.
With a blanket in the bow of her boat, a few loaves of bread, and some
meal in a coarse linen bag, she started up the river. The boat was
battered and beginning to look old--half the gorgeous paint was worn
from its sides, and the interior had been often washed by the tempest
that beat over the little cove near her lodge where she had kept it
moored. She made no attempt to remedy its desolate look. The tiger-skin
was left behind in her lodge. No crimson cushions rendered the single
seat tempting to sit upon. These fanciful comforts were intended for
the boy--motherly love alone provided them; but now she had no care
for things of this kind. A poor lone Indian woman, trampled on by the
whites, deserted by her own child, was going back to her kinsfolk for
shelter. Why should she attempt to appear less desolate than she was?
Thus, dreary and abandoned, Malaeska sat in her boat, heavily urging it
up the stream. She had few wants, but pulled at the oars all day long,
keeping time to the slow movement with her voice, from which a low
funereal chant swelled continually.
Sometimes she went ashore, and building a fire in the loneliness,
cooked the fish she had speared or the bird her arrow had brought down;
but these meals always reminded her of the few happy days spent, after
the sylvan fashion, with her boy, and she would sit moaning over the
untasted food till the very birds that hovered near would pause in
their singing to look askance at her. So she relaxed in her monotonous
toil but seldom, and generally slept in her little craft, with the
current rippling around her, and wrapped only in a coarse, gray blanket.
No one cared about her movements, and no one attempted to bring her
back, or she might have been traced at intervals by some rock close to
the shore, blackened with embers, where she had baked her corn-bread,
or by the feathers of a bird which she had dressed, without caring to
eat it.
Day after day--day after day, Malaeska kept on her watery path till
she came to the mouth of the Mohawk. There she rested a little, with a
weary, heavy-hearted dread of pursuing her journey further. What if her
people should reject her as a renegade? She had deserted them in their
hour of deep trouble--fled from the grave of her father, their chief,
and had carried his grandson away to his bitterest enemy, the white man.
Would the people of her tribe forgive this treason, and take her back?
She scarcely cared; life had become so dreary, the whole world so
dark, that the poor soul rather courted pain, and would have smiled
to know that death was near. Some vague ideas of religion, that the
gentle grandmother of her son had taken pains to instill into that
wild nature, kept her from self destruction; but she counted the
probabilities that the tribe might put her to death, with vague hope.
Weary days, and more weary nights, she spent upon the Mohawk, creeping
along the shadows and seeking the gloomiest spots for her repose:
under the wild grape-vines that bent down the young elms with their
purple fruit--under the golden willows and dusky pines she sought rest,
never caring for danger; for, what had she to care how death or pain
presented itself, so long as she had no fear of either?
At last she drew up her boat under a shelving precipice, and making it
safe, took to the wilderness with nothing but a little corn meal, her
blanket, and bow. With the same heavy listlessness that had marked her
entire progress, she threaded the forest-paths, knowing by the hacked
trees that her tribe had passed that way. But her path was rough, and
the encampment far off, and she had many a heavy mile to walk before it
could be reached. Her moccasins were worn to tatters, and her dress,
once so gorgeous, all rent and weather stained when she came in sight
of the little prairie, hedged in by lordly forest-trees, in which her
broken tribe had built their lodges.
Malaeska threw away her scant burden of food, and took a prouder
bearing when she came in sight of those familiar lodges. In all her
sorrow, she could not forget that she was the daughter of a great chief
and a princess among the people which she sought.
Thus, with an imperial tread, and eyes bright as the stars, she entered
the encampment and sought the lodge which, by familiar signs, she knew
to be that of the chief who had superseded her son.
It was near sunset, and many of the Indian women had gathered in front
of this lodge, waiting for their lords to come forth; for there was a
council within the lodge, and like the rest of their sex, the dusky
sisterhood liked to be in the way of intelligence. Malaeska had changed
greatly during the years that she had been absent among the whites. If
the lightness and grace of youth were gone, a more imposing dignity
came in their place. Habits of refinement had kept her complexion
clear and her hair bright. She had left them a slender, spirited young
creature; she returned a serious woman, modest, but queenly withal.
The women regarded her first with surprise and then with kindling
anger, for, after pausing to look at them without finding a familiar
face, she walked on toward the lodge, and lifting the mat, stood within
the opening in full view both of the warriors assembled there and the
wrathful glances of the females on the outside.
When the Indians saw the entrance to their council darkened by a woman,
dead silence fell upon them, followed by a fierce murmur that would
have made a person who feared death tremble. Malaeska stood undismayed,
surveying the savage group with a calm, regretful look; for among the
old men, she saw some that had been upon the war-path with her father.
Turning to one of these warriors, she said:
"It is Malaeska, daughter of the Black Eagle."
A murmur of angry surprise ran through the lodge and the women crowded
together, menacing her with their glances.
"When my husband, the young white chief, died," continued Malaeska, "he
told me to go down the great water and carry my son to his own people.
The Indian wife obeys her chief."
A warrior, whom Malaeska knew as the friend of her father, arose with
austere gravity, and spoke:
"It is many years since Malaeska took the young chief to his white
fathers. The hemlock that was green has died at the top since then. Why
does Malaeska come back to her people alone? Is the boy dead?"
Malaeska turned pale in the twilight, and her voice faltered. "The boy
is not dead--yet Malaeska is alone!" she answered plaintively.
"Has the woman made a white chief of the boy? Has he become the enemy
of our people?" said another of the Indians looking steadily at
Malaeska.
Malaeska knew the voice and the look; it was that of a brave who, in
his youth, had besought her to share his wigwam. A gleam of proud
reproach came over her features, as she bent her head without answering.
Then the old chief spoke again. "Why does Malaeska come back to her
tribe like a bird with its wings broken? Has the white chief driven her
from his wigwam?"
Malaeska's voice broke out; the gentle pride of her character rose as
the truth of her position presented itself.
"Malaeska obeyed the young chief, her husband, but her heart turned
back to her own people. She tried to bring the boy into the forest
again, but they followed her up the great river and took him away;
Malaeska stands here alone."
Again the Indian spoke. "The daughter of the Black Eagle forsook her
tribe when the death-song of her father was loud in the woods. She
comes back when the corn is ripe, but there is no wigwam open to her.
When a woman of the tribe goes off to the enemy, she returns only to
die. Have I said well?"
A guttural murmur of assent ran through the lodge. The women heard
it from their place in the open air, and gathering fiercely around
the door, cried out, "Give her to us! She has stolen our chief--she
has disgraced her tribe. It is long since we have danced at the
fire-festival."
The rabble of angry women came on with their taunts and menaces,
attempting to seize Malaeska, who stood pale and still before them; but
the chief, whom she had once rejected, stood up, and with a motion of
his hand repulsed them.
"Let the women go back to their wigwams. The daughter of a great chief
dies only by the hands of a chief. To the warrior of her tribe, whom
she has wronged, her life belongs."
Malaeska lifted her sorrowful eyes to his face--how changed it was
since the day he had asked her to share his lodge.
"And it is you that want my life?" she said.
"By the laws of the tribe it is mine," he answered. "Turn your face to
the east--it is growing dark; the forest is deep; no one shall hear
Malaeska's cries when the hatchet cleaves her forehead. Come!"
Malaeska turned in pale terror, and followed him. No one interfered
with the chief, whom she had refused for a white man. Her life belonged
to him. He had a right to choose the time and place of her execution.
But the women expressed their disappointment in fiendish sneers, as
she glided like a ghost through their ranks and disappeared in the
blackness of the forest.
Not a word was spoken between her and the chief. Stern and silent
he struck into a trail which she knew led to the river, for she had
travelled over it the day before. Thus, in darkness and profound
silence, she walked on all night till her limbs were so weary that she
longed to call out and pray the chief to kill her then and there; but
he kept on a little in advance, only turning now and then to be sure
that she followed.
Once she ventured to ask him why he put off her death so long; but he
pointed along the trail, and walked along without deigning a reply.
During the day he took a handful of parched corn from his pouch and
told her to eat; but for himself, through that long night and day, he
never tasted a morsel.
Toward sunset they came out on the banks of the Mohawk, near the very
spot where she had left her boat. The Indian paused here and looked
steadily at his victim.
The blood grew cold in Malaeska's veins--death was terrible when it
came so near. She cast one look of pathetic pleading on his face, then,
folding her hands, stood before him waiting for the moment.
"Malaeska!"
His voice was softened, his lips quivered as the name once so sweet to
his heart passed through them.
"Malaeska, the river is broad and deep. The keel of your boat leaves no
track. Go! the Great Spirit will light you with his stars. Here is corn
and dried venison. Go in peace!"
She looked at him with her wild tender eyes; her lips began to tremble,
her heart swelled with gentle sweetness, which was the grace of her
civilization. She took the red hand of the savage and kissed it
reverently.
"Farewell," she said; "Malaeska has no words; her heart is full."
The savage began to tremble; a glow of the old passion came over him.
"Malaeska, my wigwam is empty; will you go back? It is my right to save
or kill."
Malaeska pointed upward to the sky.
"_He_ is yonder, in the great hunting-ground, waiting for Malaeska to
come. Could she go blushing from another chief's wigwam?"
For one instant those savage features were convulsed; then they settled
down into the cold gravity of his former expression, and he pointed to
the boat.
She went down to the edge of the water, while he took the blanket from
his shoulders and placed it into the boat. Then he pushed the little
craft from its mooring, and motioned her to jump in; he forbore to
touch her hand, or even look on her face, but saw her take up the oars
and leave the shore without a word; but when she was out of sight, his
head fell forward on his bosom, and he gradually sank to an attitude of
profound grief.
While he sat upon a fragment of rock, with a rich sunset crimsoning
the water at his feet, a canoe came down the river, urged by a white
man, the only one who over visited his tribe. This man was a missionary
among the Indians, who held him in reverence as a great medicine chief,
whose power of good was something to marvel at.
The chief beckoned to the missionary, who seemed in haste, but he drew
near the shore. In a few brief but eloquent words the warrior spoke of
Malaeska, of the terrible fate from which she had just been rescued,
and of the forlorn life to which she must henceforth be consigned.
There was something grand in this compassion that touched a thousand
generous impulses in the missionary's heart. He was on his course down
the river--for his duties lay with the Indians of many tribes--so he
promised to overtake the lonely woman, to comfort and protect her from
harm till she reached some settlement.
The good man kept his word. An hour after his canoe was attached to
Malaeska's little craft by its slender cable, and he was conversing
kindly with her of those things that interested his pure nature most.
Malaeska listened with meek and grateful attention. No flower ever
opened to the sunshine more sweetly than her soul received the holy
revelations of that good man. He had no time or place for teaching, but
seized any opportunity that arose where a duty could be performed. His
mission lay always where human souls required knowledge. So he never
left the lonely woman till long after they had passed the mouth of the
Mohawk, and were floating on the Hudson. When they came in sight of the
Catskill range, Malaeska was seized with an irresistible longing to see
the graves of her husband and father. What other place in the wide,
wide world had she to look for? Where could she go, driven forth as she
was by her own people, and by the father of her husband?
Surely among the inhabitants of the village she could sell such trifles
as her inventive talent could create, and if any of the old lodges
stood near "the Straka," that would be shelter enough.
With these thoughts in her mind, Malaeska took leave of the missionary
with many a whispered blessing, and took her way to "the Straka." There
she found an old lodge, through whose crevices the wind had whistled
for years; but she went diligently to work, gathering moss and turf
with which this old home, connected with so many sweet and bitter
associations, was rendered habitable again. Then she took possession,
and proceeded to invent many objects of comfort and even taste, with
which to beautify the spot she had consecrated with memories of her
passionate youth, and its early, only love.
The woods were full of game, and wild fruits were abundant; so that it
was a long, long time before Malaeska's residence in the neighborhood
was known. She shrank from approaching a people who had treated her
so cruelly, and so kept in utter loneliness so long as solitude was
possible.
In all her life Malaeska retained but one vague hope, and that was for
the return of her son from that far-off country to which the cruel
whites had sent him. She had questioned the missionary earnestly about
these lands, and had now a settled idea of their extent and distance
across the ocean. The great waters no longer seemed like eternity to
her, or absence so much like death. Some time she might see her child
again; till then she would wait and pray to the white man's God.