'Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath
shalt thou restrain.' PSA. lxxvi,10.
We will now, for a time, leave the settlement--where the sad news of
the capture and supposed death of Henrich had spread a general gloom
and consternation--and follow the subject of their pitying grief, from
the time that he was seized and made a prisoner in the hands of the
savages. They did not slay him; for the Lord had work and service in
store for the young missionary, and he suffered not a hair of his head
to be hurt.
Coubitant--for he was one of those whose patient vigilance had, at
length, been crowned by success--and his companion had hurried him at
their greatest speed through the wood, to the spot where their
temporary camp was pitched, and where several others of their tribe
awaited their return. A few minutes sufficed to remove the matting
that formed their tents, and to collect their arms and utensils; but
Coubitant well knew that the child who had escaped his cruelty would
soon alarm the settlers, and that an instant pursuit would follow. He
therefore, devised plan to deceive, and, perhaps altogether to check
the white men, at least for a time, by making them believe that the
death of the captive had already taken place. He would have instantly
gratified the feelings of his cruel and revengeful heart, and have shed
the innocent blood of Rodolph's son to atone for the death of his
friend, but that he feared to disappoint his Chief, who so earnestly
desired to imbrue his own hands in the blood of the slayer. He,
therefore, resolved on the stratagem we have described. He stripped off
the captive's tunic, and, after piercing it several times with his
dagger, he opened a vein in his own arm with the same weapon, and let
the hot blood flow freely over the torn vesture.
This done, he smiled a demon's smile, as he cast the tunic on the
ground, and thought with malignant pleasure of the anguish that its
discovery would occasion to his hated foe.
Henrich gazed in trembling wonder at this act; and when Coubitant again
approached him to bind his hands, he believed that he was about to
plunge that blood-stained knife into his beating heart. He was young,
and life was new and precious to him; and for a moment he shrank back,
while the blood curdled in his veins. But, young as he was, he was also
a child of God; and he knew that all events are governed by His
Almighty power, and over-ruled by His wisdom and love. So he was
enabled to lift up his eyes and his trusting heart to heaven, and to
await his expected fate with calmness. Coubitant saw his firmness, and
he wondered and admired. He placed the dagger in his belt and hastily
tying the captive's hands behind his back, he motioned to his
companions to follow, and struck into a narrow and almost
undistinguishable path.
Forcing Henrich to go before him, while he held the rope of twisted
grass that bound his hands he followed close behind, and placed his
foot in each print that the prisoner made, so as to destroy the
impression of the boy's European shoe. The other Indians did the same;
as exactly did they tread in one another's steps, that, when all had
passed, it seemed as if only one solitary traveler had left his track
on the soft ground.
Thus, 'in Indian file,' they traversed a belt of wood, till they came
out on a dry and sun-burnt plain, where their steps left no impression.
Coubitant then advanced to the side of his prisoner, and, taking his
arm in his powerful grasp, he compelled him to advance, at an almost
breathless speed, across the plain. In the wood, on the other side, he
allowed a short pause, and gave Henrich some water from a bottle made
of a dried gourd, which hung about his neck; and thus they traveled on,
with slight refreshment and little rest, until the sun arose in all his
splendor, and displayed to Henrich's admiring gaze the wild and
magnificent woodland scenery through which he was travelling. Under
other circumstances, he would keenly have enjoyed the novelty and the
beauty of the objects that met his eyes, so different from the
luxuriant, but flat and monotonous fields, and gardens, and canals,
that he so well remembered in Holland. Here all was wild and varied;
and all was on a scale of grandeur that inspired him with a feeling of
awe and solemnity, heightened, no doubt, by the fearful uncertainty of
his fate, and the thought that, perhaps, this was the last time that he
should look upon these glorious hills, and ancient forests, and wide
rushing rivers--the handiworks, and the visible teachers of God's
power. Something of American scenery he had become acquainted with in
his rambles round the Indian village, but only enough to make him long
to see more; and had he now been travelling by the side of his father,
or his friend Brewster, the elastic morning air, and the splendid and
ever-varying views, would have made his young heart bound with joy and
health.
As it was, the silent beauty of nature was not without its influence on
the captive boy. He seemed to feel more strongly the presence and the
goodness of his heavenly Father; and his young spirit was cheered to
endure his present desolate situation, and strengthened to meet
whatever future trials might await him. He had learnt from Brewster to
make himself understood in the Wampanoge language, and he resolved to
try whether his Nausett guide would reply to his questions in that
tongue. He therefore besought him to tell him whither he was leading
him, and for what purpose. But Coubitant deigned him no reply. He
understood him--for the Nausett language was but another dialect of the
Wampanoge--but he did not choose to inform the boy of his destination
at present, and he preserved a profound silence, and an expression of
sullen gravity.
It was not until the evening of the fourth day that the party reached
the Nausett village, which, as we have already observed, was situate
near the site of the 'first encounter'; and to which Tisquantum, and
the greater part of his warriors had returned, when Coubitant and a few
picked associates were left to carry out his schemes of vengeance.
Henrich was instantly conducted to the lodge of the old Chief; and
brightly did Tisquantum's dark eyes glitter when he beheld the son of
his enemy in his power. He praised the skill and the perseverance by
which Coubitant had thus procured him the means of revenge; and, taking
off his own brilliant coronet of feathers, he placed it on the head of
the proud and successful warrior, as a distinguished mark of his
approbation.
Coubitant was highly gratified; but his desire for vengeance was
stronger than his vanity, and forgetting the honor that had been
conferred upon him, he entreated the Chief to allow him instantly to
drive his spear into the boy's heart, or else with his own weapon to
take the life of the slayer's child.
'Not yet!' replied Tisquantum--and Henrich comprehended the full
purport of his words--'not today, Coubitant. I would pour out the
blood of the white youth with pomp and ceremony, as an offering to the
spirit of my murdered son. Let the boy be fed and refreshed: tomorrow,
at break of day, he shall die. Go. I have said it.'
'And will the Sachem give him into my charge until the morning dawns?'
inquired Coubitant.
Tisquantum fixed his piercing eye on the savage, and read his
malevolent feelings; and he calmly answered, 'No: the victim shall
bleed because his father's blood flows in his veins. But he shall not
be tortured; for his was not the hand that deprived me of my son. The
boy shall remain in my own lodge, and sleep securely for this night
beneath the same roof that shelters my last remaining child--my lovely
Oriana.'
Had the Chief observed Henrich's changing countenance, he would have
perceived that all he said was understood by the intended sufferer. But
he marked him not, and the boy commanded himself, and kept silence,
determined to await Coubitant's departure before he made one effort to
move the Chief to pity. He had, however, no opportunity of trying the
effect of his earnest appeal; for Tisquantum ordered one of his
attendants to remove him at once to the inner division of the lodge,
and to secure him there for the night: and then, motioning Coubitant to
retire, and resuming his pipe, he proceeded to 'drink smoke,' as
composedly as if his evening repose had not been interrupted.
But, notwithstanding his outward composure, the Nausett chief was not
unmoved by the event that had just occurred. The sight of the son of
him whose hand had slain his young Tekoa brought back the image of his
brave young warrior, as he stood beside him at the fatal burial-ground,
full of youthful ardor, to combat the invaders of his land, and the
supposed enemies of his race. He recalled his daring look as he mounted
the palisade, and placed in his unerring bow the arrow that wounded the
English boy. And then he seemed to hear again the sharp report of the
white man's musket, and to behold once more the sudden fall of his son,
bleeding and expiring, to the ground.
Tisquantum thought on that hour of anguish, when his duties as a chief
and a warrior had forbidden all expression of his grief; and he thought
of his return to his lodge, where only Oriana remained to welcome him--
for the mother of his children, whom he had loved with unusual
affection, was dead--and tears gathered in the Sachem's eyes. Oriana
had deeply mourned her brother's death; for since she had lost her
mother, she had been permitted to enjoy much more of his society than
had previously been allowed her; and her father, also, had seemed to
transfer to her much of the love that be had borne towards his wife.
Now his daughter was his only domestic tie; and his chief object in
life was to give her in marriage to a warrior as brave as her young
brother, and who would supply to him the place of his departed son.
At present, this prospect was not immediate, for Oriana was only in her
fourteenth year; but the Sachem was resolved that she should be worthy
of the hand of the greatest warriors of her tribe, and he took pains to
have her instructed in every art that was considered valuable or
ornamental to an Indian female. Already she could perform the most
elaborate patterns in native embroidery on her father's pouches and
moccasins; and her own garments were also delicately and fancifully
adorned in the same manner, with feathers, and shells, and colored
grasses. Besides this accomplishment, her skill in Indian cookery was
very great; and she could also use a bow and arrows, or cast a light
javelin, or swim across a rapid river, with a grace and activity that
delighted her proud father.
Oriana, too, was gentle--as gentle as her mother, and her influence
over Tisquantum bade fair to equal that which his much-cherished and
deeply regretted wife had exercised over him. That influence had ever
been employed in the cause of mercy! and many an enemy, and many a
subject, had lived to bless the name of the Squaw-Sachem Oriana, when
she had quelled the wrath of the offended Chief, and turned aside his
intended vengeance.
It was to the inner apartment of his spacious lodge, where his daughter
and her attendants were busily engaged in their domestic occupations,
that Henrich bad been led. His arms were still tied behind his back,
and the end of the rope that bound them was secured to a post in the
wall. The Indian who, at his chief's command, conducted him thither,
briefly informed Oriana that he was a prisoner, and desired her women
to look to his security: and then he left the captive to his strange
and inquisitive jailers.
When Tisquantum had emptied his long pipe, he bethought himself of the
young captive's position, and proceeded to his daughter's apartment to
give orders for his hospitable entertainment that evening, and his safe
lodgment for the night--that night which he was resolved should be his
last. As he approached the thick curtain of deer-skins that hung over
the aperture between the two apartments, he thought he heard a strange
sweet voice speaking the Indian language with a foreign accent; and
hastily drawing aside the heavy drapery, he was astonished to see his
prisoner, and intended victim, liberated from the cord that had bound
him, and reclining on the furs and cushions that formed Oriana's usual
resting-place; while his gentle Indian child knelt beside him, and
offered him the food of which he was so much in need. Henrich was
gratefully thanking her; and as the Sachem entered, he heard him
exclaim in mournful accents--
‘But why do you thus so kindly treat me? It were better to let me die
of hunger and fatigue; for I know that to-morrow my blood is to be
shed: the cold knife is to pierce my heart.'
'It shall not be,' replied Oriana, fervently. 'I have said that I will
save you.' And then she raised her sparkling eyes as she heard her
father's entrance; and springing on her feet, she darted forward, and
caught his arm.
'Father!' she cried--and now she spoke so rapidly and energetically,
that Henrich could only guess the purport of her words, and read it in
her sweet expressive countenance--'Father! do not slay the white boy.
He says that he is doomed to die because his father caused my brother's
death. But surely Tekoa's generous spirit does not ask the blood of a
child. My brother is now happy in the great hunting grounds where our
fathers dwell. He feels no wrath against his slayer's son: he never
would have sought revenge against an innocent boy. Give me the captive,
O my father! and let him grow up in our lodge, and be to me a
playfellow and a brother.'
Tisquantum gazed at his child in wonder, and his countenance softened.
She saw that he was moved and hastily turning from him, she approached
Henrich, who had risen from the couch, and now stood an earnest
spectator of the scene, on the issue of which his life or death,
humanly speaking, depended. She took his band, and led him to her
father, and again pleaded earnestly and passionately for his life;
while the touching expression of his own deep blue eyes, and the beauty
of his fair young face, added greatly to the power of her appeal.
I have a little sister at home,' said Henrich--and the soft Indian
language sounded sweetly from his foreign lips--'and she will weep for
me as Oriana has wept for her brother. Let me return to Patupet, and
she and my parents will bless you.'
At the mention of his parents, Tisquantum's brow grew dark again. He
thought of Rodolph as the destroyer of his son; and he turned away from
the two youthful suppliants, whose silent eloquence he felt he could
not long resist.
'Your father killed my young Tekoa,' he replied. 'His fire weapon
quenched the light of my lodge, and took from me the support of my old
age. Should I have pity on his son?'
'But let him dwell in our lodge, and fill my brother's vacant place!'
exclaimed Oriana. 'Do not send him back to the white men; and his
father, and his mother, and his little sister will still weep for him,
and believe him dead.'
The same idea had crossed Tisquantum's breast. He looked again at the
boy, and thought how much Oriana's life would be cheered by such a
companion. His desire of revenge on Rodolph would also be gratified by
detaining his child, and bringing him up as an Indian, so long as his
parents believed that he had met with a bloody death; and, possibly, he
felt a time might come when the possession of an English captive might
prove advantageous to himself and his tribe. All fear of the boy's
escaping to his friends was removed from his mind; for he was about to
retire from that part of the country to a wild district far to the
west, and to join his allies, the Pequodees, in a hunting expedition to
some distant prairies. The portion of his tribe over which he was
Sachem, or chief, was willing to accompany him; and he had no intention
of returning again to the neighborhood of the English intruders, who,
he clearly foresaw, would ere long make themselves masters of the soil;
and who had already secured to themselves such powerful allies in the
Wampanoges--the enemies and rivals of the Nausetts.
Tisquantum weighed all these considerations in his mind; and he
resolved to spare the life of his young captive. But he would not at
once announce that he had relented from his bloody purpose, and yielded
to his child's solicitations. He therefore maintained the severe
gravity that usually marked his countenance, and replied--
'But what can the white boy do, that he should fill the place of an
Indian chieftain's son? Can he cast the spear, or draw the bow, or
wrestle with our brave youths?’
Reviving hope had filled the heart of Henrich with courage, and he
looked boldly up into the Sachem's face, and merely answered, 'Try me.'
The brevity and the calmness of the reply pleased the red Chief, and he
determined to take him at his word.
'I will,' he said. 'To-morrow you shall show what skill you possess,
and your fate shall depend on your success. But how have you learned
anything of Indian sports, or of the Indian tongue?'
'I have been much in Mooanam's lodge, and have played with the youths
of his village,' replied Henrich; 'and the Sachem was well pleased to
see me use a bow and arrow in his woods. And from him, and my young
companions, I learnt to speak their tongue.'
'It is good,' said the old Chief, thoughtfully. Then, fixing his
penetrating eyes on Henrich again, he hastily inquired: 'And can you
use the fire-breathing weapons of your countrymen? and can you teach me
to make them?
'I can use them,' answered the boy; 'but I cannot make them. They come
from my father's land, beyond the great sea. But,' he added--while a
stronger hope of life and liberty beamed in his bright blue eye and
flushing face--'send me back to my countrymen, and they will give you
muskets for my ransom.'
'No, no!' said the Sachem: and the dark cloud again passed over his
countenance. 'Never will I restore you to your father, till he can give
me back my son. You shall live, if you can use our Indian weapons; but
you shall live and die as an Indian.'
He turned and left the apartment; and the heart of Henrich sank within
him. Was he then taken for ever from his parents, and his brother, and
sister? Should he behold his friends, and his teacher, no more? And
must he dwell with savages, and lead a savage life? Death, he thought,
would be preferable to such a lot; and he half resolved to conceal his
skill and dexterity in Indian exercises, that Tisquantum might cast him
off and slay him, as unfit to dwell among his tribe. But hope soon
revived; and his trust in the providential mercy of God restored his
spirits, and enabled him even to look upon a lengthened captivity among
the red men with composure. Plans for escaping out of their hands, and
making his way back to the settlement, filled his mind; and a short
residence among the wild men even appeared to offer some attraction to
his enterprising spirit. So he turned to Oriana, who stood gazing on
his changing and expressive countenance with the deepest interest, and
again resumed the conversation which had been interrupted by the
entrance of the Chief.
Many questions did those young strangers ask each other relative to
their respective homes, and native customs; and Henrich learnt, with
much dismay, that the Nausetts under Tisquantum's rule were so soon to
change their place of residence. His hopes of escape became less
strong, but they were not destroyed: and when he was summoned to pass
the night in the Sachem's apartment, he was able to lift up his heart
to God in prayer, and to lie down to sleep on the rude couch prepared
for him, with a calm trust in His Almighty power and goodness, and a
hope that He would see fit to shorten his trials, and restore him to
his friends.
The Chief watched him as he knelt in prayer; and when he rose, and
prepared to lie down to sleep, he abruptly asked him why he had thus
remained on his knees so long?
'I was praying to my God to protect me,' answered Henrich; and a tear
rose to his eye, as he remembered how he had knelt every evening with
his own beloved family; and thought how his absence, and their probable
belief in his death, would sadden the act of worship that would that
night be performed in his father's house.
'Do you pray to the Great Spirit?' asked Tisquantum.
'I do!' replied the young Christian. 'I pray to the Great Spirit, who
is the God and Father of all men; and I pray to his Son Jesus Christ,
who is the friend and Savior of all who love him.'
'It is good!' said the Chief. 'We know the Great Spirit; but we know
nothing of the other gods of the white men. Sleep now; for your
strength and activity will be tried to-morrow.' And Henrich lay down,
and slept long and peacefully.
He was awakened the next morning by the gentle voice of Oriana, who
stood beside him, and said, 'You must rise now, and eat with me, before
you go out to try your strength and skill. Come to my apartment.'
Henrich opened his eyes, and gazed around him in wonder. But quickly
the whole sad reality of his situation came over him, and he felt that
he must nerve himself for the coming trial. Soon he followed Oriana to
her inner room, where a slight Indian repast of maize and fruits had
been prepared by the young Squaw-Sachem and her attendants. Tisquantum
had left the lodge, and was now occupied in preparing a spot for the
exercise of the white boy's skill. At his side stood Coubitant, silent
and gloomy. His indignation at the Chief's merciful intentions towards
the intended victim was great; and strongly had he urged him to the
immediate slaughter of the captive. But Tisquantum was not to be
lightly moved, either to good or evil. He had said that the boy should
live, if he proved himself worthy to bear Indian arms, and all the
cruel suggestions and arguments that Coubitant could bring forward only
made him more resolved to keep his word.
The young savage then forbore to speak, for he saw that it was useless,
and he feared to displease his Chief, whose favor was the highest
object of his ambition. Since the untimely death of his son, Coubitant
had been constantly his companion and attendant, until he had been left
near the English settlement to carry out his schemes of revenge. His
success in this enterprise a raised him still higher in Tisquantum's
estimation; and visions of becoming the son-in-law of the Chief, and
eventually succeeding him in his office, already floated in the brain
of Coubitant. In a few years, Oriana's hand would be given to some
fortunate warrior; and who could have so strong a claim to it as the
man who had risked his own life to procure vengeance for her brother's
death? Therefore Coubitant held his peace, and checked the expression
of his deadly and malignant feelings towards the young prisoner.
Soon Henrich was summoned to the ground where his fate was to be
decided, and he was directed to try his powers with several Indian boys
of his own age. In shooting with the bow and arrow, he could not, by
any means, rival their skill and accuracy of aim; but in casting the
spear, and wielding the tomahawk, he showed himself their equal; and
when he was made to wrestle with his swarthy and half-naked
competitors, the superior height and muscular powers of the British lad
enabled him to gain the victory in almost every instance.
Tisquantum was satisfied. He pronounced him worthy to live; and,
notwithstanding the opposition of Coubitant, which was once more
cautiously manifested, he presented Henrich with the arms that he knew
so well how to use, and informed him that he should henceforth dwell in
his lodge among his braves, and should no more inhabit the apartments
of the women. To a young and generous mind success and approbation are
always grateful; and Henrich's eye kindled, and his cheek burned, as he
listened to the praises of the Chief, and felt that he owed his life,
under Providence, to his own efforts. And when his little friend Oriana
came bounding up to him, with joy and exultation in her intelligent
countenance, and playfully flung a wreath of flowers across his
shoulders in token of victory, he felt that even among these children
of the wilderness--these dreaded Nausett Indians--he could find
something to love.
In Coubitant, he instinctively felt that he had also something to
dread; but the savage tried to conceal his feeling and even to please
the Chief and Oriana, by pretending an interest in their young
favorite, which for a long time deceived them as to his real
sentiments. The bustle of preparation for the intended removal of the
encampment began that day--for Tisquantum was now more eager than ever
to get beyond the reach of the settlers--and before sunset all was
ready. The next morning the march commenced at daybreak, and continued
for many days uninterruptedly, until the Chief and his followers
reached the residence of his Pequodee allies, when he considered
himself safe from pursuit, even if the settlers should attempt it. He
therefore halted his party, and took up his abode among his friends, to
wait until they were prepared to set out on their hunting expedition to
the western prairies. A period of repose was also very needful for the
women and children, for the march had been a most fatiguing one. Not
only had the Sachem dreaded the pursuit of the injured settlers, and
therefore hurried his party to their utmost speed; but the country
through which they had traveled was inhabited by the Narragansett
tribe, the ancient and hereditary foes of the Pequodees. It was,
consequently, desirable for the Nausetts, as allies of the latter, to
spend as little time as possible in the territories of their enemies;
and little rest ad been permitted to the travelers until they had
passed the boundary of the friendly Pequodees.