'We saw thee, O stranger, and wept!
We looked for the youth of the sunny glance,
Whose step was the fleetest in chase or dance!
The light of his eye was a joy to see;
The path of his arrows a storm to flee!
But there came a voice from a distant shore;
He was call'd—he his found 'midst his tribe no more!
He is not in his place when the night fire, burn;
But we look for him still--he will yet return!
His brother sat with a drooping brow,
In the gloom of the shadowing cypress bough.
We roused him--we bade him no longer pine;
For we heard a step--but that step was thine.' HEMANS.
'What was that cry of joy, Oriana?' exclaimed Henrich, as one evening
during their journey, he and his companion had strayed a little from
their party, who were seeking a resting-place for the night. 'What was
that cry of joy: and who is this Indian youth who has sprung from the
ground so eagerly, and is now hurrying towards us from that group of
overhanging trees? Is he a friend of yours?'
‘I know him not!’ replied Oriana. 'I never passed through this forest
before: but I have heard that it is inhabited by the Crees. They are
friendly to our allies, the Pequodees, so we need not fear to meet
them.'
As she spoke, the young stranger rapidly approached them, with an
expression of hope and expectation on his animated countenance; but
this changed as quickly to a look of deep despondence and grief, when
he had advanced within a few paces, and fixed his searching eyes en
Henrich's face.
'No!' he murmured, in a low and mournful voice, and clasping his hands
in bitterness of disappointment.'No; it is not Uncas. It is not my
brother of the fleet foot, and the steady hand. Why does he yet tarry
so long? Four moons have come, and have waned away again, since he
began his journey to the land of spirits; and I have sat by his grave,
and supplied him with food and water, and watched and wept for his
return; and yet he does not come. O, Uncas, my brother! when shall I
hear thy step, and see thy bright glancing eye? I will go back, and
wait, and hope again.'
And the young Indian turned away, too much absorbed in his own feelings
to take any further notice of Henrich and Oriana, who, both surprised
and affected at his words and manner, followed him silently. Several
other Indians of the Cree tribe now made their appearance among the
trees, and hastened towards the travelers. But a look of disappointment
was visible on every countenance: and the young travelers wondered
greatly.[1 and 2]
[Footnote 1: 'J'ai passé moi-même chez une peuplade Indienne, qui se
prenaît a pleurer à la vue d'un voyageur, parce qu'il lui rappelait des
amis partis pour la contrée des Ames, et depuis long-temps en voyage.’
--CHATEAUBRIAND.]
[Footnote 2: 'They fancy their deceased friends and relatives to be
only gone on a journey; and, being in constant expectation of their
return, look for them vainly amongst foreign travelers.’--PICART.]
But, though evidently grieved at not meeting the being they looked for
so earnestly, the elder Crees did not forget the duties of hospitality.
With simple courtesy they invited Henrich and his companion to
accompany them to their wigwams, which were situated in a beautiful
glade close by, and were only concealed by the luxuriant growth of
underwood, that formed a sort of verdant and flowering screen around
them. The invitation was gratefully accepted; for the countenances of
the Crees inspired confidence, and Oriana knew that her father intended
to visit a settlement of these friendly people, in the district they
were now traversing. She also felt her curiosity strongly excited by
what had just occurred, and she longed for an explanation of the
conduct of the interesting young savage who had first accosted them.
She therefore requested one of their new acquaintances to go in search
of the main body of their party, and to inform the Sachem that she and
Henrich had preceded them to the wigwams; and then--with a dignity and
composure that were astonishing in one so young and accustomed to so
wild a life--she guided her palfrey into the narrow path that wound
through the undergrowth of evergreens, while Henrich walked by her
side, and Rodolph bounded before her.
They came to the spot where the young Indian sat by a grave; and tears
were falling from his eyes as he gazed at the grass-covered mound,
around which wore arranged several highly-carved and ornamented
weapons, and articles of attire; and also a small quantity of firewood,
and food, and tobacco, intended for the use of the departed on his long
journey to the land of spirits. This is a well-known custom of most of
the North American tribes; but the Crees have several superstitions
peculiar to themselves, especially that melancholy one to which we have
just alluded, and which subjects them to such lengthened sorrow and
disappointment; for they watch and look for the return of their lost
and lamented friends, who can never come again to gladden their eyes on
earth. O that they were taught to place their hopes of a blessed
reunion with those they love on the only sure foundation for such
hopes--even on Him who is 'the Resurrection and the Life!’ Then they
need never be disappointed.
It was this strange expectation of the reappearance, in human form, of
the lately dead, that occasioned the incident we have just related. An
epidemic disease had been prevalent in the Cree village; and, among
those who had fallen victims to it, Uncas, the eldest orphan son of the
principal man of the village, was the most deeply regretted, and his
return was the most anxiously desired.
Especially was this vain hope cherished by his younger brother
Jyanough, to whom he had been an object of the fondest love and most
unbounded admiration; and who daily, as the evening closed, took fresh
food and water to the grave, and sat there till night closed in,
calling on Uncas, and listening for his coming footsteps. Then he
retired sadly to his wigwam, to lament his brother's continued absence,
and to hope for better success the following evening. During each night
the dogs of the village, or the wild animals of the forest, devoured
the food designed for Uncas; but Jyanough believed it had been used by
his brother's spirit, and continued still to renew the store, and to
hope that, at length, the departed would show himself, and would return
to dwell in his wigwam.
When Haunch approached the grave, leading Oriana's pony, the mourner
looked up, and gazed in his face again with that sad and inquiring
look. But now it did not change to disappointment, for he knew that the
stranger was not Uncas. There was even pleasure in his countenance as
the clear glance of the English boy's deep blue eye met his own; and he
rose from his seat at the head of the grave, and, going up to Henrich,
gently took his hand, and said--
'Will the white stranger be Jyanough's brother? His step is free, and
his eyes are bright, and his glance goes deep into Jyanough's heart.
Will the pale-face be the friend of him who has now no friend; for four
moons are guile and Uncas does not answer to my call?'
Henrich and Jyanough were strangers: they were altogether different in
race, in education, and in their mode of thinking and feeling. Yet
there was one ground of sympathy between them, of which the young
Indian seemed instinctively conscious. Both had recently known deep
sorrow; and both had felt that sickening sense of loneliness that falls
on the young heart when suddenly divided from all it most dearly loves,
by death or other circumstances. Jyanough and his elder brother Uncas
had been deprived of both their parents, not many months before the
fatal disease broke out which had carried off so many victims amongst
the Crees. The orphan youths had then become all-in-all to each other,
and their mutual attachment had excited the respect and admiration of
the whole village, of which, at his father's death, Uncas became the
leading man. Had he lived his brother would have assisted him in the
government and direction of that portion of the tribe but when he fell
before the desolating pestilence, Jyanough was too young and
inexperienced to be made Sachem, and the title was conferred on a
warrior who was deemed more capable of supporting the dignity of the
community. Thenceforth the youth was alone in his wigwam. He had no
sister to under take its domestic duties, and no friend with whom it
pleased him to dwell. He saw something in Henrich's countenance that
promised sympathy, and he frankly demanded his friendship; and the
open-hearted English boy did not refuse to bestow it on the young
Indian.
He spoke to him in his own tongue; and Jyanough's black eyes sparkled
with joy as he heard words of kindness from the lips of the pale-faced
stranger. Henrich's height and manly figure made him appear much older
than he really was; and as he and his new friend walked together
towards the village, he seemed to be Jyanough's equal in age and
strength, although the young savage was several years his senior. As
they entered the glade that was surrounded by lofty trees, and studded
with wigwams, Tisquantum and the rest of the party approached by a path
on the other side, and they all met in the center of the open space,
and were welcomed by the friendly Crees. Wigwams were appointed to the
Sachem and his daughter, and the most distinguished of the Nausetts and
their Pequodee allies; while the inferior Indians of both tribes were
directed to form huts for themselves beneath the neigh boring trees and
all were invited to partake freely of the hospitality of their hosts,
and to rest at the Cree settlement for several days, before they
resumed their journey.
Jyanough conducted his English friend to his own wigwam, which was
neatly furnished, and adorned with native tools and weapons. He bade
him repose his tired limbs on Uncas' deserted couch; and while Henrich
lay on the bed of soft grass covered with deer skins, that occupied one
corner of the hut, the Indian youth busied himself in preparing an
evening repast for his guest. The chief article of this simple supper
consisted of _nokake,_ a kind of meal made of parched maize or Indian
corn, which Jyanough mixed with water in a calabash bowl, and, having
well kneaded it, made it into small cakes, and baked them on the embers
of his wood-fire. The nokake, in its raw state, constitutes the only
food of many Indian tribes when on a journey. They carry it in a bag,
or a hollow leathern girdle; and when they reach a brook or pond, they
take a spoonful of the dry meal, and then one of water, to prevent its
choking them. Three or four spoonfuls are sufficient for a meal for
these hardy and abstemious people; and, with a few dried shellfish, or
a morsel of deer's flesh, they will subsist on it for months.
Such viands, with the addition of some wild fruits from the forest,
were all that Jyanough had to offer to his guest; but Henrich had known
privation at home, and he had become accustomed to Indian fare. The
kindness, also, and the courtesy of the untutored savage, as he warmly
expressed his pleasure at receiving him into has wigwam, were so
engaging, that the young traveler would cheerfully have put up with
worse accommodation.
From Jyanough he now heard the story of his sorrows, which deeply
interested him; and, in return, he told his host all that he could
remember of his own past life, from his residence in Holland, and his
removal to America, even till the moment when he and Oriana had
approached the Cree village that evening The red man listened with
profound attention, and constantly interrupted the narrator with
intelligent questions on every subject that was interesting to him. But
especially was his curiosity awakened when Henrich, in speaking of his
grief at being torn from all his friends and relations, and his horror
when he had anticipated a sudden and violent death, alluded to his
trust in God as the only thing that had then supported him under his
trials and sufferings, and still enabled him to hope for the future.
The young Christian was not slow in answering all his inquiries as to
the nature of the white man's Mahneto, and explaining to him why the
true believer can endure, even with cheerfulness, afflictions and
bereavements that are most trying to flesh and blood, in the confident
hope that God will over-rule every event to his people's good, and will
eventually restore all that they have lost.
'Then if I worship your _Keechee-Mahneto_[*] eagerly asked Jyanough,
will he give back to me my brother Uncas? I have called on my Mahneto
for four long moons in vain. I have offered him the best of my weapons,
and the chief of my prey in hunting; and I have promised to pour on
Uncas' grave the blood of the first prisoner I capture in war, or the
first of our enemies that I can take by subtlety. Still Mahneto does
not hear me. Tell me, then, pale-face, would your God hear me?’
[Footnote: _Keechee-Mahneto_ or Great Master of Life, is the name given
by the Crees to their notion of the Supreme Being. Maatche-Mahneto is
the Great Spirit of Evil.]
Henrich was much moved at the impassioned eagerness of the Indian,
whose naturally mild and pensive expression was now changed for one of
bitter disappointment, and even of ferocity, and then again animated
with a look of anxious hope and inquiry.
'Yes, Jyanough,' he replied, with earnest solemnity; 'my God will hear
you; but he will not give you back your brother in this world. If you
learn to believe in Him; and to serve Him, and to pray to Him in
sincerity, He will guide you to that blessed land where, after death,
all His people meet together, and where there is neither sorrow nor
separation.'
'But is Uncas there?' cried the young savage. 'Is my brother there? For
I will serve no Mahneto who will not restore me to him!'
Our young theologian was disconcerted, for a moment, at this puzzling
question, which has excited doubts and difficulties in wiser heads than
his, end to which Scripture gives no direct reply. He paused awhile;
and then he remembered that passage in the second chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, where the Apostle is speaking of the
requirements of the law, and goes on to say, 'When the Gentiles which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one
another.' 'If St. Paul could say this of the severe and uncompromising
law, surely,' thought Henrich 'the Gospel of love and mercy must hold
out equal hope for those heathen who perish in involuntary ignorance,
but who have acted up to that law of conscience which was their only
guide.' He also recollected that Jesus himself, when on earth,
declared, that 'He that _knew not,_ and did commit things worthy of
stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes': and, therefore, he felt
justified in permitting the young Indian to hope that, hereafter, he
might again behold that brother whose virtues and whose affection were
the object of his pride and his regret.
'I believe,' he replied, 'that your brother--who you say was always
kind, and just, and upright while he lived on earth--is now, through
the mercy of God, in a state of happiness: and I believe that, if you
also act up to what you know to be right, you will join him there, and
dwell with him for ever. But I can tell you how to attain a more
perfect happiness, and to share the highest joys of heaven in the
kingdom that God has prepared for His own son. I can tell you what He
has declared to be His will with regard to all His human creatures;
even that they should love that Son, and look to Him as their Savior
and their King. O, Jyanough, ask Oriana if she is not happier since she
learnt to love and worship the God of the Christians!--the only God who
can be just, and yet most merciful!'
In the vehemence of his feelings, Henrich bad rather outstripped his
companion's powers of following and comprehending him. He saw this in
Jyanough's wandering and incredulous eyes; and he carefully and
patiently proceeded to explain to him the first rudiments of religion,
as he had done to Oriana: and to reply to all his doubts and questions
according to the ability that God gave him. A willing learner is
generally a quick one; and Henrich was well pleased with his second
pupil. If he was not ready to relinquish his old ideas and
superstitions, he was, at least, well inclined to listen to the
doctrines of his new friend, and even to receive them in connection
with many of his heathen opinions. Time, and the grace of God, Henrich
knew, could only cause these to give place to a purer belief, and
entirely banish the _‘unclean birds’_ that dwelt in the ‘cage' of the
young Indian's mind. But the fallow ground had already been, in a
manner, broken up, and some good seed scattered on the surface: and
Henrich lay down to rest with a fervent prayer that the dew of the
Spirit might fall upon it, and cause it to grow, and to bring forth
fruit.
From the time of Henrich's captivity, he bad endeavored to keep up in
his own mind a remembrance of the Sabbath, or the Lord's Day (as it was
always called by the Puritans); and, as far as it was in his power to
do so, he observed it as a day of rest from common occupations and
amusements. On that day, he invariably declined joining any hunting or
fishing parties; and he also selected it as the time for his longest
spiritual conversations with Oriana; as he desired that she, also,
should learn to attach a peculiar feeling of reverence to a day that
must be sacred to every Christian, but which was always observed with
remarkable strictness by the sect to which Henrich belonged.
In this, as in all other customs that the young pale-face wished to
follow, he was unopposed by Tisquantum; who seemed entirely indifferent
as to the religious feelings or social habits of his adopted son, so
long as he acquired a skill in the arts of war and hunting: and, in
these respects, Henrich's progress fully answered his expectations. He
was, like most youths of his age, extremely fond of every kind of
sport; and his strength and activity--which had greatly increased since
he had adopted the wild life of the Indians--rendered every active
exercise easy and delightful to him. He consequently grew rapidly in
the Sachem's favor, and in that of all his companions, who learnt to
love his kind and courteous manners, as much as they admired his
courage and address. One only of the red men envied him the esteem that
he gained, and hated him for it. This was Coubitant--the aspirant for
the chief place in Tisquantum's favor, and for the honor of one day
becoming his son-in-law. From the moment that the captor's life had
been spared by the Sachem, and he had been disappointed of his expected
vengeance for the death of his friend Tekoa, the savage had harbored in
his breast a feeling of hatred towards the son of the slayer, and had
burned with a malicious desire for Henrich s destruction. This feeling
he was compelled, as we have observed, to conceal from Tisquantum; but
it only gained strength by the restraint imposed on its outward
expression, and many were the schemes that he devised for its
gratification. At present, however, he found it impossible to execute
any of them; and the object of his hate and jealousy was happily
unconscious that he had so deadly an enemy continually near him. An
instinctive feeling had, indeed, caused Henrich to shun the fierce young
Indian, and to be less at ease in his company than in that of the other
red warriors; but his own generous and forgiving nature forbade his
suspecting the real sentiments entertained towards him by Coubitant, or
even supposing that his expressions of approval and encouragement were
all feigned to suit his own evil purposes.
Oriana had never liked him; and time only strengthened the prejudice
she felt against him. She knew that he hoped eventually to make her his
wife--or rather his slave--for Coubitant was not a man to relax from
any of the domestic tyranny of his race; and the more she saw of her
'white brother,' and the more she heard from him of the habits and
manners of his countrymen, and of their treatment of their women, the
more she felt the usual life of an Indian squaw to be intolerable. Even
the companionship of the young females of her own race became
distasteful to her; for their ignorance, and utter want of
civilization, struck painfully on her now partially cultivated and
awakened mind, and made her feel ashamed of the coarseness of taste and
manners occasionally displayed by her former friends and associates. In
the Christian captive alone had she found, since her mother's death, a
companion who could sympathize in her tastes and feelings, which had
ever been above the standard of any others with whom she was
acquainted. And Henrich could do more than sympathize in her
aspirations--he could instruct her how they might be fully realized in
the attainment of divine knowledge, and the experience of Christian
love. No wonder, then, that Henrich held already the first place in her
heart and imagination, and was endowed by her lively fancy with every
quality and every perfection, both of mind and body, that she could
conceive to herself.
The simple-minded girl made no concealment of her preference for the
young stranger, whom she regarded as a brother--but a brother in every
way immeasurably her superior--and her father never checked her growing
attachment. The youth of both parties, the position that Henrich
occupied in his family as his adopted son, and the difference of race
and color, prevented him from even anticipating that a warmer sentiment
than fraternal affection could arise between them; and he fully
regarded his daughter as the future inmate and mistress of an Indian
warrior's lodge--whether that of Coubitant or of some other brave,
would, he considered, entirely depend on the comparative prowess in war
and hunting, and the value of the presents that would be the offering
of those who claimed her hand. That she should exercise any choice in
the matter never occurred to him; and, probably, had he foreseen that
such would be the case, and that the choice would fill on the son of a
stranger--on the pale-faced captive whose father had slain her only
brother--he would have removed her from such dangerous influence. But
he thought not of such consequences resulting from the intimacy of
Henrich and Oriana: he only saw that his child was happy, and that she
daily improved in grace and intelligence, and in the skilful and
punctual performance of all her domestic duties; and he was well
satisfied that he had not shed the blood of the Christian youth on the
grave of his lost Tekoa. His own esteem and affection for his adopted
son also continued to increase; and, young as Henrich was, the
influence of his superior cultivation of mind, and rectitude of
principle, was felt even by the aged Chief, and caused him to treat
him, at times, with a degree of respect that added bitterness to
Coubitant's malicious feelings.
He saw how fondly Oriana regarded her adopted brother, and personal
jealousy made him more clear-sighted as to the possibility of her
affection ripening into love than her father had as yet become; and
gladly would the rival of the unsuspecting Henrich have blackened him
in the eyes of the Chieftain, and caused him to be banished from the
lodge, had he been able to find any accusation against him. But in this
he invariably failed; for the pale-face was brave, honest, and
truthful, to a degree that baffled the ingenuity of his wily foe: and
Coubitant found that, instead of lowering Henrich in the regard of the
Sachem, he only excited him to take his part still more, and also ran a
great risk of losing all the favor which he had himself attained in
Tisquantum's eyes.
The sudden friendship that the young Jyanough had conceived for the
white stranger, and the consequent favor with which he was looked upon
by Oriana, tended still more to irritate the malignant savage; and
when, a few days after the arrival of Tisquantum's party at the Cree
village, he saw the three young friends seated amicably together
beneath a shadowing tree, and evidently engaged in earnest
conversation, he could not resist stealing silently behind them, and
lurking in the underwood that formed a thick background to their
position, in order to listen to the subject of their discourse. How
astonished and how indignant was he to find that Henrich was reasoning
eloquently against the cruel and ridiculous superstitions of the Indian
tribes, and pointing out to his attentive hearers the infinite
superiority of the Christian's belief and the Christian's practice!
The acquiescence that Oriana expressed to the simple but forcible
arguments of the pale-face added to his exasperation; and he was also
angry, as well as astonished, to perceive that the young Cree, although
he was yet unconvinced, was still a willing listener, and an anxious
inquirer as to the creed of his white friend.
Maddened with rage, and excited also by the hope of at length arousing
the anger of the Sachem against the Christian youth, he forgot his
former caution, and hurried away, with quick and noiseless step, to the
wigwam occupied by Tisquantum, and broke unceremoniously upon his
repose as he sat, in a half-dreaming state, on the soft mat that
covered the floor, and 'drank smoke' from his long, clay pipe.
With vehement gestures, Coubitant explained to the Sachem the cause of
his sudden interruption, and implored him to listen to the counsel of
his most faithful friend and subject, and to lose no time in banishing
from his favor and presence one who showed himself unworthy of all the
benefits he had heaped upon him, and who employed the life that had
been so unduly spared in perverting the mind of his benefactor's only
child. In vain his eloquence--in vain his wrath. Tisquantum regarded
him calmly until he had exhausted his torrent of passionate
expostulations, and then, quietly removing the pipe from his lips, he
replied, with his and decision--
'My brother is angry. His zeal for the honor of Mahneto has made him
forget his respect for the Sachem and the Sachem's adopted son. The
life of the white stranger was spared that he might bring joy to the
mournful eyes of Oriana. He has done so. My daughter smiles again, and
it is well. Coubitant may go.’
He then resumed his pipe, and, closing his eyes again, gave himself up
to the drowsy contemplations, which the entrance of Coubitant had
interrupted; and the disappointed warrior retired with a scowl on his
dark brow, and aggravated malice in his still darker heart.