HINK of the country for which the Indians fought! Who can blame them? As Philip looked down from his seat on Mount Hope, that glorious eminence, that

464

THE INDIAN TO THE SETTLER.

-"throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,"-

as he looked down, and beheld the lovely scene which spread beneath, at a summer sunset, the distant hill-tops glittering as with fire, the slanting beams streaming across the waters, the broad plains, the island groups, the majestic forest,-could he be blamed, if his heart burned within him, as he beheld it all passing, by no tardy process from beneath his control, into the hands of the stranger?

As the river chieftains-the lords of the waterfalls and the mountains -ranged this lovely valley, can it be wondered at if they beheld with bitterness the forest disappearing beneath the settler's axe-the fishingplace disturbed by his saw-mills? Can we not fancy the feelings with which some strong-minded savage, the chief of the Pocomtuck Indians, who should have ascended the summit of the Sugar-loaf Mountain (rising as it does before us, at this moment, in all its loveliness and grandeur,)— in company with a friendly settler-contemplating the progress already made by the white man, and marking the gigantic strides with which he was advancing into the wilderness, should fold his arms and say, "White man, there is eternal war between me and thee! I quit not the land of my fathers, but with my life. In those woods, where I bent my youthful bow, I will still hunt the deer; over yonder waters I will still glide unrestrained, in my bark canoe. By those dashing waterfalls I will still lay up my winter's store of food; on these fertile meadows I will still plant my corn.

"Stranger, the land is mine! I understand not these paperrights. I gave not my consent, when, as thou sayest, these broad regions were purchased, for a few baubles, of my fathers. They could sell what was theirs; they could sell no more. How could my father sell that which the Great Spirit sent me into the world to live upon? They knew not what they did.

"The stranger came, a timid suppliant,-few and feeble, and asked to lie down on the red man's bear-skin, and warm himself at the red man's fire, and have a little piece of land to raise corn for his women and children; and now he is become strong, and mighty, and bold, and spreads out his parchments over the whole, and says, 'It is mine.' "Stranger! there is not room for us both.

made us to live together. There is poison in

The Great Spirit has not the white man's cup; the

white man's dog barks at the red man's heels. If I should leave the land

THE INDIAN TO THE SETTLER.

465

of my fathers, whither shall I fly?
among the graves of the Pequots?
Mohawk-the man-eater,-is my foe.
water is before me. No, stranger; here I have lived, and here will I die;
and if here thou abidest, there is eternal war between me and thee.

Shall I go to the south, and dwell
Shall I wander to the west, the fierce
Shall I fly to the east, the great

"Thou hast taught me thy arts of destruction; for that alone I thank thee. And now take heed to thy steps; the red man is thy foe. When thou goest forth by day, my bullet shall whistle past thee; when thou liest down by night, my knife is at thy throat. The noonday sun shall not discover thine enemy, and the darkness of midnight shall not protect thy rest. Thou shalt plant in terror, and I will reap in blood; thou shalt sow the earth with corn, and I will strew it with ashes; thou shalt go forth with the sickle, and I will follow after with the scalping-knife; thou shalt build,

466

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.

and I will burn,-till the white man or the Indian perish from the land Go thy way for this time in safety,—but remember, stranger, there is eternal war between me and thee."

H! say, can you see, by the dawn's
early light,

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

What so proudly we hailed at the In full glory reflected now shines on the

twilight's last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars

through the perilous fight,

O'er the rampart, we watched were so gallantly streaming: And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner

stream;

'Tis the star-spangled banner! oh, long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band, who so vauntingly

swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul

footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave,

From the terror of death and the gloom of the grave;

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of

the brave!