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pealed on the air! shouts of wailing, and cries of vengeance. Every eye was turned with suspicion and hatred on my father. He had been the friend of the English; he had counselled peace and alliance with them; he had protected their traders; delivered the captives taken from them, and restored them to their people: now his wife and children alone were living, and they called him traitor. I heard an angry murmur, and many hands were lifted to strike the death-blow. He moved not- Nay, nay,' cried Sassacus, beating them off. Touch him not; his soul is bright as the sun; sooner shall you darken that, than find treason in his breast. If he hath shown the dove's heart to the English, when he believed them friends, he will show himself the fierce eagle, now he knows them enemies. Touch him not, warriors; remember my blood runneth in his veins.'

"From that moment my father was a changed man. He neither spoke nor looked at his wife, or children; but placing himself at the head of one band of the young men, he shouted his war-cry, and then silently pursued the onemy. Sassacus went forth to assemble the tribe, and we followed my mother to one of our villages."

"You did not tell me, Magawisca," said Everell, "how Samoset perished; was he consumed in the flames, or shot from the palisade?"

“Neither-neither. He was reserved to whet my father's revenge to a still keener edge. He had forced a passage through the English, and, hastily collecting a few warriors, they pursued the enemy, sprung upon them from a covert, and did so annoy them that the English turned, and gave them battle. All fled save my brother, and him they took prisoner. They told him they would spare his life if he would guide them to our strong holds; he refused. He had, Everell, lived but sixteen summers; he loved the light of the sun even as we love it; his manly spirit was tamed by wounds and weariness; his limbs were like a bending reed, and his heart beat like a woman's; but the fire of his soul burnt clear. Again they pressed him with offers of life and reward; he faithfully refused, and with one sabre-stroke they severed his head from his body."

Magawisca paused-she looked at Everell, and said with a bitter smile" You English tell us, Everell, that the book of your law is better than that written on our hearts, for, ye say, it teaches mercy, compassion, forgiveness if ye had such a law, and believed it, would ye thus have treated a captive boy?"

Magawisca's reflecting mind suggested the most serious obstacle to the progress of the Christian religion, in all ages and under all circumstances; the contrariety between its divine principles and the conduct of its professors; which, instead of always being a medium for the light that emanates from our holy law, is too often the darkest cloud that obstructs the passage of its rays to the hearts of heathen Inen. Everell had been carefully instructed in the principles of his religion, and he felt Magawisca's relation to be an awkward comment on them, and her inquiry natural but, though he knew not what answer to make, he was sure there must be a good one, and, mentally resolving to refer the case to his mother, he begged Magawisca to proceed with her narrative.

"The fragments of our broken tribe," she said, "were collected, and some other small dependant tribes persuaded to join us. We were obliged to flee from the open grounds, and shelter ourselves in a dismal swamp. The English surrounded us; they sent in to us a messenger, and offered life and pardon to all who had not shed the blood of Englishmen. Our allies listened, and fled from us, as frightened birds fly from a falling tree. My father looked upon his warriors; they answered that look with their battleshout. Tell your people,' said my father to the messenger, that we have shed and drank English blood, and that we will take nothing from them but death.' The messenger departed, and again returned with offers of pardon, if we would come forth, and lay our arrows and our tomahawks at the feet of the English. What say you, warriors' cried my father-shall we take pardon from those who have burned your wives and children, and given your homes to the beasts of prey?-who have robbed you of your hunting-grounds, and driven your canoes from their waters?' A hundred arrows were pointed to the messenger. 'Enough—you have your answer,' said my father; and

the messenger returned to announce the fate we had chosen."

"Where was Sassacus ?-had he abandoned his people?" asked Everell.

"Abandoned them! No-his life was in theirs; but, accustomed to attack and victory, he could not bear to be thus driven like a fox to his hole. His soul was sick within him, and he was silent, and left all to my father. All day we heard the strokes of the English axes felling the trees that defended us, and, when night came, they had approached so near, that we could see the glimmering of their watch-lights through the branches of the trees. All night they were pouring in their bullets, alike on warriors, women, and children. Old Cushmakin was lying at my mother's feet, when he received a death-wound. Gasping for breath, he called on Sassacus and my father-Stay not here,' he said; look not on your wives and children, but burst your prison bound; sound through the nations the cry of revenge! Linked together, ye shall drive the English into the sea. I speak the word of the Great Spirit -obey it!' While he was yet speaking, he stiffened in death. 'Obey him, warriors,' cried my mother; she said, pointing to the mist that was now wrapping itself around the wood like a thick curtain-see, our friends have come from the spirit-land to shelter you. Nay, look not on us our hearts have been tender in the wigwam, but we can die before our enemies without a groan. Go forth and avenge us.'

see,'

"Have we come to the counsel of old men and old women!' said Sassacus, in the bitterness of his spirit.

"When women put down their womanish thoughts and counsel like men, they should be obeyed,' said my father Follow me, warriors.'

.

"They burst through the enclosure. We saw nothing more, but we heard the shout from the foe, as they issued from the wood-the momentary fierce encounter and the cry, They have escaped!' Then it was that my mother, who had listened with breathless silence, threw herself down on the mossy stones, and, laying her hot cheek to mine- Oh, my children-my children!' she said, would that I could die for you! But fear not death-the blood

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of a hundred chieftains, that never knew fear, runneth in your veins. Hark, the enemy comes nearer and nearer. Now lift up your heads, my children, and show them that even the weak ones of our tribe are strong in soul.'

"We rose from the ground-all about sat women and children in family clusters, awaiting unmoved their fate. The English had penetrated the forest-screen, and were already on the little rising-ground where we had been intrenched. Death was dealt freely. None resisted-not a movement was made-not a voice lifted-not a sound escaped, save the wailings of the dying children.

"One of your soldiers knew my mother, and a command was given that her life and that of her children should be spared. A guard was stationed round us.

"You know that, after our tribe was thus cut off, we were taken, with a few other captives, to Boston. Some were sent to the Islands of the Sun, to bend their free limbs to bondage like your beasts of burden. There are among your people those who have not put out the light of the Great Spirit; they can remember a kindness, albeit done by an Indian; and when it was known to your sachems that the wife of Mononotto, once the protector and friend of your people, was a prisoner, they treated her with honour and gentleness. But her people were extinguished-her husband driven to distant forests-forced on earth to the misery of wicked souls-to wander without a home; her children were captives-and her heart was broken."

Character of Fisher Ames.-KIRKLAND.

MR. AMES, as a speaker and a writer, had the power to enlighten and persuade, to move, to please, to charm, to astonish. He united those decorations, which belong to fine talents, to that penetration and judgment, that designate an acute and solid mind. Many of his opinions had the authority of predictions fulfilled and fulfilling. He had the ability of investigation, and, where it was necessary, did investigate with patient attention, going through

a series of observation and deduction, and tracing the links which connect one truth with another. When the result of his researches was exhibited in discourse, the steps of a logical process were in some measure concealed by the colouring of rhetoric. Minute calculation and dry details were employments, however, the leas. adapted to his pe culiar construction of mind. It was easy and delightful for him to illustrate by a picture, but painful and laborious to prove by a diagram. It was the prerogative of his mind to discern by a glance, so rapid as to seem intuition, those truths which common capacities struggle hard to apprehend; and it was the part of his eloquence to display, expand and enforce them.

His imagination was a distinguishing feature of his mind. Prolific grand, sportive, original, it gave him the command of nature and of art, and enabled him to vary the disposition and the dress of his ideas without end. Now it assembled most pleasing images, adorned with all that is soft and beautiful; and now rose in the storm, wielding the elements, and flashing in the most awful splendours. Very few men have produced more original combinations. He presented resemblances and contrasts, which none saw before, but all admitted to be just and striking. In delicate and powerful wit he was pre-eminent.

The exercise of these talents and accomplishments was guided and exalted by a sublime morality and the spirit of rational piety, was modelled by much good taste, and prompted by an ardent heart.

He was more adapted to the senate than the bar. His speeches in congress, always respectable, were many of them excellent, abounding in argument and sentiment, having all the necessary information, embellished with rhetorical beauties, and animated by patriotic fires.

So much of the skill and address of the orator do they exhibit, that, though he had little regard to the rules of the art, they are perhaps fair examples of the leading precepts for the several parts of an oration. In debates on important questions, he generally waited before he spoke till the discussion had proceeded at some length, when he was sure to notice every argument that had been offered. He was sometimes in a minority, when he well considered the

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