And many a Keenomp, to his country dear,
Has sate in death beneath his grassy mound,
Since first the pale Awanux kindled here

His council blaze, and so began to found
His tribes and villages, and far and near、
With thundering arms, to wake the red man's fear.

XVII.

"Brother attend! When first Awanux came,
He was a child not higher than my knee;
Hunger and cold consumed and pinched his frame;
Houseless on yonder naked shore stood he;
Waves roared between him and his corn and game,
Snows clad the wilds, and winter vexed the sea;
His big canoe shrunk from the angry flood,
And death was on the barren strand he trod.

XVIII.

"Brother attend! I gave the infant food;

My lodge was open, and my fire was warm,
He gathered strength, and felt his melting blood
Restoring vigor to his wasted arm; ·

He grew-waxed strong-the trees began to bud-
He asked for lands a little town to form—
I gave him lands, and taught him how to plant,
To fish and hunt-for he was ignorant.

XIX.

"Brother attend! still did Awanux grow

Still did he ask for land-I gave him moreAnd more and more-till now his hatchet's blow Is at Namasket heard, with crash and roar Of falling oaks, and, like the whit'ning snow,

His growing numbers spread my borders o'er; Scarce do they leave a scant and narrow place, Where we may spread the blanket of our race."

XX.

Here paused the chief, as if to ask reply,

Too generous he had been he seemed to say,

Or that the strangers grasped too eagerly,
Nor heeded aught their benefactor's sway;
Ne'er to the Indian did our sire deny

His share of Heaven's bequests, and to allay
The chief's suspicions, thus he answered mild
The dusky king of Pokanoket's wild.

XXI.

"Brother I know that all these lands are thineThese rolling rivers, and these waving trees,From the Great Spirit came the gift divine;

And who would trespass upon grants like these? Naught would I take, e'en if the power were mine,

Of all thy lands, lest it should Him displease; But for just meed should thou some part resign, Would the Great Spirit blame the deed benign?"

XXII.

""Tis not the peag," said the sagamore,

"Nor knives, nor guns, nor garments red as blood, That buy the lands I hold dominion o'er—

Lands that were fashioned by the red man's God; But to my friend I give, and take no more

Than to his generous bosom may seem good; But still we pass the belt, and for the lands, He strengthens mine, and strengthen I his hands."

XXIII:

"Weak is my hand, brave chief," our sire replied, Aid do I need, but none can I bestow ; Yet on that vacant space, by Seekonk's tide,

Fain would I build, and peaceful neighbors know

But if my brother has that boon denied,

Far tow'rds the setting sun will Williams go,

And on the lands of other chief's abide,

Whose blankets are with ampler room supplied."

XXIV.

As thus our founder spake, this murmur low

Past all that savage group of warriors round,

"The stranger will to Narraganset go!"

"A hungry wolf shall in his path be found!" Rejoined stern Corbitant, whose eyes did glow

With kindling wrath, whilst from his belt unbound His hatchet, following his dusky span

Beneath his blanket hid-Man glanced on man.

XXV.

Again Haup's Sachem broke the fearful pause-
"Brother be wise-I gave thy brethren lands-
They smoked my pipe, and they espoused my cause;
They made me strong, and all the neighboring bands
Forsook the Narraganset Sachem's laws,*

And mine obeyed-We weakened hostile hands;
All dropt their arms and looked, but looked in vain
For my white friends to measure back the main.

XXVI,

This leaf which budded of their hope now dies—
The Narraganset warriors crest their hair-
Their hatchets keen from troubled slumbers rise,

And through Coweset their thronged edges glare ;
Chiefs strike the war-post-blood is in their cries—
And their fierce yells cleave Pokanoket's air-
They count already with revengeful eyes

The future scalps of vanquished enemies.

XXVII,

War's clouds hang o'er us, and their thunders speak,
And spots of blood the skies of peace array;

The dark winged raven whets her hungry beak,
She scents the coming strife, and chides delay ;
Devouring wolves peer from their dens to seek
The expected relics of the battle fray;
Earth breathes of slaughter, and the grassy plain
Thirsts for the nurture of the sanguine stain.

XXVIII.

"All seek the blood of Wampanoag brave; *See notes to Canto Fourth.

On Seekonk's margin will the tempest burst; Lands there I might bestow, but then that wave Will turn all red with human slaughter first. But still my brother and his friends are brave—

His bulwarks there, with guardian thunders pierced, Might frown on harm-for surely he would fight, Both for his own and for the giver's right.

XXIX.

And when the Narraganset by our arms
Is driven from the Seekonk far away,
No longer troubled by the wild alarms

Of scalping knife and tomahawk affray,
Together may we sit, free from all harms,

And smoke the calumet day after day," And our descendants, ages yet to come, Have but one fire—one undivided home.”

XXX.

"Brother," said Williams, "thou beholdest here Hands that no mortal's blood e'er crimsoned yet, Oft do I lift them to the God of prayer

Ah! how unseemly if with slaughter wet! But to the hostile chiefs could Williams bear

The pipe of peace-thy snow-white calumet, And quench the flames of strife, how better far, Than win thy lands by all-devouring war!

XXXI,

With Waban for my guide, in friendly guise,
Sachem, I would the arduous task essay
To soothe those ancient feuds by counsel wise,
And quell the wrath born ages far away;

Were this not better than the sacrifice

Of armies whole, slain in the bloody fray?
Then might I plant, and, in each neighboring clan,
Meet with a friend where'er I meet a man.

XXXII.

"Hah! Yengee"-said the Sachem, "would'st thou go

To soothe the hungry panther scenting blood? Say! canst thou bid Pawtucket's downward flow

Turn and run backward to Woonsocket's wood?

The path to peace is shut-the eager foe

Sharpens his darts, and treads his measures rude, And through the trembling groves the war-whoop trills From bleak Manisses to the Nipnet hills.*

XXXIII.

"Yengee! thou seest these Wampanoags brave-
They are my keenomps in the battle fray;
Would it become Haup's sagamore to crave
Inglorious rest for warriors strong as they?
They shrink from naught, but from a dastard's grave;
Bound to the stake upon their lips would play
The scornful smile-when would the saying cease,
"The Wampanoag women sued for peace?"

XXXIV.

Williams to this-The spirit over all

Holds earth in thought, and moulds the hearts of men ;

At his command may torrents backward roll,

And the hare gambol in the panther's den-
In Him I trust, and in his strength my soul
Is more than armies-let your brother then
Ask for himself, if not for thee or thine,
That on these lands the sky of peace may shine.

XXXV.

How could your brother plant, where all around

War's tempest raged, and poured its showers of blood?
Where from each thicket burst the war whoop's sound,
And death in ambush couched in every wood?
When would the footsteps of his friends be found,
Passing along the blood-stained solitude,

To bring their all-their dearer far than life,
Beneath the uplifted axe and scalping knife?

* Manisses-Block-Island.