his arms inclose the land from the shores of the salt-water to the islands of the great lake. His gluttony
makes him sick. God gave him enough, and yet he wants all. Such are the pale faces.
Some the Great Spirit made with skins brighter and redder than yonder sun, continued Magua, pointing
impressively upward to the lurid luminary, which was struggling through the misty atmosphere of the
horizon; and these did He fashion to His own mind. He gave them this island as He had made it, covered
with trees, and filled with game. The wind made their clearings; the sun and rain ripened their fruits; and
the snows came to tell them to be thankful. What need had they of roads to journey by! They saw through
the hills! When the beavers worked, they lay in the shade, and looked on. The winds cooled them in
summer; in winter, skins kept them warm. If they fought among themselves, it was to prove that they
were men. They were brave; they were just; they were happy.
Here the speaker paused, and again looked around him to discover if his legend had touched the sympathies
of his listeners. He met everywhere, with eyes riveted on his own, heads erect and nostrils expanded,
as if each individual present felt himself able and willing, singly, to redress the wrongs of his race.
If the Great Spirit gave different tongues to his red children, he continued, in a low, still melancholy voice,
it was that all animals might understand them. Some He placed among the snows, with their cousin, the
bear. Some he placed near the setting sun, on the road to the happy hunting grounds. Some on the
lands around the great fresh waters; but to His greatest, and most beloved, He gave the sands of the
salt lake. Do my brothers know the name of this favored people?
It was the Lenape! exclaimed twenty eager voices in a breath.
It was the Lenni Lenape, returned Magua, affecting to bend his head in reverence to their former greatness.
It was the tribes of the Lenape! The sun rose from water that was salt, and set in water that was sweet,
and never hid himself from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the woods, tell a wise people their
own traditions? Why remind them of their injuries; their ancient greatness; their deeds; their glory; their
happiness; their losses; their defeats; their misery? Is there not one among them who has seen it all, and
who knows it to be true? I have done. My tongue is still for my heart is of lead. I listen.
As the voice of the speaker suddenly ceased, every face and all eyes turned, by a common movement,
toward the venerable Tamenund. From the moment that he took his seat, until the present instant, the
lips of the patriarch had not severed, and scarcely a sign of life had escaped him. He sat bent in feebleness,
and apparently unconscious of the presence he was in, during the whole of that opening scene, in which
the skill of the scout had been so clearly established. At the nicely graduated sound of Magua's voice,
however, he betrayed some evidence of consciousness, and once or twice he even raised his head, as
if to listen. But when the crafty Huron spoke of his nation by name, the eyelids of the old man raised
themselves, and he looked out upon the multitude with that sort of dull, unmeaning expression which
might be supposed to belong to the countenance of a specter. Then he made an effort to rise, and being
upheld by his supporters, he gained his feet, in a posture commanding by its dignity, while he tottered
with weakness.
Who calls upon the children of the Lenape? he said, in a deep, guttural voice, that was rendered awfully
audible by the breathless silence of the multitude; who speaks of things gone? Does not the egg become
a worm - the worm a fly, and perish? Why tell the Delawares of good that is past? Better thank the
Manitou for that which remains.
It is a Wyandot, said Magua, stepping nigher to the rude platform on which the other stood; a friend of
Tamenund.
A friend! repeated the sage, on whose brow a dark frown settled, imparting a portion of that severity
which had rendered his eye so terrible in middle age. Are the Mingoes rulers of the earth? What brings
a Huron in here?