KING PHILIP TO THE WHITE SETTLER

Think 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

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 10 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 15 the mountains-ranged this lovely valley, can it be wondered at, if they beheld with bitterness the forest disappearing beneath the settler's ax- the fishing-place disturbed by his saw-mills? Can we not fancy the feelings with which some strong-minded savage, the chief of the 20 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 25

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 youth5ful 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 10 paper rights. 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 fathers sell that which the Great Spirit sent me into the world to live upon? They 15 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 20 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. The Great Spirit has not made us to live together. There is poison in the white man's cup; the white man's dog barks at the 25 red man's heels. If I should leave the land of my fathers, whither shall I fly? Shall I go to the south, and dwell among the graves of the Pequots? Shall I wander to the west, the fierce Mohawk, -the man-eater, is my foe. Shall I fly to the east, the great 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.

"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, 5 my bullet shall whistle past thee; when thou liest down by night, my knife is at thy throat. The noonday sun shall

not discover thy 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, 10 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, 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 15 between me and thee!"

EDWARD EVERETT.

HELPS TO STUDY

Others than Irving thought King Philip an admirable figure, and had some regrets for the way their ancestors treated the Indians. Edward Everett (1794-1865) was an eminent scholar, statesman, and orator. He held the positions of professor of Greek at Harvard College, editor of the North American Review, member of Congress, minister to England, President of Harvard, Secretary of State, and Senator.

The quotation, beginning at line 4, is from Milton's Paradise Lost.

For Study with the Glossary unrestrained, suppliant, parchments.

For Oral and Written Composition: 1. The story of King Philip. 2. The struggle between the Indians and the Colonists. 3. The country

before the white men came.

LEATHERSTOCKING TALES

The selections which follow tell of some of the adventures of Natty Bumpo, one of the most famous characters in fiction. He appears in the five "Leatherstocking Novels" by James Fenimore Cooper; and our five selections are 5 from the five novels, "Deerslayer," "The Last of the Mohicans," "Pathfinder," "The Pioneers," and "The Prairie.” They follow his career from his initiation as an Indian fighter through his exploits in the French and Indian wars, to a time after the Revolution when the old hunter and trapper 10 ends his life on a western prairie. Within his lifetime he had seen scattered British colonies along the Atlantic grow into an independent nation. The settlements of the white man had invaded the untracked forests, and he had been forced to seek his hunting grounds further and further west. The 15 story of his life is the story of the march of our frontier, overpowering the opposition of the wilderness and the red men.

Leatherstocking is a man of the woods, and the various names by which he is known testify to his skill on the trail or with the rifle Deerslayer, Hawkeye, Pathfinder. He 20 has little education from books and he lives apart from civilization, and he associates in friendship or in war with the savages of the forests. But Leatherstocking has carried into the wilderness what he calls his "white gifts," some of the best qualities of the white man. He has the fundamental 25 virtues of honesty and kindness. His heart is as true as the unerring eye which sights his rifle.

I. DEERSLAYER ON HIS FIRST WAR-PATH

Deerslayer has come to Lake Otsego (Glimmerglass) to meet his friend Chingachgook, a chief of the Delawares, whose bride has been taken a prisoner by the hostile Hurons or Mingos. Built upon piles in the shoal of the lake is a house known as the castle, where live the trapper Hutter and his two daughters. War has just begun between the English colonies and French Canada; and a band of Hurons succeed in taking Hutter and a friend prisoners. Deerslayer has escaped from the Indians and has passed the night on the lake in his canoe. At dawn he looks about for the canoes which he had set adrift in order to prevent the Indians from reaching the castle, now occupied only by the two girls.

Deerslayer's rest had been deep and undisturbed; and when he awoke, it was with a clearness of intellect and a readiness of resources that were very much needed at that particular moment. The sun had not risen, it is true, but the vault of heaven was rich with the winning softness 5 of the carols of birds, the hymns of the feathered tribe.

These sounds first told Deerslayer the risks he ran. The air, for wind it could scarce be called, was still light, it is true, but it had increased a little in the course of the night, and as the canoes were mere feathers on the water, they 10 had drifted twice the expected distance; and, what was still more dangerous, had approached near the base of the mountain that here rose precipitously from the eastern shore. This was not the worst. The third canoe had taken the same direction, and was slowly drifting towards a point 15 where it must inevitably touch, unless turned aside by a shift of wind, or human hands. In other respects, nothing presented itself to attract attention, or to awaken alarm.