Eoneguski, or, the Cherokee Chief: A Tale of Past Wars. Vol. I.:
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Strange, Robert, 1796-1854
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(title page) Eoneguski, or, the Cherokee Chief: A Tale of Past Wars. Vol. I.
(spine) Eoneguski in Two Volumes. Vol. I.
An American
218 p.
Washington:
Franck Taylor
1839
Call Number: VCC813 S897e v. 1 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998
Languages Used:
- English
- French
- Latin
LC Subject Headings:
- North Carolina -- Fiction.
- Cherokee Indians -- North Carolina -- Fiction.
- North Carolina -- Race relations -- Fiction.
- Whites -- Relations with Indians -- Fiction.
Revision History:
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Page i
EONEGUSKI,
OR,
THE CHEROKEE CHIEF: A TALE OF PAST WARS.
BY AN AMERICAN.
BUT HERE (METHINKS) MIGHT INDIA'S SONS EXPLORE
THEIR FATHER'S DUST, OR LIFT, PERCHANCE OF YORE
THEIR VOICE TO THE GREAT SPIRIT:--
Gertrude of Wyoming.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
Washington:
FRANCK TAYLOR.
1839.
Page ii
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839,
BY PETER FORCE,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Columbia.
PRINTED BY PETER FORCE,
CORNER OF D AND TENTH STREETS.
Page iii
INTRODUCTION.
DEAR SIR:
HAVING heard of you as one ever ready to promote the literature of your Country, and to develope its history, I have determined to forward you the accompanying, with a request that you will commit it to the press, if, according to your judgment, it possesses sufficient merits.
In writing this manuscript I cannot claim to rank as an Author, having merely thrown together, with very little embellishment, facts that I have been enabled to collect from a variety of scattered sources.
A few years ago I was a traveller through the western part of North Carolina, and having stopped early in the evening at a small village, on the southwestern side of the Tennessee River, in the indulgence of a curiosity common to myself, with most travellers, I inquired if the neighborhood furnished anything to gratify an admirer of the works either of nature or of art. My host, who was, by the way, an amiable and intelligent man, promptly answered, that there was within the limits of the
Page iv
village itself, an "Indian mound," and that the Falls of the Sugar Town Fork, a few miles distant, were esteemed quite an interesting spectacle to such as loved to see nature in wildness and grandeur. Moved by no love of gain, which might seek to prolong, as much as possible, the stay of a guest where the visits of travellers were like those of angels, he kindly offered to accompany me the next day as far on the way to the Falls as the residence of Mr. McDonald, who was, he informed me, the clerk of the court--a scholar, a gentleman, and one deeply versed in the legendary lore of the country, which he took great pleasure in imparting whenever it was his fortune to meet with an intelligent and interested listener.
My host excused himself from accompanying me farther, by assuring me that I should find in Mr. McDonald a willing and much more able guide than himself, in my progress up the Sugar Town Fork, and that the pressure of his own business would require his immediate return to the village.
Accordingly, the next morning, I proceeded with my worthy host in quest of adventures, and would have crossed the Tennessee River at a new and convenient bridge, but was assured by him I should save half a dollar in going and returning by fording the stream, which, although quite rapid, was scarcely deep enough to swim my horse. I was but little
Page v
practised as a highland traveller, and did not, I confess, feel very comfortable in looking upon the stream gliding swiftly beneath me; and although my horse did not actually swim, my head did, and I was heartily glad when I touched terra firma on the opposite side. But I did not trouble my friend with any voluntary exhibitions of alarm; but, on the contrary, flattered myself with the hope that I had succeeded in impressing him very favorably with both my courage and experience.
We had not progressed far before I perceived that fifty cents for crossing the bridge at the village would have been a very idle expenditure of money, for as we advanced we had to cross and recross the stream every hundred or two yards, where it was very little narrower or shallower than where we first encountered it. It is true, as our general course was up the stream, both its width and depth did somewhat diminish at each successive ford, but it was very gradually, and before we reached Mr. McDonald's, my brain had become quite steady, and my confidence perfectly established.
When I entered the house of Mr. McDonald it was not with the feelings of a stranger; his first salutation being sufficient to satisfy me that he was a man after my own heart. Had he lived in a city, he would have been a book-worm, and wasted all his means in acts of benevolence; but in his present situation, with a scanty library, he was forced to
Page vi
read the book of nature, or, at least, many of its most striking pages; and the demands upon his generous feelings were few, and never such as to tax the pocket.
Should these pages ever find their way back to the region of which they treat, Mrs. McDonald will pardon the introduction of her name, as a most sincere and respectful offering of gratitude. She is a lady in the most significant sense of that term; and I was almost compelled to doubt the evidence of my own senses when my eye glanced from the wild scenery around me, to the interesting woman, who, had she been bred in courts, would not have been half so successful in throwing an air of elegance over the rustic comforts by which she was surrounded.
In a short time Mr. McDonald and I were ready to pursue our way, leaving my host of the village to return at his leisure. An hour's riding brought us where Mr. McDonald informed me our horses could no longer be useful; we accordingly tied them to a limb of a tree, and began, on foot, to encounter the very steep ascent formed by the mountains so closing in as to leave only a very narrow pass for the brawling stream. After laborious climbing for another hour, we reached the Falls, which, I confess, disappointed me, and I was even so impolite as to acknowledge it to my guide. But the wild and picturesque scenery through which I
Page vii
had passed, would have repaid me for my fatigue, had I found nothing more. But the phrenologists say my organ of alimentiveness is a good deal developed, and proves that I have an especial relish for good eating and drinking; and I do not know that the aforesaid propensity of my nature has ever been more highly treated than on my present visit.
As we turned to descend--"We must take a salmon home with us for dinner," said Mr. McDonald.
"A salmon?" said I, in unfeigned surprise.
"Yes," replied my host, in his quiet way, "a salmon."
"You are jesting with me," said I.
"Indeed I am not," said Mr. McDonald, deliberately seating himself by the side of the stream we had regained, and pulling off his coat, shoes and stockings, and rolling up his pantaloons and shirt sleeves.
In a moment more he was in the water, turning over the large rocks, with as much earnestness as if he had expected to find a bag of gold beneath each of them. I looked on, puzzled what to think of my new acquaintance. At length he succeeded in slightly shaking a very large rock, which defied all his efforts to turn it over, when instantly there dashed from beneath it what, at first, appeared to me to be a perfect monster. Mr. McDonald immediately rushed in pursuit, and a more amusing
Page viii
spectacle I never witnessed for twelve or fifteen minutes. The water was splashed about in every direction, so as to leave not a dry garment upon the pursuer, as a large fish darted from one hiding place to another, with fruitless efforts to avail himself of it. Sometimes the hand of the extraordinary fisherman was fairly upon him, but the lubricity of his scales would save him, and afford him another chance for escape. At length, however, when nearly exhausted with his bootless exertions, Mr. McDonald succeeded in dexterously thrusting his hand into the gills of the fish, which now lashed the water into a perfect foam, and sent the spray in every direction, like a shower of rain. But the relentless foe held on, with tenacious grasp, and dragged him to the shore. My assistance now seemed necessary to prevent the captive from regaining his native element, so completely had the captor expended his strength in the double labor of turning over the rocks to dislodge the game and securing it afterwards.
As soon as Mr. McDonald had sufficiently recovered himself, we repaired to our horses, with our prize, which he fastened behind his saddle. We then proceeded to his house, where Mrs. McDonald prepared for us a most sumptuous dinner, of which the captive fish constituted an important part, and was, by far, the finest, both in looks and flavor, I had ever tasted.
Page ix
I am an admirer of good wine, and consequently have no great relish for what is commonly called native wine, but that which my host furnished on this occasion of his own vintage was to me uncommonly palatable.
After dinner my friend began to exhibit his propensity for legendary recital, and, among other things, inquired of me if I had ever been at Tesumtoe?
To this I replied in the negative. "Then," said he, "you have never seen the plain black cross which marks the head of a grave in the village graveyard."
"Of course not," said I.
"Around that cross," said he, "clusters some of the most interesting incidents connected with this part of the country."
I encouraged the mood of my friend, and, with short intervals for sleep, and our necessary meals, it was far into the next day when I was compelled to break off, much against my will, leaving his recital unfinished. I returned to the village that evening, and the next morning resumed my journey.
In the following sheets I have thrown together parts of Mr. McDonald's narrative, mingled with much I had gathered from other sources; and trust they will not be found destitute of interest. They embody to some extent the prevailing customs of one tribe, at least, of our aborigines, and
Page x
some effort is made to impart the interest of romance to a portion of its transactions with the whites.
Since these pages were written, the removal of the Cherokees to the west of the Mississippi has been completed. Only the few particularly referred to in the latter part of the following story remain, and these, I perceive, have recently attracted the notice of some contributor to the newspapers. From this newspaper account, I should be led to infer they must have multiplied considerably since my friend Mr. McDonald's information respecting them. But it is possible he may not have meditated in his conversations with me, the most perfect accuracy, little suspecting I was "a chiel' amang them takin' notes."
It may be, therefore, that should you see fit to usher to the light my humble labors, many other errors and inaccuracies may be detected by persons more knowing than myself. Should this be the case, I pray such to understand, that I do not hold myself accountable for accuracy in a single particular--that all that is therein set forth is endorsed without recourse--that Mr. McDonald and the rest who have furnished me with materials are alone responsible for their being genuine--and that so far from holding myself liable to the imputation of the shameful vices of wilful lying, or imprudently repeating things without regard to their truth or falsehood, I do not admit that it would be just and
Page xi
proper, even to ascribe to me the amiable weakness of--credulity. I was myself entertained, without inquiring, or greatly caring, whether what I heard was true or false, and I am perfectly willing to afford to others a like opportunity.
Should I fail in amusing and instructing those who may favor these pages with a perusal, contempt will shield them from any severe scrutiny upon the point of truth and accuracy. On the other hand, if where the former are afforded, the latter were also required, Homer and Milton would never have insinuated the beauteous fabrications of their respective fancies into the texture of the religious creeds of their several ages, nor have become the standards of taste and models of poetic excellence for all generations.
As in this age of utilitarianism no story can be considered worth perusing, from which no instructive moral can be drawn, I should be sorry to believe my labors deficient in this particular. From the uniform success attendant in my story on the white man, in every species of contest with the savage, whether in love or war, and whether single handed or in numbers, we may learn to set a just value upon the advantages of civilization. From thence nothing can be more natural than for us to advance another step, and feel our hearts warmed with gratitude to Providence, who has cast our own lot in the fortunate class.
Page xii
But I will not anticipate further, leaving to every reader to select for himself from the moral and intellectual repast we set before him, and if he rises from it unamused and uninstructed, I must indulge my vanity so far as to attribute the fault to him, rather than myself.
Should the Public, however, that just arbiter from whose judgment there is no appeal, give to my production any decided mark of approval, it is more than probable you may hear again from one who is,
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
AN AMERICAN.
TO PETER FORCE, ESQ.
Page 13
EONEGUSKI.
CHAPTER I.
--Above me are the Alps,
Those palaces of Nature, whose vast walls
Have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps.
* * * * * * * * *
But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan,
There is a spot should not be pass'd in vain.
BYRON.
THE spirit of adventure and a love of freedom, rather than ease, have been prominent characteristics of the Anglo-Americans, from the very beginning of their existence as a people. Indeed, if the origin of this race could be traced to the age of Fable, these principles would be found personified by the poets; and superstitious Americans might claim a mythological descent from a demigod called Enterprise, by the Genius of Liberty, whom he accidentally encountered in the wilds of Briton. But no clouds of uncertainty hover over the origin of our Heaven-favored nation, and, without a figure, its existence may be traced to the joint effect of a bold love of enterprise, and an intolerance of oppression. These moved our ancestors to forsake the home of their fathers, and seek for fortune and freedom in an untrodden wilderness. Though no civilized man had preceded them thither, the savage was there, claiming the lordship of the soil by Nature's charter--possession--authenticated by her law--superior force. Yet, it was the will of Heaven that this physical law should be superseded, and that the Red men should
Page 14
yield their homes to greatly inferior numbers of the Whites, receding before their rapidly increasing masses, ceaselessly, as the roll of the billows of the ocean, until checked by the voice of Him who hath set for the sea her appointed boundaries.
Many years ago, Robert Aymor removed to that region of country which lies immediately to the westward of the Blue Ridge, within the chartered limits of the State of North Carolina. His father before him had been one of those who constituted portions of the vanguard of the white settlers, who, planting their feet successively on each spot of earth while yet warm with the departing footstep of the Aboriginal possessor, traced him closely in his retreat towards the setting sun. This mode of life had become endeared to Robert, by the sacred influence of paternal example, and was followed as the one for which he was best fitted, both by habit and disposition.
Robert Aymor was an illiterate man, in the more proper acceptation of the term, although he was not ignorant of the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and was accounted no bad practical surveyor. But he was a man of strong natural sense, had been a shrewd observer of men and things, and had carefully treasured up the traditionary lore of his ancestors. His inward man was, therefore, far above the contempt of the most pretending, and could rather look down from its own elevation upon most with whom it was its fortune to encounter. In personal advantages he had no cause to complain of nature. She had given him a strong athletic frame, about six feet two inches in height when standing in his moccasins, although this height was rendered less striking from that peculiar stoop, which is generally described by the term round-shouldered. Locks, which were in early life as black as the raven's wing, now intermingled here and there with hair rivalling the snow in whiteness, clustered around a high broad forehead. Long shaggy brows overhung small clear grey eyes, deep buried in their
Page 15
sockets. His nose was long, thin, and sharp, such as is usually selected to grace the face of a miser; and, as is generally the case with one of that description, continually threatened approach to a chin, projecting beneath it, and seeming, in its turn, ambitiously aspiring to the place of its rival. But these doughty champions were kept apart by a mouth on which an expression of soft benevolence sat continually. Whatever might be said in disparagement of particular features in the face of Robert Aymor, his mouth imparted to the whole countenance a winning expression, which disarmed at once the purpose of scrutiny, and subdued any prejudice with which a stranger might have approached him. No people upon earth are usually so soon obedient to the promptings of nature, to select for themselves an helpmate, as the settlers of a new country; yet Robert Aymor was rather an exception to this general rule, for reasons which will appear in the course of the story. But his case formed no exception to the haste with which this important act is generally performed, at whatever period of life convenience may dictate it:--the choice commonly devolving upon the first good looking object on which the eyes of the swain may fall, after he has resolved to marry.
Dorothy Hays was a hearty buxom lass, fair, and round featured--her father resided contiguous to the parent of Robert Aymor; she crossed his path at the critical moment, and they became man and wife. But it was not long after marriage that Aymor made a discovery, which hung like a cloud over his prospects of happiness. His Dolly proved to be one of those weak persons, whom unscrupulous rudeness might have called a fool. From the moment that, what was at first suspicious apprehension, became fixed conviction, Aymor felt, that respect for his wife, the only fetter with which wayward love can effectually be bound, was wanting, and that he must thenceforth pass through life the listless slave of conjugal duty, and not the cheerful subject of connubial affection. But he was, in his way, a
Page 16
conscientious man, and resolved that Dolly should never know the distressing discovery he had made, nor find any thing in his manner different from what she would have done had she been all that, in the blindness of passion, he once imagined her. This was a resolution not altogether in the power of human nature to keep, and, when mortified by her follies, or wearied with her stupidity, hasty expressions would escape his lips, which happily for herself she was incapable of feeling in all their cutting severity. What a riddle is man! And what cause for grateful admiration has he to the Author of all good, that the root of some of his holiest feelings, and some of his highest moral enjoyments, is found amid his very vices, his foibles, and his griefs! And thus did Robert Aymor often experience an overflowing of tenderness for his wife, and pleasure in offering her atoning kindnesses, after one of those bursts of impatience, she possessed no other means of calling forth or producing.
At the period when our story opens, Robert Aymor was more than fifty years of age, and his wife some years younger, although a stranger might have judged her the elder of the two. Time, which had rendered him more gaunt, and thus, notwithstanding the slight increase in his natural stoop, added to his apparent height, had greatly increased her natural obesity, and she now moved with difficulty a mass of matter scarcely less in circumference than in height. That attention to personal neatness, by which so many efface for a season those traces by which Time is ever striving to mark his transit, was in her case entirely wanting. Her broad round face, through the texture of whose skin the multitudinous veins, with their crimson currents, distinctly shewed, as if the latter were ready to burst forth, was in perfect contrast with the meagre, weather-beaten visage of her husband. Her sex, her age, and her intellect, all conspired to render her garrulous, whilst the very extravagance of her loquacity but served to increase that taciturnity so natural to the
Page 17
situation of Aymor. The ordinary fruits of matrimony had not been denied to this couple, and Dolly, as far as possible, had atoned for mental barrenness, by an unusual fecundity of body. The young olive plants encircled the table of Aymor--his quiver was full of those arrows which are a blessing from the Lord--and if more than a dozen children could save from that misfortune, he need not have been ashamed when he met his enemy in the gates.
Gideon, the eldest of these mountain shoots, is the one with whom, in the progress of our story, we shall have most to do, and was, at the period we speak of, about the age when a man is said to be handsome, if ever. A little more than a score of years were accomplished since his birth, and had conferred upon him the honors of manhood. In person Gideon was more upon the model of his mother, than his father. In height he did not exceed five feet nine inches, and from her he had borrowed a full black eye, snub nose, and plump sensual lips. But although his figure was rather broad in proportion to his height, there was no superfluous flesh about him, and he was, upon the whole, well formed, both for strength and activity. His intellectual character was a combination of those of his two parents. He possessed his father's shrewdness, though not to the full extent, and was, perhaps, his equal in courage and enterprise, but was quite deficient in his characteristic generosity and frankness of disposition. Altogether he was well calculated to work his way through the world, and especially in that mode of life which had been followed by his family for several generations; he was bold, active, and enterprising, and shrunk not from the labors incident to the rude husbandry of the time and place, or the dangers and fatigues of hunting.
From a small range of mountains, on the western side of French Broad River, commonly called the Homony Hills, issues a clear rapid stream, also called Homony Creek. This stream takes its rise near the
Page 18
very summit of the ridge, and winding its way for seven or eight miles, serves like the thread of Ariadne, to guide the wanderer through the mazes of a labyrinth, to the only practicable passage across this barrier of nature's own erection. In various places along its course through the mountain hollow, small and narrow, but beautiful and fertile pieces of land spread themselves out in a perfect level, presenting a pleasing contrast with the wild and precipitous hills in which they are embosomed. These delightful spots of ground become more numerous and extensive as the stream progresses on its rapid and irriguous way, until, where it finally emerges from the gorge of the mountain, it meanders through a rich plain, containing many acres, and at last loses itself in French Broad River.
This plain, at the time we speak of, was in part occupied by the farm of Robert Aymor, lying around the point, which like a promontory, of no great extent, stretched itself out from the foot of the mountain into the plain. Upon this elevation Aymor had erected his comfortable log dwelling. The abrupt and rocky edges of this hill were concealed by a thick evergreen growth of mountain ivy and laurel, while the level on its summit, shorn of all brush and underwood, was crowned with a magnificent growth of mountain ash, chestnut and poplar, which, in the summer heat, lent their refreshing shade to the cottage they surrounded. Yet their branches were not now stretching out their leafy canopy, to shelter from solstitial heat the panting sufferer, but, stript of their verdant honors, were rudely torn and shaken by the wintry blasts, or hung, as in mockery, with the gathering snow wreath. Night had come down upon the earth, with a darkness unmitigated, save by the phosphoric light emitted from the snow, which had been for hours falling fast and thickly. The wind howled piteously through the hollows of the Hommony, while the dash of its stream could scarcely be heard in its feeble efforts to escape from the icy prison in which stern nature was hastening to confine it. The
Page 19
family of Robert Aymor, in this inclement night, was gathered around, or rather, partly within and partly around a fire-place but little inferior in size to a small bed room, from the centre of which a large pile of wood was sending up a lively blaze, roaring as it ascended, as if in defiance, or in imitative mockery of the storm without.
"Atha! my dear," said Aymor, as he drew near the fire, and gave it a punch with the poking stick, "put the children to bed: Lucy and Sylvia are asleep already, and the rest are not far behind them."
"For God's sake, Bob Aymor," said his wife, "let the children alone, if they're a mind to sleep by the fire I can't see why it ain't just as good as putting them to bed."
"Mother!" replied Atha, modestly, "I think father is right, the poor little things can't be comfortable in the way they are fixed, and, besides, there is danger of their taking cold."
"I hav'nt another word to say about it, Atha; I know you'll always side with your father, so just fix it your own way."
Atha, a pretty country girl, a year or two younger than her brother Gideon, proceeded to fulfil the command of her father, and, for a time, the sounds of "harmony not understood," filled the cottage, as she successively stripped the members of the juvenile multitude, and consigned them to their respective places of repose. At length, all was again quiet within the cottage, and the storm, as if to make up for the time in which its clamor had been drowned by the noise of the children, raged more loudly without.
"It is a fearful night," said Atha, shivering, as she returned towards the cheerful hearth, "and God knows I pity from my heart the many poor creatures who are exposed to it, without a house to shelter, or a fire to warm them."
"You are thinking of John Welch, now," said her mother. "I don't care the peeling of a 'tater where he
Page 20
is; and, if I was you, I wouldn't be such a fool, as to have him always in my head."
"It isn't kind in you, mother, to take me up in this way," replied Atha, sorrowfully; "I am sure I did not say a word about John Welch, and even if a thought of him had come across my mind, when I heard the wind howl so dismally, it is no wonder, when you know, mother, we have been playmates ever since I can remember anything, and that I may have been the cause of his exposure to this dreadful storm, and, gracious knows, how many other troubles and dangers." An unbidden tear gathered in the eye of the innocent girl, which she hastened to wipe away with the corner of her apron.
"You know it wa'nt my fau't, Atha," continued her mother, in a softened tone of voice, "I always thought John Welch good enough for anybody, but Bob Aymor must always carry a high head, and I look for the day to come when he'll wish he had carried it lower."
"Don't blame father," said Atha, sobbing, "I know he acted for the best, and is now as sorry as any of us that he treated the poor fellow so harshly."
"You are right, Atha, my dear," said her father, pulling her head gently down upon his bosom, "Welch was a noble fellow, although my pride revolted at the Indian blood in his veins; but it wasn't much after all,--and you love him Atha.--Cheer up, my girl, he will return to us again, and all shall yet be well. Who knows but he may come back to us this night, as stormy as it is?"
Atha shook her head with mournful incredulity, but the words of her father, accompanied by the kind expression of his countenance, had fallen with balsamic influence upon her wounded feelings, and, to use a hackneyed figure of the poets, a tranquil smile lighted up her countenance as she wiped away her tears, like a rainbow painted on a departing cloud.
"Now, I wonder, Bob Aymor," cried Dolly, at the
Page 21
very pitch of her voice, "if you do really ever expect to see John Welch again? For my part, I'd as soon look for cranberries in the cornfield;--and to night too? why you might as well expect an angel from Heaven!"
The latch of the outer door was now heard to move, and as every eye involuntarily turned in that direction, the thought flashed through every mind "It is he!" The heart of Atha throbbed violently--she gasped for breath, and was constrained to cling to her father's chair for support. The door opened, and a figure entered--"My God!" exclaimed Atha, as the light fell upon straight black locks, and was reflected from piercing black eyes, which gave expression to a bright copper-colored countenance. But, with the quickness of thought, she perceived that her eager hope had mislead her, and that no drop of the white man's blood animated the being who now approached the fire. He had upon his entrance shaken from his hat and the blanket wrapped about his shoulders, the masses of snow which had gathered upon them, as well as from his moccasins of tanned deer-skin, of one piece with the leggins encasing his lower extremities. The leggins and moccasins were laced up with strings of horse hair, composed of mingled strains of red, blue, and yellow, of a very bright dye. The eyelet holes, through which the strings passed, were inwrought with the quill part of the feathers of birds, dyed in the same variety of colors with the horse hair. Breeches of the same material with his leggins, and a hunting shirt of coarse cotton, completed the habiliments of the stranger. His wrists were ornamented with bracelets, formed of beads, and his ears with large rings suspended from their tips. At his back hung a bow and quiver, and on his right side, beneath his blanket, a shot pouch and powder horn. In his right hand he bore a rifle, the breech of which he brought down upon the floor, as he advanced.
This apparition, who, when they discovered that it was a full blooded Indian, ceased to interest the hopes or apprehensions of the family circle, upon which he had
Page 22
obtruded himself, (for they were no strangers to such visiters,) was about the middle stature, of a graceful active form, with the proverbial straightness of his race. With a measured and stately pace he advanced towards the fire, without deigning to address himself to any one, and silently changed his position from time to time, so as most advantageously to diffuse the genial glow through his chilled members. Those in whose presence he stood, were too well acquainted with the habits of his race to feel any surprise, or sense of rude treatment, from the unceremonious entrance, or silent freedom of the savage. A significant "umph!" announced, at length, that the process of warming himself had been so far accomplished, as, according to his own ideas of propriety, to render silence no longer becoming.
"The white man," he said, addressing Aymor, "has often found food and shelter in the wigwams of the Cherokees. In my father's hut the white man is welcome to warm by the blaze of his fire, and to satisfy his hunger from the pot of *Connehany, * Connehany, a kind of sour homony.
which stands ready on his hearth."
"You are welcome," said Aymor, laconically. A significant glance from her father was sufficient and Atha proceeded to set before the famished son of the forest the remnants of their evening meal. Having satisfied the cravings of hunger, by availing himself, in moderation, of what was set before him, the Indian, wrapped in his blanket, laid down to repose beside the fire. His host and family soon sought their respective places of rest, and sepulchral stillness reigned through the mansion, whose inmates had undergone the change so typical of that at which our nature shudders.
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CHAPTER II.
In shape, mein, manners, prowess, solid parts,
A man complete.
B. F. B.
THERE is a wide difference in the habits of various portions of the great family of man, in their distribution of the twenty-four hours, which constitute the day. By some, the order of nature is entirely reversed, and the gratuitous brightness of Heaven is shut out from their dwellings, while they press the bed of untimely slumber, and are, consequently, driven to purchase from art much of the light by which their labors are performed, and their revelry enjoyed. Such were not the habits in which Robert Aymor had been trained; and he, in his turn, both by precept and example, enforced upon his household the custom of early rising.
But on the morning succeeding the evening mentioned in our last chapter, the family of Aymor did not find themselves intruders upon the unfinished slumbers of their guest. He had left the cottage, at what hour none of them could tell, for his departure had been as noiseless as the fall of the flakes of snow, with which all nature was covered. Some little gossip there was among them, who he could be; but his unceremonious departure was to them a matter of no more surprise than his abrupt entrance, and, in a few moments, the thoughts of him were completely dismissed from their minds. There was a suspension in the storm,--and the day passed on, cold, cheerless, and cloudy, without any actual fall of either snow, rain, or hail. Night quickly returned, and with it the renewed storm, although with mitigated violence. Then also returned to the cottage of Aymor, the visiter of the preceding evening, in the same guise
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and accoutrements, and with the addition of a heavy burden upon his shoulders, beneath which he staggered near to the fire-place, and threw it upon a rude bench. "Aha!" said he, as he gave it a slap with his hand, and regarded it with a smile of satisfaction, which seemed to glance off from that object towards the family circle, "*How-wih." * How-wih, signifies in the Cherokee tongue, "Deer."
"That is a noble buck," said Aymor, "but you must have toiled hard for it in a country where deer is so plenty, if that is the only fruit of a whole day's labor." "It is yours," said the Indian, not appearing to notice Aymor's last remark. In a very short time a portion of the skin of the deer was stripped aside, and a few choice slices of his flesh laid upon the coals, were added to their simple supper. The host shared with his provident guest his family meal, but little seasoned with discourse, to which the latter seemed rather averse; and, according to the custom of those who early shake off slumber in the morning, they were all ready soon after supper to return to its embraces.
The next morning, like the preceding, did not find his Indian guest in the cottage of Aymor, but his place was not empty in the evening at the hospitable board, nor was his blanket wrapped form wanting at bed time to repose beside the hearth. For several successive days and nights the Indian came and went, in the same manner, always bringing with him some piece of choice game for the table of his kind entertainer, of whom his independent soul seemed to disdain the receipt of unrequited benefits. When, however, the weather had somewhat moderated, he no longer constituted a member of the evening circle around Aymor's hearth, although he would occasionally drop in at irregular hours, sometimes to apprize Aymor where he would find a fat buck which the Cherokee had brought down with his rifle, too ponderous for convenient carriage by his single strength, and sometimes to be himself the bearer of some lighter present.
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At length it became a matter of casual inquiry with Aymor, as well as with other members of his family, what the object of the Indian could be, in thus remaining so long in their neighborhood, where he was too often seen, to allow the supposition that he ever left it far; and one less bold and fearless than Aymor, might have suspected a motive fraught with danger to himself. He was not ignorant of the craft of the savage, and that with him an appearance of friendship, is not unfrequently the fair cluster of flowers beneath which the deadliest malice lies coiled, like a serpent, for a more fatal and effectual spring. But he knew, also, that the savage, in common with other human beings, seldom acts without a motive, and has too much sagacity to hazard, in the mere wantonness of mischief, his own safety; and that between himself and the Cherokee wanderer, now in his vicinity, there could be no just cause of feud. The truth is, Aymor's bosom was almost a stranger to fear, and the only sentiment excited in his mind in relation to the purpose of the savage, was one of simple curiosity. Even this did not much trouble him, and he permitted the Indian daily to cross his path unquestioned. Indeed, how could he obtrude himself into the confidence of one who seemed so much to shun conversation, and upon whose providence he was hourly feeding? Such was the literal fact, for Aymor could not say that he had sat down to a meal since this stranger had visited his house, that some article supplied by him did not constitute its most attractive portion.
Gideon Aymor, as we have said, was active and enterprising, yet something had prevented him from giving his wonted attention to forest sports for some weeks previous to the arrival of the Indian, and for some time afterwards. At length this cause of temporary suspension passed away, and he began to resume his gun, and would frequently in his wanderings fall in with this new acquaintance. Although he did not at first find the Indian very communicative, similarity of pursuit would carry them far and long together, until at length
Page 26
kindly feelings sprang up between them. Gideon perceived, after a few days hunting with the Indian, that he had greatly overrated his own skill in woodcraft, and was, in that art, simple as it may seem, at an immeasurable distance behind his companion, from whom he was hourly learning some new piece of stratege--sometimes to steal, unawares, upon the unsuspecting game--sometimes to attract it within reach of his treacherous aim--at others to place himself in a situation to meet, in their silly flight, victims who fancied they were leaving him far behind. Besides these, he learnt from him much that he knew not before, in the preparation, carriage, and use of his weapons, and the best methods of butchering the larger game after he had brought it down, as well as the habits and places of resort of the different animals, together with many other things, manifesting profound sagacity in the teacher, and highly convenient for an accomplished hunter to know.
As restraint wore off between them, Gideon was emboldened to inquire of his companion, in direct terms, the name he bore. "I am called Eoneguski, or the Big Bear," was the reply; and with that Gideon was satisfied.
Some weeks had passed by unheeded since Eoneguski had been in habits of association with Gideon, when, one morning, the latter joined the former upon a preconcerted excursion. Gideon had hitherto worn his shot-pouch suspended by a narrow belt of leather, which passed over his shoulder, extending diagonally to the opposite side. That was now thrown aside, and a broad one, of net woollen, occupied its place. It was of a bright scarlet color, except a space upon the middle of the breast, which was left white, describing two hearts blended. The device, the neatness of the execution, the novelty, and, above all, the bright red color, (being a well known Indian dye, of which the whites were generally ignorant,) attracted the attention of the savage, who laid his hand upon the
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belt, with one of those calm expressions of admiration which is the utmost savages generally allow themselves. "It is a present from my sister Atha," said Gideon, "it was net by her two or three years ago, for her sweetheart, John Welch, but some how or other she never gave it to him; and my father objected to her having any thing more to say to him, so she gave it to me several weeks since, and I just fancied this morning that I would put it on."
Gideon saw no motion, either in the countenance or frame of the Indian, during these remarks, which were made by himself with the most familiar indifference. But he had unconsciously waked from their repose passions wild and active, within a heart in which they resided in tremendous power. Yet pride, the most powerful among them, even in the savage, held the rest in subjection, and allowed them not to betray themselves in the workings of the countenance.
After a short pause, the Indian replied, "Your sister loves John Welch?" But, without design, there was something in the tone of his voice which startled him to whom the question was addressed. Gideon turned a surprised, hasty, and inquisitive glance upon the countenance of the savage, but perceiving nothing there, in its cold composure, to justify the suspicion which, with the instantaneous energy of electricity, the question, with its tone of voice, had stirred into being, he replied with a smile of renewed confidence, "I believe--nay, I may say, I know she does."
"Would she marry him?" was the quick reply.
"She would, if my father's consent could be obtained: of that she has despaired hitherto, but I believe, if John Welch ever again makes his appearance, they will be married." His habitual self-command was insufficient to suppress a groan which now escaped the savage. Again the formerly short-lived suspicions of Gideon sprung up in his mind, and agitated it with contending thoughts. He cast a stern, inquisitive look once more upon the face of the Indian; but the page
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was blank he sought to read, and he was again baffled in his attempt to penetrate the thoughts of his companion. The subject was now dropped between them, and, with listless apathy, the two hunters continued their route, scarcely exchanging a word, and each seemingly occupied with other thoughts than of the business they were on. Their labor was more unproductive than usual, and they finally separated as men who have been better friends, without being at the same time able to make any well defined complaint against each other.
Many days elapsed and Gideon had not rejoined the Indian in his woodland excursions, and notwithstanding this, the latter continued to pay his occasional visits to the cottage of Aymor. Yet he could not but remark a great alteration in the manner of his reception, with two, at least, of its inmates. That of Gideon was cold and distant, whilst Atha's amounted almost to shuddering abhorrence. This change was deeply mortifying to the pride of the savage, and he half resolved to expose himself no more to such trials. But pushed onward by that most irresistible of all forces in noble natures, the sense of duty, he determined to bear with present inconveniences, in the hope of enjoying the happy result, when he should stand more than justified before those by whom he was now evidently suspected.
It will not have escaped the reader, that the interest manifested by Eoneguski in his sister's love affairs had induced Gideon to suspect him of entertaining towards her presumptuous hopes for himself, and the groan which had escaped the Indian confirmed the suspicion, so as to arouse the youth's indignation, and even hatred, against his late friend. His conduct had been according; but the ridiculous position in which he would have stood, should his suspicions prove groundless, was a seal upon his lips, and prevented his charging Eoneguski with his supposed offence. The sagacious savage was not slow in discovering these suspicions, and penetrating their nature; but his native dignity, delicacy, and pride, recoiled
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from speaking of them, and he therefore suffered himself to remain, unjustly, their object, until some favorable occasion should present itself for their removal. He naturally accounted for the loathing horror which Atha manifested towards him, by Gideon's having infused into her mind his own suspicions. Natural as this was, he was, however, mistaken, and Gideon and Atha were acting, although, seemingly, so consentaneously against him, upon totally different motives.
The cold weather was passing a way, and in the more sheltered valleys and coves, where Spring could be most secure from the rude intrusions of Winter, (in those fits of passion which he sometimes manifests when reluctantly yielding up his empire,) she was amusing herself with a few of her earliest favorites, dropping here and there a floral gem upon the margin of some brook, as she bent over it in listening to its song of welcome. The wounded pride of the Indian, although it had not been sufficient to restrain them altogether, had yet greatly diminished the frequency of his visits at the house of Aymor: and several days had elapsed since he had made any of his usual presents to the family; when his heart thus held communion with itself:--"It can be borne no longer; Why should the white man believe a lie? I will go to him--he shall know the truth--and Eoneguski and Gideon shall once more be friends, or open enemies. Why do I linger here, when the Great Spirit has said, that my errand shall not be accomplished? I will go once more to the home of Aymor, and they shall all see the heart of Eoneguski, and I will then return to my own sunny land, where the voice of the *wekolis * Wekolis--Whip-poor-will.
is telling of the coming summer."
'Twas evening, and the sun was stealing the last kiss from the beautiful landscape which surrounded the dwelling of Aymor, when Eoneguski glided into it with a shy timidity, very different from his wonted manner, bearing in his hand a brace of beautiful pheasants
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he had just brought down from one of the summits of the Homony. "You had better keep them, Eoneguski," said Gideon, "your presents are no longer acceptable here."
The savage retreated a step, as though he had discovered at his feet a rattlesnake, coiled in its deadly folds. "It is well;" said he, "the son of Eonah licks not the foot that spurns him." He turned to depart--hesitated for a moment--then turned again to Gideon. "Young man," continued he, "the Great Spirit knows the hearts he has made, and nothing is hid from his eyes; but his children cannot read the hearts of each other. I would that mine were open to you, like my hand, (extending at the same time his palm,) that you might see how much you wrong me. Come to me tomorrow, just as you hill is again bathed in the returning light of the sun, and Gideon and Eoneguski will yet be friends. Promise me this, and my spirit will be satisfied; if not, the son of Eonah must wash out, as he is wont to do, insult in the offender's blood.--But you will come; I know you will come," continued he, in a beseeching tone of voice, "for why should the knife be between us?"
"Where shall I come?" inquired Gideon.
"It will not be the first time," he replied, "that you have seen where Eoneguski sleeps."
"It is enough, I will come," said Gideon.
"And is the gift of the Cherokee still despised by the white man?" inquired the savage.
"No!" replied Gideon, "we are friends again; at least until I see whether you can make good your promise." "It is well," replied the Indian, once more placing the pheasants upon the table, and retreating from the cottage.
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CHAPTER III.
The noise of parting boughs was heard--
Within the wood a footstep stirr'd;
The partner of her grief appears,
To kiss away her falling tears.
YAMOYDEN.
FROM the side of the elevation on which the house of Aymor was situated, gushed forth a fountain, clear and copious. It was from that side which fronted the south, and while, therefore, it was a spot among the earliest to acknowledge the genial influence of spring, and where autumn delighted the latest to linger--in the midst of summer, shaded, as it was, by thick foliage, and fanned by the breath of the "sweet south," it was remarkable for its refreshing coolness. This then was a favorite resort for the family, for many reasons. Apart from the temptations already mentioned, which it held out for hours of idleness, it had many attractions for the foot of industry. Here the spring-house was erected, (that most essential requisite for those who would have good milk and butter,) within whose ample area all the interesting labors of the dairy were performed. Here, likewise, that most necessary article in the art of purification, clear water, was to be found in sufficient abundance, and thither, accordingly, those members on whom devolved the duty of restoring to their original purity, the soiled garments of the family, periodically repaired.
On the morning when Gideon had sallied out, graced with that belt already described, as wrought by the fair hands of his sister Atha, he had not passed by her unnoticed, though her heart was too full to venture
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a word of address to him. The sight of that belt brought with it mingled emotions of pain and pleasure. It had, as Gideon said, been wrought by her, in the innocence of virgin love, as a slight offering of affection to him whose heart she supposed, and therefore thought it no impropriety to represent, as blended with her own. But after she had finished it she could never find courage to present it, although opportunities were not wanting to have done so, until her father's expressed disapprobation of their union had determined her to smother an affection she could never hope to extinguish. Abandoning, therefore, all thought of giving it to him for whom it was originally designed, she had no difficulty in yielding it to the request of her brother. It was a request made by him, more in idleness than desire, and it was, therefore, some time after receiving the gift, before he put it to any use. This morning, in the waywardness of fancy, he happened to put it on, and, by so doing, powerfully stirred the heart of his sister, newly excited by hopes, which had withered in the winter of her father's frown, but were now putting forth afresh under the warmth of his approving smile. It was with great timidity she ventured to launch her bark of hope;--for that lover, her union with whom her father's approbation had been all that was wanting, was now, she knew not where, and might never reappear to claim the hand awaiting only his demand. In this state of things an agitation was produced in her spirits, by the sight of the belt, unfitting her for a time for her usual occupations, and to recover her self-possession, she sauntered down to the fountain.
Here, throwing herself upon a seat where she had often in the happy and artless days of childhood, sat, in pastime with her now absent lover, the past, the present, and future, shifted rapidly in her mind their varigated scenery. Absorbed in reflection, she almost unconsciously commenced humming to a well known air, the following words, which had been brought to
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the western wilds by some visiter from a more civilized region:--
Love slyly weaves his flow'ry chain,
And binds the captive heart;
The cool fresh flow'rs inflict no pain
So deep the tyrant's art.
Another, yet another wreath
He archly throws around;
The flow'rs abroad their fragrance breathe;
Th' unconscious heart is bound.
As gossamers in fairy plies,
The captive insect bind,
The heart subdued and panting lies
In flow'ry chains confin'd.
But when has vanished from that chain
The fresh and fragrant breath;
The captive strives, to break, in vain,
A bondage strong as death.
The gay soft leaves no more conceal
The lurking thorns beneath,
But give the wounded heart to feel
Flow'rs form not all the wreath.
Too late against its bondage vile
The heart may efforts make;
The fetters gather strength, the while
The heart alone may break.
"And do I find my Atha planning rebellion against the dominion of Love," said a melancholy voice, close to her ear, "at the very moment, when I am drawn hither the passive slave of his will, at you know not what risk, to enjoy with the chosen of my heart, one brief interview." It were needless to say, that Atha did not remain motionless in her seat, when she saw the arms of John Welch stretched out to embrace her; she uttered a cry of wild delight, and threw herself upon his bosom. "Atha, my dear," said Welch, "you must calm your transports; I have already said that I have but a
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moment to remain with you, and even that is fraught with imminent peril."
"You need not fear any longer to be here," she said, looking up in his face with a smile of confidence, "my father is not now displeased, but is anxiously desiring to see you."
"A few days ago, Atha, and that information would have made me a happy man, but now it is as the sight of water to one dying under the scorching fire of fever, to whom strength no longer remains to stretch forth his hand and bring it to his lips."
"Gracious Heavens! John," cried Atha, in alarm, "what can you mean?"
"I scarcely know myself, love; my brain is, I fear, unsettled; but there is amid the wild confusion within me one idea more horribly distinct than every other, and that is, that I am now looking for the last time on Atha Aymor."
"I now perceive," said Atha, "a great change in your appearance. My God! how pale and haggard you are, and there is a wildness in your eye, which frightens me, even more than your strange and unintelligible language. Tell me, for Heaven's sake, what is the matter."
"You see not, Atha, the stain of blood upon this hand; yet this hand is bloody. All the waters of Broad River cannot wash it clean. A weight presses on my conscience, scarcely less than if that huge rock, which juts out from the mountain side, rested upon it. A cold blooded murderer can never be the husband of Atha Aymor!"
"Oh John! your brain is disordered; you are not a murderer," said the girl, shuddering, and shrinking instinctively from a bosom to which she had hitherto clung with confiding tenderness; "I can never believe it."
"Your kind heart, would, I doubt not, find much to plead in extenuation of my offence, did you know all, but no time is now allowed me for explanation. The avenger
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of blood is behind me, Atha, and I know--yes, I know well, it would drive you to madness to see me perish before your eyes. But even your presence would be no security against my relentless pursuer. I came here to seek refuge among the haunts of my youth, until the storm should be overpast, but the fiend who maddened me to my ruin, hath deceived me even in this promise of safety. One of my pursuers has anticipated my arrival; I must leave you or die. Like the hunted deer, I must continue my flight, or fall a prey to the hunter, who is already on my very haunches. Breathe it not for many days to any human creature, lest it reach the ears of the fell Eoneguski, who would raise anew the yell of pursuit, and slake, in my blood, his thirst of vengeance. I have but just escaped from the deadly aim of his rifle, and would not that he should have the slightest clue to the track I have taken. Towards thee, dearest, no pressure of adversity can ever change the feelings of my heart, but I must now fly for my life. May that Being who is the God of the Christian, and the Great Spirit of the Red man, and alike the Father of both, watch over and protect you." He imprinted a burning kiss on her speechless lips, and dived into the thickest of the forest.
Overpowered by her feelings, Atha had sunk back into her seat during the last speech of Welch, in a state so far bordering on insensibility as to be unable to speak herself, while, at the same time, not a word was lost either to her ear or understanding of all that he uttered. Nor did she, in her mental conflict, offer any resistance to his proposed departure, but passively received his parting embrace, and silently gazed upon his receding form. When the last glimpse of his person had faded from her eye, she became distressingly conscious of the desolation of her condition. With him had departed from her the chief object of existence, and she was awfully waked up from a transient vision of happiness, leaving behind it a gloom tenfold thicker than that which it had for a moment displaced. But a few
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moments since, and the presence of John Welch, she had fondly imagined was all that was wanting to complete her earthly happiness. The wish to see him had been most unexpectedly and suddenly fulfilled, but he seemed only to have come that he might extinguish, with his own hand, her little lamp of hope, which, with such careful anxiety, she had been kindling and trimming. He had come but to tell her, that he was unworthy of her love, and that unworthy as he was, each moment threatened, by a bloody death, to cut him of from reformation. "But why should I despair?" she said, to herself, "all may yet be well; his tenderness of conscience may have construed an act of necessary self-defence, into wilful murder. I will not for a moment believe him guilty, until a knowledge of the facts forces upon me the horrid conviction. And for his life, I will trust to that Being whose glance is in the sun-beam, and whose breath I feel in the air which surrounds me. He will preserve him, and yet bring him back to me unchanged, as he himself said, by the pressure of adversity."
However men may differ in hours of prosperity, the hearts of all, when laden with afflictions, turn instinctively to Him who is alone able to bear them in their stead. And who has failed in thus turning, to find support to his fainting spirit? The lifting up of her thoughts towards Heaven, acted like magic upon both the mental feelings and physical strength of Atha Aymor, so that she found herself at once able to return to the dwelling of her father, and resume her labors with more composure than when she left it.
In obedience to the injunction of Welch, she did not speak of having seen him; but it was with difficulty she could repress a cry of horror whenever the Indian came into her presence. Exceedingly painful, then, were her feelings, when she heard her brother accept his proposal to meet him under the circumstances described in the last chapter. For an instant the thought came into her mind that she might use Gideon as an intercessor
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between Welch and Eoneguski, but from the fear lest an awkward attempt to save her lover, might but increase his danger, she did not pursue it. And now her imagination pictured to itself her rash brother, weltering beneath the tomahawk of the increased savage, of whose bloody propensities she had formed so horrid an estimate. She begged, she entreated Gideon, in every form of appeal she could think of, as soon as Eoneguski had left the house, to run after him and retract his imprudent promise; or, if he deemed it more safe, allow it for the present to allay the resentment of the Indian, without entertaining on his own part any serious purpose to fulfil it. But Gideon was a man not easily diverted from his purposes, either by entreaties or threats; and the same motives which impelled him so far to smother his pride, as to accept the invitation of the savage, backed, as it was, by a threat, were quite sufficient to render all the entreaties of his sister but as the breath of the breeze: the tears upon her cheek but as the dew upon the flower.
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CHAPTER IV.
Child of a race whose name my bosom warms,
-- how welcome here.
CAMPBELL.
THE morning fulfilled the promises of the preceding evening, and the sun returned over the eastern mountain with a brightness equal to that in which he had descended behind the western. But he was met by a fierce westerly wind, which seemed determined to maintain, for winter, a contest for the Homony Valley, with that powerful ally of spring, now approaching, with the evident purpose of establishing over it the dominion of the latter. This is not a contest to be decided in the brief space of a single day, but occupies, with varied success, weeks, if not months, in the region of which are speaking. Sometimes, the champion of spring comes forth in the morning, in his renewed strength, and the hoar frost and ice flakes, reflecting his ray, tell of the conquest of the enemy during his indolent absence. By mid-day the hoar frost, ascending in light vapor, and the little rills of water trickling away from the ice flakes, proclaim, that in spite of the northern and western blasts opposing him, he has regained all his losses of the night, and greatly weakened the might of his antagonists. But towards evening his strength begins to faint, and he retires to refresh himself, leaving the field to the possession of his foes.
It was one of those days of strife, thus mentioned, that Gideon, true to his appointment, set out a little after sun-rise, to the temporary home of Eoneguski. It was situated in a hollow, formed by nature in the side of the mountain, about two miles from Aymor's residence. No path or road lead to it; but he who now sought it was too well acquainted with the landmarks in its
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vicinity to experience any difficulty in finding a place where he had often been before. A lodge of the simplest construction was formed, by piling up long pieces of oaken bark around the root of a large tree, weighted down by some heavier materials. The omission of a few pieces of bark, in front, left an opening, serving the purposes of a door, which, by a little accommodation of the person to its form, one could enter without much inconvenience. In front of this lodge Gideon discovered the Indian, busily engaged in the preparation of a meal. He had just time to remove from the fire the food he was preparing, and place it upon a large log, when his guest arrived. Without any previous salutation, "Eat" said the Indian, pointing to the food, and without permitting the fixed composure of his countenance to relax into a smile, "Eat, we are friends," in a tone of voice, compounded of assertion and interrogation.
Whatever might have been the state of Gideon's appetite, he knew too much of the habits of the race to which his host belonged, to anticipate any friendly intercourse with him, should he decline his invitation to eat. He accordingly, without further ceremony, partook of a sufficiency of what was set before him, to satisfy the savage, rather than his own appetite. A gourd full of water was next brought by the Indian from a neighboring brook; "Drink," said he, and Gideon drank. The host now gave two or three whiffs from a pipe, formed of clay, through a reed of considerable length, and handing it to his guest, "Smoke," said he. This being done, the savage ceremonial was completed.
"What has the red man done to bring the cloud between him and his white brother?" Eoneguski began. This was a puzzling question to Gideon; and as his moral courage was not altogether equal to his physical, he shrunk from the difficulty, in obedience to the first impulse, but to add in his own experience to the numberless proofs that the path of truth, however uninviting at its entrance, is, after all, the easiest to tread.--
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"You have done nothing," he replied.
"And does the white man take up and throw aside his friend, as the Indian does his blanket?" said Eoneguski, casting his own from him with indignation. "Will he put winter in his looks, as he passes by him, and tell him he hath done nothing? Let not the young man speak with a forked tongue."
"You misunderstand me," said Gideon, stammering, and ashamed of his own subterfuge. "The white man does not cast off his friend without cause, nor is Gideon wont to speak with the tongue of falsehood. I said you had done nothing to offend me, Eoneguski, but if I have not misjudged the thoughts of your heart, they are deeply offensive to me."
"Look upon the heart of Eoneguski," said the savage, "for he carries it in his hand, and shew me the black spot which is offensive to Gideon."
"I am almost ashamed to ask you the question," replied Gideon, "But tell me, have you not cast an eye of presumptuous love upon my sister?"
"Now you have spoken like a man," said the Indian, taking him eagerly by the hand, "for you have spoken according to your thought, and not with the false tongue of the deceiver. The red man has dared to look upon the beautiful daughter of the white man--and why may he not?--Are mine eyes forbidden to drink in the glorious radiance of the sun, or to gaze with delight upon the moon, when she touches with her beam, the mountain of my birth?--I know that they are far beyond the reach of this arm, and no desire to possess them disquiets me when I behold them. With no other eye have I looked upon the lovely daughter of Aymor, and no desire hath kindled in my soul when I beheld her. The love of Eoneguski is far away, with one of the daughters of his own people. Are you satisfied?"
"I confess that I have wronged you," replied Gideon, after a pause, "and I crave your pardon. But as I have thus far trespassed upon you, allow me to go one
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step farther.--Why have you so long been wandering in this vicinity? And why were you so much disquieted when I spoke of my sister's love affairs with John Welch?"
"Freedom," replied the Indian, proudly, "is the birth-right of the red man. He wanders as free as the bird which sits on yonder bough, wheresoever it pleases him. He tells not his own, and he asks not another for his path. But I am ready to satisfy you, if you will first tell me all that you know of John Welch, and the story of your sister's love."
"Your terms are but reasonable," replied Gideon, "and I am ready to comply with them."
The Indian reclined himself upon the log which had lately been their table, and listened to Gideon, who proceeded as follows:--
GIDEON'S STORY.
"What I am about to relate, is rather what I have heard from others, than what I have myself actually witnessed; but I can avouch for its truth with no less certainty. More than twenty years ago, (you have no doubt heard, and may perhaps remember,) the place where we now sit, with all the country around, even for many miles eastwardly of the Blue Mountains, was subject to the invasion of the Cherokee Indians. The white man could not lie down at evening in safety, nor go out in the morning to his daily labor without apprehension. Behind each log and thicket the enemy of his race laid in ambush, and the report of the rifle, or the glitter of the tomahawk, gave the first intimation of the fate they bore. The stillness of his midnight repose was suddenly broken by the war-whoop, and a light more glaring than that of the sun, burst upon his eyes from the consuming rafters of his dwelling. His own destruction would but follow that of his wife and little ones, whose reeking scalps were torn away, or their brains dashed out before his eyes.
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"My father then dwelt in the valley of the Yadkin, beyond the Blue Mountains, and the Brushy Hills some distance above, where that river sweeps around, and seems to turn disdainfully off from the Pilot Mountain, standing in its solitary grandeur, and catching for leagues in every direction, the eye of the traveller. He was then a youth, something about my present age, residing in the house of my grandfather. Our people were beset on every hand--from the east, the British soldiers, and, what was worse, the Tories, were pouring in, killing and destroying them; and from the west were continual alarms of destruction by the Indians. Like brave men, our people determined to look the danger in the face, and overcome it, or fall beneath it. Whilst others were left to do what they could with the British and Tories, General Rutherford marched with about two thousand volunteers, to break up the Indian settlements in this vicinity. My father was among the followers of General Rutherford, and delights, even to this day, to tell of the hardships of that campaign. But the deed was done--retribution was taken--for every drop of white blood shed by the Indians, they were compelled to yield at least ten from their own veins, and slaughter, not less cruel than their own, was visited upon them.--Their houses were burnt--their fields ravaged--and their wives and little ones experienced as little respect or pity for age or sex, as they themselves had been accustomed to shew.
"Among the volunteers who fought under General Rutherford, was one John Welch, one of the most reckless and daring of them all. One day, while they were engaged in the destruction of an Indian village, amid the blaze of a consuming wigwam, he heard the plaintive cries of a child. He rushed impetuously forward among the crackling flames, and speedily returned, bearing in his arms a little boy, about two years of age, somewhat scorched it was true, but, to all appearance, not materially injured.--The child threw his arms fondly around the neck of
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his deliverer, kissed him, and manifested in every way of which he was capable, the liveliest gratitude. 'If it is an Indian,' said Welch, 'I'll take care of it;' and his rugged heart was evidently waked up to new feelings, by the innocent fondness of the child. The long straight black hair, the eyes, and the place where it was found, all indicated for it an Indian descent; but a spriteliness and delicacy of feature, and fairness of complexion, never found among the aboriginal savages, proclaimed a decided predominance of European blood. This, upon closer examination, did not fail to strike his deliverer, and as his belief in the preponderance of white blood in his protegé increased, so did the feeling, so nearly allied to parental affection, towards him. In fine, he adopted the foundling, and, for the want of a name, furnished him with his own, and shared with him his couch and fare; bearing him with him on his return to the settlements.
"The army had on its march homewards, repassed the Blue Mountains, and was making its way across the Brushy Hills, at the most practicable point. It had halted near the summit for refreshment, when John Welch was told that one of the Indian prisoners was dying, and wished to see him, and also desired that he would bring with him the child he had rescued from the flames. Welch immediately obeyed the summons, and hastening towards the front of the encampment, where the prisoners were, found an aged Indian lying upon a blanket, apparently in the last agony. A large sword gash in his side, which had been sewed up, but from which the blood continually oozed, was the obvious cause of his present condition, and, to all human appearance, his death warrant. Several other prisoners, of both sexes, were hovering over him, with apparent solicitude, and it was evident from their manner, as well as from his own costume and appearance, that he was their chief. As soon as the child saw the aged warrior he sprang from the arms of Welch, and flew towards him, uttering an Indian exclamation, which may be rendered
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'papa;' and began to caress him fondly. The Indian, seemingly, regardless of the endearments of the child, cast his languid eye upon Welch, and addressed him in a feeble tone of voice. 'Stranger,' he said, 'thou hast come at the bidding of Toleniska, and it is well, for the voice of Toleniska shall be heard no more; he has hated the white man with a hatred which has never slumbered, although the blood of the white man has mingled its pale stream with the dark current which rolls through the veins of Toleniska. The fields where I have lain in ambush on his steps, are thick in yonder valley, whereon I now look proudly down, from my bed of death. Number the hairs of your own head, and then may you tell the scalps which Toleniska has borne away from your nation. But you came not to hear the death song of Toleniska.--It was to be the first white man to whom the proud heart of Toleniska would allow him to say, 'I thank you.' You might have saved my wigwam from destruction--you might have rescued Toleniska himself from the grasp of the tormentors, and his heart would have been firm as the rock upon this mountain side. But you have snatched from the flames the pale blossom of his love, and the heart of Toleniska is melted. He thought that his darling had perished with the hundreds of brave warriors who fell fighting for their wives, their children, and the graves of their fathers. It is but now that he heard that the white man had saved him at the hazard of his own life. Go!--cherish the being thou hast saved, and the Great Spirit will reward thee. Toleniska is hastening to join his fathers in the hunting grounds of the blessed.' The Indian drew the corner of his blanket over his face, and, for a time, all was stillness around him. At length one ventured to remove the blanket--and Toleniska was no more. He was buried by the direction of the General upon the side of the trail which crosses it at the very top of the mountain, and there the remains of his grave are yet to be seen; from whence that passage over the Brushy Hills is called the Indian Grave Gap.
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"Upon the confines of what was then the white settlement, General Rutherford erected for its protection against the invasion of the Indians, a fort, which was called Fort Defiance." (We interrupt for a moment the story of Gideon, to inform the reader, that the remains of this fort are yet to be seen in Wilkes County, upon the plantation of General Lenoir, a time-worn and venerable remnant of the brave spirits who constituted the army of General Rutherford, in which he held a distinguished rank. The fort occupies the brow of a hill, overlooking, for many miles, in a northwardly and eastwardly direction, the valley of the Yadkin; and behind, the position of the fort in every other direction, stretches out an extensive plain, of very fertile land, so as to leave no elevation in its vicinity by which the fort itself could be commanded. To return to the story of Gideon.) "As soon as Welch's tour of duty was accomplished, he settled in the neighborhood of Fort Defiance, and shortly afterwards married, but as they were not blessed with children of their own, all that store of parental love, which nature has so kindly provided in the human heart, was expended by Welch and his wife upon their orphan charge. Nor was their kindness illy repaid, for never was child more dutiful or affectionate to real parents than he was to them, nor were advantages often more diligently improved than did the boy those afforded him.
"My father did not return so soon as Welch from the Indian expedition; when he did, however, he found that my grandfather also had removed into the vicinity of Fort Defiance. Here my father did not remain long, until he courted and married my mother. I was born, and, in process of time, my sister Atha. A close intimacy existed between the families of Welch and my father, and there was scarcely a day that some member of the one was not at the house of the other, mingling together both in sports and labors. Very soon Atha, although several years younger than Welch, became his favorite companion, and was evidently regarded
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by him with all that tender solicitude which would have well become an elder brother. Her little sorrows it was his highest pleasure to allay, as well as to furnish amusements for her gayer hours." Gideon paused.--"There is a melancholy pleasure in looking back upon those days," he said, "and even now my mind is so occupied with the thoughts which crowd in upon it, that I feel inclined to pause in my story, and indulge myself in these recollections. Look," continued he, pointing to the most distant spot in the valley, of which they commanded an extensive view, "See how beautiful from the blue mist which covers it, is that spot above all others before us; perhaps there is something like this in the feeling with which we look back upon past events--the more distant, the more lovely and interesting do they appear to the memory. Whatever may be the cause, there is no period of my own existence, of which the retrospect is so pleasant, as that in which some few prominent facts stand forth among the dim shadows of those which have nearly faded from my recollection.
"But I will proceed:--
"Many years had not passed away, before, to persons of the habits of my father, the neighborhood of Fort Defiance became an old settlement. Cottages began to gather thickly around him, and the range ceased to be sufficiently extensive for the herds of cattle which claimed from it their support. About this time the Indian boundary was prescribed by an act of the Congress of the United States, and my father found that the red men must yield these hills and vallies to the possession of the whites. He was not ignorant of the advantages of being among the first to pasture his cattle upon a range fresh from the hands of nature, and he accordingly moved to the place where you now see him. The very spot where his improvements are, caught his eye, (at a time when but little hope remained to him of life, any where,) as a lovely scene of retirement, where, with his family about him, a herdsman might enjoy
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every comfort the world could afford. Hither he was very soon followed by some of his former neighbors, and among others, by Welch.
"Whether Welch and his wife were at all influenced by the circumstance, I will not say, but I have understood, that after we had moved away from Fort Defiance, the boy John lost his spirits, and became pale and sickly. If that was so he found something wonderfully restorative in the waters of the Homony, for I remember him soon after his arrival here, a handsome and hearty boy. His disposition was in perfect accordance with his handsome exterior, but all his endowments, as well of mind as of body, seemed to be valued by him only so far as they might commend him to Atha Aymor. The most skilful marksman in the neighborhood, the best of his game was always for her, and when amongst the smooth stones of the Homony he would occasionally seize a fine mountain trout, it was much too good for any one besides. Is it to be wondered at, if attentions so kind and persevering, made an impression upon her who was their object?
"When Atha had entered her fourteenth year, a change of manner, which had been almost imperceptibly stealing on, became distinctly marked towards John Welch. There was no longer that easy freedom heretofore characterizing their intercourse, but, on the contrary, she was embarrassed and shy whenever he came into her presence, and blushed and turned pale by turns when his name was mentioned. Thus matters continued for some years longer, and, I believe, no one in the neighborhood doubted that a match was one day to take place between them. Welch was the reputed only child of his parents, and, although they could not boast of wealth, their circumstances were easy, and his Indian tinge was scarcely sufficient to have been thought of by the most scrupulous, as any objection. Indeed, if his complexion could have been changed in the slightest degree, it would have detracted from his comeliness. Neither my father nor
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mother took any notice of the report in circulation, and whether they ever heard it I know not, but they said nothing about it, nor was any effort made to diminish the intercourse between the families.
"Everything appeared to be going on smoothly until a few months since, when John ventured to make proposals to my father for marriage with my sister. As calm as you see my father in common, Eoneguski, he is terrible when roused. You are no stranger to the fury of the hurricane--and it is not often, but I have now and then, seen my father in a tempest of passion, when I would rather encounter a hurricane than meet him. One of those occasions was when Welch first dared to avow to him his love for my sister. It seemed to me as if my father towered a foot or two above his ordinary height,--his teeth and fists clenched forcibly--his eyes seemed ready to burst from their sockets, and, for an instant, rested wildly upon his rifle, which lay quietly upon the crotchets above the door. 'And is it come to this,' said he, when he could find utterance, 'that I am to see my blood mingled with that of a Cherokee Indian? D----n seize me if I would not sooner tear out your savage heart with my own hands--Talk to me of love.--Begone! this instant, or by my soul it will be but adding another to the miserable miscreants of your tribe which these hands have slaughtered! Begone, I say, and if ever you suffer me to lay eyes on you again, wo be to your life.' The tumult attracted us all to the place, but we knew too well the mood of the man with whom we had to do, to venture the breathing a word in behalf of him whom we all loved, and now so sincerely pitied. As soon as he had collected himself from the first shock of his surprise, Welch left the house, and the door was closed forcibly after him by my father, who strode up and down like a lion. The first symptom of returning composure was a glance of anxious inquiry towards the bed, where Atha had thrown herself in an agony of emotion. Next, his motions became less rapid, and, finally, settled down
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into a pretty quiet walk, until stopping near the bed where Atha was almost unconsciously undergoing the solicitous efforts of my mother to soothe her, 'Atha,' said he, 'you need fear nothing from my violence to John Welch,' and left the house.
"He was a good while absent, and when he returned, was apparently composed, but still silent and thoughtful, and every now and then I perceived an expression of anguish pass across his countenance, which made me shudder; for, in spite of myself, the thought was forced upon my mind, that he had committed some violence upon John Welch, if he had not actually put him to death. But mine, I believe, was the only brain into which the dark suspicion ever came. In a day or two my father began to speak to his family in his wonted manner, and there was even an increased tenderness in his tone of voice whenever he addressed Atha. Shortly afterwards we learned that the very next morning after his interview with my father Welch had taken a formal leave of his parents, and gone--no one knew whither. Since then my sister Atha has been like a drooping flower, and, though Welch's name has been but seldom mentioned among us, it is evident that my father's feelings have undergone a great change towards him; and on the very night on which you paid us your first visit, he had gone so far as to tell Atha, that if John Welch ever returned, of which he seemed to have great hopes, she might become his wife.
"I believe my part of our compact is now fulfilled," said Gideon, throwing himself in his turn into the attitude of a listener.
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CHAPTER V.
Oh! hast thou, Christian Chief, forgot the morn
When I with thee the cup of peace did share;
Then stately was this head, and dark this hair
That now is white as Apalachia's snows.
CAMPBELL.
IT were impossible to describe the emotions of the savage during the recital of Gideon, many parts of which were not so new to him as the speaker supposed. But he forbore to interrupt the thread of the narrative by any exclamation or inquiry, nor did he allow his countenance to betray aught of what was passing within him. For some time after the narrator had ceased, he remained silent; perhaps pondering what he had heard, or, probably, recollecting himself for the performance of his own task. At length, perceiving in his companion some marks of impatience, he proceeded:--
EONEGUSKI'S STORY.
"I remember, although more than two hundred and fifty moons have since passed away, when the father of Gideon came to Eonee, the captive of mine," A scowl of displeasure began to gather upon the countenance of Gideon. "Let not the storm gather on thy brow," said Eoneguski, "but listen to my story, as I have done to thine. The people cried aloud for vengeance, and demanded that the prisoner should be given to the tormentors. Their hearts were furious for the wigwams which the fire had devoured--for the women and children whose blood had been drank by the long knives of the white men--and for their young men and warriors whose bones lay in heaps on the Tuckasege, at Bay's
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Town. 'Give us,' said they, 'give us up the *Skiagusta * Skiagusta is a common Indian expression for any sort of a great man.
of the white men, that we may spill his blood, and give his body to the flames: and the spirits of our slaughtered kinsmen shall be pacified.'
"I crept to the knees of my father, and he bent his ear to the voice of his son:--'Let the stranger go,' I said,--'Give him not up to the fury of the tormentors.'
" 'Foolish boy,' said Eonah, 'would you have me give freedom to the enemy whom the Great Spirit has delivered into my hands?'
" 'The Great Spirit hath delivered him into your hands, my father,' I said, 'but it is that you may make of him an offering of peace for your tribe. The *Oewoehee * Oewoehee, title borne by the Cherokee tribe amongst themselves.
are few, and scattered like the leaves on yon wide spreading tree, when they have been touched by the early frost,
and shaken by the blasts of autumn.
The white men are as countless as the leaves on every tree on the Cowee Mountain. Why should the Oewoehee war with them, until they themselves have altogether perished from the earth, like the leaves in winter? Let the Skiagusta go, and he shall speak words of peace to his people for the Oewoehee.'
" 'Hush!' said the chief of Eonee.
" 'Has Eoneguski ever before asked anything of his father?' I said.
" 'No!' replied the chief.
" 'And shall his first request be denied him?' If the white man perishes, let the chief of Eonee prepare to heap the stones on the body of his son.'
"I saw that Eoneguski had triumphed over the hitherto unconquered spirit of his father.--Eonah bade the people go, and when the next sun should rise he would hearken to them again.
"When we three were left alone in the wigwam,
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'Stranger,' said the chief, 'the papoos has saved the life of the white Skiagusta. Eonah has turned a deaf ear to the voice of his people, requiring thee to be given up to the tormentors, and hath listened to his son, who demands that you may be allowed to depart to your own people. Go! and when you see the war cloud gathering in fury against the red men, remember that the Cherokee did not strike when he might.'
" 'The white man is not ungrateful,' said your father, 'and in him from henceforth the red man will find a friend. Tell the Cherokee, when he wanders from his tribe, across the Blue Mountains, to inquire for Robert Aymor. And may the Great Spirit bless the chief and his son, who have looked in pity on their white brother, for we are all His children. The heart of the white man's mother will rejoice when she looks upon her son, and in gratitude to his deliverers, will think no more of the blood of her race which has been shed by their tribe, and her spirit will bless the Cherokee people.'
" 'Here is your shot-pouch and rifle,' said Eonah, 'the white man shall not go away defenceless. The way is long to the settlements, and he would perish without a rifle to provide him with game, for he dare not seek for food in the wigwams of the Oewoehee.'
" 'The rifle is yours,' said Aymor, 'it is yours by right of conquest.'
" 'I know it is mine,' said my father, 'but the Eonee chief has given the white man his life; and is the white man too proud to accept a gift from one of whom he has not been ashamed to accept his life?'
" 'God forbid,' said Aymor, 'I do not disdain your gifts, but I would that my red brother should keep them in memory of him who is so largely his debtor, and as a token by which the Eonee chief, should he ever require them, either for himself or another, may demand the services of Robert Aymor, or any of his blood, even at the hazard of life.'
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" 'It shall be as you say,' replied the chief of Eonee, 'but my white brother must take in their stead the rifle and shot-pouch of Eonah.'
" 'You shall now see,' said Aymor, 'that the white man disdains not the gift of his red brother. I accept it joyfully, and pledge myself that arms hitherto so gallantly borne by Eonah, shall not be disgraced in the hand of his pale brother.'
" 'Go!' said my father, 'it is enough.'
" 'Many hundred moons ago,' said Aymor, 'my fathers came across the great blue waters. Before leaving his native land it was the fortune of one whose blood is in my veins, to perform an action which distinguished him in the eyes of a great lord, whom he served, and for which it was his pleasure to give him a chain of silver. In all the changes of fortune the pride of the family has preserved this chain, and it fell at last into the hands of my father, who wore it appended to an old family watch. When I set out on this expedition, 'Robert,' said my father, 'you are now going to tread the path of honor, as many of your fathers have done before you. Should it be your lot, my gallant boy, to fall on the battle field, let this watch and chain be found on your person, that it may be seen it is no common clown who lies on the bed of glory.' When you made me a prisoner, Eonah, you deprived me of the watch, but to guard against accidents, I had separated the chain from it, and concealed it so effectually that insensible as I was at the time, you did not find it. I do not mention this to reproach you for taking the watch;--it is yours, and you are welcome to it, among the other remembrances of your white brother: but the chain is mine, and I may bestow it as I choose. It cannot leave the family in whose possession it has been for so many generations, more worthily than as an offering of gratitude to the noble boy, whom I shall ever remember as the preserver of my life.' So saying, he threw the chain over my neck, where it now hangs as you see." As he uttered this, Eoneguski opened his
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hunting shirt, with an air of satisfaction, and disclosed to Gideon the trophy of his youthful humanity.
"My father," continued Eoneguski, "was both surprised and confused. 'The watch is here,' he said, 'it is yours,--say not a word, for it will make the father of my white brother sad, and he will think meanly of Eonah, when he hears that he has robbed his son of his watch. Here take it--Now go--There is peace between us.'
" 'He must not go,' I said, 'until the dark shadow comes down upon the earth, or how shall he escape the hands of his enemies?'
" 'Hath not Eonah bid him go?' said the chief, 'and who shall dare to gainsay the words of Eonah.'
" 'Pardon me, my father,' I said, 'but you know that the Oewoehee do not always hearken to the voice of their chief, and they are now thirsty for vengeance. Let the Skiagusta remain quiet in the wigman until the shadows come down from the Nantahala Mountains, and then may be escape in safety.'
" 'Be it as you will,' said Eonah.
"I bade the white man lie down in the corner of the wigwam, and covered him with the skin of a buffaloe. 'Sleep,' said I, 'for to night the Skiagusta must travel for his life. When all is still in Eonee, and the red men sleep in quiet, I will come, and you shall fly away, like a bird escaping from the snare.'
"Scarcely had I left speaking with the white man, when the people once more gathered in a crowd, and demanded that he should be given up to them.
" 'It shall not be,' said my father, 'Eonah hath said that the white man shall live.'
" 'We will not listen to the voice of Eonah,' said one amongst the crowd, 'the white man shall die.'
" 'Chuheluh is right,' said a hundred voices, 'we will not listen to the voice of Eonah--the white man shall die.'
"Chuheluh had always aspired to rival Eonah with the people, and become the chief of Eonee. But he
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had never been able to win the hearts of the people from their chief. Many times was it in the power of Eonah to destroy Chuheluh, (the Fox,) but Eonah, (the Bear,) said he scorned to make war upon the Fox. But this did not prevent Chuheluh from continuing his efforts to stir up the people; and it was he who now urged them to come back and insist that the captive should at once be delivered up to them.
" 'If the white man dies,' replied my father, 'Eonah dies with him. Can the Fox take the life of the Bear?'
" 'The Fox loves the Bear too well,' replied the cunning Chuheluh, 'to take away his life; but the banks of the Tuckasege are smoking with the blood of the Oewoehee, and the spirits of our slaughtered warriors are crying for vengeance.'
" 'The Great Spirit has told me,' replied Eonah, 'that the white man must live. You say well, Chuheluh, that the banks of the Tuckasege are smoking with the blood of the Oewoehee;--its very waves are rolling red with it to the father of waters. But must the blood of the Oewoehee continue to flow, until its fountains are dried up? Must the war cloud continue to pour down its torrents, until they sweep us away from the earth? And who shall turn away the anger of the white man from the Oewoehee? Eonah has sent the white Skiagusta to speak words of peace to his people.'
" 'The tongue of Eonah is like my two fingers,' said Chuheluh, extending the two middle fingers of his right hand, separated as far as possible.
" 'The Fox is ever a liar,' said Eonah.
" 'I will see,' said Chuheluh, 'if the Fox is more given to falsehood than the Bear;' and advanced towards the door of the wigwam, with the purpose of entering to search for the stranger.
" 'Chuheluh passes not the threshold of Eonah alive,' said my father, sternly.
" 'It is well;' said Chuheluh. He looked behind
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him, and perceived that his followers, who had been gradually dropping away during the conversation, were reduced to a very small number. Soon these also departed, and were quickly followed by himself.
"All was now quiet in Eonee, and, in a few hours, Aymor, hidden by the shadow of the night, had left the wigwam of Eonah."
The Indian paused in his story, and casting his eye upon the face of Gideon, endeavored to read in it the impression made upon his mind by the incidents recited. Perhaps even a bosom like his was not exempt from that amiable weakness which is gratified by the approbation of our fellow-men; and counts on meeting it as a matter of course, whenever conscience whispers, "You have done well." If so, he doubtless expected to read, in the countenance of his companion, some lively indication of gratitude towards the preserver of his father. Possibly his expectations may have gone so far as even to have prepared him for some passionate expression of grateful feeling on the part of his guest, whose race he knew possessed not that philosophic apathy of manner which marked his own. It may be, that his own feelings were deeply stirred by a recurrence to these interesting passages of his early life. But whatever may have been his reason, the Indian paused--nor was the silence interrupted by any remark from his auditor.
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CHAPTER VI.
And hast thou then forgot? he cried, forlorn,
And ey'd the group with half indignant air.
CAMPBELL.
THE dark eye of the Indian glided from the face of Gideon, and gathering his blanket about him in closer folds, he heaved a sigh, and proceeded--
"Time passed away, and we occasionally heard of Aymor, as one in whom the Cherokee always found a friend, but nothing occurred to bring him and either Eonah or his son together. At length the Indian boy became a young man, and was allowed to mingle among the men of his tribe. He chased the deer, the elk, the buffaloe, and the bear, and hunted his game from the White Mountains, where the sun sinks to rest in the evening, to the Blue Mountains which feel the first of his rising beams;--from the Unaca Mountains from whence the cold blasts sweep down in winter, to the warm banks of the Chatugaja where the song of the bird tells earliest of summer. As you pass from Eonee to the Chatugaja, Sugar Town and Tesumtoe are on your path. At both these places would Eoneguski sometimes linger, and mingle in the dance with their young men and maidens. You will not wonder to hear that the daughters of the Oewoehee are lovely in the eyes of Eoneguski--lovelier by far than the fairest daughters of the white man." Gideon smiled. "Nay," said Eoneguski, "it is so; but amongst them all he has seen none to match the Little Deer of Tesumtoe. She is the light of the eyes--the star of the hopes of Eoneguski. Not a moon has passed away until now, since he first beheld her, that he has not flown upon the wings of Love from Eonee to Tesumtoe, to
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listen to the music of her voice, and look upon her beauty. The best of his venison and the choicest of his furs and buffaloe skins, have been laid at her feet;--nor hath the Little Deer refused the presents of Eoneguski. A few moons more and he will give her venison, and she will give him bread, and he will lead her to his wigwam, and thus, according to the customs of our people, she will become his wife. Then will the heart of Eoneguski rejoice, and Gideon shall be there to share the joy of his friend."
The ordinary quiet of the Indian's features was broken by a smile, expressive of the most pleasurable anticipations, but it was evanescent as those joys are wont to be which stir the smiles of mortals, and he continued--
"One day as I was returning to Eonee from a visit to Tesumtoe, I arrived at Sugar Town, and saw a crowd of people gathered thick together, as you have seen the buzzards in the dusk of the evening upon the branches of a dead tree; and, like them, the people were still pouring in from every direction. I made my way towards the groupe of persons, and all seemed to give way in consternation before me, as though I had been some evil spirit. It was in vain that I called to them, and begged to know the cause of the tumult. The more I called, the more alarmed the people became, and the more rapidly did they flee before me. When at length I reached the place where the crowd had been the thickest, no one remained but a single squaw, seated on the ground, and a man lying with his head in her lap, whose spirit appeared to be passing away. He was speechless, and she was wiping away, with a piece of coarse cloth, the bloody froth continually oozing from between his lips. I now saw that his head was mashed terribly, and a bloody war-club lying near him, was evidently the instrument with which it had been done. I recognised in the dying man the Leech, one of the people of Eonee, and of my own blood.
" 'Whose hand is red with this deed?' I inquired.
" 'The hand of John Welch,' replied the woman.
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" 'Where is the murderer?' I asked.
" 'He has returned to the white settlements;' was her reply.
"By this time the Leech had ceased to breathe.
" 'Let him be buried,' I said, 'as a brave man should, or the people of Eonee will lay the wigwams of Sugar Town in ashes. I fly on the wings of vengeance to overtake the murderer.' "
We must interrupt the story, (that the reader may the better understand it,) to explain a law, or rather custom, of the Oewoehee. When one Indian kills another, if they belong to the same town, it is the right of every member of the same family with the deceased, unless the killing is altogether accidental, to pursue the murderer to death, and the whole family is disgraced if no member of it avenges the blood of his fallen brother. As long as the murderer himself can be reached, it is supposed that he will be the victim most acceptable to the spirit of the deceased; and therefore he is preferred, and public opinion requires that he should be selected. If, however, he cannot be had, it is no uncommon thing for some other member of the same family to be sacrificed. The same law and custom, which allow and require the relations of the first deceased to avenge his death, authorize and demand of the relations of the victim of this vengeance, in like manner, to seek satisfaction, and so on forever, until so much blood has been spilt that the chiefs and people are induced to interfere and prohibit the farther continuance of the fued. The same law and custom which obtain between families of the same town, obtain also between different towns, making the right and duty of revenge coextensive with the township itself, although the claims of each individual to become the avenger, are not equal; but right is reserved in regular gradation for the nearest relations or most dignified persons. It was for this reason, when the people of Sugar Town recognised in Eoneguski an Eonee, that, not knowing with what zeal and violence he might urge his right of vengeance for his
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slaughtered kinsman, or whom he might choose for his victim, they prudently fled from him.
"Every Cherokee honors and respects the laws and customs of his people, and is bound to comply with them," continued Eoneguski. "As almost an eye witness of the transaction, as a relation of the deceased, and, above all, as the son of the chief, no one was so much bound as myself to avenge the blood of the Leech, upon his murderer. I therefore determined to pursue him, leaving to the people of Sugar Town, under the threatened vengeance of the Eonee, to give to my kinsman the burial of a brave man. Never before had Eoneguski thirsted for blood. But he knew that Welch had been brought up in the white settlements, and that but little of the red man's blood warmed his heart. 'He has risen upon the Leech,' something whispered in my ear, 'because of the ancient grudge of the white man against the red, and, like an evil spirit, has stirred anew the half forgotten strife between the people of Eonee and Sugar Town.'
"Many moons ago Cheasquah, (or the Bird,) one of the people of Sugar Town, and the Leech drank together, until the Leech grew drunk and angry, and took away the life of the Bird. For a long time the people of Sugar Town pursued the Leech, and thirsted for revenge--at length the spirit of vengeance slumbered, and they suffered him to come quietly home, and we all thought that the tomahawk was buried. It was after this time that Welch left the stream of the Homony and came into the Indian country, and talked of his Cherokee blood--and said that he had left forever the house of the white man, to spread his blanket in the wigwam of the red. He knew not which of the many families of the Cherokees had poured into his heart the drop of red blood; but he joined himself to the people of Sugar Town, and they received him among them as a scion of their stock, and he became the son of their chief Santuchee. He mingled with the Eonee, and was not a stranger to Eoneguski. He sometimes
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spoke of the stream and mountains of the Homony, with a sigh, while an expression of melancholy delight sat upon his countenance: and I knew that his heart was beside its waters, and that to them he would return whenever some cause of temporary exile should have passed away. When he fled from the smoking blood of the Leech, thither I was certain he would be drawn by a power he could no more resist than could a feather from the eagle's wing the impulse of the storm. Obedient to the customs of my people, thither I determined to pursue his steps, and while he fancied himself secure from the red man's vengeance, overtake him with slow, though it might be, but the certain advance of fate.
"My path from Sugar Town to Homony lay past Eonee, and there I stopped for a night to lay open my heart to Eonah, and consult with him--for words of wisdom fall from the lips of age.
"Eonah gave his blessing to his son, and called upon the Great Spirit t