The Chainbearer; Or, The Littlepage Manuscripts

ee growth the

huge arms ac

nd cumber'd

huge, and o

he lucid str

hese fresh la

e flowers that

cythe has swe

ry

ureflint and the Trackless were the same person; though, when I came to reflect on the past, I had some faint recollection of having once before heard something of the sort. At any rate, I was now with a friend, and no longer thought it necessary to b

les get from use and exposure. His form was as erect as in his best days, a red man's frame rarely yielding in this way to any pressure but that of exceeding old age, and that of rum. Susquesus never admitted the enemy into his mouth, and consequently the citadel of his physical man was secure against every invader

reason to be dissatisfied with myself; for the manner in which he alluded to events in which I knew he had been somewhat prominent, was simple and entirely free from that b

thicket, Susquesus; that from w

sn't alone. Ple

ment of your tribe

question had been asked that gave him pain. He paused some little time

er. Quit Onondagos t'irty su

ho told me at the same time, that the reason why you left you

love sing; warrio

n what language

wered the India

t is many a day since I have heard a song that went so nea

ty bird-sin

in your family, Susquesus? If s

o briar; short path, too.

n. Where do you live, now? Are you Sureflint, or Tra

p, in great many year. Mohawk make peace; Oneida m

me to sell and lease my lands; perhaps you can tell me

ty as pigeons. H

t is, and how good it is. Do

want now. I make wigwam where I w

untry remains in its present wild state, no one will be apt to refuse it to you.

little corn do for Susquesus.

ining men create very little sympathy, and those who whine are apt to lose our respect; but I know no spectacle mor

us," I answered, "if you h

der great friend, once; but he gone far away, and

Trackless-till it, sell it

ter. The sternest white man might have grasped my hand, and something like a sign of gratitude would probably have escaped him; but, the little trace of emotion I have mentioned having disappeared, nothing remained on the dark visage of my companion that in the

le warrior. T'ankee-bird plenty; fish plenty; message plenty, now; and don't want land. Tim

me when it may, you have a friend in me. Wha

rifle on the ground, and stood meditating a min

rior live in wigwam, and tell young warrior of scalp, and cou

minine, had not created a feeling so strong and animated, as that which was awakened within me in behalf of old Sureflint. But I fully understood that this was to be shown in acts, and not in words. Contenting myself for the pres

e Nest with my father when he was a young man, Susquesus," I res

re-young Dutch chi

ld friend Colonel Follock, who was afterward major of our regiment, you will

sked the Indian, throwing one

y, whom I had heard spoken of as the betrothed,

who still mourns his loss, a

mourn fery long time

of a man called the Chainbearer? He was in the reg

hen hatchet buried. Knew Chainbearer afore ole French war

so mine; and I shall be glad to come

oung landlord friend

ily by me. The Chainbearer is as honest as light, and as

aid the Indian, expressing the regret I have no

ld servants, and possibly indisposed, had she the means.[7] I say this without intending to reflect on either the people or the government; for it is not easy to make the men of the present day understand the deep depression, in a pecuniary sense, that rested on the land for a year or t

t he has friends; and neither he nor you, Sureflint, shall be reduced to that woman's work

hip for him by that passing gleam on his dark face;

see him?" he a

seen him, now, for more than a twelvemonth; not

n him," pointing ahead-"hou

the patent? I never saw it, Su

ou own land, when

passes from parent to child; and I inherit mine in th

? How man haf land, wh

spot, by means of our laws and our titles. The pale-

he want him, when he want him? Plenty land. Got

s might seem to be, and in fact be, unjust. Now, any man can have a farm, who will pay a very moderate price

want to stay on land, let him stay; when he want to go so

thout which no man would aim at being anything more than clad and fed. Who wo

't see why land go like skin, when skin go wid

g as you choose to live in them. Thus far, you respect the rights of property as well as the pale-faces;

little-one drive 'way, t'oder haf to go-one get all, t'oder keep nuttin'-one mar

e armies, with cannon, and horses, and ba

t warrior-no got gun-no go

ll explain. You have lived much with the white men, Susquesus, and can believe what I say. There are good, and there are bad, among all people. Color makes no

t army, den count w

nce they were not. Do not your traditions tell you how few t

anoe-two, t're

trong as to drive back from the sea all the red warriors, an

water wid him, and red

the arts of life that the white man enjoys and turns to his profit, come from the rights of property. No man would build a wigwam to make rifles in, if he thought he could not keep it as long as he wished, sell it when he pleased, and leave it to his son when he went to the land of spirits. It is by encouraging man's love of himself, in this manner, that he is got to do so much. Thus it is, too, that the father gives to the son what h

riend's tongue leave trail. But you t'ink Great

bring about different ends. When the law places all men on a level, as to rights, it does as much as can be expected of it. Now, this level does not consist in pulling everything to pieces periodically, but in respecting certain great principles that are ju

arin' for nuttin'. Mean, h

thout civilization; and without civilization if they had no rights in their land. No one will work for another as he will work for himself. We see that ever

; and repeating a common saying of the country-"By-de-day-by-de

ess he enjoy the fruits of his labor. Thus it is, that he must have a right of property in land, either bought or hired, in order to make him cause that land to produce all that nature intended it should produce. On thi

Great Spirit, den,

farms. To have farms we must have owners; and owners cannot exist unless their rights in their lands ar

e see, some time. Young

se we are drawing near to

nd, but don't know him. See-mark

d, when he saw him for the first time. If I am owner here,

change in our course, Jaap could not have overtaken me, had he moved faster than he did; but, owing to the badness of the road, our gait on foot was somewhat faster than that of the jaded beasts who dragged the wagon

vern," he said. "No

though I subsequently ascertained it was known to the Chainbearer, as well as my father. Old Andries always affirmed it was creditable to his friend; but he would never betray the secret. Indeed, I found that the sympathy which existed between thes

lease and occupied. Here we halted, seating ourselves on a fallen tree, for which one could never go amiss in that region, and at that day; and I examined the view with the i

deal to command my respect. If the civilization that they carry with them is not of a very high order, as is connected with the tastes, sentiments, and nicer feelings, it is superior to that of any other country I have visited, in its common-sense provisions, and in its care over the intellectual being, considered in reference to the foundations of learning. More persons are dragged from out the mire of profound ignorance under their system, than under that of any other people; and a greater number of candidates are brought forward for intellectual advancements. That so few of these candidates rise very high in the scale of knowledge, is in part owing to the circumstance that their lives are so purely practical; and, possibly, in part to the fact that while so much attention has been paid to the foundations of the social edifice, that little art or care has as yet been expended on the superstructure. Nevertheless, the millions of Yankees that are spreading themselves over the land, are producing, and have already produced, a most salutary influence on its practical knowl

true, the virgin forest still flourished in immediate contact with those fields, shorn, tilled, and smoothed as they were, giving a wild and solemn setting to the rural picture the latter presented. The contrast was sufficiently bold and striking, but it was not without its soft and pleasant points. From the height whither the Indian had led me, I had a foreground of open land, dotted with cottages and barns, mostly of logs, beautified by flourishing orchards, and garnished with broad meadows, or enriched by fields, in which the corn was waving under the currents of a light summer air. Two or three roads wound along the settlement, turning aside with friendly interest, to visit every door; and at the southern termination of the open country there was a hamlet, built of wood framed, which contained one house that had little taste, but a good deal more of pr

es and dells. The war had prevented any very recent attempts at clearing, and all the open ground wore the same aspect of homely cultivation, while the dark shades of an interminable forest were spread around, forming a sort of mysterious void, that lay between this obscure and remote people, and the rest of their kind. T