History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson's River
When the faggots blazed around you, all defiant in your pain;
have heard you chant your death-song
chieftains, NOW be men again !
APPENDIX. "
Snake or traitor hissed that whisper
' :
Sell your forests, there
is
rest
On the banks of the Mississippi, on the prairies of the west.'
Who the craven counsel uttered " When the
Let him in the fire-light stand
?
Crouching coward
Nay, he dares not.
!
pale-face, rushing on thee, grasps thy hatchet and thy
Hark, the Spirit
* !
bow
guard your forests, meet the foe by the mounds along the bank,
Stand, Mahicans
By the memory of our empire
;
Where our fathers hear the moaning of the river Kicktawanc " Brothers
!
hand palsied be thy trembling
!
!
' !
!
gird ye for the struggle ; breast to breast, and eye to eye, Let us swear the oath of glory one to conquer, one to die !
!
Sound once more your ancient war cry
!
Sound it from the mountain's
steep,
Where the eagle hath her eyrie, and the rocks their vigils keep. " Twice ten thousand shouts shall answer from the river to the sea
!
Fear is failure. Dare, nor falter Craven-hearted, will ye flee ? Go yet on the darkening future, read the sentence of your doom, !
!
As, in letters of the lightning, traced upon a scroll of gloom
" Go
!
the western tribes shall
!
meet you, ye will be an handful then,