The Pilgrims of New England - Mrs. J. B. Webb
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Such viands, with the addition of some wild fruits from the forest,
were all that Jyanough had to offer to his guest; but Henrich had known
privation at home, and he had become accustomed to Indian fare. The
kindness, also, and the courtesy of the untutored savage, as he warmly
expressed his pleasure at receiving him into has wigwam, were so
engaging, that the young traveler would cheerfully have put up with
worse accommodation.
From Jyanough he now heard the story of his sorrows, which deeply
interested him; and, in return, he told his host all that he could
remember of his own past life, from his residence in Holland, and his
removal to America, even till the moment when he and Oriana had
approached the Cree village that evening The red man listened with
profound attention, and constantly interrupted the narrator with
intelligent questions on every subject that was interesting to him. But
especially was his curiosity awakened when Henrich, in speaking of his
grief at being torn from all his friends and relations, and his horror
when he had anticipated a sudden and violent death, alluded to his
trust in God as the only thing that had then supported him under his
trials and sufferings, and still enabled him to hope for the future.
The young Christian was not slow in answering all his inquiries as to
the nature of the white man's Mahneto, and explaining to him why the
true believer can endure, even with cheerfulness, afflictions and
bereavements that are most trying to flesh and blood, in the confident
hope that God will over-rule every event to his people's good, and will
eventually restore all that they have lost.
'Then if I worship your _Keechee-Mahneto_[*] eagerly asked Jyanough,
will he give back to me my brother Uncas? I have called on my Mahneto
for four long moons in vain. I have offered him the best of my weapons,
and the chief of my prey in hunting; and I have promised to pour on
Uncas' grave the blood of the first prisoner I capture in war, or the
first of our enemies that I can take by subtlety. Still Mahneto does
not hear me. Tell me, then, pale-face, would your God hear me?'
[Footnote: _Keechee-Mahneto_ or Great Master of Life, is the name given
by the Crees to their notion of the Supreme Being. Maatche-Mahneto is
the Great Spirit of Evil.]
Henrich was much moved at the impassioned eagerness of the Indian,
whose naturally mild and pensive expression was now changed for one of
bitter disappointment, and even of ferocity, and then again animated
with a look of anxious hope and inquiry.
'Yes, Jyanough,' he replied, with earnest solemnity; 'my God will hear
you; but he will not give you back your brother in this world. If you
learn to believe in Him; and to serve Him, and to pray to Him in
sincerity, He will guide you to that blessed land where, after death,
all His people meet together, and where there is neither sorrow nor
separation.'
'But is Uncas there?' cried the young savage. 'Is my brother there? For
I will serve no Mahneto who will not restore me to him!'
Our young theologian was disconcerted, for a moment, at this puzzling
question, which has excited doubts and difficulties in wiser heads than
his, end to which Scripture gives no direct reply. He paused awhile;
and then he remembered that passage in the second chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, where the Apostle is speaking of the
requirements of the law, and goes on to say, 'When the Gentiles which
have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of
the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one
another.' 'If St. Paul could say this of the severe and uncompromising
law, surely,' thought Henrich 'the Gospel of love and mercy must hold
out equal hope for those heathen who perish in involuntary ignorance,
but who have acted up to that law of conscience which was their only
guide.' He also recollected that Jesus himself, when on earth,
declared, that 'He that _knew not,_ and did commit things worthy of
stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes': and, therefore, he felt
justified in permitting the young Indian to hope that, hereafter, he
might again behold that brother whose virtues and whose affection were
the object of his pride and his regret.
'I believe,' he replied, 'that your brother--who you say was always
kind, and just, and upright while he lived on earth--is now, through
the mercy of God, in a state of happiness: and I believe that, if you
also act up to what you know to be right, you will join him there, and
dwell with him for ever. But I can tell you how to attain a more
perfect happiness, and to share the highest joys of heaven in the
kingdom that God has prepared for His own son. I can tell you what He
has declared to be His will with regard to all His human creatures;
even that they should love that Son, and look to Him as their Savior
and their King. O, Jyanough, ask Oriana if she is not happier since she
learnt to love and worship the God of the Christians!--the only God who
can be just, and yet most merciful!'
In the vehemence of his feelings, Henrich bad rather outstripped his
companion's powers of following and comprehending him. He saw this in
Jyanough's wandering and incredulous eyes; and he carefully and
patiently proceeded to explain to him the first rudiments of religion,
as he had done to Oriana: and to reply to all his doubts and questions
according to the ability that God gave him. A willing learner is
generally a quick one; and Henrich was well pleased with his second
pupil. If he was not ready to relinquish his old ideas and
superstitions, he was, at least, well inclined to listen to the
doctrines of his new friend, and even to receive them in connection
with many of his heathen opinions. Time, and the grace of God, Henrich
knew, could only cause these to give place to a purer belief, and
entirely banish the _'unclean birds'_ that dwelt in the 'cage' of the
young Indian's mind. But the fallow ground had already been, in a
manner, broken up, and some good seed scattered on the surface: and
Henrich lay down to rest with a fervent prayer that the dew of the
Spirit might fall upon it, and cause it to grow, and to bring forth
fruit.
From the time of Henrich's captivity, he bad endeavored to keep up in
his own mind a remembrance of the Sabbath, or the Lord's Day (as it was
always called by the Puritans); and, as far as it was in his power to
do so, he observed it as a day of rest from common occupations and
amusements. On that day, he invariably declined joining any hunting or
fishing parties; and he also selected it as the time for his longest
spiritual conversations with Oriana; as he desired that she, also,
should learn to attach a peculiar feeling of reverence to a day that
must be sacred to every Christian, but which was always observed with
remarkable strictness by the sect to which Henrich belonged.
In this, as in all other customs that the young pale-face wished to
follow, he was unopposed by Tisquantum; who seemed entirely indifferent
as to the religious feelings or social habits of his adopted son, so
long as he acquired a skill in the arts of war and hunting: and, in
these respects, Henrich's progress fully answered his expectations. He
was, like most youths of his age, extremely fond of every kind of
sport; and his strength and activity--which had greatly increased since
he had adopted the wild life of the Indians--rendered every active
exercise easy and delightful to him. He consequently grew rapidly in
the Sachem's favor, and in that of all his companions, who learnt to
love his kind and courteous manners, as much as they admired his
courage and address. One only of the red men envied him the esteem that
he gained, and hated him for it. This was Coubitant--the aspirant for
the chief place in Tisquantum's favor, and for the honor of one day
becoming his son-in-law. From the moment that the captor's life had
been spared by the Sachem, and he had been disappointed of his expected
vengeance for the death of his friend Tekoa, the savage had harbored in
his breast a feeling of hatred towards the son of the slayer, and had
burned with a malicious desire for Henrich s destruction. This feeling
he was compelled, as we have observed, to conceal from Tisquantum; but
it only gained strength by the restraint imposed on its outward
expression, and many were the schemes that he devised for its
gratification. At present, however, he found it impossible to execute
any of them; and the object of his hate and jealousy was happily
unconscious that he had so deadly an enemy continually near him. An
instinctive feeling had, indeed, caused Henrich to shun the fierce young
Indian, and to be less at ease in his company than in that of the other
red warriors; but his own generous and forgiving nature forbade his
suspecting the real sentiments entertained towards him by Coubitant, or
even supposing that his expressions of approval and encouragement were
all feigned to suit his own evil purposes.
Oriana had never liked him; and time only strengthened the prejudice
she felt against him. She knew that he hoped eventually to make her his
wife--or rather his slave--for Coubitant was not a man to relax from
any of the domestic tyranny of his race; and the more she saw of her
'white brother,' and the more she heard from him of the habits and
manners of his countrymen, and of their treatment of their women, the
more she felt the usual life of an Indian squaw to be intolerable. Even
the companionship of the young females of her own race became
distasteful to her; for their ignorance, and utter want of
civilization, struck painfully on her now partially cultivated and
awakened mind, and made her feel ashamed of the coarseness of taste and
manners occasionally displayed by her former friends and associates. In
the Christian captive alone had she found, since her mother's death, a
companion who could sympathize in her tastes and feelings, which had
ever been above the standard of any others with whom she was
acquainted. And Henrich could do more than sympathize in her
aspirations--he could instruct her how they might be fully realized in
the attainment of divine knowledge, and the experience of Christian
love. No wonder, then, that Henrich held already the first place in her
heart and imagination, and was endowed by her lively fancy with every
quality and every perfection, both of mind and body, that she could
conceive to herself.
The simple-minded girl made no concealment of her preference for the
young stranger, whom she regarded as a brother--but a brother in every
way immeasurably her superior--and her father never checked her growing
attachment. The youth of both parties, the position that Henrich
occupied in his family as his adopted son, and the difference of race
and color, prevented him from even anticipating that a warmer sentiment
than fraternal affection could arise between them; and he fully
regarded his daughter as the future inmate and mistress of an Indian
warrior's lodge--whether that of Coubitant or of some other brave,
would, he considered, entirely depend on the comparative prowess in war
and hunting, and the value of the presents that would be the offering
of those who claimed her hand. That she should exercise any choice in
the matter never occurred to him; and, probably, had he foreseen that
such would be the case, and that the choice would fill on the son of a
stranger--on the pale-faced captive whose father had slain her only
brother--he would have removed her from such dangerous influence. But
he thought not of such consequences resulting from the intimacy of
Henrich and Oriana: he only saw that his child was happy, and that she
daily improved in grace and intelligence, and in the skilful and
punctual performance of all her domestic duties; and he was well
satisfied that he had not shed the blood of the Christian youth on the
grave of his lost Tekoa. His own esteem and affection for his adopted
son also continued to increase; and, young as Henrich was, the
influence of his superior cultivation of mind, and rectitude of
principle, was felt even by the aged Chief, and caused him to treat
him, at times, with a degree of respect that added bitterness to
Coubitant's malicious feelings.
He saw how fondly Oriana regarded her adopted brother, and personal
jealousy made him more clear-sighted as to the possibility of her
affection ripening into love than her father had as yet become; and
gladly would the rival of the unsuspecting Henrich have blackened him
in the eyes of the Chieftain, and caused him to be banished from the
lodge, had he been able to find any accusation against him. But in this
he invariably failed; for the pale-face was brave, honest, and
truthful, to a degree that baffled the ingenuity of his wily foe: and
Coubitant found that, instead of lowering Henrich in the regard of the
Sachem, he only excited him to take his part still more, and also ran a
great risk of losing all the favor which he had himself attained in
Tisquantum's eyes.
The sudden friendship that the young Jyanough had conceived for the
white stranger, and the consequent favor with which he was looked upon
by Oriana, tended still more to irritate the malignant savage; and
when, a few days after the arrival of Tisquantum's party at the Cree
village, he saw the three young friends seated amicably together
beneath a shadowing tree, and evidently engaged in earnest
conversation, he could not resist stealing silently behind them, and
lurking in the underwood that formed a thick background to their
position, in order to listen to the subject of their discourse. How
astonished and how indignant was he to find that Henrich was reasoning
eloquently against the cruel and ridiculous superstitions of the Indian
tribes, and pointing out to his attentive hearers the infinite
superiority of the Christian's belief and the Christian's practice!
The acquiescence that Oriana expressed to the simple but forcible
arguments of the pale-face added to his exasperation; and he was also
angry, as well as astonished, to perceive that the young Cree, although
he was yet unconvinced, was still a willing listener, and an anxious
inquirer as to the creed of his white friend.
Maddened with rage, and excited also by the hope of at length arousing
the anger of the Sachem against the Christian youth, he forgot his
former caution, and hurried away, with quick and noiseless step, to the
wigwam occupied by Tisquantum, and broke unceremoniously upon his
repose as he sat, in a half-dreaming state, on the soft mat that
covered the floor, and 'drank smoke' from his long, clay pipe.
With vehement gestures, Coubitant explained to the Sachem the cause of
his sudden interruption, and implored him to listen to the counsel of
his most faithful friend and subject, and to lose no time in banishing
from his favor and presence one who showed himself unworthy of all the
benefits he had heaped upon him, and who employed the life that had
been so unduly spared in perverting the mind of his benefactor's only
child. In vain his eloquence--in vain his wrath. Tisquantum regarded
him calmly until he had exhausted his torrent of passionate
expostulations, and then, quietly removing the pipe from his lips, he
replied, with his and decision--
'My brother is angry. His zeal for the honor of Mahneto has made him
forget his respect for the Sachem and the Sachem's adopted son. The
life of the white stranger was spared that he might bring joy to the
mournful eyes of Oriana. He has done so. My daughter smiles again, and
it is well. Coubitant may go.'
He then resumed his pipe, and, closing his eyes again, gave himself up
to the drowsy contemplations, which the entrance of Coubitant had
interrupted; and the disappointed warrior retired with a scowl on his
dark brow, and aggravated malice in his still darker heart.
CHAPTER VIII.
'They proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord'
JER. IX, 3.
The indifference of Tisquantum on the subject of the religious opinions
that his daughter might imbibe from her Christian companion, may seem
strange. But the Sachem, though a heathen, was, in fact, no fanatic. He
believed--or professed to believe--that he was himself in the
possession of supernatural powers; and so long as these pretensions
were acknowledged, and he continued to enjoy the confidence and
veneration of his ignorant countrymen, he was perfectly satisfied.
Henrich had also, on their first acquaintance, distinctly professed his
faith in the existence and the power of the Great Mahneto, or _Master
of Life;_ and this was all the _religion_--properly so called--of which
Tisquantum had any idea. He did not, therefore, give himself any
concern as to the other objects of his adopted son's belief or worship;
neither did he care to prevent Oriana from listening to the doctrines
of the pale-face, so long as she continued obedient and gentle, and
neglected none of the duties of an Indian squaw.
The feelings of Coubitant were different. Not only did he burn with an
eager desire to deprive his rival of the Sachem's love and esteem, but
he also entertained a strong abhorrence of the religion of the white
men, as he had seen it practiced, and knew it was disseminated, by the
Spanish settlers in Mexico, whither he had traveled in his early youth.
In his eyes, these Christians were base idolaters; for such was the
impression made on him by the images and crucifixes that he beheld, and
the marks of veneration that were paid to these idols of wood and
stone, by the superstitious and degenerate Spaniards of that district.
When, therefore, he heard Henrich endeavoring to inculcate the worship
of Jesus, as the Son of God, on Oriana and Jyanough, he not unnaturally
regarded him as a believer in all the deities whose images he had seen
associated with that of Jesus, and receiving equal homage.
Such, unhappily, has too often been the impression made on the minds of
the heathen, in every quarter of the globe, by the vain and
superstitious observances of the Roman Church, when her ministers have
proposed to their acceptance so corrupt a form of Christianity, instead
of the pure and holy doctrines of unadulterated Scripture. To those
nations already given over to idolatry it has appeared that their
civilized teachers were only offering them another kind of image-
worship; but to the Indians of North America--who make use of no images
of their deity, and generally acknowledge but one Great Spirit of
universal power and beneficence, and one Spirit of evil--the carved and
painted figures of the Spanish invaders naturally gave the idea of a
multitude of gods; and, in some of them, excited unbounded indignation
and hatred. This was the case with Coubitant; who, though totally
uninfluenced by any love or fear of the Great Mahneto whom he professed
to worship, was yet--like many other bigots of various countries and
creeds--keenly jealous of any innovations in the religion of his
nation; and ready to oppose, and even to exterminate, all who attempted
to subvert it.
He now regarded Henrich as such an aggressor on the national faith and
practice; and he consequently hated him with a redoubled hatred, and
ceased not to plot in secret his ultimate destruction.
Meanwhile, his intended victim was passing his time in considerable
enjoyment, and with a sense of perfect security, among the Crees. This
tribe was at that time remarkable for hospitality, and likewise for
courage and integrity. These good qualities have sadly degenerated
since their intercourse with Europeans has enabled them to gratify the
passion of all savages for intoxicating liquors: but at the period of
which we are speaking, they were a singularly fine race of Indians, and
their renown as warriors enabled them to extend protection to such of
the neighboring tribes as entered into alliance with them. Disease had,
indeed, recently reduced their numbers in many of the villages that
were situated in the dense forest, and were thus deprived of a free
circulation of air; and the wigwams at which Tisquantum's party had
arrived were among those that had suffered most severely. Several of
the lodges had been altogether deserted, in consequence of the death of
the proprietors; in which case the Indians frequently strip off the
thick mats which form the outer covering of the wigwam, and leave the
bare poles a perishing monument of desolation! This is only done when
the head of the family dies. The property of which he has not
otherwise disposed during his life, is then buried with him; and his
friends continue, for a long period, to revisit the grave, and make
offerings of food, arms, and cooking utensils. These articles are
deemed sacred to the spirit of the departed, and no Indian would think
of taking them away unless he replaced them with something of equal
value. This is permitted; and the custom must often afford relief to
the hungry traveler through the forests, who comes unexpectedly upon
the burial grounds of some of his race, and finds the graves amply
supplied with maize and tobacco--more useful to the living than to the
dead.
Many such graves, besides that of Uncas, were to be seen in the
vicinity of the Cree village: and it seemed likely that their numbers
would be still augmented; for the disease which had already proved so
fatal, had not left the wigwams, although its violence had considerably
abated. Old Terah, the uncle of Jyanough, and the chief of the present
Sachem's council, lay dangerously ill; and all the charms, and all the
barbarous remedies usually resorted to in such cases, had been employed
by the Cree Powows in vain. Terah was one of the Pinces, or Pnieses--a
dignity conferred only on men of approved courage and wisdom--and many
a successful incursion had he led into the great plains of
Saskatchawan, where dwelt the Stone Indians, with whom the Crees had
long been at enmity--and many a prisoner had he brought back to his
village, and slain as an offering to Maatche-Mahneto, while he hung the
scalp that he had torn from the quivering victim on the walls of his
lodge, as its proudest ornament.
Terah was also as wise in counsel as he was valiant in war; and,
although his age prevented his assuming the office of Sachem, or ruler
of the village,[*] on the death of his brother, yet his wisdom and
experience gave him great influence with Chingook, the present Chief,
and caused his life to be regarded as of peculiar value by the whole
community.
[Footnote: Almost every considerable village has its Sachem, or Chief,
who is subordinate to the great Sachem or Sagamore, of the whole
tribe.]
The arrival of so celebrated a Powow as Tisquantum during a time of
sickness-and especially when the death of so important a personage as
Terah was apprehended--was hailed with great joy by the whole village;
and presents of food, clothing, and arms poured into the lodge that
formed his temporary abode, from such of the Crees as desired to secure
his medical and supernatural aid for the relief of their suffering
relatives. All day he was occupied in visiting the wigwams of the sick,
and employing charms or incantations to drive away the evil spirits
from his patients; sometimes also administering violent emetics, and
other drugs from his _obee-bag,_ or medicine-pouch; which contained a
multitude of heterogeneous articles, such as herbs, bones, shells,
serpents' teeth, and pebbles--all necessary to the arts and practices
of a Powow. On the venerable Terah his skill and patience were
principally exercised, and many were the torments that he inflicted on
the dying old savage, and which were borne by the Pince with all the
calm endurance that became his dignity and reputation. Terah, like all
others of his exalted rank, had attained to the honor of being a Pince
by serving a hard apprenticeship to suffering and privation in his
early youth. He had passed through the ordeal triumphantly--and he who
had run barefoot through sharp and tearing thorns--who had endured to
have his shins beaten with a hard and heavy mallet, and his flesh
burned with red hot spears--and had not even betrayed a sense of pain--
in order to attain the rank of a great counselor, and the privilege of
attending the Sachem as one of his guard of honor--did not shrink when
his barbarous physician burned a blister on his chest with red-hot
ashes, and scarified the horny soles of his feet till the blood flowed
plentifully. Those, and strong emetic herbs, which he forced his
patient to repeat until he fainted away, constituted the medical
treatment of Tisquantum: but much greater benefit was expected--and,
such is the power of imagination in these ignorant savages, that it was
often attained--from the practice of his charms and conjurations.
As soon as Tisquantum saw his noble patient reduced to a state of
unconsciousness by his physical treatment, he commenced a course of
spiritual incantations. In a fierce and unnatural voice, he called on
Hobbamock, or Satan, who he declared was visible to him in one of his
many forms of an eagle, a deer, a fawn, and sometimes a gigantic human
being. He then adjured the evil spirit, and commanded him to remove the
disease; promising, in return, to offer to him skins, and hatchets, and
even the scalps of his foes. If any signs of returning consciousness
appeared, the Powow speedily banished them by a repetition of his wild
howling, which he continued for hours, at the same time throwing
himself about with wild and unnatural gestures, and striking his hands
violently on his legs, until he became as much exhausted as his unlucky
patient.