Philip Of Pokanoket - An Indian Memoir - Prose Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABACDE F F G H I J K F L F F I F M F F G K D F F G E G F N G O L P Q M F R H ES| As monumental bronze unchanged his look | A |
| A soul that pity touch'd but never shook | A |
| Train'd from his tree rock'd cradle to his bier | B |
| The fierce extremes of good and ill to brook | A |
| Impassive fearing but the shame of fear | C |
| A stoic of the woods a man without a tear | D |
| CAMPBELL | E |
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| It is to be regretted that those early writers who treated of the discovery and settlement of America have not given us more particular and candid accounts of the remarkable characters that flourished in savage life The scanty anecdotes which have reached us are full of peculiarity and interest they furnish us with nearer glimpses of human nature and show what man is in a comparatively primitive state and what he owes to civilization There is something of the charm of discovery in lighting upon these wild and unexplored tracts of human nature in witnessing as it were the native growth of moral sentiment and perceiving those generous and romantic qualities which have been artificially cultivated by society vegetating in spontaneous hardihood and rude magnificence | F |
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| In civilized life where the happiness and indeed almost the existence of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow men he is constantly acting a studied part The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good breeding and he practises so many petty deceptions and affects so many generous sentiments for the purposes of popularity that it is difficult to distinguish his real from his artificial character The Indian on the contrary free from the restraints and refinements of polished life and in a great degree a solitary and independent being obeys the impulses of his inclination or the dictates of his judgment and thus the attributes of his nature being freely indulged grow singly great and striking Society is like a lawn where every roughness is smoothed every bramble eradicated and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface he however who would study Nature in its wildness and variety must plunge into the forest must explore the glen must stem the torrent and dare the precipice | F |
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| These reflections arose on casually looking through a volume of early colonial history wherein are recorded with great bitterness the outrages of the Indians and their wars with the settlers New England It is painful to perceive even from these partial narratives how the footsteps of civilization may be traced in the blood of the aborigines how easily the colonists were moved to hostility by the lust of conquest how merciless and exterminating was their warfare The imagination shrinks at the idea of how many intellectual beings were hunted from the earth how many brave and noble hearts of Nature's sterling coinage were broken down and trampled in the dust | G |
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| Such was the fate of Philip of Pokanoket an Indian warrior whose name was once a terror throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut He was the most distinguished of a number of contemporary sachems who reigned over the Pequods the Narragansetts the Wampanoags and the other eastern tribes at the time of the first settlement of New England a band of native untaught heroes who made the most generous struggle of which human nature is capable fighting to the last gasp in the cause of their country without a hope of victory or a thought of renown Worthy of an age of poetry and fit subjects for local story and romantic fiction they have left scarcely any authentic traces on the page of history but stalk like gigantic shadows in the dim twilight of tradition | H |
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| When the Pilgrims as the Plymouth settlers are called by their descendants first took refuge on the shores of the New World from the religious persecutions of the Old their situation was to the last degree gloomy and disheartening Few in number and that number rapidly perishing away through sickness and hardships surrounded by a howling wilderness and savage tribes exposed to the rigors of an almost arctic winter and the vicissitudes of an ever shifting climate their minds were filled with doleful forebodings and nothing preserved them from sinking into despondency but the strong excitement of religious enthusiasm In this forlorn situation they were visited by Massasoit chief sagamore of the Wampanoags a powerful chief who reigned over a great extent of country Instead of taking advantage of the scanty number of the strangers and expelling them from his territories into which they had intruded he seemed at once to conceive for them a generous friendship and extended towards them the rites of primitive hospitality He came early in the spring to their settlement of New Plymouth attended by a mere handful of followers entered into a solemn league of peace and amity sold them a portion of the soil and promised to secure for them the good will of his savage allies Whatever may be said of Indian perfidy it is certain that the integrity and good faith of Massasoit have never been impeached He continued a firm and magnanimous friend of the white men suffering them to extend their possessions and to strengthen themselves in the land and betraying no jealousy of their increasing power and prosperity Shortly before his death he came once more to New Plymouth with his son Alexander for the purpose of renewing the covenant of peace and of securing it to his posterity | I |
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| At this conference he endeavored to protect the religion of his forefathers from the encroaching zeal of the missionaries and stipulated that no further attempt should be made to draw off his people from their ancient faith but finding the English obstinately opposed to any such condition he mildly relinquished the demand Almost the last act of his life was to bring his two sons Alexander and Philip as they bad been named by the English to the residence of a principal settler recommending mutual kindness and confidence and entreating that the same love and amity which had existed between the white men and himself might be continued afterwards with his children The good old sachem died in peace and was happily gathered to his fathers before sorrow came upon his tribe his children remained behind to experience the ingratitude of white men | J |
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| His eldest son Alexander succeeded him He was of a quick and impetuous temper and proudly tenacious of his hereditary rights and dignity The intrusive policy and dictatorial conduct of the strangers excited his indignation and he beheld with uneasiness their exterminating wars with the neighboring tribes He was doomed soon to incur their hostility being accused of plotting with the Narragansetts to rise against the English and drive them from the land It is impossible to say whether this accusation was warranted by facts or was grounded on mere suspicions It is evident however by the violent and overbearing measures of the settlers that they had by this time begun to feel conscious of the rapid increase of their power and to grow harsh and inconsiderate in their treatment of the natives They despatched an armed force to seize upon Alexander and to bring him before their courts He was traced to his woodland haunts and surprised at a hunting house where he was reposing with a band of his followers unarmed after the toils of the chase The suddenness of his arrest and the outrage offered to his sovereign dignity so preyed upon the irascible feelings of this proud savage as to throw him into a raging fever He was permitted to return home on condition of sending his son as a pledge for his re appearance but the blow he had received was fatal and before he reached his home he fell a victim to the agonies of a wounded spirit | K |
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| The successor of Alexander was Metamocet or King Philip as he was called by the settlers on account of his lofty spirit and ambitious temper These together with his well known energy and enterprise had rendered him an object of great jealousy and apprehension and he was accused of having always cherished a secret and implacable hostility towards the whites Such may very probably and very naturally have been the case He considered them as originally but mere intruders into the country who had presumed upon indulgence and were extending an influence baneful to savage life He saw the whole race of his countrymen melting before them from the face of the earth their territories slipping from their hands and their tribes becoming feeble scattered and dependent It may be said that the soil was originally purchased by the settlers but who does not know the nature of Indian purchases in the early periods of colonization The Europeans always made thrifty bargains through their superior adroitness in traffic and they gained vast accessions of territory by easily provoked hostilities An uncultivated savage is never a nice inquirer into the refinements of law by which an injury may be gradually and legally inflicted Leading facts are all by which he judges and it was enough for Philip to know that before the intrusion of the Europeans his countrymen were lords of the soil and that now they were becoming vagabonds in the land of their fathers | F |
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| But whatever may have been his feelings of general hostility and his particular indignation at the treatment of his brother he suppressed them for the present renewed the contract with the settlers and resided peaceably for many years at Pokanoket or as it was called by the English Mount Hope the ancient seat of dominion of his tribe Suspicions however which were at first but vague and indefinite began to acquire form and substance and he was at length charged with attempting to instigate the various eastern tribes to rise at once and by a simultaneous effort to throw off the yoke of their oppressors It is difficult at this distant period to assign the proper credit due to these early accusations against the Indians There was a proneness to suspicion and an aptness to acts of violence on the part of the whites that gave weight and importance to every idle tale Informers abounded where tale bearing met with countenance and reward and the sword was readily unsheathed when its success was certain and it carved out empire | L |
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| The only positive evidence on record against Philip is the accusation of one Sausaman a renegado Indian whose natural cunning had been quickened by a partial education which be had received among the settlers He changed his faith and his allegiance two or three times with a facility that evinced the looseness of his principles He had acted for some time as Philip's confidential secretary and counsellor and had enjoyed his bounty and protection Finding however that the clouds of adversity were gathering round his patron he abandoned his service and went over to the whites and in order to gain their favor charged his former benefactor with plotting against their safety A rigorous investigation took place Philip and several of his subjects submitted to be examined but nothing was proved against them The settlers however had now gone too far to retract they had previously determined that Philip was a dangerous neighbor they had publicly evinced their distrust and had done enough to insure his hostility according therefore to the usual mode of reasoning in these cases his destruction had become necessary to their security Sausaman the treacherous informer was shortly afterwards found dead in a pond having fallen a victim to the vengeance of his tribe Three Indians one of whom was a friend and counsellor of Philip were apprehended and tried and on the testimony of one very questionable witness were condemned and executed as murderers | F |
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| This treatment of his subjects and ignominious punishment of his friend outraged the pride and exasperated the passions of Philip The bolt which had fallen thus at his very feet awakened him to the gathering storm and he determined to trust himself no longer in the power of the white men The fate of his insulted and broken hearted brother still rankled in his mind and he had a further warning in the tragical story of Miantonimo a great Sachem of the Narragansetts who after manfully facing his accusers before a tribunal of the colonists exculpating himself from a charge of conspiracy and receiving assurances of amity had been perfidiously despatched at their instigation Philip therefore gathered his fighting men about him persuaded all strangers that he could to join his cause sent the women and children to the Narragansetts for safety and wherever he appeared was continually surrounded by armed warriors | F |
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| When the two parties were thus in a state of distrust and irritation the least spark was sufficient to set them in a flame The Indians having weapons in their hands grew mischievous and committed various petty depredations In one of their maraudings a warrior was fired on and killed by a settler This was the signal for open hostilities the Indians pressed to revenge the death of their comrade and the alarm of war resounded through the Plymouth colony | I |
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| In the early chronicles of these dark and melancholy times we meet with many indications of the diseased state of the public mind The gloom of religious abstraction and the wildness of their situation among trackless forests and savage tribes had disposed the colonists to superstitious fancies and had filled their imaginations with the frightful chimeras of witchcraft and spectrology They were much given also to a belief in omens The troubles with Philip and his Indians were preceded we are told by a variety of those awful warnings which forerun great and public calamities The perfect form of an Indian bow appeared in the air at New Plymouth which was looked upon by the inhabitants as a prodigious apparition At Hadley Northampton and other towns in their neighborhood was heard the report of a great piece of ordnance with a shaking of the earth and a considerable echo Others were alarmed on a still sunshiny morning by the discharge of guns and muskets bullets seemed to whistle past them and the noise of drums resounded in the air seeming to pass away to the westward others fancied that they heard the galloping of horses over their heads and certain monstrous births which took place about the time filled the superstitious in some towns with doleful forebodings Many of these portentous sights and sounds may be ascribed to natural phenomena to the northern lights which occur vividly in those latitudes the meteors which explode in the air the casual rushing of a blast through the top branches of the forest the crash of fallen trees or disrupted rocks and to those other uncouth sounds and echoes which will sometimes strike the ear so strangely amidst the profound stillness of woodland solitudes These may have startled some melancholy imaginations may have been exaggerated by the love for the marvellous and listened to with that avidity with which we devour whatever is fearful and mysterious The universal currency of these superstitious fancies and the grave record made of them by one of the learned men of the day are strongly characteristic of the times | F |
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| The nature of the contest that ensued was such as too often distinguishes the warfare between civilized men and savages On the part of the whites it was conducted with superior skill and success but with a wastefulness of the blood and a disregard of the natural rights of their antagonists on the part of the Indians it was waged with the desperation of men fearless of death and who had nothing to expect from peace but humiliation dependence and decay | M |
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| The events of the war are transmitted to us by a worthy clergyman of the time who dwells with horror and indignation on every hostile act of the Indians however justifiable whilst he mentions with applause the most sanguinary atrocities of the whites Philip is reviled as a murderer and a traitor without considering that he was a true born prince gallantly fighting at the head of his subjects to avenge the wrongs of his family to retrieve the tottering power of his line and to deliver his native land from the oppression of usurping strangers | F |
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| The project of a wide and simultaneous revolt if such had really been formed was worthy of a capacious mind and had it not been prematurely discovered might have been overwhelming in its consequences The war that actually broke out was but a war of detail a mere succession of casual exploits and unconnected enterprises Still it sets forth the military genius and daring prowess of Philip and wherever in the prejudiced and passionate narrations that have been given of it we can arrive at simple facts we find him displaying a vigorous mind a fertility of expedients a contempt of suffering and hardship and an unconquerable resolution that command our sympathy and applause | F |
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| Driven from his paternal domains at Mount Hope he threw himself into the depths of those vast and trackless forests that skirted the settlements and were almost impervious to anything but a wild beast or an Indian Here he gathered together his forces like the storm accumulating its stores of mischief in the bosom of the thundercloud and would suddenly emerge at a time and place least expected carrying havoc and dismay into the villages There were now and then indications of these impending ravages that filled the minds of the colonists with awe and apprehension The report of a distant gun would perhaps be heard from the solitary woodland where there was known to be no white man the cattle which had been wandering in the woods would sometimes return home wounded or an Indian or two would be seen lurking about the skirts of the forests and suddenly disappearing as the lightning will sometimes be seen playing silently about the edge of the cloud that is brewing up the tempest | G |
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| Though sometimes pursued and even surrounded by the settlers yet Philip as often escaped almost miraculously from their toils and plunging into the wilderness would be lost to all search or inquiry until he again emerged at some far distant quarter laying the country desolate Among his strongholds were the great swamps or morasses which extend in some parts of New England composed of loose bogs of deep black mud perplexed with thickets brambles rank weeds the shattered and mouldering trunks of fallen trees overshadowed by lugubrious hemlocks The uncertain footing and the tangled mazes of these shaggy wilds rendered them almost impracticable to the white man though the Indian could thread their labyrinths with the agility of a deer Into one of these the great swamp of Pocasset Neck was Philip once driven with a band of his followers The English did not dare to pursue him fearing to venture into these dark and frightful recesses where they might perish in fens and miry pits or be shot down by lurking foes They therefore invested the entrance to the Neck and began to build a fort with the thought of starving out the foe but Philip and his warriors wafted themselves on a raft over an arm of the sea in the dead of night leaving the women and children behind and escaped away to the westward kindling the flames of war among the tribes of Massachusetts and the Nipmuck country and threatening the colony of Connecticut | K |
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| In this way Philip became a theme of universal apprehension The mystery in which he was enveloped exaggerated his real terrors He was an evil that walked in darkness whose coming none could foresee and against which none knew when to be on the alert The whole country abounded with rumors and alarms Philip seemed almost possessed of ubiquity for in whatever part of the widely extended frontier an irruption from the forest took place Philip was said to be its leader Many superstitious notions also were circulated concerning him He was said to deal in necromancy and to be attended by an old Indian witch or prophetess whom he consulted and who assisted him by her charms and incantations This indeed was frequently the case with Indian chiefs either through their own credulity or to act upon that of their followers and the influence of the prophet and the dreamer over Indian superstition has been fully evidenced in recent instances of savage warfare | D |
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| At the time that Philip effected his escape from Pocasset his fortunes were in a desperate condition His forces had been thinned by repeated fights and he had lost almost the whole of his resources In this time of adversity he found a faithful friend in Canonchet chief Sachem of all the Narragansetts He was the son and heir of Miantonimo the great sachem who as already mentioned after an honorable acquittal of the charge of conspiracy had been privately put to death at the perfidious instigations of the settlers He was the heir says the old chronicler of all his father's pride and insolence as well as of his malice towards the English he certainly was the heir of his insults and injuries and the legitimate avenger of his murder Though he had forborne to take an active part in this hopeless war yet he received Philip and his broken forces with open arms and gave them the most generous countenance and support This at once drew upon him the hostility of the English and it was determined to strike a signal blow that should involve both the Sachems in one common ruin A great force was therefore gathered together from Massachusetts Plymouth and Connecticut and was sent into the Narragansett country in the depth of winter when the swamps being frozen and leafless could be traversed with comparative facility and would no longer afford dark and impenetrable fastnesses to the Indians | F |
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| Apprehensive of attack Canonchet had conveyed the greater part of his stores together with the old the infirm the women and children of his tribe to a strong fortress where he and Philip had likewise drawn up the flower of their forces This fortress deemed by the Indians impregnable was situated upon a rising mound or kind of island of five or six acres in the midst of a swamp it was constructed with a degree of judgment and skill vastly superior to what is usually displayed in Indian fortification and indicative of the martial genius of these two chieftains | F |
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| Guided by a renegado Indian the English penetrated through December snows to this stronghold and came upon the garrison by surprise The fight was fierce and tumultuous The assailants were repulsed in their first attack and several of their bravest officers were shot down in the act of storming the fortress sword in hand The assault was renewed with greater success A lodgment was effected The Indians were driven from one post to another They disputed their ground inch by inch fighting with the fury of despair Most of their veterans were cut to pieces and after a long and bloody battle Philip and Canonchet with a handful of surviving warriors retreated from the fort and took refuge in the thickets of the surrounding forest | G |
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| The victors set fire to the wigwams and the fort the whole was soon in a blaze many of the old men the women and the children perished in the flames This last outrage overcame even the stoicism of the savage The neighboring woods resounded with the yells of rage and despair uttered by the fugitive warriors as they beheld the destruction of their dwellings and heard the agonizing cries of their wives and offspring The burning of the wigwams says a contemporary writer the shrieks and cries of the women and children and the yelling of the warriors exhibited a most horrible and affecting scene so that it greatly moved some of the soldiers The same writer cautiously adds They were in much doubt then and afterwards seriously inquired whether burning their enemies alive could be consistent with humanity and the benevolent principles of the gospel | E |
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| The fate of the brave and generous Canonchet is worthy of particular mention the last scene of his life is one of the noblest instances on record of Indian magnimity | G |
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| Broken down in his power and resources by this signal defeat yet faithful to his ally and to the hapless cause which he had espoused he rejected all overtures of peace offered on condition of betraying Philip and his followers and declared that he would fight it out to the last man rather than become a servant to the English His home being destroyed his country harassed and laid waste by the incursions of the conquerors he was obliged to wander away to the banks of the Connecticut where he formed a rallying point to the whole body of western Indians and laid waste several of the English settlements | F |
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| Early in the spring he departed on a hazardous expedition with only thirty chosen men to penetrate to Seaconck in the vicinity of Mount Hope and to procure seed corn to plant for the sustenance of his troops This little hand of adventurers had passed safely through the Pequod country and were in the centre of the Narragansett resting at some wigwams near Pautucket River when an alarm was given of an approaching enemy Having but seven men by him at the time Canonchet despatched two of them to the top of a neighboring hill to bring intelligence of the foe | N |
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| Panic struck by the appearance of a troop of English and Indians rapidly advancing they fled in breathless terror past their chieftain without stopping to inform him of the danger Canonchet sent another scout who did the same He then sent two more one of whom hurrying back in confusion and affright told him that the whole British army was at hand Canonchet saw there was no choice but immediate flight He attempted to escape round the hill but was perceived and hotly pursued by the hostile Indians and a few of the fleetest of the English Finding the swiftest pursuer close upon his heels he threw off first his blanket then his silver laced coat and belt of peag by which his enemies knew him to be Canonchet and redoubled the eagerness of pursuit | G |
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| At length in dashing through the river his foot slipped upon a stone and he fell so deep as to wet his gun This accident so struck him with despair that as he afterwards confessed his heart and his bowels turned within him and he became like a rotten stick void of strength | O |
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| To such a degree was he unnerved that being seized by a Pequod Indian within a short distance of the river he made no resistance though a man of great vigor of body and boldness of heart But on being made prisoner the whole pride of his spirit arose within him and from that moment we find in the anecdotes given by his enemies nothing but repeated flashes of elevated and prince like heroism Being questioned by one of the English who first came up with him and who had not attained his twenty second year the proud hearted warrior looking with lofty contempt upon his youthful countenance replied You are a child you cannot understand matters of war let your brother or your chief come him will I answer | L |
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| Though repeated offers were made to him of his life on condition of submitting with his nation to the English yet he rejected them with disdain and refused to send any proposals of the kind to the great body of his subjects saying that he knew none of them would comply Being reproached with his breach of faith towards the whites his boast that he would not deliver up a Wampanoag nor the paring of a Wampanoag's nail and his threat that he would burn the English alive in their houses he disdained to justify himself haughtily answering that others were as forward for the war as himself and he desired to hear no more thereof | P |
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| So noble and unshaken a spirit so true a fidelity to his cause and his friend might have touched the feelings of the generous and the brave but Canonchet was an Indian a being towards whom war had no courtesy humanity no law religion no compassion he was condemned to die The last words of his that are recorded are worthy the greatness of his soul When sentence of death was passed upon him be observed that he liked it well for he should die before his heart was soft or he had spoken anything unworthy of himself His enemies gave him the death of a soldier for he was shot at Stoning ham by three young Sachems of his own rank | Q |
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| The defeat at the Narraganset fortress and the death of Canonchet were fatal blows to the fortunes of King Philip He made an ineffectual attempt to raise a head of war by stirring up the Mohawks to take arms but though possessed of the native talents of a statesman his arts were counteracted by the superior arts of his enlightened enemies and the terror of their warlike skill began to subdue the resolution of the neighboring tribes The unfortunate chieftain saw himself daily stripped of power and his ranks rapidly thinning around him Some were suborned by the whites others fell victims to hunger and fatigue and to the frequent attacks by which they were harassed His stores were all captured his chosen friends were swept away from before his eyes his uncle was shot down by his side his sister was carried into captivity and in one of his narrow escapes he was compelled to leave his beloved wife and only son to the mercy of the enemy His ruin says the historian being thus gradually carried on his misery was not prevented but augmented thereby being himself made acquainted with the sense and experimental feeling of the captivity of his children loss of friends slaughter of his subjects bereavement of all family relations and being stripped of all outward comforts before his own life should be taken away | M |
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| To fill up the measure of his misfortunes his own followers began to plot against his life that by sacrificing him they might purchase dishonorable safety Through treachery a number of his faithful adherents the subjects of Wetamoe an Indian princess of Pocasset a near kinswoman and confederate of Philip were betrayed into the hands of the enemy Wetamoe was among them at the time and attempted to make her escape by crossing a neighboring river either exhausted by swimming or starved with cold and hunger she was found dead and naked near the water side But persecution ceased not at the grave Even death the refuge of the wretched where the wicked commonly cease from troubling was no protection to this outcast female whose great crime was affectionate fidelity to her kinsman and her friend Her corpse was the object of unmanly and dastardly vengeance the head was severed from the body and set upon a pole and was thus exposed at Taunton to the view of her captive subjects They immediately recognized the features of their unfortunate queen and were so affected at this barbarous spectacle that we are told they broke forth into the most horrid and diabolical lamentations | F |
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| However Philip had borne up against the complicated miseries and misfortunes that surrounded him the treachery of his followers seemed to wring his heart and reduce him to despondency It is said that he never rejoiced afterwards nor had success in any of his designs The spring of hope was broken the ardor of enterprise was extinguished he looked around and all was danger and darkness there was no eye to pity nor any arm that could bring deliverance With a scanty band of followers who still remained true to his desperate fortunes the unhappy Philip wandered back to the vicinity of Mount Hope the ancient dwelling of his fathers Here he lurked about like a spectre among the scenes of former power and prosperity now bereft of home of family and of friend There needs no better picture of his destitute and piteous situation than that furnished by the homely pen of the chronicler who is unwarily enlisting the feelings of the reader in favor of the hapless warrior whom he reviles Philip he says like a savage wild beast having been hunted by the English forces through the woods above a hundred miles backward and forward at last was driven to his own den upon Mount Hope where he retired with a few of his best friends into a swamp which proved but a prison to keep him fast till the messengers of death came by divine permission to execute vengeance upon him | R |
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| Even in this last refuge of desperation and despair a sullen grandeur gathers round his memory We picture him to ourselves seated among his care worn followers brooding in silence over his blasted fortunes and acquiring a savage sublimity from the wildness and dreariness of his lurking place Defeated but not dismayed crushed to the earth but not humiliated he seemed to grow more haughty beneath disaster and to experience a fierce satisfaction in draining the last dregs of bitterness Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune but great minds rise above it The very idea of submission awakened the fury of Philip and he smote to death one of his followers who proposed an expedient of peace The brother of the victim made his escape and in revenge betrayed the retreat of his chieftain A body of white men and Indians were immediately despatched to the swamp where Philip lay crouched glaring with fury and despair Before he was aware of their approach they had begun to surround him In a little while he saw five of his trustiest followers laid dead at his feet all resistance was vain he rushed forth from his covert and made a headlong attempt to escape but was shot through the heart by a renegado Indian of his own nation | H |
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| Such is the scanty story of the brave but unfortunate King Philip persecuted while living slandered and dishonored when dead If however we consider even the prejudiced anecdotes furnished us by his enemies we may perceive in them traces of amiable and loftly character sufficient to awaken sympathy for his fate and respect for his memory We find that amidst all the harassing cares and ferocious passions of constant warfare he was alive to the softer feelings of connubial love and paternal tenderness and to the generous sentiment of friendship The captivity of his beloved wife and only son are mentioned with exultation as causing him poignant misery the death of any near friend is triumphantly recorded as a new blow on his sensibilities but the treachery and desertion of many of his followers in whose affections he had confided is said to have desolated his heart and to have bereaved him of all further comfort He was a patriot attached to his native soil a prince true to his subjects and indignant of their wrongs a soldier daring in battle firm in adversity patient of fatigue of hunger of every variety of bodily suffering and ready to perish in the cause he had espoused Proud of heart and with an untamable love of natural liberty he preferred to enjoy it among the beasts of the forests or in the dismal and famished recesses of swamps and morasses rather than bow his haughty spirit to submission and live dependent and despised in the ease and luxury of the settlements With heroic qualities and bold achievements that would have graced a civilized warrior and have rendered him the theme of the poet and the historian he lived a wanderer and a fugitive in his native land and went down like a lonely bark foundering amid darkness and tempest without a pitying eye to weep his fall or a friendly hand to record his struggle | E |
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