Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
In defiance of the menaces of the savages, Captain John Copeland, the
rough but worthy host of the Indian King, institutes inquiries
concerning the parentage of the infant so unceremoniously imposed upon
him. Various obstacles are thrown in the way of his researches by the
disturbed state of the country, and by the Indians themselves, who
suspect his intentions, and keep a strict watch on his movements; and
when at last a more settled state of things enables him to prosecute his
inquiries, it is with small success, or at least he does not admit that
he has discovered any thing, although he suspects the child, which is a
little girl, to belong to one of the French or Spanish planters on the
Mississippi. Seven years elapse, during which the numbers of the
backwoodsman's family are doubled, and his worldly wealth augments in a
far larger proportion. The shores of the Coosa have become populous and
flourishing, the solitary block-house is now a roomy and convenient
dwelling, situated in the midst of smiling plantations, and Captain
Copeland is well to do, and much respected by his neighbours. One summer
evening, however, the Captain is disturbed at his supper, and his family
frightened from their propriety, by the appearance of a tall gaunt
Indian, who enters the room unannounced, and is recognised by a
missionary there present as Tokeah, the miko or king of the Oconees, the
principal tribe of the Creek Indians. This Tokeah is one of the most
deadly and persevering enemies of the white men, whom he detests with a
bitter hate, because they have driven his nation from its hunting
grounds. He it was who, seven years previously, gave the little girl in
charge to Copeland and his wife; since then he has regularly sent furs
and beaver-skins as payment for her maintenance, and he now comes to
claim her as his property. Resistance to his demand would be in vain,
for he is backed by an imposing force of Indian warriors; the entreaties
of Mrs Copeland and the missionary are insufficient to turn him from his
purpose, and he takes away the child, who has been christened by the
name of Rosa. The third chapter of the book, which we will now extract,
opens, after a second lapse of seven years, at the latter end of the
year 1814.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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