I marked him where, winding through harvest-crowned plain, The "Father of Waters" sweeps on to the main, Where the dark mounds in silence and loneliness stand, And the wrecks of the Red-man are strewn o'er the land: The forests were levelled that once were his home, O'er the fields of his sires glittered steeple and dome; The chieftain no longer in greenwood and glade With trophies of fame wooed the dusky-haired maid, And the voice of the hunter had died on the air With the victor's defiance and captive's low prayer; But the winds and the waves and the firmament's scroll, With Divinity still were instinct to his soul; At midnight the war-horse still cleaved the blue sky, As it bore the departed to mansions on high; Still dwelt in the rock and the shell and the tide A tutelar angel, invisible guide; Still heard he the tread of the Deity nigh, When the lightning's wild pinion gleamed bright on the eye, And saw in the Northern-lights, flashing and red, The shades of his fathers, the dance of the dead. And scorning the works and abode of his foe, The pilgrim raised far from that valley of woe His dark, eagle gaze, to the sun-gilded west, Where the fair "Land of Shadows" lay viewless and blest. Again I beheld him where swift on its way Leaped the cataract, foaming, with thunder and spray, To the whirlpool below from the dark ledge on high, While the mist from its waters commixed with the sky. The dense earth thrilled deep to the voice of its roar, And the "Thunder of Waters" shook forest and shore, As he steered his frail bark to the horrible verge, And, chanting his death-song, went down with the surge. "On, on, mighty Spirit! I welcome thy spray As the prairie-bound hunter The dawning of day; No shackles have bound thee, No tyrant imprest The mark of the Pale face On torrent and crest. "His banners are waving O'er hill-top and plain, The stripes of oppression Blood-red with our slain; The stars of his glory And greatness and fame, The signs of our weakness, The signs of our shame. "The hatchet is broken, The bow is unstrung; The bell peals afar Where the war-whoop once rung: The council-fires burn But in thoughts of the Past, And their ashes are strewn To the merciless blast. "But though we have perished As leaves when they fall, Unhonored with trophies, Unmarked by a pall, When our names have gone out Like a flame on the wave, The Pale race shall weep 'Neath the curse of our brave.