Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick: Gleaned from Actual Observation and Experience During a Residence of Seven Years in That Interesting ColonyBeavan, F. (Frederick), Mrs.
History
Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick: Gleaned from Actual Observation and Experience During a Residence of Seven Years in That Interesting Colony
Beavan, F. (Frederick), Mrs.
Beavan, F. (Frederick), Mrs., 1818-1897 -- Homes and haunts -- New Brunswick; Country life -- New Brunswick -- History -- 19th century; New Brunswick -- Social life and customs
Long years after, when he had forsaken the hunter's path, and fought as
a loyalist in the British ranks, among their Indian allies who smoked
with them the pipe of peace and called them brothers, was one, in whose
wild and withered features he recalled the stern Red Eagle; blood called
for blood; he beguiled the Indian now with copious draughts of the white
man's fire-water, and he and another (brother of one of the murdered
hunters) killed him, and placing him in his own canoe with the paddle in
his hand, sent the fearful corpse down the rapid stream, bearing him
unto his home. The wild dog and wolf howled on the banks as it floated
past, and the raven and eagle hovered over it claiming it as their prey.
The tribe, at the death of their Sagamore, withdrew from their allies,
and, following the track of the setting sun, waged war indiscriminately
with all.
And long after, though more than half a century had elapsed since the
death of the Red Eagle, and when the snows of eighty winters had
whitened the dark tresses of the young hunter, and bowed the tall form
of the loyalist soldier; when he who had trod the flowery paths of the
prairie, and slept in the orchard bowers by the blue stream of the
Hudson, had, for love of England's laws, become a refugee from his
native land; and when here, in New Brunswick, he beheld raised around
him a happy and comfortable home--his house, which had always been
freely opened to religious worship, and in which had been held the
prayer-meetings of the baptists and love-feasts of the methodists,
became one day transformed into a catholic chapel.
A bishop of the Romish church was passing through the province, and his
presence in this sequestered spot was an event of unwonted interest;
many who had forgotten the creed of their fathers returned to the faith
of their earlier days, and among the most fervent of those assembled,
there was a small group of Milicete Indians from the woods hard by. With
the idolatrous devotion of their half savage nature they fell prostrate
before the priest. Among them was an ancient woman, but not of their
tribe, who, while raising her head in prayer, or in crossing herself,
Silas observed she used but one hand--the other was gone. This
circumstance recalled to light the faded love-dream of his youth. He
questioned her and found her to be Leemah, his once beautiful Indian
bride, who had wandered here to escape the dark tyranny of her savage
kindred. She died soon after, and "she sleeps there," said the old man,
pointing to where a white cross marked a low grassy mound before us, and
time had not so dried up his heart springs but I saw a tear drop to her
memory.
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