The Canadian Brothers; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled: A Tale of the Late American War — Volume 1Richardson, Major (John)
History
The Canadian Brothers; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled: A Tale of the Late American War — Volume 1
Richardson, Major (John)
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction; War stories
It was amidst the blaze of an united salvo from the demi
lune crowning the bank, and from the shipping, that the
noble chieftain, accompanied by the leaders of those wild
tribes, leaped lightly, yet proudly to the beach; and
having ascended the steep bank by a flight of rude steps
cut out of the earth, finally stood amid the party of
officers waiting to receive them. It would not a little
have surprised a Bond street exquisite of that day to
have witnessed the cordiality with which the dark hand
of the savage was successively pressed in the fairer
palms of the English officers, neither would his
astonishment have been abated, on remarking the proud
dignity of carriage maintained by the former, in this
exchange of courtesy, as though, while he joined heart
to hand wherever the latter fell, he seemed rather to
bestow than to receive a condescension.
Had none of those officers ever previously beheld him,
the fame of his heroic deeds had gone sufficiently before
the warrior to have insured him their warmest greeting
and approbation, and none could mistake a form that, even
amid those who were a password for native majesty, stood
alone in its bearing: but Tecumseh was a stranger to few.
Since his defeat on the Wabash he had been much at
Amherstburg, where he had rendered himself conspicuous
by one or two animated and highly eloquent speeches,
having for their object the consolidation of a treaty,
in which the Indian interests were subsequently bound in
close union with those of England; and, up to the moment
of his recent expedition, had cultivated the most perfect
understanding with the English chiefs.
It might, however, be seen that even while pleasure and
satisfaction at a reunion with those he in torn esteemed,
flashed from his dark and eager eye, there was still
lurking about his manner that secret jealousy of
distinction, which is so characteristic of the haughty
Indian. After the first warm salutations had passed, he
became sensible of the absence of the English chief; but
this was expressed rather by a certain outswelling of
his chest, and the searching glance of his restless eye,
than by any words that fell from his lips. Presently,
he whom he sought, and whose person had hitherto been
concealed by the battery on the hank, was seen advancing
towards him, accompanied by his personal staff. In a
moment the shade passed away from the brow of the warrior,
and warmly grasping and pressing, for the second time,
the hand of a youth--one of the group of junior officers
among whom he yet stood, and who had manifested even more
than his companions the unbounded pleasure he took in
the chieftain's re-appearance--he moved forward, with an
ardour of manner that was with difficulty restrained by
his sense of dignity, to give them the meeting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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