The Pilgrims of New England: A Tale of the Early American SettlersWebb, J. B., Mrs. (Annie)
History
The Pilgrims of New England: A Tale of the Early American Settlers
Webb, J. B., Mrs. (Annie)
Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony) -- Fiction
'Peace, child,' interrupted the Sachem, with more asperity than he
usually showed to Oriana. 'These are the notions you have learned from
your white brother, and I desire not to hear them. Tisquantum knows his
duty. I will demand the lives of the woman and child of whom you speak;
but the warrior must abide his fate. And think you that he would not
scorn to live when honor is gone I Go'--he added more gently, as he saw
the sorrow that dimmed her eye--'go, and tell Jyanough to meet me at
the Sachem's lodge. Terah may yet be saved--this victim comes at s
happy moment, and surely Mahneto demands his life as at offering for
that of the venerable Pince.'
Oriana shuddered at what she saw to be her father's meaning. Once she
would have felt as he did and have believed that their god could be
propitiated by blood and agony. But now she knew that all such cruel
sacrifices were worse than vain; and deeply she regretted her own
inability to bring her countrymen, and especially her own beloved
father, to a knowledge of the Gospel of mercy and peace; and thus save
them from imbruing their hands in the blood of their fellow men, and
thinking that they did good service to the Great Spirit.
She hurried back to her companions, and, weeping, told them of her
partial success. It was all, and more than all, that Jyanough expected;
and he immediately went to meet Tisquantum at the lodge of the Cree
Sachem, Chingook, where he found the war party and their prisoners
assembled. After a few words to Jyanough, Tisquantum commenced a long
speech to his brother Sachem, in which he dilated on the friendship
that subsisted between them, and the joy that he had felt in exercising
his skill for the benefit of the brave and hospitable Crees. He then
spoke of Terah's perilous condition, and his fears that even his powers
had been baffled by the spirit of evil; and that the Pince would yet be
taken from them, unless some offering could be found more precious than
all that were now piled before his dwelling, and only waited for the
auspicious moment to be wrapped inflame, us a sacrifice to the offended
deity who had brought the pestilence. 'And have we not such an offering
here?' he added, pointing to the captive warrior, who stood, with head
erect, awaiting the sentence that he knew would be pronounced. 'Have we
not here a victim, sent by Mahneto himself, at the very moment when
Terah's life seems hanging on a breath? Lead him, then, to the sacred
pile; and as his soul goes forth, the soul of Terah shall revive.
This speech was received with acclamations by the Crees; and already
the warriors were hurrying away their captive, while his wife followed,
as if mechanically, to share her husband's fate. Bat here Tisquantum
interposed, and, in his daughter's name, requested the life of the
woman and her child. His request was readily granted by Chingook; for
of what value was a squaw in the eyes of these Indian braves?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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