Down the glens so cool and shaded. Green and fresh the ferns and mosses, Clinging close to rock and crevice, Pure and bright the silver waters, Dancing o'er the shelving limestone. Angels saw and angels praised it, For the gracious Spirit made it, "Very good" the Spirit called it. Happy valley! Peaceful shadows! Glorious sunlight of an epoch, Which the latter days can know not! For the stride of man's progression Desecrates these pristine beauties, Bends these gorgeous land-scape beauties, To his purposes of profit. And the cycle brought its changes, As the moons were waxing, waning. The still tract of virgin woodland, Was invaded by the demon That the sweet primeval ages Soon were destined to encounter, The remorseless Indian demon, The bold red man of the forest. Then the wigwam and the peace-pipe Sent aloft the smoke of welcome, Welcome to the roving brothers, To the tribes that wandered restless, To the sachem and the chieftain, To the warrior and the maiden. I have said the tribes invaded The sweet haunts of Nature's children, Of her birds and beasts and reptiles, Of her rivers, rills, and streamlets; Of her trees and flowers and grasses, Yet the song of peace continued. Peaceful still, yet no more silent; For where man, with human passion, Dwells in all this wide creation, Strife is ever slumb'ring, waiting, Waiting for the magic touchstone, For the trouble he is born to, "Trouble, as the sparks fly upward." So there rose a reign of terror, Of dismay and cruel bloodshed, When the white man came among them, The all-potent, dreaded pale-face, He, another bold invader, An usurper of the woodland. When he came with might and fury, And the hatchet was uplifted, When the war-cry sounded louder, And the wigwam smoked in ashes, And the peace-pipe fell forever, From the lips all stiff and gory; And the sachem and the chieftain, And the warrior and the maiden, Fled for safety from the woodland, Roaming restless, ever moving, To the land of deer and bison, To the rolling, grassy prairies, To the distant unknown regions, To the placid, broad Pacific, To the setting of the sunlight. CANTO II. 1769-1796. PIONEERS.