“When first his fire Awanux kindled here, Haup’s[12] chief was weak, and broken was his heart; Disease had swept his warriors far and near, And at his breast looked Narraganset’s dart; Awanux gave him strength, and with strange fear Did M’antonomi at the big guns start; He dropt his hatchet; but his hate remains, And only counsel wise his wrath restrains. [12] Haup, or Mount Hope, the summer residence of Massasoit. LIV. “He sees the strangers spreading far around, And earth turn pale as fast their numbers grow, And fiercely would he to the battle bound, And for his country strike the deadly blow, But that behind the Pequot’s yells resound, And on his left the Nipnet bends the bow; And even thus his hatchet scarcely sleeps,-- It dreams of Haup, and in its slumber leaps. LV. “But, brother, still Miantonomi is A valiant Sachem--yea, and generous too, And gray Canonicus is just and wise, His hands are ever to his tongue most true; If from their lands my brother’s smoke should rise, Whate’er those Sachems promise, they will do; But Waban still doth not his friend advise To cross the Seekonk where their country lies. LVI. “Brother, attend and hear the reasons why;-- There at Mooshausick dwells a dark pawaw, Who hates Awanux, doth his God defy, And Chepian worships with the deepest awe; He’ll give my brother’s town a cloudy sky, And to his councils under-sachems draw; E’en now he whets the Narraganset knife, Points at our clan, and thirsts for human life. LVII. “Safer on Seekonk’s hither border may My brother build, and wake his council blaze; Clear are the meads--the trees are swept away By mighty burnings in our fathers’ days. There early verdure spring and flow’rets gay, Long grows the grass, and thrifty is the maize; And good old Massasoit’s sheltering wing Will shield thy weakness from each harmful thing.” LVIII. “Brother, I thank thee,” said our Founder here, “Oft have I seen thy chief on Plymouth’s shore; I will to-morrow seek those meadows clear, And thy fair Seekonk’s hither banks explore. But will not Waban pass Namasket near, Where oft that wise and good old Sagamore, Brave Massasoit, spends the season drear?” “He will, my brother”--“Then let Waban hear: LIX. “Tell thou that Sachem, generous and wise, That Williams lingers in thy cabin low, That he his children and his country flies, To shun the anger of a Christian foe; And that to him his pale friend lifts his eyes, And asks protection.--Tell him that his woe Springs from this thought, and from this thought alone, God can be worshipped but as God is known.” LX.