Part 18 (1/2)
He told it all,--the story of his hoo to the Indians, his long wanderings, the e he had to deliver, how it had been received by soer sent by the Great Spirit to tell the tribes of the Wauna the true way of life He told it all, and never had he been so eloquent It was a striking contrast, the gri on his bow, his sharp, treacherous gaze bent like a bird of prey on the delicatelybefore hiiveness as duties enjoined by the Great Spirit Then he spoke abruptly
”When you stood up in the council the day the bad chief was tried, and told of the weakness and the wars that would come if the confederacy was broken up, you talked wisely and like a great chief and warrior; now you talk like a wo at Cecil with a kind of wondering scorn, as if he could not comprehend such weakness in one who looked like a brave man ”War and hate are the life of the Indian They are the strength of his heart
Take them away, and you drain the blood from his veins; you break his spirit; he becoive, yet they are not squaws They are brave and hardy in battle; their towns are great; their country is like a garden”
And he told Multnomah of the laws, the towns, the schools, the settled habits and industry of New England The chief listened with growing ith he threw his aresture of freedo a fetter
”How can they breathe, shut in, bound down like that? How can they live, so tied and burdened?”
”Is not that better than tribe forever warring against tribe? Is it not better to live like men than to lurk in dens and feed on roots like beasts? Yet ill fight, too; the white o to battle when his cause is just and war ht when they can flee no longer
The Indian loves battle He loves to seek out his enerapple with him, and to tread hirandeur in the chief's tone All the tah him, the spirit that has met defeat and extermination rather than bow its neck to the yoke of civilization Cecil realized that on the iron fibre of the war-chief's nature his pleading made no iain he tried to speak of the ways of peace, but the chief checked him impatiently
”That is talk for squaws and old men Multnomah does not understand it Talk like a ive; Multnomah wants no peace with his enemies If they are weak he trahts them When the Shoshones take froives them war; if they torture one Willamette at the stake, Multnoives hate for hate and war for war This is the law the Great Spirit has given the Indian What law he has given the white man, Multnomah knows not nor cares!”
Baffled in his attempt, Cecil resorted to another line of persuasion
He set before Multnoence, the splendor of the white race
”The Indian has his laws and customs, and that is well; but why not council with the white people, even as chiefs council together? Send an embassy to ask that hite men be sent you, so that you ood you can accept, what seems not so can be set aside I know the ways that lead back to the land of the white man; I myself would lead the e a treaty between this land for the purpose of introducing civilization and religion; and for a ht of the insurmountable obstacles in the way
”No,” replied the chief, ”neither alone nor as leader of a peace party will your feet ever tread again the path that leads back to the land of the white man We want not upon our shoulders the burden of his arts and laws We want not his teachers to tell us how to be women If the white h the rapple with hi, the war-chief rose and left hio back,” thought Cecil, with a bitter consciousness of defeat ”Then e, even as I have so often dreamed that it would
So be it; I shall work the harder now that I see the end approaching
I shall gather the chiefs inand preach to the his resolution, there came the recollection that Wallulah would look for hi hih he yearned to go to her ”I cannot go; I must be faithful to e; a and animated was Cecil's talk; beautiful and full of spiritual fervor were the words in which he pointed the in his usual brooding way The others seemed interested; but when he was done they all rose up and went aithout a word,--all except the Shoshone renegade who had helped hi the lodge
”Soood than it is noill try to live the life you talked about to-night”
Then he turned and went out before Cecil could reply
”There is one at least seeking to get nearer God,” thought Cecil, joyfully After awhile his enthusiasm faded away, and he remembered how anxiously Wallulah must have waited for him, and how bitterly she must have been disappointed Her face, pale and stained with tears, rose plainly before him A deep remorse filled his heart