Part 29 (2/2)
Let us leave this land; let us take our women and children, and fly
Let us seek a new home beyond the Klamath and the Shasta, in the South Land, where the sun is alarreen, and the cold never coainst us here, and to stay is to perish Let us seek a new hory; even as our fathers in the time that is far back left their old home in the ice country of the Nootkas and ca words kindled a moment's ani of the wo of the sick chiefs in the council filled the silence, and their hearts sank within therave chief who had opened the council, ”but are his words wise? Many of our warriors are dead, one The Willamettes are weak; it is bitter to the lips to say it, but it is true Our ene
All the tribes ere once with us are against us The passes are kept by h theo with us Why fly from the disease here, to die with it in some far-off land?”
”We cannot leave our own land,” said a dreaave it to us, the bones of our fathers are in it It is _our_ land,” he repeated with touching eh the world is breaking up all around him The bones of our people are here Our brothers lie in the death-huts on _mimaluse_ island;--how can we leave them? Here is the place where we must live; here, if death comes, must we die!”
A murmur of assent came from the listeners It voiced the decision of the council With stubborn Indian fatalis the rebels if attacked, and sullenly facing the disease if unmolested Now a voice was heard that never had been heard in accents of despair,--a voice that was still fierce and warlike in its resent It was the voice of Mishlah the Cougar, chief of the Mollalies He, too, had the plague, and had just reached the grove, walking with slow and tottering steps, unlike the Mishlah of other days But his eyes glittered with all the old ferocity that had given hiar now
”Shall we stay here to die?” thundered the wild chief, as he stood leaning on his stick, his sunken eyes sweeping the asselance of fire ”Shall we stand and tremble till the pestilence slays us all with its arrows, even as a herd of deer, driven into a deep gulch and surrounded, stand till they are shot down by the hunters?
Shall we stay in our lodges, and die without lifting a hand? Shall disease burn out the life of our warriors, when they ht fall in battle? No! Let us slay the wo the rebels! Is it not better to fall in battle like warriors than to perish of disease like dogs?”
The chief looked from face to face, but saw no responsive flash in the eyes that met his own The settled apathy of despair was on every countenance Then the medicine-man answered,--
”_You_ could never cross the
Your breath is hot with disease; the mark of death is on your face; the snake of the pestilence has bitten you If ent out to battle, you would fall by the wayside to die Your tirilance, and for a moment wavered
He felt within hiue had sapped his life, that his hour was near at hand Then his hesitation passed, and he lifted his head with scornful defiance
”So be it! Mishlah accepts his doom Come, you that were once the warriors of Multnomah, but whose hearts are become the hearts of woain his glance swept the circle of chiefs as if su footsteps, he left the grove; and it was as if the last hope of the Willamettes ith him The dense atmosphere of smoke soon shut his form from view
Silence fell on the council The hearts of the Indians were dead within thens of the wrath of the Great Spirit,--the fatal apathy which is the curse of their race crept over them
Then rose thesuperstition, reverenced as one through who
”Break up your council!” he said with fearful look and gesture
”Councils are for those who expect to live! and you!--the dead call you to them Choose no chief, for ill be left for him to rule?
You talk of plans for the future Would you knohat that future will be? I will show you; listen!” He flung up his hand as if ierly, expecting to hear soe prophetic of the future On their strained hearing fell only the labored breathing of the sick chiefs in the council, the o of the far-off volcano, and loud and shrill above all the desolate cry of the wo their dead
”You hear it? That death-wail tells all the future holds for you
Before yonder red shadow of a sun”--pointing to the sun, which shone dih the smoke--”shall set, the bravest of the Mollalies will be dead Before the moon wanes to its close, the Willamette race will have passed away Think you Multnomah's seat is empty? The Pestilence sits in Multnomah's place, and you will all wither in his hot and poisonous breath Break up your council Go to your lodges The sun of the Willaht is upon us Our wars are done; our glory is ended We are but a tale that old athered from _mimaluse_ island,--dust that once was o, whirled into everlasting darkness before the wind of the wrath of the Great Spirit!”
He flung out his aresture, as if he held all their lives and threw them forth like dead leaves to be scattered upon the winds Then he turned away and left the grove The crowd of warriors who had been looking on broke up and went away, and the chiefs began to leave the council, each rave and stately sachem who had opened the council tried for a little while to stay the fatal breaking up, but in vain And when he saw that he could do nothing, he too left the grove, wrapped in stoical pride, sullenly resigned to whatever was to come
And so the last council ended, in hopeless apathy, in stubborn indecision,--indecision in everything save the recognition that a doole
And Mishlah? He returned to his lodge, painted his face as if he were going to battle, and then went out to a grove near the place where the war-dances of the tribe were held His braves followed hi that the end was close at hand, and wondering hoould die