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unresisting victim, and prepared to lead him to the stake. But, at that
moment, when he appeared most a stranger to the feelings of humanity, the
purpose of the savage was arrested as suddenly, as if a supernatural agency
had interposed in the behalf of Uncas. The eye-balls of the Delaware seemed to
start from their sockets; his mouth opened, and his whole form became frozen
in an attitude of amazement. Raising his hand with a slow and regulated
motion, he pointed with a finger to the bosom of the captive. His companions
crowded about him, in wonder, and every eye was, like his own, fastened
intently on the figure of a small tortoise, beautifully tattooed on the breast
of the prisoner, in a bright blue tint.
For a single instant, Uncas enjoyed his triumph, smiling calmly on the scene.
Then motioning the crowd away, with a high and haughty sweep of his arm, he
advanced in front of the nation with the air of a king, and spoke in a voice
louder than the murmur of admiration that ran through the multitude.
 Men of the Lenni Lenape! he said,  my race upholds the earth! Your feeble
tribe stands on my shell! What fire, that a Delaware can light, would burn the
child of my fathers, he added, pointing proudly to the simple blazonry on his
skin;  the blood that came from such a stock, would smother your flames! My
race is the grandfather of nations!
 Who art thou! demanded Tamenund, rising, at the startling tones he heard,
more than at any meaning conveyed by the language of the prisoner.
 Uncas, the son of Chingachgook, answered the captive, modestly, turning
from the nation, and bending his head in reverence to the other s character
and years;  a son of the Great Unâmis. *
 The hour of Tamenund is nigh! exclaimed the sage;  the day is come, at
last, to the night! I thank the Manitto, that one is here to fill my place at
the council-fire. Uncas, the child of Uncas, is found! Let the eyes of a dying
eagle gaze on the rising sun.
The youth stepped lightly, but proudly, on the platform, where he became
visible to the whole agitated and wondering multitude. Tamenund held him long
at the length of his arm, and read every turn in the fine and lofty lineaments
of his countenance, with the untiring gaze of one who recalled the days of his
own happiness by the examination.
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 Is Tamenund a boy! at length the bewildered prophet exclaimed.  Have I
dreamt of so many snows--that my people were scattered like floating sands--of
Yengeese, more plenty than the leaves on the trees! The arrow of Tamenund
would not frighten the young fawn; his arm is withered like the branch of the
dying oak; the snail would be swifter in the race; yet is Uncas before him, as
they went to battle, against the pale-faces! Uncas, the panther of his tribe,
the eldest son of the Lenape, the wisest Sagamore of the Mohicans! Tell me, ye
Delawares, has Tamenund been a sleeper for a hundred winters?
The calm and deep silence which succeeded these words, sufficiently announced
the awful reverence with which his people received the communication of the
patriarch. None dared to answer, though all listened in breathless expectation
of what might follow. Uncas, however, looking in his face, with the fondness
and veneration of a favoured child, presumed on his own high and acknowledged
rank, to reply.
 Four warriors of his race have lived and died, he said,  since the friend
of Tamenund led his people in battle. The blood of the Turtle has been in many
chiefs, but all have gone back into the earth, from whence they came, except
Chingachgook and his son.
 It is true--it is true, returned the sage--a flash of recollection
destroying all his pleasing fancies, and restoring him, at once, to a
consciousness of the true history of his nation.  Our wise men have often said
that two warriors of the  unchanged race were in the hills of the Yengeese;
why have their seats at the council fires of the Delawares been so long
empty?
At these words, the young man raised his head, which he had still kept bowed
a little, in reverence, and lifting his voice, so as to be heard by the
multitude, as if to explain, at once, and for ever, the policy of his family,
he said, aloud--
 Once we slept where we could hear the salt lake speak in its anger. Then we
were rulers and Sagamores over the land. But when a pale-face was seen on
every brook, we followed the deer back to the river of our nation. The
Delawares were gone! Few warriors of them all stayed to drink of the stream
they loved. Then said my fathers--  here will we hunt. The waters of the river
go into the salt lake. If we go towards the setting sun, we shall find streams
that run into the great lakes of the sweet water; there would a Mohican die,
like fishes of the sea, in the clear springs. When the Manitto is ready, and
shall say,  come, we will follow the river to the sea, and take our own
again. Such, Delawares, is the belief of the children of the Turtle! Our eyes
are on the rising, and not towards the setting sun! We know whence he comes,
but we know not whither he goes. It is enough.
The men of the Lenape listened to his words with all the respect that
superstition could lend, finding a secret charm even in the figurative
language with which the young Sagamore imparted his ideas. Uncas himself
watched the effect of his brief explanation with intelligent eyes, and
gradually dropped the air of authority he had assumed, as he perceived that
his auditors were content. Then permitting his looks to wander over the silent
throng that crowded around the elevated seat of Tamenund, he first perceived
Hawk-eye, in his bonds. Stepping eagerly from his stand, he made a way for
himself to the side of his friend, and cutting his thongs with a quick and
angry stroke of his own knife, he motioned to the crowd to divide. The grave
and attentive Indians silently obeyed, and once more they stood ranged in
their circle, as before his appearance among them. Uncas then took the scout
by the hand, and led him to the feet of the patriarch.
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 Father, he said,  look at this pale-face; a just man, and the friend of the
Delawares.
 Is he a son of Miquon? *
 Not so; a warrior known to the Yengeese, and feared by the Maquas.
 What name has he gained by his deeds?
 We call him Hawk-eye, Uncas replied, using the Delaware phrase;  for his
sight never fails. The Mingoes know him better by the death he gives their
warriors; with them he is the  long rifle. 
 La Longue Carabine! exclaimed Tamenund, opening his eyes, and regarding the
scout, sternly.  My son has not done well to call him friend!
 I call him so who proves himself such, returned the young chief, with great
calmness, but with a steady mien.  If Uncas is welcome among the Delawares,
then is Hawk-eye with his friends.
 The pale-face has slain my young men; his name is great for the blows he has
struck the Lenape.
 If a Mingo has whispered that much in the ear of the Delaware, he has only [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]