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POETRY.
THE BLDE BIRD.
BY WILSON.
When winter’s cold tempests and snows
are no more,
Green meadows and brown furrow’d fields
re-appearing,
The fishermen hauling their shad to the
shore,
And cloud-cleaving geese to the lakes are
a-steejing;
When first the lone butterfly flits on the
wing;
When red glow the maples, so fresh and
so pleasing,
O then comes the Blue-Bird, the herald
of firing!
And hails with his warbling the charms of
the season.
Then loud piping frogs make the marsh
es to ring;
Then warm glows the sunshine, and fine is
the weather,
The blue woodland flowers just beginning
to spring,
And spice-wood and sassafras budding to
gether;
O then to your gardens, ye housewives,
re nail!
lour walks border up; sow and plant at
your leisure,
The blue bird will chant from his box
such an air,
That all your hard toils will seem truly a
pleasure.
He flits through the orchard, he visits
each tree,
The red glowing peach and the apple’s
’ sweet, blossoms,
He snaps up destroyers wherever they
be,
And seirres the caitiffs that lurk in their
bosoms;
He drags the vile grub from the corn it
devours;
The worm from their webs where they ri
ot and welter;
His song and his services freely are ours,
And all that he asks is, in summer a shelter.
The ploughman is pleased when he gleans
in his train,
jfow searching the furrows—now mount-
ingto cheer him:
. The gardner delights in his sweet simple
strain*
And leans on his spade to survey and to
hear him;
The slow, lingering school-boys forget
they’ll be chid,
While gazing intent as he warbles before'
’em
In mantle of sky blue and bosom so red,
That each little loiterer seems to adore
him.
When all Ihe gay scenes of the summer
are o’er,
And autumn slow enters so silent and sal
low,
And millions of warblers that charmed
us before,
Have fled in the train of the sun seeking
swallow,
TJic blue bird forsaken yet true to his
home,
Still lingers, and looks for a milder to-mor
row,
Till forced by the horrors of winter to
roam,
He sings his adieu in a lone note of sorrow.
While spring’s lovely season, serene,
dewv, warm,
The green face of earth, and the pure blue
of heaven,
Or love’s native music have influence to
charm,
Or sympathy’s glow to our feelings is given,
Still dear to each bosom the blue bird
shall be;
His voice, like the tln illings of hope, is a
treasure;
For, through blackest storms if a calm he
but see,
He comes to remind us of sunshine and
pleasure!
MISCELLANEOUS.
TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER,
Bv Washington Irving,
[concluded.]
“Notwithstanding al! the obloquy
With which early historians of the col
onies have overshadowed ihe charac
ters of the unfortunate natives, some
bright gleams will occasionally break
through, that throw a degree of mel
ancholy lustre on their memories.
Facts are occasionally to he met with,
in their rude annals, which, though re
corded with all the colouring of pre
judice and bigotry, yet speak for them
selves; and will be dwelt on with ap
plause and sympathy, when prejudice
shall have passed away.
“In one of the homely narratives of
the Indian wars in Nevv-England, there
is a touching account of the desolation
carried into the tribe of the Pequod
Indians. Humanity shudders at the
coM-hlooded accounts given, of indis
criminate butchery on the port of the
settlers. In one place we read of the
aurnrisal of an Indian fort in the night,
when the wigwams were wrapped in
flames, and the miserable inhabitants
shot down and slain, in attempting to
^es-ape. “all being despatched and en
ded in the course of an hour.” After
a sei-ies of similar tr'>ns->e(ions, “Or
•soldiers, ” as the historian piously ob
serves, “being resolved by God’s as
sistance to make a final destruction of
them,” the unhappy savages being
hunted from their homes and fortress
es, and pursued with fire and sword,
a scanty but gallant band, the sad
remnant of the Pequod warriors, with
their wives- and children, took refuge
in a swamp.
“Burning with indignation, and ren
dered sullen by despair—with hearts
bursting with grief at the destruction of
their tribe, and spiritfcgalled and sore
at the fancied ignomii^of their defeat,
they refused to ask their lives at the
hands of an insulting foe, and preferred
death to submission.
“As the night drew on they were
surrounded in their dismal retreat,
in such manner as to render escape
impracticable. Thus situated, their
enemy “plied them with shot all the
time, by which means many were kill
ed and buried in the mire.” In the
darkness and fog that preceded the
dawn of day, some few broke through
the besiegers and escaped into the
woods: “the rest were left to the con
querors, of which many were killed
in the swamp, like sullen dogs who
would rather, in their self-wildedness
and madness, sit still and be shot
through, or cut to pieces,” than im
plore for mercy. When the day
broke upon this handful of forlorn, but
dauntless spirits, the soldiers, we are
told, entering the swamp, “found sev
eral heaps of them sitting dose togeth
er, upon whom they discharged their
pieces, laden with ten or twelve pis
tol bullets at a time; putting the muz
zles of their pieces under the houghs ,
within a few yards of them; so as be
sides those that were dead, many more
were killed and sunk into the mire,
and never were minded more by friend
or foe.'*
“Can any one read this plain unvar
nished tale, without admiring the
stern resolution, the unbending pride,
and loftiness of spi it, that' seemed
to nerve the hearts of these self-taught
heroes, and to raise them above the
instinctive feelings of human nature?
When the Gauls iaid waste the city of
Rome, they found the nobles clothed
in their robes, and seated with stern
tranquility in their curule chairs: in
this manner they suffered death with
out an attempt at supplication or re
sistance. Such conduct in them was
applauded as noble and magnanimous:
in the hapless Indians it was reviled
as obstinate and sullen. IIow much
are we the dupes of show and circum
stance! IIow different is virtue, ar
rayed in purple and enthroned in state,
from virtue, destitute and naked, re
duced <o the last stage of wretched
ness and perishing obscurely in a wil
derness.
“Do these records of ancient ex
cesses fill us with disgust and aversion?
Let us take heed that we do not
suffer ourselves to be hurried into the
same iniquities. Posterity lifts up
its hands with horror at past misdeeds,
because the passions that urged
to them are not felt, and the argu
ments that persuaded to them are for
gotten; but we are reconciled to the
present perpetration of injustice by
all the selfish motives with which in
terest chills the heart and silences the
conscience. Even at the present ad
vanced day, when we should suppose
that enlightened philosophy had expan
ded our minds, and true religion had
warmed our hearts into philnntluopy-
wlien we have been admonished' by a
sense of past transgressions, and in
structed by the indignant censure of
candid history—even now, we per
ceive a dispostion breaking out to re
new’ the persecutions of these hapless
beings. Sober-thoughted men, far
from the scenes of danger, in the se
curities of cities and populous regions,
can coolly talk of “exterminating
measures,” and discuss the policy of
exptirpating thousands. If such is the
talk in the cities, what is the temper
displayed on the borders? The sen
tence of desolation has gone forth—
“the roar is up amidst woods” im
placable wrath, goaded on by inter
est and prejudice, is ready to confound
all rights, to trample on all claims of
justice and humanity, rnd to act over
rhose scenes of sanguinary vengeance,
which have too offen stained the pages
of colonial history.
“These are not the idle suggestions
of fancy; thev are wrung forth by re
cent facts which still haunt the pub
lic mind. We need-hut turn to the
ravaged country of the Creeks to be
hold a picture of exterminating war
fare. <
T» <ese deluded savages, cipher ex
cited by private injury or private in
trigue, or by both, have lately taken
up tiie hulciiet, and made ucaiily in
roads into our frontier settlements.—
Their punishment has been pitiless
and terrible. Vengeance has gone
like a devouring lire through their
country—the smoke of their village
yet rises to heaven, and the blood of the
slaughtered Indians yet reeks upon the
earth. Of this merciless ravage, an
idea may be foinied by a single ex
ploit, boastfully set forth in an official
letter that has darkened our public
journals.* A detachment of soldiery
had been sent under the command of
one general Coffee to destroy the
Tallushatchcs towns, where the hos
tile Creeks had assembled. The en
terprise was executed as the com
mander in chief) expresses it, instyle-
but, in the name of mercy, in what
style! The towns were surrounded
before the break of day. The inhab
itants, starting from their sleep, Hew
to arms, with beat of drums and hi
deous veilings. The soldiery press
ed upon them on every side, and met
with desperate resistance—but what
was. savage valour against the array
and discipline of scientific warfare?
The Creeks made gallant charges,
but were beaten back by overwhelm
ing numbers. Hemmed in like sav
age beasts surrounded by the hunters,
wherever they turned they met aloe,
and iu every foe they found a butcher.
’•Theenemy retreated firing,” says
Coffee in his letter, “ until they got
around and in their buildings, where
they made all the resistance that an
overpowered soldier could do; they
fought as long as one existed, but theii
destruction v. as very soon completed;
our men rushed up to the doors of the
houses, and in a few minutes killed
the last warrior of them; the enemy
fought with savage fury, and met
death with all its horrors, without
shrinking or complaining; not one ask
ed lo be spared, but fought so long as
they could stand or sit. In consc-
quemc of their flying- to (heir houses,
and mixing with (ho families, our men
in killing the mates, without intention.
killed and wounded a Jew < J ti.c squaws
and children.'
“So unsparing was the carnage of
the sword that not one oi the warriors
escaped to cany the heart-breaking
tidings to the remainder of the tribe.
Such is what is termed executing
hostilities in style!—Let those who
exclaim wiih abhorrence at Indian in
road—those who are so eloquent about
the bitterness of Indian recrimination
—let them turn lo the horrible victo
ry of general Loiice, and be silent.
“As yet onr government lias m some
measure restrained the tide ol venge
ance, and inculcated lenity towards
the hapless Indians who have bo'en du
ped into the present war. Such tem
per is worthy of an enlightened gov
ernment—let it still be observed—let
sharp rebuke and signal punishment
be inflicted on the se who abuse their
delegated power, and disgrace their
victories with massacre and conflagra
tion. The enormities of'the Indians
form no excuse for the enormities oi
w hite men. It has pleased heaven to
give them but limited powers of
inind,| and feeble lights to guide their
judgments; it becomes us who are
blessed with higher intellects to think
for them, and to set them an example
of humanity. It is the nature oi ven
geance, if unrestrained, to be head
long in its actions, and to lay up, in a
moment of passion, ample cause for
an age s repentance. We may roll
over these miserable beings with our
chariot wheels, and crush them to the
earth; but when war lias done its worst
—when passion has subsided, and it is
to late to pity or to save—we shall
look back with unavailing compunc
tion at the mangled corses of those
whose cries were unheeded in the fu
ry of our career.
“Let the fate of war go as it may,
the fate of those ignorant tribes that
have been inveigled from their forests
to mingle in the strife of white men,
will be inevitably the same. In the col
lision of two powerful nations, these
intervening particles of population
will be crumbled to dust, and scatter
ed to the winds of heaven. In a lit
tle while, and they will go to the way
♦ hat sj many tribes have gone before.
The few hordes that, still linger about
the shores of Huron and Superior, and
the tributary streams of the Mississip
pi, will share the fate of those tribes
that once lorded it along the proud
banks of the Hudson; of that gigantic
■•ace that are said to have existed on
•he borders of the Susquehanna, and
>f those various nations that flourished
about the Potowmac and the Rappa-
hanoc, and that peopled the forests of
of the vast valley Shenandoah. They
will vanish like a vapour from the lace
of the earth—their very history w ill be
lost in forgetfulness—and “the places
that know them, will know them no
more forever.”
“Or if perchance some dubious
memorial of them should survive the
lapse of time, it may be iu the roman
tic dream of the poet, to populate in
imagination his glades and gioves, like
the fauns, and satyrs, and sylvan dei
ties of antiquity. But should he ven
ture the dark story of their wrongs
and wretchedness—driven from their
native abodes and the sepulchres oi'
their fathers—hunted like wild beasts
about the earth, and sent doun in vio
lence and butchery to the grave—pos
terity will either turn with horror and
incredulity from the tale, or blush with
indignation at the inhumanity of their
forefathers.— u We are driven back,’’
said an old warrior, “until we can re
treat no further—our hatchets are
broken—our bows are snapped—our
fires are nearly extinguished—a little
longer and the while men will cease
to persecute us—for we will cease to
exist!”
* Letter of Gen. Coffee, dated Nov. 4,
1813.
t Gen. Andrew Jackson.
j We should very reluctontly concede
the truth of this remark, though we are a-
ware that it is the belief'of many. The re
al dilioitrice between the whites and the
Indians, we should attribute to the extent
of advantages of improvement, enjoyed by
the one, and the same withheld from the
other; and this may be said of all the hu-
man race. The w hite man, who has his
mind improved, certainly can lay claim to
greater acquired abilities, than an Indian
in his rune state, this nevertheless does not
prove that God has seen tit to give the Abo
rigines of this Country, limited powers ol
mind. Abundant evidence has been given
that the natural powers ol the mind, a-
mougst most of the Indians, are very mu h
like most nations, and we have had, as yet,
no reason to believe, that under suitable ad
vantages, and proper instruction, they wdi
fail of equal aquired abilities. j£u.
Hoaxing.—A man who was accus
tomed to deal in the marvellous, totu
a country cousin of his, that he had
three curiosities in ids house: an ox
that could go three hundred miles a
any, a cock that told the houi oi the
night, and a dog that could read tn a
superior manner, bays the cousin,
“these are extraordinary things in
deed! 1 must call upon you unu heg
a sight oi them/ Trie liar retunic-u
home and tells his wife what huu hap
pened, saying that he had got nuo a
scrape, & did not know how to extri
cate himself. “Oh, never maid,' says
she, “1 can manage it.' IN ext bay,
the countryman called and iuquiicu al
ter his cousin-—is told lie has gone oii
to Pekin. And w hat time is nu expec
ted hack? In seven or oigul days,
flow can he return so quick r ncs
gone olf on our ox. Apropos, ol that,
continued the guest, i am tom that
you have a cock that mums the fioui.,
A cock happened then to crow, l cs,
that’s he; he not only leiis tiie hour ol
the night, but reports when a stranger
comes. Then your uog, that reads
books! might 1 beg to borrow a sight
at him? Why, to speak the truth, as
our circumstances are but narrow, we
have scut the dog out to keep school.
Effects of War.—It is remarked in a
statistical article in a French Journal,
that the effect of the wars of the Rev
olution has been to diminish the sta
ture of the human species in that
country. This is explained in the fol
lowing manner. Soldiers are formed
only of men, who, for their physical
formation, are the elite of the youth of
the country. For the space of thirty
years, there was an immense consump
tion of such men; and in the mean time
the care of re-peopling the country
was left in a greater part, to those men
who were not large enough, strong e-
nough, or well enough formed, for sol
diers. The large proportion of men
who are of a short stature is proved by
the following facts. According to
the report of the operat ions of the con-
seription in Franco for the year 1826,
in the number cf 1,03d,422 young men
who were examined by the officers ol
revision, 380,213 were rejected be
cause they were not four feet six inch
es in height. The French foot is a-
bout three quarters of an inch longer
than ours, and Consequently four feet
six inches French, are equal to about
four feet nine and a half inches of our
measure. After the rejection of Ihe
above proportion of men for the French
army, it is ascertained from the in
spections. that thirty-seven in a hun
dred are under five feet one inch in
height, and oplv forty-five in a hundred,
over fivo feet two inches. From these
facts, it would seem that after reject
ing in the proportion of one third, for
want of sulficjent size, one half of the
soldiers of the French 1 army are un
der five feet six inches, of our mca--
sure, in height.—JS'cw Y. Ob.
Warning to Drunkards.—One even-
ing in the month of December last,
A——W , who had lately become
an inhabitant of Westfield, returned;
to his home in a state of intoxication,
flis violence rendered it necessary
• hat his family should take shelter mi*,
dcr a neighboring roof. While alone
he fell into the fire, and was found, stilk
intoxicated, with his shoulders severe
ly burnt. He lingered about one week
and died—a victim to intemperance.—
Eliz. Journal.
Another.—A man in the town of'
L , who for a number of years
had been given to intemperance, was
at length taken ill with a liver com-,
plaint, probably brought on by intem
perance. lie became very low, so
that it was thought he could not live
from one day to another, but after ly
ing so near the point of death for sev
er al days, he at length revived, and by
degrees gained his strength, until he
was soon able to ride out. He was
then affectionately informed by his
physician that he must leave off his
former habits of intomperance, or lose
his life. He however paid no regard
to the advice of his physician, hut im
mediately betook himself to drinking;
this brought him immediately upon his.
death bed, and I believe it was not
three weeks frqm the time he recov
ered from his firet fit of sickness, be
fore his immortal spirit had takrn its
flight to appear before that God who-
hath declared that no drunkard con
ever enter heaven.—Boston Itccordcr.
ANIMAL GRATITUDE.
A few days since, a boy of 14 years
of age, while herding cattle on the
farm of Reideley’s, was attacked by
a bull, without the least provocation.
He was repeatedly knocked down and
trampled upon for a length of time so
as to be severely bruised in all parts
of the body. Nobody being near, his
cries were not heard—and fatal con
sequences would very soon have ensu
ed; had be not been released in a mosv
singular manner. While this furious
animal uas getting more enraged, he
was attacked by the rest of the cattle
(oxen) in so determined a manner,
that in order lo defend himself, he left
(lie boy, who was fortunately still able
to remove, and who was thus enabled
to escape. Such an example of the
exertion of a degree of intellect in
cattle led loan inquiry of the boy re.
garding the circumstances of the case-
The boy informed the writer of this
article, that only one of the cattle
came first to his rescue and attacked
the bull, and in a little time the oth
ers came, as if to assistance of the
first. This grateful and generous ox
had been during the last winter in rath
er a sickly condition, during which
time the hoy had paid it considerably
attention.—London Paper.
English Ladies.—-There is a dignity,
an elegance, and ease, in the manners
of English ladies accustomed to tho
society of London, a readiness in con
versation, a flow of choice language; a
quickness and correctness of Caste*
derived from a constant intercourse
with well educated men, and x
iliarity with the authors, which render
them the most engaging company.
Without attempting to fascinate by
the brilliancy of their wit. they instant
ly secure esteem by their unvarying
propriety, their sterling good sense,
and unaffected simplicity of manners.;
Miss Hannah More describes them asi
“q class of excellent characters, who, ;
on account of that very excellence, fl
are little known, because to be known®
is not their object. If they occasion®
little sensation abroad, they produce ®
much happiness at home. And when®
a woman, who lias “all appliances and®
means to get it,” can withstand the®
intoxication of (lie flatterer, and the®
adoration of (he fashionable; can con-®
quer tire fondness for public distinc-®
tion; can resist (he temptation of that®
magic circle lo which she is ccurtedy®
and in v Inch she is qualified to shine—®
this is indeed a (rial cf firmness; a (rial,®
in which those who have never been®
called (o resist themselves, can -hardly®
judge of (he merit of resistance in®
others. These are (he women who®
bless dignify, and truly adorn sociffl®
tv.—Ep. Watchman. fl