About Cherokee phoenix, and Indians' advocate. (New Echota [Ga.]) 1829-1834 | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1829)
POETRY. Trom the London Evanselical Magazine for April, 1829. 'THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES. n vision wrapt, by Hinnom’s vale, Tha mystic prophet stoods ! And still, where?er he look’ds the dale - W ith lifeless bones was strew’d; ¢ N breath of air, no voice, no¥ sound, D starh? 1 the awfal gio0om; Bat 2! ahove, beneath, around, Was silent as the tomb. » At Vonath a gentle voice from heav’n ~T7,0m that stillness broke; ; €Can life to thesa Iry bones be giv’a w “I"was thus th Go.thead spoke: On- 'aubti! zlanea the prophet threw v ov2r - manid?ring honr; , Than anawer male, with rev’eence due, «That; Lord, to thee is known 2 ¢ Then nrophesv,” Jehovah said, " «That rach to Yife shall wake;? The won:*rine seer at once obey?’d, And all hegan to shale: ) Now limh to meet its kindred limb, With straneze nrecision flew; Ah? rach, oflate so gannt and grim, With desh was cloth’d anew. Avza'nthe Lord’s command was giv’n, * Unon the wind to call, s breathe from ev’ry end of heav'n, And animate them all: T'ha pronhat cal’l, the breezes blew, And soon, beneath their })reath, A living arm 7 sprung to view ‘Through all that vale of death. #T'< abjeet thus, O Lord, and lone, " "I'he sin-bound spirit lies; - An ! sapless as a mould’ring bone All haman aid defies: Or, if heneath the Gospel-sound, 1 A shape it seem to wear: The form of life alone is found, " The pow’r is wanting there, J But if thy Spirit deign to blow, - A wond’rous change it brings: At onece the soul from death and woe To life and vigour springs; ! ‘With rapture strange the inward eye Imbibes celestial rays; y "T'he heart with hope and love beats high, The mouth is fill’d witn praise. O then, if wrapt in slumber deep Our poor dead soul remain; Let thy dear Spirit break our sleep; ° And burst cach earthly chain; That fir’d with hope, and fill’d with love, __And freed from fleshly dross, We now may spring to life, and prove Good Soldiers of the Cross! 1 MISCELLANEDJTS. THE TIGER’SCAVE. An adventure among the JMountains » of Quito. (Translated from the Danish of Elmquist; and the German of Doring, by oue of the Authors of the Old Volume,” +Tales and Legends,” &e.) U LS On leaving the Indian village, we costinued to wind round Chimboras 50.’s wide base; but I's snow-crowned head no longer shone above us in clear brillianty, for dense fog was gather ing gradually around it. Our guides fooked anxiously towards it, and an nounced their apprehensions of a vio lent storm. We soomfound tha: their fears were well-founded. The fog rapidly covered and obscured the whole of the mountain; the atmos phere was suffocating, and yet so bhumid that the steel work of our tvatches was covered with rust, and the watches stopt. The river beside which we were travelling - rushed down with still greater impetuosity; and from the clefts of the rocks which lay on the left of our path, were sud denly precipitated small rivulets, that bsre the roots of trees, and in numerable serpents, along with them. These rivulets often came down so suddenly & violently that we had great difficulty in preserving our footing. The thunder at length began to . roll. and resounded through the mountain ous places with the niost terrific grandeur. Then came the wivid hightning,~flash followinz flash-—above around, beneath,—every where a sea of fire. We sought a momentary shelter in a cleft of the rocks, whilst one of our guides hastened forward-to seek a more secure asylom: In a short time he returned; & informed us that he had discovered a spacions cavern, which would afford us sufficient pro tection from the elements. We pro ceeded thither immediately, and with great difficulty, and not a little dan ger. at last got into if. The noise and raging of the storm continned with so much violence, that we could not hear the sound of our voices. I had placed myself near the entrance of the cave.and could oh seive, through the opening, which wos straight and narrow, the singular seene without. 'The highest cedar trees were struck down, or bent like roods: monkeys and parrets lay strow ed upon the ground, killed by the. falling branches; the water had col lected in the path we had just passed, and hurried along it like a mountain stream. ['rom every thing I saw, I thought it extremely probable that we should be obliged to pass some days in this cavern. When thestorm, however, had somewhat abated, our ‘guides ventured out in order to ascer tain if it were possible to continue our journey. The cave in which we had taken refuge was so extremely datk, that if we moved a few paces from the intrance, we could not see an inch befere us; and we were de bating as to the propriety of leaving it even before the Indians came back, when we- suddenly heard a singular groaning or growling at the further end of the cavern, which instantly fixed all our atiention. Wharton and myself listened anxtously; but our dar ing and inconsideratec young friend Lincoln, together with my huntsman, crept about upon their hands and knees, and endeavored to discover, by groping, from whence the sound procecded. They had not advanced far into the cavern, before we heard them utter an exclamation of sur prize; and they retured to us, each carrving in his arms an animal singu larly marked, and about the size of a cat, seemingly of great strength and power and furmshed with immense fangs. 'The eyes were of la green color; strong claws were upon- their feet; and a blood-red tongue hung out of their months, Wharton had scarce ly glanced at them, when he ex ~laimed, in consternation, “Good God! we have come into the den of a” —— He was interrupted by a fear ful cry of dismay from our guides, who came rushing precinitately towards us, calling out, A tiger! a tizer!” and at the same time, with extraor dinary rapidity, they climbed up a cedar tree which stood at the en trance of the cave, and hid them selves among the branches. After the first seunsation of horror and surprize, which rendered me me tionless for a moment, had subsided, I orasped my fire arms. Wharton had already resained his compostre and self-possession: and he called to us to assist him" instantly in blocking up the mouth of the cave with an im mense stone which fortunately lay near it. The sense of approaching danger augmented our strength: for we now distinetly heard the growl of the ferocious animal, and we were lost beyond rédemntion if it reached the entrance before we could get it clossd Ere this was done, \vel could distinctly see the tizer bounding towards the spot, and stooping in or der to creep into his den by the nap row openinz. At this fearful moment our exertions were successiul, and the great stone kept the wild beast at bay. There was a small open space, however, left between the top of the entrance and the stone, through which we conld see the head of the animal, illuminated by 1§ glowing eyes, which it rolled. glaring with fury wpon us. Its frightful roaring, too, penetrated tothe depths of the cavern, and was answered by the hoarse growling of the cubs, which® Lincoln and Frank had now tossed from them:. Our fe rocious enemy attempted first to re move the stone with his powerful claws, and then push it with his head from its place; and these efforts prov iny abortive, servedouly to increase his wrath. He uttered a tremendous heart-piercing howl, and his flaming eyes darted light 'info the darkness of our retreat. “Now is the time to fire at him,” said Wharton, with his usual calin ness; ‘‘aim at his eyes: the ball will 20 through his brain, and -we shall then have a chance to get rid of him.” Frank seized his double-barrelled gun, ‘and Lincoln his ‘pistols, the for mer placed the muzzle within a few mches of the tiger, agd Lincoln did | the same. At Wharton’s command they both drew the triggers at the same moment, but no shot followed. TTe tiger, wno seemed aware that the flash indicated an attack upon him, sprang growling from the en trance; but, feeling himself unhurt, immeadiately turncd back again, and stationed himself in his former place. The powder in both pieces was wet: they therefore proceeded to draw the nseless loading, whilst Wharton and myself hastened to seek our powder flask. It was so extremely dark, that we were obliged to grope about the cave; and, at last, coming in%ton tact with the cubs, we heard a rus | tling noise, as if they were playmg with some metal substance, which we soon discovered was the canister we were looking for. Most unfor tunately, however, the animals had pushed off the lid with their claws and the powder had been strewed over the damp earth, and rendered entirely useless. This horrible dis covery excited the greatest conster nation. - “All is now over,” said Wharton, “we have only now to choose whe ther we shall die of hunger, together with these animals who are shut up along with us, or open the entrance to the blood thirsty monster without, and so make a quicker end of the matter.” A S 0 saying, he placed himself close’ beside the stone, which for the mo ment defended us, and looked un dauntedly upon the lightning eyes of the tiger. Lincoln raved and swore; and ['rank took a piece of strong cord from his pocket, and hasted to the further end of the cave—l knew not with what design. 'We soon, how ever, heard a lot,- stifled groaning; and the tiger, who had heard it also. hecame more restless and disturhed than ever! He went backwards & for wards before the entrance of the cave in the most wild and in¥petuous man ner, then stood still, and stretching out his neck in the direction of the forest, broke forth into a deafening howl. Our two Indian guides took advantage of this opportunity to dis charge several arrows from the tree. He was struck more than once, but the light weapons bounded back harm less from his thick skin. At length, however, one of them struck him near the eye, and the arrow remained sticking in the wound. He now broke anew into the wildest fury, sprang at the tree, and tore it with his claws, as if he would have dragged it to the ground. But having at length suc ceeded in getting rid of the arrow, he became more calm, and laid himself e . . down as before in front of the cave, : Frank now returned from the low er end of the den, and a glance show ed us' what he had been doing. In each hand, and danging from the end of astring were the two cubs, He had strangled them; and before we ‘were aware what he intended, he threw them through the opening to the tiger. No sconer did the animal per ceive them, than he gazed earnestly upon them, and began to examine them closely, turning them cautiously from side to side. As soon as he be came aware that they were dead, he utered so piercing a howl of sorrow, that we were obliged to put our hands to our ears. When I upbraided my huntsman for the cruel action he had so rashly committed, I perceived by his blunt and abrupt answers that he also had lost all hope of rescue from our impending fate, and that under these circumstances, the ties “be tween master and servant were dis solved. For my own part, without knowing why, T could not help believ ing that some unexpected assistance would yet rescue us from so horible a fate. Alas! I little anticipated the sacrifice that my rescue was to - cost. - The thunder had now ceased, and the storm had sunk to a gentle gale; the songs of birds were again heard in the neighbouring forest,and the sun, beams sparkled in the drops that hung from the leaves. We saw through the aperture how all nature was re viving after the war of elements which bad so recently taken place; but the constrast only made our situa tion the more horrible. We were in a grave from which there was no de liverance; and a mouster, worse than the fabled Cerberus, kept watch over us. The tiger had laid himself down beside his whelps, He was a beau tiful animal, of great size and sttength, ‘and his limbs being stretched out at their full length, displayed his im mense power of muscle. A double row of great teeth stood far enough apart to show his large red tongue, from which the white foam fell in large drops. All at once another roar | was heard at a distance, and the ti ger immediately rose and answered it with-a mournful howl. At the same instant, our Indians uttered a shriek, which amnounced that some new dangers threatened us. A few moments confirmed our worst fears, for another-tiger, aot quite so large as | the former, came rapidly towards the spot where we were. ““This enemy will prove more cruel than the other,” said Wharton; ““for this is the female, and she knows no pity for those who deprive her of her ‘young.”’ The howls which the tigress gave, when she liad examined the bodies of her cubs, surpassed every thing of horrible that we had yet heard; and the tiger mingled his mournful cries with her’s. Suddenly her roaring was lowered to a hoarse growling, and we saw her anxiously stretch out her head, extend her wide and smoking | nostrils, and look asif she were deter mined te discover immediately the murderers of her young. Her eyes ‘quickly fell upon us, and she made a spring forward with the intention of penetrating to our place of refuge. Perhaps she might have been ena bled, by her immense strength, to push away the stone, had we not, with all our united power, held it against her. When she found that all her efforts were fruitless, she approached the tiger, who lay, stretched beside his cubs, and he rose and joined in her hollow roarings. They stood to gether for a few moments, as ifin consultation, and then suddenly went off at a rapid pace, and disappeared from our sight. Their howling died away in the distance; and then entire ly ceased. We now began to enter tdain better hopes of vur condition; but Wharton shook his head. Do not flatter yourselves,” said he, ““with the belief that these animals will let us escape out of their sight till they have had * their revenge. The hours we have to live are numbered.” Nevertheless, there still appeared a chance of our rescue, for, to our surprise, we saw both our Indians standing before the entrance, and heard them call to us to seize the only possibility of our yet saving our selves by instant flight, for that the tigers had only gone round the height to seek another inlet to the cave, with which they were no doubt acquaint ed. In the greatest haste the stone was pushed aside, and we stept forth from what we had considered a liv ing grave. Wharton was the last who left it; he was unwilling to lose the double-barrelled gun, & stopped (o take it up: the rest of us thought only | of making our escape. We now heard once more the roaring of tigers, though ata distance; and following the example of our guides, we precipi tately struck into a side path. - From the number of roots and branches of trees with which the storm had strewed our way, and the slipperi ness of the road, our flight was slow and difficult. Wharton, though an active seaman, had a heavy step, and hiad great difficulty in keeping pace with us, and we were often obliged to slacken our own on his account. We had proceeded thus for about a quarter of an hour when we found that our way led along the edge of a rocky cliff, with innumerable fissures. We had just entered upon it, whensud denly the Indians, who were before us, uttered one of their piercing shrieks, and we immediately became aware that the tigers were in pursuit of us. Urged by despair, we rushed towards one of the breaks, or gulfs, | in_our way, over which was thrown a bridge of reeds, that Sprang up and | down at every step, and could be trode with safety by the light foot of the Indians alone. Deep in tbe hollow below rushed an impetuous stream, and a thousand pointed and Jjagged rocks threatened destruction on every side. Lincoln, my huntsman, and thyself, psssed over the chasm in safe ty; but Wharton was still in the mid die of the waving bridge, and endea vouring to steady himself, when both’ the tigers were seen to issue from the adjoining forest; and the moment they descried us, they bounded towards us with dreadful roarings. Meanwhile, Wharton had nearly gained the safe side of the gulf, and we were all clam bering up the rocky cliff except Lincoln, who remained at the reedy bridge to assist his friend to step up on firm ground. Wharton, though the ferocious animals iere close upon him, never lost his courage or presence of mind. As soon as he had gained the edge ofthe cliff, be knelt down, and with his sword divided the fastenngs by which the bridge was attached to the rock. He expected that an effectual barrier would thus be put to the farther progress of our pursuers; but he was mistaken; for he had scarcely accomplished his task, when the tigress, without a moment’s pause, rushed towards the chasm, g ~attempted to bound over it. It wagy fearful sight to see the mighty aniny: ° fi suspended for a moment, inthe:, above the abyss; but the scene passew like a flash of lightning. Her strength - was not equal to the distance: she feii “into the gulf, and before she reached the bottom, she was torn into a thous* sand pieces by the jagged points of the rocks. Her fate did not in the least dismay her companion; he followed her with an immense spring, and reached the cpposite side, but only with his fore claws; and thus he clung to the edge of the precipice, endeavor ing to gain a footing. The Indians again uttered a wild shriek, as if ali who hope had been lost. But Wharton, was nearest the edge of the precipice, advanced courageously towards the fi ger, and struck his sword into the animal’s breast, collected all hig’ strength, and with a violent effort, fixe ing one of his hind legs upon the edge of -the cliff, he seized Wharton by the” thigh. That heroic man still pre<* served his fortitude; he grasped the trunk of a tree with his left hand, to steady and support himself, whilg’ - with his right he reached, and vio= lently turned the sword that was stilf - in the breast of the tiger. All this was the work of awinstant. The In dians, Frank, and myself, hastened to- his assistance, but Lincoln, who was already at his side, had seized Wharton’s gun, which lay near upon the ground, andstruck so poweiful & blow with the but end upon the head of the tiger, that the animal] stunned and overpowered, let go his hold, and, fell back into the abyss. Al would have been well had it ended thus; but the unfortunate Lincoln had not calculated upon the force of his blow; he staggered forward, .reeled upon - the edge of the precipice, extended his hand to seize upon any thing to save himself—but invain. His foot slipp ed: foran snstant he hovered over the gulf, and then was plunged into it-to rise no more!— Edinburgh Literary Jowrnal, 'lFrom the morning Courier ANECDOTE OF AN EAGLE.! A boatman, while engaged in con veying salt on the Onondaga Lake, a ‘ few years since, saw a large grey eagle. cutting his gyrations in the air, appar ‘ently noticing some prey in the lake ‘beneath. In a moment he poised, ‘and darted from his altitude into the water, from which he.wass unable to rise. A continued flapping wdth his broad and extended pinions kept him from” being drawn under, and proved that his diamond eyes had not mistak en their object. He approached the land slowly, the unknown creature be~ low acting as propellant’ and helms man. The hoatman giew interested in the affair and landed. The eagle, on touching terra firma, showed him self fastened to a fine salmon. OQur hero, thinking it time to take his share of the plunder, cut himself a stout cudgel, and approached the imperial bird of Jove; which, having his talons fast, was unable to rise, advance or recede. - Three times was the ¢lub raised to strike, but the noble beare ing of the regal bird, and his undaunt ed front, made even the boatman quail.’ He could not assault imprisoned majesty. The eagle exhibited no signs of fear, but occasionally nibbled the gills of his prize, and indignantly glanced at the intrusive boatman. At length the talons of one leg became released, and by a dexterous turn, those of the other, when he soared a way to his thunder clouds onhigh, leaving the much .coveted salmon to the boatman, who, on weighing ity found it tv balance 26 pounds. CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAG Eg An Irish soldier onve waited on his commanding officer, with what he temssd a very serious complaint. “Another man,” he said, “had up« braided him that _he was not married to his own wife, whom he accused of , being no better than she should be, and called her many bad names be~ sides, which he would be ashamed to mention to his honor.”—Colonel. — “Well, my good fellow, have you any proof that you are legally married” Soldier.—Faith, your honour, I have the best proaf in the world.” Here he took off his hat, or rather cap, and exhibited a . cut skall, saying, “Does; your honour think I’d be after taking: the same abuse from any hody but a. wife?”? > CHEROKEY. CONSTITUTION, Printed in both languages in paralley: columns, for sale at this Office,, :
