"
"Do not your traditions tell you of the greatest, the bravest, and the
wisest nation of Red-skins that the Wahcondah has ever breathed upon?"
Hard-Heart raised his head, with a loftiness and dignity that even his
bonds could not repress, as he answered--
"Has age blinded my father; or does he see so many Siouxes, that he
believes there are no longer any Pawnees?"
"Ah! such is mortal vanity and pride!" exclaimed the disappointed old
man, in English. "Natur' is as strong in a Red-skin, as in the bosom
of a man of white gifts. Now would a Delaware conceit himself far
mightier than a Pawnee, just as a Pawnee boasts himself to be of the
princes of the 'arth. And so it was atween the Frenchers of the
Canadas and the red-coated English, that the king did use to send into
the States, when States they were not, but outcrying and petitioning
provinces, they fou't and they fou't, and what marvellous boastings
did they give forth to the world of their own valour and victories,
while both parties forgot to name the humble soldier of the land, who
did the real service, but who, as he was not privileged then to smoke
at the great council fire of his nation, seldom heard of his deeds,
after they were once bravely done.
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