When all of Middleton's party had embarked, the trapper lifted a small
bundle, which had lain at his feet during the previous proceedings,
and whistling Hector to his side, he was the last to take his seat.
The artillerists gave the usual cheers, which were answered by a shout
from the tribe, and then the boat was shoved into the current, and
began to glide swiftly down its stream.
A long and a musing, if not a melancholy, silence succeeded this
departure. It was first broken by the trapper, whose regret was not
the least visible in his dejected and sorrowful eye--
"They are a valiant and an honest tribe," he said; "that will I say
boldly in their favour; and second only do I take them to be to that
once mighty but now scattered people, the Delawares of the Hills. Ah's
me, Captain, if you had seen as much good and evil as I have seen in
these nations of Red-skins, you would know of how much value was a
brave and simple-minded warrior. I know that some are to be found, who
both think and say that an Indian is but little better than the beasts
of these naked plains.
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