CHAPTER II

“Those well seene natives in grave Nature’s hests. All close designs conceal in their deep brests.”

—-- Morrell

IT WOULD BE highly improper any longer to keep our readers in ignorance of the cause of our heroine’s apparent aberration from the line of strict propriety. After her conversation with Everell, in which we must infer, from its effect on his mind, that she manifested less art than zeal in her friend’s cause, she was retiring to her own apartment, when on passing through the hall, she saw an Indian woman standing there, requesting the servant who had admitted her, “to ask the young ladies of the house if they would look at some rare moccasins.”

Miss Leslie was arrested by the uncommon sweetness of the stranger’s voice; and fixing her eye on her, she was struck with the singular dignity and grace of her demeanor, a ce rtain air indicating an “inborn royalty of soul,” that even the ugly envelope of a blanket did not conceal.

The stranger seemed equally interested in Miss Leslie’s appearance, and fixing her eye intently on her — “Pray try my moccasins, lady,” she said earnestly.

“Oh, certainly, I should of all things like to buy a pair of you,” said Hope, and advancing, she was taking them from her shoulder, over which they were slung, when she, ascertaining by a quick glance that the servant had disappeared, gently repressed Miss Leslie’s hand, saying at the same time, “Tell me thy name, lady.”

“My name! — Hope Leslie. But who art thou?” Hope asked in return,

1 82

Hope Leslie

in a voice rendered almost inarticulate by the thought that flashed into her mind.

The stranger cast down her eyes, and for an half instant hesitated, then looking apprehensively around, she said, in low distinct accents, “Hope Leslie — I am Magawisca.”

“Magawisca!” echoed Hope. “Oh, Everell!” and she sprang towards the parlour door to summon Everell.

“Silence — stay,” cried Magawisca, with a vehement gesture, and at the same time turning to escape should Hope prosecute her intention.

Hope perceived this, and again approached her. “It cannot then be Magawisca,” she said, and she trembled as she spoke, with doubts, hopes, and fears.

Magawisca might have at once identifed herself, by opening her blanket, and disclosing her person; but that she did not, no one will wonder who knows that a savage feels more even than ordinary sensibility at personal deformity. She took from her bosom a necklace of hair and gold entwined together. “Dost thou know this?” she asked. “Is it not like that thou wearest?”

Hope grasped it, pressed it to her lips, and answered by exclaiming passionately — “My sister! my sister!”

“Yes — it is a token from thy sister. Listen to me, Hope Leslie — my time is brief — I may not stay here another moment! but come to me this evening at nine o’clock at the burial place, a little beyond the clump of pines, and I will give thee tidings of thy sister; keep what I say in thine own bosom; tell no one thou hast seen me; come alone, and fear not.”

“Oh, I have no fear,” exclaimed Hope, vehemently, “but tell me — tell me.”

Magawisca put her finger on her lips in token of silence, for at this instant the door was again opened; not by the servant who had before appeared, but by Jennet. Magawisca instantly recognised her, and turned as if in the act of departing.

Time had indeed wrought little change on Jennet, save imparting a shriller squeak to her doleful voice, and a keener edge to her sharp features. “Madam Winthrop,” she said, “is engaged now, but says you may call some other time with your moccasins; and I would advise you to let

183

Hope Leslie

it be any other than the fag end of a Saturday; a wrong season for temporalities.”

While Jennet was uttering this superfluous counsel, Hope sprang off the steps after Magawisca, anxious for some farther light on her dawning expectations. “Stay, oh stay,” she said, “one moment, and let me try your moccasins.”

At the same instant Mrs. Grafton appeared from the back parlour, evidently in a great flurry. “Here, you Indian woman,” she screamed, “let me see your moccasins.”

Thus beset, Magawisca was constrained to retrace her steps, and confront the danger of discovery. She drew her blanket closer over her head and face, and re-ascending the steps, threw her moccasins on the floor, and cautiously averted her face from the light. It was too evident to her, that Jennet had some glimmering recollections; for while she affected to busy herself with the moccasins, she turned her inquisitorial gray eye towards her, with a look of sharp scrutiny. Once Magawisca with a move- ment of involuntary disdain returned her glance. Jennet dropped the moccasins as suddenly as if she had received a blow, hemmed as if she w ere choking, and put her hand on the nob of the parlour door.

“Oh,” thought Magawisca, “I am lost!” but Jennet, confused by her misty recollections, relinquished her purpose, whatever it was, and re- turned to the examination of the moccasins. In the meanw hile Hope stood behind her aunt and Jennet; her hands clasped, and her beautiful eyes bent on Magawisca with a supplicating inquiry. -

Mrs. Grafton, as usual, was intent on her traffic. “It was odd enough of Madam Winthrop,” she said, “not to let me know these moccasins were here; she knew I wanted them; at least she must know' I might w ant them; and if I don’t want them, that’s nothing to the purpose. I like to look at every thing that’s going. It is a diversion to the mind. A neat article,” she continued, “I should like you to have a pair, Hope. Sir Philip said yesterday, they gave a trig look to a pretty foot and ankle. How much does she ask for them?”

“I do not know,” replied Hope.

“Do not know! that’s peculiar of you, Hope Leslie; you never inquire the price of any thing. I dare say, Tawney expects enough for them to buy all the glass beads in Boston. Ha, Tawney?”

184

Hope Leslie

Mrs. Grafton now, for the first time, turned from the articles to their possessor: she was struck with an air of graceful haughtiness in her demeanor, strongly contrasting with the submiss, dejected deportment of the natives whom she was in the habit of seeing, and dropping the moccasins and turning to Hope, she whispered — “Best buy a pair, dearie — by all means buy a pair — pay her any thing she asks — best keep peace with them, ‘never affront dogs, nor Indians.’”

Hope wanted no urging, but anxious to get rid of the witnesses that embarrassed her, and quick of invention, she directed Jennet to go for her purse, “which she would find in a certain basket, or drawer, or some where else;” and reminded her aunt that she had promised to call in at Mrs. Cotton’s, on her way to lecture, to look at her hyacinths, and that she had no time to lose.

Jennet obeyed, and Mrs. Grafton said, “that’s true, and it’s thoughtful of you to think of it, Hope; but,” she added, lowering her voice, “I would not like to leave you alone, so I’ll just open the parlour door.”

Before Hope could intercept her, she set the door ajar, and through the aperture Magawisca had a perfect view of Everell, who was sitting musing in the window seat. An involuntary exclamation burst from her lips; and then shuddering at this exposure of her feelings, she hastily gathered together the moccasins that were strewn over the floor, dropped a pair at Hope’s feet, and darted away.

Hope had heard the exclamation and understood it. Mrs. Grafton heard it without understanding it, and followed Magawisca to the door, calling after her — “Do stay and take a little something; Madam Winthrop has always a bone to give away. Ah! you might as well call after the wind; she has already turned the comer. Heaven send she may not bear malice against us! What do you think, Hope?” Mrs. Grafton turned to appeal to her niece, but she, foreseeing endless interrogatories, had made good her retreat, and escaped to her own apartment.

Jennet, however, came to the good lady’s relief; listened to all her conjectures and apprehensions, and reciprocated her own.

Jennet could not say what it was in the woman, but she had the strangest feeling all the time she was there; a mysterious beating of her heart that she could not account for; as to her disappearing so suddenly, that she did not think much of; the foresters were always impatient to get

18 5

Hope Leslie

to their haunts; they were like the “wild ass,” that the scripture saith, “scorneth the multitude of a city.”

But we leave Mrs. Grafton and Jennet to their unedifying conference, to follow our heroine to the privacy of her own apartment. There, in the first rush of her newly awakened feelings, till then repressed, she wept like a child, and repeated again and again, “Oh, my sister! my sister!” Her mind was in a tumult; she knew not what to believe — what to expect — what to hope.

But accustomed to diffuse over every anticipation the sunny hue of her own happy temperament, she flattered herself that she should even that night meet her sister — that she would be for ever restored to her — that the chord, severed by the cruel disaster at Bethel, would be refolded about their hearts. She had but a brief space to compose herself, and that was passed in fervent supplications for the blessing of God upon her hopes. She must go to the lecture, and after that trust to her ingenuity to escape to the rendezvous. The thought of danger or exposure never entered her mind, for she was not addicted to fear; and as she reflected on the voice and deportment of the stranger, she was convinced she could be none other than Magawisca, the heroine of EverelPs imagination, whom he had taught her to believe, was one of those, who,

“Without arte’s bright lampe, by nature’s eye,

Keep just promise, and love equitie.”

Almost as impatient to go to the lecture, as she was afterwards to escape from it, (we trust our readers have absolved her for her apparent indecorum in the sanctuary,) she had tied and untied her hat twenty times before she heard the ringing of the bell for the assembling of the congrega- tion. She refused, as has been seen, the escort of Everell, for she dared not expose to him, emotions which she could not explain.

After the various detentions, which have been already detailed, she arrived at the appointed rendezvous, and there saw Magawisca, and Magawisca alone, kneeling before an upright stake, planted at one end of a grave. She appeared occupied in delineating a figure on the stake, with a small implement she held in her hand, which she dipped in a shell placed on the ground beside her.

186

Hope Leslie

Hope paused with a mingled feeling of disappointment and awe; disappointment that her sister was not there — and awe inspired by the solemnity of the scene before her — the spirit-stirring figure of Magawisca — the duty she was performing — the flickering light— the monumental stones — and the dark shadows that swept over them, as the breeze bowed the tall pines. She drew her mantle, that fluttered in the breeze, close around her, and almost suppressed her breath, that she might not disturb, what she believed to be an act of filial devotion.

Magawisca was not unconscious of Miss Leslie’s approach; but she deemed the office in which she was engaged, too sacred to be interrupted. She accompanied the movement of her hand with a low chant in her native tongue; and so sweet and varied were the tones of her voice, that it seemed to Hope they might have been breathed by an invisible spirit.

When she had finished her work, she leaned her head for a moment against the stake, and then rose and turned to Miss Leslie; a moonbeam shot across her face; it was wet with tears, but she spoke in a tranquil voice. “You have come — and alone?” she said, casting a searching glance around her.

“I promised to come alone,” replied Hope.

“Yes — and I trusted you; and I will trust you further, for the good deed you did Nelema.”

“Nelema then lived to reach you?”

“She did — wasted, faint, and dying, she crawled into my father’s wigwam. She had but scant time, and short breath; with that she cursed your race, and she blessed you, Hope Leslie; her day was ended — the hand of death pressed her throat, and even then she made me swear to perform her promise to you.”

“And you will, Magawisca,” cried Hope, impetuously; “you will give me back my sister.”

“Nay, that she never promised — that I cannot do. I cannot send hacfe” the bird that has mated to its parent nest; the stream that has mingled witfy other waters to its fountain.”

“Oh, do not speak to me in these dark sayings,” replied Hope; her smooth brow contracting with impatience and apprehension, and her hurried manner and convulsed countenance contrasting strongly with the calmness of Magawisca; “what is it you mean? — where is my sister?”

l8j

Hope Leslie

“She is safe — she is near to you — and you shall see her, Hope Leslie.”

“But when? — and where, Magawisca? Oh, if I could once clasp her in my arms, she never should leave me — she never should be tom from me again.”

“Those arms,” said Magawisca, with a faint smile, “could no more retain thy sister, than a spider’s web. The lily of the Maqua’s 2 valley, will never again make the English garden sweet.”

“Speak plainer to me,” cried Hope, in a voice of entreaty that could

not be resisted. “Is my sister?” she paused, for her quivering lips

could not pronounce the words that rose to them.

Magawisca understood her, and replied. “Yes, Hope Lesli e, j hv si ster j s mar ried to Oneco.”

“God forbid!” exclaimed Hope, shuddering as if a knife had been plunged in her bosom. “My sister married to an Indian!”

“An Indian!” exclaimed Magawisca, recoiling with a look of proud contempt, that showed she reciprocated with full measure, the scorn expressed for her race. “Yes — an Indian, in whose veins runs the blood of the strongest, the fleetest of the children of the forest, w ho never turned their backs on friends or enemies, and whose souls have returned to the Great Spirit, stainless as they came from him. Think ye that your blood will be corrupted by mingling with this stream?”

Long before Magawisca ceased to pour out her indignation, Hope’s first emotion had given place to a burst of tears; she wept aloud, and her broken utterance of, “Oh, my sister! my sister! — My dear mother!” emitted but imperfect glimpses of the ruined hopes, the bitter feelings that oppressed her.

There was a chord in Magawisca’s heart, that needed but the touch of tenderness to respond in harmony; her pride vanished, and her indignation gave place to sympathy. She said in a low r soothing voice — “Now do not weep thus; your sister is well with us. She is cherished as the bird cherishes her young. The cold winds may not blow on her, nor the fierce sun scorch her; nor a harsh sound ever be spoken to her; she is dear to Mononotto as if his own blood ran in her veins; and Oneco — Oneco worships and sen es her as if all good spirits dwelt in her. Oh, she is indeed w r ell with us.”

“There lies my mother,” cried Hope, without seeming to have heard

1 88

Hope Leslie

Magawisca’s consolations, “she lost her life in bringing her children to this wild world, to secure them in the fold of Christ. Oh God! restore my sister to the Christian family.”

“And here,” said Magawisca, in a voice of deep pathos, “here is my mother’s grave; think ye not that the Great Spirit looks down on these sacred spots, where the good and the peaceful rest, with an equal eye; think ye not their children are His children, whether they are gathered in yonder temple where your people worship, or bow to Him beneath the green boughs of the forest?”

There was certainly something thrilling in Magawisca’s faith, and she now succeeded in riveting Hope’s attention. “Listen to me,” she said; “your sister is of what you call the Christian family. I believe ye have many names in that family. She hath been signed with the cross by a holy fathe r

frgrri.Epance; she bows to the crucifix.”

(i

“Thank God!” exclaimed Hope fervently, for she thought that any Christian faith was better than none.

“Perhaps ye are right,” said Magawisca, as if she read Hope’s heart; “there may be those that need other lights; but to me, the Great Spirit is visible in the life-creating sun. I perceive Him in the gentle light of the moon that steals in through the forest boughs. I feel Him here,” she continued, pressing her hand on her breast, while her face glowed with the enthusiasm of devotion. “I feel Him in these ever-living, ever-wakeful thoughts — but we waste time. You must see your sister.”

“When, and where?” again demanded Hope.

“Before 1 answer you, you must promise me by this sign,” and She, pointed to the emblem of her. tribe, an eagle, which she had rudely) delineated on the post, that served as a head-stone to her mother’s grave; <l you must promise me by the right host of Heaven, that the door of your lips shall be fast; that none shall know that you have seen me, or are to se^ me again.”

“1 promise,” said Hope, with her characteristic precipitancy.

“Then, when five suns have risen and set, I will return with your sister. But hush,” she said, suddenly stopping, and turning a suspicious eye towards the thicket of evergreens.

“It was but the wind,” said Hope, rightly interpreting Magawisca’s quick glance, and the slight inclination of her head.

189

Hope Leslie

“You would not betray me?” said Magawisca, in a voice of mingled assurance and inquiry. “Oh, more than ever entered into thy young thoughts, hangs upon my safety.”

“But why any fear for your safety? why not come openly among us? I will get the word of our good Governor, that you shall come and go in peace. No one ever feared to trust his word.”

“You know not what you ask.”

“Indeed I do — but you, Magawisca, know not what you refuse — and why refuse? are you afraid of being treated like a recovered prisoner? Oh no! every one will delight to honour you, for your very name is dear to all Mr. Fletcher’s friends — most dear to Everell.”

“Dear to Everell Fletcher! Does he remember me? Is there a place in his heart for an Indian?” she demanded, with a blended expression of pride and melancholy.

“Yes — yes, Magawisca — indeed is there,” replied Hope, for now she thought she had touched the right key. “It was but this morning, that he said he had a mind to take an Indian guide, and seek you out among the Maquas.” Magawisca hid her face in the folds of her mande, and Hope proceeded with increasing earnestness. “There is nothing in the wide world, there is nothing that Everell thinks so good, and so noble as you. Oh, if you could but have seen his joy, w r hen after your parting on that horrid rock, he first heard you was living. He has described you so often and so truly, that the moment I saw you, and heard your voice, I said to myself, ‘this is surely EverelPs Magawisca.’”

“Say no more, Hope Leslie — say no more,” exclaimed Magawisca, throwing back the envelope from her face, as if she were ashamed to shelter emotions she ought not to indulge. “I have promised my father — I have repeated the vow here on my mother’s grave, and if I were to go back from it, those bright witnesses,” she pointed to the heavens, “w ould break their silence. Do not speak to me again of Everell Fletcher.”

“Oh, yes — once again, Magawisca; if you will not listen to me, if you will but give me this brief, mysterious meeting with my poor sister, at least let Everell be with me; for his sake — for my sake — for your own sake, do not refuse me.”

Magawisca looked on Hope’s glowing face for a moment, and then shook her head with a melancholy smile. “They tell me,” she said, “that no

190

Hope Leslie

one can look on you and deny you aught; that you can make old men’s hearts soft, and mould them at your will; but I have learned to deny even the cravings of my own heart; to pursue my purpose like the bird that keeps her wing stretched to the toilsome flight, though the sweetest note of her mate recalls her to the nest. “But ah! I do but boast,” she continued, casting her eyes to the ground. “I may not trust myself; that was a childish scream, that escaped me when 1 saw Everell; had my father heard it, his cheek would have been pale with shame. No, Hope Leslie, 1 may not listen to thee. You must come alone to the meeting, or never meet your sister — will you come?”

Hope saw in the determined manner of Magawisca, that there was no alternative but to accept the boon on her own terms, and she no longer withheld her compliance. The basis of their treaty being settled, the next point to be arranged, was 'the place" oFineeting. Magawisca had no objec- tions to venture again within the town; but then it would be necessary to completely disguise Faith Leslie; and she hinted that she understood enough of Hope’s English feelings, to know that she would wish to see her sister with the p ure tint of her natural co mplexion.

Hope had too much delicacy, and too much feeling, even inadver- tently to appear to lay much stress on this point; but the experience of the evening made her feel the difficulty of arranging a meeting, surrounded as she was by vigilant friends, and within the sphere of their observation. Suddenly it occurred to her, that Digby, her fast friend, and on more than one occasion her trusty ally, had the superintendence of the Governor’s garden, on an island in the harbor, and within three miles of the town. The Governor’s family were in the habit of resorting thither frequently. Digby had a small habitation there, of which he and his family were the only tenants, and indeed were the only persons who dwelt on the island. Hope was certain of permission to pass a night there, where she might indulge in an interview with her sister of any length, without hazard of interruption; and having explained her plan to Magawisca, it received her ready and full acquiescence.

Before they separated, Hope said, “you will allow me, Magawisca, to persuade my sister, if I can, to remain with me.”

“Oh yes — if you can — but do not hope to persuade her. She and my brother are as if one life-chord bound them together; and besides, your

191

Hope Leslie

sister cannot speak to you and understand you as I do. She was very young when she was taken where she has only heard the Indian tongue ; some, you know^are like, water ,..that_r.etains no mark; and others, like the flintv rock, that ne ver l oses a mark.” Magawisca observed Hope’s look of disappoint- ment; and in a voice of pity, she added, “your sister hath a face that speaketh plainly, what the tongue should never speak, her own goodness.”

When these two romantic females had concerted every measure they deemed essential to the certainty and privacy of their meeting, Magawisca bowed her head, and kissed the border of Hope’s shawl, with the reverent delicacy of an oriental salutation; she then took from beneath her mantle some fragrant herbs, and strewed them over her mother’s grave, then prostrated heself in deep and silent devotion, feeling (as others have felt on earth thus consecrated) as if the clods she pressed were instinct with life. When this last act of filial love was done, she rose, muffled herself closely in her dark mantle, and departed.

Hope lingered for a moment. “Mysteriously,” she said, as her eye 'followed the noble figure of Magawisca, till it w as lost in the surrounding (darkness, “mysteriously have our destinies been interw r oven. Our mothers brought from a far distance to rest together here — their children con- (nected in indissoluble bonds!”

But Hope was soon aware that this was no time for solitary medita- tion. In the interest of her interview with Magawisca, she had been heedless of the gathering storm. The clouds rolled over the moon sud- denly, like the unfurling of a banner, and the rain poured down in torrents. Hope had no light to guide her, but occasional flashes of lightning, and the candle, whose little beam proceeding from Mr. Cotton’s study window, pierced the dense sheet of rain.

Hope hurried her steps homewards, and as she passed the knot of evergreens, she fancied she heard a rattling of the boughs, as if there w ere some struggling within, and a suppressed voice saying, “hist — whish.” She paused, and with a resolute step, turned towards the thicket; “we have been overheard,” she thought, “this generous creature shall not be be- trayed.” At this instant a thunder-bolt burst over her head, and the w hole earth seemed kindled with one bright illumination. She was terrihed, and, perhaps, as much convinced by her fears, as her reason, that it was both imprudent, and useless, to make any further investigation, she again bent

192

Hope Leslie

her quick steps towards home. She had scarcely surmounted the fence, which she passed more like a winged spirit, than a fine lady, when Sir Philip Gardiner joined her.

“Miss Leslie!” he exclaimed, as a flash of lightning revealed her person. “Now, thanks to my good stars, that 1 am so fortunate as to meet you; suffer me to wrap my cloak about you; you will be drenched with this pitiless rain.”

“Oh no, no,” she said, “the cloak will but encumber me. I am already drenched, and I shall be at home directly,” and she would have left him, but he caught her arm, and gently detained her, while he enveloped her in his cloak.

“It should not be a trifle. Miss Leslie, that has kept you out regardless of this gathering storm,” Sir Philip said inquiringly. Miss Leslie made no reply, and he proceeded. “You may have forgotten it is Saturday night — or, perhaps, you have a dispensation.”

“Neither,” replied Hope.

“Neither! then 1 am sure you are abroad in some godly cause, for you need to be one of the righteous, who, we are told, are as bold as a lion, to confront the Governor’s family after trespassing on holy time.”

“1 have no fears,” said Hope.

“No fears! that is a rare exemption, for a young lady; but I would that you possessed one still more rare; she who is incapable of fear, should never be exposed to danger; and if 1 had a charmed shield, I would devote my life to sheltering you from all harm — may not — may not love be such an one?”

“It’s useless talking. Sir Philip,” replied Hope; if that could be deemed a reply, which seemed to have rather an indirect relation to the previous address. “It is useless talking in this rattling storm, your words drop to the ground with the hail-stones.”

“And every word you utter,” said the knight, biting his lips with vexation, “not only penetrates my ear, but sinks into my heart; therefore, I pray you to be merciful, and do not make my heart heavy.”

“The hail stones melt as they touch the ground, and my words pass away as soon, I fancy,” said Hope, with the most provoking nonchalance.

Sir Philip had no time to reply; they were just turning into the court in front of Governor Winthrop’s house, when a flash of lightning, so vivid

193

Hope Leslie

that its glare almost blinded them, disclosed the figure of the mysterious page leaning against the gate-post, his head inclined forw ard, as if in the act of listening, his cap in his hand, his dark curls in w ild disorder over his face ^and neck, and he apparently unconscious of the storm. They both re- coiled — Hope uttered an exclamation of pity. “Ha, Roslin!” burst in a tone of severe reproach from Sir Philip; but instantly changing it for one of kindness, he added, “you should not have waited for me, boy, in such a storm.”

“I cared not for the storm — I did not feel it,” replied the lad, in a penetrating voice, which recalled to Miss Leslie all he had said to her, and induced her to check her first impulse to bid him in; she therefore passed him without any further notice, ascended the steps, and as has been related in the preceding chapter, met Everell in the hall.

IT IS NECESSSARY to state briefly to our readers, some particulars in relation to the re-appearance of Magawisca, w hich events have not as yet explained.

Her father, from the hour of his expulsion from his owti dominion, had constantly meditated revenge. His appetite w as not sated at Bethel — that massacre seemed to him but a retaliation for his private wrongs. The catastrophe on the sacrifice-rock disordered his reason for a time; and the Indians, who perceived something extraordinary in the energy of his unwavering and undivided purpose, never believed it to be perfecdy restored. But this, so far from impairing their confidence, converted it to ^implicit deference, for, they, in common w ith certain oriental nat ions, , believe that an insaneperson is inspired; that the Divinity takes possession of the temple which the spirit of the man has abandoned. Whatever Mononotto predicted, was believed — whatever he ordered, was done.

He felt that Oneco’s volatile unimpressive character was unfit for his purpose, and he permitted him to pursue without intermission, his own pleasure — to hunt and fish for his ‘w hite bird,’ as he called the litde Leslie.

t agawisca was the constant companion of her father; susceptible and nplative, she soon imbibed his melancholy, and became as obedient impulse of his spirit, as the most faithful are to the fancied intima- >f the Divinity. Shewas. thepri es tesspft he oracle. Her tenderness for

194

Hope Leslie

Everell, and her grateful recollections of his lovely mother, she determined to sacrifice on the altar of national duty.

In the years 1642 and 1643 there was a general movement among the Indians. Terrible massacres were perpetrated in the English settlements in Virginia; the Dutch establishments in New- York were invaded, and rumours of secret and brooding hostility kept the colonies of New- England in a state of perpetual alarm. Mononotto determined to avail himself of this crisis, that appeared so favourable to his design, of uniting all the tribes of New-England in one powerful combination. He first applied to Miantunnomoh, hoping by his personal influence to persuade that powerful and crafty chief to sacrifice to the general good, his private feud with Uncas, the chief of the Mohegans.

Mononotto eloquently pressed these arguments, which, as is allowed by the historian of the Indian wars, “seemed to right reason, not only pregnant to the purpose, but also most cogent and invincible,” 3 and for a time, they prevailed over the mind of Miantunnomoh.

Vague rumours of conspiracy reached Boston; and the Governor summoned Miantunnomoh to appear before his court, and abide an ex- amination there. The chief accordingly, (as has been seen) came to Boston; but so artfully did he manage his cause, as to screen from the English every just ground of offence. Their suspicions, however, were not removed; for Hubbard says, “though his words were smoother than oil, yet many conceived in his heart were drawn swords.” 4

It may appear strange, that while prosecuting so hazardous and delicate an enterprise, Mononotto should have encumbered himself with his family. Magawisca was necessary to him; and he submitted to be accompanied by Oneco and his bride, from respect to the dying declara- tion of Nelema, that his plans could never be accomplished till her promise to Hope Leslie had been redeemed — till, as she had sworn to her pre- server, the sisters had met.

Had the Indians been capable of a firm combination, the purpose of Mononotto might have been achieved, and the English have been then driven from the American soil. But the natives were thinly scattered over an immense tract of country — the different tribes divided by petty rivalships, and impassable gulfs of long transmitted hatred. They were

J95

Hope Leslie

brave and strong, but it was brute force without art or arms: they had ingenuity to form, and they did form, artful conspiracies, but their best concerted plans were betrayed by the timid, or the treacherous.

But to return to our individual concerns. Mononotto trusted to his daughter the arrangement of the meeting of the sisters, which from his hav- ing a superstitious notion that it was in some way to influence his political purposes, he was anxious to promote. Magawisca left her companions at an Indian station on the Neponset river, and proceeded herself to Boston, to seek a private interview with Hope Leslie. The appearance of an Indian woman in Boston excited no observation, the natives being in the habit of resorting there daily with game, fish, and their rude manufactures. Aware of the necessity of disguising every peculiarity, she unbound her hair from the braids in which it was usually confined, and combed it thick over her forehead, after the fashion of the aborigines in the vicinity of Boston, whom Eliot describes as wearing this ‘maiden veil.’ She enveloped herself in a blanket that concealed the rich dress which it was her father’s pride, (and perhaps her pleasure) that she should wear. Thus disguised, and favoured by the kind shadows of twilight, she presented herself at Gov- ernor Winthrop’s, and was, as has already appeared, successful in her mission.

196