The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Margaret Chandler/The Treaty of Penn.

The Treaty of Penn.
INDIAN CHIEF.

Art thou chief of the white men that crowd on the strand? No broad gleaming sword flashes bright in thy hand— No plume, proudly waving, sits light on thy brow— Nor with hate and contempt does thine eye darkly glow. I have seen the white chieftains, but proudly they stood; Though they call'd us their brethren, they thirst for our blood: With the peace-belt of wampum they stretch'd forth one hand, With the other they wielded the death-doing brand. On their lip was the calumet—war on their brow; But thine scowls not with hatred—a chieftain art thou?—

PENN.

My brethren are those whom thou see'st on the strand, My friends, whom I govern with fatherly hand; We worship the spirit who rules from above, Our watchword is peace, and our motto is love. We fight not, we war not, for life or for land, And the weapons of death never darken our hand. The land that in purchase ye cheerfully give, Will we, for our friends and our brethren, receive; But we will not deprive you, by force or by fraud, Of the land that yourselves and your fathers have trod.

CHIEF.

Then deep be the tomahawk buried from sight; The peace-tree shall bloom where it slumbers in night. We will bury from sight and from mem'ry the dead; We will plant o'er the spot where their blood has been shed; O'er their grave shall the green maize its tassels expand:— But whether the white men by force wrest our land, Or whether they win it in war or in peace, Our hunting grounds narrow, our tribes still decrease.

PENN.

O'er the land that I purchase ye freely may rove; We will dwell in the spirit of brotherly love— By mutual kindness we both shall be blest, Your wrongs, as the white man's, be promptly redrest. We will teach you with justice, our knowledge impart, And teach you each useful and civilized art. We extend you, in truth and in friendship, our hand, We will turn to the plough-share the death-dealing brand. One hand hath created the white man and red; One spirit we worship, though different our creed; And that God who looks down on our acts from above, Still conceals in dark frowns the fair face of his love From the land that is darken'd with bloodshed and rage, Where brethren with brethren in battle engage.

CHIEF.

We have listen'd, my father, your peaceable talk; In the path you have chosen we cheerfully walk. The white men have wrong'd us, have crimson'd our plains, Where our forefathers sleep, with the blood of our veins. Of those plains they have reft us, the fairest and best, And have forced us to seek other homes in the west; Through the wilds of the forest to follow the chase, Till brambles have choked up the pathway of peace. Yet as still we receded our heroes were slain, Our wives and our children lie dead on the plain. Then we dug from the earth the fell hatchet of war, While our whoop of destruction was heard from afar. We rush'd on our foemen, we fought and we bled, But our arms with the blood of the white men were red; Yet, father, the red man delights not in war, And thy words shall the spring-time of friendship restore. Now again we will bury the hatchet, again We will burnish the links of our amity's chain. We will root out the weeds from the path of our peace, And all hatred and battle betwixt us shall cease.

MIDNIGHT.

How solemn is the silence of this hour! The world is hush'd! all nature lies in sleep— Save where rude jollity upholds her power, Or wearied wretches waken but to weep. Strange contrast! that there revelry should keep Her wassail wild amid the gloom of night, And here, her thorny couch pale sorrow steep With bitter tears, and strain her aching sight, To catch the first pale streak that ushers in the light.

E'en now perchance some widow'd mother hangs, In hopeless anguish, o'er her dying child, And marks with bursting heart its parting pangs, Or covers its pale lips with kisses wild; While memory tells how oft it has beguiled Of half its loneliness her dreary heart— And when in its bright joyousness it smiled, Albeit within her eye the tear might start, She knew not, could not know, that they so soon must part.

Its closing eye is faintly turn'd on her, Its breath comes thickly, and the dews of death Are on its forehead—one convulsive stir— One half-form'd smile to speed the parting breath— Then all is past—and gazing on that scathe Of all her hopes—in tearless agony, The mother stands, until awakening faith Points out another world—a hope on high— And fast her feelings gush in torrents to her eye!

But this is fancy—for no sound is near, Of joy or sadness—all around is still! Not e'en the night-bird's voice salutes mine ear, Nor the faint murmur of the distant rill— The very winds are hush'd—and on the hill The trees are motionless—the whisp'ring sigh, That lingers where the blast was piping shrill, Moves not the branches as it passes by, Nor lifts the bending leaves that on the waters lie.

The deep blue heaven with clust'ring stars is bright, And in the midst the moon, sublimely fair, Sheds o'er the fleecy clouds her silvery light, That in bright wreaths are floating lightly there, Like snow-flakes scattered o'er the silent air. And coldly still that moon's pale lustre lies, Alike on haunts of misery and despair; And where the sounds of wassail joy arise, Disturbing with rude mirth the quiet of the skies.

The earth is slumbering! but I will not sleep, For I do love to gaze on yon bright sky, And all those countless orbs, that seem to keep Their nightly ward so silently on high— My heart may swell, but 't is not with the sigh Of painful feeling—nor does aught of woe Awake the tear-drop in my moisten'd eye; But unexpress'd emotion, and the glow Of all the crowding thoughts, that round my bosom flow.