The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

ITS SOURCE AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. my eyes are dim, my limbs totter,- I must soon fall! But when young and sturdy; when my bow,- no young man of the Pennacooks could bend it, when my arrows would pierce a deer at a hundred yards, and I could bury my hatchet in a sapling to the eye; no wigwam had so many furs, no pole so many scalp-locks as Passaconnaway's! Then, I delighted in war. The whoop of the Pennacooks was heard upon the Mohawk, and no voice so loud as Passaconnaway's! The scalps upon the pole in my wigwam told the story of Mkohawk suffering! The English came; they seized our lands; I sat me down at Pennacook. They followed upon my footsteps. I made war upon.them, but they fought with fire and thunder; my young men were swept down before me when no one was near them. I tried sorcery against them; but still they increased, and prevailed over me and mine, and I gave place to them and retired to my beautiful island of Natticook. I that can make the dry leaf turn green and live again, - I, that can take the rattlesnake in my palm as I would a worm, without harm, - I, who have had communication with the Great Spirit, dreaming and awake, -. I am powerless before the pale-faces. The oak will soon break before the whirlwind; it shivers and shakes even now; soon its trunk will be prostrate; the ant and the wivorm will sport upon it! Then think, my children, of what I say. I commune with the Great Spirit. Ile whispers me now - "' Tell your people, peace, peace is the only hope of your race. I have given fire and thunder to the pale-faces for weapons. I have made them plentier than the leaves of the forest, and still shall they increase! These meadows they shall turn with the plough; these forests shall fall by the axe; the pale-faces shall live upon yotur hunting-grounds, and make their villages upon your fishingT-places.' Thle Great Spirit says this, and it must be so! We are few and powerless before them! We must bend before the storm! The wind blows hard! The old oak trembles! Its branches are gone! Its sap is frozen! It bends! It falls! Peace, peace with the white men, is the command of the Great Spirit, and the wish- the last wish - of Passaconnaway." Wonnalancet now assumed the chieftaincy, and, though hlie united the wisdom of his father with the virtues of a Christian prince, and uniformly displayed those higher and nobler traits of character 243

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Title
The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.
Author
Meader, J. W.
Canvas
Page 243
Publication
Boston,: B. B. Russell,
1869.
Subject terms
Merrimack River Valley (N.H. and Mass.)
New Hampshire -- Description and travel

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"The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader." In the digital collection Making of America Books. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/afj7467.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 30, 2025.
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