ties that he at length consented that Squanto
should seek the savage, and endeavor to draw from him all the
information that he could give respecting Henrich's death. He did so,
and a long conversation took place that evening, the result of which
was that he assured Rodolph that his son had indeed been murdered in
the wood, as he had always supposed, and that his scalp had been torn
off even before life was extinct, whilst his body had been conveyed to
the next encampment, and burned with many heathen rites, to appease the
troubled spirit of Tisquantum's son Tekoa.

The father shuddered, and turned away to hide the rising tear, as he
listened to this harrowing but false account. He, however, fully
believed it; and felt that, henceforth, it would be vain to cherish any
hope concerning his son, except that blessed hope which is the
privilege of the Christian--the sure and certain hope of meeting
hereafter, in the presence of the God and Savior in whom he had taught
his child to place his trust. He said no more; he did not even question
Squanto as to the cause of his having spent so long a time in
conferring with Coubitant, when all the information he had obtained
amounted merely to the sad assurance that his son had suffered a
dreadful death. Had he done so, the interpreter might have found it
difficult to account for his conduct, as he had professed a strong
dislike to Coubitant, and a distrust of all his motives and actions.
The fact was, that the wily savage had discovered Squanto's love of
importance, and his desire to be supposed to possess the confidence of
the white men, and by flattering his vanity, he had drawn from him all
the information he could give with respect to the strength of the
settlers, and their capability of resisting an attack of the natives.
Squanto took care to exaggerate the numbers and the power of his
employers; but still it appeared to Coubitant, that if he could once
more induce the neighboring tribes to combine and invade their
territory, there was every probability of their being utterly
exterminated and nothing short of this could satisfy the feeling of
hatred that he entertained towards the whole race of the strangers. By
way of exalting the might of the settlers in the minds of the native,
Squanto assured Coubitant that the white men kept the plague, of which
the Indians well knew the desolating effects, imprisoned in a cellar,
where they also stowed, their gunpowder, and that they coul