erary career was but an
outgrowth of his own broad, sympathetic, genial nature, interwoven
with the acquirements of the scholar.

Lowell was for a large part of his life Professor of Modern Languages
and Belles-lettres at Harvard. Soon after its beginning he became
editor of the _Atlantic Monthly_, and he also was for a time one of
the editors of the _North American Review_.

Outside of his literary life he was known as a diplomat who served his
country with distinction as minister, successively, to Spain and
to England. Though finding congenial surroundings in foreign lands,
Lowell was always pre-eminently an American; one who, even in his
country's darkest hour, saw promise of her glory, and to whom her
fame was ever the dearest sentiment of his heart. Most of his life was
spent in his old home at Elmwood, where he died in 1892.

CHAPTER XVI

FRANCIS PARKMAN

1823-1893

At twelve o'clock on a summer night, nearly a half century ago, a
young man of twenty-three stood in the shadow of a great Indian camp
watching intently the scene before him. On the farther side of the
camp a number of Indians were gathered about the fire, which threw
into relief their strong, handsome frames, for they were all young
and formed, as they stood there, the hope and ambition of their tribe.
Suddenly a loud chant broke the silence of the night, and at the same
time the young braves began circling around the fire in a grotesque,
irregular kind of dance. The chant was now interrupted by bursts of
sharp yells, and the motions of the dancers, now leaping, now running,
again creeping slyly, suggested the movements of some stealthy animal;
this was, in fact, what was intended, for the young warriors were
the "Strong Hearts" of the Dacotahs, an association composed of the
bravest youths of the tribe, whose _totem_ or tutelary spirit was the
fox, in whose honor they were now celebrating one of their dances.

The stranger, who stood looking on at a little distance away, since
the superstitions of the tribe would not allow him to approach too
near the scene of the solemnities, was Francis Parkman, a Harvard
graduate, who had left civilization for the purpose of studying the
savage form of Indian life face to face.

Parkman was born in Boston in 1823. He was noted as a child who threw
himself body and soul into whatever happened to be the pursuit of the
hour, and thus illustrated even in childhood the most striking feature
of his ch