trunk, and the moisture
has decayed from my roots.

Brothers, I am an aged, a very aged man. I can no longer bend the bow
of my youth, and my tomahawk falls short of its death-mark. But my
ears have been open, and my tongue can repeat to you the traditions of
the valley. Listen to the chief of Onondaga, and believe the words he
will tell you, for he never spoke other than the truth. He never in
youth had a forked tongue, or a faint heart, and why should he bear
them now?

Brothers, the flowers of the prairie have blossomed and faded, and the
leaves of the forest budded and withered, more than fifty times since
the canoes of the white men entered the mouth of the Rapid River. My
tribe was then spread from the lake to the mountain, and the smoke of
their cabins curled over the tops of the hemlocks, from Skeneateles to
Oneida. The Great Spirit was their kind father. He looked into their
wigwams, and saw they were happy. They hunted the fat bear, the
stately moose, and the delicious deer, through wide forests, and
speared the juicy fish of many waters. Their hearts were very stout,
and their arms were very long. In war, who were so brave as the
Onondagas?--The scalps of their enemies were strung as thick upon
their belt-girdles as the stars in the path of the Master of Life.
Their wives were good and affectionate, their sons strong and brave,
and their daughters sweet-tempered and beautiful. They were happy, for
they were virtuous, and favoured by the Great Spirit, for they did all
they could to deserve his love.

Brothers, the white man came over the Great Lake, and settled down
upon all the best spots of the land, as the wild-duck lights upon the
lake which contains his favourite food. Soon his brothers joined him,
and, to protect their coward hearts from the red men, they built a
fort at Oswego. To that vile spot they enticed our young men, and our
women, to bring them the spoils of the water and the land--the fish,
venison, and skins--and gave them wampum and the fire-eater in
exchange. When they had swallowed the strong waters of the pale-faces,
they became as beasts, and fell about the earth like trees shivered by
lightnings, or prostrated by the tempest. When they arose from the
earth, it was to quarrel with each other. The ground was wet, and the
waters red, with the blood of Onandagas slain by the hands of their
brothers. They sought the deer, and the bear, and the moose, and the
wolf, no more, or, if they sou