ctorial illustrations of Indian life and scenery with which it
abounds.

Great changes have occurred in late years, in the circumstances and
prospects of the Indian tribes, and neither their number nor condition
can be ascertained with much accuracy. We have endeavoured to make the
present edition as correct as possible, and have omitted some parts of
the original work which seemed irrelevant, or not well authenticated.
We have also made such changes in the phraseology as its republication
in this country requires.

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I

It was on a wild and gusty day, that Austin and Brian Edwards were
returning home from a visit to their uncle, who lived at a distance of
four or five miles from their father's dwelling, when the wind, which
was already high, rose suddenly; and the heavens, which had for some
hours been overclouded, grew darker, with every appearance of an
approaching storm. Brian was for returning back; but to this Austin
would by no means consent. Austin was twelve years of age, and Brian
about two years younger. Their brother Basil, who was not with them,
had hardly completed his sixth year.

The three brothers, though unlike in some things--for Austin was
daring, Brian fearful, and Basil affectionate--very closely resembled
each other in their love of books and wonderful relations. What one
read, the other would read; and what one had learned, the other wished
to know.

Louder and louder blew the wind, and darker grew the sky, and already
had a distant flash and growling thunder announced the coming storm,
when the two brothers arrived at the rocky eminence where, though the
wood was above them, the river rolled nearly a hundred fathoms below.
Some years before, a slip of ground had taken place at no great
distance from the spot, when a mass of earth, amounting to well nigh
half an acre, with the oak trees that grew upon it, slid down, all at
once, towards the river. The rugged rent occasioned by the slip of
earth, the great height of the road above the river, the rude rocks
that here and there presented themselves, and the giant oaks of the
wood frowning on the dangerous path, gave it a character at once
highly picturesque and fearful. Austin, notwithstanding the loud
blustering of the wind, and the remonstrance of his brother to hasten
on, made a momentary pause to