"My brother," said he, "had a cloud before his eyes, when he refused to listen to my counsel. The cloud has now passed away; he now sees clear; he sees that it will be wise to do as we wish. We have come together to listen: my brother can speak."
"I'm afraid we are laboring under some mistake here," replied Ichabod: "as for that business you proposed to me, there's no use in talking about that. It's all well enough for a Seneca to propose it; but it would rather go agin my natur' to accept it. I came here to speak to you about a matter of a great deal more importance than that."
There was a loud murmur of dissatisfaction among the Senecas; and many of them sprang to their feet with the intention of taking vengeance, at once, for this seemingly public insult. Panther, however, immediately restored silence.
"My brother," said he, "is a great warrior; he is cunning as a fox; but he is surrounded by warriors as brave and cunning as himself. We will hear what he has got to say."
"Now, I want to say to you, Panther, and to the rest of you," continued Ichabod, unmoved, "what I said to Deersfoot before I was brought in here, that if you want to put me to tortur', and think that's the best use you can make of me, I've nothing to say agin it, for that's good Injin law; but if you ra'ally want to make the most out of me that you can, then you'll listen to what I've got to say."
He paused for a few moments; but as the Indians remained silent, he took it as a manifestation of their disposition to give him their attention.
"You see," continued he, "that ever since the white men came over the ocean to this country, they've been increasing and growing more powerful, and you've been growing weaker. The people who came over, in the first place, established colonies—they fit the French—they fit the Injins, and finally they had a fight with England for independence; and notwithstanding all their Cornwallis's and Burgoyne's, and the Injins to boot, they got what they fout for. Now, you can see, that there's no use in your keeping up these old-fashioned customs of tomahawking and scalping, and living in the woods, and acting like Injins, more than like white people. If you do, it won't be long before there won't be a red man left in the country. It's rather hard to tell you these things to your faces; but they're facts, as you can see with half an eye. Now there is a way, in which you can not only keep your own, but get the start of the white people, in this territory, to boot. It may be going agin flesh and blood and color to tell such a secret to you, but still, I'm willing to do it."
His auditory, at the first glance, would have seemed to be wholly unmoved at this long introduction; but on a closer view, it would have been seen, that while many of the Senecas shot forth wilder and fiercer glances from behind passionless faces, others seemed moved by a feeling of curiosity to hear the end of this strange exordium. Panther, after a short silence, replied:
"My brother is brave; he is not afraid to speak in the midst of his enemies. It is true that the Injins are weak and the pale-faces are strong. We are dropping like the leaves; and the hunter comes home to his wigwam at night, tired and hungry, and brings but little game. The pale-faces are growing stronger. I have thought of it much. There is a way to make them grow weaker; but that is not the way which appears to the eyes of my brother. His way, I am afraid, is not a good way. He would have us forget that we are Injins. That we cannot do. Tho Great Spirit made us red men; he made us Injins. He placed us in the forests; he gave us tomahawks and knives with which to fight our enemies; and bows and arrows to shoot the bear and deer. We cannot be anything but Injins. Our fathers and grandfathers were Injins; and the little pappoose is an Injin. As soon as he is grown, he takes to the path of his nation. I may speak foolish; but this is what I know. If the white men destroy us, we will die like Injins; if they drive us from our hunting-grounds, we will not go without scalps. We will do as the Great Spirit tells us."
There was a loud expression of satisfaction at this speech of Panther; and he sat down under a deluge of applause, that a little alarmed Snake-tongue for his laurels. He waited with impatience until Ichabod should give him an opportunity to assert his superiority in the way of speech-making. Silence having been again restored, Ichabod continued: