A TALE OF THE NORTH,
[1830.]
[In 1785, Mr. Alexander Kay, a fur-trader from Montreal, was stabbed by an Indian at Sandy Lake, on the source of the Mississippi. By the kindness and medical skill of a friendly chief, who accompanied him to Michilimackinac, the wound was healed, but suppurated soon after, on his arrival at the Lake of Two Mountains, where he died.]
I cannot tell of monarch wise, Or fame’s loud trumpet swell; But I can tell a simple tale, Which on a time befell.
For long ago, for money’s sake, As well as with us now, Bold men would venture wood and lake, To fill the golden vow.
And forth the voyager he went, With goods of richest dye; And bark that was a sight to see, Far through the northern sky.
And lakes he past, and snows he trod, Where wolves and panthers cry, And nature’s poor, forsaken sons, The Indians, live and die.
He trafficked for a few brief months, For skin of beaver black; And aye he thought with wealth supreme To hie him quickly back.
But still the red man liked him not, For he had wilful ways; And ever, when the night returned, Would burn with passion’s blaze.