Thus in the summer’s rapture
Life was a peaceful dream;
And when winter fell upon them
The wigwams were serene
With warmth, good cheer and comfort:
The red man loved his home;
From his kindred and his nation
His heart would never roam.
He believed in the Great Spirit;
His subtle soul would thrill
To the voices heard in nature,
That taught the Great Spirit’s will.
Strange, mysterious people!
Who can thy origin trace?
Are ye one of the lost ten tribes
Of Israel’s wandering race?
CHAPTER III.
Awake! awake, Ojibways!
To dream in peace no more,
For there comes a bold invader
From eastward by the shore.
Rowing in swift, strong bateaux,
With strokes both strong and long,
To the cadence of fearless voices
In a gay boatman’s song,
Come full two hundred singers,
In boats, a score or more,
Far o’er the laughing waters,
Skirting the eastern shore.
Who are they, these fearless strangers,
Armed with sword and lance,
With arquebuse and musketoon?
They are fiery sons of France,
Exploring the boundless forests,
Locating rivers and seas;
Ignoring the red man’s title,
Coming his rights to seize.
Ha! they spy the eastern outlet
That leads to the lagoon,
Far across the teeming marshlands,
The domain of teal and loon.
They enter with eager spirits
This strange tract to explore;
And halting not, they discover
Point Pelee’s western shore.
A causeway of cedar and hillock,
From lagoon to lake they trace;
And their bateaux quickly transport
By way of the Carrying Place.
And they gaze on the expansion,
And cheerily launch away,
And disappear in the distance,
Across wide Pigeon Bay.
The Ojibways in amazement
Saw this strange concourse pass by;
A foreboding premonition
Whispered of danger nigh.
Mitwaos in council assembled
His chiefs and warriors brave;
Many scores of fiery stalwarts,
Of countenance stern and brave.
And calmly they deliberated,
Counselling for peace or war;
Should they allow these daring strangers
Their sacred rights to mar?
After the chiefs had spoken
Of the pending dangers nigh,
It was finally decided
The strangers might pass by
In peace, and unmolested,
If they did not interfere
With the vast teeming hunting grounds
Of the nation, far and near.