Scarce do they leave a scant and narrow place,
Where we may spread the blanket of our race.
“We have not room to spread our blankets,” was a phrase by which the Indians signified that they were straightened in their possessions.—See Heckewelder.
“’Tis not the peag,” said the Sagamore,
“Nor knives, nor guns, nor garments red as blood,
That buy the lands I hold dominion o’er—
Lands that were fashioned by the red man’s God;
But to my friend I give.”
Williams says the Indians were very shy and jealous of selling their lands to any, and chose rather to make a grant of them to such as they affected; but at the same time expected such gratuities and rewards as made an Indian gift often times a very dear bargain.