HAROLD DEAN; OR, THE INDIAN’S REVENGE.

[Original]

HE Indian ever regards the constant pursuit of revenge for an injury an evidence of a high character. Instances are many, in which years have intervened between a revengeful resolve, and the favorable opportunity, yet no sign of relenting would be found in the injured one. Such a disposition is natural to those who are taught to look on war as the chief business of life, and mercy to foes as despicable weakness. The following narrative will illustrate this feature of the Indian character.

About the period of the first settlement of the disciples of George Fox, on the banks of the Delaware, a party of young men, of respectable families, filled with the hopes excited by the glowing accounts of the new country, and having a love of adventure which could not be gratified in their thickly settled and strictly governed native land, resolved to come to America; and putting their resolve in execution they arrived on the banks of the Delaware. The reasons for their preferring to visit Penn’s settlement were very pardonable. Although they loved adventure, they preferred to seek it where the red men were least disposed to use the hatchet and scalping knife, and where there was the clearest prospect of making a good settlement if they felt so disposed.

The party consisted of six young gentlemen of the average age of twenty-two years. Their names were Harold Dean, George Sanford, William Murdstone, James Ballybarn, Richard Gwynne, and Morton Williams. The first was a daring, quick, and restless spirit, and by general consent the leader of the party. He was a winning companion, but selfish, and seemed to have cut loose from all moral principle. The character of the others contained no extraordinary features. They were all possessed of good intentions, and a considerable degree of intelligence; but being destitute of that activity and force of will which belonged to the character of Harold Dean.

The young men arrived in Penn’s settlement, as we have said, and being well provided with all the necessaries of a hunter’s life, resolved to build some cabins on the the banks of the beautiful Schuylkill. But first, Harold Dean succeeded in making the acquaintance of the neighboring Indians. These red men belonged to the great tribe, which the English named the Delawares. They, however, called themselves the Leni Lenape. They were generally well disposed towards the whites, on account of the honorable and peaceful conduct of the founder of the settlement, and received the young Englishmen with every testimonial of friendship and respect. The chiefs assured the young men that they might build their cabins and hunt without the fear of being disturbed by the red men.