Author Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Bold as those lakes, whose wondrous chain controuls' His northern coast. The forest and the wave Gave him his food; the slight-constructed hut Furnish'd his shelter, and its doors spread wide To every wandering stranger. There his cup, His simple meal, his lowly couch of skins 20 Were hospitably shared. Rude were his toils, And rash his daring, when he headlong rush'd Down the steep precipice to seize his prey; Strong was his arm to bend the stubborn bow, And keen his arrow. This the Bison knew, The spotted Panther, the rough, shaggy Bear, The Wolf dark-prowling, the eye-piercing Lynx, The wild Deer bounding through the shadowy glade, And the swift Eagle, soaring high to make His nest among the stars. Cloth'd in their spoils 30 He dar'd the elements; with eye sedate Breasted the wintry winds'; o'er the white heads Of angry torrents steered his rapid bark Light as their foam, mounted with tireless speed Those slippery cliffs, where everlasting snows Weave their dense robes, or laid him down to sleep Where the dread thunder of the cataract lull'd His drowsy sense. The dangerous toils of war Me sought and lov'd. Traditions, and proud tales Of other days, exploits of chieftains bold, 40 Dauntless and terrible, the warrior's song, The victor's triumph, ?all conspired to raise The martial spirit, kindling in his breast With life's first throb. Oft the rude, wandering tribes Rush'd on to battle. Their aspiring chiefs Lofty and iron-fram'dj with native hue Strangely disguised in wild and glaring tints, Frown'd like some Pictish king. The conflict rag'd Fearless and fierce, 'mid shouts and disarray, As the swift lightning urges its dire shafts 50 Through clouds and darkness, when the...