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Here, doth not wake that thrill of awe-that feeling
Of stern sublimity, which overpowers

The mind and sense of him whose foot is scaling
The near WHITE MOUNTAIN NOTCH's giant towers;
Here, is less grandeur, but more beauty-bowers
For milder, varied pleasure-in the sun

Blue ponds and streams are glancing, fringed with flowers,---
There, all is vast and overwhelming-one

IS LA FAYETTE-the other, matchless WASHINGTON!❤

Great names! presiding spirits of each scene,
Which here their mountain namesakes overlook-
"Tis well to keep their memories fresh and green
By thus inscribing them within the book
Of earth's enduring records, where will look
Our children's children,-till the crumbling hand
Of time wastes all things, every verdant nook
And every crag of these proud hills shall stand
Their glory's emblems, o'er our broad and happy land!
Where a tall post beside the road displays

Its lettered arm, pointing the traveller's eye,
Through the small opening 'mid the green birch trees,
Towards yonder mountain summit towering high-
There pause-what doth thy anxious gaze espy?
An abrupt crag hung from the mountain's brow!
Look closer!-scan that bare sharp cliff on high
Aha! the wondrous shape bursts on thee now!—
A perfect human face-neck, chin, mouth, nose and brow !
And full and plain those features are displayed,
Thus profiled forth against the clear blue sky,
As though some sculptor's chisel here had made
This fragment of colossal imagery-

The compass of his plastic art to try.

From the curved neck up to the shaggy hair

That shoots in pine trees from the head on high,

All, all is perfect-no illusions there

To cheat the expecting eye with fancied forms of air!

Most wondrous vision! the broad earth hath not
Through all her bounds an object like to thee,
That traveller e'er recorded, nor a spot

More fit to stir the poet's phantasy

The names of the two highest peaks, one of the Franconia, the other of the White Hills. The two groups are about twenty miles distant from each other

Gray OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN-awfully,
There from thy wreath of clouds thou dost uprear,
Those features grand-the same eternally-
Lone dweller mid the Hills! with gaze austere
Thou lookest down, methinks, on all below thee here!

And curious travellers have descried the trace
Of the sage FRANKLIN's physiognomy

In that most grave and philosophic face

If it be true, Old Man, that we do see

Sage Franklin's countenance, thou indeed must be
A learned philosopher most wise and staid,
From all that thou hast had a chance to see,

Since Earth began-here thou, too, oft hast played
With lightnings, glancing frequent round thy rugged head.
Thou sawest the tawny INDIAN'S light canoe
Glide o'er the pond that glistens at thy feet,
And the White Hunter first emerge to view
From up yon ravine where the mountains meet,
To scare the Red Man from his ancient seat
Where he had roamed for ages, wild and free.
The motley stream which since from every state
And clime through this wild vale pours ceaselessly,
Travellers, gay tourists, ali have been a theme to thee!
In thee the simple-minded Indian saw
The image of his more benignant God,

And viewed with deep and reverential awe

The spot where the GREAT SPIRIT made abode,

When storms obscured thee, and red lightnings glowed
From the dark clouds oft gathered round thy face,

He saw thy form in anger veiled, nor rowed

His birchen bark, nor sought the wild-deer chase,

Till thy dark frown had passed, and sunshine filled its place.

Oh! that some bard would rise-true heir of glory,
With the full power of heavenly poesy,

To gather up each old romantic story

That lingers round these scenes in memory,

And consecrate to immortality—

Some western SCOTT, within whose bosom thrills

That fire which burneth to eternity,

To pour his spirit o'er these mighty hills

And make them classic ground, thrice hallowed by his spells!

But backward turn-the wondrous shape hath gone-
The round hill towers before thee smoothly green-
Pass but a few short paces further on,-

Nought but the ragged mountain side is seen,-
Thus oft do earthly things delude, I ween,
That in prospective glitter bright and fair,
While time or space or labor intervene-
Approach them, every charm dissolves to air,
Each gorgeous hue hath fled, and all is rude and bare!

And trace yon streamlet down the expanding gorge,
To the famed BASIN close beside the way,
Scooped from the rock by its imprisoned surge,

For ages whirling in its foamy spray,

Which issuing hence shoots gladly into day,
Till the broad MERRIMACK it proudly flows,
And into ocean pours a rival sea,

Gladdening fair meadows as it onward goes,

Where, 'mid the trees, rich towns their heav'nward spires disclose.

And further down, from GARNSEY's lone abode,
By a rude footpath climb the mountain side,
Leaving below the traveller's winding road,
To where the cleft hill yawns abrupt and wide,
As though some earthquake did its mass divide
In olden time-there view the rocky FLUME-
Tremendous chasm-rising side by side,

The rocks abrupt wall in the long, high room,
Echoing the wild stream's roar, and dark with vapory gloom.

But long, too long, I've dwelt as in a dream,

Amid these scenes of high sublimity

Another pen must eternize the theme

Mine has essayed, though all unworthily.

FRANCONIA, thy wild hills are dear to me—

Would their green woods might be my spirit's home!
Oft o'er the stormy waste of memory

Shall I look back, where'er I chance to roam

And see their shining peaks rise o'er its angry foam!

LANCASTER, N. H.

H.

EARLY AMERICAN TRAVELS.

FATHER HENNEPIN.

(Concluded from page 209.).

On the twenty-ninth of February, 1680, Hennepin, with two of the men, left Fort Crevecœur, provided with a calumet and presents for the Indians. Old Father Gabriel bestowed on him a solemn benediction in the words of Scripture-Viriliter age etcomfortetur

cor tuum.

The Indians whom they met with on their voyage down the Illinois river endeavoured to dissuade them from the continuance of their enterprise; and Hennepin's companions were so impressed with what they heard, that they concluded to go off with the canoe and abandon him, as they confessed on the following day.

A tribe called Tamaroa, or Maroa, dwelling at the mouth of the Illinois, invited the travellers to land and visit their village, and on their refusal pursued them-judging from their bearing arms that they were about to join their enemies. The lightness of their birchbark canoe enabled them to escape, and the discovery of some smoke from a projecting point of ground in their front, betrayed to them an ambuscade which the Indians had made to intercept them.

The latitude of the mouth of the Illinois is given as between thirty-five and thirty-six degrees-four or five degrees too low. The floating ice detained them here until the twelfth of March. The country, froin the rivers to the hills, was filled with wild oxen; and we are told that "the country beyond the hills is so fine and pleasant, according to the account" he had of it, that "one might justly call it the Delight of America."

It had been Hennepin's design, and so he had promised La Salle, to ascend the Mississippi, but his comrades determined to go down to its mouth, and threatened to land him if he refused to accompany them. He "thought it was reasonable to prefer" his own safety to the ambition of M. La Salle, and so he "agreed to follow" his men, who, seeing him "in that good disposition, promised that they would be faithful to" him. Six hours of difficult navigation through the floating ice brought them to the mouth of the Missouri. "It comes from the westward, and seems as big as the Meschasipi; but the water is so muddy, that 'tis almost impossible to drink of it." The Indians whom he afterwards met on the Upper Mississippi, told him that the Missouri was formed of several other streams

rising in a mountain, twelve days' journey from the mouth, and that from the top of this mountain the sea was visible.

1 On the seventeenth of March they stopped at a village of the Akansa, where they were kindly received. These savages they found jovial and civil, differing from those of the north, who, he says, are commonly sad, pensive, and severe. He commends the modesty of the young men, who in the presence of their elders are silent until they are spoken to. Hennepin's comrades were so pleased with them, that there was danger of the voyage coming to a conclusion. They, however, got off on the following day, after being entertained with dancing and feasting. A short distance below, they landed and hid their goods, intending them for the Indians on the upper part of the river, whom they looked forward to meeting on their return. To know the spot again, they marked crosses upon the neighboring trees.

At a second village of the Akansa they spent some time, and were received with as much kindness as at the first. Hennepin conjectures that the inhabitants of the first village had informed these of their approach. Presents were made to them, "which are symbols of peace in all those countries." Their hosts carried them to see a nation living farther back, called the Taensa, [Tennessee?] by whom they were received with great ceremony. The chief wore a white gown made of bark, woven and spun by the women. "Two men carried before him a thin plate of copper, as shining as gold." They who attended him kissed Hennepin's robe, whence he concluded that they had probably met with other Franciscans, from New Mexico. Their music was very disagreeable; their dancing more difficult than that of Europeans, "but perhaps as pleasant." The country abounded in palm, plum, mulberry, peach and apple trees, wild laurels, and walnuts of five or six kinds, bearing nuts much larger than those of Europe.

These Indians appear to have impressed Hennepin favourably, in comparison with the Iroquois, Hurons and Illinois. They were civil, tractable and capable of instruction; but the Illinois and others he pronounces "meer brutes, as fierce and cruel as any wild beasts." For their amusement our travellers discharged their firearms, amongst which was a pistol which shot four balls in succession without requiring to be new-charged. Hennepin here erected a cross, and on the twenty-second accompanied the chief of the Koroa Indians to his village, about ten leagues down the river. Here again they were very kindly treated, and informed that they were seven days' journey from the sea.

Several men were sent by this chief to bear them company to the ocean; but near an island, computed to be sixty leagues in breadth, the rapidity of the current carried the bark canoe with our voyagers away from the more heavy pyrogues of the Indians.

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