Job Durfee

“ And now did Williams in his mind debate;—
Should he that night cleave Narraganset’s flood,
Or on the Seekonk’s bank till morning wait,
And scour the while Mooshausick’s gloomy wood?
“Oh, would that Heaven might there predestinate
On earth, Soul-Liberty! thy first abode,”
(He often thought) “or where, in ocean’s arms,
Aquidnay smiles in her wild virgin charms.”
XIV.
While thus he ponders, down the stream he sees,
Where from th’ encroaching cove the wood retires,
Dark wreaths of smoke rise o’er the lofty trees,
And deems that there some village wakes its fires. ”

“ Why has he Seekonk’s eastern border chose,
And not surveyed Mooshausick’s winding flood?
Its banks are green,—its forests waving fair,—
Its fountains cool, the deer abundant there.
VIII.
Williams.
Ne’er will I dwell among my brother’s foes,—
To make them friends is now thy brother’s toil;
Too weak I am to bend their battle bows,
Had I the heart for such unseemly broil.
The forest fair that by Mooshausick grows,
Would long withstand the hardy woodman’s toil.
The Seekonk’s marge will easy tillage yield,
And soon the spiry maize will clothe its field.
IX.
Canonicus. ”

“ XL.
“Bravely,” said Williams, “has my brother done,
No more the cunning wights will mock his skill.
Waban is rich; will he not hie him soon
To the pale wigwams, and his girdle fill
With the bright wampum?—Ere to-morrow’s sun
Shall hide behind the crest of yonder hill,
Waban may gain the pale-faced stranger’s town,
And in his brother’s wigwam sit him down.”
XLI.
“The hunter goes,” said Waban in reply;
Then fired his calumet and curled its smoke,
And silent sate in all the dignity
Which conscious worth can give the human look. ”

“ The lodge is built, the garden smiling gay;—
Will the swift foot once more the forest thread,
And guide the children and the snow-white hand,
With watchful tendance, to this distant land?”
XXXVII.
Waban replied: “The nimble-foot will go;—
But a gaunt wolf may haunt the hunter’s way,
And he will whet his darts, and string his bow,
And gird his loins as for the battle fray;
The Priest of Chepian ne’er forgets a foe;—
His vengeance lasts until a bloody day
Doth feed the crows, or still a bloodier night
Gives the gaunt wolf a feast ere dawning light.”
XXXVIII.
“God is our trust!” ”

“ Old Narraganset’s regal wigwam stood,
Where dwelt her chief, while yet the cold did last,
And tempests, driving from the frozen north,
Detained his warriors from the work of wrath.
II.
And near it rose an ample council hall,
Where oft the Narraganset senate sate,
When came the wise men, at their Sachem’s call,
On schemes of high emprise to hold debate;
And in the shade were shelters meet, for all
His grave advisers who should on him wait;
And, with the red men just as with the white,
Such free provision did delays invite.
III.
Here Father Williams must a while remain. ”

“ Turning from Waban, with a scornful smile:
“Has, then, Awanux come to hear the song?
Our darts are thirsty, and our arms are strong!”
[p. 73]
XI.
Then Williams: “Sachem, in the cause of Him,
The great Good Spirit whom we all adore—
Who smiles not on the contests fierce and grim
Of his red children in the field of gore—
I have come hither, in unwarlike trim,
To crave thy friendship, and of thee implore
That these black clouds portending bloody rain
May go, and let the sky shine out again.” ”

“ XXVII.
“Speed! Waban, speed!” with haste our Founder cried,
Soon as the hollow echoes died afar;
With lusty arm the hunter clove the tide,
The swift canoe seemed moving through the air;
One instant more and Williams, from her side,
Sprang on a rock, (thence giving it to share
His deathless fame,) and straight around him stood,
In cheerful throngs, the Indian multitude.
XXVIII.
Miantonomi, stepping from the crowd,
Stretched forth his brawny hand, and cried “Whatcheer!
Welcome, my brother! say, what lowering cloud,
O’er Seekonk’s eastern marge, impels thee here? ”

“ They glance by Haup—there, eastward as they pour,
They cleave Aquidnay from Pocasset’s shore.
LXVIII.
That rude Pocasset—which, when Williams saw
From towering Haup, did one broad forest shew;
Here, steep o’er steep, there, leaving Nature’s law,
Hill, glade, and swamp,—presenting to the view
So mad a maze, that there, if hunter draw
His sounding bow, and but a space pursue
The wounded deer, he finds his guidance fail,
And lost, halloos through tangled brake and dale. ”

“ CANTO THIRD.
[Scenes. The Wigwam—Massasoit and other Chiefs—The Wilderness—A Night in the Wilderness—The Narraganset or Coweset Country—Coweset Height.]
No pain is keener to the ardent mind,
Filled with sublime and glorious intents,
Than when strict judgment checks the impulse blind,
And bids to watch the pace of slow events
To time the action;—for it seems to bind
The ethereal soul upon a fire intense,
Lit by herself within the kindling breast,
Prompting to act, while she restrains to rest.
II.
Two nights had passed, and, Waban lingering still,
Williams began to doubt his steadfast faith ”

“ Her feathered tribes round beak and headland glide,
Her scaly broods leap from the glassy tide.
LXV.
Out from Aquidnay tow’rd the setting sun,
Spread the calm waters like a sea of gold
Studded with isles, till Narraganset dun
Fringed the far west, and cape and headland bold,
With forest shagged, cast their huge shadows down,
And glassed them in the wave; while silence old
Resumed her reign, save that by times did rise,
On Williams’ ears, the sea-birds’ jangling cries. ”

“ Good Massasoit, who did these accents hear,
Would now our Founder greet,—and with a face,
That spoke a sorrow deep and most sincere:
“Long have I strove,” he said, “in thought to trace
What Manit most my Plymouth friends revere;
For aye their deeds their better words efface,
Their tongues much speak of Spirit good and great,
Their hands much do the work of Chepian’s hate.”
XXXI.
Here grave Canonicus came from the throng,—
“Welcome, my son!” exclaimed the aged chief,
“Bear thou the inflictions of thy kindred’s wrong
With man’s stout courage, not with woman’s grief ”

“ How dared my brother on that path to tread?
X.
Williams.
The white man labors to enthrall the mind,
He will not let its thoughts of God be free;
I come the soul’s hard bondage to unbind,
And clear her access to the Deity; [p. 91]
The pale-faced foes whom I have left behind,
Would still accept a favor done by me.
I trusted God would guard his servant’s head,
Open all paths, and soothe my brothers red.
XI.
Canonicus.
Thy generous confidence has on me won
And oped my ears, to other Yengees deaf.
Brother, the spirit of my son is gone—
I burned my lodge to speak my mighty grief ”

“ My Sachem white a manittoo o’ercame,
To demon dark a fatal wound he gave;
Brave is my Sachem, for he nobly slew
What Waban dreaded most,—that fearful manittoo!”
XIV.
“Brother,” said Williams, “under Power Divine,
That shields the just man in dark peril’s hour,
Thine was the victory, and the glory thine
To quell Apollyon’s priest—a demon’s power! [p. 145]
Henceforth the demon must his lands resign,
And thou must be Mooshausick’s Sagamore,
The right of conquest will do very well,
When Hell assails us, and we conquer Hell. ”

“ Williams died in 1683, at Providence, and was buried under arms, in his family burying ground, with every testimony of respect which the colony could manifest.
The religious sentiments of Williams seem to have become more and more liberal as he advanced in life. Whatever rigid forms those sentiments may have assumed, in the early part of his career, they gradually melted down, and blended themselves in that warm and deep feeling of universal benevolence, which had given birth to his great principle of Soul-Liberty. ”

“ For every harm is all his own, we see,
And good Cawtantowit has ne’er a share—
Then why should not I Chepian sue to be
Much sparing of his harm to mine and me?”
XXX.
Williams made answer, “When red warriors brave
The fight’s dark tempest and for glory die,
Does Waban tremble whilst the battles rave,
And at the hurtling arrows wink his eye?
Or, basely cowering, does he mercy crave
Of the red hatchet o’er him lifted high?
Who prays to Chepian is a cringing slave,
And, dying, fills at last a coward’s grave.”
XXXI.
Strongly these words to Waban’s pride appealed ”

“ Of scalping knife and tomahawk’s affray,
We may together sit, secure from harms, [p. 56]
And smoke the calumet from day to day;
And our descendants, all the years to come,
Have but one fire—one undivided home.”
XXIX.
“Brother,” said Williams, “these thou seëst are
Hands that the blood of man ne’er crimsoned yet;
Oft do I lift them to the God of prayer—
Ah! how unseemly if with slaughter wet!
But to the hostile Sachems I could bear
The pipe of peace, thy snow-white calumet,
And quench the flame of strife—how better far
Than win thy lands by all-devouring war! ”

“ CANTO SECOND.
[Scenes. The Wigwam—The Wilderness—Pawtucket Falls—Seekonk’s Meads—The Wigwam.]
It was the morning of a Sabbath day,
When Williams rose to Waban’s simple cheer,
But knew not where, save that vast forests lay
Betwixt his home and the lone wigwam here;
Yet ’twas a place of peace; no thing of clay,
’Twixt God and conscience in communion near,
Came, with profane and impious control,
To check the heavenward wanderings of his soul.
II.
God loves the wilderness ”

“ Who well he knew the Yengee’s faith abhorred,
And who, perchance, if he our Founder saw
Bearing the pipe of peace, might ill accord
With such kind purpose, and, on evil wing
To Narraganset’s host strange omens bring.
LXII.
Now down the western bank their course they speed,
Passing Pawtuxet in their onward way;
And fast doth Indian town to town succeed,
Some large, some small, in populous array;
And here and there was many an ample mead,
Where green the maize had grown in summer’s ray,
And forth there poured, where’er they passed along,
Of naked children many a gazing throng. ”

“ I flatter myself, however, that the Plymouth elder is a more moderate man than Mr. Cotton. As a proof, hear Mr. Cotton in his own words set forth the advantages which a state derives from persecuting heretics, and the summary mode in which the civil magistrate may deal with them.
To the question of Williams, What glory to God—what good to the souls and bodies of their subjects, did these princes bring in persecuting? Mr. Cotton thus replies: “The good that is brought to princes and subjects, by the due punishment of apostate seducers and idolaters and blasphemers, is manifold. ”

“ The Narraganset warriors crest their hair;
Their hatchets keen from troubled slumber rise
And through Coweset make their edges glare;
Chiefs strike the war-post,—blood is in their cries,
And fierce their yells cleave Pokanoket’s air;
They count already with revengeful eyes
The future scalps of vanquished enemies;—
XXVII.
“And all for Wampanoag’s life-blood crave.
On Seekonk’s marge the storm of war will burst;
Lands might I give thee there but that the wave
Will there run red with human slaughter first. ”

“ From where Aquidnay’s blooming bosom throws
The ocean back, unto the far domains
Of the rude Nipnet, Narraganset’s wood
Rendered in eager throngs the multitude.
XXII.
Swarm upon swarm, far dark’ning all the ground,
They gathered, and on Potowomet’s plain,
The dusky rabble filled the borders round,
While near the centre stood the warrior train;
Wild dance their plumes; fierce looks, fierce threats abound,
With war of voices like the murmuring main,
Wherein these words continually prevail:—
“The priest of Chepian grim!—Awanux weak and pale!”
XXIII.
The council formed upon the open glade ”

“ Waban his keen-edged hatchet promptly plied;
It bowed, it fell, and bridged the sounding tide.
L.
Upstayed thereon from bank to bank they past,
And now they travel under hostile sway:
The night around them gathers thick and fast,
Till, as more doubtful grows their devious way.
Their blankets on the frozen earth they cast,
And light the fire, and wait the coming day;—
When safely they their journey may pursue,
And greet the chiefs they seek in season due.
LI.
Williams that night lay on the snow-clad ground,
With nothing o’er him but the starry blue ”

“ The government of Plymouth had on one occasion extended its aid to its early friend and ally, Massasoit, chief sachem of the Wampanoags. This interference had smothered, but not extinguished the flame. With these warring tribes, one of which (the Narragansets) was a very martial and numerous people, and exceedingly jealous of the whites, Williams was under the necessity of establishing relations of amity. He himself says that he was forced to travel between their sachems to satisfy them and all their dependent spirits of his honest intentions to live peaceably by them. ”

“ Williams carried the philanthropy, which breathes in his great principle of Soul-Liberty, into all the important acts of his life. [p. 214] Although the munificent grant of Canonicus and Miantonomi had been made to him only, he shortly after made it the common property of his friends who joined him at Providence, reserving to himself no more than an equal share, and receiving from them the small sum of thirty pounds, not as purchase money, but as a remuneration for the gratuities which he had made to the Indians out of his own estate. ”

“ Then he to Heaven his weeping spouse commends,
And craves its blessing on his purpose bold;—
Still Salem lies in sleep, and forth he wends
To breast the driving storm and chilling cold;
While the lone mother from the window sends
A look where all her aching heart is told;
Dimly she marks him as his course he bends
Across the fields, and toward the forest tends.
[p. 11]
XXXV.
To show him parting, to the light she rears
His child, yet ignorant of human woe;
And soon its guileless silver voice she hears,
“O! where is father going in the snow?” ”

“ And with their flying feet scarce touch the ground;
From goal to goal the nimble hunters fly,
Crowds shout above them, and the woods resound;
Here their lithe limbs the swarthy wrestlers ply,—
They tug, they writhe, they sweat, crowds shout around;
And there the circles watch the doubtful game,
Or greet the victor with their loud acclaim.
XX.
Then Williams saw, beneath a shady bower,
Miantonomi, Sachem young and brave,
And Massasoit, Haup’s kind Sagamore,
And old Canonicus, so wise and grave,
Known by his peaceful pipe and tresses hoar,
And by the scarlet coat our Founder gave ”

“ It crowns the hills and whitens through the vales.
L.
“Take thou the fragments—count their numbers well—
Ten times complains our violated right;
They’ll help thy memory, and perchance will tell,
Ten causes have we to distrust the White;
Scarce can the grave our fathers’ spirits quell—
They come complaining in the dreams of night;
Ten times the pipe was by the strangers broke,
Ten times the hatchet from its slumbers woke.”
LI.
Williams the fragments took, and, counting ten,
He promptly answered with this calm reply:
“Sachem, some charity is due to men
Who tread upon thy pipe unwittingly. ”