The league of the Iroquois and other legends : from the Indian muse

12 THE LEAGUE OF THE IliOQUOIS.
Yet who shall bring the vanished lore
Of other days the story tell ?
Of days while yet their farther shore
Where now the Pale -face
strangers dwell.
Was trod alone by dusky braves ;
While yet the light canoe was seen
Alone upon their smiling waves,
And wigwams by their marges green.
Though be my loss another's gain,
What comfort to this anguished heart
In boundless fields of golden grain,
In smiling homes and thronging mart ?
And turn I oft with longing eyes
From scenes the nearer vision sees,
To those that far and dimly rise,
And deeply cherished more than these.
When all the plain was lapped in calm
To where the horizon deepens down ;
Serene embloomed in summer balm
Or robed in autumn's gold and brown ;
When stretched a broad unbroken wild
Far as the Morning's eye could trace,
In nature's beauty undefiled,
The Empire of the Hunter -race.