 would
not go on the war-path, because they did not think it well; but their friends
have remembered where they lived.«
    When he had thus announced his liberal intention, the crafty chief arose,
and gravely spread his presents before the dazzled eyes of his hosts. They
consisted principally of trinkets of little value, plundered from the
slaughtered females of William Henry. In the division of the baubles, the
cunning Huron discovered no less art than in their selection. While he bestowed
those of greater value on the two most distinguished warriors, one of whom was
his host, he seasoned his offerings to their inferiors with such well-timed and
apposite compliments, as left them no grounds of complaint. In short, the whole
ceremony contained such a happy blending of the profitable with the flattering,
that it was not difficult for the donor immediately to read the effect of a
generosity so aptly mingled with praise, in the eyes of those he addressed.
    This well judged and politic stroke on the part of Magua, was not without
instantaneous results. The Delawares lost their gravity, in a much more cordial
expression; and the host, in particular, after contemplating his own liberal
share of the spoil, for some moments, with peculiar gratification, repeated,
with strong emphasis, the words -
    »My brother is a wise chief. He is welcome!«
    »The Hurons love their friends the Delawares,« returned Magua. »Why should
they not! they are coloured by the same sun, and their just men will hunt in the
same grounds after death. The red-skins should be friends, and look with open
eyes on the white men. Has not my brother scented spies in the woods?«
    The Delaware, whose name, in English, signified Hard-heart, an appellation
that the French had translated into Le-coeur-dur, forgot that obduracy of
purpose, which had probably obtained him so significant a title. His countenance
grew very sensibly less stern, and he now deigned to answer more directly.
    »There have been strange moccasins about my camp. They have been tracked
into my lodges.«
    »Did my brother beat out the dogs?« asked Magua, without adverting in any
manner to the former equivocation of the chief.
    »It would not do. The stranger is always welcome to the children of the
Lenape.«
    »The stranger, but not the spy!«
    »Would the Yengeese send their women as spies? Did not the Huron chief say
he took women in the battle?«
    »He told no lie. The Yengeese have sent
