Many months
after this she related to her wondering auditors the fearful story of the
massacre of her kindred, and which I may as well relate, as I have raised
the curiosity of my youthful readers, though to do so I must render it in
my own language, as the broken half-formed sentences in which its facts
were conveyed to the ears of my Canadian Crusoes would be unintelligible to
my young friends. [Footnote: The facts of this narrative were gathered from
the lips of the eldest son of a Rice Lake chief. I have preferred giving it
in the present form, rather than as the story of the Indian girl. Simple as
it is, it is matter of history.]
There had been for some time a jealous feeling existing between the chiefs
of two principal tribes of the Ojebwas and the Mohawks, which like a
smothered fire had burnt in the heart of each, without having burst into a
decided blaze--for each strove to compass his ends and obtain the advantage
over the other by covert means. The tribe of the Mohawks of which I now
speak, claimed the southern shores of the Rice Lake for their hunting
grounds, and certain islands and parts of the lake for fishing, while that
of the Ojebwas considered themselves masters of the northern shores and
certain rights of water beside.
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