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Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862

"A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers"


"Of all our valiant English, there were but thirty-four,
And of the rebel Indians, there were about four-score;
And sixteen of our English did safely home return,
The rest were killed and wounded, for which we all must mourn.
"Our worthy Capt. Lovewell among them there did die,
They killed Lieut. Robbins, and wounded good young Frye,
Who was our English Chaplin; he many Indians slew,
And some of them he scalped while bullets round him flew."
Our brave forefathers have exterminated all the Indians, and
their degenerate children no longer dwell in garrisoned houses
nor hear any war-whoop in their path. It would be well,
perchance, if many an "English Chaplin" in these days could
exhibit as unquestionable trophies of his valor as did "good
young Frye." We have need to be as sturdy pioneers still as
Miles Standish, or Church, or Lovewell. We are to follow on
another trail, it is true, but one as convenient for ambushes.
What if the Indians are exterminated, are not savages as grim
prowling about the clearings to-day?--
"And braving many dangers and hardships in the way,
They safe arrived at Dunstable the thirteenth (?) day of May.


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