THE VENGEANCE OF UNCAS. 121 



fretting against the broken sides and rifted fragments of the 

 cliff, until they reach the outlet, which instantly widens into a 

 broad smooth stream, so mirror-like that one would suppose 

 nothing but the forest leaf had ever rested on its bosom. On 

 one side of this ravine, the rocks descend so gradually that 

 one may approach very near to the foaming waters ; but, on 

 the other, a high precipitous rock, as perpendicular as if cut 

 by line and plummet, rises to a great height just at that point 

 where the river finds its outlet from this rugged pass. 



It was while standing in face of that lofty precipice, with 

 the rushing cataract making wild music in my ears, and the 

 perfume of a thousand odoriferous shrubs mingling with the 

 freshness of the spray-filled air, that I listened to the tale of 

 human suffering which had hallowed that hard, cold rock. 



In the year 1643, soon after the general confederation of 

 the New England colonies, which subsisted until the abrogation 

 of their charters by James the Second, and, for more than forty 

 years, formed the chief security of the colonists, the Indians 

 became so formidable and hostile that it was scarcely possible 

 to prevent a general war. The chief instigator of this disquiet 

 was Miantonimoh, chief sachem of the Narragansetts. He 

 had attempted to place himself at the head of all the Indians 

 in New England, and, failing in this, chiefly through the energy 

 and courage of Uncas, sachem of the Pequods and Mohegans, 

 he vowed deadly hatred against him. Uncas was, both by 

 his father and mother's side, lineally descended from the royal 

 line ; and his wife was the daughter of a distinguished Pequod 



