Page:The last of the Mohicans (1826 Volume 1).djvu/117

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE MOHICANS.
101

Oneidas, with their six nations of varlets, where in nature they belong, among the outlandish Frenchmen!"

"We should then exchange a warlike for a useless friend. I have heard that the Delawares have laid aside the hatchet, and are content to be called women."

"Ay, shame on the Hollanders and Iroquois, who carcumvented them by their deviltries into such a treaty! But I have known them for twenty years, and will call him liar that says cowardly blood runs in the veins of a Delaware. You have driven their tribes from the sea-shore, and would now believe what their enemies say, that you may sleep at night upon an easy pillow. No, no; to me, every Indian who speaks a foreign tongue is an Iroquois, whether the castle of his tribe be in Canada or be in York."

Heyward, perceiving that the stubborn adherence of the scout to the cause of his friends the Delawares or Mohicans, (for they were branches of the same numerous people,) was likely to prolong a useless discussion, adroitly changed the subject.