Chapter XI

STRAITNESS OF THE FAMINE--THE FINAL CONFLICT--FLIGHT AND
CAPTURE OF GUATIMOZIN--DESTINY FULFILLED. 179

The Mexicans encouraged--Oracular declaration of the
priests--It fails to be fulfilled--Cortez resolves to
lay waste the city--A wide spread ruin--Terrible
sufferings of the besieged--Love and loyalty outliving
hope--Death preferred to submission--Nahuitla proposes a
plan of escape--Guatimozin rejects it, but is overruled
by the unanimous voice of his people--Prepares for
flight--The battle of the ghosts--The
retreat--Guatimozin on the lake--Pursued by the enemy--A
captive--Brought before Cortez--His noble spirit and
bearing--The Queen and the conqueror--Her destiny
fulfilled.

* * * * *

THE FLIGHT OF THE KATAHBA CHIEF. 193

The dream of Minaree, the young bride of Ash-te-o-lah--Its
effect upon the Chief--He goes to the chase--Power and
prosperity of the Katahbas--Beauty of their
villages--The wigwam of Ash-te-o-lah--The Chief in his
canoe--The deer--The foe--The chase--He turns upon his
pursuers--Slays seven of their number successively--Is
taken--Marched off as a captive--His boldness and
dignity--Arrives in the territories of his
enemies--Insulted and beaten by the women--Condemned to
the fiery torture--Led out to execution--Breaks away
and escapes--Pauses to defy his pursuers--Distances
them all--Stops to rest--Finds a place of
concealment--Plans the destruction of the pursuing
party--Succeeds--Returns home in triumph, laden with
trophies and spoils.

MONICA--THE ITEAN CAPTIVE. 209

Reverence for the dead--Indian burial--The journey to the
Spirit land--The favorite dog killed--Food for
journey--Mementoes of the departed--The grave of an
infant boy--The Itean encampment--A sister's grief--Her
dream--She visits the grave by moonlight--Her
song--Enters a canoe and floats down the stream--A
captive, devoted to the "Great Star"--Pagan rite among
the Pawnees--Preparing for the sacrifice--Ignorant of
her fate--Gathering of the Pawnees to the festival--The
victim led to the stake--The terrible orgies
commence--Are suddenly interrupted--The captive
unbound--The flight--Parting with her deliverer--Meets
her friends--Reaches her home in safety--Petalesharro,
her deliverer--His person and character--Bloody rite
abolished.

THE HERMITESS OF ATHABASCA. 227

The wigwam of Kaf-ne-wah-go--His family--Tula, his only
daughter--O-ken-ah-ga, her husband--The Athapuscows
steal in at night--The chiefs murdered--Tula a
captive--Her infant boy murdered before her eyes--The
Chippeways in pursuit of the murderers--Following the
trail--The enemy overtaken--Retribution wreaked upon
the innocent--The deep grief of Tula--Her weary
marches--Her captors encamp--The tempest--She escapes
in the darkness--Vain attempts to discover her
retreat--Seeks to find her way back to her people--The
forest--A midnight intruder--She climbs a tree--Is
besieged--Assaulted--Repels and destroys the
enemy--Intricacies and dangers of the forest--An
opening, but no light--Bewildered--Resolves to go no
farther--Finds a convenient spot--builds a cabin--her
house-keeping--Her ingenuity, industry and taste--The
Hermitess discovered--Her solitude reluctantly
abandoned--Indian mode of obtaining a
wife--Journeyings--A new party--An unexpected meeting.

THE AZTEC PRINCESS,

OR

DESTINY FORESHADOWED.

Rapacious Spain
Followed her bold discoverer o'er the main;
A rabid race, fanatically bold,
And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold,
Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored,
The cross their standard, but their path the sword;
Their steps were graves; o'er prostrate realms they trod,
They worshipped Mammon, while they vowed to God.

THE AZTEC PRINCESS.