DULUTH'S DEPARTURE

To bid the brave White Chief adieu,

on the shady shore gathered the warriors;

His glad boatmen manned the canoe,

and the oars in their hands were impatient.

Spake the Chief of Isántees:

“A feast will await the return of my brother.

In peace rose the sun in the East,

in peace in the West he descended.

May the feet of my brother be swift

till they bring him again to our teepees,

The red pipe he takes as a gift,

may he smoke that red pipe many winters.

At my lodge-fire his pipe shall be lit,

when the White Chief returns to Kathága;

On the robes of my tee shall he sit;

he shall smoke with the chiefs of my people.

The brave love the brave, and his son

sends the Chief as a guide for his brother,

By the way of the Wákpa Wakán

to the Chief at the Lake of the Spirits.

As light as the foot-steps of dawn

are the feet of the stealthy Tamdóka;

He fears not the Máza Wakán;

he is sly as the fox of the forest.

When he dances the dance of red war

howl the wolves by the broad Mini-ya-ta,

For they scent on the south-wind afar

their feast on the bones of Ojibways.”

Thrice the Chief puffed the red pipe of peace,

ere it passed to the lips of the Frenchman.

Spake DuLuth: “May the Great Spirit bless

with abundance the Chief and his people;

May their sons and their daughters increase,

and the fire ever burn in their teepees.”

Then he waved with a flag his adieu

to the Chief and the warriors assembled;

And away shot Tamdóka's canoe

to the strokes of ten sinewy hunters;

And a white path he clove up the blue,

bubbling stream of the swift Mississippi;

And away on his foaming trail flew,

like a sea-gull, the bark of the Frenchman.