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_ ACT I
SCENE IV.
A Forest. SMITH enters, bewildered in its mazes. Music, expressive of his situation.
SMITH.
'Tis all in vain! no clue to guide my steps.
[Music.]
By this the explorers have return'd despairing,
And left their forward leader to his fate.
The rashness is well punish'd, that, alone,
Would brave the entangling mazes of these wilds.
The night comes on, and soon these gloomy woods
Will echo to the yell of savage beasts,
And savage men more merciless. Alas!
And am I, after all my golden dreams
Of laurel'd glory, doom'd in wilds to fall,
Ignobly and obscure, the prey of brutes?
[Music.]
Fie on these coward thoughts! this trusty sword,
That made the Turk and Tartar crouch beneath me,
Will stead me well, e'en in this wilderness.
[Music.]
O glory! thou who led'st me fearless on,
Where death stalk'd grimly over slaughter'd heaps,
Or drank the drowning shrieks of shipwreck'd wretches,
Swell high the bosom of thy votary!
[Music. Exit SMITH.]
[Music. A party of INDIANS enter, as following SMITH, and steal cautiously after him. The Indian yell within. Music, hurried. Re-enter SMITH, engaged with the INDIANS; several fall. Exeunt, fighting, and enter from the opposite side the Prince NANTAQUAS, who views with wonder the prowess of SMITH; when the music has ceased he speaks.]
Sure 'tis our war-god, Aresqui himself, who lays our chiefs low! Now they stop; he fights no longer; he stands terrible as the panther, which the fearful hunter dares not approach. Stranger, brave stranger, Nantaquas must know thee!
[Music.]
He rushes out, and re-enters with SMITH.]
PRINCE.
Art thou not then a God?
SMITH.
As thou art, warrior, but a man.
PRINCE.
Then art thou a man like a God; thou shalt be the brother of Nantaquas. Stranger, my father is king of the country, and many nations obey him: will thou be the friend of the great Powhatan?
SMITH.
Freely, prince; I left my own country to be the red man's friend.
PRINCE.
Wonderful man, where is thy country?
SMITH.
It lies far beyond the wide water.
PRINCE.
Is there then a world beyond the wide water?
I thought only the sun had been there:
thou comest then from behind the sun?
SMITH.
Not so, prince.
PRINCE.
Listen to me. Thy country lies beyond the wide
water, and from it do mine eyes behold the sun
rise each morning.
SMITH.
Prince, to your sight he seems to rise from thence,
but your eyes are deceived, they reach not over
the wilderness of waters.
PRINCE.
Where sleeps the sun then?
SMITH.
The sun never sleeps. When you see him sink behind the mountains, he goes to give light to other countries, where darkness flies before him, as it does here, when you behold him rise in the east: thus he chases Night for ever round the world.
PRINCE.
Tell me, wise stranger, how came you from your
country across the wide water? when our canoes
venture but a little from the shore, the waves
never fail to swallow them up.
SMITH.
Prince, the Great Spirit is the friend of the
white men, and they have arts which the red men know not.
PRINCE.
My brother, will you teach the red men?
SMITH.
I come to do it. My king is a king of a mighty
nation; he is great and good: go, said he, go
and make the red men wise and happy.
[During the latter part of the dialogue, the INDIANS had crept in, still approaching till they had almost surrounded SMITH. A burst of savage music. They seize and bear him off, the PRINCE in vain endeavouring to prevent it.]
PRINCE.
Hold! the white man is the brother of your prince;
hold, coward warriors!
[He rushes out.] _
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