The Arkansas advocate., 1830-07-21


 : .iqasty have been buried beneath ths irresistible waves of time. Go read al
 example ln the late oi Syracuse, tl1t City oi zlrchlmedes, whose single arn
 repelled the hosts Of Rome, aid dared
 to move the world if he had foundations for his feet. That splendid city Is i'll ru- lns--iler philosopher sleeps in the dust; and where are his mighty engines oI war? They are swept from the recol- lection ot man. Go read another ex- ample III the fate Of lar-famed Troy. Seek there for the palaces oi i'riam, once lllumlned with the smiles of the hekle though beautiful Helen, for whom Sparta fought and Troy fell. Alas, those palace halls are silent, and the towers ot ilion lie level with the dust. 5id isriam hath long since departed feom the earth, and the grasesof Paris and Ills paramour are unknown. The mighty Hector, too, the brave antago. nlst oi Achilles, Is no more. The glory oi the house oi 'fiaIn hath hath departed for ever. The invaders and the invaded sleep together ill the common mauso- ieum ot time, and their deeds live only ln the tide ot Homer's song.
 Such are a few instances of the rav- ages Of time. Nor less hath our loved 1 land been the scene of desolation. Here may be seen the ruins of an Indian en1- Pife, more extended than the empires of the east; and though they left no. monuments of sculpture, painting, and Poesy, yet great were they in their fall,. and sorrowiul in the story of their wrongs. They once had cities but where are they? They are swept from the face of the earth. They had their temple of the sun, but the sanctuary is broken down, and the beams of the de ihed hminary extinguished. 1t is true they sgossiiiPed tii,e Great ss,pilit and the Genius of storms and darkness-the sacred pages of revelation had never been unfolled to them, the gospel of tie Saviour had never sounded in the ears of the poor children of the forest. They heard the voice of their God in the morning breeze; they saw him in. tic dark cloud that rose iil,smrath from the west; they acknowledged his uni Fersal benefeenee in the setting sun as he sunk to his burning bed. Here an- |othcr race once lived and Ioved--here. along these shores, the council-6rc blaz- ed, and the war-hoop echoed among the native hills-IEere the dark browed h. dian once bathed his manly limbs in the, river, and his light canoe was seento glide over his own loved lakes. Gen. turies passed away, and they.still rov- ed the undisputed masters of the west ern world. But at length a pilgrim bark, deep freighted from the east, came darkening on their shores. They yielded not their empire tamely. but they could not stand against the sons of light-they fled. With slow and mournful step they took up their march to the west, and yielded with a broken heart their native hills to another race. They left the homes and the graves of their fathers to explore the western woods, where no human foot had ever trod, and no human eye ever penetrat- ed. From time to time they have been driven back, and the next remove will be to the bosom of the stormy Pacific. Unhappy children!-the tear of pity has been shed over your wrongs and your sulierings. What bosom but beats with the mournful story of thy woes! !! As race of men they are fast fading from the face of the earth, and ere many centuries shall have passed they will have been swept from the annals ofages. Ere long the last wave of the west will roll over them, and their deeds only live in the traditions they shall have left behind them. The march of mind hath been to them the march to the grave. Every age they have ra- pidly declined, and a lingering rem nant is now left to sigh over the ruins of theirempire and the memory of their brave progenitors. The golden har- vest now waves over the tombs of their fallen fathers, and the forest that once echoed to the war dance is now cov- cred with the rising city. Where, the wigwam once stood, the temple, dedicated to God, now glitters in the setting sun; and the river, unrippled but by the indian canoe, is now white withthe sails of commerce. And when they shall have passed away-when the last Indian shall have stood upon his native hilis in the west, and shall have worshipped the setting sun for the last