The northern tribune. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1847-1855, 1848-04-20
HoKoMOK.
BY MRS. sEBA SMITH.

communication between the river Sheepscot
and Townsend bay, and also forms a passage
well known to navigators somewhat intricate,
yet safe and convenient, between the towns
upon the Eastern shores of Maine, and those
lying on the rivers Sheepscot and Kennebec.
Those who have sailed through this wild but
beautiful passage, with its green banks, now
sloping smoothly to the waters edge, and
anon rising in frowning cliffs, surmounted
with towering pines through which the un-
ceasing sound of the wind suggests to the
imagination the idea of requiem over the
ashes and departed glory of the red man of
IIokomok," which rises perpendicularly
from the water, to a great height, casting the
light sail boat, or vessel that skins over the
waters beneath, into deep, dark shadow
The breathless silence and upturned eye of
all who pass this cliff, bespeak it connected
with wild tales and startling legends. 1t was
here the brave and desperate band of native
heroes, when there was no alternative but
death or submission to the white man, re-
solved to die in the wild freedom of their an
mind unshackled and spirit unsubdued.
Under this height, the chieftain, Hokomok,
had reared his back-covered wigwam, and con-
veyed Nisnayah, the daughter of chief, to
this place, fit residence for the bride of
warrior, even for Nisnayah of the naughty
brow and dark proud eye, with spirit as bold,
as fearless to resolve, and as firm to endure,
as her husband. Though her eye turned with
naughty glance upon the warriors who
thronged to the cabin of Hokomok, when it
rested upon him, its calm liquid light spoke
of savage bride. For him she wrought I'M
firing the feathery robe, the wampum belt and
the gay moccassin. To please his eye, she
culled the sweetest of flowers and sought the
brightest OF shells to ornamet their wigwam,
and when he would hunt on the opposite bank,
Nisnayah was with him, and threw back the
the skill and graceful motion of hunters
wife, padded back the light canoe.
At night she watched at the extremity of
the cliff until he returned from the chase,
and then again she crossed the surge to meet
him.
| But the pale faced race were fast encroach-
ing upon the hunting grounds of the red man !;
the sapling that the oak had sheltered was fast
crowdlng upon the branches of the protecting
tree, and the followers of Hokomok left the
wild deer and moose to roam the forests I'M
disturbed, while they assembled in council to
devise means to fell the sapling while its
branches were yet young and tender. and
before it should tower above the oak.
The women of the tribe were conveyed to
an island many miles from the contemplated
scene Of warfare but Nisnayah, the wife OF
their chief refused to go she chose rather to
remain in their cabin, that she might sooner
know the events of the war, and the fate Of
her husband. She had early been Injured to
danger, and her spirit was never known to
quail.
The chiefs were assembled upon the cliff OF
Hokomok, the war-whoop had been sung, the
assistance of the Great Spirit invoked, and
the warriors had sunk to rest with the green
earth beneath, and the blue sky above them
that they might be prepared for the stealthy
march before the dawn of day.
They were to attack each of the white set
Elements in succession, and the tomahawk once
raised ,other tribes would follow their example,
till the war of determination should spread
from the Norridgewocks and clans of the
North, to the Narragansetts of the South
The chiefs slept. But there was one who
had been admitted to the councils of the brave