E-text prepared by Larry B. Harrison, Paul Marshall,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
HathiTrust Digital Library
(https://www.hathitrust.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through HathiTrust Digital Library. See https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.0114481022;view=1up;seq=5 |
ALHALLA,
OR
THE LORD OF TALLADEGA.
A TALE OF THE CREEK WAR.
WITH SOME SELECTED MISCELLANIES,
CHIEFLY OF EARLY DATE.
BY
HENRY ROWE COLCRAFT.
NEW-YORK AND LONDON:
WILEY AND PUTNAM.
MDCCCXLIII.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843,
by HENRY ROWE COLCRAFT,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the
Southern District of New-York.
John F. Trow, Printer,
33 Ann-street.
TO WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, ESQ.
OF NEW-YORK.
Sir:—Whatever may be the particularestimate set upon the intellectual character of the Americanaborigines, or the decision had on the perplexing question of theirremote origin, or their actual and varying condition, few will disputethe large share of interest which they have in the public mind. Andit is a species of interest which, I think we shall perceive, will befound to assume a higher and more imaginative cast, connected with theadvancing state of letters and the fine arts, as we recede from thehistorical era, when these tribes were confessedly the lords and rulersof the land.
Their name and semblance are, in truth, infiltrated, if I may use achemical phrase, into the very elements of the American landscape,which can hardly ever be contemplated without bringing out from thelatent depths of the imagination, the image of the lithe Indian, withhis Robin Hood arms and his picturesque costume. The policy whichan enlightened government and people ought to pursue towards them,at all times, is a question that chiefly concerns the statesman andthe philanthropist. But there are a hundred subordinate questionswhich come home for decision to the bosoms of all readers andthinkers, travellers and writers, to whom the race itself, viewed asa broken link in the ethnological chain, is a fruitful theme, bothfor retrospection and for actual observation. I have indeed, myself,participated largely in this field of observation, and may with truthaffirm, that I return to society, after completing a period of butlittle short of four and twenty years in their territories.
How far the interest of these reminiscences of a noble race arerealized, or communicated in the following tale, I cannot pretendto predict. But if I m