Along the green marge of the lake, Their very names are half forgot, EXERCISE LXXXII. OSEOLA.- Anon. This memorable individual, the head war-chief of his tribe, and the bitter foe of the whites, fell a victim to stratagem, and became the captive of his enemies. He died a prisoner in Fort Moultrie, where he was visited by Mr. Catlin, whose researches among the Indian tribes are so extensively known. Oseola was a friendless and vagabond boy, cast upon the world without any of the extrinsic aids to advancement, which usually urge the hero in his ambitious career. Unlettered and unguided, he rose, - among a strange people, - - to the highest post of trust and honor. He proved, in the possession of all the virtues which savage morality inculcates, that, under the discipline of enlightened philosophy, he would have been equal to the government of a great and civilized nation, rather than the control of a weak and barbarous tribe. When the lapse of time shall have warranted the blending of fiction with the incidents of the struggle which he made for his hut and hunting-grounds, his history will form themes for romance and song, perhaps the most stirring, in Indian life and warfare. The following is an extract from a letter of Mr. Catlin, written a few weeks before Oseola's death. 'From the time I have spent with this chief, and the familiar interviews I have had with him in conversation, I have been enabled to form a pretty correct notion of the feelings and character, as well as history, of this extraordinary man. A Creek by birth, he left his own tribe, whilst a boy, and sought an asylum amongst the Seminoles, where he was reared, and where he flourished. 'His father was a white man, by the name of Powell, whc abandoned him, and sent him, a vagrant upon the world, tc cater for himself. He soon became a favorite amongst the Seminoles; and, from his force of character and genius alone, he rose to the highest honors of the nation. 'At all the ball-plays, and other manly sports, Powell was reputed first in the nation; and his name was changed to As-se-o-la, from the fact that he could drink a greater quantity of the black drink,' (called as-se-o-la,) which was prepared from some bitter and nauseating herbs, and drunk preparatory to the fast and feast of the green-corn dance. "He is entirely a "self-made man," and one of an extraordinary character; which is conclusively proved by the fact, that he is acknowledged and followed by all the chiefs of the nation, as their head war-chief. Though he is but a demi-savage in blood, yet he speaks not a word of English; and in his actions and feelings is as perfectly an Indian as any man I ever saw. In stature he is about the middle size; and in his features there is no striking peculiarity to stamp them, but a pleasing symmetry of proportion, upon which the lights and shadows of passion and feeling are seen to play with perfect effect. There is, at times, spread over them the most benignant and expressive smile, even to perfect effeminacy; and, at others, they are darkened with the sternness of a Brutus, or the agony of a dying gladiator. In fact, he is the perfect beau idéal of an Indian prince. 'His face is certainly one of the most expressive I ever looked on, capable of the most vivid and striking exhibition of the human passions, that can possibly be imagined; bearing upon its front the predominant characteristic impress of sternness, reserve, and perseverance. 'He has a mind of a wonderful construction, calculated to fortify, and yet destroy itself. He smiles and fawns and languishes before the gazing world; but in his solitude, or when he tells in confidence his tale of grief, though smiling dewdrops moisten his eyes at one moment, yet the burning hero rushes through them at the next, and his clenched teeth are set in silent oaths of irretractable revenge. Naturally o. a restless and impatient disposition, in his captive interviews with the civilized world, he smiles; - but in his solitude, he grieves and pines with a broken heart. The world, who barely see him, shake the hand of a laughing fawn; but those who listen to his griefs, as I have done, will see the sternness of a Roman, and, in his agony, a beautiful statue of Vengeance.' EXERCISE LXXXIII. THE SEMINOLE'S REPLY.-G. W. Patten. Blaze, with your serried columns ! The shackles ne'er again shall bind I've mailed it with the thunder, I've scared ye in the city, I've scalped ye on the plain; Go, count your chosen where they fell, I scorn your proffered treaty; Revenge is stamped upon my spear, Some strike for hope of booty, And catch, while chanting at his side, Ye've trailed me through the forest, I loathe ye in my bosom, I scorn ye with mine eye; And I'll taunt ye with my latest breath, I ne'er will ask ye quarter, And I ne'er will be your slave; EXERCISE LXXXIV. THE ASPECT OF HOLLAND.- Anon. A great part of the fertile and cultivated soil of Holland, as is well known, has been redeemed from the ocean, or from the stagnant waters of the rivers, by which it is intersected. The inhabitants are obliged always to guard their possessions with vigilance, and often to repel encroachments with activity and vigor. From the port of Ostend to the mouth of the Ems, along a line of coast extending several hundred miles, there is no barrier against the invasion of the sea, except a continued range of dykes or mounds of sand, raised by the art, and preserved by the industry, of man. By miracles of enterprise and perseverance, the Hollanders have thus been able to say to the raging ocean, without presumption or blasphemy,'Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.' Within this line we find fertile fields, extensive meadows, magnificent pleasure-grounds, noble parks, smiling villages, and populous cities. No landscape is more rich or striking; no country of the same extent supports such a number of inhabitants, or contains such an accumulation of the fruits of industry and the materials of happiness. From the top of several of the town-spires, you can see nearly all the great cities of Holland, spread out before you, on a surface as level as the ocean, and can trace the line of the ocean itself, by the range of yellow sand eminences, destined to act as a bulwark against its waves. At flood-tide, or with the wind blowing in a particular direction, the level of the waters beyond the dykes, becomes higher than the dry land within them. You may, therefore, hear the waves beating against the barrier above your head, and see that nothing but its height and strength, can protect you from their violence. 6 To this enemy from without, the Dutch have to add one, frequently no less terrible, from within. 'Your kingdom,' said Napoleon to his brother Louis, 'may be defined the deposit of the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt; the great arteries of my empire.' The contents of these great arteries are drained off in a thousand canals and lines of communication between city and city, between village and village; nay, even between street and street, and field and field, and pass, with diminished power, and by almost imperceptible degrees, into the German Ocean, or the Zuyder Zee. But when their volume is violently increased by storms in the higher regions of Europe, or their discharge interrupted by tempests on the coast, a great part of the country is exposed to as much danger from their overflow, as from the agitated waters of the sea. The soil of Holland, thus rescued and protected, bears everywhere the marks of its origin. It consists either of pure sand, as if it had recently been raised from the bottom of the sea; or of a mossy, black mould, as if formed from * the inundation of a river. The care of supporting the dykes, and protecting the land, which is liable to be inundated, several times every year, by the sea or the rivers, is intrusted to a permanent administration. Obliged to watch their dykes, sluices, and waterworks, as the garrison of a besieged fortress stations sentinels on its ramparts, this body must be always ready and always efficient. But, notwithstanding all this care, and all these precau |