With nature's beauties, gaily dress'd,
Lay calm beneath the red man's reign,
And smiling, in unconscious rest,

Then roam'd the forest's dusky son,
In nature's wildness, proudly free,
From where Missouri's waters run,
Far north, to Hudson's icy sea.

From Labrador, bleak, lonely, wild,
Where seal, 'mid icebergs, sportive play,
Far westward wander'd nature's child,
And wigwam built, near Georgia's Bay.

With bow of elm, or hick'ry strong,
And arrow arm'd with flinty head,
He drew with practis'd hand the thong,
And quick and straight, the shaft it sped.

Full many a bounding deer or doe,
Lay victims of his hand and eye,
And many a shaggy buffalo,
In lifeless bulk did lowly lie.

The forest did his wants supply,
Content he was with nature's scheme;
For, fail'd the woods to satisfy,
There came response from lake or stream.

His simple shell of birchen rind,