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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"Oak Openings"

If the pale-faces believe we have a right to that
distant land, which is so rich in good things, we will give it to
them, and keep these openings, and prairies, and woods. We know the
game of this country, and have found out how to kill it. We do not
know the game under the rising sun, which may kill us. Go to your
friends and say, 'The Injins will give you that land near the rising
sun, if you will let them alone on their hunting-grounds, where they
have so long been. They say that your canoes are larger than their
canoes, and that one can carry a whole tribe. They have seen some of
your big canoes on the great lakes, and have measured them. Fill all
you have got with your squaws and pappooses, put your property in
them, and go back by the long path through which you came. Then will
the red man thank the pale-face and be his friend. The white man is
welcome to that far-off land. Let him take it, and build his
villages on it, and cut down its trees. This is all the Injins ask.
If the pale-faces can take away with them the small-pox and the
fire-water, it will be better still. They brought both into this
country, it is right that they should take them away.


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