In presenting this volume to the public, the author cannot but claim the indulgence due to one who has ventured upon a previously untrodden ground. The romancer and novelist have indeed explored the wilds of Indian character, and imaginatively and even poetically portrayed in prose the lives and contests of the red-men.<br><br>But the poet, to whom the simplicity of their lives, the vigor of their hardy natures, and the mystery of their origin, existence, and decay, seem so suggestive of poetic imaginations, has passed over the field, or only contributed to the world short though beautiful reminiscences of that primitive people.