This is a masterly and original delineation of Indian life. It is a strong story, charged with the elemental forces of the human heart. The author portrays with unusual power the intense, stern piety of the ministers of colonial New England, and the strange mingling of dignity, superstition, ferocity, and stoicism that characterized the early Indian warriors.
There is no need of romancing, and Mr. Balch’s scenic descriptions are for all practical purposes real descriptions. The legends he relates of the great bridge which once spanned the Columbia, for which there is some substantial history, adds to the mystical charms of the story. His Indian characters are as real as if photographed from life. No writer has presented a finer character than the great chief of the Willamettes, Multnomah; Snoqualmie the Cayuse; or Tohomish the Seer. The night visit of Multnomah to the tomb of his dead wife upon that lonely island in the Willamette is a picture that will forever live in the reader’s memory.... To those who have traversed the ground, and know something of Indian character and the wild, free life of pioneer days, the story will be charming.--_Inter-Ocean, Chicago._
It is a truthful and realistic picture of the powerful Indian tribes that inhabited the Oregon country two centuries ago.... It is a book that will be of value as a historical authority; and as a story of interest and charm, there are few novels that can rival it.--_Traveller, Boston._
There is much and deep insight in this book. The characters stand in clear outline, and are original. The movement of the story is quick and varied, like the running water of the great river.--_The Pacific, San Francisco._
Its field is new for fiction; it is obviously the work of one who has bestowed a great deal of study on the subjects he would illustrate. It is very interesting reading, fluently written.--_Times, Chicago._
_Sold by all booksellers, or mailed, on receipt of price, by_ A. C. MCCLURG & CO., PUBLISHERS, COR. WABASH AVE. AND MADISON ST., CHICAGO.
The uncommonly favorable reception of Mrs. Abbott’s brilliant novelette, “Alexia,” by the public bespeaks in advance a lively interest in her new novel, “The Beverleys.” It is a more extended and ambitious work than the former, but has the same grace of style and liveliness of treatment, together with a much more considerable plot and more subtle delineations of character and life. The action of the story takes place in India, and reveals on the part of the authoress the most intimate knowledge of the official life of the large and aristocratic English colony in Calcutta. The local coloring is strong and unusual.