The Indian Hunter

"The Indian Hunter" is a song based on a poem by Eliza Cook. Music was added by Henry Russell and published in 1842. In the poem, a lament, the hunter is questioning what the white man wants with him and his home.

Cook's poem
"The Indian Hunter", as written by Eliza Cook:


 * Oh! why does the white man follow my path,
 * Like the hound on the tiger's track?
 * Does the blush on my dark cheek waken he wrath?
 * Doe he covet the bow on my back?
 * He has rivers and seas, where the billows and breeze
 * Bear riches for him alone;
 * And the sons of the wood never plunge in the flood
 * Which the white man calls his own.


 * Why then should he come to the streams where none
 * But the red-skin dare to swim?
 * Why, why should he wrong the hunter-one,
 * Who never did harm to him?
 * The Father above thought fit to give
 * To the white man corn and wine;
 * There are golden fields, where they may live,
 * But the forest shades are mine.


 * The eagle hath its place of rest,
 * The wild horse where to dwell;
 * An the Spirit that gave the bird its nest,
 * Made me a home as well.
 * Then back, go back from the red man's track,
 * For the hunter's eyes grow dim,
 * To find that the white man wrongs the one
 * Who never did harm to him.