MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) - FREDERICK MARRYAT (books to read this summer txt) 📗

It As Follows:--He

Went Down To The Side Of The River, And Fixed upon A Spot As The Centre;

Then He Selected two Trees, On The Right And Left, On The Other Side, As

Near As His Eye Could Measure Equidistant From Where He Stood. Having So

Done, He Backed his Horse From The River, Until He Came To Where His Eye

Told Him That He Had Obtained the Point Of An Equilateral Triangle.

Thus, In the Diagram He Selected the Two Trees, A And B, Walked back To

E, And There Fixed his Lance. He Then Fell Back In the Direction E D,

Until He Had, As Nearly As He Could Tell, Made The Distance From A E

Equal To That From E D, And Fixed another Lance. The Same Was Repeated

To E C, When The Last Lance Was Fixed. He Then Had A Parallelogram; And

As The Distance From F To E Was Exactly Equal To The Distance From E To

G, He Had But To Measure The Space Between The Bank Of The River And E,

And Deduct It From E G, And He Obtained the Width Of The River Required.

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

I Do Not Think That This Calculation, Which Proved to Be Perfectly

Correct, Occupied the Old Chief More Than Three Minutes; And It Must Be

Remembered that It Was Done In the Face Of The Enemy. But I Resume My

Own History.

Chapter X

In Narrating The Unhappy Death Of The Prince, I Have Stated that The

Crows Bore No Good-Will To The White Men Established among The

Shoshones. That Feeling, However, Was Not Confined to That Tribe; It Was

Shared by All The Others Within Two Or Three Hundred miles From The

Buona Ventura River, And It Was Not Surprising! Since Our Arrival, The

Tribe Had Acquired a Certain Degree Of Tactics And Unity Of Action Which

Was Sufficient In itself To Bear Down All Their Enemies, Independent Of

The Immense Power They Had Obtained from Their Quantity Of Fire-Arms And

Almost Inexhaustible Ammunition. All The Other Nations Were Jealous Of

Their Strength And Resources, And This Jealousy Being Now Worked up To

Its Climax, They Determined to Unite And Strike A Great Blow, Not Only

To Destroy The Ascendancy Which The Shoshones Had Attained, But Also To

Possess Themselves Of The Immense Wealth Which They Foolishly Supposed

The Europeans Had Brought With Them To The Settlement.

 

 

 

For A Long Time Previous To The Crow And Umbiqua Expedition, Which I

Have Detailed, Messengers Had Been Passing Between Tribe And Tribe, And,

Strange To Say, They Had Buried all Their Private Animosities To Form A

League Against The Common Enemy, As Were Considered the Shoshones. It

Was, No Doubt, Owing To This Arrangement That The Crows And Umbiquas

Showed themselves So Hardy; But The Prompt And Successful Retaliation Of

The Shoshones Cooled a Little The War Spirit Which Was Fomenting around

Us. However, The Arrapahoes Having Consented to Join The League, The

United confederates At Once Opened the Campaign, And Broke Upon Our

Country In every Direction.

 

 

 

We Were Taken By Surprise; For The First Three Weeks They Carried

Everything Before Them, For The Majority Of Our Warriors Were Still

Hunting. But Having Been Apprised of The Danger, They Returned in

Haste, And The Aspect Of Affairs Soon Changed. The Lost Ground Was

Regained inch By Inch. The Arrapahoes Having Suffered a Great Deal,

Retired from The League, And Having Now Nothing To Fear From The South,

We Turned against Our Assailants On Our Northern Boundaries.

Notwithstanding The Desertion Of The Arrapahoes, The United tribes Were

Still Three Times Our Number, But They Wanted union, And Did Not Act In

Concert. They Mustered about Fifteen Thousand Warriors, From The

Umbiquas, Callapoos, Cayuses, Nez-Perces, Bonnaxes, Flat-Heads, And Some

Of The Crows, Who Had Not Yet Gained prudence From Their Last

"Brushing." The Superiority Of Our Arms, Our Tactics, Discipline, And

Art Of Intrenchment, Together With The Good Service Of Two Clumsy Old

Spanish Four-Pounders, Enabled us Not Only In a Short Time To Destroy

The League, But Also To Crush And Annihilate For Ever Some Of Our

Treacherous Neighbours. As It Would Be Tedious To A Stranger To Follow

The Movements Of The Whole Campaign, I Will Merely Mention That Part Of

It In which I Assisted[13].

 

 

 

[Footnote 13: The System Of Prairie Warfare Is So Different From Ours,

That The Campaign I Have Just Related will Not Be Easily Understood By

Those Acquainted only With European Military Tactics.

 

 

 

When A European Army Starts Upon An Expedition, It Is Always Accompanied

By Waggons, Carrying Stores Of Provisions And Ammunition Of All Kinds.

There Is A Commissariat Appointed for The Purpose Of Feeding The Troops.

Among The Indians There Is No Such Thing, And Except A Few Pieces Of

Dried venison, A Pound Weight Of Powder, And A Corresponding Quantity Of

Lead, If He Has A Rifle, But If Not, With His Lance, Bow, Arrows, And

Tomahawk, The Warrior Enters The War-Path. In the Closer Country, For

Water And Fuel, He Trusts To The Streams And To The Trees Of The Forests

Or Mountains; When In the Prairie, To The Mud Holes And Chasms For

Water, And To The Buffalo-Dung For His Fire. His Rifle And Arrows Will

Always Give Him Enough Of Food.

 

 

 

But These Supplies Would Not, Of Course, Be Sufficient For A Great

Number Of Men; Ten Thousand For Example. A Water-Hole Would Be Drained

By The First Two Or Three Hundred men That Might Arrive, And The

Remainder Would Be Obliged to Go Without Any. Then, Unless Perchance

They Should Fall Upon A Large Herd Of Buffaloes, They Would Never Be

Able To Find The Means Of Sustaining Life. A Buffalo, Or Three Or Four

Deer Can Be Killed every Day, By Hunters Out Of The Tract Of An

Expedition; This Supply Would Suffice For A Small War Party, But It

Would Never Do For An Army.

 

 

 

Except In the Buffalo Ranges, Where The Comanches, The Apaches, And The

Southern Shoshones Will Often Go By Bands Of Thousands, The Generality

Of The Indians Enter The Path In a Kind Of _Echelonage_; That Is To Say,

Supposing The Shoshones To Send Two Thousand Men Against The Crows, They

Would Be Divided into Fifteen Or Twenty Bands, Each Commanded by An

Inferior Chief. The First Party Will Start For Reconnoitering. The Next

Day The Second Band, Accompanied by The Great Chiefs, Will Follow, But

In Another Track; And So On With A Third, Till Three Hundred or Three

Hundred and Fifty Are United together. Then They Will Begin Their

Operations, New Parties Coming To Take The Place Of Those Who Have

Suffered, Till They Themselves Retire To Make Room For Others. Every New

Comer Brings A Supply Of Provisions, The Produce Of Their Chase In

Coming, So That Those Who Are Fighting Need be In no Fear Of Wanting The

Necessaries Of Life. By This The Reader Will See That A Band Of Two

Thousand Warriors, Only Four Or Five Hundred are Effectually Fighting,

Unless The Number Of Warriors Agreed upon By The Chiefs Prove Too Small,

When New Reinforcements Are Sent Forward.]  We Were Divided into Four

War Parties: One Which Acted against The Bonnaxes And The Flat-Heads, In

The North-East; The Second, Against The Cayuses And Nez-Perces, At The

Forks Of The Buona Ventura And Calumet Rivers; The Third Remained near

The Settlement, To Protect It From Surprise; While The Fourth, A Very

Small One, Under My Father'S Command, And To Which I Was Attached,

Remained in or About The Boat-House, At The Fishing Station. Independent

Of These Four Parties, Well-Armed bands Were Despatched into The Umbiqua

Country Both By Land And Sea.

 

 

 

In The Beginning, Our Warfare On The Shores Of The Pacific Amounted

Merely To Skirmishes, But By-And-Bye, The Callapoos Having Joined the

Umbiquas With A Numerous Party, The Game Assumed more Interest. We Not

Only Lost Our Advantages In the Umbiqua Country, But Were Obliged little

By Little To Retire To The Post; This, However, Proved to Be Our

Salvation. We Were But One Hundred and Six Men, Whilst Our Adversaries

Mustered four Hundred and Eighty, And Yet Full One-Fifth Of Their Number

Were Destroyed in one Afternoon, During a Desperate Attack Which They

Made Upon The Post, Which Had Been Put Into An Admirable State

Of Defence.

 

 

 

The Roof Had Been Covered with Sheets Of Copper, And Holes Had Been

Opened in various Parts Of The Wall For The Use Of The Cannon, Of Our

Possession Of Which The Enemy Was Ignorant The First Assault Was

Gallantly Conducted, And Every One Of The Loopholes Was Choked with

Their Balls And Arrows. On They Advanced, In a Close And Thick Body,

With Ladders And Torches, Yelling Like A Million Of Demons. When At The

Distance Of Sixty Yards, We Poured upon Them The Contents Of Our Two

Guns; They Were Heavily Loaded with Grape-Shot, And Produced a Most

Terrible Effect. The Enemy Did Not Retreat; Raising Their War-Whoop, On

They Rushed with A Determination Truly Heroical.

 

 

 

The Guns Were Again Fired, And Also The Whole Of Our Musketry, After

Which A Party Of Forty Of Our Men Made A Sortie. This Last Charge Was

Sudden And Irresistible; The Enemy Fled in every Direction, Leaving

Behind Their Dead And Wounded. That Evening We Received a Reinforcement

Of Thirty-Eight Men From The Settlement, With A Large Supply Of Buffalo

Meat And Twenty Fine Young Fat Colts. This Was A Great Comfort To Us,

As, For Several Days We Had Been Obliged to Live Upon Our Dried fish.

 

 

 

During Seven Days We Saw Nothing Of The Enemy; But Our Scouts Scoured in

Every Direction, And Our Long-Boat Surprised, In a Bay Opposite George

Point, Thirty-Six Large Boats, In which The Callapoos Had Come From

Their Territory. The Boats Were Destroyed, And Their Keepers Scalped. As

The Heat Was Very Intense, We Resolved not To Confine Ourselves Any More

Within The Walls Of The Post; We Formed a Spacious Camp, To The East Of

The Block-House, With Breastworks Of Uncommon Strength. This Plan

Probably Saved us From Some Contagious Disease; Indeed, The Bad Smell Of

The Dried fish, And The Rarefied air In the Building, Had Already Begun

To Affect Many Of Our Men, Especially The Wounded.

 

 

 

At The End Of A Week Our Enemy Reappeared, Silent And Determined. They

Had Returned for Revenge Or For Death; The Struggle Was To Be A Fearful

One. They Encamped in the Little Open Prairie On The Other Side Of The

River, And Mustered about Six Hundred men.

 

 

 

The First War-Party Had Overthrown And Dispersed the Bonnaxes, As They

Were On Their Way To Join The Flat-Heads; And The Former Tribe Not Being

Able To Effect The Intended junction, Threw Itself Among The Cayuses And

Nez-Perces. These Three Combined nations, After A Desultory Warfare,

Gave Way Before The Second War-Party; And The Bonnaxes, Being Now

Rendered desperate By Their Losses And The Certainty That They Would Be

Exterminated if The Shoshones Should Conquer, Joined the Callapoos And

Umbiquas, To Make One More Attack Upon Our Little Garrison.

 

 

 

Nothing Could Have Saved us, Had The Flat-Heads Held Out Any Longer; But

The Black-Feet, Their Irreconcilable Enemies, Seizing The Opportunity,

Had Entered their Territory. They Sued to Us For Peace, And Then

Detachments From Both War-Parties Hastened to Our Help. Of This We Were

Apprised by Our Runners; And Having Previously Concerted measures With

My Father, I Started alone To Meet These Detachments, In the Passes Of

The Mineral Mountains. The Returning Warriors Were Seven Hundred strong,

And Had Not Lost More Than Thirteen Men In their Two Expeditions; They

Divided into Three Bands, And Succeeded, Without Discovery, In

Surrounding The Prairie In which The Enemy Were Encamped; An Indian Was

Then Sent To Cross The River, A Few Miles To The East, And Carry A

Message To My Father.

 

 

 

The Moon Rose At One In the Morning. It Was Arranged that, Two Hours

Before Its Rising, The Garrison Of The Block-House, Which Had Already

Suffered a Great Deal, During Four Days Of A Close Siege, Were To Let

Off The Fireworks That I Had Received from The Mexicans At Monterey, And

To Watch Well The Shore On Their