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

Its Prey, And Its Bleeding Tongue Hanging Out, It Struck

Me With Awe. I Took Off The Skin, Hung It To A Tree, And Securing The

Cub, I Hastened home, Having Lost My Appetite For Fishing Or A

Fish-Supper For That Evening.

 

 

 

A Week After This Circumstance, A Company Of Traders Arrived from St.

Louis. They Had Been Attacked by Indians, And Made A Doleful Appearance.

During Their Trip They Had Once Remained six Days Without Any Kind Of

Food, Except Withered grass. Here It May Not Be Amiss To Say A Few Words

About The Origin Of This Inland Mercantile Expedition, And The Dangers

With Which The Traders Are Menaced.

 

 

 

In 1807, Captain Pike, Returning From His Exploring Trip In the Interior

Of The American Continent, Made It Known To The United states Merchants

That They Could Establish A Very Profitable Commerce With The Central

Provinces Of The North Of Mexico; And In 1812, A Small Party Of

Adventurers. Millar, Knight, Chambers, Beard, And Others, Their Whole

Number Not Exceeding Twelve, Forced their Way From St. Louis To Santa

Fe, With A Small Quantity Of Goods.

 

 

 

It Has Always Been The Policy Of The Spaniards To Prevent Strangers From

Penetrating Into The Interior Of Their Colonies. At That Period, Mexico

Being In revolution, Strangers, And Particularly Americans, Were Looked

Upon With Jealousy And Distrust. These Merchants Were, Consequently,

Seized upon, Their Goods Confiscated, And Themselves Shut Up In the

Prisons Of Chihuahua, Where, During Several Years, They Underwent A

Rigorous Treatment.

 

 

 

It Was, I Believe, In the Spring Of 1821, That Chambers, With The Other

Prisoners, Returned to The United states, And Shortly Afterwards A

Treaty With The States Rendered the Trade Lawful. Their Accounts Induced

One Captain Glenn, Of Cincinnati, To Join Them In a Commercial

Expedition, And Another Caravan, Twenty Men Strong, Started again For

Santa Fe. They Sought A Shorter Road, To Fall In with The Arkansas

River, But Their Enterprise Failed; For, Instead Of Ascending The Stream

Of The Canadian Fork, It Appears That They Only Coasted the Great River

To Its Intersection By The Missouri Road.

 

 

 

There Is Not A Drop Of Water In this Horrible Region, Which Extends Even

To The Cimaron River, And In this Desert They Had To Suffer All The

Pangs Of Thirst. They Were Reduced to The Necessity Of Killing Their

Dogs And Bleeding Their Mules To Moisten Their Parched lips. None Of

Them Perished; But, Quite Dispirited, They Changed their Direction And

Turned back To The Nearest Point Of The River Arkansas, Where They Were

At Least Certain To Find Abundance Of Water. By This Time Their Beasts

Of Burden Were So Tired and Broken Down That They Had Become Of No Use.

They Were Therefore Obliged to Conceal Their Goods, And Arrived without

Any More Trouble At Santa Fe, When, Procuring Other Mules, They Returned

To Their Cachette.

 

 

 

Many Readers Are Probably Unaware Of The Process Employed by The Traders

To Conceal Their Cargo, Their Arms, And Even Their Provisions. It Is

Nothing More Than A Large Excavation In the Earth, In the Shape Of A

Jar, In which The Objects Are Stored; The Bottom Of The Cachette Having

Been First Covered with Wood And Canvas, So As To Prevent Anything Being

Spoiled by The Damp. The Important Science Of Cachaye (Canadian

Expression) Consists In leaving No Trace Which Might Betray It To The

Indians; To Prevent This, The Earth Taken From The Excavation Is Put

Into Blankets And Carried to A Great Distance.

 

 

 

The Place Generally Selected for A Cachette Is A Swell In the Prairie,

Sufficiently Elevated to Be Protected from Any Kind Of Inundation, And

The Arrangement Is So Excellent, That It Is Very Seldom That The Traders

Lose Anything In their Cachette, Either By The Indians, The Changes Of

The Climate, Or The Natural Dampness Of The Earth.

 

 

 

In The Spring Of 1820, A Company From Franklin, In the West Of Missouri,

Had Already Proceeded to Santa Fe, With Twelve Mules Loaded with Goods.

They Crossed prairies Where No White Man Had Ever Penetrated, Having No

Guides But The Stars Of Heaven, The Morning Breeze From The Mountains,

And Perhaps A Pocket Compass. Daily They Had To Pass Through Hostile

Nations; But Spite Of Many Other Difficulties, Such As Ignorance Of The

Passes And Want Of Water, They Arrived at Santa Fe.

 

 

 

The Adventurers Returned to Missouri During The Fall; Their Profit Had

Been Immense, Although The Capital They Had Employed had Been Very

Small. Their Favourable Reports Produced a Deep Sensation, And In the

Spring Of The Next Year, Colonel Cooper And Some Associates, To The

Number Of Twenty-Two, Started with Fourteen Mules Well Loaded. This Time

The Trip Was A Prompt And A Fortunate One; And The Merchants Of St.

Louis Getting Bolder And Bolder, Formed, In 1822, A Caravan Of Seventy

Men, Who Carried with Them Goods To The Amount Of Forty

Thousand Dollars.

 

 

 

Thus Began The Santa Fe Trade, Which Assumed a More Regular Character.

Companies Started in the Spring To Return In the Fall, With Incredible

Benefits, And The Trade Increasing, The Merchants Reduced the Number Of

Their Guards, Till, Eventually, Repeated attacks From The Savages

Obliged them To Unite Together, In order To Travel With Safety.

 

 

 

At First The Indians Appeared disposed to Let Them Pass Without Any Kind

Of Interruption; But During The Summer Of 1826 They Began To Steal The

Mules And The Horses Of The Travellers; Yet They Killed nobody Till

1828. Then A Little Caravan, Returning From Santa Fe, Followed the

Stream Of The North Fork Of The Canadian River. Two Of The Traders,

Having Preceded the Company In search Of Game, Fell Asleep On The Edge

Of A Brook. These Were Espied by A Band Of Indians, Who Surprised them,

Seized their Rifles, Took Their Scalps And Retired before The Caravan

Had Reached the Brook, Which Had Been Agreed upon As The Place Of

Rendezvous. When The Traders Arrived, One Of The Victims Still Breathed.

They Carried him To The Cimaron, Where He Expired, And Was Buried

According To The Prairie Fashion.

 

 

 

Scarcely Had The Ceremony Been Terminated, When Upon A Neighbouring Hill

Appeared four Indians, Apparently Ignorant Of What Had Happened. The

Exasperated merchants Invited them Into Their Camp, And Murdered all

Except One, Who, Although Wounded, Succeeded in making His Escape.

 

 

 

This Cruel Retaliation Brought Down Heavy Punishment. Indeed from That

Period The Indians Vowed an Eternal War--A War To The Knife, "In The

Forests And The Prairies, In the Middle Of Rivers And Lakes, And Even

Among The Mountains Covered with Eternal Snows."

 

 

 

Shortly After This Event Another Caravan Was Fallen In with And Attacked

By The Savages, Who Carried off With Them Thirty-Five Scalps, Two

Hundred and Fifty Mules, And Goods To The Amount Of Thirty

Thousand Dollars.

 

 

 

These Terrible Dramas Were Constantly Reacted in these Vast Western

Solitudes, And The Fate Of The Unfortunate Traders Would Be Unknown,

Until Some Day, Perchance, A Living Skeleton, A Famished being, Covered

With Blood, Dust, And Mire, Would Arrive At One Of The Military Posts On

The Borders, And Relate An Awful And Bloody Tragedy, From Which He Alone

Had Escaped.

 

 

 

In 1831, Mr. Sublette And His Company Crossed the Prairies With

Twenty-Five Waggons. He And His Company Were Old Pioneers Among The

Rocky Mountains, Whom The Thirst Of Gold Had Transformed into Merchants.

They Went Without Guides, And No One Among Them Had Ever Performed the

Trip. All That They Knew Was That They Were Going From Such To Such A

Degree Of Longitude. They Reached the Arkansas River, But From Thence To

The Cimaron There Is No Road, Except The Numerous Paths Of The

Buffaloes, Which, Intersecting The Prairie, Very Often Deceive The

Travellers.

 

 

 

When The Caravan Entered this Desert The Earth Was Entirely Dry, And The

Pioneers Mistaking Their Road, Wandered during Several Days Exposed to

All The Horrors Of A Febrile Thirst Under A Burning Sun. Often They Were

Seduced by The Deceitful Appearance Of A Buffalo-Path, And In this

Perilous Situation Captain Smith, One Of The Owners Of The Caravan,

Resolved to Follow One Of These Paths, Which He Considered would

Indubitably Lead Him To Some Spring Of Water Or To A Marsh.

 

 

 

He Was Alone, But He Had Never Known Fear. He Was The Most Determined

Adventurer Who Had Ever Passed the Rocky Mountains, And If But Half Of

What Is Said Of Him Is True, His Dangerous Travels And His Hairbreadth

Escapes Would Fill Many Volumes More Interesting and Romantic Than The

Best Pages Of The American Novelist. Poor Man! After Having During So

Many Years Escaped from The Arrows And Bullets Of The Indians, He Was

Fated to Fall Under The Tomahawk, And His Bones To Bleach Upon The

Desert Sands.

 

 

 

He Was About Twelve Miles From His Comrades, When, Turning Round A Small

Hill, He Perceived the Long-Sought Object Of His Wishes. A Small Stream

Glided smoothly In the Middle Of The Prairie Before Him. It Was The

River Cimaron. He Hurried forward To Moisten His Parched lips, But Just

As He Was Stooping Over The Water He Fell, Pierced by Ten Arrows. A Band

Of Comanches Had Espied him, And Waited there For Him. Yet He Struggled

Bravely. The Indians Have Since Acknowledged that, Wounded as He Was,

Before Dying, Captain Smith Had Killed three Of Their People.

 

 

 

Such Was The Origin Of The Santa Fe Trade, And Such Are The Liabilities

Which Are Incurred even Now, In the Great Solitudes Of The West.

Chapter XIV

Time Passed away Till I And My Companions Were Heartily Tired of Our

Inactivity: Besides, I Was Home-Sick, And I Had Left Articles Of Great

Value At The Settlement, About Which I Was Rather Fidgety. So One Day We

Determined that We Would Start Alone, And Return To The Settlement By A

Different Road. We Left Santa Fe And Rode Towards The North, And It Was

Not Until We Had Passed taos, The Last Mexican Settlement, That We

Became Ourselves Again And Recovered our Good Spirits. Gabriel Knew The

Road; Our Number Was Too Small Not To Find Plenty To Eat, And As To The

Hostile Indians, It Was A Chance We Were Willing Enough To Encounter. A

Few Days After We Had Quitted santa Fe, And When In the Neighbourhood

Of The Spanish Peaks And About Thirty Degrees North Latitude, We Fell In

With A Numerous Party Of The Comanches.

 

 

 

It Was The First Time We Had Seen Them In a Body, And It Was A Grand

Sight. Gallant Horsemen They Were And Well Mounted. They Were Out Upon

An Expedition Against The Pawnee[15] Loups, And They Behaved to Us With

The Greatest Kindness And Hospitality. The Chief Knew Gabriel, And

Invited us To Go In company With Them To Their Place Of Encampment. The

Chief Was A Tall, Fine Fellow, And With Beautiful Symmetry Of Figure. He

Spoke Spanish Well, And The Conversation Was Carried on In that Tongue

Until The Evening, When I Addressed him In shoshone, Which Beautiful

Dialect Is Common To The Comanches, Apaches, And Arrapahoes, And Related

To Him The Circumstances Of Our Captivity On The Shores Of The Colorado

Of The West. As I Told My Story The Chief Was Mute With Astonishment,

Until At Last, Throwing aside The Usual Indian Decorum, He Grasped me

Firmly By The Hand. He Knew I Was Neither A Yankee Nor A Mexican, And

Swore That For My Sake Every Canadian Or Frenchman Falling In their

Power Should Be Treated as A Friend. After Our Meal We Sat Comfortably

Round The Fires, And Listened to Several Speeches And Traditions Of

The Warriors.

 

 

 

[Footnote 15: The Word Pawnee Signifies "_Exiled_;" Therefore It Does

Not Follow That The Three Tribes Bearing The Same Name Belong To The

Same Nation.

 

 

 

The Grand Pawnees, The Tribe Among Whom Mr. Murray Resided, Are Of

Dahcotah Origin, And Live Along The Shores Of The River Platte; The

Pawnee Loups Are Of The Algonquin Race, Speaking Quite Another Language,

And Occupying The Country Situated between The Northern Forks Of The

Same River. Both Tribes Are Known Among The Trappers To Be The "Crows Of

The East;" That Is To Say, Thieves And Treacherous. They Cut Their Hair

Short Except On The Scalp, As Is Usual