MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) - FREDERICK MARRYAT (books to read this summer txt) 📗
- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
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Yankees And Say To Them, 'Go To The Wigwams Of The Comanches, And You
Will See The Scalps Of Your Friends Hanging Upon Long Poles.' But We Did
Not Care For We Knew It Was Not True.
"A Long Time Passed away, When The Evil Spirit Of The Cad Does Whispered
To Them To Come To The Villages Of The Comanches While They Were
Hunting, And To Take Away With Them All That They Could. They Did So,
Entering The War-Path As Foxes And Owls, During Night. When They
Arrived, They Found Nothing But Squaws, Old Women, And Little Children.
Yet These Fought Well, And Many Of The Caddoes Were Killed before They
Abandoned their Lodges. They Soon Found Us Out In the Hunting-Ground;
And Our Great Chief Ordered me To Start With Five Hundred warriors, And
Never Return Until The Caddoes Should Have No Home, And Wander Like Deer
And Starved wolves In the Open Prairie.
"I Followed the Track. First, I Burnt Their Great Villages In the Cross
Timbers, And Then Pursued them In the Swamps And Cane-Brakes Of The
East, Where They Concealed themselves Among The Long Lizards Of The
Water (The Alligators). We, However, Came Up With Them Again, And They
Crossed the Sabine, To Take Shelter Among The Yankees, Where They Had
Another Village, Which Was Their Largest And Their Richest. We Followed,
And On The Very Shores Of Their River, Although A Thousand Miles From
Our Own Country, And Where The Waters Are Dyed with The Red clay Of The
Soil, We Encamped round Their Wigwams And Prepared to Conquer.
"It Was At The Gloomy Season, When It Rains Night And Day; The River Was
High, The Earth Damp, And Our Young Braves Shivering, Even Under Their
Blankets. It Was Evening, When, Far To The South, Above One Of The
Windings Of The Stream, I Saw A Thick Black Smoke Rising as A Tall Pine
Among The Clouds, And I Watched it Closely. It Came Towards Us; And As
The Sky Darkened and Night Came On, Sparks Of Fire Showed the Progress
Of The Strange Sight. Soon Noises Were Heard, Like Those Of The
Mountains When The Evil Spirits Are Shaking Them; The Sounds Were Awful,
Solemn, And Regular, Like The Throbs Of A Warrior'S Heart; And Now And
Then A Sharp, Shrill Scream Would Rend The Air And Awake Other Terrible
Voices In the Forest.
"It Came, And Deer, Bears, Panthers Were Passing among Us, Madly Flying
Before The Dreaded unknown. It Came, It Flew, Nearer And Nearer, Till We
Saw It Plainly With Its Two Big Mouths, Spitting Fire Like The Burning
Mountains Of The West. It Rained very Hard, And Yet We Saw All. It Was
Like A Long Fish, Shaped like A Canoe, And Its Sides Had Many Eyes, Full
Of Bright Light As The Stars Above.
"I Saw No One With The Monster; He Was Alone, Breaking The Waters And
Splashing Them With His Arms, His Legs, Or His Fins. On The Top, And It
Was Very High, There Was A Square Lodge. Once I Thought I Could See A
Man In it, But It Was A Fancy; Or Perhaps The Soul Of The Thing,
Watching From Its Hiding-Place For A Prey Which It Might Seize Upon.
Happily It Was Dark, Very Dark, And Being In a Hollow Along The Banks,
We Could Not Be Perceived; And The Dreadful Thing Passed.
"The Caddoes Uttered a Loud Scream Of Fear And Agony, Their Hearts Were
Melted. We Said Nothing, For We Were Comanches And Warriors; And Yet I
Felt Strange, And Was Fixed to Where I Stood. A Man Is But A Man, And
Even A Red-Skin Cannot Struggle With A Spirit. The Scream Of The
Caddoes, However, Frightened the Monster; Its Flanks Opened and
Discharged some Tremendous Anim Tekis (Thunders) On The Village. I Heard
The Crashing Of The Logs, The Splitting Of The Hides Covering The
Lodges, And When The Smoke Was All Gone, It Left A Smell Of Powder; The
Monster Was Far, Far Off And There Was No Trace Of It Left, Except The
Moans Of The Wounded and The Lamentation Of The Squaws Among
The Caddoes.
"I And My Young Men Soon Recovered our Senses; We Entered the Village,
Burnt Everything, And Killed the Warriors. They Would Not Fight; But As
They Were Thieves, We Destroyed them. We Returned to Our Own Villages,
Every One Of Us With Many Scalps, And Since That Time The Caddoes Have
Never Been A Nation; They Wander From North To South, And From East To
West; They Have Huts Made With The Bark Of Trees, Or They Take Shelter
In The Burrows Of The Prairie Dogs, With The Owls And The Snakes; But
They Have No Lodges, No Wigwams, No Villages. Thus May It Be With All
The Foes Of Our Great Nation."
This An Historical Fact. The Steamboat "Beaver" Made Its First
Exploration Upon The Red river, Some Eighty Miles Above The French
Settlement Of Nachitochy, Just At The Very Time That The Comanches Were
Attacking The Last Caddoe Village Upon The Banks Of The Red river. These
Poor Savages Yelled with Terror When The Strange Mass Passed thus Before
Them, And, Either From Wanton Cruelty Or From Fear Of An Attack, The
Boat Fired four Guns, Loaded with Grape-Shot, Upon The Village, From
Which They Were Not A Hundred yards Distant.
The Following Is A Narrative Of Events Which Happened in the Time Of
Mosh Kohta (Buffalo), A Great Chief, Hundreds Of Years Ago, When The
Unfortunate "La Salle" Was Shipwrecked upon The Coast Of Texas, While
Endeavouring To Discover The Mouth Of The Mississippi. Such Records Are
Very Numerous Among The Great Prairie Tribes; They Bear Sometimes The
Ossianic Type, And Are Related every Evening During The Month Of
February, When The "Divines" And The Elders Of The Nation Teach To The
Young Men The Traditions Of Former Days.
"It Was In the Time Of A Chief, A Great Chief, Strong, Cunning, And
Wise, A Chief Of Many Bold Deeds. His Name Was Mosh Kohta.
"It Is A Long While! No Pale-Faces Dwelt In the Land Of Plenty (The
Translation Of The Indian Word 'Texas'); Our Grandfathers Had Just
Received it From The Great Spirit, And They Had Come From The Setting Of
The Sun Across The Big Mountains To Take Possession. We Were A Great
Nation--We Are So Now, We Have Always Been So, And We Will Ever Be. At
That Time, Also, Our Tribe Spread All Along The Western Shores Of The
Great Stream Mississippi, For No Pale-Face Had Yet Settled upon It. We
Were A Great People, Ruled by A Mighty Chief; The Earth, The Trees, The
Rivers, And The Air Know His Name. Is There A Place In the Mountains Or
The Prairies Where The Name Of Mosh Kohta Has Not Been Pronounced
And Praised?
"At That Time A Strange Warlike People Of The Pale-Faces Broke Their Big
Canoes Along Our Coasts Of The South, And They All Landed on The Shore,
Well Armed with Big Guns And Long Rifles, But They Had Nothing To Eat.
These Were The 'Mahamate-Kosh-Ehoj' (The French); Their Chief Was A Good
Man, A Warrior, And A Great Traveller; He Had Started from The Northern
Territories Of The Algonquins, To Go Across The Salt Water In far
Distant Lands, And Bring Back With Him Many Good Things Which The
Red-Skins Wanted:--Warm Blankets To Sleep Upon, Flints To Strike A Fire,
Axes To Cut The Trees, And Knives To Skin The Bear And The Buffalo. He
Was A Good Man, And Loved the Indians, For They Also Were Good, And Good
People Will Always Love Each Other.
"He Met With Mosh Kohta; Our Warriors Would Not Fight The Strangers, For
They Were Hungry, And Their Voices Were Soft; They Were Also Too Few To
Be Feared, Though Their Courage Seemed great Under Misfortune, And They
Would Sing and Laugh While They Suffered. We Gave Them Food, We Helped
Them To Take From The Waters The Planks Of Their Big Canoe, And To Build
The First Wigwam In which The Pale-Faces Ever Dwelt In texas. Two Moons
They Remained hunting The Buffalo With Our Young Men, Till At Last Their
Chief And His Bravest Warriors Started in some Small Canoes Of Ours, To
See If They Could Not Enter The Great Stream, By Following The Coast
Towards The Sunrise. He Was Gone Four Moons, And When He Returned, He
Had Lost Half Of His Men, By Sickness, Hunger, And Fatigue; Yet Mosh
Kohta Bade Him Not Despair; The Great Chief Promised the Pale-Faces To
Conduct Them In the Spring To The Great Stream, And For Several More
Moons We Lived all Together, As Braves And Brothers Should. Then, For
The First Time Also, The Comanches Got Some Of Their Rifles, And Others
Knives. Was It Good--Was It Bad? Who Knows? Yet The Lance And Arrows
Killed as Many Buffaloes As Lead And Black Dust (Powder), And The Squaws
Could Take Off The Skin Of A Deer Or A Beaver Without Knives. How They
Did It, No One Knows Now; But They Did It, Though They Had Not Yet Seen
The Keen And Sharp Knives Of The Pale-Faces.
"However, It Was Not Long Time Before Many Of The Strangers Tired of
Remaining So Far From Their Wigwams: Their Chief Every Morning Would
Look For Hours Towards The Rising Of The Sun, As If The Eyes Of His Soul
Could See Through The Immensity Of The Prairies; He Became Gloomy As A
Man Of Dark Deeds (A Medecin), And One Day, With Half Of His Men, He
Began A Long Inland Trail Across Prairies, Swamps, And Rivers, So Much
Did He Dread To Die Far From His Lodge. Yet He Did Die: Not Of Sickness,
Not Of Hunger, But Under The Knife Of Another Pale-Face; And He Was The
First One From Strange Countries Whose Bones Blanched without Burial In
The Waste. Often The Evening Breeze Whispers His Name Along The Swells
Of The Southern Plains, For He Was A Brave Man, And No Doubt He Is Now
Smoking With His Great Manitou.
"Well, He Started. At That Time The Buffalo And The Deer Were Plentiful,
And The Men Went On Their Trail Gaily Till They Reached the River Of
Many Forks (Trinity River), For They Knew That Every Day Brought Them
Nearer And Nearer To The Forts Of Their People, Though It Was Yet A Long
Way--Very Long. The Pale-Face Chief Had A Son With Him; A Noble Youth,
Fair To Look Upon, Active And Strong: The Comanches Loved him. Mosh
Kohta Had Advised him To Distrust Two Of His Own Warriors; But He Was
Young And Generous, Incapable Of Wrong Or Cowardice; He Would Not
Suspect It In others, Especially Among Men Of His Own Colour And Nation,
Who Had Shared his Toils, His Dangers, His Sorrows, And His Joys.
"Now These Two Warriors Our Great Chief Had Spoken Of Were Bad Men And
Very Greedy; They Were Ambitious Too, And Believed that, By Killing
Their Chief And His Son, They Would Themselves Command The Band. One
Evening, While They Were All Eating The Meal Of Friendship, Groans Were
Heard--A Murder Had Been Committed. The Other Warriors Sprang Up; They
Saw Their Chief Dead, And The Two Warriors Coming Towards Them; Their
Revenge Was Quick--Quick As That Of The Panther: The Two Base Warriors
Were Killed.
"Then There Was A Great Fight Among The Pale-Face Band, In which Many
Were Slain; But The Young Man And Some Other Braves Escaped from Their
Enemies, And, After Two Moons, Reached the Arkansas, Where They Found
Their Friends And Some Makota Conayas (Priests--Black-Gowns). The
Remainder Of The Band Who Left Us, And Who Murdered their Chief, Our
Ancestors Destroyed like Reptiles, For They Were Venomous And Bad. The
Other Half Of The Pale-Faces, Who Had Remained behind In their Wood
Wigwams, Followed our Tribe To Our Great Villages, Became Comanches, And
Took Squaws. Their Children And Grandchildren Have Formed a Good And
Brave Nation; They Are Paler Than The Comanches, But Their Heart Is All
The Same; And Often In the Hunting-Grounds They Join Our Hunters,
Partake Of The Same Meals, And Agree Like Brothers. These Are The Nation
Of The Wakoes, Not Far In the South, Upon The Trail Of The Cross
Timbers. But Who Knows Not The Wakoes?--Even Children Can Go To Their
Hospitable Lodges."
This Episode Is Historical. In the Early Months Of 1684, Four Vessels
Left La Rochelle, In france, For The Colonization Of The Mississippi,
Bearing Two Hundred and Eighty Persons. The Expedition Was Commanded by
La Salle, Who Brought With Him His Nephew, Moranget. After A Delay At
Santo Domingo, Which Lasted two Years, The Expedition, Missing The Mouth
Of The Mississippi, Entered the Bay Of Matagorda, Where They Were
Shipwrecked. "There," Says Bancroft In his History Of America, "Under
The Suns Of June, With Timber Felled in
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