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

Elegant And Full Of Metaphors, Assumes

All The Graceful Variety Of The Brightest Pages Of Saadi.

 

 

 

[Footnote 6: The American Travellers (Even Mr. Catlin, Who Is Generally

Correct) Have Entirely Mistaken The Country Inhabited by The Shoshones.

One Of Them Represents This Tribe As "The Indians Who Inhabit That Part

Of The Rocky Mountains Which Lies On The Grand And Green River Branches

Of The Colorado Of The West, The Valley Of Great Bear River, And The

Hospitable Shores Of The Great Salt Lakes." It Is A Great Error. That

The Shoshones May Have Been Seen In the Above-Mentioned places Is Likely

Enough, As They Are A Great Nation, And Often Send Expeditions Very Far

From Their Homes; But Their Own Country Lies, As I Have Said, Betwixt

The Pacific Ocean And The 116Th Degree Of West Longitude. As To The

"Hospitable" Shores Of The Great Salt Lake. I Don'T Know What It Means,

Unless It Be A Modern Yankee Expression For A Tract Of Horrid Swamps

With Deadly Effluvia, Tenanted by Millions Of Snakes And Other "Such

Hospitable Reptiles." The Lake Is Situated on The Western Country Of The

Crows, And I Doubt If It Has Ever Been Visited by Any Shoshone.]

 

 

 

A Proof Of Their Antiquity And Foreign Extraction Is, That But Few Of

Their Records And Traditions Are Local; They Refer To Countries On The

Other Side Of The Sea, Countries Where The Summer Is Perpetual, The

Population Numberless, And The Cities Composed of Great Palaces, Like

The Hindoo Traditions, "Built By The Good Genii, Long Before The

Creation Of Man."

 

 

 

There Is No Doubt, Indeed it Is Admitted by The Other Tribes That The

Shoshone Is The Parent Tribe Of The Comanches, Arrapahoes, And

Apaches--The Bedouins Of The Mexican Deserts. They All Speak The Same

Beautiful And Harmonious Language, Have The Same Traditions; And Indeed

So Recent Have Been Their Subdivisions, That They Point Out The Exact

Periods By Connecting Them With The Various Events Of Spanish Inland

Conquest In the Northern Portion Of Sonora.

 

 

 

It Is Not My Intention To Dwell Long Upon Speculative Theory, But I Must

Observe, That If Any Tradition Is To Be Received with Confidence It Must

Proceed from Nations, Or Tribes, Who Have Long Been Stationary. That The

Northern Continent Of America Was First Peopled from Asia, There Can Be

Little Doubt, And If So, It Is But Natural To Suppose That Those Who

First Came Over Would Settle Upon The Nearest And Most Suitable

Territory. The Emigrants Who, Upon Their Landing, Found Themselves In

Such A Climate And Such A Country As California, Were Not Very Likely To

Quit It In search Of A Better.

 

 

 

That Such Was The Case With The Shoshones, And That They Are Descendants

From The Earliest Emigrants, And That They Have Never Quitted the

Settlement Made By Their Ancestors, I Have No Doubt, For All Their

Traditions Confirm It.

 

 

 

We Must Be Cautious How We Put Faith In the Remarks Of Missionaries And

Travellers Upon A Race Of People Little Known. They Seldom Come Into

Contact With The Better And Higher Classes, Who Have All The Information

And Knowledge; And It Is Only By Becoming One Of Them, Not One Of Their

Tribes, But One Of Their Chiefs, And Received into Their Aristocracy,

That Any Correct Intelligence Can Be Gained.

 

 

 

Allow That A Stranger Was To Arrive At Wapping, Or Elsewhere, In great

Britain, And Question Those He Met In such A Locality As To The

Religion, Laws, And History Of The English, How Unsatisfactory Would Be

Their Implies; Yet Missionaries And Travellers Among These Nations

Seldom Obtain Farther Access. It Is Therefore Among The Better Classes

Of The Indians That We Must Search For Records, Traditions, And Laws. As

For Their Religion, No Stranger Will Ever Obtain Possession Of Its

Tenets, Unless He Is Cast Among Them In early Life And Becomes One

Of Them.

 

 

 

Let Missionaries Say What They Please In their Reports To Their

Societies, They Make No Converts To Their Faith, Except The Pretended

Ones Of Vagrant And Vagabond Drunkards, Who Are Outcasts From

Their Tribes.

 

 

 

The Traditions Of The Shoshones Fully Bear Out My Opinion That They Were

Among The Earliest Of The Asiatic Emigrants; They Contain Histories Of

Subsequent Emigrations, In which They Had To Fight Hard To Retain Their

Lands; Of The Dispersion Of The New Emigrants To The North And South; Of

The Increase Of Numbers, And Breaking Up Of Portions Of The Tribes, Who

Travelled away To Seek Subsistence In the East.

 

 

 

We Find, As Might Be Expected, That The Traditions Of The Eastern

Tribes, Collected as They Have Occasionally Been Previous To Their

Extinction, Are Trifling and Absurd; And Why So? Because, Driven Away To

The East, And Finding Other Tribes Of Indians, Who Had Been Driven There

Before Them, Already Settled there, They Have Immediately Commenced a

Life Of Continual Hostility And Change Of Domicile. When People Have

Thus Been Occupied for Generations In continual Warfare And Change, It

Is But Natural To Suppose That In such A Life Of Constant Action They

Have Had No Time To Transmit Then Traditions, And That Ultimately They

Have Been Lost To The Tribe.

 

 

 

We Must Then Look For Records In those Quarters Where The Population Has

Remained stationary For Ages. It Must Be In the South-West Of Oregon,

And In the Northern Parts Of Upper California And Sonora, That The

Philosopher Must Obtain The Eventful History Of Vast Warlike Nations, Of

Their Rise And Of Their Fall. The Western Apaches Or The Shoshones, With

Their Antiquities And Ruins Of Departed glory, Will Unfold To The

Student'S Mind Long Pages Of A Thrilling Interest, While In their

Metaphors And Rich Phraseology, The Linguist, Learned in asiatic Lore,

Will Easily Detect Their Ancient Origin.

 

 

 

It Is Remarkable To Observe, How Generally Traditions And Records Will

Spread And Be Transmitted among Nations Destitute Of The Benefits Of The

Art Of Printing. In europe, The Mass Were Certainly Better Acquainted

With Their Ancient History Before This Great Discovery That They Are In

Our Days, As Traditions Were Then Handed down From Family To Family--It

Was A Duty, A Sacred one, For A Father To Transmit Them To His Son,

Unadulterated, Such, In fact, As He Had Received them From His

Ancestors. It Is The Same Case With The Indians, Who Have Remained

Stationary For A Long Period. It Is In the Long Evenings Of February,

During The Hunting Seasons That The Elders Of The Tribe Will Reveal To

The Young Warriors All The Records Of Their History; And Were A Learned

European To Assist At One Of These "Lectures Upon Antiquity," He Would

Admit That, In harmony, Eloquence, Strength Of Argument, And Deduction,

The Red-Coloured orator Could Not Easily Be Surpassed.

 

 

 

The Shoshones Have A Clear And Lucid Recollection Of The Far Countries

Whence They Have Emigrated. They Do Not Allude To Any Particular Period,

But They Must Have Been Among The First Comers, For They Relate With

Great Topographical Accuracy All The Bloody Struggles They Had To

Sustain Against Newer Emigrants. Often Beaten, They Were Never

Conquered, And Have Always Occupied the Ground Which They Had Selected

From The Beginning.

 

 

 

Unlike The Great Families Of The Dahcotahs And Algonquins, Who Yet

Retain The Predominant Characteristics Of The Wandering Nations Of

South-West Asia, The Shoshones Seem To Have Been In all Ages A Nation

Warlike, Though Stationary. It Is Evident That They Never Were A Wealthy

People, Nor Possessed any Great Knowledge Of The Arts And Sciences.

Their Records Of A Former Country Speak Of Rich Mountainous Districts,

With Balmy Breezes, And Trees Covered with Sweet And Beautiful Fruits;

But When They Mention Large Cities, Palaces, Temples, And Gardens, It Is

Always In reference To Other Nations, With Whom They Were Constantly At

War; And These Traditions Would Induce Us To Believe That They Are

Descendants Of The Mancheoux Tartars.

 

 

 

They Have In their Territory On Both Sides Of The Buona Ventura River

Many Magnificent Remains Of Devastated cities; But Although Connected

With A Former Period Of Their History, They Were Not Erected by The

Shoshones.

 

 

 

The Fountains, Aqueducts, The Heavy Domes, And The Long Graceful

Obelisks, Rising at The Feet Of Massive Pyramids, Show Indubitably The

Long Presence Of A Highly Civilized people; And The Shoshones' Accounts

Of These Mysterious Relics May Serve To Philosophers As A Key To The

Remarkable Facts Of Thousands Of Similar Ruins Found Everywhere Upon The

Continent Of America. The Following Is A Description Of Events At A Very

Remote Period, Which Was Related by An Old Shoshone Sage, In their

Evening Encampment In the Prairies, During The Hunting Season:--

 

 

 

"It Is A Long, Long While! When The Wild Horses Were Unknown In the

Country[7], And When The Buffalo Alone Ranged the Vast Prairies Then

Huge And Horrid Monsters Existed. The Approaches Of The Mountains And

Forests Were Guarded by The Evil Spirits[8], While The Seashore,

Tenanted by Immense Lizards,[9] Was Often The Scene Of Awful Conflicts

Between Man, The Eldest Son Of Light, And The Mighty Children Of Gloom

And Darkness. Then, Too, The Land We Now Live In had Another Form;

Brilliant Stones Were Found In the Streams; The Mountains Had Not Yet

Vomited their Burning Bowels, And The Great Master Of Life Was Not Angry

With His Red children.

 

 

 

[Footnote 7: Horses Were Unknown Until The Arrival Of The Spaniards.]

 

 

 

[Footnote 8: Skeletons Of The Mammoth Are Often Found Whole At The Foot

Of The Grand Serpent, A Long Rugged mountain Which Runs For 360 Miles

Under The Parallel Of 40 Degrees North Latitude. It Extends From The

Centre Of The Shoshone Territory To The Very Country Of The Crows, That

Is To Say, From The 119Th To The 113Th Degree West Longitude. It Is

Possible That This Race May Not Have Been Yet Quite Extinct In the

Middle Of The 17Th Century; For, Indeed, In their Family Records, Aged

Warriors Will Often Speak Of Awful Encounters, In which Their

Great-Great-Grandfathers Had Fought Against The Monster. Some Of Them

Have Still In their Possession, Among Other Trophies Of Days Gone By,

Teeth And Bones Highly Polished, Which Belong Indubitably To This

Animal, Of Which So Little Is Known. Mr. Ross Cox, In the Relation Of

His Travels Across The Rocky Mountains, Says, "That The Upper Crees, A

Tribe Who Inhabit The Country In the Vicinity Of The Athabasca River,

Have A Curious Tradition With Respect To These Animals They Allege 'That

These Animals Were Of Frightful Magnitude, That They Formerly Lived in

The Plains, A Great Distance In the South, Where They Had Destroyed all

The Game, After Which They Retired to The Mountains. They Killed

Everything, And If Their Agility Had Been Equal To Their Size And

Ferocity, They Would Have Destroyed all The Indians. One Man Asserted

That His Great-Grandfather Told Him He Saw One Of Those Animals In a

Mountain Pass, Where He Was Hunting, And That On Hearing Its Roar, Which

He Compared to Loud Thunder, The Sight Almost Left His Eyes, And His

Heart Became As Small As That Of A Child'S.'"]

 

 

 

[Footnote 9: A Few Miles From The Pacific Ocean, And At The Foot Of A

Mountain Called by The Shoshones The Dwelling Of The Monster, Were Found

The Remains Of An Immense Lizard Belonging To An Extinct Family Of The

Saurian Species. Within A Few Inches Of The Surface, And Buried in a Bed

Of Shells And Petrified fish, Our Old Missionary, Padre Antonio, Digged

Up Fifty-One Vertebrae Quite Whole And Well Preserved. They Were Mostly

From Twelve To Eighteen Inches In length And From Eight To Fourteen

Inches In diameter, Measuring In all More Than Fifteen Feet In length.

Of The Tail And Neck But Few Vertebrae Were Found, But There Were Many

Fragments Of The Ribs And Of The Leg-Bones. All The Vertebrae Were

Discovered in a Continuous Line, Nearly Joined together. The Head, To

Correspond With Other Parts Of The Animal, Must Have Been Twelve Or

Fourteen Feet Long, Which Would Have Given To The Monster The Almost

Incredible Length Of Eighty Feet.

 

 

 

The Prince Seravalle, While Digging, In the Fall Of The Year 1834, For

An Ammunition Store On The Western Banks Of The Buona Ventura, Picked up

A Beautiful Curved ivory Tusk, Three Feet Long, Which, Had It Not Been

For Its Jet Black Colour, Would Have Been Amazingly Alike To That Of A

Large Elephant.

 

 

 

Some Pieces Of It (For Unhappily It Was Sawn Into Several Parts) Are Now

In The Possession Of The Governor Of Monterey And Mr. Lagrange, A

Canadian Trader, Who Visited the Territory In 1840.]

 

 

 

"One Summer, And It Was A Dreadful One, The Moon (_I.E._ The Sun)

Remained stationary For A Long Time; It Was Of A Red blood Colour, And

Gave Neither Night Nor Days. Takwantona, The Spirit Of Evil, Had

Conquered nature, And The Sages Of The Shoshones Foresaw Many Dire

Calamities. The Great _Medecines_ Declared that The Country Would Soon

Be Drowned in the Blood Of Their Nation. They Prayed in vain, And

Offered, Without Any Success, Two Hundred of Their Fairest Virgins