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

Anything By The Robbers, We Had, On The

Contrary, Obtained articles Which We Wanted. One Of The Lawyers Found In

The Stone Jug Enough Of Whisky To Fill His Flask; The Parson Got Another

Rifle, To Replace That Which He Had Lost In the Prairie, And The Pouches

And Powder-Horns Of The Three First Robbers Were Found Well Supplied

With Powder And Balls. We Also Took Possession Of Four Green Mackinau

Blankets And A Bag Of Ground Coffee.

 

 

 

We Heartily Thanked providence, Who Had Thrown The Rascals In our Way,

And, After A Good Meal, We Resumed our Journey In a Southern Direction,

Each Of The Three Lawyers Leading, By A Stout Rope, One Of The Brigands,

Who Were Gagged and Their Hands Firmly Bound Behind Their Backs. During

The Whole Day, The Parson Amused himself With Preaching Honesty And

Morality To Our Prisoners, Who, Seeing Now That They Had Not The Least

Chance To Escape, Walked briskly Alongside Of The Horses.

 

 

 

Towards Evening We Encamped in one Of Those Plains, A Mile In

Circumference, Which Are So Frequently Met With In the Forests Of The

West. We Had Performed a Journey Of Twenty Miles, And That, With The

Forced ride Which Our Beasts Had Performed in the Morning, Had Quite

Tired them Out. Besides, Having Now Four Men On Foot, We Could Not

Proceed so Fast As Before. We Lighted a Fire And Fed our Prisoners,

Putting Two Of Them In the Centre Of Our Circles, While The Two Others,

Who Were Much Braised by Their Falls Of The Morning, Took Their Station

Near The Fire, And We Covered them With A Blanket. Though We Believed we

Had Nothing To Fear From Our Prisoners, The Two First Being Bound Hand

And Foot, And The Two Last Being Too Weak To Move, We Nevertheless

Resolved that A Watch Should Be Kept, And As Gabriel And I Had Not Slept

During The Night Before, We Appointed roche To Keep The First Watch.

 

 

 

When I Awoke, I Felt Chilly, And To My Astonishment I Perceived that Our

Fire Was Down. I Rose And Looked immediately For The Prisoners. The Two

That We Had Put Within Our Circle Were Still Snoring Heavily, But The

Others, Whose Feet We Had Not Bound On Account Of Their Painful Bruises,

Were Gone. I Looked for The Watch, And Found That It Was One Of The

Lawyers, Who, Having Drank Too Freely Of The Whisky, Had Fallen Asleep.

The Thieves Had Left The Blanket; I Touched it; I Perceived that It Was

Yet Warm, So That I Knew They Could Not Have Been Gone A Long While.

 

 

 

The Day Was Just Breaking, And I Awoke My Companions, The Lawyer Was

Much Ashamed of Himself, And Offered the Humblest Apologies, And As A

Proof Of His Repentance, He Poured on The Ground The Remainder Of The

Liquor In his Flask. As Soon As Gabriel And Roche Were Up, We Searched

In The Grass For The Foot-Prints, Which We Were Not Long In finding, And

Which Conducted us Straight To The Place Where We Had Left Our Horses

Loose And Grazing. Then, For The First Time, We Perceived that The

Horses Which Were Shod, And Which Belonged to The Three Lawyers, Had Had

Their Shoes Taken Off, When In possession Of The Thieves The Day Before.

 

 

 

By The Foot-Prints, Multiplied in every Direction, It Was Evident That

The Fugitives Had Attempted, Though In vain, To Seize Upon Some Of Our

Horses. Following The Foot-Marks A Little Farther, Brought Us To A Small

Sandy Creek, Where The Track Was Lost; And On The Other Side, To Our

Great Astonishment, We Saw Plainly (At Least The Appearance Seemed to

Imply As Much), That Help Had Been At Hand, And That The Thieves Had

Escaped upon A Tall American Horse, Ambling So Lightly, That The Four

Shoes Of The Animal Were Comparatively But Feebly Marked on The Ground.

It Seemed, Also, That The Left Foreleg Of The Animal Had Been At Some

Time Hurt, For The Stopping Was Not Regular, Being Sometimes Longer,

Sometimes Shorter, And Now And Then Deviating Two Or Three Inches

From The Line.

 

 

 

I Thought Immediately That We Had Been Discovered by Another Roving

Party Of The Brigands, And That They Had Gone To Get A Reinforcement To

Overpower Us, But Upon A Closer Examination Of The Track, I Came At Once

To The Solution Of The Mystery. I Remarked that On The Print Left By The

Shoes, The Places Upon Which The Head Of The Nails Should Have Pressed

Deeper, Were, On The Contrary, Convex, The Shoes Were, Therefore, Not

Fixed by Nails; And My Suspicions Being awakened, I Soon Spied upon A

Soft Sandy Spot, Through Which The Track Passed, That There Was

Something Trailing From The Left Hind Foot, And I Satisfied myself That

This Last Slight Mark Was Made By A Piece Of Twine. A Little Afterwards

I Remarked that On The Softer Parts Of The Ground, And Two Or Three

Inches Behind And Before The Horse-Shoe Prints, Were Two Circular

Impressions, Which I Ascertained to Be The Heel And The Toe-Marks Left

By A Man'S Mocassins.

 

 

 

The Mystery Was Revealed. We Had Never Searched our Prisoners, One Of

Whom Must Have Had Some Of The Shoes Taken Off The Horses, Which Shoes,

In These Districts, Are Very Valuable, As They Cannot Be Replaced.

Having Tried in vain To Catch Some Of Our Horses, They Had Washed out

The Tracks In the Creek, And Had Fixed the Horse-Shoes To Their Own Feet

With Pieces Of Twine; After Which, Putting Themselves In a Line At The

Required distance One From The Other, They Had Started off, Both With

The Same Foot, Imitating Thus The Pacing Of A Swift Horse.

 

 

 

The Plan Was Cunning Enough, And Proved that The Blackguards Were No

Novices In their Profession, But They Had Not Yet Sufficiently Acquired

That Peculiar Tact Natural To Savage Life. Had They Been Indians, They

Would Have Fixed small Pieces Of Wood Into The Holes Of The Shoe To

Imitate The Nails, And They Would Then Have Escaped. We Returned to The

Camp To Arm Ourselves, And The Lawyers, Wishing To Recover Our

Confidence, Entreated that They Might Be Permitted to Chase And

Recapture The Fellows. At Noon They Returned quite Exhausted, But They

Had Been Successful; The Prisoners Were Now Bound Hand And Foot, And

Also Tied by The Waist To A Young Pine, Which We Felled for The Purpose.

It Was Useless To Travel Further On That Day, As The Lawyers' Horses

Were Quite Blown, And Having Now Plenty Of Ammunition, Some Of Us Went

In Pursuit Of Turkeys And Pheasants, For A Day Or Two'S Provisions. All

My Efforts To Obtain Information From The Prisoners Were Vain. To My

Inquiries As To What Direction Lay The Settlements, I Received

No Answer.

 

 

 

Towards Evening, As We Were Taking Our Meal, We Were Visited by A Band

Of Dogs, Who, Stopping Ten Yards From Us, Began To Bark Most Furiously.

Thinking at First They Belonged to The Band Of Robbers, Who Employed

Them To Follow Travellers, We Hastily Seized our Arms, And Prepared for

A Fight; But Gabriel Asserting The Dogs Were A Particular Breed

Belonging To The Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, And Other Tribes Of

Half-Civilized indians, Established upon The Red river, We Began

Shouting and Firing Our Rifles, So As To Guide Towards Us The Indians,

Who, We Presumed, Could Not Be Far Behind Their Dogs. We Did Not Wait

Long, For A Few Minutes Afterwards A Gallant Band Of Eighty Cherokees

Dashed through The Cover, And Reined up Their Horses Before Us. All Was

Explained in a Moment.

 

 

 

A System Of General Depredation Had Been Carried on, For A Long While

With Impunity, Upon The Plantations Above The Great Bend Of The Red

River. The People Of Arkansas Accused the Texans, Who, In their Turn,

Asserted that The Parties Were Indians. Governor Yell, Of The Arkansas,

Complained to Ross, The Highly Talented chief Of The Cherokees, Who

Answered that The Robbers Were Arkansas Men And Texans, And, As A Proof

Of His Assertion, He Ordered a Band To Scour The Country, Until They Had

Fallen In with And Captured the Depredators. For The Last Two Days, They

Had Been Following Some Tracks, Till Their Dogs, Having Crossed the

Trail Left By The Lawyers And Their Prisoners, Guided the Warriors To

Our Encampments.

 

 

 

We Gave Them All Our Prisoners, Whom We Were Very Glad To Get Rid Of;

And The Indian Leader Generously Ordered one Of His Men To Give Up His

Horse And Saddle To The Parson. To This, However, We Would Not Consent,

Unless We Paid For The Animal; And Each Of Us Subscribing Ten Dollars,

We Presented the Money To The Man, Who Certainly Did Not Lose By

The Bargain.

 

 

 

The Next Morning, The Leader Of The Cherokee Party Advised me To Take A

Southern Direction, Till We Should Arrive At The Head Waters Of The

River Sabine, From Whence, Proceeding Either Northward Or Eastward, We

Should, In a Few Days, Reach The Red river, Through The Cane-Brakes And

The Clearings Of The New Settlers. Before Parting, The Indians Made Us

Presents Of Pipes And Tobacco, Of Which We Were Much In want; And After

A Hearty Breakfast, We Resumed our Journey.

Chapter XXXI

The Cherokee Indians, A Portion Of Whom We Had Just Met On Such Friendly

Terms, Are Probably Destined to Act No Inconsiderable Part In the Future

History Of Texas. Within The Last Few Years They Have Given A Severe

Lesson To The Governments Of Both Texas And The United states. The

Reader Is Already Aware That, Through A Mistaken Policy, The Government

Of Washington Have Removed from Several Southern States Those Tribes Of

Half-Civilized indians Which Indubitably Were The Most Honourable And

Industrious Portion Of The Population Of These Very States. The

Cherokees, The Creeks, And The Choctaws, Among Others, Were Established

On The Northern Banks Of The Red river, In the Territory West Of

The Arkansas.

 

 

 

The Cherokees, With A Population Of Twenty-Four Thousand Individuals;

The Creeks, With Twenty Thousand, And The Choctaws, With Fifteen, As

Soon As They Reached their New Country, Applied themselves To

Agriculture, And As They Possessed wealth, Slaves, And Cattle, Their

Cotton Plantations Soon Became The Finest West From The Mississippi, And

Latterly All The Cotton Grown By The Americans And The Texans, Within

One Hundred miles From The Indian Settlements, Has Been Brought Up To

Their Mills And Presses, To Be Cleaned and Put Into Bales, Before It Was

Shipped to New Orleans. Some Years Before The Independence Of Texas, A

Small Number Of These Cherokees Had Settled as Planters Upon The Texan

Territory, Where, By Their Good Conduct And Superior Management Of Their

Farms, They Had Acquired great Wealth, And Had Conciliated the Goodwill

Of The Warlike Tribes Of Indians Around Them, Such As The Cushates, The

Caddoes, And Even The Comanches.

 

 

 

As Soon As The Texans Declared their Independence, Their Rulers,

Thinking That No Better Population Could Exist In the Northern Districts

Than That Of The Cherokees, Invited a Few Hundred more To Come From The

Red river, And Settle Among Them; And To Engage Them So To Do, The First

Session Of Congress Offered them A Grant Of Two Or Three Hundred

Thousand Acres Of Land, To Be Selected by Them In the District They

Would Most Prefer. Thus Enticed, Hundreds Of Wealthy Cherokee Planters

Migrated to Texas, With Their Wealth And Cattle. Such Was The State Of

Affairs Until The Presidency Of Lamar, A Man Utterly Unequal To The Task

Of Ruling Over A New Country.

 

 

 

Under His Government, The Texans, No Longer Restrained by The Energy And

Honourable Feelings Of An Austin Or A Houston, Followed the Bent Of

Their Dispositions, And Were Guilty Of Acts Of Barbarism And Cruelty

Which, Had They, At The Time, Been Properly Represented to The Civilized

People Of Europe, Would Have Caused them To Blot The Name Of Texas Out

Of The List Of Nations.

 

 

 

I Have Already Related the Massacre Of The Comanches In san Antonio, And

The Miserable Pilfering Expedition To Santa Fe, But These Two Acts Had

Been Preceded by One Still More Disgraceful.

 

 

 

The Cherokees,