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

Who Had Migrated to Texas, Were Flourishing In their New

Settlement, When The Bankruptcy Of The Merchants In the United states

Was Followed by That Of The Planters. The Consequence Was, That From

Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, And Arkansas, Hundreds Of Planters

Smuggled their Negroes And Other Property Into Texas, And As They Dared

Not Locate Themselves Too Far West, From Their Dread Of The Mexicans And

Indians, They Remained in the East Country, Upon The Rivers Of Which

Only, At That Time, Navigation Had Been Attempted.

 

 

 

These New Comers, However, Had To Struggle With Many Difficulties; They

Had To Clear The Ground, To Build Bridges, To Dry Up Mud-Holes And

Swamps; And, Moreover, They Found That They Could Not Enter Into

Competition With The Cherokees, Who Having Been Established there For A

Longer Time, And Raising abundant Crops Of Maize, Cotton, And Tobacco,

Were Enabled to Sell Their Provisions At One-Half The Price Which The

White Planter Wished to Realize. The Europeans, Of Course, Preferred to

Settle Near The Cherokees, From Whom They Could Obtain Their Indian Corn

At Fifty Cents A Bushel, While The American Planters Demanded two

Dollars, And Sometimes Three. In a Short Time, The Cherokee District

Became Thickly Settled, Possessing Good Roads, And Bridges And Ferries

Upon Every Muddy Creek; In short, It Was, In civilization, Full A

Century Ahead Of All The Other Eastern Establishments Of Texas.

 

 

 

The Texan Planters From The United states Represented to The Government

That They Would Have No Chance Of Cultivating The Country And Building

Eastern Cities, As Long As The Cherokees Were Allowed to Remain; And,

Moreover, They Backed their Petition With A Clause Showing That The

Minimum Price The Cherokee Land Would Be Sold At To New Comers From The

United states Was Ten Dollars An Acre. This Last Argument Prevailed, And

In Spite Of The Opposition Of Two Or Three Honest Men, The Greedy

Legislators Attacked the Validity Of The Acts Made During The Former

Presidency; The Cherokees' Grant Was Recalled, And Notice Given To Them

That They Should Forthwith Give Up Their Plantations And Retire

From Texas.

 

 

 

To This Order The Cherokees Did Not Deign To Give An Answer, And, Aware

Of The Character Of The Texans, They Never Attempted to Appeal For

Justice; But, On The Contrary, Prepared themselves To Defend Their

Property From Any Invasion. Seeing Them So Determined, The Texans'

Ardour Cooled a Little, And They Offered the Indians Twelve Cents An

Acre For Their Land, Which Proposition Was Not Attended to; And Probably

The Cherokees, From The Fear Which They Inspired, Would Never Have Been

Molested had It Not Been For An Act Of The Greatest Cowardice On The

Part Of The Texan Government, And A Most Guilty Indifference On That Of

The United states.

 

 

 

In Alabama, Tennessee, And Arkansas, Labour Had Fallen So Low, That

Thousands Of Individuals Had Abandoned their Farms To Become

Horse-Thieves And Negro Smugglers. Many Among Them Had Gone To Sell The

Produce Of Their Depredations To The Cherokees, Who Not Only Did Not

Condescend To Deal With Them, But Punished them With Rigour, Subjecting

Them To Their Own Code Of Laws. These Ruffians Nurtured plans Of

Vengeance Which They Dared not Themselves Execute, But, Knowing The

Greedy Spirit Of Their Countrymen, They Spread The Most Incredible

Stories Of Cherokee Wealth And Comforts. The Plan Succeeded well, For As

Soon As The Altercation Between The Texans And Cherokee Indians Was Made

Known To The Western States, Several Bands Were Immediately Formed, Who,

In The Expectation Of A Rich Booty, Entered texas, And Offered the

Congress To Drive Away The Cherokees. As Soon As This Was Known,

Representations Were Made By Honourable Men To The Government Of The

United states, But No Notice Was Taken, And The Western States, Probably

To Get Rid At Once Of The Scum Of Their Population, Gave Every

Encouragement To The Expedition.

 

 

 

For A Few Months The Cherokees Invariably Discomfited their Invaders,

Destroying Their Bands As Soon As They Were Newly Formed, And Treating

Them As Common Robbers; But, Being Farmers, They Could Not Fight And

Cultivate Their Ground At The Same Time, And They Now Thought Of

Abandoning So Unhospitable A Land; The More So As, Discovering That The

Cherokees Were More Than A Match For Them In the Field, A System Of

Incendiarism And Plunder Was Resorted to, Which Proved more Disastrous

To The Cherokees Than The Previous Open Warfare.

 

 

 

The Cherokees Wisely Reflected, That As Long As The Inhabitants Of The

Western States Would Entertain The Hope Of Plunder And Booty, They Would

Constantly Pour Upon Them Their Worthless Population. They, Therefore,

Destroyed their Farms And Their Bridges; And Collecting Their Horses And

Cattle, They Retreated upon The Red river Among Their Own People. The

Cherokee Campaign Is A Topic Of Much Boasting among The Texans, As They

Say They Expelled the Indians From Their Country; But A Fact, Which They

Are Not Anxious To Publish, Is, That For Every Cherokee Killed, Twenty

Texans Bit The Dust.

 

 

 

Since That Period The Cherokees, Choctaws, And Creeks Have Had Several

War Councils, And I Doubt Not That They Are Only Waiting For An

Opportunity To Retaliate, And Will Eventually Sweep Off The Entire

Eastern Population Of Texas.

 

 

 

The Fact Is, That A Democratic Form Of Government Is Powerless When The

Nation Is So Utterly Depraved. Austin, The Father Of Texan Colonization,

Quitted the Country In disgust. Houston, Whose Military Talents And

Well-Known Courage Obtained for Him The Presidency, Has Declared his

Intention To Do The Same, And To Retire To The United states, To Follow

Up His Original Profession Of A Lawyer. Such Is The Demoralized state Of

Texas At The Present Moment; What It May Hereafter Be Is In the Womb

Of Time.

Chapter XXXII

We Had Now Entered the White Settlements Of The Sabine River, And Found,

To Our Astonishment, That, Far From Arriving at Civilization, We Were

Receding From It; The Farms Of The Wakoes And Well-Cultivated fields Of

The Pawnee-Picts, Their Numerous Cattle And Comfortable Dwellings, Were

A Strong Contrast To The Miserable Twelve-Feet-Square Mud-And-Log Cabins

We Passed by. Every Farmer We Met Was A Perfect Picture Of Wretchedness

And Misery; Their Women Dirty And Covered with Rags, Which Could

Scarcely Conceal Their Nudity; The Cattle Lean And Starving; And The

Horses So Weak That They Could Scarcely Stand Upon Their Legs.

 

 

 

Where Was The Boasted superiority Of The Texans Over The Indian Race? Or

Were These Individuals Around Us Of That Class Of Beings Who, Not Daring

To Reside Within The Jurisdiction Of The Law, Were Obliged to Lead A

Borderer'S Life, Exposed to All The Horrors Of Indian Warfare And

Famine? Upon Inquiry, We Discovered that These Frontier Men Were All,

More Or Less, Eminent Members Of The Texan Republic, One Being a

General, Another A Colonel; Some Speakers Of The House Of

Representatives; And Many Of Them Members Of Congress, Judges, And

Magistrates. Notwithstanding Their High Official Appointments, We Did

Not Think It Prudent To Stop Among Them, But Pushed on Briskly, With Our

Rifles Across The Pommels Of Our Saddles; Indeed, From The Covetous Eyes

Which These Magistrates And Big Men Occasionally Cast Upon Our Horses

And Saddle-Bags, We Expected at Every Moment That We Should Be Attacked.

 

 

 

A Smart Ride Of Two Hours Brought Us To A Second Settlement, Which

Contrasted most Singularly With The First. Here, All The Houses Were

Neat And Spacious, With Fine Barns And Stables; The Fields Were Well

Enclosed, And Covered with A Green Carpet Of Clover, Upon Which Were

Grazing Cattle And Horses Of A Superior Breed.

 

 

 

This Sight Of Comfort And Plenty Restored our Confidence In

Civilization, Which Confidence We Had Totally Lost At The First

Settlement We Had Fallen In with; And Perceiving, Among Others, A

Dwelling Surrounded with Gardens Arranged with Some Taste, We Stopped

Our Horses And Asked for Accommodation For Ourselves And Beasts. Three

Or Four Smart Young Boys Rushed out, To Take Care Of Our Horses, And A

Venerable Old Man Invited us To Honour His Hearth. He Was A Mormon, And

Informed us That Hundreds Of Farmers Belonging To That Sect Had

Established themselves In east Texas, At A Short Distance From Each

Other, And That, If We Were Going To Travel Through The Arkansas, And

Chose To Do So, We Could Stop Every Other Day At A Mormon Farm, Until We

Arrived at The Southern Borders Of The State Of Missouri.

 

 

 

We Resolved to Avail Ourselves Of This Information, Anticipating That

Every Mormon Dwelling Would Be As Clean And Comfortable As The One We

Were In; But We Afterwards Found Out Our Mistake, For, During The

Fifteen Days' Journey Which We Travelled between The Sabine And A Place

Called boston, We Stopped at Six Different Mormon Farms, Either For

Night Or For Noon Meals, But, Unlike The First, They Were Anything But

Comfortable Or Prosperous. One Circumstance, However, Attracted

Particularly Our Attention; It Was, That, Rich Or Poor, The Mormon

Planters Had Superior Cattle And Horses, And That They Had Invariably

Stored up In their Granaries Or Barns The Last Year'S Crop Of Everything

That Would Keep. Afterwards I Learned that These Farmers Were Only

Stipendiary Agents Of The Elders Of The Mormons, Who, In the Case Of A

Westward Invasion Being Decided upon By Joe Smith And His People, Would

Immediately Furnish Their Army With Fresh Horses And All The Provisions

Necessary For A Campaign.

 

 

 

One Morning We Met With A Texan Constable Going To Arrest A Murderer. He

Asked us What O'Clock It Was, As He Had Not A _Watch_, And Told Us That

A Few Minutes' Ride Would Bring Us To Boston, A New Texan City. We

Searched in vain For Any Vestiges Which Could Announce Our Being In the

Vicinity Of Even A Village; At Last, However, Emerging From A Swamp,

Through Which We Had Been Forcing Our Way For More Than An Hour, We

Descried between The Trees A Long Building, Made Of The Rough Logs Of

The Black Pine, And As We Advanced, We Perceived that The Space Between

The Logs (About Six Inches) Had Not Been Filled up, Probably To Obtain A

More Free Circulation Of Air. This Building, A Naked negro Informed us,

Was Ambassadors' Hall, The Great And Only Hotel Of Texan Boston.

 

 

 

Two Hundred yards Farther We Perceived a Multitude Of Individuals

Swarming around Another Erection Of The Same Description, But Without A

Roof, And I Spurred on My Horse, Believing We Should Be In time To

Witness Some Cockfighting Or A Boxing-Match; But My American

Fellow-Travellers, Better Acquainted with The Manners And Customs Of The

Natives, Declared it Was The "Court-House." As We Had Nothing To Do

There, We Turned our Horses' Heads Towards The Tavern, And The Barking

Of A Pack Of Hungry Dogs Soon Called around Us A Host Of The Bostonians.

 

 

 

It Is Strange That The Name Of City Should Be Given To An Unfinished

Log-House, But Such Is The Case In texas; Every Individual Possessing

Three Hundred acres Of Land Calls His Lot A City, And His House Becomes

At Once The Tavern, The Post-Office, The Court-House, The Gaol, The

Bank, The Land-Office, And, In fact, Everything. I Knew A Man Near The

Red river, Who Had Obtained from Government An Appointment Of

Postmaster, And During The Five Years Of His Holding The Office, He Had

Not Had A Single Letter In his Hand.

 

 

 

This City Mania Is A Very Extraordinary Disease In the United states,

And Is The Cause Of Much Disappointment To The Traveller. In the Iowa

Territory, I Once Asked a Farmer My Way To Dubuque.

 

 

 

"A Stranger, I Reckon," He Answered; "But No Matter, The Way Is Plain

Enough. Now, Mind What I Say. After You Have Forded the River, You Will

Strike The Military Road Till You Arrive In the Prairie; Then You Ride

Twenty Miles East, Till You Arrive At Caledonia City; There They Will

Tell You All About It."

 

 

 

I Crossed the River, And, After Half An Hour'S Fruitless Endeavours, I

Could Not Find The Military Road, So I Forded back, And Returned to

My Host.

 

 

 

"Law!" He Answered; "Why, The Trees Are Blazed on Each Side Of The

Road."

 

 

 

Now, If He Had Told Me That At First, I Could Not Have Mistaken, For