MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) - FREDERICK MARRYAT (books to read this summer txt) 📗
- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
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The House In considerable Numbers.
The Mormon Elders Commenced their Task By Kneeling and Praying Before
The Body With Uplifted hands And Eyes, And With Most Stentorian Lungs.
Before They Had Proceeded far With Their Prayer, A Sudden Idea Struck
The Farmer, Who Quietly Quitted the House For A Few Minutes, And Then
Returned, And Waited patiently By The Bedside, Until The Prayer Was
Finished, And The Elders Ready To Perform Their Miracle. Before They
Began, He Respectfully Said To Them, That, With Their Permission, He
Wished to Ask Them A Few Questions Upon The Subject Of This Miracle.
They Replied that They Had No Objection. The Farmer Then Asked,--
"You Are Quite Certain That You Can Bring This Man To Life Again?"
"We Are."
"How Do You Know That You Can?"
"We Have Just Received a Revelation From The Lord, Informing Us That We
Can."
"Are You Quite Sure That The Revelation Was From The Lord?"
"Yes; We Cannot Be Mistaken About It."
"Does Your Power To Raise This Man To Life Again Depend Upon The
Particular Nature Of His Disease? Or Could You Now Bring any Dead Man
To Life?"
"It Makes No Difference To Us; We Could Bring any Corpse To Life."
"Well, If This Man Had Been Killed, And One Of His Arms Cut Off, Could
You Bring Him To Life, And Also Restore To Him His Arm?"
"Certainly! There Is No Limit To The Power Given Us By The Lord. It
Would Make No Difference, Even If Both His Arms And Legs Were Cut Off."
"Could You Restore Him, If His Head Had Been Cut Off?"
"Certainly We Could!"
"Well," Said The Farmer, With A Quiet Smile Upon His Features "I Do Not
Doubt The Truth Of What Such Holy Men Assert; But I Am Desirous That My
Neighbours Here Should Be Fully Converted, By Having The Miracle
Performed in the Completest Manner Possible. So, By Your Leave, If It
Makes No Difference Whatever, I Will Proceed to Cut Off The Head Of
This Corpse."
Accordingly, He Produced a Huge And Well-Sharpened broad Axe From
Beneath His Coat, Which He Swung Above His Head, And Was, Apparently,
About To Bring It Down Upon The Neck Of The Corpse, When, Lo And Behold!
To The Amazement Of All Present, The Dead Man Started up In great
Agitation, And Swore That, "By Hell And Jingo," He Would Not Have His
Head Cut Off, In any Consideration Whatever!
The Company Immediately Seized the Mormons, And Soon Made Them Confess
That The Pretended dead Man Was Also A Mormon Elder, And That They Had
Sent Him To The Farmer'S House, With Directions To Die There At A
Particular Hour, When They Would Drop In, As If By Accident, And Perform
A Miracle That Would Astonish Everybody. The Farmer, After Giving The
Impostors A Severe Chastisement, Let Them Depart To Practise Their
_Humbug_ In some Other Quarter.
These Two "_Elders Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints_",
Were Honest Joe And His Worthy _Compeer_ And Coadjutor, Sidney Rigdon.
Chapter XLIThe Day Of The Fishing at Length Arrived; Our Party Of Ladies And
Gentlemen, With The Black Cooks And Twenty Slaves, Started two Hours
Before Sunrise, And, After A Smart Ride Of Some Twelve Miles, We Halted
Before A Long Row Of Tents, Which Had Been Erected for The Occasion, On
The Shores Of One Of These Numerous And Beautiful Western Lakes. Fifty
Negroes Were Already On The Spot, Some Cutting Wood For Fuel, Some
Preparing Breakfast, While Others Made Ready The Baits And Lines, Or
Cleaned empty Barrels, In which Our Intended victims Were To Be Salted.
We Scarcely Had Had Time To Look Around Us, When, From Twenty Different
Quarters, We Beheld The Approach Of As Many Parties, Who Had Been
Invited to Share The Sport. We Greeted them Planter Fashion;--"Are You
Hungry, Eh, Eh?--Sam, Napoleon, Washington, Caesar--Quick--The
Breakfast."
For Several Days Previous, All The Creeks Of The Neighbourhood Had Been
Drained of Their Cray-Fish, Minnows, And Shell-Fish. All The Dug-Outs
And Canoes From Every Stream Thirty Miles Round Had Also Been Dragged to
The Lake, And It Was Very Amusing To See A Fleet Of Eighty Boats And
Canoes Of Every Variety, In which We Were About To Embark To Prosecute
Our Intentions Against The Unsuspecting Inhabitants Of The Water.
After A Hearty, Though Somewhat Hasty Meal, We Proceeded to Business;
Every White Man Taking With Him A Negro, To Bait His Line And Unhook The
Fish; The Paddles Were Soon Put In motion, And The Canoes, Keeping a
Distance Of Fifty Yards From Each Other, Having Now Reached the Deepest
Part Of The Lake, Bets Were Made As To Who Would Pull Up The First Fish,
The Ladies On Shore Watching The Sport, And The Caldrons Upon The Fire
Ready To Receive The First Victims. I Must Not Omit To Mention, That Two
Of The Larger Canoes, Manned only By Negroes, Were Ordered to Pull Up
And Down The Line Of Fishing-Boats And Canoes, To Take Out The Fish As
They Were Captured.
At A Signal Given By The Ladies, The Lines Were Thrown Into The Lake,
And, Almost At The Same Moment, A Deafening Hurrah Of A Hundred voices
Announced that All The Baits Had Been Taken Before Reaching The Bottom,
Every Fisherman Imagining That He Had Won His Bet. The Winner, However,
Could Never Be Ascertained, And Nobody Gave It A Second Thought All
Being Now Too Much Excited with The Sport. The Variety Of The Fish Was
Equal To The Rapidity With Which They Were Taken: Basses, Perch,
Sun-Fish, Buffaloes, Trouts, And Twenty Other Sorts. In less Than Half
An Hour My Canoe Was Full To Sinking: And I Should Certainly Have Sunk
With My Cargo, Had It Not Been Most Opportunely Taken Out By One Of The
Spare Boats. All Was High Glee On Shore And On The Lake, And The Scene
Was Now And Then Still Diversified by Comic Accidents, Causing The More
Mirth, As There Was No Possibility Of Danger.
The Canoe Next To Me Was Full To The Gunwale, Which Was Not Two Inches
Above Water: It Contained the English Traveller And A Negro, Who Was
Quite An Original In his Way. As Fish Succeeded to Fish, Their Position
Became Exceedingly Ludicrous: The Canoe Was Positively Sinking, And They
Were Lustily Calling For Assistance. The Spare Boat Approached rapidly,
And Had Neared them To Within Five Yards, When The Englishman'S Line Was
Suddenly Jerked by A Very Heavy Fish, And So Unexpectedly, That The
Sportsman Lost His Equilibrium And Fell Upon The Larboard Side Of
The Canoe.
The Negro, Wishing To Restore The Equilibrium, Threw His Weight On The
Opposite Side; Unluckily, This Had Been The Simultaneous Idea Of His
White Companion, Who Also Rolled over The Fish To Starboard. The Canoe
Turned the Turtle With Them, And Away Went Minnows, Crawfish, Lines,
Men, And All. Everybody Laughed most Outrageously, As The Occupants Of
The Canoe Reappeared upon The Surface Of The Water, And Made Straight
For The Shore, Not Daring To Trust To Another Canoe After Their Ducking.
The Others Continued fishing Till About Half-Past Nine, When The Rays
Of The Sun Were Becoming So Powerful As To Compel Us To Seek Shelter In
The Tents.
If The Scene On The Lake Had Been Exciting, It Became Not Less So
On-Shore, When All The Negroes, Male And Female, Crowding Together,
Began To Scale, Strip, And Salt The Fish. Each Of Them Had An Account To
Give Of Some Grand Fishery, Where A Monstrous Fish, A Mile In length,
Had Been Taken By Some Fortunate "Sambo" Of The South. The Girls Gaped
With Terror And Astonishment, The Men Winking and Trying To Look Grave,
While Spinning These Yarns, Which Certainly Beat All The Wonders Of The
Veracious Baron Munchausen.
The Call To Renew The Sport Broke Off Their Ludicrous Inventions. Our
Fortune Was As Great As In the Forenoon, And At Sunset We Returned home,
Leaving The Negroes To Salt And Pack The Fish In barrels, For The Supply
Of The Plantation.
A Few Days Afterwards, I Bade Adieu To Mr. Courtenay And His Delightful
Family, And Embarked myself And Horse On Board Of One Of The Steamers
Bound To St. Louis, Which Place I Reached on The Following Morning.
St. Louis Has Been Described by So Many Travellers, That It Is Quite
Useless To Mention Anything about This "Queen City Of The Mississippi."
I Will Only Observe, That My Arrival Produced a Great Sensation Among
The Inhabitants, To Whom The Traders In the Far West Had Often Told
Stories About The Wealth Of The Shoshones. In two Or Three Days, I
Received a Hundred or More Applications From Various Speculators, "To Go
And Kill The Indians In the West, And Take Away Their Treasures;" And I
Should Have Undoubtedly Received ten Thousand More, Had I Not Hit Upon A
Good Plan To Rid Myself Of All Their Importunities. I Merely Sent All
The Notes To The Newspapers As Fast As I Received them; And It Excited a
Hearty Laugh Amongst The Traders, When Thirty Letters Appeared in the
Columns, All Of Them Written In the Same Tenour And Style.
One Evening I Found At The Post-Office A Letter From Joseph Smith
Himself, In which He Invited me To Go To Him Without Any Loss Of Time,
As The State Of Affairs Having Now Assumed a Certain Degree Of
Importance, It Was Highly Necessary That We Should At Once Come To A
Common Understanding. Nothing Could Have Pleased me More Than This
Communication, And The Next Morning I Started from St. Louis, Arriving
Before Noon At St. Charles, A Small Town Upon The Missouri, Inhabited
Almost Entirely By French Creoles, Fur-Traders, And Trappers. There,
For The First Time, I Saw A Steam-Ferry, And, To Say The Truth, I Do Not
Understand Well How Horses And Waggons Could Have Been Transported over
Before The Existence Of Steamboats, As, In that Particular Spot, The
Mighty Stream Rolls Its Muddy Waters With An Incredible Velocity,
Forming Whirlpools, Which Seem Strong Enough To Engulf Anything That May
Come Into Them.
From St. Charles I Crossed a Hilly Land, Till I Arrived once More Upon
The Mississippi; But There "The Father Of The Waters," (As The Indians
Call It) Presented an Aspect Entirely New: Its Waters, Not Having Yet
Mixed with Those Of The Missouri, Were Quite Transparent; The Banks,
Too, Were Several Hundred feet High, And Recalled to My Mind The
Countries Watered by The Buona Ventura River. For Two Days I Continued
My Road Almost Always In sight Of The Stream, Till At Last, The Ground
Becoming Too Broken And Hilly, I Embarked upon Another Steam Ferry At
Louisiana, A Rising and Promising Village, And Landed upon The Shores Of
Illinois, Where The Level Prairies Would Allow Of More Rapid Travelling.
The State Of Missouri, In point Of Dimensions, Is The Second State Of
The Union, Being Inferior In extent Only To Virginia. It Extends From
36 Deg. To 40 Deg. 35' N. Lat, And From 89 Deg. 20' To 95 Deg. W. Long., Having an Area
Of About 68,500 Square Miles. Its Boundaries, As Fixed by The
Constitution, Are A Line Drawn From A Point In the Middle Of The
Mississippi, In 36 Deg. N. Lat., And Along That Parallel, West To Its
Intersection, A Meridian Line Passing Through The Mouth Of The Kansas.
Thence, The Western Boundary Was Originally At That Meridian: But, By
Act Of Congress In 1836, The Triangular Tract Between It And The
Missouri, Above The Mouth Of The Kansas, Was Annexed to The State. On
The North, The Parallel Of Latitude Which Passes Through The Rapids Of
The River Desmoines, Forms The Boundary Between That River And
The Missouri.
The Surface Of That Portion Of The State Which Lies North Of The
Missouri Is, In general, Moderately Undulating, Consisting Of An
Agreeable Interchange Of Gentle Swells And Broad Valleys, And Rarely,
Though Occasionally, Rugged, Or Rising Into Hills Of Much Elevation.
With The Exception Of Narrow Strips Of Woodland Along The Water-Courses,
Almost The Whole Of This Region Is Prairie, At Least Nine-Tenths Being
Wholly Destitute Of Trees. The Alluvial Patches Or River-Bottoms Are
Extensive, Particularly On The
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