MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (novel books to read txt) 📖
- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
Book online «MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (novel books to read txt) 📖». Author FREDERICK MARRYAT
Went Down To The Side Of The River, And Fixed upon A Spot As The Centre;
Then He Selected two Trees, On The Right And Left, On The Other Side, As
Near As His Eye Could Measure Equidistant From Where He Stood. Having So
Done, He Backed his Horse From The River, Until He Came To Where His Eye
Told Him That He Had Obtained the Point Of An Equilateral Triangle.
Thus, In the Diagram He Selected the Two Trees, A And B, Walked back To
E, And There Fixed his Lance. He Then Fell Back In the Direction E D,
Until He Had, As Nearly As He Could Tell, Made The Distance From A E
Equal To That From E D, And Fixed another Lance. The Same Was Repeated
To E C, When The Last Lance Was Fixed. He Then Had A Parallelogram; And
As The Distance From F To E Was Exactly Equal To The Distance From E To
G, He Had But To Measure The Space Between The Bank Of The River And E,
And Deduct It From E G, And He Obtained the Width Of The River Required.
[Illustration]
I Do Not Think That This Calculation, Which Proved to Be Perfectly
Correct, Occupied the Old Chief More Than Three Minutes; And It Must Be
Remembered that It Was Done In the Face Of The Enemy. But I Resume My
Own History.
Chapter XIn Narrating The Unhappy Death Of The Prince, I Have Stated that The
Crows Bore No Good-Will To The White Men Established among The
Shoshones. That Feeling, However, Was Not Confined to That Tribe; It Was
Shared by All The Others Within Two Or Three Hundred miles From The
Buona Ventura River, And It Was Not Surprising! Since Our Arrival, The
Tribe Had Acquired a Certain Degree Of Tactics And Unity Of Action Which
Was Sufficient In itself To Bear Down All Their Enemies, Independent Of
The Immense Power They Had Obtained from Their Quantity Of Fire-Arms And
Almost Inexhaustible Ammunition. All The Other Nations Were Jealous Of
Their Strength And Resources, And This Jealousy Being Now Worked up To
Its Climax, They Determined to Unite And Strike A Great Blow, Not Only
To Destroy The Ascendancy Which The Shoshones Had Attained, But Also To
Possess Themselves Of The Immense Wealth Which They Foolishly Supposed
The Europeans Had Brought With Them To The Settlement.
For A Long Time Previous To The Crow And Umbiqua Expedition, Which I
Have Detailed, Messengers Had Been Passing Between Tribe And Tribe, And,
Strange To Say, They Had Buried all Their Private Animosities To Form A
League Against The Common Enemy, As Were Considered the Shoshones. It
Was, No Doubt, Owing To This Arrangement That The Crows And Umbiquas
Showed themselves So Hardy; But The Prompt And Successful Retaliation Of
The Shoshones Cooled a Little The War Spirit Which Was Fomenting around
Us. However, The Arrapahoes Having Consented to Join The League, The
United confederates At Once Opened the Campaign, And Broke Upon Our
Country In every Direction.
We Were Taken By Surprise; For The First Three Weeks They Carried
Everything Before Them, For The Majority Of Our Warriors Were Still
Hunting. But Having Been Apprised of The Danger, They Returned in
Haste, And The Aspect Of Affairs Soon Changed. The Lost Ground Was
Regained inch By Inch. The Arrapahoes Having Suffered a Great Deal,
Retired from The League, And Having Now Nothing To Fear From The South,
We Turned against Our Assailants On Our Northern Boundaries.
Notwithstanding The Desertion Of The Arrapahoes, The United tribes Were
Still Three Times Our Number, But They Wanted union, And Did Not Act In
Concert. They Mustered about Fifteen Thousand Warriors, From The
Umbiquas, Callapoos, Cayuses, Nez-Perces, Bonnaxes, Flat-Heads, And Some
Of The Crows, Who Had Not Yet Gained prudence From Their Last
"Brushing." The Superiority Of Our Arms, Our Tactics, Discipline, And
Art Of Intrenchment, Together With The Good Service Of Two Clumsy Old
Spanish Four-Pounders, Enabled us Not Only In a Short Time To Destroy
The League, But Also To Crush And Annihilate For Ever Some Of Our
Treacherous Neighbours. As It Would Be Tedious To A Stranger To Follow
The Movements Of The Whole Campaign, I Will Merely Mention That Part Of
It In which I Assisted[13].
[Footnote 13: The System Of Prairie Warfare Is So Different From Ours,
That The Campaign I Have Just Related will Not Be Easily Understood By
Those Acquainted only With European Military Tactics.
When A European Army Starts Upon An Expedition, It Is Always Accompanied
By Waggons, Carrying Stores Of Provisions And Ammunition Of All Kinds.
There Is A Commissariat Appointed for The Purpose Of Feeding The Troops.
Among The Indians There Is No Such Thing, And Except A Few Pieces Of
Dried venison, A Pound Weight Of Powder, And A Corresponding Quantity Of
Lead, If He Has A Rifle, But If Not, With His Lance, Bow, Arrows, And
Tomahawk, The Warrior Enters The War-Path. In the Closer Country, For
Water And Fuel, He Trusts To The Streams And To The Trees Of The Forests
Or Mountains; When In the Prairie, To The Mud Holes And Chasms For
Water, And To The Buffalo-Dung For His Fire. His Rifle And Arrows Will
Always Give Him Enough Of Food.
But These Supplies Would Not, Of Course, Be Sufficient For A Great
Number Of Men; Ten Thousand For Example. A Water-Hole Would Be Drained
By The First Two Or Three Hundred men That Might Arrive, And The
Remainder Would Be Obliged to Go Without Any. Then, Unless Perchance
They Should Fall Upon A Large Herd Of Buffaloes, They Would Never Be
Able To Find The Means Of Sustaining Life. A Buffalo, Or Three Or Four
Deer Can Be Killed every Day, By Hunters Out Of The Tract Of An
Expedition; This Supply Would Suffice For A Small War Party, But It
Would Never Do For An Army.
Except In the Buffalo Ranges, Where The Comanches, The Apaches, And The
Southern Shoshones Will Often Go By Bands Of Thousands, The Generality
Of The Indians Enter The Path In a Kind Of _Echelonage_; That Is To Say,
Supposing The Shoshones To Send Two Thousand Men Against The Crows, They
Would Be Divided into Fifteen Or Twenty Bands, Each Commanded by An
Inferior Chief. The First Party Will Start For Reconnoitering. The Next
Day The Second Band, Accompanied by The Great Chiefs, Will Follow, But
In Another Track; And So On With A Third, Till Three Hundred or Three
Hundred and Fifty Are United together. Then They Will Begin Their
Operations, New Parties Coming To Take The Place Of Those Who Have
Suffered, Till They Themselves Retire To Make Room For Others. Every New
Comer Brings A Supply Of Provisions, The Produce Of Their Chase In
Coming, So That Those Who Are Fighting Need be In no Fear Of Wanting The
Necessaries Of Life. By This The Reader Will See That A Band Of Two
Thousand Warriors, Only Four Or Five Hundred are Effectually Fighting,
Unless The Number Of Warriors Agreed upon By The Chiefs Prove Too Small,
When New Reinforcements Are Sent Forward.] We Were Divided into Four
War Parties: One Which Acted against The Bonnaxes And The Flat-Heads, In
The North-East; The Second, Against The Cayuses And Nez-Perces, At The
Forks Of The Buona Ventura And Calumet Rivers; The Third Remained near
The Settlement, To Protect It From Surprise; While The Fourth, A Very
Small One, Under My Father'S Command, And To Which I Was Attached,
Remained in or About The Boat-House, At The Fishing Station. Independent
Of These Four Parties, Well-Armed bands Were Despatched into The Umbiqua
Country Both By Land And Sea.
In The Beginning, Our Warfare On The Shores Of The Pacific Amounted
Merely To Skirmishes, But By-And-Bye, The Callapoos Having Joined the
Umbiquas With A Numerous Party, The Game Assumed more Interest. We Not
Only Lost Our Advantages In the Umbiqua Country, But Were Obliged little
By Little To Retire To The Post; This, However, Proved to Be Our
Salvation. We Were But One Hundred and Six Men, Whilst Our Adversaries
Mustered four Hundred and Eighty, And Yet Full One-Fifth Of Their Number
Were Destroyed in one Afternoon, During a Desperate Attack Which They
Made Upon The Post, Which Had Been Put Into An Admirable State
Of Defence.
The Roof Had Been Covered with Sheets Of Copper, And Holes Had Been
Opened in various Parts Of The Wall For The Use Of The Cannon, Of Our
Possession Of Which The Enemy Was Ignorant The First Assault Was
Gallantly Conducted, And Every One Of The Loopholes Was Choked with
Their Balls And Arrows. On They Advanced, In a Close And Thick Body,
With Ladders And Torches, Yelling Like A Million Of Demons. When At The
Distance Of Sixty Yards, We Poured upon Them The Contents Of Our Two
Guns; They Were Heavily Loaded with Grape-Shot, And Produced a Most
Terrible Effect. The Enemy Did Not Retreat; Raising Their War-Whoop, On
They Rushed with A Determination Truly Heroical.
The Guns Were Again Fired, And Also The Whole Of Our Musketry, After
Which A Party Of Forty Of Our Men Made A Sortie. This Last Charge Was
Sudden And Irresistible; The Enemy Fled in every Direction, Leaving
Behind Their Dead And Wounded. That Evening We Received a Reinforcement
Of Thirty-Eight Men From The Settlement, With A Large Supply Of Buffalo
Meat And Twenty Fine Young Fat Colts. This Was A Great Comfort To Us,
As, For Several Days We Had Been Obliged to Live Upon Our Dried fish.
During Seven Days We Saw Nothing Of The Enemy; But Our Scouts Scoured in
Every Direction, And Our Long-Boat Surprised, In a Bay Opposite George
Point, Thirty-Six Large Boats, In which The Callapoos Had Come From
Their Territory. The Boats Were Destroyed, And Their Keepers Scalped. As
The Heat Was Very Intense, We Resolved not To Confine Ourselves Any More
Within The Walls Of The Post; We Formed a Spacious Camp, To The East Of
The Block-House, With Breastworks Of Uncommon Strength. This Plan
Probably Saved us From Some Contagious Disease; Indeed, The Bad Smell Of
The Dried fish, And The Rarefied air In the Building, Had Already Begun
To Affect Many Of Our Men, Especially The Wounded.
At The End Of A Week Our Enemy Reappeared, Silent And Determined. They
Had Returned for Revenge Or For Death; The Struggle Was To Be A Fearful
One. They Encamped in the Little Open Prairie On The Other Side Of The
River, And Mustered about Six Hundred men.
The First War-Party Had Overthrown And Dispersed the Bonnaxes, As They
Were On Their Way To Join The Flat-Heads; And The Former Tribe Not Being
Able To Effect The Intended junction, Threw Itself Among The Cayuses And
Nez-Perces. These Three Combined nations, After A Desultory Warfare,
Gave Way Before The Second War-Party; And The Bonnaxes, Being Now
Rendered desperate By Their Losses And The Certainty That They Would Be
Exterminated if The Shoshones Should Conquer, Joined the Callapoos And
Umbiquas, To Make One More Attack Upon Our Little Garrison.
Nothing Could Have Saved us, Had The Flat-Heads Held Out Any Longer; But
The Black-Feet, Their Irreconcilable Enemies, Seizing The Opportunity,
Had Entered their Territory. They Sued to Us For Peace, And Then
Detachments From Both War-Parties Hastened to Our Help. Of This We Were
Apprised by Our Runners; And Having Previously Concerted measures With
My Father, I Started alone To Meet These Detachments, In the Passes Of
The Mineral Mountains. The Returning Warriors Were Seven Hundred strong,
And Had Not Lost More Than Thirteen Men In their Two Expeditions; They
Divided into Three Bands, And Succeeded, Without Discovery, In
Surrounding The Prairie In which The Enemy Were Encamped; An Indian Was
Then Sent To Cross The River, A Few Miles To The East, And Carry A
Message To My Father.
The Moon Rose At One In the Morning. It Was Arranged that, Two Hours
Before Its Rising, The Garrison Of The Block-House, Which Had Already
Suffered a Great Deal, During Four Days Of A Close Siege, Were To Let
Off The Fireworks That I Had Received from The Mexicans At Monterey, And
To Watch Well The Shore On Their
Comments (0)