MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (novel books to read txt) 📖
- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
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Upon The Enemy During Their Surprise, Occasioned by Such An Unusual
Display. All Happened as Was Intended. At The First Rocket, The
Bonnaxes, Callapoos, And Umbiquas Were On The Alert; But Astonishment
And Admiration Very Soon Succeeded their Fear Of Surprise, Which They
Knew Could Not Be Attempted from Their Opponents In front. The Bombs
Burst, The Wheels Threw Their Large Circles Of Coloured sparks, And The
Savages Gazed in silent Admiration. But Their Astonishment Was Followed
By Fear Of Supernatural Agency; Confusion Spread Among Them, And Their
Silence Was At Last Broken By Hundreds Of Loud Voices! The Moment Had
Now Come; The Two Shoshone War-Parties Rushed upon Their Terrified
Victims, And An Hour Afterwards, When The Moon Rose And Shone Above The
Prairie, Its Mild Beams Were Cast Upon Four Hundred corpses. The Whole
Of The Bonnax And Umbiqua Party Were Entirely Destroyed. The Callapoos
Suffered but Little, Having Dispersed, And Run Towards The Sea-Shore At
The Beginning Of The Affray.
Thus Ended the Great League Against The Shoshones, Which Tradition Will
Speak Of In ages Yet To Come. But These Stirring Events Were Followed by
A Severe Loss To Me. My Father, Aged as He Was, Had Shown A Great Deal
Of Activity During The Last Assault, And He Had Undergone Much Privation
And Fatigue: His High Spirit Sustained him To The Very Last Of The
Struggle; But When All Was Over, And The Reports Of The Rifles No
Longer Whizzed to His Ears, His Strength Gave Way, And, Ten Days After
The Last Conflict, He Died of Old Age, Fatigue, And Grief. On The
Borders Of The Pacific Ocean, A Few Miles Inland, I Have Raised his
Grave. The Wild Flowers That Grow Upon It Are Fed by The Clear Waters Of
The Nu Eleje Sha Wako, And The Whole Tribe Of The Shoshones Will Long
Watch Over The Tomb Of The Pale-Face From A Distant Land, Who Was Once
Their Instructor And Their Friend.
As For My Two Friends, Gabriel And Roche, They Had Been Both Seriously
Wounded, And It Was A Long Time Before They Were Recovered.
We Passed the Remainder Of The Summer In building Castles In the Air For
The Future, And At Last Agreed to Go To Monterey To Pass The Winter.
Fate, However, Ordered otherwise, And A Succession Of Adventures, The
Current Of Which I Could Not Oppose, Forced me Through Many Wild Scenes
And Countries, Which I Have Yet To Describe.
Chapter XIAt The Beginning Of The Fall, A Few Months After My Father'S Death, I
And My Two Comrades, Gabriel And Roche, Were Hunting In the Rolling
Prairies Of The South, On The Eastern Shores Of The Buona Ventura. One
Evening We Were In high Spirits, Having Had Good Sport. My Two Friends
Had Entered upon A Theme Which They Could Never Exhaust, One Pleasantly
Narrating The Wonders And Sights Of Paris, The Other Describing With His
True Native Eloquence The Beauties Of His Country, And Repeating The Old
Local Irish Legends, Which Appeared to Me Quaint And Highly Poetical.
Of A Sudden We Were Surrounded by A Party Of Sixty Arrapahoes; Of
Course, Resistance Or Flight Was Useless. Our Captors, However, Treated
Us With Honour, Contenting Themselves With Watching Us Closely And
Preventing Our Escape. They Knew Who We Were, And Though My Horse,
Saddle, And Rifle Were In themselves A Booty For Any Chief, Nothing Was
Taken On Us. I Addressed the Chief, Whom I Knew:
"What Have I Done To The Morning Star Of The Arrapahoes, That I Should
Be Taken And Watched like A Sheep Of The Watchinangoes?"
The Chief Smiled and Put His Hand Upon My Shoulders. "The Arrapahoes,"
Said He, "Love The Young Owato Wanisha And His Pale-Faced brothers, For
They Are Great Warriors, And Can Beat Their Enemies With Beautiful Blue
Fires From The Heavens. The Arrapahoes Know All; They Are A Wise People.
They Will Take Owato Wanisha To Their Own Tribe That He May Show His
Skill To Them, And Make Them Warriors. He Shall Be Fed with The Fattest
And Sweetest Dogs. He Will Become A Great Warrior Among The Arrapahoes.
So Wish Our Prophets. I Obey The Will Of The Prophets And Of
The Nation."
"But," Answered i, "My Manitou Will Not Hear Me If I Am A Slave. The
Pale-Face Manitou Has Ears Only For Free Warriors. He Will Not Lend Me
His Fires Unless Space And Time Be My Own."
The Chief Interrupted me:--"Owato Wanisha Is Not A Slave, Nor Can He Be
One. He Is With His Good Friends, Who Will Watch Over Him, Light His
Fire, Spread Their Finest Blankets In his Tent, And Fill It With The
Best Game Of The Prairie. His Friends Love The Young Chief, But He Must
Not Escape From Them, Else The Evil Spirit Would Make The Young
Arrapahoes Drunk As A Beastly Crow, And Excite Them In their Folly To
Kill The Pale-Faces."
As Nothing Could Be Attempted for The Present, We Submitted to Our Fate,
And Were Conducted by A Long And Dreary Journey To The Eastern Shores Of
The Rio Colorado Of The West, Until At Last We Arrived at One Of The
Numerous And Beautiful Villages Of The Arrapahoes. There We Passed the
Winter In a Kind Of Honourable Captivity. An Attempt To Escape Would
Have Been The Signal Of Our Death, Or, At Least, Of A Harsh Captivity.
We Were Surrounded by Vast Sandy Deserts, Inhabited, By The Clubs
(Piuses), A Cruel Race Of People, Some Of Them Cannibals. Indeed, I May
As Well Here Observe That Most Of The Tribes Inhabiting The Colorado Are
Men-Eaters, Even Including The Arrapahoes, On Certain Occasions. Once We
Fell In with A Deserted camp Of Clubmen, And There We Found The Remains
Of About Twenty Bodies, The Bones Of Which Had Been Picked with
Apparently As Much Relish As The Wings Of A Pheasant Would Have Been By
A European Epicure. This Winter Passed gloomily Enough, And No Wonder.
Except A Few Beautiful Groves, Found Here And There, Like The Oases In
The Sands Of The Sahara, The Whole Country Is Horribly Broken And
Barren. Forty Miles Above The Gulf Of California, The Colorado Ceases To
Be Navigable, And Presents From Its Sources, For Seven Hundred miles,
Nothing But An Uninterrupted series Of Noisy And Tremendous Cataracts,
Bordered on Each Side By A Chain Of Perpendicular Rocks, Five Or Six
Hundred feet High, While The Country All Around Seems To Have Been
Shaken To Its Very Centre By Violent Volcanic Eruptions.
Winter At Length Passed away, And With The First Weeks Of Spring Were
Renovated our Hopes Of Escape. The Arrapahoes, Relenting In their
Vigilance, Went So Far As To Offer Us To Accompany Them In an Expedition
Eastward. To This, Of Course, We Agreed, And Entered very Willingly Upon
The Beautiful Prairies Of North Sonora. Fortune Favoured us; One Day,
The Arrapahoes, Having Followed a Trail Of Apaches And Mexicans, With An
Intent To Surprise And Destroy Them, Fell Themselves Into A Snare, In
Which They Were Routed, And Many Perished.
We Made No Scruples Of Deserting Our Late Masters, And, Spurring Our
Gallant Steeds, We Soon Found That Our Unconscious Liberators Were A
Party Of Officers Bound From Monterey To Santa Fe, Escorted by
Two-And-Twenty Apaches And Some Twelve Or Fifteen Families Of Ciboleros.
I Knew The Officers, And Was Very Glad To Have Intelligence From
California. Isabella Was As Bright As Ever, But Not Quite So
Light-Hearted. Padre Marini, The Missionary, Had Embarked for Peru, And
The Whole City Of Monterey Was Still Laughing, Dancing, Singing, And
Love-Making, Just As I Had Left Them.
The Officers Easily Persuaded me To Accompany Them To Santa Fe, From
Whence I Could Readily Return To Monterey With The Next Caravan.
A Word Concerning The Ciboleros May Not Be Uninteresting. Every Year,
Large Parties Of Mexicans, Some With Mules, Others With Ox-Carts, Drive
Out Into These Prairies To Procure For Their Families A Season'S Supply
Of Buffalo Beef. They Hunt Chiefly On Horseback, With Bow And Arrow, Or
Lance, And Sometimes The Fusil, Whereby They Soon Load Their Carts And
Mules. They Find No Difficulty In curing Their Meat Even In midsummer,
By Slicing It Thin, And Spreading Or Suspending It In the Sun; Or, If In
Haste, It Is Slightly Barbecued. During The Curing Operation, They Often
Follow The Indian Practice Of Beating The Slices Of Meat With Their
Feet, Which They Say Contributes To Its Preservation.
Here The Extraordinary Purity Of The Atmosphere Of These Regions Is
Remarkably Exemplified. A Line Is Stretched from Corner To Corner Along
The Side Of The Waggon Body, And Strung With Slices Of Beef, Which
Remain From Day To Day Till They Are Sufficiently Cured to Be Packed up.
This Is Done Without Salt, And Yet The Meat Rarely Putrefies.
The Optic Deception Of The Rarefied and Transparent Atmosphere Of These
Elevated plains Is Truly Remarkable. One Might Almost Fancy Oneself
Looking Through A Spy-Glass; For Objects Often Appear At Scarce
One-Fourth Of Their Real Distance--Frequently Much Magnified, And More
Especially Much Elevated. I Have Often Seen Flocks Of Antelopes Mistaken
For Droves Of Elks Or Wild Horses, And When At A Great Distance, Even
For Horsemen; Whereby Frequent Alarms Are Occasioned. A Herd Of
Buffaloes Upon A Distant Plain Often Appear So Elevated in height, That
They Would Be Mistaken By The Inexperienced for A Large Grove Of Trees.
But The Most Curious, And At The Same Time The Most Tormenting
Phenomenon Occasioned by Optical Deception, Is The "Mirage," Or, As
Commonly Called by The Mexican Travellers, "The Lying Waters." Even The
Experienced prairie Hunter Is Often Deceived by These, Upon The Arid
Plains, Where The Pool Of Water Is In such Request. The Thirsty
Wayfarer, After Jogging For Hours Under A Burning Sky, At Length Espies
A Pond--Yes, It Must Be Water--It Looks Too Natural For Him To Be
Mistaken. He Quickens His Pace, Enjoying In anticipation The Pleasures
Of A Refreshing Draught; But, As He Approaches, It Recedes Or Entirely
Disappears; And Standing Upon Its Apparent Site, He Is Ready To Doubt
His Own Vision, When He Finds But A Parched sand Under His Feet. It Is
Not Until He Has Been Thus A Dozen Times Deceived, That He Is Willing To
Relinquish The Pursuit, And Then, Perhaps, When He Really Does See A
Pond, He Will Pass It Unexamined, From Fear Of Another Disappointment.
The Philosophy Of These False Ponds I Have Never Seen Satisfactorily
Explained. They Have Usually Been Attributed to A Refraction, By Which A
Section Of The Bordering Sky Is Thrown Below The Horizon; But I Am
Convinced that They Are The Effect Of Reflection. It Seems That A Gas
(Emanating Probably From The Heated earth And Its Vegetable Matter)
Floats Upon The Elevated flats, And Is Of Sufficient Density, When
Viewed obliquely, To Reflect The Objects Beyond It; Thus The Opposing
Sky Being Reflected in the Pond Of Gas, Gives The Appearance Of Water.
As A Proof That It Is The Effect Of Reflection, I Have Often Observed
The Distant Knolls And Trees Which Were Situated near The Horizon Beyond
The Mirage, Distinctly Inverted in the "Pond." Now, Were The Mirage The
Result Of Refraction, These Would Appear On It Erect, Only Cast Below
The Surface. Many Are The Singular Atmospheric Phenomena Observable Upon
The Plains, And They Would Afford A Field Of Interesting Researches For
The Curious Natural Philosopher.
We Had A Pleasant Journey, Although Sometimes Pressed pretty Hard By
Hunger. However, Gabriel, Roche, And I Were Too Happy To Complain. We
Had Just Escaped from A Bitter And Long Slavery, Besides Which, We Were
Heartily Tired of The Lean And Tough Dogs Of The Arrapahoes, Which Are
The Only Food Of That Tribe During The Winter. The Apaches, Who Had
Heard Of Our Exploits, Showed us Great Respect; But What Still More
Captivated their Good Graces, Was The Irishman'S Skill In playing The
Fiddle. It So Happened that A Mexican Officer Having, During The Last
Fall, Been Recalled from Monterey To Santa Fe, Had Left His Violin. It
Was A Very Fine Instrument, An Old Italian Piece Of
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