MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (novel books to read txt) 📖
- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
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Me With Awe. I Took Off The Skin, Hung It To A Tree, And Securing The
Cub, I Hastened home, Having Lost My Appetite For Fishing Or A
Fish-Supper For That Evening.
A Week After This Circumstance, A Company Of Traders Arrived from St.
Louis. They Had Been Attacked by Indians, And Made A Doleful Appearance.
During Their Trip They Had Once Remained six Days Without Any Kind Of
Food, Except Withered grass. Here It May Not Be Amiss To Say A Few Words
About The Origin Of This Inland Mercantile Expedition, And The Dangers
With Which The Traders Are Menaced.
In 1807, Captain Pike, Returning From His Exploring Trip In the Interior
Of The American Continent, Made It Known To The United states Merchants
That They Could Establish A Very Profitable Commerce With The Central
Provinces Of The North Of Mexico; And In 1812, A Small Party Of
Adventurers. Millar, Knight, Chambers, Beard, And Others, Their Whole
Number Not Exceeding Twelve, Forced their Way From St. Louis To Santa
Fe, With A Small Quantity Of Goods.
It Has Always Been The Policy Of The Spaniards To Prevent Strangers From
Penetrating Into The Interior Of Their Colonies. At That Period, Mexico
Being In revolution, Strangers, And Particularly Americans, Were Looked
Upon With Jealousy And Distrust. These Merchants Were, Consequently,
Seized upon, Their Goods Confiscated, And Themselves Shut Up In the
Prisons Of Chihuahua, Where, During Several Years, They Underwent A
Rigorous Treatment.
It Was, I Believe, In the Spring Of 1821, That Chambers, With The Other
Prisoners, Returned to The United states, And Shortly Afterwards A
Treaty With The States Rendered the Trade Lawful. Their Accounts Induced
One Captain Glenn, Of Cincinnati, To Join Them In a Commercial
Expedition, And Another Caravan, Twenty Men Strong, Started again For
Santa Fe. They Sought A Shorter Road, To Fall In with The Arkansas
River, But Their Enterprise Failed; For, Instead Of Ascending The Stream
Of The Canadian Fork, It Appears That They Only Coasted the Great River
To Its Intersection By The Missouri Road.
There Is Not A Drop Of Water In this Horrible Region, Which Extends Even
To The Cimaron River, And In this Desert They Had To Suffer All The
Pangs Of Thirst. They Were Reduced to The Necessity Of Killing Their
Dogs And Bleeding Their Mules To Moisten Their Parched lips. None Of
Them Perished; But, Quite Dispirited, They Changed their Direction And
Turned back To The Nearest Point Of The River Arkansas, Where They Were
At Least Certain To Find Abundance Of Water. By This Time Their Beasts
Of Burden Were So Tired and Broken Down That They Had Become Of No Use.
They Were Therefore Obliged to Conceal Their Goods, And Arrived without
Any More Trouble At Santa Fe, When, Procuring Other Mules, They Returned
To Their Cachette.
Many Readers Are Probably Unaware Of The Process Employed by The Traders
To Conceal Their Cargo, Their Arms, And Even Their Provisions. It Is
Nothing More Than A Large Excavation In the Earth, In the Shape Of A
Jar, In which The Objects Are Stored; The Bottom Of The Cachette Having
Been First Covered with Wood And Canvas, So As To Prevent Anything Being
Spoiled by The Damp. The Important Science Of Cachaye (Canadian
Expression) Consists In leaving No Trace Which Might Betray It To The
Indians; To Prevent This, The Earth Taken From The Excavation Is Put
Into Blankets And Carried to A Great Distance.
The Place Generally Selected for A Cachette Is A Swell In the Prairie,
Sufficiently Elevated to Be Protected from Any Kind Of Inundation, And
The Arrangement Is So Excellent, That It Is Very Seldom That The Traders
Lose Anything In their Cachette, Either By The Indians, The Changes Of
The Climate, Or The Natural Dampness Of The Earth.
In The Spring Of 1820, A Company From Franklin, In the West Of Missouri,
Had Already Proceeded to Santa Fe, With Twelve Mules Loaded with Goods.
They Crossed prairies Where No White Man Had Ever Penetrated, Having No
Guides But The Stars Of Heaven, The Morning Breeze From The Mountains,
And Perhaps A Pocket Compass. Daily They Had To Pass Through Hostile
Nations; But Spite Of Many Other Difficulties, Such As Ignorance Of The
Passes And Want Of Water, They Arrived at Santa Fe.
The Adventurers Returned to Missouri During The Fall; Their Profit Had
Been Immense, Although The Capital They Had Employed had Been Very
Small. Their Favourable Reports Produced a Deep Sensation, And In the
Spring Of The Next Year, Colonel Cooper And Some Associates, To The
Number Of Twenty-Two, Started with Fourteen Mules Well Loaded. This Time
The Trip Was A Prompt And A Fortunate One; And The Merchants Of St.
Louis Getting Bolder And Bolder, Formed, In 1822, A Caravan Of Seventy
Men, Who Carried with Them Goods To The Amount Of Forty
Thousand Dollars.
Thus Began The Santa Fe Trade, Which Assumed a More Regular Character.
Companies Started in the Spring To Return In the Fall, With Incredible
Benefits, And The Trade Increasing, The Merchants Reduced the Number Of
Their Guards, Till, Eventually, Repeated attacks From The Savages
Obliged them To Unite Together, In order To Travel With Safety.
At First The Indians Appeared disposed to Let Them Pass Without Any Kind
Of Interruption; But During The Summer Of 1826 They Began To Steal The
Mules And The Horses Of The Travellers; Yet They Killed nobody Till
1828. Then A Little Caravan, Returning From Santa Fe, Followed the
Stream Of The North Fork Of The Canadian River. Two Of The Traders,
Having Preceded the Company In search Of Game, Fell Asleep On The Edge
Of A Brook. These Were Espied by A Band Of Indians, Who Surprised them,
Seized their Rifles, Took Their Scalps And Retired before The Caravan
Had Reached the Brook, Which Had Been Agreed upon As The Place Of
Rendezvous. When The Traders Arrived, One Of The Victims Still Breathed.
They Carried him To The Cimaron, Where He Expired, And Was Buried
According To The Prairie Fashion.
Scarcely Had The Ceremony Been Terminated, When Upon A Neighbouring Hill
Appeared four Indians, Apparently Ignorant Of What Had Happened. The
Exasperated merchants Invited them Into Their Camp, And Murdered all
Except One, Who, Although Wounded, Succeeded in making His Escape.
This Cruel Retaliation Brought Down Heavy Punishment. Indeed from That
Period The Indians Vowed an Eternal War--A War To The Knife, "In The
Forests And The Prairies, In the Middle Of Rivers And Lakes, And Even
Among The Mountains Covered with Eternal Snows."
Shortly After This Event Another Caravan Was Fallen In with And Attacked
By The Savages, Who Carried off With Them Thirty-Five Scalps, Two
Hundred and Fifty Mules, And Goods To The Amount Of Thirty
Thousand Dollars.
These Terrible Dramas Were Constantly Reacted in these Vast Western
Solitudes, And The Fate Of The Unfortunate Traders Would Be Unknown,
Until Some Day, Perchance, A Living Skeleton, A Famished being, Covered
With Blood, Dust, And Mire, Would Arrive At One Of The Military Posts On
The Borders, And Relate An Awful And Bloody Tragedy, From Which He Alone
Had Escaped.
In 1831, Mr. Sublette And His Company Crossed the Prairies With
Twenty-Five Waggons. He And His Company Were Old Pioneers Among The
Rocky Mountains, Whom The Thirst Of Gold Had Transformed into Merchants.
They Went Without Guides, And No One Among Them Had Ever Performed the
Trip. All That They Knew Was That They Were Going From Such To Such A
Degree Of Longitude. They Reached the Arkansas River, But From Thence To
The Cimaron There Is No Road, Except The Numerous Paths Of The
Buffaloes, Which, Intersecting The Prairie, Very Often Deceive The
Travellers.
When The Caravan Entered this Desert The Earth Was Entirely Dry, And The
Pioneers Mistaking Their Road, Wandered during Several Days Exposed to
All The Horrors Of A Febrile Thirst Under A Burning Sun. Often They Were
Seduced by The Deceitful Appearance Of A Buffalo-Path, And In this
Perilous Situation Captain Smith, One Of The Owners Of The Caravan,
Resolved to Follow One Of These Paths, Which He Considered would
Indubitably Lead Him To Some Spring Of Water Or To A Marsh.
He Was Alone, But He Had Never Known Fear. He Was The Most Determined
Adventurer Who Had Ever Passed the Rocky Mountains, And If But Half Of
What Is Said Of Him Is True, His Dangerous Travels And His Hairbreadth
Escapes Would Fill Many Volumes More Interesting and Romantic Than The
Best Pages Of The American Novelist. Poor Man! After Having During So
Many Years Escaped from The Arrows And Bullets Of The Indians, He Was
Fated to Fall Under The Tomahawk, And His Bones To Bleach Upon The
Desert Sands.
He Was About Twelve Miles From His Comrades, When, Turning Round A Small
Hill, He Perceived the Long-Sought Object Of His Wishes. A Small Stream
Glided smoothly In the Middle Of The Prairie Before Him. It Was The
River Cimaron. He Hurried forward To Moisten His Parched lips, But Just
As He Was Stooping Over The Water He Fell, Pierced by Ten Arrows. A Band
Of Comanches Had Espied him, And Waited there For Him. Yet He Struggled
Bravely. The Indians Have Since Acknowledged that, Wounded as He Was,
Before Dying, Captain Smith Had Killed three Of Their People.
Such Was The Origin Of The Santa Fe Trade, And Such Are The Liabilities
Which Are Incurred even Now, In the Great Solitudes Of The West.
Chapter XIVTime Passed away Till I And My Companions Were Heartily Tired of Our
Inactivity: Besides, I Was Home-Sick, And I Had Left Articles Of Great
Value At The Settlement, About Which I Was Rather Fidgety. So One Day We
Determined that We Would Start Alone, And Return To The Settlement By A
Different Road. We Left Santa Fe And Rode Towards The North, And It Was
Not Until We Had Passed taos, The Last Mexican Settlement, That We
Became Ourselves Again And Recovered our Good Spirits. Gabriel Knew The
Road; Our Number Was Too Small Not To Find Plenty To Eat, And As To The
Hostile Indians, It Was A Chance We Were Willing Enough To Encounter. A
Few Days After We Had Quitted santa Fe, And When In the Neighbourhood
Of The Spanish Peaks And About Thirty Degrees North Latitude, We Fell In
With A Numerous Party Of The Comanches.
It Was The First Time We Had Seen Them In a Body, And It Was A Grand
Sight. Gallant Horsemen They Were And Well Mounted. They Were Out Upon
An Expedition Against The Pawnee[15] Loups, And They Behaved to Us With
The Greatest Kindness And Hospitality. The Chief Knew Gabriel, And
Invited us To Go In company With Them To Their Place Of Encampment. The
Chief Was A Tall, Fine Fellow, And With Beautiful Symmetry Of Figure. He
Spoke Spanish Well, And The Conversation Was Carried on In that Tongue
Until The Evening, When I Addressed him In shoshone, Which Beautiful
Dialect Is Common To The Comanches, Apaches, And Arrapahoes, And Related
To Him The Circumstances Of Our Captivity On The Shores Of The Colorado
Of The West. As I Told My Story The Chief Was Mute With Astonishment,
Until At Last, Throwing aside The Usual Indian Decorum, He Grasped me
Firmly By The Hand. He Knew I Was Neither A Yankee Nor A Mexican, And
Swore That For My Sake Every Canadian Or Frenchman Falling In their
Power Should Be Treated as A Friend. After Our Meal We Sat Comfortably
Round The Fires, And Listened to Several Speeches And Traditions Of
The Warriors.
[Footnote 15: The Word Pawnee Signifies "_Exiled_;" Therefore It Does
Not Follow That The Three Tribes Bearing The Same Name Belong To The
Same Nation.
The Grand Pawnees, The Tribe Among Whom Mr. Murray Resided, Are Of
Dahcotah Origin, And Live Along The Shores Of The River Platte; The
Pawnee Loups Are Of The Algonquin Race, Speaking Quite Another Language,
And Occupying The Country Situated between The Northern Forks Of The
Same River. Both Tribes Are Known Among The Trappers To Be The "Crows Of
The East;" That Is To Say, Thieves And Treacherous. They Cut Their Hair
Short Except On The Scalp, As Is Usual
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