MONSIEUR VIOLET (FISCLE PART-IV) by FREDERICK MARRYAT (novel books to read txt) 📖
- Author: FREDERICK MARRYAT
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Nothing Could Have Been More Fortunate Than Our Proceeding By Sea. On
The Fourth Day We Were Lying To, At A Quarter Of A Mile From The Shore,
Exactly Under The Parallel Of 39 Deg. North Latitude, And At The Southern
Point Of A Mountain Called the Crooked back-Bone. The Indians First
Landed in a Small Canoe We Had Provided ourselves With, To See If The
Coast Was Clear; And In the Evening The Schooner Was Far On Her Way
Back, While We Were Digging a Cachette To Conceal The Baggage, Which We
Could Not Carry. Even My Saddle Was Wrapped up In a Piece Of Canvas, And
Deposited in a Deep Bed of Shale. Among Other Things Presented to Me In
Monterey, Were Two Large Boxes Covered with Tin, And Containing English
Fire-Works, Which, In the Course Of Events, Performed prodigies, And
Saved many Scalps When All Hope Of Succour Had Been Entirely Given Up.
The Montereyans Are Amazingly Fond Of These Fire-Works, And Every Vessel
Employed in the California Trade For Hides Has Always A Large Supply
Of Them.
When All Our Effects Were Concealed, We Proceeded first In an Easterly,
And Next In a North-Westerly Direction, In the Hope Of Coming across
Some Of The Horses Belonging To The Tribe. We Had Reckoned right. At The
Break Of Day We Entered a Natural Pasture Of Clover, In which Hundreds
Of Them Were Sleeping and Grazing; But As We Had Walked more Than Thirty
Miles, We Determined to Take Repose Before We Should Renew Our Journey.
I Had Scarcely Slept An Hour When I Was Roused by A Touch On My
Shoulder. At First, I Fancied it Was A Dream, But As I Opened my Eyes, I
Saw One Of My Indians With His Fingers Upon His Lips To Enjoin Me To
Silence, While His Eyes Were Turned towards The Open Prairie. I
Immediately Looked in that Direction, And There Was A Sight That Acted
As A Prompt Anti-Soporific. About Half A Mile From Us Stood A Band Of
Twenty Indians, With Their War-Paint And Accoutrements, Silently And
Quietly Occupied in tying The Horses. Of Course They Were Not Of Our
Tribe, But Belonged to The Umbiquas, A Nation Of Thieves On Our Northern
Boundary, Much Given To Horse-Stealing, Especially When It Was Not
Accompanied by Any Danger. In the Present Instance They Thought
Themselves Safe, As The Shoshones Had Gone Out Against The Crows, And
They Were Selecting at Their Leisure Our Best Animals. Happily For Us,
We Had Encamped amidst Thick Bushes, Upon A Spot Broken And Difficult Of
Access To Quadrupeds, Otherwise We Should Have Been Discovered, And
There Would Have Been An End To My Adventures.
We Awoke Our Companions, Losing No Time In forming a Council Of War.
Fight Them We Could Not; Let Them Depart With The Horses Was Out Of The
Question. The Only Thing To Be Done Was To Follow Them, And Wait An
Opportunity To Strike A Decisive Blow. At Mid-Day, The Thieves Having
Secured as Many Of The Animals As They Could Well Manage, Turned their
Backs To Us, And Went On Westward, In the Direction Of The Fishing
Station Where We Had Erected our Boat-House; The Place Where We Had
First Landed on Coming From Europe.
We Followed them The Whole Day, Eating Nothing But The Wild Plums Of The
Prairies. At Evening, One Of My Indians, An Experienced warrior, Started
Alone To Spy Into Their Camp, Which He Was Successful Enough To
Penetrate, And Learn The Plan Of Their Expedition, By Certain Tokens
Which Could Not Deceive His Cunning and Penetration. The Boat-House
Contained a Large Sailing-Boat, Besides Seven Or Eight Skiffs. There
Also We Had In store Our Stock Of Dried fish And Fishing apparatus, Such
As Nets, &C. As We Had Been At Peace For Several Years, The House Or
Post, Had No Garrison, Except That Ten Or Twelve Families Of Indians
Were Settled around It.
Now, The Original Intention Of The Umbiquas Had Been Only To Steal
Horses; But Having Discovered that The Half A Dozen Warriors, Belonging
To These Families, Had Gone To The Settlement For Firearms And
Ammunition, They Had Arranged to Make An Attack Upon The Post, And Take
A Few Scalps Before Returning Home By Sea And By Land, With Our Nets,
Boats, Fish, &C. This Was A Serious Affair. Our Carpenter And Smith Had
Disappeared, As I Have Said Before; And As Our Little Fleet Had In
Consequence Become More Precious, We Determined to Preserve It At Any
Sacrifice. To Send An Indian To The Settlement Would Have Been Useless,
Inasmuch As It Would Have Materially Weakened our Little Force, And,
Besides, Help Could Not Arrive In time. It Was Better To Try And Reach
The Post Before The Umbiquas; Where, Under The Shelter Of Thick Logs,
And With The Advantage Of Our Rifles, We Should Be An Equal Match For
Our Enemies, Who Had But Two Fusils Among Their Party, The Remainder
Being armed with Lances, And Bows And Arrows. Our Scout Had Also
Gathered, By Overhearing Their Conversation, That They Had Come By Sea,
And That Their Canoes Were Hid Somewhere On The Coast, In the
Neighbourhood Of The Post.
By Looking Over The Map, The Reader Will Perceive The Topography Of The
Country. Fifty Miles North From Us Were The Forks Of The
Nu-Eleje-Sha-Wako River, Towards Which The Umbiquas Were Going, To Be
Near To Water, And Also To Fall Upon The Path From The Settlement To The
Post. Thus They Would Intercept Any Messenger, In case Their Expedition
Should Have Been Already Discovered. Their Direct Road To The Post Was
Considerably Shorter, But After The First Day'S Journey, No Sweet Grass
Nor Water Was To Be Found. The Ground Was Broken And Covered with Thick
Bushes, Which Would Not Allow Them To Pass With The Horses. Besides This
Reason, An Indian Always Selects His Road Where He Thinks He Has Nothing
To Fear. We Determined to Take The Direct Road To The Post, And Chance
Assisted us In a Singular Manner. The Indians And My Old Servant Were
Asleep, While I Was Watching With The Irishman Roche, I Soon Became
Aware That Something Was Moving In the Prairie Behind Us, But What, I
Could Not Make Out. The Buffaloes Never Came So Far West, And It Was Not
The Season For The Wolves. I Crawled out Of Our Bush, And After A Few
Minutes Found Myself In the Middle Of A Band Of Horses Who Had Not
Allowed themselves To Be Taken, But Had Followed the Tracks Of Their
Companions, To Know What Had Become Of Them. I Returned, Awoke The
Indians, And Told Them; They Started with Their Lassoes, While I And
Roche Remained to Sleep.
Long Before Morn The Indian Scout Guided us To Three Miles Westward,
Behind A Swell Of The Prairie. It Was An Excellent Precaution, Which
Prevented any Umbiqua Straggler From Perceiving Us, A Rather
Disagreeable Event, Which Would Have Undoubtedly Happened, As We Were
Camped only Two Miles From Them, And The Prairie Was Flat Until You Came
To The Swell Just Mentioned. There We Beheld Seven Strong Horses,
Bridled with Our Lassoes. We Had No Saddles; But Necessity Rides Without
One. The Indians Had Also Killed a One-Year-Old Colt, And Taken Enough
Of The Meat To Last Us Two Days; So That When We Started (And We Did So
Long Before The Umbiquas Began To Stir) We Had The Prospect Of
Reaching The Fishing-Post Thirty Hours Before Them.
[Illustration: "We Halted on The Bank Of A Small River."]
We Knew That They Would Rest Two Hours In the Day, As They Were
Naturally Anxious To Keep Their Stolen Horses In good Condition, Having
A Long Journey Before Them Ere They Would Enter Into Their Own
Territory. With Us, The Case Was Different, There Were But Forty Miles,
Which We Could Travel On Horseback, And We Did Not Care What Became Of
The Animals Afterwards. Consequently, We Did Not Spare Their Legs; The
Spirited things, Plump As They Were, Having Grazed two Months Without
Any Labour, Carried us Fast Enough. When We Halted on The Bank Of A
Small River, To Water Them And Let Them Breathe, They Did Not Appear
Much Tired, Although We Had Had A Run Of Twenty-Eight Miles.
At About Eleven O'Clock We Reached the Confines Of The Rocky Ground;
Here We Rested for Three Hours, And Took A Meal, Of Which We Were Very
Much In want, Having Tasted nothing But Berries And Plums Since Our
Departure From The Schooner, For We Had Been So Much Engrossed by The
Digging Of The Cachette That We Had Forgotten To Take With Us Any Kind
Of Provision.
Our Flight, Or, To Say Better, Our Journey, Passed without Anything
Remarkable. We Arrived, As We Had Expected, A Day And A Half Before The
Umbiquas: And, Of Course, Were Prepared for Them. The Squaws, Children,
And Valuables Were Already In the Boat-House With Plenty Of Water, In
Case The Enemy Should Attempt To Fire It. The Presence Of A Hostile
War-Party Had Been Singularly Discovered two Days Before; Three Children
Having Gone To A Little Bay At A Short Distance From The Post, To Catch
Some Young Seals, Discovered four Canoes Secured at The Foot Of A Rock,
While, A Little Farther, Two Young Men Were Seated near A Fire Cooking
Comfortably One Of The Seals They Had Taken. Of Course The Children
Returned home, And The Only Three Men Who Had Been Left At The Post
(Three Old Men) Went After Their Scalps. They Had Not Returned when We
Arrived; But In the Evening They Entered the River With The Scalps Of
The Two Umbiquas, Whom They Had Surprised, And The Canoes, Which Were
Safely Deposited in the Store.
Our Position Was Indeed a Strong One. Fronting Us To The North We Had A
Large And Rapid River; On The South We Were Banked by A Ditch Forty Feet
Broad And Ten Feet Deep, Which Isolated the Building From A Fine Open
Ground, Without My Bush, Tree, Or Cover; The Two Wings Were Formed by
Small Brick Towers Twenty Feet High, With Loop-Holes, And A Door Ten
Feet From The Ground; The Ladder To Which, Of Course, We Took Inside.
The Only Other Entrance, The Main One, In fact, Was By Water: But It
Could Be Approached only By Swimming. The Fort Was Built Of Stone And
Brick, While The Door, Made Of Thick Posts, And Lined with Sheets Of
Copper, Would Have Defied, For A Long Time, The Power Of Their Axes Or
Fire. Our Only Anxiety Was About The Inflammable Quality Of The Roof,
Which Was Covered with Pine Shingles. Against Such An Accident, However,
We Prepared ourselves By Carrying Water To The Upper Rooms, And We Could
At Any Time, If It Became Necessary, Open Holes In the Roof, For We
Greater Facility Of Extinguishing The Fire. In the Meantime We Covered
It With A Coat Of Clay In the Parts Which Were Most Exposed.
We Were Now Ten Men, Seven Of Us Armed with Firearms And Pretty Certain
Of Our Aim: We Had Also Sixteen Women And Nine Children, Boys And Girls,
To Whom Various Posts Were Assigned, In case Of A Night Attack. The Six
Warriors Who Had Gone To The Settlement For Firearms Would Return In a
Short Time, And Till Then We Had Nothing To Do But To Be Cautious, To
Wait For The Enemy, And Even Bear Their First Attack Without Using Our
Firearms, That They Might Not Suspect Our Strength Inside. One Of The
Old Men, A Cunning Fellow, Who Had Served his Time As A. Brave Warrior,
Hit Upon A Plan Which We Followed. He Proposed that Another Man Should
Accompany Him To The Neighbourhood Of The Place Where The Canoes Had
Been Concealed, And Keep Up The Fires, So That The Smoke Should Lull All
Suspicion. The Umbiquas, On Their Arrival Before The Post, Would
Indubitably Send One Of Their Men To Call The Canoe-Keepers; This One
They Would Endeavour To Take Alive, And Bring Him To The Post. One Of
The Canoes Was Consequently Launched in the River, And Late In the
Evening The Two Indians, Well Armed with Fusils, Started on This
Expedition.
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